Newsletter article - autumn 2023
I am writing this looking out at the trees changing from greens to reds, browns and yellows. Autumn is a season that divides us.
Some love the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, the harvesting and getting foods stored for the winter.
Some feel a sense of melancholy as we loose the heat of the summer and prepare for winter cold.
Others just love the changing colours, the flocks of migrating birds, the festivals and rites that mark this season differently than others.
So how might we use the seasonal changes in our Action Learning and facilitation development? There are many themes, but three I want to pick out here:
· Impact of the Seasons
· Harvesting the learning
· Festivals and Ritual
The Impact of the Seasons
We all have favourite times of the year. It might be the temperature, the colours, the food, or the cycle of nature. What do you feel in different seasons and how might this affect the way you work? Do you bring these feelings and responses into your Action Learning?
And if you notice how passing through the year affects you as a facilitator, what about your set participants? Do you ever build this into your sessions and agreements in some way?
I am curious about this and wondering how we might use these reflections to add nuance and depth to our Action Learning?
Ideas
Make this check-in question or part of an arriving process.
Pose it as part of the initial set contracting , to encourage personal reflections on how we might feel as we come into our ALS at different times of the year
Incorporate it as part of your own facilitator reflection/preparation. Notice how your energy changes, your sense of possibility and how you facilitate and ask questions.
Harvesting the learning
‘Autumn is the seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness.’ For some reason this line from a Keats poem is often in my head in the autumn. I personally love the abundance of this time of year, the picking, bottling and jamming. The cupboards are full of chutneys and jams. This got me thinking in Action Learning terms, what have we been learning? How do we harvest learning and use this to resource and “feed” ourselves? Or is it just more jam in the cupboard – unused and quickly forgotten after the satisfaction of the making process?
We talk a lot about the layers of learning in AL Sets; whatever the presentation there is always some relevance, a provocation to think differently, an insight.
Reflections
Check in with your groups regularly about how you are all holding learning review
What more could you do to savour, integrate, and preserve the learning we harvest and play it forward?
Festivals and Rituals
There are many rituals - feasts, celebrations, sharing of produce, races to finish the harvesting first. Lots of different ways to acknowledge the start and end of harvesting.
Do you remember Corn Dollys? These were created as a home for the “corn spirit” out of the last sheaf of wheat or grain, that was made homeless by the harvest, until it was ploughed back into the first furrow of the new seasons planting. An interesting metaphor for AL.
Questions
Is there a place for rituals and ceremonials in your AL? What do you currently do?
What could you and your set develop that might add to the experience and honour the spirit - in Corn Dolly style?
Could it be as simple as a regular appreciation exercise? Or a way of celebrating someone’s success?
How about trying something small and familiar that adds to the experience of valuing and acknowledging?
These autumn reflections remind me that autumn is a time to gather in the benefits and shift gear from the summer, to reflect and prepare for the winter. It’s that beginning of a new “school” year, that feeling of wanting to improve, do better, learn something new, and have a fresh start.
Let us know what it means to you and any ideas to share, or responses to these questions. We have our Pocket Question Bank competition continuing through to the end of the year so do let us know and maybe you will win yourself a Question Bank.