Huddlecraft 101

Hi! I had a fab conversation with my friend Anneka Deva about a new 3 day immersion into the multiple levels of peer-led interventions for learning and culture change that she is part of hosting.

If you’re someone who wants the people in their organisation to have more sense of their own power, or are interested in decentralised, participatory methods that go all the way from individual to ecosystem, this might well be the thing for you. Deadline to register is Monday 9th May 2022.

More info here

and Anneka’s email is: anneka@huddlecraft.com

Transcript of our conversation

Meg: Hi everyone. Um, there's something coming up that I wanted to have you know about, so I've got my friend Anneka here. Hi Anneka!

Anneka: Hi Meg!

M: We're sitting in the gardens of Winterbourne House. Because I came up to Birmingham this weekend, because Anneka was holding a woman and climate storytelling circle around the fire. My hair still smells of wood smoke and my coat!

But there's something coming up, that those of you who heard me talk about the Learning Marathan might be interested in. So what's coming up?

A: So, at my organisation, Huddlecraft, who came up with the idea of the Learning Marathon and who you trained with last year, and then also did a Learning Marathan that I hosted back in 2018?

M: Mmhm. We were so young!

A: We are hosting a three-day immersion into peer-to-peer approaches. Approaches to how you might be solving challenges around culture, around learning, around change within an organisation or a movement or an initiative. And you're curious about how you bring more peer-to-peer values and methods into your approach. Erm, and want to deepen your ability to do that surrounded by a cohort of other people also doing that in a full range of organisations.

M: And because... what are... the reason that I want... I thought people might be interested in because I, I had a whole set of people who were interested in the Learning Marathon but doing a six, six month peer learning journey, what's actually turned out to be an eight month peer learning journey, is a massive commitment. Whereas this feels like a more easily digestible intro, but also the work that Huddlecraft which used to be Enrol [Yourself], but is now Huddlecraft does is that you get a lot done in a small amount of time, right? So in those... is it three days?

A: No. So it's seven sessions that are split over three days. Like, you know, they add up to three days. And we do it over the course of four weeks. So you'll have a couple of sessions in week one, a couple of sessions in week two, then you'll have a break week, because we think it's really important for people to get a chance to digest and to catch up. We also give people a whole day's worth of self paced learning that they can do. So they can either just genuinely take a break, or they can use that time in the middle to catch up, then you've got your final three sessions in the final week.

M: And so who is this, like, for? Like, there's a whole range of people it might be but like, particularly who are you thinking might this resonate with?

A: Yeah, so I think, I think people who already get the value of or the, they've already experienced some sort of peer-to-peer, or participatory culture, you know, and they might have experienced that outside of work or in their workplace, and they get the value of it. They get that when we distribute power, within more people with, you know, with more people within a, within a movement or an organisation, we create things that are better. And I mean that in every way we create things that are more successful by the traditional metrics of success. But we also create cultures that people thrive in and flourishing, and people are happier. And generally speaking cultures that are more equitable, because we are purposefully distributing power, and moving away from solely traditional hierarchical ways of doing things.

So first and foremost, it's for people who have an inkling that that, that type of, more of that type of approach in their context, or their setting might be really good. Erm, so you might be a leader of a team and you would love for your team to be growing their own leadership within your organisation. And so you might be thinking about how do I bring about the conditions for them to be able to do that? And so you might think, you know what? Actually an immersion in huddlecraft practices. I didn't mention the name of the course called huddlecraft 101!

M: Oh yeah! We're so slick!

A: Which is you know, essentially the the basics of huddlecraft, the basics of this kind of craft that we together have been honing over a number of years, both within the the organisation that we're in now, but also for many of us, we've been doing this over decades. So yeah, you might be a leader who wants more of your team to be able to step up and lead and, and you want to get out of the way, but just not not just leave people then to get on with it without any sort of scaffold.

M: Which is some of the mistakes sometimes people make when they're looking at Teal, or they're looking at like really participatory like flat, flatter hierarchies. Like without another structure, people don't... emergent, like things don't just emerge with nothing, we can't just leave people stranded. So it seems to me that Huddlecraft 101 kind of gives that, some of that structure as to how you might transition into that, is that right?

A: Yes... Yes, AND it gives you the tools to create your own structure in your own context. And so, you know, there are five kind of main modules, if you like that we go through, I can talk about more in a second. But for, in each of those things, we give you a chance to figure out, you know, how do you want, how can you apply this particular piece of learning in your own context? And you've got time in the sessions to actually reflect on that, and then bring it back and have somebody else who's doing the same thing in another organisation reflect back to you? Oh, yeah, I love that idea, because we tried something similar. And it was really successful...

M: Which is part of the 'craft' in Huddlecraft as well, isn't it? Like craft being specific to a context?

A: Exactly, yeah.

M: So there's those kinds of people who are leaders, I'm also thinking about in the organisation that I'm working for at the moment, we've got a long history of coproduction, community coproduction. And it feels to me like this might be like, there's certain methods which people have, but this might be like, putting those things in a bigger context or adding extra tools. The other people I think, might be drawn towards this, are people who looked at like, Liberating Structures, and went, Oh, this is great. It's great to have new tools. But like, what's the framework that this fits into? And how do you go further, with your 'One Two Four All' and your.... round check ins and like all those tools that are in there that we started using? But like, Okay, what's the next two steps like along with that at a cultural level?

