Convergence - first steps towards a new paradigm of unity and collaborative learning

27 January, 2012 at 10:01 AM

London Convergence@ Hackney City Farm

Last week we were joined in the Straw Bale Building at Hackney City Farm by a diverse and inspiring group of family and friends, individuals who have supported West Lexham over the first year and visited the centre to hold events or to escape the city and enjoy time with loved ones. The intention was to bring them all together to thank them and share some of the highlights of our first year, as well as to introduce a collaborative learning project we have been developing.

Our intention is to co-create an event to showcase and try out integrated, creatively facilitated, immersive learning experiences which will provide the tools, skills and networks that we need for a brighter future. We wanted to build this event in collaboration with the growing community of changemakers we are priveleged to work with and count among our friends.

The event at Hackney City Farm was the first step in what will be an emergent and organic process culminating in an event at West Lexham which can then be replicated, scaled and shared more widely. We had a brilliant evening talking about the value of the West Lexham experience for the changemaker community, what more we can offer to support and facilitate our network, and what we might create and do together in the coming year.

Outcomes

Some of the highlights of their West Lexham experience that participants shared were:

the beauty of the natural setting
the collaborative ethos of the project
the blend of people from different backgrounds
the energy of urban innovation in the countryside
activity- but relaxing activity!
the diversity of spaces on offer- cultivated-> wild, outdoor kitchen, swimming...
the balance of structure and creativity
the family feeling
space- head space, physical space, a retreat

Looking to the future it was suggested that we could offer some of the following to the community:

Create a learning family made up of hosts of different communities of people
Facilitate this network of practitioners - be succinct and clear about our intention
Asset mapping, make it tangible, get under the surface, see the connections
Bring people together in a hosted space.
Support people to open up and find meaning via creativity, grounding
Creative facilitation and facilitation of creativity
Keep urban connection going - translate to urban interests- also london events
Create a model of new ways of living
Support breaking out of silos- keep the diversity of group
Value unity and autonomy, keep mix of different people and facilitate integration
Host a larger,collaborative event at West Lexham
Festival! learning, grow, fun
Offer experience of being both a student and a teacher- learning from everyone
Integrative experience of learning, developing an event together
Involve local residents and community

Reflections

The wonderful Rachel Sinha also followed up with some beautiful reflections on the process and some realisations that followed about her other projects and her involvement in this one:

I came across this article about the process of consciousness transformation and read an article about Seth Godin’s ideas around Tribes and it just really made clear to me what I think the whole process and our connection to West Lexham might be about. He describes how modern society now has ‘Tribes’ - groups of people who share our values and passions so much that when we meet them we feel like we’ve met them before.

Why is West Lexham so great for us

To move towards a new paradigm where unity is at the heart of everything we do you need people to be awakened to the idea of change
This awakening happens in different ways, but it is prompted by self-reflection- thinking about the things that are misaligned in our lives
Taking people to West Lexham is a way for people like us, with communities often at the cusp of being ‘awakened’, to come. Our role is to create the space and hosted structure for them to really think about what it is that’s awakening in them- to realign to their values, their passion and to the needs of the world
This gives rise to a feeling amongst our communities that people want to ‘do’ something that aligns with their new knowledge

What more can West Lexham offer?

What’s needed next is to move from the ‘I’ to the ‘we’- build a strong feeling of community around this new set of values. You need this to make you feel like you’re not completely mad
Then collectively you can build the new paradigm and it works because we share resources, help each other out and are united!
Its crucial role is as a place for reflection- individual and collective – for people who want to build the new paradigm
We (in the Lab etc) really need places like West Lexham to bring people to so they can awaken! Many of your contacts have processes and skills that aid this process (art, yoga, dance, drama etc), which is brilliant
WL is an incubator for the new leaders who want to work from their values, work in unity (or collaboration as we would call it) and realign our human and economic system with our natural system
The next step, as you have suggested, could be a place where the awakened gather to build really deep community and to make plans together to build this new paradigm.

Next steps?

So in response to all of these amazing ideas and suggestions, we have come up with some next steps for the process of creating what we call Convergences and linking them together. The first will be the process we have begun together- the London Convergence.

A second will be the Norfolk/East Anglia Convergence - bringing together people who are local to the project and are interested in getting more involved, to find out what we can offer them, what kind of skills and resources exist in the local area that can be shared, and how they would like to engage with the space in the context of learning.

Providing this is what people want, we intend to bring the two together to create the West Lexham Convergence in June and integrate the two networks over a weekend session to showcase and share what we create together and pilot an event which we can share with more and more people.

We would also very much like to work towards a physical learning hub at West Lexham where training, reskilling and incubation for emergent enterprises can take place on an ongoing basis.

London Convergence- 22nd March, 7pm- The Hub Kings Cross

Theme: Creating and exploring

Purpose: taking another step towards unity, growing and mapping the community, creating integrated content through playful experimentation

Content: More creative, action focussed sessions e.g.

Asset mapping and networking- who's in the room?what are the skills and resources in the room?
Creating integrated educational experiences- a playful session supporting groups of 2 or more people from different fields to cocreate an immersive educational experience that combines their skills and interests

We have already had conversations with a few of you about creative ways of facilitating the next session, and we'd like to continue to discuss with those of you who are interested so drop us a line with any thoughts! We have also mentioned the idea of each of you inviting two more people to join the next session. I'll send over invitations soon which you can forward to relevant contacts.

Norfolk Convergence, dates tbc soon, West Lexham

These will follow the same format as the first two meetings of the London Convergence

West Lexham Convergence! June (tbc soon) @ West Lexham

This will most likely be over a weekend and will be an experiential learning event in itself and an experiment in how a weekend event would work on a small initial scale. We will bring together those from London and Norfolk Convergences who are keen to stay with us on the journey of co-creating an event and continuing to build the Convergence networks.

Possible agenda as follows, but will be dictated by outcomes of previous meetings and feedback from both networks:

·         Asset mapping
·         Creating integrated educational experiences
·         What would a collaborative event look like and what resources do we between us all have to make it happen?
·         Dates and timeframes
·         Forming relevant teams/committees to start production of event
·         Norfolk Convergence and London Convergence- how work together and reach out to other hubs in other counties?

The Convergence Network, Online

We'd like to facilitate these growing networks in the best way possible. I know we all have busy digital lives so I don't want to increase the burden, but if you come across any links or have any ideas you'd like to share with the network please send to me via lucy@westlexham.org, @westlexham on twitter or post to our facebook page. I'll endeavour to draw these together in regular blog posts and the monthly West Lexham newsletter to keep us all in contact and connected to the process.

Feedback

Thanks for reading this far! . We would love to hear any feedback, further questions, reflection you might have on all of this so we can create something together that serves all of us and supports our growth and the growth of our myriad projects and communities.