Graphic recording by Jasmine Thompson

<aside> <img src="/icons/condense_blue.svg" alt="/icons/condense_blue.svg" width="40px" /> This recap aims to share some of the key assets, conversations and insights from the event. With around 120 people across a full day we know there is still loads we can’t capture here but we hope it provides a deep dive into some of the themes and topics.

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• TABLE OF CONTENTS (toggle)

<aside> 🔮 The event was curated in partnership by Healing Justice London, Transformational Governance Collective and Beyond the Rules

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<aside> 🗓️ 8 September 2023

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<aside> 📍 Watershed, Bristol, UK

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<aside> 🎊 What a moment, coming together in person for a full day exploring Life-Affirming Organisational Practice.

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<aside> 🙏 Thank you to everyone who took part and made this such a fulfilling day

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Healing Justice London, Beyond the Rules and The Transformational Governance Collective (bar Sarah McAdam!)

“I’d say 10 years ago being in a space like this and share openly would have been a challenge, everyone here now is keen to learn with each other, understand what we can do together and connect”

“Having spoken to different people I can see we have a lot of shared challenges, and it’s been so humbling to see how open people have been about them… There is a huge importance of courage and openness for this to happen”

“I have learned the importance of designing roles to elevate legibility of our structure, I’m taking with me to not be afraid to bring into the open the complexities that lie in the dark, as this challenges are beyond our organisations but part of a system problem”

“I feel very empowered, inspired, motivated by everything that I’ve heard. I’ve met a rym of people who are trying to in the same way which is largely away from harmful structures and harmful practices that are deeply embedded in labour as a whole. My main take away is holding conflict and spaces for feedback while ensuring safety”

“Reaching out to others who are facing similar challenges and share experience together is so valuable, and probably more enriching than what we envision”

“I don't think I have ever been to an event with such a diverse range of participants (loved the mapping the room Jamie did) It did feel very caring, open, honest, nourishing and connected. Just being there with others on the same journey of putting theory into practice took a huge weight off my shoulders. It was nice to have a laugh and chat with people knowing we had common ground regardless of the sector we were in.”

https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/6KmjxWMukTr1D13deqNCw6?utm_source=generator

See what happened on the day through this summarised agenda

Community Agreements that pre-faced the day

Graphics by Sarah Saraj (primary image) and Anahat Kaur (overall agenda)

Graphics by Sarah Saraj (primary image) and Anahat Kaur (overall agenda)

A feel of the day in Pictures and Quotes

<aside> 📸 CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL THE OFFICIAL EVENT PHOTOS!

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Live reflections on the day from people taking part

Thank you so much to the recorders and participants of these interviews, sharing takeaways and experiences so that others could share in what was learnt:

<aside> 👤 ROSIE - Reflections from the Organisational Culture session:

• “I feel very empowered, motivated and inspired because I’m in a room full of people trying to move in the same direction… away from harmful structures and harmful ways of working”
• Key takeaway: the importance of holding space for transforming conflict and providing feedback and the importance of safety in those spaces - which means a different thing to everyone. For some people safety is nearness, and for some safety is distance. </aside>

<aside> 👤 Reflection of the event from Anon, anew team member encouraged to attend by their organisation and interested in hearing how organisations merge and how everyone comes together:

• It’s been really thought-provoking - there have been a number of things I’ve checked in with the team about and said “We need to look at this!”
• What stood out - Level Up case study “We need to take care of ourselves and then each other and the organisation will fall into place. If we’re burning out we can’t produce at the capacity we want to.” This really hit home
• What surprised you - how many of us are in the same boat, how easy it is to share and bounce ideas around without competition. We can learn and grow together. </aside>

<aside> 👤 Reflection from participant recorded by Orode Faka:

Are you taking any insights or new information from the sessions you've taken part in today? Yes.

