In November 2019, 21 peers set out on the Deepr Human Connection Huddle to explore this question in partnership with Deepr, Enrol Yourself, and the Hawkwood Centre for Future Thinking.

A Huddle is a purposeful peer group that tackles a learning journey together, pooling their resources to unlock potential they couldn't unlock by themselves. I was one of two hosts, along with Matt McStravick of Deepr, working with Huddlecraft’s Huddle structure and approach as the scaffolding for the collective learning journey to unfold.  

The question "How can we embed human connection into services and systems?" was a starting point. An invitation to explore human connection alongside each other and together.  It became a theme that was more timely than we could ever have imagined. As COVID-19 swept across the world, we found ourselves adapting to lockdowns and navigating a transformation, to find an entirely different perspective on the need for human connection in its stark absence.

As we headed these unchartered waters, in spring 2020 I wrote a piece called ‘How we pivot’ about our approach to collective decision making in the moment. Over the course of the months that followed, the Huddles became spaces for processing and rhythmical support through some of the turbulence of 2020.

At the end of the Huddle experience we wanted to share our collective and individual learnings about human connection with others who might find something resonant or interesting.  I created a microsite, sadly lost after the  Huddlecraft rebrand, but a limited version can be found on the way back machine here.  You can also still listen to the library of conversations that lives on in Soundcloud, and read this leaflet that captures the insights gathered from 20 people exploring human connection together. 

Since this Huddle I have gone on to mentor other hosts in the Host Fellowship programme. If you'd like to know more about, see my Huddlecraft offers, check out the wonderful Huddlecraft itself, or get in touch if you'd like to speak about weaving peer learning approaches into your organisation or work.

My role

Huddle host and facilitator