Sometimes people think that to get a good Street Wisdom experience you need to do it in a location that has beautiful buildings and plenty going on. I can understand why they think that but I know from experience that it just isn’t true.
Over the past 13 months I’ve been part of or delivered four Street Wisdom sessions, each in a completely different type of location and each leading to massive learning experiences for those taking part.
Let me tell you a little about each one…
Leicester City Centre
This was my first ever Street Wisdom experience. We started at the Cathedral and did the warm up activity there before setting off around the city on our own quests.
If I’m completely honest, I didn’t get the transformative experience everyone else did; maybe my question wasn’t right or my mind wasn’t in the right place. BUT I did see how much everyone else got out of it and how enthused they were from their learnings. Hence I could see the potential for the future; both for me and for others.
A main road and housing area on the edge of a city
This was the setting for a mini Street Wisdom I ran – a quick introduction for a group I’m part of. The setting felt somewhat dull and depressing but it’s amazing what people were able to pick out during both the warm up and their mini-quests. I had time to kill so did my own quest and I was amazed at how much jumped out to me to help guide my question. The feedback from the group was fantastic.
A country lane that I’d been down hundreds of times
My third experience was a solo one where I used the Street Wisdom concept whilst I went for a short run down a country lane. I drive down this lane every day and have run or walked it on multiple occasions too. It’s boring. It’s a lane with hedges. But once again I trusted in the process and was amazed when berries, road marking, passing traffic and things on the floor inspired ideas for my topic in question.
An industrial/office estate in Castle Donington
Working alongside another facilitator we set two groups off on a quest around an industrial estate. There was some doubt from people that they’d find the right kind of inspirationin a setting like this but I knew from my previous experiences that they would! It’s amazing how patterns, flowers, piles of soil and car radiator grills can jump out and relate to the question in your mind! Some of the participants found interesting paths around buildings and explored sections of the estate that they’d planned to avoid – it was there they found the most inspiration of course. The result was an overwhelming success yet again.
As you can see these are four completely different locations, all resulting in the same powerful breakthroughs for those involved. My view is that you can do Street Wisdom anywhere – people can find connections in anything they see and people will pick out things they didn’t even realise were there when you started.
So don’t worry about your location. Trust the process.