Tag: Collaboration

1. Equality:
   • Builds common ground through common experiences
   • All participants are equal in their knowledge to complete tasks
2. Relationship Build Quickly:
   • Problem solving involves collaboration, communication, cooperation and physical effort
   • Participants interact a lot
   • Participants need to rely on each other – builds trust
   • Opportunities for people to get to know each other
3. Disequilibrium:
   • Unfamiliarity of challenges puts people in state of disorder or disequilibrium.
   • Participants are stripped of normal roles and status.
   • Group self-organizes around challenge
4. Projective Technique:
   • Group projects their leadership, collaboration and problem solving styles unto the experience.
   • Challenge shows what participants “typically do”
   • Leads to profound learning about work patterns and habits
5. Decreased Cycle Time:
   • Task completion time is compressed so there is time to reflect
   • Learning can occur quickly – close in time to problem completion
6. Meta Learning:
   • Participants use reflections on activity to learn about their leadership, collaboration & problem solving skills
7. Chaos Management in a Safe Environment:
   • Teams experience change and resulting chaos in a safe space
   • Consequences for failure are limited
   • Teams develop strategies relating to change they can take back to normal workplace
8. Kinesthetic Imprint:
   • Multi-dimensional learning – visual, hands on, mental, behavioral, physical, spiritual
   • Hands on activities help make lasting impression
9. Common Language / Story-Making:
   • Experience creates common language, story & imagery that can be leverage in workplace
   • Common language shortcuts communication of common vision
   • Training experience is scripted to get participants to see themselves in a new light
   • Common story serves as a catalyst for change
10. Encourages Risk-Taking:
    • Participants try out new roles
    • Participants take risks
    • Make mistakes with few costs
    • Risks are perceived vs actual
    • Try things out of comfort zone
11. Diversity of Strengths:
    • Different strengths need to come together to solve the problem
    • Emphasized interdependencies of the team
12. Fun: 
    • Offers fun ways to learn how to be a high performing team
    • Fun builds more open-mindedness

 

Preparation Steps

• Research team building activity
• Use the 12 characteristics to make sure activity has all the characteristics of an effective experiential learning task
• Brainstorm how to add revisions that enhance strengths of activity
• Brainstorm how to add revisions that fill in activity gaps

• Facilitate experiential training with students
• Facilitate related discussions that get students to learn more about how they collaborate, lead, and problem solve
• Facilitate discussions that get students to identify, share and document effective strategies

• Display effective strategies learned during experiential training
• Have students deliberately implement strategies during their team work time
• Have students reflect on how to improve, build upon collaboration and problem solving strategies

.

• Collaboration articles

• Gets and acts irritated or upset at meetings
• Frequently interrupts peoples at meetings
• Asks question like weapons – not for inquiry, disguised statements
• Over talks issues to advocate only one’s ideas
• Makes disagreements a grand performance
• Fails to build on other’s ideas
• Doesn’t acknowledge others
• Puts others on the spot – ask them to take sides on a conflict
• Doesn’t notice when others see debates as uncomfortable conflicts / confrontations
• Interrogates people in a condescending matter

• Takes time to prepare for meetings
• Decides desired outcomes for each statement made
• Asks clarifying questions before advocating for points
• Asks colleagues for feedback
• Before the meeting:
  • Defines purpose and objectives of meeting
  • Selects participants
  • Secures space and equipment
  • Prepares agenda and send it out ahead of time
  • Ask if anyone wants to add items to agenda
  • Conducts final check of meeting room
• During the meeting:
  • Start promptly
  • Assign roles
    • Facilitator:
      • keeps meeting going and aligned to agenda
      • holds people to meeting norms.  see below
      • maintains a parking lot for off topic but interesting items
    • Scribe:
      • Takes meeting notes (minutes)
      • Shares notes within 48 hours of meeting
    • Participants
      • Follow norms
      • Add value to meeting
      • Notify others if you can’t make it to meeting
  • Prioritizes agenda time frames at meeting start
  • Manages time
  • Adopts and observes meeting norms such as
    • Arrive on time
    • Be well-prepared
    • Be concise.
    • Make “I” statements.
    • Don’t hold sidebar conversations.
    • Participate in a constructive manner.
    • Seek first to understand before being understood.
    • Make your thinking visible.
    • Don’t interrupt.
  • Hears from everyone
  • Limits or encourages discussion (depends on timing and prioritization of agenda items)
  • Clarifies actions to be taken
  • Summarizes results
• After the meeting:
  • Gathers self / peer feedback on meeting
    • Satisfied with meeting? (0 – 10 score)
    • What was good, bad, and in need of improvement?
    • How on track was meting? (0-10 score)
  • Restores the room
  • Ensures scribe shares minutes
  • Follows up on agreed upon actions
  • Prepares next steps
  • Evaluates the content (what) and processes (how) used during meeting

