Putting a spring in our step…

As ever, we were welcomed with open arms at the recently (re)christened ‘Spring’. Fuelled by the bounty of the Vauxhall Garden Community Café, we set about further developing the quality of our relationships within our immediate On Purpose ‘family’ (Tom, and the Associates). Facilitated by the ethereal Darius (CEO of Real World Magazine), intent on nudging us from our ‘over-educated, analytical minds’, to a state of experience and instinct. I doubt any of us had anticipated how he would tease out our approach to: future personal development sessions, or; how the Associates could better support each other.


The constructive tone was set by each of us contributing one thing, from both our professional and personal lives, that had recently gone well. Having enjoyed this quick-fire check-in on how everyone’s doing, we agreed this practice would be adopted whenever we met in future.


It soon became apparent; practice was the name of the game. An array of possible techniques were presented to us by (Sofia, Matt Darius), including story telling in the first person, The Work, ritual rites of passage, meditation on personal strengths and weaknesses, Action Learning (Clore Foundation Social Enterprise Fellowship approach), group exercises around ‘I’m brilliant… You’re brilliant…’, feedback, Aikido, and ‘I’m pretending…’. It was emphasised, only through the concerted effort of practice would the learning from these interventions become purposeful to our personal development.


While peer feedback was requested by all the Associates in monthly reviews, and future personal development opportunities pay heed to the variety of techniques outlined above, the afternoon was spent with two particular practices: Aikido and ‘I’m pretending…’.


Aikido: playful arm wrestling ‘unbendable arm’ demonstrated the first four stages of achieving outcomes with increasing ease:
-Against (opposing the force of another, and straining in the process);
-In spite of (opposing/ ignoring) the force of another, while focusing your energy on your own aim);
-With (using the energy of another, to further your own aim);
-Aiki (combining with the energy of another, to create something new. The plank extension exercises looked at applying our learning to following, leading and collaborating to greater effect.


‘I’m pretending…’: create sincere intention among the group, enabling accumulative declarations by each individual.


The accrued intimacy over the course of this session will no doubt stand us in better stead to both ask for, and anticipate support requests of our fellow Associates.