Facilitator Guide: Learning Workshops

Facilitator Guide: Learning Workshops

Objectives for the day: To create common language and understanding about healthy conversations To learn about and practice using skills and tools to facilitate engaging in healthy conversations To practice applying what we have learned to the CCAC key corporate tools Time Activity HOW Room layout: Set up rounds of up to 8 chairs, no tables to facilitate the ease of group discussion For mixed groups, assign each group a different coloured dot, then create mixed groups by mixing the dot placemats placed on chairs Have a separate section of the room, or a different room set up for lunch For large groups, consider using microphones for presentations 8:00-8:30 30 min Prep Champion arrive Set dot placemats on chairs (or mixed groups) Hang posters Set up and test audio system Create name tags that have the participant s name and a dot that represents the workgroup/category that they are in (e.g. case managers, service providers, etc.) Help Champions find a table, claim a zip lock bag Markers Dot sheets 8:30-9:00 30 min Welcome ALL Distribute dots/name tags to those that arrive Welcome those that are arriving Ask people to find a seat...they will see sheets with dots on them; when they find a spot, invite to write their name on the sheet Dots/placemats in the right number 8:45-9:00 1 Champion briefing Call champions together Champions are to champion learning; give instructions on their roles i.e. share their stories Flow of the day Reminder of the disciplines and what we would like them to hold and model for the day 2

9:00-9:25 25 min** Welcome and agenda Introductions at tables Welcome Welcome to the learning session on healthy conversations and thanks for coming. We ve come together to explore what healthy conversations are and how they contribute to the feeling of respect in the workplace. In just a few moments we will figure out together what exactly we mean by healthy conversations and how you can know if you are in one or not. But we thought that the best way to get things started was to give the floor over to you and get you started in conversation! So before we do any context setting and tell you the process of the day, we d like to give you a chance to introduce yourselves to whomever you are sitting with. Can we ask that each of you introduce yourself by sharing, your name and one thing you really like about your job. Introduce Champions at their tables They have committed to learning and modeling healthy conversations and have been actively engaged in coaching sessions and a one-day workshop prior to this with the intention of supporting the practice of the tools that we are going to experience today. They don t profess to be experts; they are on a learning journey. They are here to share their learning, support yours and even deepen their learning. They are early adopters. Like us, they don t profess to be experts but are on a journey. There are 40 of them in total, though not all are here today. You can find them listed on the CCAC intranet Navigator or if you are a Service Provider, this information was sent to you in an email. Their commitment to the organization, a sense of purpose, and a belief in possibility shows in some of the comments that they made when asked why they volunteered to become champions: o I am interested in helping build a healthy work environment o Personal growth o To impact the negative influences and create a positive atmosphere o Improve our listening skills, gather with my co-workers, support changes in the future... 3

There is a champion at each of your rounds. I would like to invite each champion to introduce themselves to their round and share with them what motivated you to become a champion of healthy conversations, how they have been using the tool and any benefits that you have realized since starting to practice using the tools. Let them know that we will be taking pictures and a video for our own educational purposes and ask if there is anyone who does not want to be captured to identify themselves to the videographer. Now we would like to ground you in some context before we go further into the material. 7 SLIDES TO 10 min Senior Director Remarks Welcome Funding background Project background Project Vision Who we are and why are we here? We too were very inspired as we thought of your organizations developing and growing one conversation at a time, motivated and supported by a core group of champions. Before we go any further, we d like to introduce ourselves to you. We will be working together with you today and would like you to feel free to call upon any of us if you have any questions, at any time. (introduce team by name) Housekeeping we will have two breaks one in the morning and one in the afternoon, we will be breaking at just after noon, resuming at 1:00 to be finished for 4:00, washrooms--precision of timing, cell phones off or vibrate (time at breaks), ending by 4:00 4

Share process of the morning Let me give you a sense of the day so that you can anticipate some of what we re about to experience together. To do that there are three components to the day: o The first are tools and idea that will enable you to create more healthy conversations. The tools are not likely things that you don t know already. We ve just packaged them in a way that makes them easier to talk about, to use on a day to day basis, and to remember. o The second is the experiences that we have created for you the day is designed so that you can sink into your own learning, watch yourself in reaction mode and you can begin to use some of the new tools that we have shared to sink in and play. Don t over-react, just be, have fun and observe yourself. This day is about you. o The third component is time for you to share, talk and digest what this means to your organization and how you, as champions, see yourselves using this tools and sharing them with others. To connect, get to know one another, build a larger team. Some of the things you were looking forward to was getting to know each other came through loud and clear. We would like to emphasize that we very intentionally made this a day that focuses on your experience of and your discussion of the tools and not on a lot of theory. It is focused on you for the day as opposed to the material. This is for you. With that in mind (your role); o Understand the tools try them on. This is not one size fits all give each tool a try and see for yourself if it is something that you feel will be of service to you. Tweak things were you think useful and go ahead and grab onto to the ones that seem to be especially relevant to you. o Allow yourself to try new things today. Try it on. See if it will work. Notice what does work for you and what doesn t. You may get it wrong, may stumble, may feel really awkward and uncomfortable. We acknowledge that. In fact that sense of being uncomfortable is often a part of what holds us back from some healthy conversations isn t it? Here is a place where we can give ourselves permission to 5