• Stand-ups:
  • 10-15 minutes
  • other names: red flag meetings, huddles
  • team stands in a circle
  • each person has opportunity to say something or pass
  • not a problem solving meeting
  • acceptable topics:
    • everyone’s need-to-know info
    • red flag issues – someone needs help to solve an urgent problem
    • share new info
    • share progress reports
    • clarify vision or deliverables
    • celebrate small wins

1. Meeting leadership:
   • agenda was clear and explained up front
   • conveyed overall purpose of meeting
   • honored time frames
2. Accountability:
   • individuals were prepared for meeting
   • actions had a clear assignment, owner and deadline
   • clarified resources for tasks
   • considered other stakeholder’s impact and involvement
3. Communication:
   • Summary of decisions communicated
   • Summary of actions and their owners communicated
   • Next steps were stated and clarified
   • People evaluated the meeting and discussed improvements

• Develop checklists of meeting menace and meeting master behaviors.
• Have students use the checklists to reflect upon the behaviors they have exhibited at class and team meetings.  Use this reflection to plan next steps and improvements

• Model meeting master behaviors.
• Teach students how to facilitate and participate in effective short and longer meetings.
• Teach students how to communicate better at meetings – types of important communication – courteous, summarizing, curious, open, perspective and empathy building, etc
• Role play meeting types with groups so they can practice meeting skills

• Incorporate routine team meetings into project work days.  Support these meeting with checklists of meeting actions and meeting roles & responsibilities.
• Have students document their meeting minutes in some form and share these with you.

• Collaboration articles

Chapter 3 in Nadler, Reldan S.  Leading with Emotional Intelligence: Hands-on Strategies for Building Confident and Collaborative Star Performers.  New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. Print.

 

For this article, I will insert – Classroom moves – in the WHAT section so that I don’t lose track of them before the NOW WHAT section.

• Average version
  • Values team mates with similar backgrounds and opinions
• Star version
  • Embraces differences and creative tensions
  • Matches unique talents to best fit positions
• Star actions
  • Spend time learning team members’ unique talents and deciding how they can be best used for the team
  • Hold conversation with team about their team IQ – rate it, discuss it, how to raise it?
  • Encourage team to stay with creative ambiguity as long as possible
  • Do not rush to decisions
  • Embrace differences
  • Knowing that holding contrary ideas long enough can lead to breakthroughs
  • Integrate differences into innovations
• Related classroom moves
  • Get to know each student’s interests, talents, goals, etc.
  • Figure out how to measure team IQ and teach students how to measure it and use it to set goals and next steps for their collaboration growth
  • Challenge students to identify the connections and possibilities embedded in contrary pairs/groups of ideas
  • Develop team roles that are meaningful and that appeal to different students’ talents
  • Use different team roles to develop different talents in students

• Average version
  • Does not hold anyone accountable when team puts out a disappointing effort
• Star version
  • Discusses accountability and consequences up front
  • Review accountability and consequence throughout the project
• Star moves
  • Help individuals define clear roles and responsibilities
  • Provide clear definitions of success
  • Converse about accountabilities and consequences as part of the team’s formation
• Related classroom moves
  • Guide students to create team contracts that clearly describe each person’s roles and responsibilities
  • Provide expectations and rubrics for success early in the project
  • Discuss expectations and refer to rubrics throughout the project
  • Guide students to create positive & negative consequences for their team that respond to typical situations and document these in their team contracts
  • Guide students through discussions during project that compare their current behavior with the agreements and consequences their team contracts
  • Collaborate with students to create class norms and specific expectations and the system of positive and negative consequences that support these.

• Average version
  • Completes a task and move on with little congratulations
• Star version
  • When task is done, reflects on what work can be reused
  • Reflects on past performance to improve future performance
  • Decides who needs performance analysis info
  • Designs formal and informal celebrations for wins
• Star moves
  • Hold sessions to brainstorm learnings and spread the news to the right people
  • Recognize individual’s and team’s efforts
  • Provide timely and specific feedback
• Related classroom moves
  • Provide frequent formative feedback and teach students how to use it to improve understandings and products
  • Take time to recognize individual and team’s efforts
  • Facilitate reflections that get students to consolidate what they learned about content and themselves in projects and reflect / predict on how they might use that information in the future
  • Share insights with the right students in a timely manner throughout projects

Collaboration is one of the most important NT learning outcomes.  Without strong collaboration skills, students can not effectively and positively complete projects with the aid of their team mates.   Most students do not naturally have these skills when they arrive at PBL schools because individual work is highly prioritized in most non-PBL learning environments.  Most PBL teachers did not attend PBL schools growing up, so they need training on what are / how to scaffold effective collaboration skills.

