section-5

Facilitate a Group Training Course

I was asked to run a course at work based on this handbook. It was not a request I was expecting, but of course it made sense, once the request came through.

I am pretty sure that the expectation was that I would give a series of traditional classes with me as the ‘expert’. The latter did not feel right, as personal and professional change with REP is all about making your own decisions based on your own research and then moving these ideas and decisions into execution, and later reflecting on how these experiences flowed or did not.

REP implies a lot more personal responsibility for learning, rather than expecting to be taught, which is what a lot of us have become accustomed to at school. This method of teaching by instruction has not always served us well in later life. As I prepared to facilitate this course, I was reminded of the current shift in education to the ‘flipped class’, where students are given materials by their teachers to teach themselves alone and in peer groups, and then the teachers help with the difficult parts of the homework. Imagine this, you teach yourself and the teacher helps you with your homework! This allows students to learn at a time, pace and place they are more comfortable with.

Imagine how difficult it is for a teacher to bring thirty students of mixed ability and different concentration levels along at the same time and pace. I have a new respect for my teachers from school and university as I think of this challenge! The ‘flipped class’ is a reversal of the traditional classroom experience. The preceding few sentences do not do justice to the very successful changes happening in some of the most innovative schools around the world, but hopefully you get the basic idea.

I gladly accepted the challenge to facilitate (not deliver!) a course based on this handbook and decided to use the ‘flipped class’ approach, and it worked well. The pages in ‘Appendix 1: Outline of the Training Course’ will explain how we together experienced and ran the course using this handbook, so that you can do something similar if you see the need and the benefit.

REP to New Habits

So, where to next? The leadership practices in Sections 2, 3, and 4 of this handbook touch on the areas of physical health, mental health, spiritual wellbeing, resilience, intellectual alertness, professional and work enrichment. I know from personal experience that these and similar practices can be of great help.

Be Intentional about REP

It is no accident that this handbook starts and finishes with REP. Success in the practices of personal and collaborative project management and leadership, as described in this handbook, do require a focused investment. This success will not come by accident, but is extremely achievable with the right approach. Allied to this we all need our organizations, and that means our people, to grow to better manage the challenges we face today, and also to be ready to manage the unimagined challenges of the future. At the same time everyone is very busy with the day job, so this much needed growth tends to be taken for granted or in some cases ignored.

REP – a Summary

The REP protocol (described in Section 1 of this handbook and summarized again here) presents a process comprised of three very simple but trusted practices to help individuals and thus organizations grow in a gradual but sure manner. REP stands for Research, Execute, and Post-Mortem and is a play on the word ‘repetition’. Repetition is, of course, an important aspect of mastery. As a recap (because we know that repetition is helpful!):

• Research: This first phase is spent seeking out and learning new practices, skills, and ideas. This phase should be a fun exploration. Any interesting findings are logged in a REP Journal. The Research phase ends by selecting a subset of the practices to try.
• Execute: This second phase is where time is allocated to experiment with these new ideas, to try them for real. The Execute phase is necessary to see if and how the practices can be adopted to your context. It is in this doing that much of the real learning takes place.
• Post-Mortem: This third phase allows the time and space to reflect on the outcomes of the new practices. This reflection requires a time out, however short. The end result of the Post- Mortem may likely be a commitment to REP, again straight away or at some later date, to add more practices or to sharpen existing ones.

REP is designed to be repeated any time new skills, habits, practices are desired. In summary, REP is a very simple, efficient, and effective personal change management process.

Enjoy the Journey with REP

Quite honestly there are too many leadership practices in this handbook for one person to successfully take into daily or weekly habit in one sitting. I hope you see this as a real positive. So please let yourself off the hook!

The trick is not to rush, but to gradually adopt the new practices that appeal to you. REP, as described in Section 1 of this handbook, will lead to higher levels of success, capability, creativity, and mastery for yourself and also for your teams. If you set time aside and you commit to REP each week and try out or recommit to just one new practice or idea each week, imagine where you will be after a few months or a year. Enjoy the journey!

