Triple Loop Creative Agency Circles, Time for a Recap
8 min read
Article by Geert Genbrugge from mediarte in Belgium, partner in the CYANOTYPES journey. He shares his experience attending the Matera workshop, which took place 16 – 18 July 2024.
The Italian taxi driver who picked me up at Bari International Airport told me it would be about a one-hour drive to Matera. I would arrive just in time for the UEFA European Football Championship final, Spain vs. England. During the drive, I witnessed the sun at its best, casting long shadows with its final rays of the day, while only the tops of the trees caught some light. Sooner than expected, I stood on the terrace of my hotel in the magnificent light of a yellow moon, gazing wide-eyed at the view of one of the most beautiful towns in the world – a UNESCO world heritage site. Ten minutes later, I watched the match, some FIFA heritage. Three brilliant goals. Those who saw the match know who won. For those not interested in football, I won’t mention the result here.
Matera is the most a-stone-ishing city in southern Italy. It is renowned for its natural caves, which were used as shelters, houses, barns, churches and workplaces during the Palaeolithic period. As we all know from using the word ‘Palaeolithic’ in our daily conversations, it refers to the ‘Old Stone Age,’ approximately 3.3 million years ago. Still there is an atmosphere as if the Palaeolithic age ended only yesterday.
Filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini shot his marvellous movie “Il Vangelo secondo Matteo” in the area around Matera. The biblical landscape also served as the location for the film “The Passion of the Christ,” directed by Mel Gibson, plus many more films.
Cinematic Matera is the perfect place to discuss adapting to changes, lifelong learning, and sustainability. In the soft-rocky, dry mountains, you can sense the power of both nature and mankind.
Together with an international group of experts in the field of course design and curriculum development – shoe sizes 35 up to 48 – mediarte was invited to participate in the workshop to test and validate the CYANOTYPES Train-the-Trainer Framework, organised by Materahub and the University of Applied Arts Vienna, partners of CYANOTYPES. The basic premise is: which competences does a professional in the Creative and Cultural sector need to have and which training can we build for them? Adapting to rapid digital and sustainable transitions is universally acknowledged. But we need training programmes that are relevant, forward looking and aligned with industry’s needs.
The art of introducing and connecting people in a playful way is a recurring feature in CYANOTYPES events. Getting in-line, based on your shoe size, without talking to each other creates an instantly relaxing atmosphere. The stage is set.
Let’s not wait until the end of this article to thank the fabulous four organisers of this mind-blowing workshop: Becky Riches and Gabriella Antezza from Materahub, and Angelika Zelisko and Ragnheiður Erla Björnsdóttir, both affiliated with the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Their 38-degree warm welcome, impeccable preparation, kind words, thoughtful presence, clear and understandable presentations, and moderation skills were a masterclass in workshop management. Many thanks.
If you like international projects and boundary-spanning, prefer going off the beaten-track, are passionate about the creative industry, innovation is your middle name, and you want to be involved in contemporary challenges, subscribe to the newsletter of Materahub. I did, after confirming I’m a human and not a robot. Sometimes it feels good to be reminded that we are human after all. This workshop offered me the opportunity to get to know the organisation Materahub better.
To fully understand the context of this workshop in Matera, let me introduce the project CYANOTYPES and the driving force of this workshop. CYANOTYPES is made up of 20 European partners and 28 associate partners, led by HKU University of the Arts Utrecht. It is a member of the CREATIVE PACT for SKILLS, a large-scale partnership mobilising all relevant stakeholders in Europe. The project is part of Alliances for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills funded by the European Commission Erasmus+ Programme.
The mission of CYANOTYPES is to encourage collaborative upskilling and reskilling efforts among public and private stakeholders and to reimagine the competence ecosystems in the creative and cultural sector (CCS). Together we are building an adaptable Train-the-Trainer Framework in response to the breadth of diversity found within the CCSI.
The CYANOTYPES partners began their impressive journey in September 2022. They have defined, refined, and outlined competencies, developed a framework, used multiple methodologies and models, worked on creating a common language, bridged gaps, and controlled quality procedures.
Time for a recap
The workshop in Matera offered a welcome refresher, speed course, and introduction class. It was an opportunity for me to find out if I was on track with all the information.
In previous workshops, training manager Gabriella Antezza invested significant time and effort in structuring and mapping out the many competencies. Her expertise in this field, combined with her diplomatic approach, made it possible for the “mothership of all competencies” to land safely. Explaining a complex project in a clear and perfectly understandable way is an artform, a skill, and ultimately, a delight.
She kindly reminded us that in 2016, the European Commission launched the Entrepreneurship Competence Framework (EntreComp). Europe worked diligently to disseminate the information to trainers, educational organisations, and stakeholders. The message was clear: use the framework and put it into action. The mission was to create an entrepreneurial mindset. Remember? If not, the message probably got stuck in its bottle, still floating somewhere in a vast ocean, waiting to be found on some coast.
I do indeed remember the former head of my institution informing the team that entrepreneurship had to be treated as very important and had to become part of the curriculum. It was a directive from the European Commission. Many good intentions and initiatives were written down, and proposals were on the table, but little was realised. Lack of entrepreneurship?
When you download and read the EntreComp document, you’ll discover it is a well-elaborated tool. It is pragmatic, easy to comprehend, and the text introduces learning levels in a usable way.
