A community usually includes a certain number of people who share and act upon a similar purpose. In this case, however, we are not referring to a community as a physical locale in which people live and work, but as an independent group of two or more people where each member respects and acknowledges everyone's diversity and ideas; and where everyone is moving in the same direction with verbalized, agreed-upon values, beliefs and vision.
Two human elements are essential for communities or group cultures to thrive: meaning and intention.
- Meaning is a key component to ensure members' participation and well-being. It is necessary to assess the nature of the meaning that members bring to the group, and how it differs from person to person. By exchanging meaning, members get to know one another, expand their lives and explore areas that are unknown or hidden to them. This collective process reinforces their sense of belonging to the community.
- Intention refers to the reasons why members join the community, what they are willing to contribute, and what they expect from the community and its members. Working with intention is an important part of a Community Building training because it allows members to align their power of intention, enabling the group to function effectively and grow organically.
Community Building training
The purpose of a Community Building training is to strengthen the bonds among the members, build long-lasting unity and ensure that the community's direction, values, beliefs and vision are equally shared, agreed upon and integrated by all. When this process is underway, a group can evolve smoothly and rapidly toward its purpose.
Community Building applies to 'young' groups (in their forming stages), but also to those which are more mature and sometimes divided or torn by mistrust, hypocrisy and conflict. The training allows its members to take a step back and ask themselves: why are we here together? Why are we interested in this venture, in this project? Are we all here for the same reasons? What are our individual and collective talents and what can we offer to and gain from each other?
This community building workshop experience includes the on-site training, but also a pre-workshop questionnaire (about two pages) and/or interview, as well as a workshop follow-up, whose format and timing will be discussed and decided by the participants themselves.
The whole process is in fact a transfer of methodology, which means that time will be allotted to process questions and issues for applying this training method to groups.
Workshop
Facilitator: Gilles Asselin
Gilles Asselin is founder and president of SoCoCo Intercultural, a New Jersey- and California-based training and consulting firm specializing in Western European-American business relations and Community Building.
Born and raised in the Paris area, he became a French Certified Public Accountant in 1988 and spent more than seven years conducting and managing financial audit assignments. Two of these assignments took him to French-speaking Africa for a period of three years. He first worked as a finance and accounting consultant with the French Peace Corps in Cameroon and then contributed to the setup of a national auditing structure in the Congo while training its junior auditors and conducting financial audit missions.
He first traveled to the United States as a graduate student, receiving in 1994 a Master's degree in Business Administration and a M.S. degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. In addition to his thesis on the meaning of work in France and the US, he has completed research work in intercultural relations, including a project on adaptation challenges and strategies for European expatriates moving to the US and an extensive study of French and North American expatriates in the US and France respectively.
The results of this last study were published in January 2001 by Intercultural Press in his book about French-American relations entitled, Au Contraire! Figuring out the French (co-written with Ruth Mastron). The updated French version, Français-Américains: Ces différences qui nous rapprochent, was published in December 2004. The book is now available in Chinese. Gilles Asselin is also the co-author (with Ruth Mastron) of the Cultural Detective: France (www.culturaldetective.com).
Until November 2003, he was the founding treasurer of SIETAR-USA, the US American chapter of SIETAR, and is now the official representative of SIETAR to the United Nations. In this last role, he is organizing a pre-conference workshop at the United Nations in New York for the participants of the sixth SIETAR-USA conference (Jersey City, November 9-12, 2005).
He is devoting much of his volunteer time to promoting the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World (2001-2010) and, in this regard, has completed a year-long (2004) Reconciliation Leadership certificate with the Global Leadership Institute in Worcester, MA (www.global-leader.org). Out of this new learning experience came heightened peace-building and reconciliation skills and a strong desire to do Community Building and bridging work on a global scale.
Who should come to this workshop?
Anyone, from any level and from any professional area, who works with groups (external), or works within a specific group or team inside an organization.
Register now
Wednesday, 21 September 09.00-12.30, 13.30-16.15
Price per participant will be €150. This includes two coffee breaks and lunch.
Communicate your questions and expectations to Gilles directly.
Register for this workshop now.
To book accommodation for your workshop, please fill in your personal information and the 'daily lodging' part of the main congress registration form.