This article is part of a series of reflections on the Global Network Annual Conference. To view the previous article, click here.
Positive Participatory Innovation (PPI) Workshop engages participants in a live-case study on how to purposefully pursue the creation of healthy, humane, and innovative futures.
Despite all my planning and preparation, the week of the conference was harrowing, as I had to deal with a destabilizing work-related issue. My situation is not unique as many of us, perhaps too many, know that workplaces are at times sites in which larger systemic issues are played through people and by people, as victims and perpetrators caught in the web of a maladapted society.
In a turbulent environment in which feeling unsafe at work is just one item on a depressingly long list of issues, the PPI workshop was a hopeful experience. It was beautifully designed by DBD (Don, Bernard, Doug) and brought us together to build on each other’s strengths while experiencing work in a productive and innovative temporary organization.
Although the groups experienced occasional fight/flight dynamics, my first ‘striking’ moment happened during the second day of the workshop, when participating in a large- group-data-clustering exercise. As I experienced the high-energy of a creative working mode, that might be the exact time when I realized that people with diverse affiliations and backgrounds are truly building on each other’s work and generating a great momentum for future collaboration. As we were envisioning an issue-based ecosystem for more humane workplaces, I started to feel less tired, more energized, and definitely engaged.
Now, we are back in our organizations, communities, and families. Will we (GLOWIN) be able to maintain this momentum? Can we embody and enact in our local networks and workplaces the changes that we want to create?
Aurelia L. Roman,
HSI 2010