o give something our best shot and just see what happens. And on that note, encourage one another. If you see a colleague giving it their best, can I ask that you encourage and support them for their efforts? This day is a chance for you to get to know how to use your pause button. We will ask is to hone your ability to observe yourself, your thinking and reactions, feelings, to be curious about the thinking and reactions of others and to be able to engage one another in conversations that are exploratory and inquisitive is the backbone of healthy conversations. It is through our observations that we come to our own ah-has. And this workshop is about discovering new places of possibility in yourself. Put yourself in reaction/observation mode. Feel welcome to share your wisdom with the group. 9:25-9:45 20 min Ice Breaker count the F Count the Fs activity & large group debrief Ok, let s get started. Keepers of the bag, now take out the white envelopes and the markers I am going to ask the champions to distribute the slips of paper and a marker to everyone in the group. Try to distribute the colors across the group. PLEASE DO NOT TURN IT OVER, DO NOT READ YOUR SENTENCE UNTIL I GIVE YOU THE INSTRUCTION TO DO SO (Hand out a variety of different colors to each group. This is very tricky so make sure we don t mess this up ) When everyone has a paper in your group, put up your hand Please turn your papers over and in the 7 seconds given, count the letter... um... F GO! Thanks, now turn your papers over and write the number of Fs that you counted on your paper on the back (co-facilitators encourage people to stop counting) Great, now can everyone pass their paper, sentence facing down, to the person on their right When you have received your new sentence, give THIS a read and count the number of F s If you for some reason come up with a different number, because mistakes do happen, just cross out their number and write in the correct answer F s Pens Slides with instructions and debrief 7 SLIDES TO. 6

When you have done that, pass your paper to the right and when you receive a slip, read the new sentence and count the number of F s Discuss exercise: Who has a sheet with the same number three times? Same number two times? Who had three different numbers? And of those that saw the same number 3 times, who had 3 twos? 3 threes? 3 fours? 3 fives? 3 sixes? Let s give a big applause to those who had 3 sixes why? You all have a sheet that has 3 sixes! Take a look (show solution on screen) Has everyone seen 6? If you haven t seen 6 yet, be brave and raise your hand. So how many of you (show of hands) felt pretty confident the first time you read your sentence and wrote the first number? And when you received the paper and you counted a different number how many of you thought oh jeez, that person made a mistake!.how many of you thought oh darn! I think I made a mistake yes we draw conclusions pretty quickly about right and wrong pretty quickly. How many of you, when you counted the same number as the person before you felt a sense of comfort, relief or affirmation? For a number of you this comfort may have been a bit misplaced as you had all read the SAME thing (e.g. 3 f s) but not the CORRECT things (all 6 f s) Debrief: (large group debrief for about )(slide) This exercise gives us a moment to observe a few things about ourselves, how we deal with confusion, conflicting information, a challenge etc. Take a moment and just think about your experience, what you were thinking and feeling So think back, how many of you when you got a different number thought they made a mistake? How many thought Oh I made a mistake! How many said Oh I wonder what s going on? Or did we fall into our conclusions about what was going on. Does that happen with email? If you observed the SAME number thought Oh we both got 3 threes that must mean we are right! 7

Think back to when you got the second sheet with a different number? What did you think? Did anyone get a sheet with a greater number? How sure were you of the reality that you saw in front of you? How many of you have used the expression but I saw it with my own eyes before... now you have cause to challenge whether that is a reliable source of information! How many of you, when you realized that the sentence was the same, assumed that the other person was wrong? Were you able to see the new answer? How many of you asked for help? Or shared your information with others? Interesting that most of us just try harder to understand... The reason most of us do not immediately count all the F s is that we are taught to read phonetically, which means that we are scanning for the F sound (as in fish, fashion, frog) and not the v sound as is vase, over, of The rule of thumb serves us most of the time, and allows us to read quickly, but doesn t always let us get it right. Debrief: (small group debrief with Champions for about 7-10 min) So what does this mean for us in our workplace? In conversation with our clients? With how we use email in our organization? Do we ever misinterpret the number of Fs? Make assumptions about who is right about the number of Fs? What about our conversations? Large group popcorn debrief of the conversations Anybody grab on to an aha? Anybody have something that might be fun to share with the large group? Sometimes we stop looking, stop listening when we think we know 8