1. We are a movement. And we operate in a way where we are in different organisations, we move between them, we have really specific tactics and missions in our specific places, but we are a movement and we need to stay connected, to have conversations and interrogate each other's ideas and experiences and learn from them and take all of wisdom and do this work long term intergenerationally.
2. The idea of organisations as living organisms, and the people inside them being stewards of those organisations. We are moving through our own individual journeys and at some point we move through that organism, we exist symbiotically with it and then we come out the other side, we want to be enriched and we want to enrich it - and all of the ways we want to do that.
3. What action are you going to put in place from today? I'm gonna like talk to more people. I think I like often do this, but it will be really focused - e.g. there'll be a day or I'll meet a bunch of people, I'm going to try and create some kind of regular practice e.g. two hours on a Friday afternoon where I send some messages and read and check in on what's going on. I want to make that something really intentional because I want to stay connected and live in this movement. </aside>

<aside> 👤 JO - Reflection from Jo, recorded by Orode Faka:

How is the day going for you? Amazingly, apart from the intense heat, but it's heat in conversational terms as well as the physical heat, the just the depth of conversations, the the breadth, but just the loving the room is incredible.

Are you taking any insights or new information from the sessions you've taken part in so far? Yeah, I came with a list of really, three really technical questions, and I've got them all. I've got ideas and suggestions and really practical things. And that's what I wanted. I was slightly worried it might be, as you were saying, a little bit woowoo, that we're not digging into the practicality. But it’s absolutely the opposite. I've got really just a list of actual things that I can go away and do so I am highly delighted.

And have there been any new questions that have been arising for you from the day? Yeah, I'm still I'm really interested in how we balance progress with capacity. I'm endlessly interested in how we stop the productivity drive. And nobody has the answer to that yet. But some people have got some starting some places to start from that I didn't have. So that's been really useful. And, as always, I'm really interested in how privilege shows up, particularly my own privilege. It's a lifelong journey, and everybody's at different points in it. And the fact I think sometimes we assume that everybody's in the same place. And I'm really interested in how we navigate that, again, we love and respect but also really holding people to account.

Are there any actions that you will put into motion after this? Yes really practically, I'm going to look at things like life insurance and things for our staff that we can do to remove some of the jeopardy around employment. I've joined the slack group, and I'm really excited to have a space to explore things with like minded people. And on my train journey home rather than working, I'm going to do some deep listening to myself, because I don't think I have to give myself enough time for that.

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<aside> 👤 IMANI - Imani’s reflections on the questions that are arising as we explore the life affirming organisational practice together, captured by Orode Faka:

• The main question that I'm leaving with is really thinking intentionally about the practice I want to create - whether that's peer to peer or intergenerational work with young people and adults, what cultural am I creating, and with what intentions?
• Culture plays a massive part in that. The conversations around power that were really interesting to me were about where power lies within those relationships and where it shows up at different times. So how can the to be have quite a symbiotic relationship with one another when we think about power, culture, intention, and where it shows up at different times?
• I really want to revisit the question that I'd written down earlier, which was about how do I create space for rest and recovery for sustainability in the work? So we did everything that I've just mentioned around power, culture, intention, peer to peer intergenerational work, a lot of that is a lot of work. And it requires a structure, a framework, people relationships, and all of that can be very tiring.
• And it's not, it's not easy work. So as part of that, I have to also think about rest and recovery and building that into the strategy and the framework, and how do I do that in a sustainable way? So that it's got longevity and that it's not just me. If I'm not in it, can this way of working still take place with the associates and other people that I work with?
• How can I ensure that whether I'm here or not that there is space for rest and recovery for the work to be sustainable in their achievements, the practice that we want to make happen, essentially the good work? </aside>

<aside> 👤 SETH - Reflection from Seth, recorded by Orode Faka:

How has the day been?: Good! Yeah, very hot. But I found a lot of inspiration in the people that I've met and have been able to like socialise a couple of things that have been lingering on my mind and the last couple of weeks relating to like org development and strategy which has been really helpful and quite therapeutic. So it's been good.

