Step 1

Take your A3 paper, use it in landscape, and fold it into quarters lengthwise so you have 4 long rectangular sections. Label the the bottom rectangle as ‘personal events’, moving upwards, label the second from bottom as ‘organisational events’, the third from the bottom as ‘societal, cultural, political events’, and the top layer as ‘what I learned’.
 

Step 2

Choose a time span that you want to reflect on. 5 years is a good starting point. If you have more time, you may wish to reflect on 10 years. At the bottom of each section, roughly draw the timeline from 5 years ago on the left to now on the far right. 



Step 3

Start with the bottom section - personal events - these are the easiest to remember. Map them on your timeline, what happened and when. They could include a big birthday, a marriage, the birth of a child, a memorable holiday or outing, a divorce, a death of a friend, a period of depression or anxiety, change in job, studying etc. The list could be endless - capture anything that feels significant to your life story and who and how you are. 


Step 4
 
Next move onto societal, cultural and political events - these are events that have happened in the bigger picture, news worthy events that affected the country or the world. Examples might be: National political events e.g. new governments and prime ministers, new laws and acts; Global events e.g. apartheid ending, the twin towers, refugee crisis, Covid-19; Environmental events e.g. a tsunami, strange weather; Social and cultural events like the Black Lives Matter movement. (You might decide to do some googling if you can't remember the exact years for these).


Step 5

Now think about the quarter labelled "sector and organisational events" what are the main events that have happened in the organisation? (E.g. new departments, new team members, team members leaving etc.) What has happened in the sector? (E.g. new legislations, “competition”, trends, funding landscape etc.)


Step 6
 
In the top rectangle, reflect on what you have learned from the events at all the different levels. Do any of these events coincide? Why? Write down:

• What did you learn about yourself? Your feelings, your reactions, and your resulting behaviours or actions - from the events on the timeline?
• Are there any patterns you can see?
• Take a different coloured pen - What did you learn about or your organisation from these events? How did they react to other events in your life, in the sector and in the bigger picture? 
• Are there any patterns you notice in your organisation’s behaviour?

Step 7

Spend a few minutes to read over your timeline, the different levels, and what you’ve learned along the way. Try to notice the helpful and unhelpful patterns that have appeared. Then, let go of those judgements and just take a moment to appreciate all that has happened, and why you are where you are right now in time.