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Fri, Sep 28, 2007

Group Counting Redux: Behind the Curtain    #

When KathiaLaszlo asked me to be a guest "lecturer" for her class, "Evolutionary Leadership, Collaboration, and Systems Thinking," I jumped at the opportunity. Kathia and her husband, AlexanderLaszlo, speak my language when it comes to collaboration and learning, and I was as excited to learn from them as I was to practice my craft with their class.    (MLW)

I had a difficult problem, though. What could I possibly do in two hours that was meaningful and interactive?    (MLX)

When I design a workshop, my goal is not to teach, but to create a space for collaborative learning. When done well, the experience is far more meaningful and engaging, and it results in deeper learning, both for the participants and for me, the facilitator. As much as I know about collaboration, groups know more. The design challenge is figuring out how to tap the CollectiveWisdom? of the group rather than broadcast my own knowledge.    (MLY)

The design ultimately depends on the size and makeup of the group, its familiarity with the topic, and the amount of SharedLanguage on that topic within the group. In this case, the class had just started, and it met infrequently. The students were familiar with the topic of collaboration, but they had not yet established a high-level of SharedLanguage about the topic.    (MLZ)

My game plan was simple. I expected the students to be intelligent and introspective. I would focus on modeling collaborative behavior and on building the groundwork for SharedLanguage. I would accelerate the SharedLanguage process by explicitly making it the goal of the exercises, something I rarely do when I have more time. And I would count on the students to synthesize their learning on their own time, rather than as a group.    (MM0)

We spent the first half hour working on a group counting exercise, which I first learned from DeborahMeehan. The game is normally played as an icebreaker, but when I saw Deborah lead it, she always followed it with a debrief, which seemed appropriate, given her emphasis on leadership. Since this class was also about leadership, I thought I'd have an extensive debrief as well as a few twists on the game.    (MM1)

Previously, I wrote:    (MM2)

When you play the game a few times, you'll notice a few things. First, the group typically learns from experience. If a pattern emerges, the group often repeats it. Second, because there is no time to prepare in a typically hierarchical process beforehand (i.e. "Let's figure out our strategy!), leadership needs to emerge in different ways. For example, someone could start the pattern of raising his or her hand before naming a number.    (MM4)

There were about 40 people in the classroom. I wanted the group to play the game a few times, then think about these strategies in silence. I then would ask them to play with their eyes closed, figuring that all of the potential strategies required some visual cue.    (MM5)

However, someone in the class outsmarted me before we even started to play. After explaining the rules, I asked if anyone had any questions. One woman raised her hand and asked, "Is there anything preventing us from going around the room in order?" I smiled and ignored her question, but this is what was actually going through my head:    (MM6)

• "Damn it. Shouldn't have asked if they had any questions."    (MM7)
• "It's all good. Just because someone proposed it, doesn't mean the group will actually do it."    (MM8)
• "Even if they do it in a circle, it's still good learning. We'll just play a second time and explicitly disallow it."    (MM9)
• "Okay, now that that's resolved, pretend that the question didn't throw you."    (MMA)

Ah, the joys of facilitation.    (MMB)

Here's what ended up happening:    (MMC)

• The first time, after I said "one," two people immediately jumped in with "two," forcing us to start over.    (MMD)
• The second time, people tried to play the game randomly, and we choked quickly.    (MME)
• The third time, we started going in a circle. About a third of the way through, however, the next person in line decided to break the circle and not say anything, defaulting the group to more typical game play. We choked quickly after that.    (MMF)
• I then asked people to spend a minute thinking of strategies, then asked them to close their eyes and listen to their breathing. We got to the mid-20s before we failed.    (MMG)
• I decided to try playing the game one more time with our eyes closed, but the class was obviously sick of it at this point, as we ended up going around in a circle.    (MMH)

We closed with a wonderful debrief. I asked the woman who broke the circle the first time around why she did it, and she said that she didn't think it would be very interesting. Several people echoed her comments, saying that their motivation was more to see what happened than to "win" the game.    (MMI)

Several people noted that when we started, people were jumping in, because they wanted to make sure they got their number out of the way. When we closed our eyes, however, the energy shifted away from being heard to listening to others. The pace slowed down, and even though we weren't successful, there was a rhythm that felt more promising.    (MMJ)

One student was reminded of an experience he had had in a group, where he decided to suppress his usual "leadership" instinct and just listen. To his surprise, everything that he had wanted to say was said by others. He concluded, "Sometimes the best thing you can do is be a follower."    (MMK)

