Preparing Change Agents to be effective and delightful: My work at Eden Project, part 1
Here is a behind the scenes look at equipping change agents with improv skills...
Context
I recently had the pleasure and honour of delivering two workshops at the Eden Project. I love that place. It seems to embody everything I care about professionally, and parts of the campus seem eerily resonant with my mom’s museum, the American Visionary Art Museum. In short, it feels like home.
The first workshop I delivered for Eden was for their MSc in Sustainability students.
“Lots of awesome feedback about your session with the students. They universally loved it.” - Dan Ryan, Education Curator at Eden Project
What does it look like?
This was my cunning plan for them.
What did they get?
Let me share with you three things that we did, that are particularly useful for change agents.
Celebrate & Reflect.
This course was the last taught course of their programme for that group. After this session, they had field trips and assignments. As such, Eden wanted to allow the participants to reflect on their key learning as part of this session.
So after a short intro we played ‘You tell me’, which is a Thiagi game that I learned from the magical Kat Koppett a few years ago when she and I delivered a workshop together.
For the Eden MSc., I divided them into three groups. Each group had a question. The questions were:
What is one idea from the course that inspires you?
What is an insight/example from another participant that excites you and why?
It is one year from now and you are involved in a project using everything that inspires you from this programme to make the world a better place. What are you doing and with whom?
The groups had 1 minute to come up with their data collection strategy, 3 minutes to collect data from everyone on their programme, 3 minutes to analyse the data, and 1 minute per group to present a summary of the answers to their question.
Apart from the content, what useful insights did they gain from this activity for change agents?
We had to improvise when we realised that the group strategy on data collection did not match the unfolding reality of the whole group dynamic. It was useful to notice this, let go of our initial plan, and connect in the moment with what was actually happening.
You can learn a lot in a short amount of time.
These particular questions opened exciting insights about the programme and about people who they had been spending their time 24/7 with for weeks. Asking good questions matters.
Focus on the other person.
We played one of my favourite games, 1-2-3. I love this game. It is simple and does so many profound things. I think I learned it from Paul Z Jackson many years ago. I also saw Rebecca Stockley do a wonderful version of it in this video.
I find it super useful to invite people to focus on the well being of the person they are working with, instead of a potential monologue by their inner critic.
The game is also a great metaphor in the social and environmental change arena. Pairs shift from co-creating a count of 1-2-3 from saying the numbers to doing movements instead. They are still producing the ‘product’ or ‘service’, but they are changing completely how they produce it. You are then ready to have a great conversation about how might we change how food, healthcare, etc. is done so that at each stage it is socially and environmentally positive.
Being powerful and nice, instead of being a big jerk.
Eden wanted the MSc students to experience a relevant insight from my project Sustainable Stand Up, which is all about articulating important and often complex ideas in ways that are human, powerful and delightful.
So for this, we played a simple low and high status activity, inspired by Keith Johnstone’s work (that in turn was inspired by Keith reading Desmond Morris’ The Naked Ape) and some Solutions Focus work I did with Paul Z Jackson.
We embodied what is was to be low status, and then high status. People talked about themselves in both states, and noticed that when their bodies were in ‘high status’, the things they talked about were much more positive, expansive and powerful than the things they shared about themselves when they were in ‘low status’.
As per usual when running this activity with all groups, we needed to do a little check in about the quality of ‘high status’. This was a very nice group, but for some reason, whenever this activity is run, and people embody high status, some feel the need to be jerks - even if slightly. I think this is in part what is going on when comedians on stage feel the need to pick on their audiences, themselves or the ideas they love.
We paused the activity, and adjusted so that everyone could be positive high status, so that everyone felt fine in being fabulous - so fabulous that they felt comfortable helping others to shine as well. And then I had them interact as if it was a year from now, they were at a reunion at Eden, and where sharing what they had been working on since.
The insights they got from what they shared with others spontaneously, as well as the encouragement and insights they received from each other, helped them to clarify what a powerful and positive manifestation of their project after the course might look like - and what it might need. Engaging with others in a confident, open, and generous way helps others to step forward and want to help you.
All rather useful for change agents who want to make the world better.
If learning how to be a more effective and delightful change agent is of interest to you, you may like this upcoming one day workshop in London or Zurich.