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~ 1 ~
EDITORIAL: Winning from Losing
~ 2 ~ EVENTS: Active Reviewing
Workshops with Roger Greenaway
~ 3 ~ ARTICLE: The Losing or
Demoralised Group
~ 4 ~ ONLINE TRAINING COURSE:
Active Reviewing
~ 5 ~ TIPS: Six of the best ways to
introduce Active Reviewing
~ 6 ~ ARCHIVE: Learning from
Triumphs and Disasters
~ 7 ~ RECOMMENDED LINKS
~ 8 ~ PREVIOUS ISSUE and FUTURE
ISSUES
~ 9 ~ About Active Reviewing Tips
~ 1 ~ EDITORIAL: Winning
from Losing
When I first stepped on a windsurfer I fell in the
water. I quite like swimming and I didn't mind
entertaining friends on the beach with my continual
falling off. But I really wanted to learn how to
windsurf. At no point did I feel like a loser. I was
enjoying the challenge of learning a new sport
without a guidebook or an instructor. I was
such an "early adopter" that such learning "aids"
did not exist. Learning from experience was the only
option. And I became a winner.
Juggling was a different story. I have made several
false starts. I have always been disappointed
with my lack of success. The difficulties
overwhelmed my motivation to succeed and dented my
confidence in learning new skills..
As a learner-windsurfer I expected to fall off a
lot, but despite lots of setbacks I found myself
learning the skill much faster than I expected. As a
learner-juggler I expected to learn faster than I
actually did and my motivation to learn soon
dwindled.
Expectations matter. I once witnessed a juggler
coaching session. A trainee juggler dropped one of
her three balls. The coach said "Well done - you
caught two!" This seemed a bit odd to me at
the time, but the intention was transparently clear:
focus on achievements so that the learner can feel
like a winner by bringing their attention to
progress and to what is working well..
This appreciative approach can be extended to praise
effort:
"Well
done. You have just spent 30 minutes of
concentrated and determined practice. New habits
take time to develop and you are investing the
time and the right kind of practice that will
soon bring the results you want."
After a few days of falling off my windsurfer my
friend said:
"I've
been watching you. The gaps between your falls
are getting longer".
I felt so good! I just wanted to make those gaps
grow even more.
For more ways of applying the appreciative approach
to learning take a look at the section of my website
on "Reviewing
Success".
For tips about working with a whole group that feels
demoralised, scroll down to "The
Losing Group".
'Six of the best' continues below with "Six
of the best ways to introduce reviewing."
This is where you are just now - and a
special welcome if this is your first issue:
|
Active
Reviewing Tips is a free
newsletter from Roger Greenaway that will
help you to re-charge your reviewing and
facilitation skills.
Typical contents:
- a practical feature on reviewing tips
- links to sites about active learning
methods
- tips, comments and ideas from readers
- what's new in the Guide to Active
Reviewing at http://reviewing.co.uk
Maximum frequency: monthly. Average
frequency: quarterly.
"16 years of
promoting better learning experiences."
|
I welcome requests for topics you would like to
see included in Active Reviewing Tips, any questions
you would like to see answered in a FAQ, and
enquiries about trainer-training workshops (open or
in-house).
Roger Greenaway
roger@reviewing.co.uk
http://reviewing.co.uk
http://blog.reviewing.co.uk
where you will find this month's blog on "Rethinking
Experience
Based Events" 
~ 2 ~ EVENTS: Active Reviewing
Workshops with Roger Greenaway
The
Calendar of Reviewing Skills Training Workshops
provides the most up to date list of open/public
workshops provided by Roger Greenaway.
Active
Reviewing Online
Have you taken a look at my new online training
course on Active
Reviewing?
Please let me know what you think of the free
preview or of the whole course: roger@reviewing.co.uk
~ 3 ~ ARTICLE: The Losing
or Demoralised Group
The Losing (or Demoralised) Group
Which is the best
strategy to use in this situation?
by
Roger
Greenaway, Reviewing Skills Training
The Losing Group
is the third of a series of articles in which the
starting point is a situation that you might have
faced already or that you might face in the future
- as a facilitator of learning.