Outline of the Training Course

Course Outline

As explained above, and as you will see in the following pages, this was not a traditional course. However, the participants called it a course and that designation felt good for people, so I was happy to label this series of workshops as a course. I advertised the course with the following modules (derived from this handbook):

1. Personal Change: Manage using Start | Evolve and REP
2. Personal Leadership: Manage Your Energy (Ten Factors)
3. Personal Leadership: Sharpen Your Attitude to Life (Nine Elements)
4. Personal Leadership: Know Your Personality (Two Mirrors)
5. Personal Leadership: Manage Your Time (Five Steps)
6. Situational Leadership: Manage Meetings (Ten Suggestions)
7. Situational Leadership: Deliver Impactful Presentations (Eight Steps)
8. Situational Leadership: Make Good Decisions (Individual and Team)
9. Situational Leadership: Cultivate Your Leadership Approaches (Ten Models and Practices)
10. Collaborative Project Management: Why, What and a Fast Start
11. Collaborative Project Management: Five Stages
12. Course Close and Going Further

You could of course have more or less modules and order them in any way you wish, in your own delivery of such a course.

Course Preparation email

The following is the email that was sent to registered participants.

Friends,
The first session is titled … “Personal Change: Manage using Start | Evolve and REP” – and is scheduled on Wednesday two weeks. For course materials we will use the 3rd edition of the book. I am guessing that most/all of you have a copy of the book – but if not please find attached a PDF copy. Can I ask you to please read pages 1 to 12 of the book before our session next Wednesday. Have a think about the content and formulate in advance of the session your:

• Questions (anything you are curious about – or wish to clarify)
• Observations / thoughts (your ideas, opinions, experiences, anything that comes to mind)

Sound OK?

Éamonn

First Session

I asked the participants to read the pages of the handbook on “Personal Change and REP” before coming to the introductory session. This was important background material, but it also set the expectation, that the participants were going to lead their own learning, education and change. In the opening session, which lasted about 90 minutes, this was my outline, my “class plan” (with apologies to real teachers!):

Opening Remarks

• Story re holidays at age 5 to grandmothers
•  Nora McGuinness … “no such thing as you can’t” story
• Éamonn McGuinness … “you can do anything you want to do in life, you just have to want to do it”
• If you get nothing from this Personal and Collaborative Leadership course – but this – you are ahead already!
  Introduction and Intent:
• Very welcome – and thanks for signing up!
• This course is first for you – and then for those in the room – I really hope it makes a difference to / for you
• You can get lots of real benefit from this course – if you invest the time and effort
• I intend to do the course with you – as a student as well as an instructor
• One rule/protocol … What is said in this room, stays in this room (only exceptions – the person raises it with you… and give example)
• We will use the Flipped Class approach – reference Page 206 of the book.

 

Lead from the Inside Out (pages 1 and 2)

• Questions (anything you are curious about – or wish to clarify)
• Observations / thoughts (your ideas, opinions, experiences, anything that comes to mind)

Personal Change and REP (pages 3 to 12)

• Questions (anything you are curious about – or wish to clarify)
• Observations / thoughts (your ideas, opinions, experiences, anything that comes to mind)

Recommended Exercise – Bottom of Page 12

What are your hopes for this course?

•  but only if you wish to say in class
• feel free to email me these and other ideas afterwards

Next Module .. .”Personal Leadership: Manage Your Energy (Ten Factors)”

• Materials: Pages 13 to 27: As per the suggestion in this first chapter, mark with an * items you would like to try out
• Learning: Have a think about the content and formulate in advance of the session your: Questions (anything you are curious about – or wish to clarify) and Observations / thoughts (your ideas, opinions, experiences, anything that comes to mind)
• StartREP’ing

Close

• Any final questions or observations?
• Reminder: One rule/protocol … What is said in this room, stays in this room (only exceptions – the person raises it with you … and give example)
• Good luck and enjoy!

In facilitating this session and all subsequent sessions, it was very important to make people feel at ease and ensure that everyone got to speak and engage. When questions were asked, I opened the question to the room, rather than jump in and answer it myself. In this way, the group was teaching the group and I was careful to augment or summarise the answers to each question. The sessions were round-table and highly participative. In each session participants had questions, but they also had answers. It was important to help participants realise that they had answers. It was vital to leave class knowing for sure that this was not beyond them at all, as long as they made the commitment, as long as they accepted the responsibility.

