Proposal Help

Group Facilitation and Consultation Adult & Organizational Development (AOD) 5534

Summer II 2023 Professor ShaVon Y. Savage, Esq.

Tuesday, July 11, 2023

Learning Objectives for the Day

● Deepen your knowledge of norms, why their important and how to develop them

● Practice designing and developing effective groups ● Begin to develop your knowledge of various group decision

making processes ● Work on your group project ● Begin to think about the final presentation or project

Agenda for Today’s Session

Timing Topic Type of Activity

8:30 am - 8:45 am Reflecting on Previous Learning Lecture/Discussion

8:45 am - 9:45 am Establishing Norms: A Practice Activity

Lecture/Activity

9:45 am - 10:15 am Designing and Developing Effective Groups

Lecture/Discussion

10:15 am-10:30 am Break

10:30 am-11:45 am A Deeper Dive: Design Practice with our Scenarios

Lecture/Activity

11:45 am - 12:00 pm Reflecting and Wrapping Up Journal/Discussion

Assignments

● Discussion Posts ○ Introductions (beginning of class) ○ Reflections (end of class)

● Facilitation Self-Assessment ● Written Narratives

○ Reflections on Self-Assessment (due today by 11:59 pm)

○ Reflections on Facilitation Mindsets and Behaviors (due Thursday, 7/13)

● Group Project ○ You will receive your scenarios today ○ There will be work time today as well

● Final Presentation or Project ○ Let me know what you’re choosing

by COB tomorrow (it will be in the Exit Slip)

Reflecting on Previous

Reflecting on Previous Learning: The Self Assessment

● Trends from the Facilitation Self-Assessment Include: ○ Most survey respondents fell into the Sometimes/Often category across questions ○ 27% of respondents answered they Never pre-design and use measurement tools

to track meeting evaluation results. ○ 100% of respondents answered they Often/Always listen to people’s needs and

grievances. ○ 68% of respondents answered they are Often able to pay attention in the

immediate moment while keeping the long range destination in mind, intervening as necessary to keep the group moving towards the target.

○ 23% of respondents answered they Never employ strategies to “opt out” of the facilitation role when serving as a contributor to the meeting or when empowering others to lead.

Results from the Exit Slips

Question Answer

Do you understand the structure of the course and the assignments that are due?

100% Yes

Do you now understand your facilitative style well enough to complete the Written Narrative Assignment for Module 3?

68% Yes 32% Still Developing

Can you name the various facilitative roles and the two distinct mindsets we will be discussing this week?

82% Yes 18% Still Developing

Were you prepared today to engage in the discussion about how to choose a facilitative role?

91% Yes 5% No 5% Unable to Complete Reading

Were the discussion (turn and talk, triad, group choice) and practice activities supportive of your learning today?

100% Yes

Implications From the Exit Slip and Self-Assessment

● Continued with the Mutual Learning Mindset and Behaviors

● Choosing a facilitative role and transitioning between facilitative roles

● Support with tools to pre-design and evaluate sessions

● Practice activities support the learning

● Utilizing the Mutual Learning Behaviors as Norms

● Practice Identifying Facilitative Roles in Context

● Expanding Your “Facilitator’s Toolkit” to support with designing and evaluating sessions

● More practice opportunities

Practice Implications

Norming

What is a Norm and why are they important?

“Workplace or team norms are usually defined as how team members interact, communicate, share, collaborate and coordinate. Every team has norms, whether it is a team in sports, business or the military. Usually these customs or standards are defined over time by individuals and alliances within the team, the influence and philosophy of the leader, and organizational culture. They can contribute to the overall success of the team and organization, or hinder it. They can be impacted by stress, success, a new leader or new team members, so what we consider team norms are rarely set in stone.”

- Baker, S. (2019, July 1). “How to Define Your Team’s Norms (And Why It’s Important).” Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2019/07/01/how-to-define-your-teams-norms-and-why-its-im portant/?sh=21012ad71000. Accessed 9 Jul. 2023. (emphasis added)

What is a Norm and why are they important?

