And this is what I have been doing at Meta-Culture..

Hello Everybody!

Sorry its been such a long time since I last wrote. I have been settling in and settling down in Bangalore and at Meta-Culture. As I said in the last blog I wrote, I am working on the Open Enrollment Team for Meta-Culture Consulting and doing whatever else is required of me for Consulting as well as for Meta- Culture Dialogics.

The Open Enrollment Managing Workplace Conflict Workshop is going to be held on the 28^th and 29^th of August. This basically means it is crunch time for the team. We have 34 participants from different companies confirmed to come, which was quite a feat in itself considering how many companies had no clue what we were talking about when we called saying “We are a Conflict Management Company”. This two day workshop is important for Meta-Culture financially and it also introduces the organization and what it does to other companies who may then want either training or consulting services from Meta-Culture at a later date. Even though we have most of our participants confirmed we still need to get them to send cheques, fill out forms and also get other logistical details to fall into place.

Meta-Culture Dialogics had the second Bengaluru Speaks this last Friday. For those who haven’t read my last blog or don’t remember, Bengaluru Speaks is a forum for the discussion and facilitation of dialogue concerning citizens of Bangalore. Facilitation and Dialogue are integral parts of Conflict Resolution and this forum provides a safe place for people to come and talk to one another. At this Bengaluru Speaks the method of facilitation used was called ‘Listening Circle’. There were about 8 tables of 5 with one facilitator on each table. In the centre of the table was a origami flower (made by our Japanese colleague Koari) which served as a talking tool i.e. you could only talk if you had it in your hand. This method worked brilliantly and for the first time in my life I saw people actually actively listening and not interrupting each other once we got going. First we mixed everybody up and then got them seated at the tables. Beth and Ashok were facilitating the session whilst everyone else from the office sat at a separate table with 5 participants. The theme for the evening was ‘Dealing with difference’ and the first question we discussed was “Who do you consider an outsider to the community you belong to?”, the second question asked people to relate a personal incident or experience to explain why they feel that way about the ‘outsider’ they named in the first round. And the third round was a Q&A round. The questions and the theme really made people think and controlled environment ensured that they listened. On a personal note, I was extremely nervous in the beginning to be facilitating a table by myself, but it wasn’t to hard and the people at my table were extremely respectful of each others’ space. Some of the discussions got quite heated by the end but since people were no allowed to respond to each other or interrupt, it remained more or less peaceful and I think promoted understanding as opposed to conflict.

On the whole I absolutely love working here at Meta-Culture! The people in this office are awesome, interesting, respectful and friendly. I don’t feel like an intern at all but part of a team. There is virtually no politics in this office which I think is so rare. Everyo is one here seems open to constructive criticism and the environment is such that one can say anything to anyone as long as it’s respectful and well meaning. Some administrative changes have been taking place and I now have a Senior Manager (Beth) to report to. I’m probably going to have a meeting with her tomorrow to discuss my internship goals and what I would like to work on next. I’m super excited for whatever is next because so far everything has been a great learning experience and has been fun.

Hope all you other interns are having as good a time. Until the next blog then..

Cheers

Mihika