With the Open Day approaching I think back at the one about six months ago where I was asked to say a few words on what Knowmads was for me or in my world. I tried to just talk about what I had been doing at and with Knowmads but the unavoidable question always surfaces: What can you actually learn then? I recall puzzled gazes to the unavoidable response: “it is all up to you”.

A few weeks ago I had a cup of coffee with Simon from WordsThatChange who asked me the same question just a bit differently: “What have you learned?” and without accepting the usual response “oh so many things” he got me started (thanks for that, Simon!). The following is the list; no it’s more like MY list. It is in no way complete, it doesn’t cover many things and it doesn’t say anything at all about what you would learn at Knowmads. It might however be recognizable to you in parts and thus serve it’s purpose (besides for keeping me entertained a week ago when I wrote it while being a bit bored in a German forest).

The beginning is actually what I consider myself good at so you (and I) get the idea of invisible learning missing from the next list and what my starting-position might have been:

• Concept-designing
• Event-planning & organizing
• Analyzing (in terms of re-phrasing discussions etc)
• Facilitation
• Program-designing
• Administration
• Overview
• Leadership (to some extent)
• Getting Things Done
• Technicals / software
• Fundraising
• Cooking
• Hosting
• Listening.

 

Next step is then what I have learned or improved at Knowmads since the beginning of September 2011 – I am however not saying that I am really good at all these things (see above). My starting point might have been -10 or however you would want to measure it but I have learned something about from others or myself:

• Concept-designing
• Event-planning and organizing
• Facilitation
• Analyzing (more spoken while it was before written stuff)
• Program-design
• Overview
• Leadership
• Website-building and designing
• Cooking
• Hosting
• Networking and my network
• Sharing
• Business-development
• Implementing/realizing ideas
• Self-awareness // personal development
• Group-awareness (and self-awareness in a group-awareness)
• What I am good at and what I want (dedication)
• Patience
• Chilling (crucial stuff!)
• Communication // Marketing
• Giving space
• Coaching and being coached (mostly the last part but that must be first step)
• Connecting with people
• Tools such as Chaordic Stepping Stones and U-theory
• Challenging myself

 

And in order for this post not to only be myself cheering for my own skills I thought it might be essential to add what I believe it is crucial that I improve (even more) at and hope to get from the last months at Knowmads besides I of course hope to improve at everything all the time:

• Leadership (by inclusion; not example)
• Sharing
• Networking
• Implementing ideas (Bite Me is the test here)
• Chilling
• Connecting with people
• Communication
• …and some tools (old one anew or surprisingly new stuff)

 

I hope this gives some sort of picture – I might still have to improve my ability in expressing this clearly and with less points but for that there is a workshop being planned by WordsThatChange so I’ll get back to you and you might be able to compare the improvement yourself! And again I don’t say anything about what you would learn and if you already fantastic at all of it you are either lying to yourself, God or going to learn something completely different.