CEPA Conference, 2016
Workshop Title
/ All For One & One For All: Exploring the Tips, Tricks & Travails of Communications & NetworkingWorkshop Description / In this dynamic and interactive session, participants will have an opportunity to work collaboratively to explore matters of common interest. Relationships, structures and processes will be harnessed to facilitate, among other things, the surfacing of “sticky” issues that can plague effective communications and networking and the highlighting of scalable, replicable and promising practices that support our work.
Audience (& Size) / CEPA Conference participants (25)
Facilitator
/
Ian Pettigrew
Date/
Tuesday, June 13, 2016
Time / Length/
4 hours (180 mins)
Location /King Eddy Hotel, Toronto, Ontario
Goals(Relational and Rational) / By the end of the session, participants will…
…feel it was a safe space in which to share and work together (relational)
…gain some practical ideas and strategies to support effective communications and networking (rational)
Master Materials List / Materials:
- Laptop, projector and screen
- Markers
- Masking tape
- Chart paper
- 4-Page Working Booklet
- Annual Review: Ups and Downsblank template
- First Turn, Last Turn guidelines
- Here’s What! So What? Now What? blank template
- Our Brand is Crisis trailer (2:31):
- Over the Hedge (1:14):
- Toy Story #1 (:55):
- Toy Story #2 (3:11):
- Ants vs Anteater (:27)
- Penguins vs Killer Whale(:26):
- EDS ad – Herding Cats (1:00):
Time
(mins.) / Segment and Activity Sequence / Materials Required / Participants’ Artefacts
5 /
Introduction and Opening: Entering the “Territory”
Description: In this segment, participants will understand the main foundations for the workshopFocus Question: How will we work, share and learn together in this workshop?
Post five table groups and invite participants to seat themselves at the assigned table.
Welcome everyone to the session and describe my role as facilitator and their roles as participants:
Key message: If this session was a Himalayan mountain climbing expedition, my role would be as your Sherpa. I can help map a safe way up the mountain, but you have to make the climb or scale the mountain. Put another way, you will be the actors in this 5 act workshop and I will play the stage manager. So….this will not be a sit-and-get session.
Review Approx-Agendaand SessionGoals
Surface and seek support for Working Assumptions
Invite participants to individually skim the quotations on the handout provided and select ONE quotation – related to communications/networking – that resonates with them. It can reconate because they agree or disagree with all or part of it.
When participants are ready to share, ask them to find another person, not from their own organization and someone with whom they have had less interaction so far during the conference, and share their thinking about the quotation with each other.
Ask them to repeat this process with at least one other person, then return to their seats.
Protocol(s):Approx-Agenda; Working Assumptions; / Handouts:
4-Page Working Booklet
15 / Minds On, Part One: Making Connections
Description: In this segment, participants will make connections between their own experience withcommunication and networking and a film clip and quotations.
Focus Question: What connections are you making between your work and context and the media we’re viewing/reading, with respect tocommunicating and/or networking?
Invite participants to record the following on a small sheet of paper:
(At the top of the sheet): “Our work is LIKE Our Brand is Crisis (2:31) because…”
(Halfway down the sheet): “Our work is NOT LIKE OurBrand is Crisis (2:31) because…”
Then, ask each participant to think how they would complete each of the above themes as they watch he Our Brand is Crisis (2:31) trailer.
Show Our Brand is Crisis clip.
At the end, provide a few minutes for participants to record their thoughts for each stem and then invite them to share their ideas at their own tables.
Invite any volunteers to share their idea(s) with the whole group.
Now,invite participants to skim the quotations in their Working Booklet provided and select ONE quotation – related to communications/networking – that resonates with them.
To begin, invite each participant to find another person, not from their own organization and someone with whom they have had less interaction so far during the conference, and take turns sharing their thinking about the quotation with each other.
Repeat this twice and then invite them to return to their seats.
Protocol(s):Synectics / Handouts:
4-Page Working Booklet
Media:
Our Brand is Crisis trailer
Material:
25 x small blank sheet of paper
10 / Minds On, Part Two: Taking Stock – The Year in Review
Description: In this segment, participants will reflect on their own organization’s or department’s perceived highs and lows, throughout the past year, with respect to communication and networking.
Focus Question: Reflecting on the past year and using the handout Annual Review: Ups and Downs, assess your organization’s or department’s perceived highs and lows with respect to communicating and/or networking.
Use the Over the Hedge clip (slow motion): to contextualize this segment (i.e. opportunity to reflect on the successes and challenges of the past year).
Distribute one copy of the blank Annual Review: Ups and Downs template to each participant
Invite participants to take a few minutes to individually conduct an Annual Review: Ups and Downs of their organization’s or department’s communications/networking plan in 2015-2016.
Key message: The assessment is meant to help participants get the most of the balance of the session. The assessment will not be a public report card or shared.
Protocol(s):Annual Review: Ups and Downs / Media:
Over the Hedge clip
Handouts:
25 x Annual Review: Ups and Downs blank template
20 /
Action - Overcoming inSIDious Challenges: From Obstacles to Opportunities
Description: In this segment, participants will have a forum in which to showcase promising practices they used to overcome communication and networkinghurdles and challenges this past year (with their members and/or with external agencies/third parties).Focus Question: What are strategies/tactics/resources, etc. that you successfully harnessed to overcome a significant communications or networking challenge this year?