Preparation Steps

• Research what are effective collaboration skills.  See Collaboration articles for ideas.
• Design tools, practices, and scaffolds that promote effective collaboration skills.  See above and Collaboration articles for ideas.

Early Implementation Steps

• Implement tools, practices and scaffolds that develop teacher’s and students’ collaboration skills.
• Use informal assessments (observations supported by checklists) and student reflections to identify and fine tune effective strategies

Advanced Implementation Steps

• Have students reflect and identify the collaboration strategies that are working best for themselves and why.
• Incorporate effective strategies into classroom routines that promote strong collaboration in all student teams

• Collaboration articles

Chapter 3 in Nadler, Reldan S.  Leading with Emotional Intelligence: Hands-on Strategies for Building Confident and Collaborative Star Performers.  New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. Print.

For this article, I will insert – Classroom moves – in the WHAT section so that I don’t lose track of them before the NOW WHAT section.

• Average version
  • Avoids conflict
  • Jumps to conclusions
  • May fail to effectively communicate thoughts
  • Communicates the same way for everyone
• Star version
  • Makes thinking known and heard
  • Identifies and acknowledges assumptions
  • Resolves conflicts
  • Varies communication style to suit teams and individuals
• Star actions
  • Teach communication skills – listening skills, inquiry over advocacy, summarizing what was said
  • Appreciate differences and communicate differently to match these
  • Assign devil’s advocate to enliven discussions and avoid “group thinks
• Related classroom moves
  • Teach and model good communication skills – listening skills, inquiry over advocacy, summarizing what was said
  • Let students take tests to identify their communication styles
  • Use communication tools to learn how to communicate with students who have varied communication styles
  • Teach students how to use tools that describe how people with the same or different communication styles can effectively communicate with teach other (model strategies and give practice opportunities)
  • Scaffold team conversations that allow all team members to communicate their thoughts and assumptions prior to making team decisions
  • Teach students how to have a conflict resolving conversations (model it and offer fake practice opportunities).  See here and here for ideas.
  • Teach students how to play devil’s advocate role.  Assign devil’s advocate role in specific class discussions.

• Average version
  • Focuses on his department with tying connections to other departments
  • Believes his team has little impact on other teams
• Star version
  • Looks at big picture
  • Thinks of impact team has on others
  • Has a broad view of who are stakeholders (vendors, clients, family, etc)
  • Is aware of unintended impact and consequences
• Star moves
  • Have team member assume perspectives of various stakeholders and examine issues from these perspectives
  • Encourage team to consider all possible consequences before making decisions
  • Counteract limited thinking such as – us vs. them, I am my position, etc
• Related classroom moves
  • Have students reflect on how their decisions affect others
  • Connect projects to invested stakeholders that students need to consider while developing projects
  • Have students assume perspectives of different stake holders and examine their work from these perspectives
  • Guide students through brainstorming activities that help them realize all possible consequences for their choices prior to committing to selections
  • Teach students about limiting thinking or bad self talk patterns and to identify when those limiting patterns have affected them in the past
  • Teach students how to respond with their limiting self talk with more constructive, positive self talk

• Average version
  • Stays in own comfort zone
  • Only takes “safe bet” risks
• Star version
  • Takes risks consistent with values
  • Stretches others to move beyond doubts and fears
• Star moves
  • Cultivate a developed point of view of your leadership style
  • Know your leadership goals and vision
  • Vary your leadership style to connect and challenge with your team members
  • Share current areas of focus
  • Ask for support and feedback from team
  • Wear many hats at the right times – initiator, coach, model, facilitator, negotiator
  • Respond to team’s emotions with balancing actions – attention, humor, empathy
• Related classroom moves
  • Be aware of the mood of your students as individuals and as teams
  • Use your awareness to select the appropriate message / style of communication
  • Be aware of your long term academic & cultural goals for your classes and how your strategies are working toward these (or not)
  • Share goals with students and ask for feedback from them
  • Ask students for frequent feedback on learning activities
  • Switch hats to suit the needs of your student (assessor, facilitator, coach, initiator, negotiator, director, follower, observer, etc.)
  • Teach students how to be aware of the moods of their teammates and teach them appropriate responses for stressful situations such as: team member is angry, overwhelmed, behind on work, confused, apathetic, etc.
  • Teach your students how to understand what communication strategies they find most motivating and how to communicate those to teachers and other students

 

Collaboration is one of the most important NT learning outcomes.  Without strong collaboration skills, students can not effectively and positively complete projects with the aid of their team mates.   Most students do not naturally have these skills when they arrive at PBL schools because individual work is highly prioritized in most non-PBL learning environments.  Most PBL teachers did not attend PBL schools growing up, so they need training on what are / how to scaffold effective collaboration skills.

