Comments on: HRevolution…What Worked, What Didn’t, & What The Future Holds

By: JP Elliott

JP Elliott — Wed, 12 May 2010 03:55:41 +0000

Guys – I appreciate the comments and additional insights…

@Jay – Glad we are on the same page on the importance of facilitation, I think we can do some quick tips to get people moving in the right direction. Sorry we didn’t meet in person, so let’s plan on it next year.

@Ben – Great event again, you have to proud with what you and Trisha have created

@Jessica – it sounds like you had an excellent facilitator in one of your sessions that let the group do it’s thing, but like you said that depends on experience.

@Charee – all I can say is excellent vlog post yesterday!

@Jonathan – I agree, networking is key and one of the main reasons I attended this year. Let’s make sure it gets on the agenda next year in a more formal way.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Tue, 11 May 2010 16:35:13 +0000

I agree as well, especially your comments about networking. While I feel I’m already “networked” with most, if not all, HRevolutionaries, it would’ve been nice to have more time for face to face networking. There were many times throughout the weekend where I looked at someone and remarked to myself that I really had no idea who that person was, despite having spent the better part of a 24-hour period with them.

I’m interested to see how we all put the lessons learned to good use.

Great meeting and talking to you, and I’m looking forward to more collaborations.

By: Charee Klimek

Charee Klimek — Tue, 11 May 2010 13:38:46 +0000

JP,
Excellent post!! Love your ideas – nicely recapped. Especially like your point on facilitation of sessions and how to draw people out and into the discussion – less push and more pull. As a facilitator I admit, this was a challenge and appreciate the advice you give here. Great take aways!
~Charee

By: Jessica Miller-Merrell

Jessica Miller-Merrell — Tue, 11 May 2010 13:04:51 +0000

Agree with you. More time for networking is essential. I got to meet every personally at the last and this time around I missed great people like you! As far as the facilitators as someone who has led a number of these sessions and I host my own unconference, you never know what to expect. A lot depends on the facilitator and perhaps we should provide a how-to to get the conversation started. But mostly, the session is led by the audience and I will say that the session that I co-facilitated ended up in a completely different place than originally was intensions but you’ve got to give the people what they want. It was still a great session, we had awesome conversations, and learned a lot about ourselves and eachother which is the point of an unconference.

Good insight and I’m already looking forward to the next!

Jessica

@blogging4jobs

By: Ben Eubanks

Ben Eubanks — Tue, 11 May 2010 12:12:27 +0000

Hey, JP! It was great meeting you last weekend. I’m still working on a “real” follow up, but I agree w/your points (especially the “what didn’t work” ones). Smaller groups, fewer people, and more connection time are all points I’m planning to make in my own post.

Thanks for the great feedback!

By: Jay Goldman

Jay Goldman — Tue, 11 May 2010 11:35:05 +0000

Great post!

I agree with your assessment. The people, venues, and food were way beyond my expectations. Congrats (again!) to the organizing committee. Their hard work really paid off and we were thrille to be part of #HRevolution.

I’m interested in exploring the idea of stronger facilitation. In some senses, this is the problem of non-managers being promoted to management roles based on their other skills. The so-called ‘unconference’ model (starting with the first Barcamp in 2005) calls on the people formerly known as ‘the audience’ to step forward and organize themselves. Typically this means that there’s no set agenda going into the event and the day kicks off with a session to plan the other sessions. Participants step up and put themselves into the schedule grid until it’s full, dynamically combining related topics, moving sessions to better fit the physical space or avoid theme conflicts, etc. Because no one is expected to be a professional (or even qualified!) facilitator, participants are expected to be involved at every level from listener to co-facilitator and to put in an effort whenever they see something that needs doing. They’re also expected to ‘vote with their feet’, leaving sessions that aren’t working for them to find ones that are.

I felt a strong sense of community at the event — lots of connections made online strengthened in person — but not the sense that people felt the freedom to either promote themselves into co-facilitator roles or to truly take advantage of the space and form breakout sessions not on the ‘official’ schedule. Don’t take this as a criticism — it was a fantastic event and I’m proud to have been part of the birth of a movement toward meaningful work. Maybe next year we can focus on putting a little more of the UN into the unconference and address some of these concerns.

Not sure if we actually had a chance to chat on Saturday but it was awesome meeting you! Looking forward to the online discussion and to next year’s Hawaiin Luau