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Journaling as reflective practice

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Journaling as reflective practice Journals and diaries have been used ever since people could find ways of capturing their thoughts and ideas. Many people have used it as a deeply personal process, others to capture important moments and events in their lives. Journals can also be used as part of a conscious practice of reflecting and learning. As organisational development practitioners, often we are very action oriented and may not always make time to capture or document through writing. Our work may already be consumed with many other writing tasks like field reports, developing materials and donor reports and the thought of starting a journal may seem like an indulgence. If we can begin to see journaling as part of a reflective practice and not an indulgence we can begin an exciting self-directed learning process. Journals can become an important reflective tool for practitioners who want to become more conscious of how they practice. The advantage of a journal is t...
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The transformative power of story telling as a methodology for teambuilding and building a healthy organisational culture

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  Last week I facilitated a teambuilding session in Harare, Zimbabwe with an international capacity building organisation with country offices in several countries. This session brought the team together in person - over 40 people gathering in a large tent which was set up in the beautiful gardens of their office premises. This was the ideal setting for several rounds of storytelling and sharing in small intimate groups. Coupled with an active listening exercise the group found that the qualitative listening helped to change the dynamic between them and those who shared their stories felt a deep respect from their colleagues as they were each given their space to be heard fully. Some were also surprised how much they learnt from each other - especially for those who were working in different departments of the organisation - the lesson being that we all have wisdom which can be revealed when the conditions are conducive. This set the tone and was a strong foundation to build the re...
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Facilitating transformation and diversity processes

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This is a post that has been wanting to be written for a while now. I have been exceptionally busy facilitating back to back transformation and diversity workshops, and have not had time to write, but feel compelled to pause and share some reflections. These are conversations that South Africa has been needing to have since 1994 but we have not made the space and time to focus on the real issues of diversity and transformation. As a society we have been deeply divided and there has been oppression which has spanned generations - after 1994, we experienced change at many levels, but we did not deal with the deeper issues and the psycho social impact of apartheid which has permeated all the spaces in our society. Now we find them popping up in racial incidents and social media posts and in many spaces where we are finding ourselves confronted more and more with the shadow reality of the rainbow nation dream.  In most of these workshops I find on the one side...
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