Thursday January 30th we had a learningfull Meetup with Liberating Structures. We had a string with Conversation cafe, Tiny demons, Drawing together, Gallery walk and What I Need From You to improve teamwork between teams.
Jan-Willem Zijlstra en Joep Sars created this challenging string and we started off around 6 pm (after having a bite of very nice food) with Conversation cafe with sharing our thought about what could improve the teamwork between teams. Takeaways were; having a common goal, knowing the other team and even do not work together, make sure teams don’t have to, let them be totaly independent.
The Tiny demons structure (also known as Talking with pixies) was quite hilarious, but also very powerful. What can you do to improve the teamwork between the teams. What do you know you should do about this but you still have not giving it all you got. At one moment two angels are talking in your ear and another moment it’s two little devils. First you hear why you are so rights about not giving it all you have, why should you, let teams do it themselves, et cetera. But the other moment they will tell you to stand up and do something, what are you waiting for, help the teams, get out of your seat. That wake-up call resonates in your head for sure.
In Drawing together we could only use certain shapes to tell you individual story. After a 1-2-4 we all created a group drawing about the teams. We had 4 drawings and now it was up to us to create a total group integrated drawing. But how to get all the information from the other teams? The What I Need From You (WINFY) came in handy, so each teams created questions for the other teams where they could answer with Yes, No, I’ll try to or Whatever. Collecting all the answers gave the four groups enough input to create the big picture.
The session was time-boxed very well by Jan-Willem and Joep. But as a group we took some time in between the structures to discuss them a little, so we ran out of time too soon again and were not able to do the Fishbowl and W3. But that didn’t bother anyone, we learned so much that our heads were full and we all were happy. We had a drink and a bite and went home around 9 pm.
Thanks you so much Jan-Willem and Joep for your time and effort. And a big thank you to Sogeti for being the location sponsor and providing the very tasty food and good drinks.
An evening of practice; a safe place to fail and try again. That’s the way we want to learn. Thanks to all participant to make this happen.
Sandra Warmolts, Kropswolde, 2 februari 2020