If you are running from event to event but feel you need a moment to step back and get a fresh look on your work, then this is for you.
If you want to know how others manage to mobilise the necessary energies to stay in the culture game, then this is for you.

Discover how do we keep our spark alive working in independent cultural centres

The penguin project offers a personal leadership and organisational change design training program ‘Train the Trainer’ that is built around this question. The program is free and brings together a group of 10 cultural workers from all over Europe for a 10 month learning journey. During the program you will develop a deeper understanding of what charges and what drains you and others at work. And, building on that, you will learn how to harmonise personal leadership and organisational design for a more sustainable working environment. 

Penguin Project Background

The penguin project is an initiative from cultural workers for cultural workers. Its purpose is to support cultural workers in creating sustainable working environments for both the individual and    the organisation. Our guiding question is “How can we help cultural workers to keep their spark alive?” The project started in 2019 and is now ready to disseminate its method and tools. Read more about it here.

TRAIN THE TRAINER PROGRAMME 

The objective of the “Train the Trainer” program is to disseminate the penguin methods and tools to enable formal and informal peer-to-peer learning in the independent cultural sector. During the program this group of penguin trainees will learn about the theoretical underpinnings and the method of the penguin project. But most importantly they will apply the penguin tools in practice and learn how to make their own and their centres working culture more sustainable. 

Program Itinerary 

• Online Introduction Workshop – 11 January 2023
  We will start things off with a half-day online introduction workshop to introduce the basic ideas of the penguin project and give an orientation about the rest of the program. 
• Three-day Opening Workshop – 18-20 January 2023
  At the opening workshop at Die Bäckerei – Kulturbackstube we will jump into the deep end. First, we will study the ideas behind the penguin project in depth, then we’ll apply the tools to our own working situation and learn through self-reflection. Second, we will also learn how to work with the penguin method in our own working context, meaning how to work with individual colleagues and teams. Sharing experiences and discussing methods and insights with other trainees will widen and deepen our understanding. We will put an emphasis on experience design and co-creation, meaning the workshop will be as immersive as possible – combining storytelling, acting, acrobatics, haptics and kinesthetics into one experience.
• Practical Application Phase – Dates TBA
  After the opening workshop, you will go back home with a set of shiny new penguin tools and apply them in practice back at your workplace. This is where the actual learning through experience will happen. During a 10-month period you will work with the penguin method, learn about its effect on the working culture of you and your team and develop a deep understanding of the challenges and possible interventions. 
  To support you in your learning process, discuss experiences and tackle problems we will host online exchange and supervision sessions every month.
  During this phase we will also start building up an online platform that will document the experiences and learnings we make during the period. This will serve as a knowledge base to which we can come back later for ideas and further reading. 
• Closing Workshop – Dates TBA
  Finally, after 10 months, we will all meet again at Die Bäckerei for a final reflection and closing workshop. The workshop will focus on pooling together our individual experiences and distilling insights and learnings. We will perform a very formal and dramatic closing ceremony and celebration of the successful completion of the first penguin ‘Train the Trainer’ program.
  But the penguin journey will have just begun. 

What you will get

• A free program with all participation costs covered (meaning travelling, accommodation and program participation)
• Personal leadership: Experience/learn methods that balance art and science to gain a deeper understanding of where and when you are charged and drained at work, and what you can do about it.
• Team and organisational development: Learn how to positively influence the vibe (culture) of your centre. 
• Extend your scope: After the program, you are able to work with other cultural workers, teams and organisations using the penguin method.
• Access to a community of practice with continuous exchange and knowledge sharing.

You will learn to

• Make sense of your workplace experiences and understand better what charges and what drains you.
• Apply the penguin method to your own approach to work aka. develop a sustainable working culture for yourself.
• Work with the penguin method in your working context. 
• Prepare, structure, moderate and evaluate your own penguin workshop. 

We will provide

• Two three day on-site workshops at Die Bäckerei, free of charge – including travelling, accommodation and subsistence – facilitated by the two penguin founders, an expert in organisational development and a movement artist.
• Nine online exchange and reflection meetings, facilitated by the same crew. 
• An online resource base consisting of the penguin method and tools, explanations about how to use them, and the documented case studies and learnings that happened over the project time. 

What is expected of you

• Be there. We expect our trainees to physically attend both of the three-day workshops and participate in the online reflection sessions.
• Be proactive. We expect our trainees to proactively participate in our program. Think critically, ask difficult questions, complete the tasks, apply the tools in your everyday working context and suggest improvements. 
• Be open and share. The program will at times touch us in a very personal way. We will strive to create an environment where we can all feel safe, open up and share our own stories for more closeness and better learning.   

REGISTRATION 

To participate in the project, you need to register by 30 November, 2022.

REGISTRATION FORM HERE.

Methodology 

• We work with metaphors. We love metaphors because they make ideas easily understandable. They are powerful because they speak to our heads and to our hearts. And they are tools of analysis and figures of poetry at the same time. We think that suits our context.
  Throughout the Train the Trainer program we will work intensively with the penguin metaphors. We will apply them to our own working experience and through that learn about ourselves and the metaphors as tools at the same time. 
• We co-create and share our experiences. During the program we learn by bringing together the penguin theory and our experiences as cultural workers. That is why co-creation and sharing are an integral part of the program. In the opening and closing workshops and in the online sessions we will share, reflect on and discuss our experiences, values and expectations as cultural workers and learn to understand how they work together to charge or drain us in the workplace.  
• We work with images, stories, movement and embodied knowledge. Joy, frustration, motivation, passion, etc. are all phenomena that transcend our rational mind. They run through our bodies, we feel them in our heart and think about them in our head. So naturally, we need methods that go beyond flipcharts and bullet-point lists to really learn about them. That is why we will involve storytelling, acting, haptics and kinesthetics, maybe even acrobatics in our program. Prepare for an immersive experience. 

Stay in touch

If you are interested in the programme and would like to receive updates about it, please sign up for our newsletter.