Today I got one of those calls. An AIW coach was heading into a leadership team meeting with a lot of anxiety and a full head of steam. To make a long story short, the school leadership kept passing the buck regarding follow through and had the ol'“everything is going fine” tune rolling around while team meeting conversation quality plummeted. After much discussion, here’s the agenda that clarified and energized leadership to get them back on track:
1) Go over minutes and action steps from the last meeting. (The whole point here is to use data to drive home the notion that one of the reasons we take minutes is to remind us what we said we would do by the next meeting.) Predictably this team didn’t have the minutes at hand, nor had they taken their action steps; however rather than anyone pointing this out, the data revealed the reality. No shame, no blame … just a reality check.
2) Next everyone got a chance to share what they had done. (This was in fact a non-agenda item, since the team talks more than they do).
3) Lastly, they did an activity called Collaborative Problem Solving. Each person starts with a piece of paper and describes what s/he thinks is the biggest problem with AIW at the site. After they finish writing, the coach collects the papers, then redistributes them. On these new pieces of paper each person picks up where the other person left off, describing how that problem has come about; again the coach collects and redistributes the papers. The next person adds to the understanding of the problem. The final two people have a different role: They offer concrete solutions. If your idea isn’t solved by the fourth person, you, as the final person, could offer another solution. Then you read the problem out loud to the group from start to end, with no sidebars, comments, or interpretations, ending with the concrete solutions listed.
The rationale is that by the end of the activity, the problems become collective situations with collaborative solutions. There is no fingerpointing or blaming — just clarity in how to move forward as a whole. Predictably, it worked at this site. Everyone, including the coach, left the meeting energized and excited to proceed.
What a great way to ring in the New Year!!
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Collaborative Problem Solving
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