9:45-9:55 10 min What are healthy conversations anyway? The champions have been working on getting a feel for what healthy conversations are and how we know when we are in them, and out of them. I think it is safe to say that they have come to notice that they are not as obvious to spot as we first thought... Their understanding of healthy conversations is evolving, as now, as you begin this journey, you will contribute to the common understanding of this concept. So while we explore this I encourage you to explore what is healthy for you. ()We thought that this may be more meaningful if your champion shared with you an experience of a healthy conversation 9:55-10:05 10 min Intro the tool This is just the beginning. So now that we have a shared vision of what healthy conversations are, how do we go about increasing them? We believe that by simply asking some well grounded questions, one can increase the health of a conversation. Just like in the F exercise, when we ask What is it that the other person was able to see? we were able to get a different count. These questions are found in a tool that we have created for you and would like to introduce to you now. Champions, please pass out the cards that are in the ziplock bags. We are going to go through the concept and the questions on each one of these cards one by one. But before we do so, I think that it will be easier to understand the tool and the questions if you have your own conversations to refer back to. Can you please take a moment to reflect on a conversation that you had recently that you wish would have been healthier. Take a moment to really remember the scenario and make it a clear, distinct memory. Choose a partner in your circle (Champions you can play along too!) and we ask that one person share their story with the other. This story will be the example that you as a pair will come back to as we go through the material 9

10:05-10:20 10 min Overview and personal mastery slides Great! Now let s take a look at this tool Summary slide of the 5D 2 min. As we go through the disciplines, I invite you to go back in your mind to that conversation you have just identified and ask yourself How does that fit? What might that discipline have brought to that conversation? 10:20-10:30 10 min 10:30-10:45 10:45-10:50 Mental Models (tree) Break Systems thinking (elephant) Personal Mastery slides - ()as per speakers notes Reflection Now I would like to invite you to take a look at the questions on the back of the personal mastery card With your learning partner, go back to the conversations that you chose as an example and see if you can answer the questions on the personal mastery cards What new possibilities could have emerged for you if you had asked these questions then? If time, ask for sharing of any ahha s Mental Models Slides 10 min as per speaker notes Systems Thinking Slides as per speaker notes 10

10:50-11:05 10 min Discussion with learning partners So we ve covered 3 of the 5 tools that we are going to touch on, personal mastery, mental models and systems thinking. We would like to invite you to explore with your learning partner how some of these tools could have contributed to your conversations. 11:05-11:10 11:10-11:15 Team Learning (frog) Shared Vision Team Learning Slides as per speaker notes Shared Vision Slides as per speaker notes ask for volunteers and 11:15-11:40 2 String puzzle Now we are going to do some experiential learning, which means that we are going to do an activity, and it is through the activity that each of you will find your own lessons and observations about yourself and the system. So we would like to invite you to: 1) listen carefully to the instructions and 2) be aware of your reactions and your processing of the task that we assign you. After we play with the challenge for about, we will pause, give you a chance to debrief, and then, if we haven t hit upon the solution yet, give it another try As is always the case, you are responsible for your learning, and taking this exercise, and your immersion in it to the extent that you feel challenged and comfortable. This exercise is a little physical, so if you would prefer to observe, please come and find one of us and we will ask you to play the role of observer Could everyone please get a string from their champion, and find a partner. If you have an odd number in your group, simply put up your hand in order to find a partner. Could both partners put their hands through their loops (demonstrate). This is how you want to end up at the end of the exercise...unattached and still friends! This is your desired end position (imagine you are stuck in an unhealthy conversation a triangle) Could one person of each pair link their string behind their partner s string (demonstrate) 11

