I found the second breakout session on Monday 13/05/2024 bizarre. I had a busy Monday morning, and I was feeling quite tired. I was eating my lunch when I joined the session, so my camera was off for the first aspect of the large group session. I turned my camera on, and took a break from eating my lunch, to join the first breakout session. I enjoyed the first breakout session, it felt safe and organic, because we were clear on what we had to do. It felt inclusive from my perspective, and we all had a chance to speak. I had met Alan at the previous session, so this supported my sense of continuity.
I then turned my camera off again to re-join the large group session and resumed eating my lunch – I was starving. We had received details about the first live session via email with detailed information on the activities and what to expect but to the best of my knowledge I did not receive the resources for session 2 in advance. I therefore entered the second breakout room not fully clear on what we were meant to be doing. It just seemed like a lot to take in.
My “share voice” was the voice of a confused person operating in a nebulous environment where it felt like surveillance was in operation (one person in the group, albeit a friendly and kind observer, was not taking part and was observing in an ambiguous context ). This was disconcerting to say the least. I now realise we had not selected a facilitator although I thought the lady who was leading the discussion had self-selected. There was one person in the group who was quiet initially but who did participate and then provided really considered inputs. As far as I can see everyone was participating on their own terms, but I cannot be sure, I just felt so confused the whole time. Everyone was so respectful and clearly good people but we had no connection as a group and I felt like we had been just thrown into this really strange situation.
In hindsight, I would have been more vocal initially about how unclear I was about the instructions for the task and particularly about how we were meant to collaborate to achieve a consensus. I am not sure that I was intentionally equitable within that context, I hope I was but for me the context was too nebulous to achieve intentionality.
Hey Aine, I am so sorry you had that experience. You’re right – for the first session, we had given a clearer idea about what to expect in term of breakout rooms and slides in advance. For the second one, I think we mainly wanted some spontaneity in the “role play” activity, but perhaps we should have been clearer on the simulation experience and what to expect. We’re considering how to do it in future Iterations so that folk do not get confused. What would you recommend, other than sharing more info ahead of time, and perhaps also having a co-facilitator of IEH in the room re-explain the exercise and take any clarification questions?
Also, how was the rest of your IEH experience?