Build a Bridge? Build a Workshop.
The second meeting of The Bridge Project was held on February 22, 2020, simultaneously in Palermo and Mytilene. Among the goals of the day: learning to manage communication and relationships profitably, deepening innovative collaboration methods and exploring participatory decision-making processes, such as sociocracy. All these skills would be useful to the participants to entrust them with the planning of the next workshop!
The nine Sicilian participants met at the neu [nòi] workspace, where Beppe took care of us by finding biscuits and hot coffee for everyone. Among the experts of the day, we had the pleasure of meeting Antonio Sgueglia, a coach from Caserta (Naples) who supports managers and project leaders in the development of their transversal skills. After a few minutes of well known Sicilian delay, Antonio proposed the first challenge to participants and organizers:
If you were a symbol, an image, a drawing … what would you be?
Each participant was invited to present himself through a sentence, a sketch on a post-it, a photo from his smartphone or using any other tool that would allow him to freely express a significant trait of his personality … in just 3 minutes!
In turn, without too much shyness in coming forward, everyone exhibited their work and someone was so many immersed in what they were telling that forgot to mention their own name. Based on each presentation, Antonio improvised his expert speech: from the quote chosen by Massimo, inviting to make big mistakes to improve, to the symbol of Filippo’s tao, useful to explain the importance of the suspension of the judgment!
Gaps make us beautiful
Almost no one today asks us to express ourselves openly during daily life. We live within borders, between hashtags, filters and famous quotes that make us accepted in the social world in which we spend a lot of our time. This limitation of identity was also visible in the presentations of each of us. Antonio, in fact, highlighted that all of them had something connectable and we all wanted to stand out in some way, as we do on social networks. And even if they impose us boundaries of recognition, they are still a useful daily means to bring out a piece of who we are.
Some participants confessed that they had difficulty in condensing the message during the self-exposure. Others said they were afraid of being judged by others. Our coach reassured us: even the most impeccable communication is made of reason and feeling. You shouldn’t be afraid of dripping with sweat, shaking or swinging: the body does not lie.
And we must understand that our emotions makes our performance genuine.
Beyond the roles and all the layers that make us up, we are human beings. We work the same way and it is our expressions that differentiate us. Only our imprecise, but at the same time authentic, way of being human makes us different.
What, how, why?
The final phase of Antonio’s intervention focused on the Golden Circle method, a tool developed by marketing expert Simon Sinek. According to this theory, before thinking about What or How, you have to start with Why! It is the motivations that contain the substance of the actions. And we can put this theory into practice, starting from ourselves, trying to feel what we have inside.
If we have the courage to come up with our Why, we can all be agents of change! But without communication you cannot create bridges, you cannot pass from I to you, from you to us … From these premises, around a table, the builders have reasoned about the reasons for The Bridge Project.
Reaction after listening
After a light and delicious lunch prepared by Michelangelo, the participants prepared the space to accommodate a circle of chairs in which to take a seat. The coach of the afternoon session was Pierre Houben, facilitator and trainer, board member of Sociocracy For All.
Pierre did not hesitate to show the emotion for his speech in a new context for him, but after establishing trust with the builders’ public it became impossible to remain extraneous to his cheerful laugh!
Sociocracy is a decision-making method based on transparency between equivalent autonomous individuals and which we have tried to experiment through word of mouth. Based on a proposal, each in turn speaks and the others simply listen. Many conflicts, within small or large groups, often happen because instead of listening to others, people tend to give voice only to their thoughts.
Mistakes make you grow
Sociocracy is based on feedback cycles with which to verify the initial intent, according to the process:
- Lead. Phase in which define the goal to achieve.
- Do. Moment of action, we have to put in practice as established.
- Measure. Reflection on what went well or not: “What did I like?” To redo! Or: “Better if …” We must change!
The more we intend, the more effective we are! The builders then had the opportunity to explore three fundamental steps to make decisions according to the practice of assent:
1 Understanding, reading the proposal: what are the Mission and Vision of The Bridge project?
2 Explore, a moment of clarification about any doubts: do we all agree on the Mission and Vision of the project?
3 Decide, it’s a crucial phase in which, if there are objections, they are integrated into the proposal. If there are no objections, it’s time to decide.
So.. what are the next steps to evolve The Bridge project?
Building decisions
During several rounds of interventions, the participants, together with Pierre’s guide, expressed their opinions regarding the construction of the bridge. During the first few moments, it was difficult not to respond impulsively (as often happens), but once the mechanism was understood it was surprising to observe its effectiveness!
At the end of the process, the following proposals were advanced and shared:
1 Add new participants to the existing Whatsapp group.
2 Meet informally on the following Monday.
3 Meeting to establish a new goal.
4 Think of an individual idea for the project.
5 Dine together and discuss each other’s ideas.
6 A formal meeting to establish a project.
7 Has the project assessed by those in charge?
8 Get in touch with the Greek team for an exchange.
With the enthusiasm of having created a To-Do List, the participants full of information ended the session not with a goodbye but with a see you on Monday.
Let’s try!
The intention is to test how the cycle works within us. It is necessary to choose an aspect of personal life that has a short cycle to evaluate a result that can be assessed in a short time. You can keep track of the process through a diary where you start by measuring, answering questions, then you decide (lead) what to change, why and how, finally you put it into practice (do). We have to go back to the questions to reflect, then again decide and do until we have found a good strategy!
(*all participant’s name has been changed)
