Throughout 2016, we have been working with nine leaders of civil society organizations exploring how funding mechanisms impacts organizational culture and our way of perceiving the world.
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Instead of inviting people to passively listen to us, we wanted to share our research while inviting other young people to co-create the research results.
So we organized a treasure hunt.
We partnered with a cultural center in Medellin called ‘Casa3Patios’ and organized the treasure hunt through an app called ‘action bound’. The application guides players through the hunt by having them scan QR codes found on the way to the treasure. Participants work in teams and are given the next cue after having accomplished a specific challenge.
During the hunt, each organization that took part in the research managed a station – some were fun and dynamic, while others engaged participants with our research question.
In the first station, Joseph, the coordinator of a project called ‘The house of butterflies’, facilitated an activity in which team members had to work together to hang a (real) chrysalis on a branch, so that it could become a butterfly. The exercise was a metaphor for the delicate transformation within organizations.
In a different station, Liliana, a crazy storyteller, facilitated a creative writing exercise in which players shared their experience with team work and group culture. Teams even had to put together a dance choreography!
After they got all sweaty dancing, they went into a room where they read quotes from our research which we had exposed on the wall. The quotes were about the challenges civil society organizations face in managing public funding. Afterwards, they had to act out pitching a project to the Mayor.
The event finished with a stunning concert by a group called ‘la Múcura‘. They played music inspired by their trip around Latin America researching the role of art in social transformation.
The best part for me was witnessing how all researchers got involved in the treasure hunt. Each took ownership of the process and was able to designed their own role.
For us, it was a fascinating example of team work!
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