In a recent online project, geographically dispersed participants explored the idea of "digital places of being". They raised timely questions, such as, "How can (educational) digital space provide us with the opportunity to extend our 'self'"? Now is the moment to find hands-on answers to these questions.
Prompt 19: Visualise flowers opening gently in the morning light, responding to the invisible radiation of sunlight. Now imagine the human mind - your brain - as a receiver, picking up signals from the outside. Which type of environment - other than nature, libraries, museums - makes you feel like a blossoming flower ready to receive signals from the outside?
Back to reality. All face to face trainings and workshops have been canceled and people are expected to work from home. Many of them tell me they do not like this unusual situation. It makes them feel uncomfortable. Productivity inevitably goes down. What is more, most of us enjoy meeting our team members; we are not used to working remotely and there's an immense tech barrier to be overcome.
It is definitely challenging to think clearly and to be proactive in such a situation. Knowledge transfer and key insights are likely to get lost - the overall adverse effect will be enormous.
Now is the time to go online and try out new approaches, launch pilot projects and enter a trial and error mode. The best we can do - while being forced to put our daily routines on hold - is reflect on how we can change our lifestyles so that we can look into a safe future. To survive, organisations need to tap the full creative potential of their people.
So why not continue online, allow workshop participants to connect digitally and explore relevant topics together in completely new ways. You may be surprised at the speed and focus of such an approach.
Info and contact: cmerl@talkshop.cc