SFiO Unconference feedback
Hosted by Marika Tammeaid and John Brooker
May 16, 2021
Annie Bordeleau, John Brooker & Marika Tammeaid
SF in Large Scale Contexts
Inspired by two articles, from Sofie Geisler[i] and Marika Tammeaid[ii], SFiO held its the first Unconference on the theme, “SF in Large Scale Contexts” on 6 & 7 December 2019 at the atmospheric Irish College in Leuven, Belgium, with much success on different levels.
30 people attended, some new to SFiO, holding 29 separate sessions on a diverse range of topics related to the theme.
- “For me the Unconference was a great experience! It’s great to be able to meet like-minded people, who all want to make a difference in organisations or communities.
- “The number of attendees for me was perfect. It was big enough to create a diverse set of questions, topics and opinions. And it was small enough to interact with (almost) everyone. I also enjoyed the dinner and the informal gathering in the evening to get to know each other on a different level, and even then, SF is never far away. Looking forward to the next gathering!”
- “For me the Conference was fantastic. Unbelievable what we got out of the Open Space discussions and I am really looking forward to the summaries.”
The Kick Off Question
John Brooker, Susanne Burgstaller and Marika Tammeaid, developed a kick off question for the Unconference:
“Imagine it is 2025 and we have been successful with SF in Large Scale Contexts. What was the question we asked this group (at the Unconference) that made this happen?”
Everyone was involved in generating questions to answer in regards to “SF in large scale contexts”.
Having generated questions we next asked people to rate them for interest, as an indicator of interest for those wanting to hold sessions in the Unconference.
(Please see the ‘Unconference Kick Off Questions’ PDF for the complete list).
The sessions then evolved from these questions of interest.
For this edition of the InterAction Journal
In this special focus section of this InterAction, we have included the output from seven sessions at the Unconference.
To make your reading experience easier, we have included this output as individual PDFs that you can open and read easily. They answer these questions:
What are the small interventions that are making a world of difference? (John Brooker) What are the burning issues of organisations SF practitioners help with? (Roy Marriott) How to do SF in Large Scale Settings? (Susanne Burgstaller) How to Establish an SF Mindset of Curiosity? (Wendy Van den Bulck) How to broaden the client’s view of possible futures? (Marika Tammeaid) How to infect trainees so training goes large scale? (Monika Jacobi) How would an SF practitioner tackle the climate crisis? (Paul Z Jackson)
[1] Link to Sofie’s article on InterAction in the January 2019 issue
[1] Link to Marika’s article on InterAction in the August 2019 issue
John Brooker
Co-President
SFiO Reviewed Practitioner
Editor of Interaction
Chapter Head
SFiO Contributor
John has over thirty years experience of leading people to collaborate effectively. He gained his leadership experience as a Senior Vice President in Visa International, working on international projects. Since 2004 he has used his leadership and Solution Focus expertise to enable people in multinational and national organisations to collaborate effectively. He is Co-President of Solution Focus in Organisations, an SFiO Reviewed Practitioner and has an MBA from The Open University in the UK.
Marika Tammeaid
SFiO Reviewed Practitioner
InterAction Contributor
SFiO Contributor
Dr Marika Tammeaid is a Solution-Focused Coach, developer and leadership trainer, currently working as the Director of Development at the Finnish, Itla Children’s Foundation. Previously she was responsible for designing and leading the “Route for renewal” public sector leadership training courses at the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra.
Annie Bordeleau
Co-President
Board Member
Editor of InterAction
SFiO Contributor
Annie Bordeleau is founder of the I2A Network, collaborating with international organisations and universities for over 20 years. She discovered SF in 2005 and it has fundamentally transformed the way she supports leaders in organisations across all cultures to lead through change with more ease and effectiveness.