I’d been working on this project for a little over a month before I attended my first workshop. While I had a pretty good idea of what do expect, given that I’d gone through workshop materials and had done quite a bit of data entry, I still very much enjoyed the fresh experience. It was a lovely feeling to know exactly how and where my work was being applied.

I watched from the sidelines as the tables formed and people started greeting each other with the warm cordiality of newly made acquaintances. Since this workshop was hosted by an engineering firm, the attendees were almost all working professionals, who seemed to all somewhat know each other in some kind of professional context that gave the encounters a rather familiar aspect. As the individual table discussions began, I sat down by one table while its participants settled into their respective roles.

Many of the roles had been purposely assigned for the character to be different from the participant’s true profession—an environmental planner could’ve been given the role of the director of the Chamber of Commerce, for instance—which seemed to give people a chance to walk in another person’s shoes, so to speak. The individual character instructions gave participants a sense of direction, and while some seemed constrained by the role they played, I felt that it gave them a chance to see the constraints that a person in their position would really have in a climate adaptation discussion (one always has to keep in mind the interests that he or she represents).

Compared to the discussions with my peers that I’m used to having, this small group conversation seemed to move forward and actually reach consensus without too many hitches because of the trained, neutral facilitator. The humor of the facilitator lightened the atmosphere considerably; all the while he moved the discussion along by bringing it back to “what’s next?” It also became very apparent to me how things could go wrong, or how nothing could get done. If one person put their foot down, it would’ve been very hard to move forward.

I quite enjoyed the chance to go out into the real world and see the impacts that the project was having in the broader public arena. People’s comments during the debriefing at the end of the workshop revealed that the experience really helped to broaden their perspective and to think big picture in terms of decision-making around climate adaptation.

-Tiffany Chen