Materials: flip chart paper, markers, regular 81/2x11 paper (enough for one per pair of participants), computer, PowerPoint, 3 copies of printed PowerPoint for facilitators
Introductions: All, Introduction to activity: Julia
Opening Activity / Energizer- participants will pair up and sit back to back. One person will have a premade drawing. That person will explain to their partner how to draw that drawing, but the partner can’t look. The partner can ask questions. At the end of the energizer, we will debrief why it was chosen. / Facilitator: Julia
Materials: Markers, Paper, pre-made drawing
Time: 10 minutes
Transition To Goals, Objectives, and Agenda: Stephanie
Review Goals, Objectives, and Sections of presentation / Use copies of printed PowerPoint to read Goals, Objectives, and sections of presentation. Ask group if they have any questions / Facilitator: Stephanie
Time: 5-7 minutes
Over view on Cross Organizational Collaboration -
Pair-Share: Review of Pre-read / Activity: Think-Pair-Share. Find someone that you haven’t met yet and introduce yourself. Each person should share their answers to the reflection questions from the article. Pairs have 7 minutes
Shareout- Popcorn style. Reactions to the article and answers to questions. / Facilitator: Julia (or Sheila)
Notetaker: Julia writes on flip chart paper the words and phrases that people shareback.
Time: 10-15 Minutes
Transition to “What is collaboration?”: Stephanie
What is Collaboration? / Think of a time when you collaborated successfully. Shareout words that describe the conditions for success i.e. relationship. Then, Stephanie Reads definition of collaboration from PowerPoint. Allows participants to make some links between words and phrases as basis for conditions for success for collaboration and the definition of collaboration. / Facilitator: Stephanie
Time: 2 minutes
Transition to: Why is DN collaboration challenging? : Dan
Why is Collaboration challenging? / Review DN national to local org chart, then Using “Why is DN collaboration challenging?” Transition slide, ask participants to share why this collaborative can be difficult.
Dan reads and discusses “Why is DN collaboration challenging” slide with bullets. Can ask participants to reflect on these or ask questions. Share slide on teams where collaboration is necessary. / Facilitator: Dan
Time: 7 minutes
Transition to: Why is DN collaboration important: Julia
Why is DN collaboration important? / Ask participants to share “Why is DN collaboration important?” and then look at Why is DN collaboration important slide. Real examples from Aki:
-Aki’s climate campaign / Facilitator: Nick
Time: 5-7 minutes
Energizer! Onion Ball Game 7 minutes
Transition to: How Do you collaborate?: Julia
How do you collaborate? / Look at 7 norms of collaboration. Each of facilitators will share a norm and describe it and why it is helpful.
Ask participants to reflect? / Facilitator: All.
Julia: Introduce Nick: 1-2, Pursuing a balance between advocacy and inquiry (What aren’t we talking about?)
Stephanie: 3-4
Dan: 5-7
Materials: 7 norms of collaboration explained. Can share personal examples.
Time: 10 minutes
Transition to Personal Norms Inventory: Stephanie
Personal Norms Inventory and Pair Share / Participants complete personal norms inventory. Then, do pair share? People can answer questions.
Which norms do you find challenging? Why are they challenging?
What norms matter to you most when you collaborate with others?
Mention that this is an example of an activity that the DN school team could do to facilitate discussion about how the team works together. / Facilitator: Stephanie
Materials: Personal Norms Inventory from adaptiveschools
Time: 10-15 minutes
Transition to Practical Ways to Collaborate: Stephanie
Practical Ways to Collaborate / Create opportunities outside of work (i.e. dinner, movies, beverages and support each other when one of us runs a 10k.
