Link to view a larger image of my photo with description on National Geographic Your Shot: Power Your Future Green Photo by John Zeus — National Geographic Your Shot.

A new women’s-only fitness program in Edmonton is making a difference to Somali women.

Hear podcast on “Fitness Program Helps Muslim Women”.
Another reason why I love the YMCA, for building strong and healthy communities.

Shared from SoundCloud.

Set up for success: A leader is needed to provide direction and guidance throughout the development process. To ensure the leader is well-accepted, a supervisor should not appoint a team leader; instead, the team should nominate and agree upon which member should assume that role.

When planning a team training event, development plan or learning cascade the 5 Stages of Team Development is a useful tool to consider.

Teams learn, develop and progress through five different stages of development. These include forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. Here I summarize the five stages and identify the expected outcomes and challenges.

Forming

• A group of people come together to accomplish a shared purpose.
• High dependence on the leader for guidance and direction.
• Little agreement on team aims other than received from leader. Individual roles and responsibilities are unclear.
• Leader must be prepared to answer lots of questions about the team’s purpose, objectives and external relationships.
• Members test tolerance of system and leader.
• Little ownership that this is their group. Leader directs.

Storming

• Disagreement about mission, vision, and approaches combined with the fact that team members are getting to know each other can cause strained relationships and conflict.
• Decisions don’t come easily within group. Team members vie for position as they attempt to establish themselves in relation to other team members and the leader, who might receive challenges from team members.
• Clarity of purpose increases as goals and expectations are outlined, but plenty of uncertainties persist.
• Cliques and factions form and there may be power struggles.
• Resistance to losing individuality and becoming a group.
• The team needs to be focused on its goals to avoid becoming distracted by relationships and emotional issues.
• Compromises may be required to enable progress. Leader coaches.

Norming

• The team has consciously or unconsciously formed working relationships that are enabling progress on the team’s objectives.
• There is an acceptance of working in a team and the quirks of other team members.
• Agreement and consensus forms among team, who respond well to facilitation by leader.
• Roles and responsibilities are clear and accepted.
• Big decisions are made by group agreement.
• Smaller decisions may be delegated to individuals or small teams within group.
• Commitment and unity is strong.
• The team may engage in fun and social activities.
• The team discusses and develops its processes and working style and members feel that they now have a voice.
• There is general respect for the leader and some of leadership is more shared by the team. Leader facilitates.

Performing

• Relationships, team processes, and the team’s effectiveness in working on its objectives are synching to bring about a successfully functioning team.
• The team is more strategically aware; the team knows clearly why it is doing what it is doing.
• The team has a shared vision and is able to stand on its own feet with no interference or participation from the leader.
• There is a focus on over-achieving goals, and the team makes most of the decisions against criteria agreed with the leader.
• The team has a high degree of autonomy.
• Disagreements occur but now they are resolved within the team positively and necessary changes to processes and structure are made by the team.
• The team is able to work towards achieving the goal, and also to attend to relationship, style and process issues along the way. team members look after each other.
• The team requires delegated tasks and projects from the leader.
• The team does not need to be instructed or assisted.
• Team members might ask for assistance from the leader with personal and interpersonal development. Leader delegates and oversees.

Adjourning

• The team has completed its mission or purpose and it is time for team members to pursue other goals or projects.
• Members may go through separation anxiety.
• If the group experience has been positive there will be a letting go and grieving process.
• Members may need help in moving on. Leader facilitates the letting go process and discusses ways to apply the learning to outside situations.

Understanding these five stages of team development and implementing these suggestions can help ensure teams have the necessary skills and tools to move through each phase, especially the storming phase, and to ensure successful outcomes and growth.

Set up for success: The team leader must redirect the team toward the end goal, help reinforce defined roles, address unacceptable behaviors, provide feedback, and facilitate team communication.

Related Readings: Workshop Structure To Maximize Learner Engagement

Original source material: Bruce Tuckman’s 5 stages of team development. Adapted by John Zeus.

Paradigm Shift…

Always at the cusp of transition from one age to a new one the old systems no longer work and there does need to be a paradigm shift. We can see this in institutions whose structures are crumbling – world economies and banking for example.

The education/learning systems are probably one of the last systems to crumble by their lack of addressing the realities of what participants are facing today. It did not happen overnight that is for sure. I watch my 8 year old nephew learn how to play chess on his iPod touch and breeze through the many games that are available. His mind is fast and he can do at least 5 things at once. We are all going through this huge transition and certainly collaboration has come to the forefront – social networks, forums, instant chats, skype etc. We are all feeling the need to collaborate on some level and share our experiences of what is happening in our world.

I guess my question is how to assess one’s competencies if the entire learning process is based on collaboration, because in the end, when someone is applying for a job, it is based on the skills that they individually bring to that position. And yes teamwork is becoming very important (emotional IQ, etc) but I don’t think it is realistic to level the playing field so to speak. Or conversely, maybe everybody needs help in finding their right place and we don’t do enough of that in the educational system.

All the new technologies like wikis and cloud computing in general as well as the ones i mentioned above all indicate a desire to collaborate on some level. But all contribution is not equal so we need new measuring systems. We have a long ways to go for sure and it takes visionaries like Sir Ken Robinson to open the gates wide. And by the way if you do a google on transition from industrial age to information age, there is lots to discover! And it is reassuring to know that some of our communities can be on the leading edge of this paradigm shift with cloud frenzy free, user friendly Wiki collaboration.