A: Yeah, and I think, I think there are going to be people who are really familiar with various approaches to, you know, how you create more equitable cultures and, and that type of thing. But this, I hope, will give people dedicated time and space and stimulus to think about it over the course of four weeks. And so actually, you know, if you've been, if you've tried an approach a few years ago, and it didn't really work, because the right conditions in your organisation weren't there. But you know, you might have had a change in leadership, you might have had a change in people. And actually, now you've got the conditions to give it another go. But you want some sort of scaffolding for you to be able to do that in a way that's really deeply considered. You know, I think Huddlecraft 101 gives people that opportunity.

M: That time as well. So what are the five, you mentioned five bits?

A: Yeah, five levels. So you know, this is, for those of us who were working in systems change, we know that actually, everything is fractal.

And so we start with the smallest part of, of the system, which is the self. And you know, you can't create any change in a system if you're not also thinking about how you change and grow and develop yourself and how you support other people to do that themselves. So the first level is the self.

The second level is pairs. So those one-to-one relationships, how do we develop and nurture those so that we can create the conditions to create really great participatory peer-to-peer cultures.

And then the next level is groups. And at Huddlecraft, we think of groups to be a very specific size around 12. Because, you know, there's research that's been shown that you know, that the group size that, there are optimal group sizes for certain types of work. And the optimal group size is if you sit in a circle, what is the size of the circle where you can make eye contact with and form relationship, with meaningful relationship with everybody in that circle.

M: And an old mentor of mine used to talk about 12 being the size where you can, everyone can still have individual relationships with each other And when it crosses to 15/20, it's very hard to maintain those individual relationships. Without it being a hub and spoke like, Oh, we've got a relationship with the person in the middle, but not with each other.

A: Exactly.

And then level four is what we've termed interventions, which is, I think sounds a bit of a technical word, really. But all it means is, you know, experiments, projects, you know, what is the live context in which you will be applying Huddlecraft 101? And so, you know, that's the fourth level.

And then the fifth level is ecosystem, which is recognising that none of us work or live in a bubble. And therefore, the wider societal systemic powers that are at play affect our systems and our ecosystems and our groups, and all of the other layers as well. So those are the five levels.

M: Each one just kind of goes Oh, yeah, that's the next step. And particularly, I think there's something in this time, right, where this is what the world needs. We need more of this. And so kind of conceptually, we're drawn to it. But we might not know how to go about it. So let's go to deets. Like, so we need to be registered quite soon. Right?

A: May the 9th, is the deadline for registering?

M: And do we need to pay by then?

A: No, you can sign up. And then if you've, for example, got some sort of organisation? Yeah, the PO number and you know, the whatnot, you can, you can pay later on, we can sort that out. But you need to just register by May the 9th because the bit that I didn't mention is that the, the course starts in May, but carries on through to June.

M: Okay.

A: So we want to make sure that we can post out your pack to you and make sure you've got all the right bits before you actually start the course.

M: Fab. And is there anything that happens afterwards?

A: Yeah. So you then join our Huddlecraft community, which means you then kind of have access to the other people who have done Huddlecraft 101, but also the wider community of about 300 people from around the world, from Brazil to Berlin to Birmingham, who have participated in learning journeys with Huddlecraft. And so you've got access to that community, then to..

M: who are extraordinary people

A: Yeah, they are. And so you know, if you've got a challenge, you can then post it in our Slack group, and someone somewhere will have something helpful that they will give to you whether that's just a question, or whether that's, well, I know the person who dot dot dot. And then we also have, you know, community events and meetups for those people in the UK. But I do want to stress that Huddlecraft 101 is open to people wherever they are in the world, as long as you can make our time zones, which are all in, in British Summer Time. So they're all on our website. So yeah, you get access, you get to join our wider Huddlecraft community.

M: Sounds really exciting. So I'll put the link to this but it will be Huddlecraft..?

A: It's huddlecraft.com and there's a link.

M: Huddlecraft 101 from Huddlecraft.com. So, if you're interested, if you've got any questions, then you can email me or

A: you can email me as well. So I'm anneka@huddlecraft.com

M: Anneka@huddlecraftcom I'll put that link as well.

A: Or my colleague Sarah, who is also up for having a one to one with anyone.

M: Amazing.

A: Yeah. So Sarah's, you know, if you are thinking about you, we've got this particular thing that we're doing in our organisation, will Huddlecraft 101 help me, help me with that. Sarah's really up for kind of essentially holding like a very transparent space with you about that, because we want people to come on this and really get as much out of it as they can and kind of be able to share the craft as they go forward. So yeah, Sarah is really up for a chat.

M: And knowing Sarah that's like, not a hard sales conversation.

A: No!

M: It's like the furthest from that, like, actually holding a genuine space. Sara has been mentoring me when I've been running my own huddle. And.. [faint bell sound] if you can hear a bell apparently the gardens are probably closing, so we need to go! But yeah, Sarah will hold it, this like, a beautiful space for you to genuinely explore whether it's right for you. Well, looks like we're been kicked out in the garden so we better finish. Thanks Anneka.

A: Thanks so much, Meg.