Your invitation to join the Collaboratory
Our program for 2024
Hi all,
The new year has officially begun, and it’s a new school year for the School of the Possible. Starting this month! Our first event is January 9th, a week from today!
I have sketched this out in previous posts, and I’m ready to share some more specific details about the Collaboratory* format that we will be experimenting with in 2024.
Save the dates!
TL;DR: If you want to join our Collaboratories in 2024, hold space on your Calendars on the first and third Wednesdays of every month, from 9 am to 10:30 AM Pacific (Noon to 1:30 PM Eastern, 5 to 6:30 PM GMT).
January will be a bit different because we are just getting started, and January 3rd seemed just a bit too early. So I’ll be hosting our first Collaboratory on Tuesday, January 9, 2024. In that session, we will focus on developing and discovering our personal passion and purpose, and thinking about the impact or change we want to see in 2024.
Our second Collaboratory will be an open space event, to be held on Wednesday, January 24 at the same time. If you haven’t attended an open space or unconference before, it’s a great method for self-organizing an event around the interests of the people who happen to show up. If you’re interested in learning more about this, you can read more about them here.
Starting in February, I will host a Collaboratory on the first and third Wednesdays of the month. These will be a mix of topic-driven and open space Collaboratories, based on who shows up and where we decide we want to take it together.
This twice-monthly Collaboratory cadence will complement the weekly rhythm we are establishing with the Monday Memo and Friday Campfire calls.
The Collaboratory is free for School of the Possible members. If you haven’t joined yet you can sign up via the button below.
One of my big learnings from 2023 was that connecting people with shared passion and purpose, to build community and common ground, leads to great outcomes and more possibilities.
If you’re signed up as a paid member of this list, all you need to do for now is hold the time on your calendar. You’ll be getting an invite by email shortly.
What to expect in a Collaboratory?
Over the course of 2023, we experimented with a few different formats. The Collaboratory is a format that we settled on, and it seems to really work well. It gives us a way to introduce a topic, while leaving room for hands-on time to absorb, integrate, and play with a new concept or idea. It also also builds connection, community, and common ground. And sometimes, people leave with new friends, creative partners, even joint projects and collaborations.
What a Collaboratory is NOT.
A Collaboratory is NOT like a TV show or TED talk. You can’t just sit back and watch. It’s not a presentation with a few questions at the end. It’s not like a talk show or panel discussion, with experts pontificating on a stage.
And it’s definitely not a 90-minute webinar where you can log in and tune out, drink your coffee, and check your email, while you pay continuous partial attention.
You can’t be a passive recipient of information in a Collaboratory.
What a Collaboratory IS.
A Collaboratory IS a co-created, one-time, unique experience. Each Collaboratory is different, a collective discovery experience that will never be repeated. When you enter a Collaboratory, you need to bring your whole self and be ready to engage with others, because you are joining a research and discovery project as an active participant.
This doesn’t mean you need to be in a good mood! You just need to show up, and to be there, with your whole and authentic self. Bring your passion and energy to the degree that you can. Inspiring each other is part of it.
The purpose of a Collaboratory is to gather people together, to explore interesting, practical, and useful ideas, to build new habits for life and work, to get unstuck or unblocked, develop creative possibilities, projects, and collaborations, and to make new friends.
Although it is a virtual event, a Collaboratory experience is more like attending a conference or event in real life. It’s highly interactive and engaging, and will require your full attention. You will meet interesting people. You will learn about their challenges and ideas and share your own. You will engage in conversations and exercises around topics that matter to you. Together, you will build new skills and discover new ideas that will inspire you to discover what matters most to you and take steps toward the life you want.
Collaboratory program for 2024.
Here’s the format that worked so well in 2023:
A Collaboratory is 90-minute, live, online video call, with an agenda that goes something like this:
Stirring the room. We start with a series of short, quick, introductory breakouts to give people a chance to meet and greet.
Shared purpose. We introduce a topic, idea, or provocation, along with an exercise.
Breakouts. We break out again in small groups of three or four people, for the deep-dive group activity or conversation.
Reflections. We gather together to share reflections and insights from the deep dive.
Next steps. We close with feedback and ideas for improvement, and suggestions for future topics.
I will record the main sessions for participants who can’t make it, although the breakout rooms will not be recorded, and the recording won’t give you the benefit of live, face-to-face interactions with other participants.
Some of the Collaboratories will be topic-oriented, and some will be open-space Collaboratories. The open space format is designed to make space for you to propose your own topics and investigations and build momentum for your personal and collaborative projects.
The Collaboratory is for you. I have some topics in mind based on what I learned from you in the past year. So that’s a starting point. But if you come to the Collaboratories, part of the conversation will be about what you want to see and what ground we should cover together.
Here are a few of the topics I have in mind for 2024:
Passion, purpose, and impact (Tuesday, January 9, 2024)
Journaling and note-taking for personal growth.
Creating conversations with customers.
You as a service: Developing your offer.
A note on pricing.
With the goal of being as inclusive as possible, I’ve priced membership in the School at $20/month, $200/year for the first 100 members. If that’s a hardship for you, please reach out and let me know. I don’t want anybody left out or left behind just for financial reasons.
I see pricing as a mechanism for managing how we grow as a community. First, it’s a way to ensure that the right people show up. Second, it’s a way of making sure people are committed. Third, it’s a way to manage growth. Finally, it’s a way to reward early adopters like you.
For example, once we have 100 members join the school, I’ll be raising the price for new members. As we grow, I’ll continue to raise the price for new members over time. As an existing member, your price will remain the same. That’s a small way for me to thank you for your generosity, and it will help us retain the intimacy and community we have created, and make sure we don’t grow too fast.
I hope I have earned your trust, that you will be in good hands if you continue to support this experiment in 2024.
I hope to see you on January 9th for our first Collaboratory! Our focus will be thinking about what we want to for 2024. Passion, Purpose, and Impact.
See you there?
*I first learned the term collaboratory in 2006, when Eugene Erik Kim hosted a live collaboratory in St. Louis.