Methods of Participatory Design Lab

(AoH framework)

Course description

Explore hosting and harvesting conversations as a core leadership practice and skill set for leading change.

We will off­er practical and ef­fective tools for building our collective capacity, facilitating community engagement processes, and hosting conversations and meetings that effectively include all voices weaved into collective intelligence and inquiry; we will co-build shared knowledge of how to best create wellbeing in our communities and organizations.

  • The following questions will frame our training: How can we more effectively engage a diverse group of stakeholders in order to increase sustainability and wellbeing in our communities?
  • How can we be responsive to the needs of the communities or organizations that we are accountable to or serve?
  • How can we work with adversities and complexity in a way that accounts for all different points of view?

Methodology

The course builds on proven methods for positive change and will include approaches to building collective capacity:

–  The Art of Hosting framework and Harvesting Conversations that Matter

–  Appreciative Leadership and Systems Thinking

–  Mindfulness elements – Learning by Doing

These tools will give you more access to the intelligence of your head, heart, and body increasing your capacity for navigating uncertainty by tapping into all of who you are as a role and also as a potential change maker.

You will be engaged in experiential learning where you will acquire new skills and tools while working on real-life challenges of your organisations. The participants will receive toolkits of methods that are easily transferable to their professional settings.

Benefits

The course offers practical tools on how to build collaboration through individual and collective learning in times of challenges and change. It will also help participants to deal with challenging situations and problematic symptoms from another, more generative perspective.You will learn by doing to acquire new competencies, approaches and strategies to achieve more impact in your work as change makers, and  leverage community members’ involvement in shaping the sustainability and well-being of their own communities. Co-create the conditions that may increase and you will develop competence in interactive processes and experience participative methods such as Open Space technology, Circle, World Café, Pro-action Café etc, as well as new Organisational Frameworks and Process Design tools like Appreciative Inquiry, Chaordic Design and Theory U.The training will foster collaboration and appreciative attitude in individuals, teams and organisations, it will builda culture of positive challenges and cultivate positive (inner) dialogue during change / in intense situations.

Programme

  • Opening and introduction
  • Welcome Circle, Check-in
  • Appreciative Inquiry and the 4 D Model
  • Participative constellations, The Chaordic Path and the 4-Fold Practice
  • World Café on the gifts and practices of participation
  • Check-out

Local Evening – welcome reception

  • A “mindful” welcoming of the day – hosting myself
  • Powerful questions and the art of active listening, Appreciative Interviews, Reframing ‘Problem’ into ‘Possibility’ & Cultivating a generative approach – Triads
  • Invitation as a process and Story Harvesting
  • Communities of Practice, Learning Buddies formation
  • Check out
  • Weaving the threads of learning – Open Space Technology
  • The Art of Harvesting-Mind map -“Align my practices and methodologies with participatory design”
  • Reflection teams – Connecting with the new wisdom
  • Communities of Practice – Sensing the need
  • Check out
  • Dinner
  • Grounding our ideas and designing projects – Design for wiser action (part I)
  • Design for wiser action (part II)
  • Time for Self-reflection – Creation of my personal mind map
  • Reflection teams – Connecting with the new wisdom
  • Check out

Excursion

  • Co-learning from nature and other resilient environments
  • Sightseeing archaeological places
  • Walking reflection
  • Outdoor activity
  • Closing the day
  • Check-in, Tracking our journey from day 1 to day 6
  • Presentations of reflection groups – More Questions
  • Gratitude Circle – Sharing
  • Evaluation & Closing

Duration:  5  or 6 days

Dates:     Upon request

Location: Athens, Greece

Designed for participants/groups

This workshop is designed for staff members of any organisation active in the field of education, training and Youth, more specifically for: managers, counsellors, professional development specialists and Change Agents.

We are inviting diverse participants initiating change in their communities and organizations.

These are the people seeking to construct more equitable and inclusive responses to pressing challenges.

This training is also designed for diverse multi-cultural teams, including community leaders and others that are collectively addressing a pressing challenge in their community or organization.

Instructors

Dr. Markos Perrakis is a leadership development & process facilitator, psychologist, speaker, consultant and trainer of individuals and teams, founder and Managing Director of the EU Adult training & Counseling Provider Fractality. He designs and implements EU projects in the fields of leadership development and strategic planning, and uses eclectic appreciative approaches in the public and private sector in order to promote effective communication, individual and collective process development. He specializes in coaching, supervision, human capital development, training and assessments. He holds a Ph.D. in Leadership Styles and their efficiency in organisations with publications in the fields of organizational psychology and counseling and a M.A. in clinical Psychology. He is trained in Systemic Consultation, solution focused & cognitive behavioural approaches, methods of participatory design, Spiritual Intelligence, a certified provider of Vocational Guidance and Professional Orientation, utilizing psychometric assessments and coaching tools for teams and individuals in organizational, career and personality issues and ISO 9001 Lead Auditor.  He is representative of the Association of International Institution Supervision in Europe (ANSE), Member of International Intervision Groups, Scientific Assistant of SOL (Society of Organisational Learning), Scientific partner of the European Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (EUMU) in Greece, in the fields of Strategic Planning and Human Capital Development programmes.

Dr. Perrakis is one of the first persons in Greece who applied the methodology of Appreciative Inquiry, which is used in the UN Summit by UN leaders. In contrast to the traditional management approaches that focus on problems, the appreciative approach makes use of the potential of the human capital of organizations

Sevi Chondrou  has conducted studies in Economics, Environmental Policy and Management, Public Administration and Social Innovation. Since 2010 she facilitates, hosts and harvests meaningful conversations and public dialogue events, using methodologies that release collective imagination and creativity mainly influenced from the Art of Hosting paradigm and Process Work. She has leaded numerous initiatives connected to community building, collective sharing, new economy, environmental protection and youth development. She works as a trainer for the (Greek) National School of Public Administration and other private, public and social entities. Her approach is influenced by the metaphor of complexity and chaos theories into organisational science and practice, and her methodology, originating from this field of inquiry, is of a participatory nature.

Venue

Classical Athens was a powerful city-state that emerged in conjunction with the seagoing development of the port of Piraeus. A center for the arts, learning and philosophy, home of Plato‘s Academy and Aristotle‘s Lyceum,[6][7] it is widely referred to as the cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy,[8][9] largely because of its cultural and political impact on the European continent, and in particular the Romans.[10] In modern times, Athens is a large cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, financial, industrial, maritime, political and cultural life in Greece.

Participation Fee

The fee for this course is 780 Euros. More information on these funding criteria can be found on our Erasmus+ Workshop pages.

It includes tuition fee and educational material, certificates of participation, Beverages welcome cocktail, one day excursion (optional) to idyllic Neptune Temple at Sounion Cape (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sounion) in Attica seaside (or similar activity).

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Contact us

Questions or concerns? please contact us at [email protected] or call +302106010522.
Cancellation Policy*

Until 30 days before the starting date of the selected workshop, cancellation will be free of charge and the pre-payment will be fully refunded. Between 30 to 15 days before the starting date of the workshop, 50% of the fee will be refunded. Within the 15 days before the starting date of the workshop no refunds will be made.