Bhuj and deepening our group

Yesterday we arrived in Bhuj after quite the ordeal at the Mumbai airport. That place is mayhem, then add to that that we are a group of more than 40 people – and eek! All worked out and we arrived at our hotel and had more mayhem as each of us had to hand fill in 4 things and have our passports scanned. So 4am-11:30am was just lineups for all of us. We managed and it maybe made us all a bit stronger. 

We have used our down time well, and we visited a craft market, Prag Mahal, Aina Mahal and climbed Bhujia Hill. Bhujia hill was a beautiful little hike and at the top we could see a park containing many water wells, and apparently this was built to commemorate victims of the 2001 Gujarat earthquake. 

Our group processes are kicking off. We are doing open space. We had a session where participants pitched their projects followed by a “marketplace” where we could all ask questions or offer resources. We shared our talents and skills. A few resource guests ran sessions on the topics of: creative thinking to explore problems, leadership and collaboration, and entrepreneurship. 

I am always happy to learn new facilitation technologies and jot down these many ways of bringing groups together. I am deepening my learning of facilitation at the same time as participating in these activities. 

My main take aways so far are:

• Successful collaboration needs lots of small wins 
• Getting collaborators means coming from a place of shared understanding first 
• You don’t have to do it all at once, break down what skills you need and develop one at a time 

From the pitches within our group we have seen:

• Collaboration is needed, and it’s a complex thing to achieve 
• Many of us are looking for business modelling help 
• Community engagement and empowerment are at the root of many projects 
• Solutions we have are whole systems solutions 

And I will end with some photos!