[Previous articles were The
Forgetful Navigator and We
Just
Want Fun.]
As you read through the article, please consider
which of these methods would be your own
favourite response to the situation. If your
favourite method is not described, please write to
roger@reviewing.co.uk
and share your own favourite.
SITUATION: THE
GROUP IS DOWN
The sense of being
"losers" may have come from events before the training
programme (eg back in the workplace) or from
events during the training
programme. Perhaps there was an inter-group
competition and your group came last. Or perhaps
your group is the only group on the training
programme but they have failed to complete a
number of challenges, or they have failed to solve
a number of problems and they feel like losers.
You sense that
this is not the right time for a full analysis of
the causes of failure because it might just become
a negative spiral triggering denial, blame,
defensiveness, despair - and not a lot of
learning. You know that when groups support
learning it can be a powerful dynamic. You also
know that demoralised groups can be at least as
powerful - in the other direction.
You wonder if
active reviewing might help? Might it raise energy
levels while helping the group learn and move
through this low point?
Here are some choices for you to consider...
Option 1: Turntable
Turntable offers an opportunity for
everyone to view the situation from different
perspectives. So rather than getting fixed in one
pessimistic viewpoint such as "We are losers",
everyone moves through different perspectives,
which can include "We are the real winners"..
To get best value from this exercise you need to
choose the different perspectives with some care.
But let's say you work with just two perspectives
"We are winners" and "We are losers". You have a
curved row of "winners" seats facing a curved row
of "losers" seats. Optionally (and recommended if
the group is more than 8) you can also have a
curved row of seats where people are simply
listening or represent "a balanced view". Let's
say you have a group of 9 plus yourself. You would
sit in the facilitator's seat. To your left would
be a row of "loser perspective" seats, then a row
of "balanced perspective" seats, then a row of
"winner perspective seats" to complete the circle
- meaning that the "winner" seats are on your
immediate right..
When the conversation begins, participants are
expected to represent the view that corresponds to
their seat. Every 90 seconds the facilitator
stands. This is a cue for everyone to move one
place to their left. One complete circuit will
take about 15 minutes. You can choose to join in
the rotation or stay in the facilitator's seat.
At the very end of the discussion (which is a
kind of role-play) invite everyone to stand behind
the chair which they feel most closely represents
their true perspective. In the jargon of role play
this is "de-roling". There is no need to continue
the discussion at this point, but encourage
everyone to look around to see where others stand.
This quick and simple final stage helps to get
everyone out of their last role and back to
reality.
Option 1 - with a focus on learning
Because the purpose of a training event is to
learn, a more relevant and interesting discussion
will arise if you focus on learning. For example:
one side becomes "We learn more when we
win/succeed", the next side becomes "We learn more
when we have mixed success", and the third
perspective becomes "We learn more when we
lose/fail".
Option 1 - on the theme of resilience
Or you could make it a discussion about
resilience with 3 or 4 positions/perspectives.
- Position 1: Resilience means try harder next
time.
- Position 2: Resilience means be smarter next
time.
- Position 3. Resilience means focus on the
positive.
- Position 4. Resilience means keep the right
goal in mind.
Would you try
helping a demoralised group out of their low point
by having them move through different
perspectives in a Turntable exercise? Would this
improve their mood and their learning?
Option 2: Missing Person
Rather than dwelling on the problem, Missing
Person focuses on the solution - even if
the solution is an imaginary one (to start with).
In Missing
Person you ask groups of about 5 people
to create a picture of a person who has the skills
qualities and attributes of the kind of person who
might help to bring more success to the group. You
add that the person should reflect strengths that
already exist in the group (but perhaps in greater
measure) as well as bringing in new talents and
powers that are not apparent in the group just
now. You also ask them to give the new person a
name as soon as possible in the process.
Indoors each subgroup needs a table top, a sheet
of flipchart paper and a mix of coloured felt
pens. Outdoors (ideally on a beach or in a forest)
the subgroups scavenge for items that can be
included in a sculpture of the Missing
Person.
The subgroups then introduce their person and say
why they would be a welcome part of the group. The
audience states why they would also welcome them.