Do personality tests, do work style assessments (Compass, feedback animal, best times of day to work)
Share work norms, DN meeting agenda, intervention toolbox, data dashboard, project grid
Ask participants to share examples from their teams. Write on flip chart paper / Facilitator: All
Materials: DN team norms, DN agenda, Intervention Toolkit
Notetaker: Julia
Time: 15 minutes
Transition to Examples of how to leverage partners effectively: Nick
Examples of how to leverage partners effectively / City Year-TD STF
(Nick) Aligning prof. dev. priorities for teaching team to CM and DN team goals established with school leadership team
City Year-CIS Site Coordinator
CY-Instructional Facilitators
Flip chart paper for each, share our own examples and then ask for audience examples. / Facilitator: Julia and Nick
Materials: Flip chart paper
Notetaker: Julia
Time: 20 Minutes
Transition to Closing: Dan
Closing / Closing: Share one next step you have to effectively collaborate? / Facilitator: Dan
Time: 7 minutes
Addendum: Information on 7 Norms of Collaboration
From US department of state: Diplomacy in Action Website
Pausing: Pausing actually slows down the "to and fro" of discussion. There are fewer 'frames per second' to deal with. It provides for the precious "wait time" which has been shown in classrooms to dramatically improve student critical thinking. Pausing and the acceptance of moments of silence creates a relaxed and yet purposeful atmosphere. Silence, however initially uncomfortable, can be an excellent indicator of productive collaboration. Pausing also signals to others that their ideas and comments are worth thinking about. It dignifies their contribution and implicitly encourages future participation. Pausing enhances discussion and greatly increases the quality of decision making.
Paraphrasing: To paraphrase is to re-cast or translate into one's own words, to summarize or to provide an example of what has just been said. The paraphrase maintains the intention and the accurate meaning of what has just been said while using different words and phrases. The paraphrase helps members of a team hear and understand each other as they evaluate data and formulate decisions. Paraphrasing is also extremely effective when reducing group tension and individual anger. "The paraphrase is possibly the most powerful of all non-judgmental verbal responses because it communicates that 'I am attempting to understand you' and that says 'I value you' (Costa & Garmston, 1994, p. 49)."
Probing: Probing seeks to clarify something which is not yet fully understood. More information may be required or a term may need to be more fully defined. Clarifying questions can be either specific or open-ended, depending upon the circumstances. Gentle probes increase the clarity and precision of a group's thinking and contribute to trust building because they communicate to group members that their ideas are worthy of exploration and consideration.
Putting forward ideas: It takes a degree of self-confidence and courage to put forward an idea and it is vital that collaborative groups nurture such self-confidence and courage. Ideas are the heart of a meaningful discussion. Groups must be comfortable to process information by analyzing, comparing, predicting, applying or drawing causal relationships.
Paying attention to self and others: Collaborative work is facilitated when each team member is explicitly conscious of self and others - not only aware of what he or she is saying, but also how it is said and how others are responding to it. "Understanding how we create different perceptions allows us to accept others' points of view as simply different, not necessarily wrong. We come to understand that we should be curious about other people's impressions and understandings - not judgmental. The more we understand about how someone else processes information, the better we can communicate with them (Costa & Garmston, 1994, p. 59)."
Presuming positive presuppositions: Of all the seven norms of collaboration, this one may be the most fundamental, for without it, the rest are meaningless. Simply put, this is the assumption that other members of the team are acting from positive and constructive intentions (however much we may disagree with their ideas). Presuming positive presuppositions is not a passive state but needs to become a regular manifestation of one's verbal responses. The assumption of positive intentions permits the creation of such sophisticated concepts as a "loyal opposition" and it allows one member of a group to play "the devil's advocate." It builds trust, promotes healthy cognitive disagreement and reduces the likelihood of misunderstanding and affective/emotional conflict.
Pursuing a balance between advocacy and inquiry: Both inquiry and advocacy are necessary components of collaborative work. Highly effective teams are aware of this and self-consciously attempt to balance them. Inquiry provides for greater understanding. Advocacy leads to decision making. One of the common mistakes that collaborative teams may make is to bring premature closure to problem identification (inquiry for understanding) and rush into problem resolution (advocacy for a specific remedy or solution). Maintaining a balance between advocating for a position and inquiring about the positions held by others further inculcates the ethos of a genuine learning community.
Like any new skill or behavior that has to be learned, these seven norms require practice and conscious attention. Individuals using them for the first time may find the exercise awkward until the seven norms become more automatic behaviors.