🎉The Quest #29: The Era of Re-gathering

Re-gathering, changing broken systems, facilitation tools

Hello friends,

Greetings from Barcelona☀️ where we have just ended a 14-month state of emergency and wondering what’s next? 

Many thanks for your feedback on the last edition of The Quest. A special shout out to Gillian in Kingston, Mark in Honk Kong, Jen in Chicago, Connie in Toronto, Allegra in Seattle, and Michaele and Barry in Bracebridge, Joan in Mansfield 🙌.

If you are joining The Quest for the first time, welcome to our weekly exploration of creativity, facilitation, and learning. 

You can catch up on last week’s edition on 🚫Facilitator Do’s & Don’ts and all past editions here.

This week we are exploring what it means to re-emerge and gather again🔎

👉 Embracing the era of (re)gathering with Priya Parker

👉 A crash course in how to change broken systems

👉 A state-of-the-art virtual facilitation toolkit

👉 Anticipating the return of live music

👉 Plus 2 live events you won’t want to miss

Let’s dive right in.

At first silence. Then the penny dropped.

One by one, the teacher training students shared their breakthroughs from the past year.

“I am going to be true to who I am.”

“I am going to be open to opinions that are different than my own.”

“I’m going to broaden my horizons and try new things.”

“I am going to find small ways to change the world.”

Their worlds had literally been turned upside down. Rewind one year, and without warning, all of their courses had switched online. They were frustrated. They felt upset. Endless hours alone in their bedrooms, fighting a new ailment called Zoom fatigue. This was not the university degree that they signed up for.

And the future was uncertain. Was this a passing thing? Would they see family and friends again? Would they ever go to another party again? What would this mean for their future as teachers? There were no answers to these questions. But doing nothing wasn’t an option.

The students found new ways to connect, despite being apart. When I met this group of students for the first time back in the fall, they were tired and de-motivated by the switch to online. Their professor Jordi invited me to lead some experiential online sessions to help them to connect again in the virtual space. We even made a video about the experience.

They have had many moments of reckoning since then. I was invited to the closing class ceremony earlier today. It was the first time I had an opportunity to meet them in person. It was bizarre, wonderful, and a bit surreal all at the same time. We reflected on what they had learned and celebrated their successes. They experienced firsthand how the pandemic exposed the flaws in the education system. They felt how crucial human connection is to learning. They know that if they want to see a change in education, they are going to need to come up with new approaches. That was the biggest breakthrough of all.

So what’s next?

It’s the end of a difficult academic year. It’s also the end of a 14-month state of emergency in Spain. It feels like the dawn of a new era. Is it a return to the old normal? A new normal? Something completely different? No one knows.

And how can we take advantage of this moment in history to come up with new approaches that make the world a better place post-COVID (knowing that it’s not over yet!)?

That’s our Quest for this week.

🎉The Era of Re-gathering

A video of Priya Parker’s closing keynote of the Austin-based music, tech, film, and education conference South by Southwest (SXSW).

If you don’t know Parker, she is the brilliant author of the Art of Gathering, TED Talker, and facilitator. Her podcast, Together Apart, became my playbook for so many gatherings that suddenly became virtual. My son’s high school graduation, and my mom’s 80th birthday celebration to name two.

In her SXSW keynote, she helps us make sense of our collective experience over the past year “un-gathering”. And talks us through what’s next as we start to re-emerge. She is interviewed by journalist and author Anand Giridharadas. He also happens to be her husband. Check out the video here. And the transcript here. If you are looking for gathering inspiration, sign up for Parker’s newsletter here.

How do you want to re-gather?

🤔How do we change broken systems?

I can’t think of one single aspect of life that I haven’t called into question over the past year. That includes family, relationships, education, health, politics, economy, work, systemic injustices, and more. The pandemic has exposed a lot of what isn’t working in our world. And now we’ve got a golden window of opportunity to re-set and re-make things to work better.

So how do we change systems in the midst of so much uncertainty?

That’s what we explored last week at Catalyst 2030’s Catalyzing Change Week through 100+ interactive sessions.

Here 5 of my takeaways from the week:

Do you want to learn more about systems change, but not sure where to begin? Check out this free online Systems Change Crash Course by Ashoka.

🛠️Changemakers X Change Toolkit

If we are going to change stubborn social issues, we need to sharpen up our facilitation tools.

Thanks to facilitator Brendon Johnson for sharing the Changemaker X Change Virtual Facilitation Toolkit. It covers everything from tips on tech, time, agenda, and formats. As well as a whole bunch of online icebreakers, energizers, and closings. Check it out here.

📼Beyond Tastemaking

Speaking of re-gathering, is anyone else looking forward to the return of live music?

Thanks to Allegra for sharing the Object of Sound podcast episode featuring Sound Exploder creator Hrishikesh Hirway. He talks to host Hanif Abdurraqib about the art of curating playlists, on being the only people of colour at punk shows, and how excited they are to see live music again.

Here’s how Aburraqib describes the anticipation of seeing live music:

“I’m excited to feel the bass drum rattle my chest to the point where I think I’m having a heart attack.”

+1 @Hanif!

What live shows are you excited to see?

🎟️You’re Invited! 2 Free Live Events

1/ The Quest Icebreaker Platform Demo: This Friday, May 14 @8am PDT/11am EST/4pm BST/5pmCEST. Register here.

👉Join members of The Quest as we test out a new platform for building community online. 30 mins.

2/ Breakthrough Facilitation Demo: Friday, May 21 @7:30am PDT/10:30 EDT/3:30pm BST/4:30pm CEST. Register here.

👉A 30 min interactive online demo of a new cohort-based course I am developing in the OnDeck Course Creator Fellowship.

💌Thanks for reading The Quest 

I always love hearing your feedback and suggestions. Leave a comment below👇or hit reply to share your thoughts and ideas. Visit my website for ways we can work together here. 

If you are enjoying The Quest, I’d appreciate it if you shared it with anyone you think might like it. 

Until next week!

P.S. I loved hearing your comments on my new Creativity Kickstarter e-book. If you haven’t seen it yet you can download it for free here💥. 

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