The Golden road

WHO	Everyone
WHERE	Stage / Big Room
YOU NEED	A big room. A big roll of paper. A lot of color markers. Candle lights. Music.
FACILITATOR	Host

Intention

Here we reflect on and appreciate our collective journey, and what we have learned together. We share the ups and downs, the joys and sorrows, memories and new relations.

Desired outcome

Marking the end of one journey and the beginning of a new. Collective learning insights. Next steps for those who want to continue meeting.

Preparation: For this exercise we need a big roll of paper. We prepare a long piece of paper on the floor. Ideally 8 meters long and 1 meter wide. On the long piece of paper we draw a long road. No road / path is straight so draw the road winding up and down to make best use of the paper. After drawing the road, mark the different gatherings with space alongside the road ending up with the last gathering being now. Leave some space to continue the road into the future. Then prepare the room to create a nice atmosphere. e.g. make the room as dark as possible with quiet, calm and reflective music, candles, etc

How:

1	Have all participants wait outside the main room. When we are ready we ask them to close their eyes and form a line. One of us lead them in silence with eyes closed into the room. We lead them in and around the golden road. When everyone is in we ask them to open their eyes.
2	Introduce the last exercise (Suggestion for what to say underneath, but make it your own!): "We have come to the end of a 6 month journey we have traveled on together. We are ...(x amount of people) interdependent leaders that now very soon are stepping into the world to follow our intuition and make change where we see it necessary. But before we do that it's time to look back together, and share. In front of you lies the outline of the journey we have been through. In a minute you will have the possibility to collectively draw and put down your learnings, memories etc on the paper in silence. You have 20 min. " What do you remember from the gatherings? What have been your best moments? What touched you the most? What have you realized / learned throughout the program? What have we learned together? There are a lot of individual stories in this room, but there are also things we have learned as a group. Try to also tap into that.
3	After 20 min: Give out 3 tea candles to each person, for people to put on the best/most important experiences during the program.
4	After 20 min: Here we can either stand around the road and share from our year or two people can (physically on the paper) walk down the road telling our shared story trying to summarize what people have been drawing on the road. This is the most fun :) And people can of course add to them telling our shared story. "Here we have our collective experience. And now is the time to share our stories. So if you feel like saying something about the moments you drew or anything else, this is the time. Anyone that would like to walk us through and tell our story?"
5	Road ahead: For some, this is the end of the road. You'll never see each other again. For some, this is the beginning of a new role (introduce new team if relevant) We have learned and achieved a lot together - some of us would liek to continue doing that. We have some time now to initiate next steps for building something beyond the program. 1. 5 min with neighbor: Is there something you would like to continue from this program? What is next for you? 2. Share concrete ideas in circle, and allow people to self-organize for next steps.