# Two days to turn a network of managers into a community > A public-interest organisation’s strategic plan was shaking up the role of its managers. Over two days, leadership acknowledged their workload, listened to them on the challenges of the job, then spoke using their words. A quiet ritual, the guardian angel, ran through the whole seminar. *Real case, anonymised: the company name is invented.* - Company (invented name) : Arvel - Sector : Public-interest organisation - Size : A community of several dozen managers - Format : Two days - Audience : The community of managers and the executive committee: several dozen people. - URL : https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/cas-clients/communaute-managers-deux-jours ## Context - The strategic plan collides with the managers’ role. - Leadership wants to acknowledge their workload, bring out the challenges of the role and set up community rituals. - The challenges were identified beforehand, through a questionnaire. ## The challenge Recognise the managers’ work through actions rather than speeches. And have them leave with concrete commitments, for themselves, their team and the community. ## Design ideas - **The guardian angel** : On arrival, each person receives their badge from a member of the executive committee, along with a pocket journal and the name of the colleague they will look after until the next day. The rule: nothing you can buy, only attention. The reveal comes on the morning of day two. - **The triangle of fundamentals** : The management framework on three large posters. Everyone places six dots: three where they feel at ease, three where it costs them. The room then reads together where the dots cluster. - **Proud moments** : Each person writes down a difficulty they overcame, tells it in a group of five without comment, then sticks it on the fundamental it serves. The framework gets covered in proof. - **A leader who speaks after listening** : At the opening, the director says he will come back to speak after listening. He does, without slides, quoting two or three proud moments in the participants’ own words. - **Role plays** : Situations drawn at random on an app, with a QR code in each room. Teams of four: two actors, two observers. One minute to prepare, five minutes to play, under ten minutes of debrief. Meanwhile, the executive committee watches and prepares what it will say. - **A room that changes** : A terrace serves as the rotation space. The plenary set-up is taken down and rebuilt during breakouts to make room for the posters. A wall of badges doubles as a photo spot. ## Run of show ### Day 1 - **Welcome** : Badge handed over by an executive, pocket journal, name of the colleague to look after. - **Who is here** : Three rounds of standing trios, outside your own department. You hand your badge to your neighbour, who introduces you to the third person. - **Triangle of fundamentals** : Six dots each, then a group reading. - **Proud moments** : A difficulty overcome, told in a group of five, stuck on the framework. - **The director speaks** : No slides, in the participants’ own words. - Afternoon · **Rock-paper-scissors** : A tournament to lift the energy. - **The manager’s challenges** : One wall per challenge, self-selected. Round 1: the issue, with facts. Round 2: the answers people know how to put in place. ### Day 2 - **Guardian angels revealed** : Three questions by show of hands, then photos of the pairs. - **A leader who made me grow** : What combined high standards and care. - **Role plays** : Drawn at random, played in fours, debriefed. - **Community rituals** : Plenary. - **Energiser** : Three zones on the floor: never tried, tried and dropped, tried and it holds. - **Three commitments** : Written, entered in an app, projected and discussed. ## Deliverables - An AI synthesis of the practices people chose, shown as a running thread in the afternoon. - A wall of commitments that people can come back to. ## The role of AI An app to draw role-play situations and collect commitments. An AI synthesis produced over lunch. Commitments projected on screen so the room could discuss them. ## Key takeaways - The guardian angel is a quiet ritual that runs through both days and is revealed on the morning of the second. - The leader speaks after listening, in the participants’ own words and without slides. - Each of the three commitments has its own recipient: yourself as a manager, your team, the community. Related expertise : [Leadership offsites](https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/seminaire-de-direction), [Collective intelligence](https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/intelligence-collective), [Seminar facilitation](https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/facilitation-de-seminaire), [AI-augmented seminars](https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/seminaire-augmente-par-l-ia) --- Source: Flow Design, https://www.getflowdesign.com Contact: victoire@getflowdesign.com, marie-violaine@getflowdesign.com, +33 6 72 15 94 77. Request a quote: https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/nous-contacter. Draft a run of show online: https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/concevoir-mon-seminaire.