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1.3
Anticipating Conflict and Forming Group Guidelines
Submitted By Shannon Wheatley Hartman
This activity empowers group members to anticipate potential conflict in group discussions and create guidelines that will address these concerns and bring out the best characteristics of the group.
Learning Goals
Anticipate group dynamics with a specific focus on potential group conflict.
Work together as a group to establish guiding principles.
Instructions
Set Up: Prepare for the Activity
Organize the participants into pairs or small groups (5-6 ppl).
If the group completed Activity 1.1 What is Collaborative Learning?, then use the lists of positive and negative attributes as a starting point for this activity.
Begin by introducing the learning goals of this activity.
Step One: Generate Lists of Positive & Negative Attributes (10 min)
Invite participants to think back to a time when they were working with others on a project. In pairs or small groups, ask them to generate a written list of both positive and negative traits that they associate with collaboration. Do not debate or discuss the validity of contributions. Generate broad lists. Prompts:
What made the collaboration work well? Ex: clear communication, shared goals, feelings of inclusion or trust.
What made the collaboration challenging? Ex: dominating personalities, power dynamics, no follow through of tasks.
Step Two: Prioritize Attributes (10 min)
In pairs or small groups, ask participants to discuss which of the negative attributes they are most concerned about. Prompt:
Which negative attributes are most likely to occur in our discussions or with our particular collaboration? Select the top three concerns or negative attributes.
When finished, repeat this process but focus on positive attributes. Again, ask participants to reflect on this particular group and decide which positive traits would be most helpful. Prompt:
Which positive attributes would benefit our discussions the most? Select the top three positive traits or attributes.
Step Three: Discuss as a Full Group (10 min)
Regroup as a whole and invite each small group to share their top three positive and negative attributes. Discuss:
Where do we see overlap or common themes?
As we review our consolidated lists, what might be missing?
What are the top five positive or negative traits for our group as a whole?
Step Four: Craft Guiding Principles (20 min)
Once the group has identified approximately their top five traits (positive or negative), create a space where they can craft sample guidelines that reflect these traits. This could be done on a white board or shared google document. For example:
If the concern is “negativity,” then the guideline might be “Bring your positive attitude and energy. Have fun!”
If the concern is “dominating personalities,” then the guideline might be “Make room for everyone to be heard. Listen to understand.”
If the positive trait is trust, then the guideline might be “Respect our community. Critique ideas, not people.”
Step Five: Debrief as a Full Group (10 min)
Discuss:
How often should we revisit this list?
What should be our process if someone violates our stated principles?
When are guidelines limiting and/or unproductive?
How might we adjust in anticipation to these concerns?
TIME
60
min
MODULE
Introduction to Collaborative Discussion
This activity can be completed by any discussion group.
This activity can be easily modified for asynchronous learning. See Sample Asynchronous Certificate Program Design to illustrate sample sequencing.
This activity can be used to support facilitation skills. See Sample Facilitation Certificate Program Design to illustrate sample sequencing.
This activity is suitable for professional or more formal learning environments.
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0 Comments
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:39:23 AM
Activity 5.4 uses the fun method of role playing and builds on other activities to help participants develop questions and practice gathering information to collaborate effectively with communities as partners. This activity involves working together in small groups and as a large group. It also includes multiple additional resources for participants to continue learning methods and skills to build community partnerships.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:39:00 AM
Activity 1.8 provides a very useful survey to gather information on and help support participants' different discussion styles and needs, exploring various areas like preferences for group size, ways of participating in discussions, any fears relating to discussions, etc.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:34:46 AM
Activity 5.8 further explores direct democracy by proposing the idea of "legislative juries" to improve the current initiative process through collaboration and deliberation. This activity uses role playing to have participants practice deliberation as part of a mock legislative jury to craft ballot initiatives on a given issue.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:27:35 AM
Activity 5.7 uses a fun and tactile activity like building LEGOs to explore the effects of coming together to colloborate and discuss, while also participating together in another physical activity.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:22:49 AM
Activity 5.6 uses memes and futuristic zombie scenarios to develop ways to change people's minds, while exploring various aspects of the methods used to change minds, like assumptions behind ideas, sticking to the facts versus stretching the truth, appealing to emotions etc.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:16:44 AM
Activity 5.5 uses a fun and visual/craft activity to help participants explore the many different types of knowledge, how they are valued, and the role/importance of each type of knowledge in their own lives.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:11:54 AM
Activity 5.3 gives participants to use writing, drawing, and/or speaking to share and discuss the various communities they belong to and/or feel excluded from, the various aspects that define community, as well as the practices of inclusion or exclusion and power distribution in these communities.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:07:26 AM
Activity 5.2 introduces four categories of stakeholders and multiple prompts to help participants work together in small and large groups to create comprehensive list of stakeholders, including those who are marginalized or not as obvious, for a given issue.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:04:00 AM
Activity 5.1 uses gamification by having participants play the Civics Topics Sweet Sixteen Competition to identify their issues they are passionate about both as individuals and as a group.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:01:34 AM
Activity 4.9 uses both lighthearted and serious characters, topics, and dialogue to help participants practice viewing an issue from the perspective of multiple people/characters and explain their thought processes and rationale for the choices they think these people will make in a given situation.