Things to be hopeful about

A thought for facilitators of networks: why do people keep trying to reduce the times of the breaks? Why is this anyone’s first thought, when so much “networking” is accomplished then? Make breaks longer and *intentional* – ask people to meet someone new at the breaks, to share something they’ve never shared. At a recent CLBC day event organized by Jule Hopkins and Shelley Nessman they gave out flower leis and had everyone create their own name tag with stickers of things that interested them, then asked them to connect with someone who had the same color of lei or who had something on their sticker that they could relate to (a pet, a child, an event, a hobby). The interaction this created was great! one of the lessons here is similar to an idea that we talk to staff about: how do you step out of the way? In this, Jule and Shelley created an infrastructure that allowed them to step completely out of the way!