Heidi: My first month at Knowmads

Heidi: My first month at Knowmads


It has already been one month. I shall skip the compulsory expression of amazement of how quickly time flies and get to the point …

How does it feel

It is one big group therapy session. Lots of sitting in circles, lots of talking, lots of opening up. Creation of a safe bubble, where everything is accepted and understood. People are taken as individuals — fully.

What have I learned

New useful tools for future references:

  1. 10-minute stream of consciousness exercise. Give your gnawing thoughts a way to escape your head.
  2. The Jackal and the needs he guards: behind every negative Jackal thought, lies a beautiful need to be met. Think about what is that need, and find ways to address them more effectively than Jackal’s big mouth with scary sharp fangs.
  3. Conflict resolution: is it absolutely necessary to speak now? slow down to take off the heat, make sure both parties are heard properly, avoid going into defensive mode.
  4. Host yourself; host others. Go slow in order to go fast (definitely haven’t learned that yet)
  5. Harvesting: drawing pretty images that elicit memory.
  6. Two conversations: the internal one with yourself, and the external one with others. Keeping it internal is partially resting on the assumption that no one else shares the same thought; but maybe they feel the same too!
  7. Two parts in every spoken message: the content, and the emotional charge. If the emotional charge is too strong. people merely take in that buzz and neglect the content — which is what you want people to listen to.

Happenings that I remember

  • Tsila
  • Annabel chat, and the rant on education
  • non-violent communications: conflict resolution
  • paperclip challenge: the events to be organised, the free offers, the power of networks
  • art of hosting: world cafes, open space: hosting your own burning question, circle practice, unsession (westerpark project etc.), the four situations: simple, complex, complicated, chaos — and the respective solutions: routine, expert, emergent, experimental.
  • the morning rave. the random requests with strangers.
  • power2flower.
  • Note to self: You are responsible for making it worthwhile — but you are not alone in this.

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