The start of Spark’s supper club: food, talking and rekindling humanity
During our Open Studios in December, members of the public could visit us, as well as all residents and their studios in Copeland Park.
Afterwards, I reflected, and shared on LinkedIn:
An unexpected joy for me was the variety of conversations. Usually, discussions happen around an event theme or a specific client project. But this weekend, the spread was marvellous - from primary care and community settings, to SEND, hospital efficiencies, ICB funding, food banks, innovative provisions, social value and community co-production… and so much in between. It was a reminder of how interconnected our challenges and hopes really are.
One idea that emerged is to start hosting suppers in Spark’s studio - informal, open evenings to explore what we can collectively do to rekindle humanity in public services.
We’ve 10 chairs, lots of table space and plenty of questions/ideas (and brown paper!) to get us going.
Now being January, I’m starting to plan this. With the chilly weather, I think this might wait until February so the central heating has a fighting chance in our old, but very cosy, studios.
When we facilitate events and sessions, as a team, we give a lot of thought to creating trusted and open experiences of participants.
That thinking kicked in automatically in here too. I noticed the familiar facilitation questions rattling through:
Do we hold a specific or broad topic or question?
Do we cater? Do we ask people to bring things? What about dietary preferences? Allergies?
Do we do live minutes? Visual or written?
Do we need something to come from the conversations?
Do we capture actions and next steps?
Do we do accountability follow ups that build and create momentum?
Then, last Friday, I was having a conversation with Martyn and mentioned the Suppler Club idea to him.
His reply, “I like food. I like talking. Send me an invite”.
Maybe the work is noticing when to stop designing. And to just start talking.
Maybe it can be as simple as that.
Thinking Out Loud is where I share short pieces of thinking from the middle of the work. Ideas, questions and lived experiences, shared while they’re still forming. (Tiny Experiments Pact: Day 14/100).