newsletter
March 2017
June 2017
Our last Transnational Meeting!
This month our Project leaders met for a final time within our current project outline in Sauðárkrókur, Iceland. There they hatched many plans for the future of the Fail Forward Movement, so have no fear, there's plenty more F.F adventures to come...
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We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been involved with this latest project over the last 18 months. You have made every workshop, meeting, and development session an absolute delight!
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Our friends at Do-Fest Dudley, (UK), invited us to deliver a Fail Forward Workshop this month at community space and cafe Gather. Zoe and Kate delivered a Level 1 taster workshop for attendees and got some great contribution and feedback from participants which was great!
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Among Do-Fest Organisers was Inspirational Networks Guy Holness, who also delivered workshops and talks about In:Net and the Up-cycle Shop project.
Big Thanks to Dudley-Do for welcoming us and congratulations on a very successful festival!
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Read more about Do-Fest here:
http://do-fest.colabdudley.net/
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Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Zoe and Ann are working hard on the Fail Forward book, with it's completion deadline coming up in June...
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And with the clocks going forward and Spring finally sprung, the Fail Forward community continues to grow.
We have received some lovely feedback from Amy, (one of our UK Edinburgh Conference participators), about how she's incorpoated what she's learnt from Fail Forward into her own facilitation and practice. Thank you for sharing Amy!
Find about about Amy's organisation Soul Shine here: http://soul-shine.org.uk
We're delighted to hear the Fail Forward ethos is spreading - let's keep on collaborating! If you are interested in attending or booking a workshop or training with us, don't hesitate to get in touch!
February 2017
After a successful week in Edinburgh at the Fail Forward Conference, we're back home in our native countries and recharging our batteries for the next phase of our Erasmus-funded project development.
It's crazy to think this phase of the project began just over a year ago, but here we are, 13 months later, reflecting on a wonderful toolkit launch. This conference brought together Educators, Youth Workers, Coaches and Facilitators from Belgium, Iceland, Norway, Northern Ireland and England.
It was Zoe and her UK team's turn to host, an important event and big step in our project-development. For this conference we unveiled our 'Fail Forward Appetiser' - a mini taster of our handbook giving our Educators a sample of how the tool kit and it's exercises will work, a background on our ethos and the golden rules of Fail Forward Facilitation.
Big congratulations to Zoe and Ann for organising and bringing it all together. And a huge thank you and to all of the Edinburgh participants for their enthusiasm and open minds. Welcome to the community! - You're all superstars! :-)
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Ann and Zoe have also been working very hard on the Fail Forward book these last few months. Go team #FailForward!
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In true Fail Forward style we were hoping to have the final version of the handbook ready for the conference, but alas, time got the better of us. We were, however, able to give each of our participators an almagamated version of the book, printed and bound complete with a small collection of the exercises, and a comprehensive contents table of everything that will be in the completed toolkit.
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Over the 3 day conference we took participants through Levels 1, 2 and 3 of the toolkit, and how Fail Forward can be incorporated into their own practice and facillitation. There were lots of stimulating group discussions and it was great to see so many really responding and engaging with the material. We couldn't have asked for more!
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Our E-Course is now up and running!
Why not try it out and leave your feedback using our online survey?
We welcome any thoughts and ideas you may have about the exercises, as this will form a vital part of our toolkit's development, so get involved and become a part of The Fail Forward Movement!
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The end of the year is fast approaching and our project leaders are now gearing up for their meeting in Norway next month where the Iceland and Norway teams will see their first glimpse of the Fail Forward book. We can't wait! :-)
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Ann and Zoe are continuing to work hard on the book, now with the wonderful contributions of our illustrator Hannah Pollard. We're also on the look out for a graphic designer so if you're interested in helping Fail Forward then get in touch!
And finally, some congratulations are in order. Well done to Inspirational Networks's Guy Holness for winning the very first Dudley Soup with his innovation and original ideas!
Watch Guy's Winning Pitch Here.
The Dude Movement is now gaining ground, find out how you can buy a calendar, or a dude, and join their world of adventure by visiting the In:Nets Facebook Page Here.
"...there's no such thing as a failed experiment - only data."