His story resonated with me in many ways, not the least of which was this very debriefing session, where I didn't state a single observation. It was unnecessary. However, I didn't completely agree with the student's final comment. I approached him afterwards, told him how much I loved his story, but added, "I have to disagree with one thing. When you decided to just listen, you weren't being a follower. You were still being a leader, maybe even moreso."    (MML)

In my next post, I'll conclude my summary and commentary of the class.    (MMM)

/collaboration | Posted at 4:24pm

Guest "Lecture" at the Presidio School of Management    #

Last Friday, I had the pleasure of guest "facilitating" KathiaLaszlo and AlexanderLaszlo's class, "Evolutionary Leadership, Collaboration, and Systems Thinking," part of the Presidio School of Management MBA program. I sat in on the first part of the class, where the students did report-outs on FritjofCapra's Hidden Dimensions, followed by a lecture on system dynamics by TyCashman. I then took over the remaining two hours of the class, leading them through some exercises designed to tap their collective wisdom about collaboration and leadership. Pictures from the day are on Flickr.    (MLM)

The Presidio School of Management is my kind of school. Kathia and Alexander aren't "professors," at least according to the course description. They're "learning facilitators," and they're damn good at it. I met both of them last year on the planning committee for ISSS 2006, where I was struck by how much they knew and how playful they were. They preach what they practice in a way that you almost never see in other academics.    (MLN)

This was evident in their class from the get-go. They didn't lecture about the assigned reading, Capra's book. Instead, they had two groups create their own learning exercises for the entire class based on specific themes.    (MLO)

The first group offered some quick commentary on several themes of the book, then divided the class into breakout groups to discuss each theme. Each group had about ten people and about ten minutes to talk. There were some provocative comments, but the discussion predictably lacked cohesion. More on this in a later post.    (MLP)

The second group invented a board game called, "The Web of Life." One of the creators explained, tongue-in-cheek, "It's almost like you'll be competing with each other... in a collaborative way." There were two alternating sets of questions, which were drawn from Capra's book. They ranged from multiple choice to charades. (The charades word was "autopoesis"! Stunningly, the team got it right!)    (MLQ)

   (MLR)

There were multiple pairs of team "competing" against each other. Each team was assigned a color, and the teams alternated turns/questions. When a team got a question right, it got to draw a colored line on a hexagonal board. When a team closed a hexagon, it filled it in with its color.    (MLS)

The questions were engaging and fun, a great way to see who had actually done the reading, and the creators were surprised to see collaborative behavior emerge from the final game board. First, a group consisting of members from each team self-organized to draw the lines. Second, most of the teams chose to share filled-in colors, rather than occupy the entire hexagon themselves. Perhaps the only sign of outright competitiveness was the purple team, who repeatedly scribbled, "Purple rules!"    (MLT)

   (MLU)

In my next two posts, I'll describe the group counting and other exercises I led in the class.    (MLV)

/collaboration | Posted at 4:22pm

Fri, Sep 21, 2007

She's Geeky, October 22-23    #

The tireless and talented KaliyaHamlin is organizing a new gathering: She's Geeky, coming October 22-23, 2007 at the ComputerHistoryMuseum in MountainView:    (MLA)

BlueOxenAssociates just signed on as a sponsor. But, I'm not allowed to register. Why? Registrations are for women only. Am I okay with that? Absolutely.    (MLD)

IntimacyGradients are critical for effective collaboration. I spend a lot of time teaching groups how to be more open; no one needs a lesson on how to be more closed. But there are times when being closed has value.    (MLE)

I've expressed my admiration for BlogHer many times. Their conference has been open to both women and men from the beginning, and I think it's worked in their favor. But their ad network is for women bloggers only. Is that a bad thing?    (MLF)

Similarly, whatever gets blogged or recorded on the Wiki at She's Geeky will be open to all. It's just that only women will be allowed to attend.    (MLG)

Women are a huge minority in technology. Regardless of why that is, there are many good reasons why women in technology should collaborate more with each other. Sometimes, the best way to kick start that is to create a safe space. That's what She's Geeky is all about.    (MLH)

Speaking of women in technology, LloydBudd recently blogged about LeslieHawthorn, another person whose praises I've sung on many occasions. Leslie is a classic YellowThread, someone who deserves much celebration.    (MLI)

/events | Posted at 12:29am

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