Are there any insights or, and action from the sessions that you've taken part in so far? There was one which was more like confirmation of a practice. In the closing statements, someone said “I don't even know the traditional anymore. All I know is the Renegade.” And today, I've taken a lot of like, quotes and moments from people's reflections that give a bit of a confirmation and a bit of affirmation for the work that we do and I think that's been really helpful.

Are there any further questions you are leaving with? I'm interested in how these spaces evolve, and what it looks like, because this is like a journey and I think we're in a kind of phase of development where we can draw ally ship across different movements, across different geographic location and that's something that hasn't always been present within the movements that we're occupying, especially as marginalised people of colour. So I'm interested in how these spaces then develop, and how these knowledges that have been shared and produced can be spread further, can perhaps be concretized. What can actually they create? What can we do from the knowledge that's been shared?

Are you leaving with anything unanswered? Now, I didn't come with loads of particular questions. I came with loads of things that I'm dealing with and juggling and I think some of those have been socialised. I'm not coming coming away feeling “Oh, I wish that they would have talked about that”

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<aside> 👤 JAE - Reflection from Jae, who is part of a collective in its infancy considering whether to become a CIC.

The collective focused on East and Southeast Asian heritage women, non binary and trans folks on thinking about ways to build solidarity and support for each other, exploring what it means to “be” in an environment where their rights may be overlooked or neglected:

• Review of the day: “It's been incredibly empowering and inspiring, because having spoken or listen to various people, despite like how much further they've gone, or how much bigger the organisation has been it seems like there are a lot of shared challenges that we have encountered. It's really humbling to hear that people have encountered those similar challenges. They have been quite generous in sharing.”

• Particular questions that have surfaced or insights to take away ”the importance of design’s role in elevating the legibility of the structure. And to not be afraid to kind of bring into the the complexities, the light and the dark, these hairy problems that we're trying to solve, and to recognise that a lot of the challenges that we face are beyond our organization's existence”

  Often when we are in the weeds, we tend to forget that we tend to burden ourselves with self-doubt. I think it's just constantly reminding each other and finding that community to recognise that common challenges that we're facing and being there to support each other, like people sharing their struggles today

• 3 words would to describe your experience this event?

  • Courage to be open and honest about the challenges that come up
  • Feeling held - knowing you’re okay to really talk about these things and be open to say “I don’t know” - to bring challenges to the table and not feel that you have to have all the answers beforehand… how things were run today allowed that </aside>

<aside> 👤 Reflection from participant recorded by Orode Faka:

How's is the day going for you? It's gone really well, I wasn't quite sure what I was expecting and I was a late addition to the attendees list. It's been wonderful to be around so many people working through similar questions and contradictions to myself in similar fields.

Are there any insights or new information from the session as you've taken part in today? Yeah, I think I'm still processing some of the complex and personal input around like oppression and liberation politics that a lot of people have offered. A few pennies have dropped, including around how you manage the gap between policy/intention and culture/practice, and how you might have to manage that as that gap as kind of a permanent feature of life.

Just being around so many other people who've thought a bit more about structure and governance and are not encountering those shortfalls in practice for the first time is definitely something that I'm taking away. And I feel more than I did that I belong to a field of professionals who share certain challenges, tool sets, questions.

Has there been a call to action that today has put in you? Yeah, my efforts to find ways that policy can actually accommodate difference and diversity within a staff group and seeing it as a creative design process and something that actually should respond to individual creative input and push back.

I also had a very good sort of focussed 20 minute session with someone who has shown me a lot of resources around HR and policy work that I wouldn't otherwise have seen, which I think I'm going to definitely make use of.

And are there any questions that hasn't been answered for you? Not in a not really in a negative sense. I think I was quite interested to read in the the copy around the event the roots of the title ‘life-affirming’ as an interesting and ambitious framing and I think the kind of abolitionist and anticorrosive roots of it, the references to Ruth Wilson Gilmore I would certainly be interested in knowing more about how this field of practice grows out of that one.

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Special thanks to Orode Faka for taking so many recordings, and to everyone who helped to capture notes, transcripts and recordings on the day!

Notes from conversations on the day (click on arrow to drop down)