With only a week separating the learning journey session and coming into the second last meeting in the first phase of the fellowship, teams were thinking about what was coming next.
The teams and CoCreation team were given homework to create a Pecha Kucha that would be sum up their learnings individually and as a team from the first phase of the fellowship. These Pecha Kuchas were to be presented to invited guests in the afternoon. Similar to the session where fellows received feedback on their prototypes, the presentations are meant to highlight individual and team experience as it related to challenges, successes and the merit(s) of approaching problem solving.
The day was divided into main components:
Check-in
The day started with a framing exercise where the fellows each came up with an individual headline of how they felt going into the day and how they felt as the first phase of the fellowship was nearing an end.
Themes from fellows included being excited for the next phase, unsure of what is to come next and the thought of possibly shifting gears.
Presentation preparations
The morning was spent giving fellows and the CoCreation time to make changes to their Pecha Kucha before doing a practice run through of their presentation.
The first run through highlighted the constraints of a presentation that automatically advances every 20 seconds. Fellows found it difficult to keep their learnings for each slide under 20 seconds and minimizing the transition time in between slides.
After the initial run through, teams spent the rest of the morning refining the content and approach to presenting Pecha Kucha style.
Pecha Kucha presentation
Once the guests arrived in the afternoon, the fellows and CoCreation team prepared to present their Pecha Kuchas.
The Pecha Kuchas provided guests context on the fellows’ individual learning, the teams’ complex problem they were addressing, the systems approach, their experimenting and testing, the inclusion of diversity and looking at the root cause as opposed to symptoms of an issue.
Common themes from the Pecha Kucha’s included:
1. Wondering what the second phase of the fellowship will look like
2. Diversity in teams develops the best ideas
3. How connection fosters creativity
4. We want to make a difference
5. Unconventional approaches bring new ideas
One fellow said, “the straight way can be the shallow way.”
Another fellow who felt strongly towards diversity and connection said, “we each brought a different thread to weave our path forward.”
Discussion, networking and closing of the day
Following presentations, fellows, guests and the CoCreation team spent time discussing human-centered design, their learnings and the complex problems they have been addressing.
The guests expressed their happiness with the teams working towards solutions that are intergenerational. Another guest expressed that society needs to remove the negative connotations associated with aging.
The day closed off with networking and further discussion among everyone.
What’s next?
The last session of the learning phase of the fellowship was approaching in 24 hours.
Fellows were asked to think about what they wanted and needed to get from the next phase for a cocreation session the next day. They were also asked to reflect upon how they might take what they’ve learned and apply it in their life outside of the fellowship and NS GovLab
Stay tuned for what comes in the last session with fellows before they start the integration phase of their year-long fellowship.
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