Gabriella emphasised the importance of recognising and respecting past efforts, connecting with the contemporary, and looking exploratively to the future. These are dynamics that CYANOTYPES fosters. It makes sense to use the insights and outcomes of other European projects. Alignment with existing EU frameworks is a logical step: Green Comp, Life Comp, Digi Comp, Entre Comp, Policy Making Comp, and Research Comp. These are engaging and accessible frameworks.
One day, a new group of researchers and developers will use the CYANOTYPES outcomes as a useful blueprint, and we will be proud that another generation recognises our efforts.
Since CYANOTYPES needs its own new model, time and resources are being invested in building a model that will encompass all contemporary and future-proof competencies.
Over the last two years, partners have engaged in creative workshops, collaborations, brainstorming and validating sessions, rethinking urgencies and future needs, constructing and deconstructing ecosystems, describing new taxonomies, developing trajectories, and attending conferences. The result is a tailored, comprehensive, adaptable, and high-quality model with five main clusters, each containing five important and relevant competencies. The CREATIVE AGENCY CIRCLE is born.
Gabriella explained the CREATIVE AGENCY CIRCLE in an utterly comprehensible way, complemented by Becky, Erla, and Angelika, who added pieces of the puzzle. Their aim was to be as clear as possible. The agency cluster is complex, containing new concepts and a lot of information. However, they know what they’re talking about, playing together like a well-tuned jazz quartet, following the melody, sometimes improvising, always entertaining.
Spoiler alert: We can’t show the model yet as it is still in development. TheTrain-the-Trainer Framework will be introduced in September during the CREATIVE SKILLS WEEK 2024 in Amsterdam. It’s something to look forward to and count down to. The train-the-trainer toolkit is on its way.
What I can reveal is that CYANOTYPES uses Triple Loop Learning as a methodology to encourage the learning culture of creative organisations.
When Gabriella asked if we were familiar with Triple Loop Learning, I should have responded positively, as the methodology had already been introduced, explained, and illustrated in several workshops. It may be considered active knowledge. I must admit I was glad they didn’t ask me to step forward and explain Triple Loop Learning. It was time to focus and listen carefully again. But if they ask me next time, I can.
Triple Loop Learning has a variety of applications. Three stages are considered: existing knowledge, new knowledge and future thinking, regarded as rethinking, thinking beyond boundaries.
Triple Loop Learning also involves understanding three contexts: the individual level, where you use existing knowledge; the organisational level, where new things need to be learned; and the ecosystem level, where rethinking is essential.
Memorise the keywords: Existing – New – Rethinking knowledge. It will take you a long way.
Let me clarify Triple Loop Learning by complimenting the workshop. The first day was mind-blowing, as a refreshing wind blew through my mind, awakening all the existing knowledge.
The second day was as mind-blowing as the first, with international winds blowing from different directions, sweeping away old and rusted ideas, bringing in multiple perspectives, valuable new insights, and a refined awareness about learning outcomes. The international company of experts did its job.
I would like to share with you a moment that struck me and gave the workshop a sign of the times. While creating fictional profiles where learning objectives could be opposed, a young student expressed her feelings of hopelessness, which we must not ignore or minimise. No longer. It is a reality. The fictional profile suddenly became a real profile. Universities offer curricula that are not aligned with industry needs. Students lack business knowledge when they graduate. Young people feel that their academic studies in the creative sector do not lead to jobs and that they have no access to resources to build: a life!
Universities with a strong vision should not be afraid to enter into dialogue with their students and industry partners to allay fears and sentiments of hopelessness. It is an urgent call to leave well-constructed ivory towers and listen attentively to our sensitive, intelligent young generation.
Day three completed the Mind-Blowing-Triple-Wind-Loop. Esko Reinikainen, project officer at MyData, helps organisations navigate cultural change and is a network analysis and systems change consultant. He should be invited to any conference regarding the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI). He is on top of it.
The purpose of the AI support is to help the consortium leverage AI to boost productivity and performance. Esko gave us a turbo-boost, confronting us with future insights of AI tools in an incredible way. AI was explained in an entertaining, graspable, and a-Matera-stone-ishing manner. He went beyond boundaries and left us speechless. This wind felt like a Wizard of Oz-like tornado, bringing us to a new world. We will need the innocence and curiosity of Dorothy, the intelligence of the Scarecrow, the compassion of the Tin Man, and the courage and perseverance of the Lion. It’s time to leave our caves and start adapting to change—from Palaeolithic to AI.
AI’s answers to our questions are probabilistic and nondeterministic. Sometimes the outcome is just fiction. Avoid the temptation to use AI without controlling the output. Learning how to prompt is a good start to becoming familiar with AI.
Esko used all the data, learning outcomes, and testing material of the Creative Agency Circle to show us that AI can help us get useful results—and really fast. Warning us, to check, double-check, and even triple-check. In loop. Over and over again. But what we will always seek is personal interaction—the conversations with a heartbeat, the face-to-face meetings, the human touch to feel the pulse of our own intelligence. With a coffee and a piece of pie. A smile. An embrace. A hug. A handshake. A reminder that we are human.
The Matera workshop was an illustrative example of triple loop learning. And lifelong learning. We are CYANOTYPES after all.
Article by Geert Genbrugge.
Thanks to Becky Riches, Gabriella Antezza, Angelika Zelisko, Ragnheiður Erla Björnsdóttir and Esko Reinikainen for the editorial work.