 

Preparation Steps

• Research what are effective collaboration skills.  See Collaboration articles for ideas.
• Design tools, practices, and scaffolds that promote effective collaboration skills.  See above and Collaboration articles for ideas.

Early Implementation Steps

• Implement tools, practices and scaffolds that develop teacher’s and students’ collaboration skills.
• Use informal assessments (observations supported by checklists) and student reflections to identify and fine tune effective strategies

Advanced Implementation Steps

• Have students reflect and identify the collaboration strategies that are working best for themselves and why.
• Incorporate effective strategies into classroom routines that promote strong collaboration in all student teams

• Collaboration articles

For this article, I will insert – Classroom moves – in the WHAT section so that I don’t lose track of them before the NOW WHAT section.

1  –  Shared Vision

• Average version
  • Blurry vision of outcomes
  • Vision not shared enough with team members
• Star version
  • Clear and inspiring vision
  • Communicates vision regularly
  • Vision is understood by all members
  • Vision is reinforced in numerous ways
• Star actions
  • Communicate vision at least 4 times per day
  • Explain what needs to be done to fulfill vision
  • Explain why vision supports the team
  • Use the word because to tie vision to individuals
  • Include members from all levels to offer comments & clarifications – involvement = commitment
• Related classroom moves
  • Design student friendly long term and supporting (character / academic ) learning targets
  • Communicate long term targets early in grading period (verbally, graphically, written)
  • Communicate supporting learning targets daily
  • Explain relevance of learning targets
  • Facilitate class discussion about learning targets – encourage students to clarify and revise targets
  • Have students self assess their progress using learning targets every day
  • Use multiple assessments to track progress toward learning targets daily

2  –   Trust among members

• Average version
  • Relies only on herself
  • Does not expect much from others
• Star version
  • Develops interdependency with others
  • Encourages high trust
  • Encourages high risk taking
• Star moves
  • Develop trust by admitting mistakes
  • Make / keep small promises
  • Set high team expectations
  • Encourage risk taking
  • Encourage direct feedback
• Related classroom moves
  • Make / keep promises about grades and follow-up workshops
  • Admit when activities are not working, how you know and involve students in fixing it
  • Set high classroom expectations
  • Allow students to conduct small tests of small risks in safe circumstances (gradually ramp up the scope of these learning risks and experiments)
  • Ask students for feedback on workshops, projects, etc.
  • Recruit and train student classroom leads and actively involve them in daily logistics
  • Have students assign team leadership roles; assign meaningful tasks to these roles
  • Hold team lead meetings to train classroom and team leads

3  –  Expectations and guidelines

• Average version
  • Assumes co-workers are on same page
  • Assumes co-workers understand desired results
  • Assumes co-workers can read minds
• Star version
  • Communicates and clarifies reciprocal expectations
  • Establishes guidelines for working together effectively
• Star moves
  • Leaders decide with team how they will make decisions (majority, expert opinion, unanimous, etc)
  • Expectations clarified by leader
  • Team guidelines flow from agreed-upon expectations
• Related classroom moves
  • Early in the year, design and implement activities to design classroom norms
  • Throughout the year, brainstorm strategies and guidelines that flow from classroom norms
  • Daily, clarify how current specific expectations align with learning targets and norms
  • Discuss and clarify expectations with students
  • Teach students about reciprocal expectations – what they are, effective ones, how to create and use them within their own teams

 

• Research what are effective collaboration skills.  See Collaboration articles for ideas.
• Design tools, practices, and scaffolds that promote effective collaboration skills.  See above and Collaboration articles for ideas.

• Implement tools, practices and scaffolds that develop teacher’s and students’ collaboration skills.
• Use informal assessments (observations supported by checklists) and student reflections to identify and fine tune effective strategies

• Have students reflect and identify the collaboration strategies that are working best for themselves and why.
• Incorporate effective strategies into classroom routines that promote strong collaboration in all student teams

• Collaboration articles