Sometimes this is a suitable endpoint. At other
times you may want to ensure that the inspiration
of these imaginary people is turned into
action, by asking the whole group to share out
responsibilities for monitoring specific aspects
that they really want to see more of in their own
group. These responsibilities will be reviewed in
future reviews.
As soon as you introduce creativity into
reviewing there is a risk that it may not take off
in a useful direction (as well as the risk that it
might!). In my experience Missing
Person usually brings out humour,
honesty, useful learning and future direction. If
they have been failing as a whole group, rather
than giving them a whole group reviewing task at
which they might also fail, have them working in
groups of around 5 - because it is generally
easier to function as a group of 5 than as a group
of 8 or more. Also, there is no pass/fail mark
with a creative exercise. Most groups of 5 enjoy
presenting the person they have created.
If there is a reluctance to get involved because
it seems "silly", tell them that the amount of
silliness is entirely within their control, and
that the kind of person they create is their
responsibility. Remind them that if they do the
job well, it is a process that will help the group
turn round and move on.
Would you try helping
a demoralised group out of their low point by
having them create and introduce a Missing Person?
Would this improve their mood and their learning?
Option 3: Picture Postcards
A set of Picture Postcards can be used in
many ways to help with a reviewing process.
Whenever a picture is chosen and discussed it
lifts thoughts away from the immediate situation
and creates a fresh perspective from which to view
it. Pictures can be used in this particular
scenario to help a demoralised group plan their
way out of trouble.
The initial stage is to have the group select
pictures from a large pool of pictures. They are
all looking for three kinds of pictures.
- Picture that represent our current state.
- Pictures that represent our desired state.
- Pictures that represent the kind of journey
that might help us get from 'current' to
'desired' states.
These three groups of pictures are laid out on 3
separate tables, one by one as they are chosen by
any individual. This part of the process finishes
when there are 10-15 pictures on each of the three
tables.
Divide the group in two. One subgroup meets around
the "current state" pictures and is asked to choose
5 that best represent the current state ... while
the other subgroup is choosing the 5 pictures that
best represent the "desired state". When ready, each
subgroup then presents their choices to the other
subgroup.
Two new subgroups are formed by combining each half
of the "current" subgroup with each half of the
"desired" subgroup. Pictures from the "journey"
table are randomly divided in two and given to each
of the newly formed subgroups. Each subgroup works
independently to create an illustrated journey that
could help the whole group move from "current" to
"desired". Allow people to include extra pictures if
needed. When ready, each subgroup presents their
proposed illustrated journey to the other subgroup.
Keep the picture on display or take photos of them
because it will be useful to refer to these pictures
in a later review - to see whether such journeys
were attempted or whether the desired state came
into view or was realised in any way (or even
surpassed expectations).
Easy-to-remove sticky labels can be a useful extra
when working with pictures - to remind people of the
different meanings that have been assigned to each
picture.
Would you try
helping a demoralised group out of their low point
by having them reflect, imagine and plan using
picture postcards? Would this improve their mood
and their learning?
Option 4: Doing Nothing
Doing nothing is also an option. I have
found that most (but not all*) groups can readily
bounce back without the aid of the facilitator.
When they achieve this themselves without my help,
I ask them to explain to me how this happened. And
if their answer is short on detail, I explain that
I am curious, but they should be curious too -
because if they can establish and appreciate how
they got themselves from "demoralised" to
"energised", maybe that is a recipe they can use
in future. So although I might do nothing to
"rescue" the group, I do show a lot of interest in
how they "rescued" themselves. And my favourite
choice in this situation would be to use Storyline
which can be a very revealing way of charting a
journey of ups and downs - whether they are
individual ups and downs or group ups and downs
(or a mixture). Success
Chart can be another good option.
But the key option here is "doing nothing" and
letting the group sort themselves out.
Would you try
helping a demoralised group out of their low
point by doing nothing? (Even though you later
show an analytical interest if and when
they have succeeded.)
[* Although young groups can be highly resilient,
the younger the group, the more cautious I am
about "doing nothing" as a deliberate
strategy.]
Which option would you choose - and why?