This video animate will engage further discussion on the changing education paradigms.

YouTube video description: This animate was adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA’s Benjamin Franklin award.

10 Best Reasons To Use A Wiki

This video on YouTube provides “a look at 10 reasons how a wiki can connect teams within companies, helping them get more done, together.” (Description from YouTube)

Get the best people on the right tasks and produce better overall results by letting everyone contribute.

Break down information silos between teams, departments, and individuals – it’s crowd-sourcing for your organization.

#2 Anyone Can Contribute

Anyone can put content online, quickly and securely – just click ‘Edit’ and start typing.

A rich content editor does the work for you with Autocomplete, Autoformatting, Autoconvert, and shortcuts for everything.

#3 Connect People and Content

Bringing the right people into the work and discussions taking place in Confluence is easy.

Share content in seconds and @mention teammates in any page, blog post, or comment.

#4 Capture Knowledge, Forever

Capture the tacit knowledge of your co-workers, often trapped in email, in Confluence where it’s never lost.

Instant and familiar, engage everyone and encourage collaboration with Quick Comments and Likes.

#5 Discover What’s Popular

Confluence makes sure you won’t miss another important conversation again.

With a live ‘Popular’ content stream and weekly email summaries you’ll never lose touch of what’s trending in your company.

#6 Find Content, Fast

Quick Navigation and Search makes sure you find what you’re looking for, fast.

Start typing and watch Confluence suggest pages, blogs, files, and people.

#7 Keep Private Parts, Private

Confluence meets the demands of the enterprise environment by keeping your content safe and secure.

Permissions at the Global, Space, and Page level give you the flexibility to decide exactly who can view and edit content.

#8 Connect to Microsoft

Combine powerful free-form content creation and collaboration with the document management and workflow strengths of SharePoint and Office.

Get up-and-running quickly with out-of-the-box integration with Active Directory for user management and authentication.

#9 Easy to Customize & Brand

Create customized designs and brand Confluence to match your corporate style.

Expand your audience with complete branding, advanced design tools, drag-and-drop layouts, navigation, and drafts.

#10 Extend with Add-ons

Customize Confluence with themes, application connectors, content importers, and more.

Browse the Atlassian Plugin Exchange and find add-ons that extend functionality and connect Confluence to other enterprise tools.

Source: Atlassian Get your own wiki

I like this wikipedia description of social media and wanted to share it with you. I’m developing a series of automated Zen PowerPoint videos for youth participants in a YMCA Internship program. I have great content and images for the course through collaborations with colleagues but I’m very much an amateur in video and sound editing. I decided to give it a try when the idea came up. My intent is for youth participants to to become knowledgeable in using blogging platforms and social media for their job search, self employment and networking opportunities. It’s been fun working on this project. Social media offerings to our youth are I believe essential to setting them up for success long after they have completed their internship.
I’m excited to roll this out to a small group of post secondary grads soon and get their feedback. – jZ 2012.02.08

Focus

A bio is a story version of the information you would  include in a résumé. The format is less formal, and it gives you an opportunity to highlight some interesting facts about yourself while injecting a little of your personality.

The main goals of a bio are to give the reader an accurate sense of who you are and what you do in your organization and role, to establish expertise and to qualify your experience and background. All of these elements combine to develop trust in you and your offerings.

Even if your current résumé is in the wiki, there are many other situations when you will need a bio, including:

• Posted on your personal or department website and blog
• Included in your marketing materials
• Provided with proposals to colleagues and clients
• Submitted for speaking, presenting or coaching applications
• Included in any books, e-books, reports or professional documents you develop

What to Include

One of the great things about a bio is the flexibility.

You can include as much or as little information as you want. Typically, most online bios include:

• Current job, department or professional experience
• Publications or presentations you have completed
• Professional memberships you currently hold
• Awards, honors and certifications you have received
• You can personalize your bio even more by including elements such as a photo of yourself, your educational background, quotes or testimonials from colleagues and links to examples of your work.

Bio Checklist

What to include in your Bio

• Your main role
• Your present position and time working on the program
• The number of years you have been working with youth populations
• The diversified background and initiatives you have worked with prior to FPSYIP, SAM 2.0, Alternative Suspension, DYIP
• Your contact information
• Points of interest (optional)

Tips

There are many formats you can use to write a great bio, but there are some universal elements you can use to make it more effective. Typically, your bio should be written in the third person, using “he/she” instead of “I.” Presenting your bio as if someone else wrote it for you provides a distinction from you and the writer (even if it is understood that it is the same person). The third person also enhances the professionalism and makes people more willing to trust what is being said.

Make your opening attention-grabbing to draw the reader in and make them want to learn more about you. And using a conversational voice will make it easier for your readers to follow along.

Don’t be afraid to include some personal or unique information about yourself at the end of your bio, and use a tone that reflects you and who you are throughout.

You’ll want to keep your bio short, only including the information that needs to be included. Split it into short paragraphs to make it easier to digest and include supporting information in the form of links, whenever possible.

Once you have a bio you’re comfortable with you’ll want to modify and update it periodically to reflect changes and to keep it current.