First Module

As we exited the introductory session the participants left with their homework/research (as indicated in the “class plan” above). They had materials to teach themselves at a time, pace and place that worked for each of them. When we came back for the first actual session, here is the outline of the workshop that I had prepared and then facilitated:

Opening Remarks

• Welcome back – not sure everyone would come back!
•  Reminder of our one rule/protocol … Las Vegas rules strictly apply … “What is said in this room, stays in this room, with only one exception – if the person who raised the item brings it to you.” (p.s. – this includes me!)

Today’s Session

• Let us now have a group discussion using Questions- Clarifications and/or Observations on the “Manage Your Energy” materials for this session
• What Questions or Clarifications do you have?
• What Observations do you have?
• Feel free (but no obligation) to comment on these two questions?
• Is REP working for you yet?
• Is the REP Journal idea working for you yet?

Your Homework!

• Read “Sharpen Your Attitude to Life”
• Take note of questions and observations and bring them to the next class
• Mark with an * items you would like to try out in your REP
• Keep REP’ing

Closing Remarks

• Reminder of our one rule/protocol … Las Vegas rules apply … “What is said in this room, stays in this room, with only one exception – if the person who raised the item brings it to you.”
• And remember … “you can do anything you want to do in life, you just have to want to do it.”

One objective of each session was to ensure the research stage of REP was well under way, that each person had lots of ideas on the topic in questions (in the above case, “Manage Your Energy”), and that each person was reminded and ready to keep the REP moving through the execution and post-mortem phases.

Other Modules

Each of the following sessions followed the same pattern, as outlined in the ‘First Module’ above. We would tease out the area in question, and we would check in on how people were getting on with REP. Here is one more example of a session outline.

Opening Remarks

Reminder of our one rule/protocol … Las Vegas rules apply … “What is said in this room, stays in this room, with only one exception – if the person who raised the item brings it to you.”

Today’s Session

• Part 1: Let us have a group discussion using Questions and Observations on the “Sharpen Your Attitude to Life” materials you read for this session
• Part 2: Watch a video on and then talk about “Everyday Leadership” (using a TED talk)
• Part 3: Feel free (but no obligation) to comment on these two questions
• Your experience of REP thus far? -The role of the Journal in your REP?

Your Homework!

• Read “Manage Your Time – A Five Step Approach”
• Take note of questions and observations and bring them to the next class
• Mark with an * items you would like to try out in your REP
• Keep REP’ing

Closing Remarks

• Reminder of our one rule/protocol … Las Vegas rules apply … “What is said in this room, stays in this room, with only one exception – if the person who raised the item brings it to you.” (p.s.this includes me!)
• And remember … “you can do anything you want to do in life, you just have to want to do it.”

Closing Module

We ran the course over an eight-month period with a workshop/ module about every three weeks. Each workshop lasted about two hours and explored an area of leadership from the handbook and also checked in on REP. Then we came to the final session, and the following was the outline used to guide the last workshop of the course.

Opening Remarks

Reminder of our one rule/protocol … Las Vegas rules apply … “What is said in this room, stays in this room, with only one exception – if the person who raised the item brings it to you.”

Today’s Session

• Explain today’s Agenda
• What was your one main take-away from the course / group / handbook (that you are willing to share)?
• Take a few minutes – and write at least one down. – Share please
• My suggestion for my main take-away – is to “REP” (No surprises with my choice!)
• Let us watch this TED Talk from Carol Dweck: “Growth Mindset – The Power of Believing You Can Improve” – the video is 10 minutes – but watch especially from 5 mins 40 secs
• As we watch the video, pretend you are the student – https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve

Follow Up

Please give me CARA feedback (Continue; Adjust; Remove; Add) for both this course and also the handbook sometime in the next two weeks

Closing Remarks

– Again, thanks for your honest and generous participation. – Remember … “you can do anything you want to do in life, you
just have to want to do it.”

Course Materials and Fees

There are no fees charged to use these materials to run your own course. These materials are provided by way of the gift economy. In lieu of fees, instructors and/or participants are asked to make a donation to the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) on https://jrs.net/ and please mention “Lead Inside Out” in your donation.

I am sure your donation will be commensurate with the value received from the course and with what you can afford. Please be as generous as you can, as JRS is a very worthy cause. As is explained above, the course uses this handbook as the course materials for students. The handbook is available for purchase on Amazon. The entire proceeds of all book sales (and not just the profits) also go to the JRS.