Much depends on the situation and much depends on
your personal style. But each option has its own
risks (and merits!) - and there may well be better
ways of dealing with this situation. If your
favourite strategy is not described above, please
write to roger@reviewing.co.uk
and share your own favourite.
Further Reference
You can find other versions of the methods
described above at reviewing.co.uk
See the Online
Active
Reviewing Course for a video-based
presentation of Missing
Person which is is one of the 8 methods in
the course.
More Tips
Scroll down for "Six of the best
ways to introduce Active Reviewing".
and for the archived pdf on "Learning
from Triumphs and Disasters".
~ 4 ~ ONLINE TRAINING COURSE:
Active Reviewing
Taking part in
this online course will enable you ...
- To engage your students' full set of learning
skills so that their learning is rapid,
significant and memorable.
- To inspire long lasting results by generating
immersive learning experiences.
- To become an expert in facilitating learning
from experience.
- To master the Active Reviewing Toolkit
(A.R.T.), a selection of versatile reviewing
techniques.
- To use tools such as the Horseshoe, the
Activity Map, Action Replay and others in order
to engage and empower your students.
You can view the full course content and sample
the training videos for free by visiting ActiveReviewing.com where you
will also find reviews of the course by Sivasailam
Thiagarajan (Thiagi), Andi Roberts, Cliff Knapp and
Ginette Biolan.
~ 5 ~ TIPS: Six of the
best ways to introduce Active Reviewing
1. Just do it:
demonstrate Active Reviewing
You can demonstrate Active Reviewing without first
doing an activity. This is because participants are
likely to have already had plenty of experiences
that are relevant to your programme. And they can
select an experience to share through Active
Reviewing. You might say something like this:
"This
course is about how to better deal with x. But
none of you are starting at point zero: you have
all had some success already in dealing with x.
So I would like you all to think of an example
that you are happy to present that describes an
occasion when you were fairly pleased with how
you dealt with x."
You then introduce Storyline
and you ask participants to share their story in
pairs or small groups using Storyline.
Some stories can also be shared in the wider group
if people are happy to do so.
After this session you can explain that Storyline
was an Active Reviewing technique: it helped people
to reflect, visualise and present their story as
they walked along the ups and downs of their
storyline.
You can apply much the same principle by using Spokes after a
group's first group challenge. This Active Reviewing
method takes people quickly into a visual, scaled
and movement-based form of positive feedback. And
after Spokes
you can explain how this is an Active Reviewing
technique.
2. Explain the value of Active Reviewing
Explain that learning from experience is often
described as a cycle. One of the simplest versions
is a 3 part cycle: Experience - Reflection -
Learning. Explain that the Experience is often
highly engaging, but that in many training
programmes the other parts of the cycle are not as
engaging as they should be. Active Reviewing
is a set of principles and methods that aims to
maintain high levels of engagement throughout the
process of learning from experience. If, after the
"experience", people switch
off or become too passive or dependent, not
much learning is going to happen.
You may want to add that Active Reviewing is also
about switching
on as much of our learning capacity as we
can. That includes our senses, intelligences and
skills. It includes divergent as well as convergent
thinking. It includes critical and appreciative
thinking. It includes reflecting and communicating
using a range of different media. Not only does
Active Reviewing help people learn from recent
experiences, it also helps to develop their capacity
to learn from future experiences.
And if you want to make it a little more down to
earth, explain that the training programme is a
practical one designed to help people do things
differently. It is not about solving problems in an
ivory tower. It aims to bring the worlds of action
and learning close together so that learning comes
from action and learning is turned into further
action. Active Reviewing helps to bring these worlds
of learning and action closer together.
3. Everyone shares examples of how they have
learned by reflecting on experience
A set of Brief
Encounters questions can help to bring out
these stories in brief one to one conversations (or
even in the wider group). Questions might include:
- Has a setback ever increased your
determination to succeed? And did reflection
have any part to play in this?
- Have you ever taken part in group-problem
solving? What kind of reflection did this
involve?
- Have you ever experimented with a recipe or
tried making your own music? What part did
reflection play?
- Have you ever taken on a challenge simply
because it was a challenge? What did you take
away from this experience? (and how?)
- Have you ever received unexpected praise or
more praise than you expected? How did you
respond to this feedback internally and
externally?
