A few weeks ago I had the privilege to be part of Wildjam. An event held at a magical place called Embercombe just around the corner from where we live in Devon. Wildjam started as a passion project of Anton Chernikov, a creative challenge that he sets himself every year. This year the challenge was to organise an event, a retreat to escape busy (London) life and (re)connect with nature and each other.
It gathered a small group of creatives and entrepreneurial folks, with different backgrounds and nationalities and from different walks of life. Most of them were complete strangers to each other. However, within a couple of days, the retreat turned into a place where dialogue and meaningful conversations emerged. Where stories, experiences, emotions, knowledge and aspirations were shared. And where ideas and dreams were shaped and seeds were planted for friendships and positive change.
I was given the opportunity to contribute to the building of connection and community by facilitating a workshop based on Appreciative Inquiry. Guided by appreciative questions, people entered in meaningful conversation and shared success stories of feeling truly connected within community, their aspirations for a truly connected community and how this could come about. After having 1 on 1 walks and talks, people shared and discussed what they talked about in small groups. Finally each group shared their results to the whole group. The results were inspiring! Grounded in practice and meaningful to the people who were present.
The results almost visibly reflected the different shared identity of the smaller groups that emerged from individuals connecting.
After sharing results, everyone was given the opportunity to share what they got out of the workshop. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive and such a reassurance and so extremely validating! So I’d like to take the opportunity to express my gratitude again to Anton Chernikov for giving me the opportunity to experiment and all the people who took part in the workshop!
See an opportunity for building connection and community? Get in touch!
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