Tool check: timeline. “Revealing change through nostalgia”

Published on: 21/09/2011

But looking at the present and future is always easier when one knows where they come from. So looking back was just as important in the workshop. To look back we used the ‘Timeline’ tool. What does it entail? In brief, tracking back all the events that happened in the life of... (a network, an organisation, a project, a person...) and asking all participants to add their own most important events in that lifetime, then sharing with the wider group why they chose it. There is actually a very nice guidance sheet provided by Marlèn Arkesteijn from Capturing Development: ('Facilitating a timeline workshop' document available below)

Verdict? The plusses:

• The incredible result of seeing all that has been achieved until now, when we tend to quickly forget what happened – this also provides energy;
• The thorough examination and double- or triple- verification of events which leads to a rather comprehensive and fair picture of what actually happened;
• The part when sharing perspectives on what were the key moments of the network reveals the agendas and assumptions of everyone; it also reveals where members seem to converge and diverge, hinting at actual legacy points and perhaps issues to discuss further;
• The participatory nature of the exercise generating lots of energy;
• The physical nature of the timeline: it really shows in a glance what the network has done and that makes it easier to contribute to it too (and it gives energy to those moving around to look at it and comment it);

The minuses:

• It takes quite some time to be done meaningfully with everyone mentioning the key events;
• The facilitator needs to have been around for a long while and the group to be large enough to ensure that no event mentioned is biased by single perspectives;

The tweaks:

• I urged participants to focus on 4 different types of changes: relational (through e.g. workshops), institutional (e.g. statutes, formal membership); personnel-related (when people became members); informational (related to products and services) and this seemed to make the reading of the timeline easier;
• It’s very useful to have a very long brown sheet that can be unfolded to the length required;
• This also means that you need to have a very long wall or a large open space on the ground (so we did it).

Selecting critical moments

For the future, it seems definitely like a tool to use again and perhaps expand over time, i.e. to revisit periodically to keep it updated. In the meantime, I wonder how RCN-BF members have brought back the energy they gathered from the exercise to their organisation, and crucially what difference this might make for the network itself. I’d also be curious to see what YOUR experience was with it if/when you used the timeline!

(By Ewen)