Seeds for the Next Season
SEAMEO INNOTECH 40th Anniversary Coffee Table Book
Much like anyone hitting forty, our Center was ripe for taking stock of its growth and activities over the years. In 2009 we engaged TNS for a formal third party external evaluation of the Center and its work in the region. The study was most instructive in presenting people’s perceptions on the impact of INNOTECH and the alternative actions that the Center could take in the future. It met our need for an objective record of INNOTECH as a Regional Center, without which statements about the Center would seem like myths. We did not want to forget nor to guess, and therefore, these valuable records.
Still, there is in us humans a yearning to tell and to listen to personal stories behind the numbers and highlights generated by formal studies. We like to be reminded of “who we were and with whom when we were at our best”; telling it as we ourselves experienced the events together; serving the Center and being served by the Center; strengthening connections as we listened to one another. Stories give substance to facts, as these are our lived experiences. Stories fascinate and engage, for these speak to the dynamics of our organizational life. With stories, the wholeness of the Center and our passion for work can be more spontaneously shared and more readily accepted.
Thus, this book of stories came to be. It was prepared to help us all remember those moments in the Center’s forty years of existence when joy spilled over, permeated, and imprinted the life of an employee, a partner, a school principal, a teacher, a student. As in all endeavors of consequence, its creation is a story by itself, taking shape in fourteen months from when our team got a nod to go ahead. As expected, people needed time to see that a book could also be a document of the Center’s hidden fundamentals; that it would not end up simply gathering dust in the Center’s storeroom, unread and unappreciated.
Related Resources
How useful do you find this resource?
[Total: 1 Average: 5]
Seeds for the Next Season
