I wrote yesterday about a wonderful collaboration opportunity that was taking place across the state. We had put a lot of work and preparation into this experience, and it showed in the design. In fact, when our facilitators had to change unexpectedly at the last moment, everything was so tightly organized that it was fairly easy for someone new to “jump right in” (there’s probably a great post on the importance of redundancy in here somewhere).
And though we were planned, and while we had a really great structure, the workshop, at least for me, didn’t proceed in the way I had thought it would. This isn’t bad or good, but simply, that I didn’t envision the end results the way they turned out.
That’s the funny thing about expectations. Sometimes, we are way off, and, because of that, we have to really reflect deeply on what happened, what didn’t, and why. The benefit of all of this is that it forces us to consider our own practices and grow from them; after all, it isn’t uncommon to have things go differently than we planned, but, it is telling if that happens regularly.
We’re in the process of setting up a follow-up call to discuss our findings. And I’m curious to see if other sites saw the experience the same, or differently, than I did. In any event, this will be a great opportunity to look at the “plus/delta” of things (what worked well and what needs to be changed in the future). Every outcome provides a great opportunity to learn!