Launch online Testimonials
Transition Launch Online – what participants said
Here is what participants of Launch OnLine had to say about it in their own words.
“I’m really enjoying the online Transition Launch. I could not join some of the discussion, but the good thing of technology is I can catch up later!”
“A. Content- Covered a broad array of critical pieces of Transition Initiatives.. Thorough, holistic, and well-presented.
- Process- Interactive– a great balance of “lecturing” & group sharing/exercises. The passion & caring of staff shone through.
- Resources – great support materials.
- Forum very helpful to make course feel more “live”.”
“The project/group process pieces such as Visioning, Effective Groups, Collaboration & Inner Transition were a huge help re direction. The practical sharing of on-the-ground learning experiences by staff & participants were also key for me.’
“Although the ideal is of course (for most people) to have human-to-human contact, I believe the online option is ideal (& much appreciated) for 2 main reasons…
- For people like me, in countries with little access to affordable training alternatives, the online option is the only way.
- As has been mentioned, there is so much material & processing for this course.
Doing it online & over 8 weeks seems to be a more user-friendly alternative (than a weekend).”
“The technical side was easy for me: well-organized, with the facilitators putting in a lot of effort to make sure people were ok with the technology. The email notifications were a big help.”
“I gained immensely from each session, & from all your sharing!! I’ve been wanting to take the Launch course, & was only able to now, thanks to the online alternative. So I also give a deep bow of appreciation to Naresh, Tom, Jennifer, & all those who helped initiate this course!”
“I have more than 10 years of experience both designing/delivering and participating in online learning but I have never experienced what I experienced today at my second week of Transition Training… Energized, emotional, inspired…again, a group of wonderful people from Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, UK, France, Senegal, Netherlands, US, Spain, Brazil, New Zealand and Canada demonstrated that around the world there are people who care.”
“I am familiar with how Transition works because I have the two books, and because our group initiated more than a year ago and we have accomplished many little things, but many of the tools and insights were either new or necessary as a reminder for me and the group. A training like this may be necessary every other year or so to keep the flame and remember why we are doing this…”
“I enjoyed every moment and looked forward to every class. I didn’t miss one and I will miss these Tuesdays from now on…”
“It is always interesting and useful to hear people talk about their Transition experiences.”
“Excellent presentations from Naresh and others, interesting small group discussions with other participants. I felt at times that the pace was slow and we didn’t always make the best use of the very limited time we had, so that’s why I rated it overall good rather than excellent. But it was very good and I am recommending it to others. Thank you to the organisers and presenters for all your hard work in making this happen.”
“I think it would have been even more useful if I had done it 4 years ago when we were just starting! But it was a useful reminder and reinforcement about a wide range of issues. It made me think more constructively about areas our initiative can work on, and helped me think about how we might move up to the next level (or deepen). Now I hope to encourage a few more people from our group to do the course so that we can plan together – I’d like to have a group of us who are equipped to think about where we can go from here, and this course will do that.”
“I was familiar with a lot of the content from reading the Transition books and newsletters etc. But there was always a new twist or a reminder of something I knew but had forgotten.”
“It was my first online course, and I was interested to see the process. I think spreading it out over time rather than an intensive weekend worked well, and enabled me to focus on one area at a time and think about it in more depth in between sessions. The opportunity to have brief discussions with people in other Transition initiatives was always interesting and valuable (clever software that enabled the small groups to break out)”.
“The weekend Transition trainings had never been offered in a place or at a time that worked for me, so this was really my only opportunity to do the training, and I expect that’s true for others. Might there perhaps be ways to utilise the online format even more, e.g. the community forum got off to a good and lively start but sort of petered out. I’m not sure how many people even looked at the postings. Perhaps you could ‘talk them up’ a bit more in the sessions?”
“(This course was always) interesting and enjoyable. Very positive responses from Naresh to question. I noticed he almost always responded to a question by saying how good it was. He conveyed a feeling of openness and listening. Very good role model for teaching.”
“There were a few early technical glitches but they got worked out and overall things went remarkably smoothly given that it was the first time.”
“Appreciated the content but also the patient, helpful guidance of the facilitators. Good models. Good communicators. I felt the material on how to talk to people about the issues, group dynamics, Inner Transition and the last session were the most helpful. I thought the participants were fantastic and l learned from them”.
“A very good mix of information that is useful when you want to work on Transition with a group.”
“The background information about Transition was not new to me but it was good to get it presented anyway to see how I could present it here in future. I have not done any work on groups and found information on that very good and also the vision seminar and the one on inner transition. It took me a bit to get used of the system when we were put into small groups as you can´t see each other and it is much more difficult to have a conversation that way. But I think it is fantastic to have had the opportunity to do this course which I could not have done at the moment if I had to go to England”.
“I enjoyed having that time once a week to hear something about one aspect of Transition and thinking about it during the week. And is was good to hear other people that are concerned about the same things too, because there certainly are not too many around where I live…”
“I particularly liked the session on group work, visioning and Inner Transition. I had not really done visioning before and the exercise put a big smile on my face, I don’t know how else to describe it. In that training session two members of the course had expressed that they found the visioning exercise uncomfortable. For me it was great to realise that it is actually not a future that is transitioned that I am worried about: lots of aspects about it will enrich life that is so hectic today. So the part I am worried about is if and how w e will get there and how painful that process will be for people and natural systems all around the world. The Inner Transition is very closely linked to that I guess.”
“I am reading up more on working with groups; I think that is the area I need to learn a lot about quickly”.
“The content was excellent, inspiring, informative, clear and helpful. Personally I would benefit from more relationships created between participants themselves. That partly happened on own initiative, but I was wondering how it would be if I had a given ‘friend’ or a small ‘home group’ of 3-5 people for the time of the course, who I’d more regularly connect to, exchange contact details in the beginning of the course and stay (if wished so) in closer contact throughout the course and maybe after (reflect on things, ask questions, share ideas etc).”
“Launch Online was useful to be in. Getting a better understanding of things and principles opened my brain to the many possibilities of different formats that Transition can take. I also realized it is (in my opinion) very important, that every initiative is creative and finds its authentic way and form rather than just following a format of ‘the Transition initiative’.”
“I already read The Transition Handbook and have been in touch with permaculture movement. I was checking the Transition Network website, nevertheless many of the details and links were new and very helpful. I find the hardest thing to sort-of stay up to date with changes and developments…”
“This is the most energizing, deep and at the same time very mind-provoking course I’ve attended in years. I had no idea that working together online could be that powerful.” . ..”
“The ‘Inner Transition’ hour for me was a moment where pieces fell a bit more together in my personal search on what I could contribute to Transition.”