Show Toy Story clips and make connection to title (and purpose) of the session.
Provide “think time” for participants to review what they noted on their Annual Review template.
Then, refer to the First Turn, Last Turn guidelines on their table. Review the process for sharing making sure to emphasize the “no cross-talk” proviso.
Ask table groups to determine the order in which people will share their “challenge and solution”.
Debrief using a Focused Conversation. Invite participants to respond the following series of questions (asked one at a time).
Objective: In one or two words, how would you describe the First Turn, Last Turn
protocol?(This is a “no because” level of question. Just have participants share the word without qualifying “why”)
Reflective: How did you feel while you were participating in the protocol and sharing?
Interpretive: a) What might be the potential benefits for participants of using the First Turn, Last Turn
protocol? b) What might be the potential pitfalls or drawbacks for participants of using the First Turn, Last Turn protocol?
Decisional: How would you use it in your context or role?
Protocols: First Turn, Last Turn; Round-Robin; Focused Conversation / Media:
2 Toy Story clips
Handouts:
10 x First Turn, Last Turn guidelines
30 / Action -“Sticky” Problems: Tackling the “Toughies”
Description: In this segment, participants will have an opportunity to harness their expertise and leverage their experience to help colleagues problem-solve “sticky” issues that may have plagued (and may still be plaguing) them this year.
Focus Question: “What professional challenge – related to communications and/or networking- is (still)’keeping you up at night’? How can we leverage the expertise of CEPA colleagues to surmount these obstacles?”
To set the context and “feel” for this segment and to emphasize the idea of working together to overcome challenges, show these clips:
- Ants vs Anteater (:27):
- Penguins vs Killer Whale (:26):
Review the HW/SW/NW protocol.
Invite participants to replicate the template on a piece of chart paper and post it in the room near their table. Ask them to record their table # at the top of the sheet for future reference (and artefact gathering/posting on the CEPA website).
Key message: Remember to select a “sticky” problem which is within the sphere of your influence or locus of your control or that of your organization.
Round 1: Invite each table group to visit the next table group’s sticky problems and provide constructive ways (balance between wildly creative and pragmatic) that potentially could be leveraged to surmount the obstacle (“sticky” problem).
Round 2: Invite each table group to a second table group’s sticky problems and provide additionalconstructive ways (if they can think of any that the first table group overlooked) that potentially could be leveraged to surmount the obstacle (“sticky” problem) [Note: Round 2 should be much briefer than Round 1].
Time permitting, debrief with a Focused Conversation. Invite participants to respond the following series of questions (asked one at a time).
Objective: In one or two words, how would you describe the First Turn, Last Turn
protocol? (This is a “no because” level of question. Just have participants share their chosen word without qualifying “why”).
Reflective: How did you feel while you were participating in the protocol and sharing?
Interpretive: a) What might be the potential benefits for participants of using the First Turn, Last Turn
protocol? b) What might be the potential pitfalls or drawbacks for participants of using the First Turn, Last Turn protocol?
Decisional: How would you use the protocol in your own context or role?
Protocol(s):Here’s What! So What? Now What?; Graffiti / Media:
Ants vs Anteater (:27):
Penguins vs Killer Whale (:26):
Handouts:
10 xHere’s What! So What? Now What?blanktemplate
Material:
Masking tape
25 x Chart Paper
5 x “sticky” notes pads
15 / INTERMISSION (Break)
60 / Action - Standing “O”: A Showcase of Excellence
Description: In this segment, participants will have an opportunity to share with their colleagues their most significant communications/networking triumph of the year.
Focus Question: With reference to an artefact (hard copy or virtual), what’s your organization’s biggest “feather in your cap” this year?
Invite participants to provide brief (5-min) updates of items of prowess that would be helpful for other organizations to see or hear about.
Protocol(s): Stand and Deliver
5 / Debrief – Consolidation & Reflection
Description: In this segment, participants will reflect on the workshop and share their experiences.
Focus Questions: What did we accomplish together in this workshop? What are your own take-aways?
Refer to “Sources for Facilitation Protocols” section on the back page of the Working Booklet and highlight key resources used to support the protocols used throughout the workshop.
Then, ask participants to refer back to the two session goals and for each one (when prompted) indicate using the Fist (not well at all)-to-Five (really well) how well the facilitator met each of the goals.
Goals:
- By the end of the session, participants will feel it was a safe space in which to share and work together (relational)
- By the end of the session, participants will gain some practical ideas and strategies to support effective communications and networking (rational)
Objective:If you were creating a “highlights reel” of the workshop, what is ONE moment you would want to capture? (This is a “no because” level of question. Just have participants share the word without qualifying “why”)
Reflective: a) At what point in the workshop did you feel MOST engaged? b) LEAST engaged?
Interpretive: a) What is ONE idea that emerged during the workshop that you might want to explore further?
Decisional:What is ONE thing from the workshop that you are committed to trying out in your context or role?
End with a thanks to the participants and show EDS ad Herding Cats(1:00):
Protocol(s):Fist-to-Five Feedback;Focused Conversation / Handouts:
Working Booklet
Media:
EDS ad: “Herding Cats” clip