This post is an extension of the back and forth on my earlier question about training interviewers. The description of this ongoing project got so long that I figured I should give the topic of trainers its own space.
To recap
All of us on the project are adult volunteers, from North America, Europe, and Australia and New Zealand so far. I'm the only one who has had any ABCD training of any kind (from Ron Dwyer-Voss by the way--shout out, see the session coming up the end of July 2014:CS-Flyer-ABCD-v2.pdf). One participant attended a summer program on ABCD in Toronto, but it wasn't a training, more like a survey course with in-the-community exercises. I trained the first batch of 16 interviewers + three managers including the CEO. Now I'm training the two project managers to help them master the project better themselves and be a greater resource to the trained interviewers. One manager lives in Washington, DC and the other in the state of Washington, while I live in California. For Training the Trainer in covering these distances, we use Sococo, a virtual online office and meeting service to see each other and share screens in order to understand and perhaps modify the training material.
What's going on now
Although we are all volunteers, we have different roles for this project and I do my best to keep these roles clear--for my sanity as much as theirs.
In our case, the way I set it up, I sold the person acting in the role of CEO the idea, and to make a very long story short, we have thetwo managers who can be considered as institutional folks, and the group of them, in effect, have hired me to help them organize the process of community development.
What's interesting to me is how much everyone is still looking for someone to tell them what to do, much like a community that has forsaken their institutions for so long that the institution is fighting for life to meet its purpose and the individuals tend to feel there is nothing they can do without that institution--a lesson that emerged in my own learning when taking an ABCD training. ABCD is one of many such tools that once it's started. it is for me a continuous process of being able to continue growing as a person and helping my community empower one another to take positive and effective action.
How it's worked so far
We originally agreed near the end of April that the next training would take place in August. To me, this meant that we needed to start training of the trainers right away!
We've had four training sessions now, about a week apart and including a one-week break while one manager had to tend to major obligations elsewhere.
I've been sticking with the herd leader philosophy that I mentioned in my Interview Training post. I look for when energy is moving and work with that rather than tell folks what to do as if the destination is predetermined. All I know are the conditions we need to be in - everyone knowing the forces we were contending with in ourselves and the community, enthusiastic engagement for everybody involved, safety (in this case emotional and relational) for all, recognition of/access to/actual use of resources.
Overall, I let them tell me how they would like to proceed and where to go. ("Let's take a look at your slide 21, Magdalena"). At the last session, one manager disagreed with a line about establishing community businesses, saying she felt completely cynical about anything like that ever happening. She was laughing, but it seemed like we were about to risk something of her personal integrity.
Instead, I pointed out that when the next set of interviewers they would be training underwent training or would go out, one of those interviewers might feel the same way or be bound to meet others in the community with similar feelings. So I invited her to say more now and explore this together. She was more than happy to speak and we ended up going into deeper conversation about their jobs, the purpose of this particular community institution, and how much our fellow community members would resonate with somebody else who could acknowledge the situation and not get defensive. At the managerial level, I pointed out, we are modeling the conversations that we are inviting the community to be able to have.
Looking forward to your questions and comments and helping each other make better communities.
updated by @magdalena-valderrama-hurwitz: 10/24/16 04:46:28PM
