Page 26 - Here and Now – Apr 2024

resolutely stay in the ‘Here and Now’ and to come out with feeling statements - messages that
have had a profound, still-unraveling impact on me even nineteen years later.

I started to get a hang of the situation…With no official agenda to follow and no lecture to

concentrate on and assiduously make notes, my job was only to interact with the others in the
group. Slowly and surely, I began to realize that there were many walls among us, various biases,
prejudices. In this process, the facilitator’s interventions and insights were of immense help.

From the state of initial shy bonhomie, we ‘groupies’ began to relate intensely with each other.
There were the heated exchanges, even bordering on name-calling! We were being slowly
unmasked. All of us knew, with varying degrees of understanding, that since we had been
strangers to each other earlier, we hardly had any vested interest in pulling each other down.
The facilitator insisted only that we make ‘feeling’ statements and that feedback to others, good

or bad, be backed by raw data. He also suggested that we express upfront, rather than being
held back with feelings of unexpressed dismay, rejection and hatred. He pointed out that we
were in a ‘lab’, a laboratory. The idea here was to experiment with different behaviors and see
for ourselves what actually worked and what didn’t.

After a shaky, tentative start, those five days of the lab passed like a breeze! A bunch of disparate
individuals became a group by the end of it with a strong sense of bonding. No surprise then,
that we parted with tight hugs and the promise to stay connected. At the end of the lab, we
were told that this was only the basic level and that we were welcome to attend the next level
of ‘Advanced Lab’ if we wished to! So enchanted was I with this experience that I was

determined to attend the Advanced Lab. Happily enough, my Boss agreed…this time with a
smile!

To the next level

And so, one year later, I came for ISABS’ Advanced Lab in Human Process,
full of expectations… and literally couldn’t wait for the ‘fun’ to resume.
Here we were, a group of strangers again, but I knew the ropes.

Did I say fun? Hah…!!

The first two days this time were a nightmare that seemed to go on and on.
The start this time was at a furious pace without any iffy hesitation - after

all, all of us had gone through the Basic Lab before. Everyone was
articulate, every soul unshackled and ready to unleash. I had a torrid time
coping, being fed up with waves of nasty feedback after a couple of my (probably) over-zealous
initial sorties. I felt so vulnerable, I withdrew into myself.

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