Blinking Into the Light, Post Lockdown Challenges and New Thinking for New Opportunities

I remember “blinking into the light” in the immediate post-Covid period and sharing with others my view that this time and space would raise a series of changes, challenges and creative opportunities, and that, most importantly, the rediscovery of human “in the room” connectivity mattered.

Four of us came together, each with a strong commitment to the development and delivery of themes and ideas that enable participants to consider their individual and societal aspirations for the future and the changing role(s) of communities, organisations and networks in articulating and delivering values-led changes. A "Blend" of experience and outlooks, hence the name!

We have since opened our meetings and our conversations within Blended have taken us to some interesting places, spaces and contexts; ones that give us plenty to think about. This often includes ideas about how we can better understand and support each other in our relationship with the Challenges and Opportunities we face, in the a new and emergent work environment and the social, economic and cultural aspects of our lives, all of which happen in the contexts of increased uncertainty The quality of our conversations is enhanced by the values and experiences of our contributors and with this in mind we invite you to our next event

“Blended Meeting”

On ?

13th November 18:00 - 20:00

at Birmingham City University STEAMhouse?

Perhaps the uncertainties of our time, locally, regionally, nationally and globally, mean that we are all required to embark on our own version of The Hero’s Journey.

Do the structures and processes referred to here have relevance to our day-to-day dreams, goals and aspirations?

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Something we might all agree on is that our world seems to be moving toward increased complexity. We are going to take an opportunity to think about how we might improve our outcomes by removing the constraints of complexity and by emphasising the “lived values” of cooperation and collaboration.

Here we will? offer you an opportunity to commit to a collaborative journey of your own, and informed by some of the ideas that underpin Action Learning Sets, and shown in brief here

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There is a linking approach to our evening and it’s one where we will: ?

1. Think and talk: about change processes based on the initial Four Stages of the? Tuckman model of Form, Storm, Norm and Perform
2. Share: Reflective processes to help you evaluate situations
3. Develop: Your personal goals and approaches to change
4. Energise: Our commitment to helping each other through exploring shared goals
5. Commit: To supporting each other?

And we will do this by:?

• Sharing our thoughts on approaches we could take to help you achieve the above?
• Working in pairs to explore initial thoughts to share your opportunities and challenges?
• Follow on with 1:1 online and by bringing our group together in the New Year for a face to face catch up event to reflect on and further develop our explorations

Getting to STEAMhouse: there are good public transport and road links with ample parking adjacent to the site.

Let us know if you'd like to attend or would like to have a conversation about our event before deciding. Many thanks from....

John Dooner Paul Jeffrey Steve Harding John J. Lee