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| The Pirates of Penzance |
Lost in translation
A few years ago I was interviewing a young man from Eastern
Europe who had applied to join a leadership programme. As I listened to him
talking about his experience of working with communities, I had the feeling
that he could easily have acquired his knowledge from one of the courses I used
to deliver in CIS countries. He described the very tools and methods I used to teach.
But from the tone of his voice it seemed to me that the western approach to
community development with its emphasis on stakeholder engagement meant nothing
to him. It dawned on me that I had made a living from peddling expensive training
programmes that did nothing to help the people for whom they were designed. This
made me feel very uncomfortable.
“It’s only a game”
Painful as this was, I put my learning to good use recently
while working once again in Eastern Europe with a group of senior managers.
This time, instead of delivering a set programme, I found myself dancing with
pirates. On the first night the trainers and the participants sat across a
table, sizing each other up like rival gangs. By way of an informal ice-breaker
I tried a simple ‘getting to know you’ type exercise. “Is the training
beginning already?” said Pirate Jenny, suspiciously. “It’s just a game”, I said. The game took so
long that it felt like the 30 Years War. “It’s just a game!” said the Pirate King,
with a twinkle in his eye. This was the first of many skirmishes between the
navy (me and my co-facilitator) and the pirates (the participants). Would the
pirates play the game, we wondered, or would they make us walk the plank?
Forming a working
alliance
On the second day, we danced a number of rounds using
different methodologies. These included postcards, tennis balls, a hoola-hoop,
a walk in the woods, and a visit to a local winery. Little by little, we
persuaded the pirates to dance with us, and with each other. It was the
week-end, after all, and who wants to work on the week-end. The process was
similar to what some coaching professionals call “getting alongside the client”
and “forming a working alliance”. We, the navy, moored our ship next to the
pirates’ galleon. Very quickly they invited us on board. We got to know and
like each other. How did this happen?
A picture says more
than a 1000 words
I remember a number of breakthrough moments when the
conversation flowed naturally, and it seemed to me that we were really learning
together. The first such moment happened when we asked the pirates to choose a
picture that said something to them about leadership. The pirates chose their
pictures carefully, and all of a sudden they were talking to each other and to
us about their personal visions of leadership. They shared some quite personal reflections
and insights into leadership. Then, without any prompting from the facilitators,
the participants volunteered the fact that we had got them talking and
listening to each other. Lunch felt a lot more relaxed than supper the previous
evening. We had begun to form a working alliance.
Into the woods
In the afternoon the navy and the pirates made up a joint
reconnaissance party, and sashayed into the woods. Spring was turning into
summer. The bees were buzzing, the sheep were grazing and tiny red flowers
refused to be identified in the thick long grass. We sat on a hillside and
talked sporadically like characters in a Chekhov play. That night the navy and
the pirates partied until 3.00 am. We danced together for hours. This time the
dancing was real.
Dancing in our heads
On the final day of the workshop we threw out large parts of
our carefully designed workshop. We kept one methodology and one game that we
thought fitted perfectly with the group narratives about storytelling,
inspiring people and working less while earning more. The high point for me was
the moment I noticed we had been standing in a circle in the garden for a long
time. We were talking about how to inspire and engage people and somehow it
felt completely natural and learner led. No-one sat down, and no-one left. We were
dancing in our heads.
