So for those of you reading this who weren’t there, what did we actually do ?
In terms of some of the recurrent processes which learning communities go through, we did some pairwork to establish the skills, knowledge, expertise and resources present within the group. This usually is followed by a formulation of current learning needs and wants by each participant and as a group. The next step is a characteristic of what in many fields and professions is called the ‘reflective practitioner’: in terms of continuing professional development (CPD – see CPDZone.co.uk), how can we consciously and deliberately foster our own growth as people and professionals, generate experiments and learning situations and take responsibility for our ongoing learning ?
Collectively setting up and negotiating that kind of learning environment (similar to cooperative enquiry – see Peter Reason) is the next step which then usually leads to experiential work. Leading a particular exercise or time slot in the plenary or sub-group, setting up coaching experiments and experiences, running roleplays, simulations and constellations – all with the possibility of deliberate learning and action-reflection cycles, supported by feedback or supervision from others, including tutors.
Overall, participating in these kinds of group interactions generates intense social learning which is complemented by group process time and reflection and discussion.

What, of course, did not happen, within the constraints of a 2-hour Open Evening, were any of the further steps following the enquiry into available resources, let alone any experiential work. But that is our aim and opportunity in the longer events we are envisaging.

What is the next step ?
Some of you asked what the next step might be. After the Oxford Open Evening next Friday, the London Weekend Experience is the next scheduled event, which will give us more time to extend the work and make it more experiential. Please let us know soon if you want to come to this, as we want to confirm venue arrangements.

For some of you, the weekend may not be the ideal set-up, and so we are open to finding other contexts that are suitable to you and to enough people to make further meetings feasible.
I imagine that some of you would appreciate some more tasters of concrete experiential work, applying such approaches as constellations or an embodied, parallel process perspective to real-life scenarios from your work.
So one possibility is that we gather around particular themes or interests (e.g. how can the notion of transference at work become useful to you; or how do we perceive and establish the salient systemic dynamics in an organisation; or how can depth psychology inform coaching and what range of levels or depths can be addressed through various types of coaching interventions; or how do we perceive and interpret subtle non-verbal messages that are otherwise considered subliminal). These are just some concrete examples, to get you started on formulating your own priorities. We invite your suggestions.

If you are interested in following this up, we can float ideas and have these kinds of interactions via the Forum, so other people can begin to join in. There are now more than 50 people who have expressed interest in various ways over the last week or so, and therefore an increasing number of possibilities for connections.

We look forward to extending our fledgling community and welcome your further contributions and initiatives