- How do you like to learn a new practical
skill? What works best for you?
- Do you ever gesture or draw diagrams or
rearrange objects when communicating an
experience to others? If so, is it more to help
you think or to help you communicate?
Some of these kinds of questions might lead to
conversations about the value of reviewing (which is
OK!) and some may also include aspects of active
reviewing (which is even better!)
4. Give evidence / examples of how Active
Reviewing has worked well for other people
Your own examples (as a facilitator or as a
participant) will have the most impact.
If working with managers I would give examples from
their world, such as how the biggest impact for one
manager taking part in an outdoor management
development programme was a reviewing session in
which he chose to make a finger painting about the
balances in his life and how he would like to change
them. I might share an example of how Action Replay
has helped to repair conflict or how Future Walking
has allowed managers to experience
overcoming challenges that lie ahead.
If working with young people I might describe how an
Action Replay was the highlight of an outdoor
programme for one group I worked with. I might
describe how the making and receiving of Gifts
has been greatly enjoyed and valued. Or how a youth
group reflected on life in their local community and
created and performed their own version of John
Lennon's Imagine. These were all powerful kinds of
Active Reviewing.
5. Tell your own before-and-after story about why
you changed from all-talk reviewing to more
active reviewing
I might explain how I used Rounds,
tried out some variations and then discovered Talking Knot
which is a great alternative that keeps people
active and lets people join in when they are ready,
not when it is their turn and they don't feel ready
to speak.
I used to despair of clichéd discussions about
teamwork: now I am more likely to use Moving
Stones because it makes it so much easier
to talk about team dynamics with a dynamic visual
aid - a simple tool that readily enhances the
quality of thinking and communication.
I used to try coaxing people to express their
feelings, but now I will often choose Empathy
Test because it is a game-like way into the
world of feelings - that can be as gentle or as
tough as you want it to be.
Or I might explain how (and why) I shifted from
flipchart reviews to Missing
Person:
"A
long time ago - and before I had come up with
the Missing Person technique, my
typical-but-not-very-inspiring way of reviewing
a "failure" was to collect two lists of words on
a flipchart. One list was "things we did well".
The other list was "things we didn't do well".
The merit of this approach was that it
encouraged a balanced view rather than a totally
negative one. The huge downside was that
compiling lists is not a very stimulating or
satisfying exercise and it readily brings out
superficial labels and clichés that are soon
forgotten.
By contrast, the Missing Person gets remembered
and is a classic example of 'the more you put
in, the more you get out'. This principle
applies to the reviewing process as much as it
does to the rest of life."
6. When you
present the programme outline, include the planned
content of the reviewing sessions as well as the
planned content of the other sessions.
Take a good look at the programme outline
which you present to your participants. Does it
mention reviewing and allocate time for it? Does it
describe the likely format of each reviewing
session? If you have been a reader of Active
Reviewing Tips for some time, perhaps it does. But I
have seen plenty of training programmes where there
is substantial detail about the "content" but no
information about the "review" or the "debrief".
One reason for keeping the review vague and open is
that trainer-facilitators like to be flexible and
responsive. But what flexibility do you lose by
presenting your Plan A (for reviewing sessions) if
you also reserve the right to change to some other
plan if when the time comes you feel you can improve
on Plan A?
So you can write in your (provisional) Plan A
reviewing techniques into the sessions that
currently have the one word description "Review" or
"Debrief".
Then when you present your outline programme it can
include examples of Active Reviewing Techniques that
you are planning to use at particular points in the
programme. This does not need to be a thorough or
detailed explanation.
Just the names "Action Replay", "Turntable",
"Missing Person", "Back to the Future" or
"Metaphor Map" arouse more curiosity, interest and
anticipation than simply having the
so-ordinary-it's-invisible word "review" in the
programme.
But you may also want to mix in a bit of strategy 2
above and explain that:
"These
are examples of “Active Reviewing” - an approach
to reviewing which is not just an
intellectual exercise. It involves thinking
aloud with others. It includes physical
movement. It involves communicating in ways that
engage multiple senses and intelligences. It
uses and develops a broad range of learning
skills. And Active Reviewing also means testing
out what you think you have learned which
increases the chances that you will actually use
what you are learning."