● Every group has its own customs and culture ● Often, teams will come together to establish standards, norms and

behaviors ● We use similar activities in classrooms when asking students to

establish classroom rules ○ Brainstorm ○ Elevating themes and trends ○ Formalizing the rules or norms

● We don’t often examine what these norms look like in practice

Using the Mutual Learning Behaviors as Norms

● State views and ask genuine questions

● Share all relevant information ● Use specific examples and agree

on what important words mean ● Explain your reasoning and intent ● Focus on interests, not positions ● Test assumptions and inferences ● Jointly design next steps ● Discuss undiscussable issues

Why not set your own Norms?

● Find the your group for the Group Project due at the end of the week.

● In your group, ○ Choose a Facilitator and the role the Facilitator will assume (p. 15).

■ The Facilitator will help the Group choose a strategy (popcorn read, jigsaw, read aloud, etc.) to review Schwarz’s article, “Why Facilitators and Consultants Shouldn’t Ask Groups to Develop Their Own Ground Rules,” available in the Overview for Module 5.

■ The Facilitator will assist the group fully understand the content in the article.

○ You have 15 minutes.

Group Discussion

● What are the important points in the article? ● Can we say we have a common understanding of these norms based

upon the reading? ● Do you agree that it’s appropriate to have these norms in every situation

or context? ● What logistical issues do you see with utilizing the approach suggested in

the article?

The second part of this exercise requires your Facilitator to lead the Group through these discussion points. You have 10 minutes.

Group Discussion

● What was it like to be a group member? ● What was it like to be the facilitator? ● Which of the two mindsets that we’ve discussed were evident in the

group?

The third part of this exercise requires your Facilitator to lead the Group through these discussion points. You have 10 minutes.

Schwarz’s Norms

● This week we will practice using Schwarz’s Norms. Today, we will focus on and practice these three: ○ State views and ask genuine questions

■ Express your point of view ■ Explain the reasoning being this view ■ Ask others a question(s) about your view

○ Share all relevant information ■ Share information that might affect the decisions, including information that doesn’t

support your view ■ Don’t share others’ information for them (don’t carry others’ water) ■ Appropriately share your feelings

○ Use specific examples and agree on what important words mean ■ Say what you mean ■ Name Names ■ Use specific examples

Schwarz’s Norms

Norm Looks Like Sounds Like Feels Like

State views and ask genuine questions

Share all relevant information

Use specific examples and agree on what important words mean

In your Group, select a new Facilitator and the role the Facilitator will assume (p. 15). The Facilitator will help your Group clarify the first three of Schwarz’s norms by completing the following grid. You will utilize this in your Group this week and hold each other accountable to it. You have 10 minutes.

Designing and Developing Effective Groups (Schwarz, Chapter 6)

Intentional Design

Groups vs. Teams

“Unfortunately, since teams became popular again in the 1990s, many organizations have pushed to make teams the default unit of work, even when the work could be better accomplished as a group. Simply telling a group that it’s a team or exhorting it to act like a team doesn’t make it a team.”

(p. 126)

Groups vs. Teams

● What are the differences between a team and a group? ● The four criteria for a team:

○ Members are interdependent around a team task. The task can only be accomplished by the team working together; this interdependence must be managed and the work must be coordinated.

○ Members know who is a member of the team. This must be clear and understand by those on the team.

○ Members know the extent of the team’s authority. Team members understand their agency individually and as a team.

○ Membership is stable over time. Think forming, norming, storming, performing and adjourning. (p. 122-124)

● If there is no interdependence, then you have a group. ● Do the tasks around which we are organizing require us to be a

team, or a group?

The Team Effectiveness Model (TEM)

● Regardless of whether you are in a group or a team, the Team Effectiveness Model (TEM) is useful.

● This is Schwarz’s normative model. It shows you what a team should look like if it’s effective. (p. 128)

● Turn to Figure 6.3 on p. 131 ○ We will focus on the middle column: Design

● Which mindset will you use as you design? ○ Which mindset has Schwarz embedded in the TEM?

