Creative Conversations 2020

Experimenting with bringing employees together for artistic, intimate conversations on topics such as Land Acknowledgement and Imagining Possible Futures during this period of remote working amid COVID-19. Many challenges and opportunities that are bubbling up in this post-COVID-19 world.

This uncertain time may offer us a chance to dream a little and discuss what is possible, perhaps on topics such as our workforce, creating a more equitable transportation future, addressing climate change or how we approach our work in communities.

These small group remote meetings of three cohorts of MnDOT staff occurred over two 90-minute conversations in summer 2020. The land acknowledgment topic was about individual and everyday culture since MnDOT has policies, procedures, and trainings that address more the systemic and technical.

For the "imagining possible futures" discussion, it focused around staff imagining what cultural shifts that are possible in this time of great change.