Choose you
favourite from these "Six of the
Best", try it out and let me know how it went.
And if you already have a favourite way of
introducing Active Reviewing that you would like to
share, please write to roger@reviewing.co.uk
and this "Six of the best" might even grow into a
top ten!
Further Reference
~ 6 ~ ARCHIVE: Learning from
Triumphs and Disasters
Download
"Learning
from Triumphs and Disasters" pdf (8
pages)
The "disasters" section of this article provides
you with more reviewing options for working with a
"demoralised" group. I see "disasters" as more
extreme than feeling "demoralised" but much hte
same strategies apply across the whole spectrum of
"disappointment".
~ 7 ~ RECOMMENDED LINKS
PODCAST
What
does
it mean to be a great training facilitator?
This is a trainer-tools
podcast in which John Tomlinson interviews Nick Eve
who runs the Facilitator
Development
Programme. Nick uses a range of visual
analogies (that make up for the absence of real
pictures in a podcast!) - starting with the Iceberg
and looking above and below the surface. His
emphasis is on the observation skills of the
facilitator and how different kinds of observation
make different kinds of facilitation possible.
Sometimes it simply involves on drawing attention
to what you see "above the surface" such as "I
notice that two people haven't spoken yet. How's
that for the group?". Nick also takes the listener
below the surface to interpretation and
self-observation and how to make such perspectives
available to the group
I found Nick's clarifications about content and
process very helpful (even though I wanted to butt
in and ask what happens when the process becomes the
content). Nick's closing remarks have caused me to
review my own practice because he advises people to
sort out facilitation fundamentals before getting
into tools and techniques. I generally like to mix
these together, but I can also recall occasions when
I might have done better to have heeded Nick's
advice. If you want facilitation practice and
feedback with Nick in a small group setting plus an
ILM certificate, be sure to listen to this podcast
and explore Nick's Elements
website.
THIAGI's ONLINE
LEARNING ACADEMY (TOLA)
Thiagi has recently launched his TOLA
platform of "blended eLearning courses on different
topics designed and delivered by our colleagues who
are experts in their fields." These are the first
online courses to be published:
- IMPROV for Business
- Intelligent Group Decision-making
- Presentation Skills: how to impact and
influence your audience
- SMART as HELL: creating smart goals that work
- The Cost Challenge: understanding how costs
work and can make your career
If you try
out one of these courses, you are welcome to offer a
review here. I have yet to review any of these
courses but I have yet to be disappointed by
the quality of any trainer-training resource with
Thiagi's name on it.
~ 8 ~ PREVIOUS ISSUE and FUTURE
ISSUES
See the previous issue of Active Reviewing Tips:
"We Just Want
Fun!"
Topics under consideration for future issues
include:
- The Active Reviewing Cycle: update
- Making the case for active reviewing
- Making reviewing a memorable experience
- Reviewing as a takeaway skill for participants
- Evaluating Active Reviewing: how well does it
work?
- Reviewing for different outcomes (using the
same activities)
- End of programme reviews
- Co-facilitating reviews
- The art of improvising
- Remote Reviewing
- Reviewing over a cup of tea (informal
reviewing)
- Readers' Questions about Reviewing (please
feed me with questions for this 'FAQ')
- Sample designs for learning and development
- Integrated practice in experiential learning
(when does an activity become a review? when
does a review become an activity? examples of
integrated practice - and do these
challenge or demonstrate experiential learning
theory?)
Please write to roger@reviewing.co.uk
if you have any topics you would like to see
included or put at the top of this list (which is
not yet in any particular order).
~ 9 ~ About Active Reviewing
Tips
TITLE: Active Reviewing Tips for Dynamic
Experiential Learning
ISSN: 1465-8046
EDITOR: Dr. Roger Greenaway, Reviewing Skills
Training
EMAIL: roger@reviewing.co.uk
Feedback welcome
ARCHIVES: Index
of
back issues
HOME PAGE: Active
Reviewing
"I like the way
you look at everything and then return to what is
simple, effective and memorable."
"You always have material I don't want to miss."
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