TEM Design Context Structure Process

➔ Clear mission & shared vision

➔ Supportive culture ➔ Rewards consistent

with objectives ➔ Information, including

feedback ➔ Resources ➔ Training & consultation ➔ Physical environment

➔ Clear mission & shared vision

➔ Clear goals ➔ Motivating task ➔ Appropriate

membership ➔ Clearly defined roles,

including leadership ➔ Effective team culture ➔ Team norms, including

mutual learning behaviors

➔ Reasonable workload

➔ Effective problem solving

➔ Appropriate decision making

➔ Productive conflict management

➔ Balanced communication

➔ Clear boundary management

A Deeper Dive

● We are going to use yesterday’s scenarios, but with a different purpose. Today we will focus on Design.

● In your Group, the Facilitator will support your Group in designing how the participants in the scenario will operate.

● Be sure to utilize your Norms chart. ● If the Facilitator has to transition between roles, they must name it,

explain why, and seek agreement from the Group.

A Deeper Dive Part 1 (15 Minutes)

● Choose a Facilitator and the role the Facilitator will assume (p. 15).

● Decide whether the Facilitator will act in a basic or developmental manner (p. 23).

● Decide whether the group in your scenario is a group or a team. Explain your reasoning.

● Next, review “Helping Redesign an Existing Team or Group,” Schwarz pp. 152-153.

A Deeper Dive Part 2 (15 Minutes) ● Next, determine what the

structure will be for the participants in the scenario.

● Be able to answer to the elements of structure.

● Clearly state how you will create an effective team culture.

● Make and be able to state the “assumptions” you made to effectuate the scenario.

Structure ➔ Clear mission & shared vision

(Why do we exist?) ➔ Clear goals ➔ Motivating task ➔ Appropriate membership ➔ Clearly defined roles, including

leadership ➔ Effective team culture ➔ Team norms, including mutual

learning behaviors ➔ Reasonable workload

A Deeper Dive Part 3 (15 Minutes) ● Next, determine what process the

participants in the scenario will use.

● For decision making, see paragraph 2 under “Appropriate Decision Making” on p. 140 ○ There are also resources in the

Module 5 overview for review, but you don’t need that level of detail today

● For boundary management, decide who the participants in the scenario would have to communicate with, what they’d have to communicate and the cadence for communication

Process: How things are done ➔ Effective problem solving ➔ Appropriate decision making ➔ Productive conflict

management ➔ Balanced communication ➔ Clear boundary management

A Deeper Dive Part 4 (15 Minutes)

● Next, seek to understand the organizational context in which the participants in your scenario are operating.

● Your scenarios have been modified to reference a particular school or district. Glean the information you can from their website or other resources on the web. What can this information tell you about the organizational context?

Context ➔ Clear mission & shared vision ➔ Supportive culture ➔ Rewards consistent with

objectives ➔ Information, including feedback ➔ Resources ➔ Training & consultation ➔ Physical environment

Reflect for a Moment

● As you assumed Facilitative or Participant Roles today, were you able to: ○ Think Group, and focus on the Group as a whole? ○ Attend to the Purpose and Goals of the Group? ○ Stay in touch with Yourself by honoring your identity and integrity?

● Were there any points where your Group could have used an intervention? What was the issue/problem?

● Were you able to stick with the first 3 Norms? ● Were you able to attend to your mindset? The values and

assumptions tied to your mindset?

Group Project ● You’ll keep the scenarios you worked through today. ● What should our norms be for the fishbowl?

○ Do we want to “switch” or “tap” in if a group has chosen a role play or mock meeting? You each have expertise in particular areas.

○ Do we want to provide a rubric for the audience if we’re evaluating a facilitation proposal presentation? How would you provide feedback on these types of presentation in real life? What would you be listening for?

○ Do we need to set guidelines for respectful conversations? ○ Should we debrief after each presentation or spot trends across all groups?

Audience members may also want to evaluate their participation as listeners.

Wrapping Up

● Think about your Final Presentation or Project and let me know which you’d like to complete in tomorrow’s Exit Slip.

● For tomorrow, Read Schwarz Chapters 10 & 12. We will focus on diagnosing and intervening in groups tomorrow.

● Your Written Narrative for Module 3 is due at 11:59 pm. ● Your Written Narrative for Module 5 is due on Thursday at 11:59 pm. ● No Exit Slip today; we’ll have one tomorrow (mid-week check in).