Jesse Bering
November 2016
September 2016
We're releasing a short course of open source materials online, with feedback forms available to fill out, so we can get people's thoughts on the material. We want to give a taster of what Fail Forward is all about, so watch out for activity here on our website and feel free to get involved! We need as any many responses as possible, the more the merrier.
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Meanwhile, in Iceland, Valdi and his team are delivering a Fail Forward workshop to young people aged 13 to 16, at their local leisure centre. We can't wait to hear how they get on, go team Iceland!
Fail Forward Week is finally upon us! Hoorah! And things are full steam ahead in our Fail Forward community.
And news from the UK, while Zoe has been working with Ann in Belgium, the British gang have been facillitating Level 1 coaching sessions and are currently collating feedback. We couldn't do it without their wonderful willing participants, so big thank you to all who are contributing.
"Start where you are.
Use what you have.
Do what you can."
Arthur Ashe
In Belgium Zoe and Ann are currently gearing up to deliver workshops in schools - enormous thank you to Annemie for donating her class to be guinea pigs for them! Zoe and Ann will also be delivering open-source workshops to multipliers, educators and creatives, and have been working tremendously hard these last couple of months. So thank you Zoe and Ann, you superstars!
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We will also will be releasing an online challenge every day via Facebook and Twitter, so do check out our social media pages, we're also on Instagram too!
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Finally, Zoe's last week in Belgium is quickly approaching. After three weeks of climbing up and down five flights of stairs, very loud drilling, angry engineers fighting in front of the door, cringe-worthy 90's pop music, three power cuts and one tired lady – renovation on Ann's elevator is FINALLY finished!.... It looks exactly the same as before with a few new buttons. Was it worth it? Probably not. :-)
So do expect to see a blog update or two about the progress of the Fail Forward Books when Zoe arrives back in the UK. Keep your eyes peeled for any updates here on the Fail Forward website! x
August 2016
Some more exciting news this month - we can officially announce all organisations in the Fail Forward Partnership will be planning an international FAIL themed week from 23rd -28th of September.
"Nothing will stop you being creative so effectively as the fear of making a mistake."
John Cleese
Huge shout out to Plastron in Antwerp, for putting up with us hanging around their desks, and walking about with no shoes on at their lovely co-working space!
Exciting things happening at Fail Forward HQ this month!
After the very end of July saw Zoe set off for Belgium, Zoe and Ann are now working together in Antwerp on the development of our new toolkit, in preparation for it's launch next February. Among plans to be productive and work really hard, Zoe also aims to “eat chocolate every damn day”.
Good luck Zoe! :-)
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We will be unveiling some of our open source material online, through workshops and our social media sites. So keep your eyes peeled for announcements on our website, join our community on facebook, peruse our activity on instagram, or email us for details on how to get involved! (info@failforwardmovement.org). x
So we kicked off July with our Inspirational Networks London Fail workshop day and it was a blast! Thank you to In:Net's crew: Sophie Thompson, Kate Mayne, Luke Jones, Sam Gibbs, and Zoe, for leading some fantastic exercises. Also, big thank you to all the new participants who came to give us some feedback, we couldn't have done it without you! And last but by no means least, a huge thank you to Cherry Duck for lending us their perfect studio space.
More great news - Ann Daniels has received her official accreditation certificate from Brene Browns 'The Daring Way' course. Well done Ann! This means she is now able to facilitate the very highly coveted 'Daring way' and 'Rising Strong' workshops.
Look out for a workshop near you! x
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July 2016
Great response from participants during Belgium's workshop week. Some serious saboteur smashing!
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Waffles were eaten, new friends and colleagues were made, Europe's biggest wooden escalator ridden, and lots of Fail Forward exercises explored - making us very excited for the future! Our toolkit is really starting to take shape.
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Big thanks to Antwerp Hostel for being such excellecent hosts and providing our workspace...
The beer wasn't bad either!
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Next step: testing out what we've developed so far back home in our native countries. Stay tuned to hear more news over the next few months but for now...
Keep failing BIG, keep failing FORWARD! x
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May 2016
"Before this week I had no idea how much my saboteurs held me back, now I have new armour and great weapons to keep them at bay!"
Workshop Participant