Your challenge is to end up in your end position however there are a few guidelines... o You may not remove any of your hands from your loops o You may not cut or untie the string 2 min. Now your task is to somehow get back to the end position. 1 min Ok take a break (Encourage them to :break or pause or listen). Reflect on what you are experiencing o What mental models do you have at play at the moment? Does anyone have the mental model that this is impossible? How might that effect your thinking or your next steps? How about the mental model that trying the same thing more than once may lead to the answer? o What about personal mastery? Anyone feeling competitive? Foolish? How might that be influencing your participation right now? o How about your ability to pause? Have any of you continued even while I am talking? Are you sure that I am not revealing any information that might be of use to you? 2 min Ok try again (while they are trying, walk around the room either 1) giving hints to people or 2) asking champions/observers if they have the answer or letting people know that you have the answer) 1 min Reflect on what you are experiencing. o o How are you doing now? What is the system that you are working in? how many of you assumed that it was a system of 2 people? 12

2 min Ok try again (while they are trying, walk around the room either 1) giving hints to people or 2) asking champions/observers if they have the answer or letting people know that you have the answer) Ask people who have figured it out, to shout out HOURAY when they get it 1 min Reflect on what you are experiencing: o How are you doing now? o How did you feel when there were people who found the answer? Did you go and ask for help? Did you hold the mental model that you have to find the solution on your own, that asking for help was cheating? 10 min Debrief as a group First of all, here is the solution What learnings are coming forward for you? (focus the debrief using the language of the 5 disciplines and in particular the mental models at play, the effect on the system is someone got the answer, etc) Shared Vision Did we all have the same vision of success? How did we define free? Just me and my partner or the whole group? Mental Models What assumptions were being made? Lenses being used? How did the mental models at use open up or close down options? Systems Thinking The impact on the whole when one was free Team Learning sharing of information, coaching others 13

11:40-11:55 1 Discussion in plenary So what now? So what does all this mean to you? Popcorn this information from the room. The focus is on helping the essence of the learning to stick. What does today s learning offer to you day-to-day conversations? Which models do you think will be the most fun/important for you to play with? How can you use this material in the next week? What will you commit to? 11:55-12:00 Closing words Thanks to the service providers for coming! Please stand and introduce yourselves. What will happen after lunch This afternoon is about applying these tools to conversations that are pertinent to you. So we could have used a conversation about the Olympics or the Academy awards, but I think it is more impactful if you explore the tools in the context of conversations that are related to the work that you do. 12:00 1:00 1:00-2:15 Lunch Welcome back! Remember objectives from this morning: To create common language and understanding To learn about and practice using skills and tools to facilitate engaging in healthy conversations And this afternoon s objective is: To practice applying the 5 disciplines to the CCAC key corporate priorities 14

Let s head into a discussion about the reality that you are living at CCAC these days. As we head into this discussion, I am going to invite (senior director) to come forward and engage in conversation with you while I play a different role, the role of voice in your head. I will be pausing the conversation every once in a while to point out to you when we are using one of the disciplines, perhaps when we ve heard some mental models expressed, or we ll acknowledge what we know and what we don t know, etc. 2:15-2:30 2:30-3:00 30 min 3:00-3:30 30 min Break (Presentation on the key corporate project, issue, etc. by senior management) Ok, now let s put our tools back into practice I am going to ask you consider the presentation from 1 of 3 perspectives (have on slides) Examples of questions: Shared vision: What are the possibilities or opportunities that were not known before? Team Learning: What do you know about this project? What do you not know? System thinking: What impact do my actions have on other parts of the system? How can I support this project moving forward successfully? Tailor questions to the specific project, issue, etc. Break into small groups could either have each small group respond to each question or select certain groups to respond to one specific question Debrief discussion in plenary How was this a different conversation than what would typically happen? What value do the disciplines play in shifting conversations? 15

3:30-3:45 1 Evaluation Thanks everyone and thank you Champions for leading this discussion Keep in mind that these champions are here to support you. Feel free to contact them. But also consider how can you support them? You can bounce off some ideas/thoughts with them. They aren t set out to be experts; they are here to model learning. It s about how do I need to grow in my practice. Don t worry if anyone else gets it. Remember, you can find the list of champions on the CCAC intranet (Navigator) and service providers, this information will be sent to you in an email. Just try it: We encourage each of you to be patient with yourselves and with others as we practice May get it wrong, may stumble, may feel really awkward and uncomfortable How do we support each other in creating/developing/growing a respectful workplace where each of us thrives not just survives. Recognize when others are trying to practice. Acknowledge... be aware...find the value...seek it out Key takeaways: Change happens one conversation at a time. Five disciplines work together. Awareness: o It starts with you, not about changing others, what do you want/need to change about yourself; o In your next conversation (with yourself and with others) --- What will you do differently? What will you continue to do? What will you look for? Feedback: Please take a few minutes to complete the evaluation form. We have used your feedback to make changes as we are engaging more groups in these learning workshops. Thanks! 16