As part of a strategic planning exercise this morning, we did a great activity. With no preparation, the facilitator, Pin, handed out 3x5 index cards. We had about 2-3 minutes to write down, by ourselves, the 2 main program areas we’d like to work on as an organization. When done, you folded it up and tossed it onto the floor in the center of the circle we were sitting in. After a few minutes, each person in the circle got up and picked a random piece of paper, reading aloud what they picked up. We wrote down all the items noted on a board.

There were two cool things about this exercise. On a group dynamic level, it was great to allow those who might not want to express their opinions to be able to do it in semi-privacy. Also, the lack of preparation and short time frame allowed folks to write from their gut, not their pre-arranged work framework. Items that came up were also not always framed in the current program areas we had. Some saw “Law and Justice” as the same thing as “International Law & Justice”. What was cool, though, was pointing out that this is what they thought of the areas. Was it international justice like the International Criminal Court (ICC) or building strong democratic justice mechanisms within states. Exploring these differences of understanding was important to me and we had a good conversation about that over the course of the exercise.

On a personal level, this exercise was useful to me. The two items I wrote down were Global Health and US Global Engagement. This was my 15-second gut reaction to what I thought the organization should work on. But, since this is the place where I work, it is what I felt I should be working on. It was very revealing, and was much more useful to me than when someone asks me (or I ask myself) what I want to do. My interest in global health has been confirmed by several friends and colleagues as well. So, this could be a new avenue to explore.