The
World Café for Civic Intelligence
Explanation:
Civic Intelligence is hard to grasp,
for Civic Intelligence to be grasped in a “Civically Intelligent” way, it must
be learned through many people. If the idea of Civic Intelligence is to itself
be “Civically Intelligent” its very definition must always be the syntheses of
all notions about what it means. The world café is a useful method for cross
pollinating perspectives and creating new ones. The purpose of this workshop is
to help a group or class come to a Civically Intelligent understanding of Civic
Intelligence.
Basics
1.
Get into groups of 4 to 6.
2.
Each table elects one table host and a note taker.
3.
The prompt “What is Civic Intelligence?” is provided and people discuss the
prompt at their tables..
4.
As people talk, the note taker should try to record the main concepts of the
discussion.
5. After 15 minutes or if the room becomes quiet, everyone
except for the table host move to new tables.
6. Each table host uses the notes to inform their new group
about what was discussed although after this any person can share what occurred
at their previous table.
7 A new note taker is elected.
8. The conversation resumes for another 15 minutes or so.
9. Repeat steps 5-8.
10. Each group then (not moving) takes 10 minutes to come up
with a definition for Civic Intelligence and takes turns sharing it with the
whole class.
The
Self Emergent Workshop
Explanation: New
groups or classes take a long time in finding and then committing to project
ideas. This often happens for a couple of reasons; decision making dynamics
have not had time to be established yet, individuals are not yet aware that
they share compatible interests with their new peers, and especially in the
academic setting there is little time for proper organizational development.
This workshop is intended to help
any new group or class gain skills in organizational development, establish
some foundational dynamics, and reveal what is already shared.
There are no set answers to any of
the questions.
Basics
When a group answers a dynamic
question, the group will then immediately act out their answer for the rest of
the workshop. The questions should be answered in order.
Dynamic Question 1: “How will we
make decisions as a whole group?”
Dynamic Question 2: “What prompt
will be useful to find out more about this group?”
Dynamic Question 3: “How we want to brainstorm answers to
the prompt we made?” (note: each answer from the brainstorm should be written
down on a note card.
Dynamic Question 4: “How will we
edit down our answers?”
Dynamic Question 5: “What do we do
with the remaining cards?”
Ending Question 1: “Do any patterns
or new ideas emerge by arranging the cards in different ways?”
Ending Question 2: “How do the
dynamics that we chose illuminate the possible personality of the group as a
whole?”
Ending Question 3: “What cards seem
to resonate with the whole group?”
Ending Question 4: “What cards seem
to be more specific to individuals?”
Ending Question 5: “If a card isn’t
specific to you, seems novel, or doesn’t make sense, what can you learn from
it?”
Chalk
dynamics (for 3 to 7 people)
Explanation:
It is often very difficult for a group or even individuals to have
meta-cognition of themselves Furthermore, it is somewhat of a faux paux to
point how someone behaves in a group. This workshop will illuminate a group’s
dynamics without anyone having to make an ass out of themselves. The group and
it’s individual members will have the opportunity to understand themselves
better and gain some skills in the process of collaborative design.
Basics
1. Get chalk and a large surface you can draw on.
2. Draw a small chalk circle in front of each
person. People should be arranged in a
circle and evenly spaced apart.
3.
Whenever someone talks, draw a line from the last person that talked to the person
that is now talking.
4. The topic of the conversation should be on how to
graphically represent different kinds of conversation dynamics. For example, an
unrelated response could be a wavy line. Other examples of possible dynamics
are; a question, the length of someone speaking, or everyone laughing.
5. After ten or so minutes, stop drawing and discuss:
a.
What patterns are observable in how the lines crisscross the table, and what
may they mean?
b. Did these patterns
change as the conversation went on?
c. What have people
learned about themselves?
d. How do the new
graphic representations that the group came up with, indicate the overall
nature of the group?
e. Did the group’s
dynamics change because the conversation was being tracked?
Facilitator
mode
1.
One person draws the lines of all conversation.
2.
As new rules are added for graphic representations, this person is responsible for
deciding which graphic should be drawn for a speaker’s contribution.
Group
mode
1.
When a person wants to speak, they point their chalk piece at the speakers circle.
2.
Each person draws a line from the last person that spoke to themselves when
they begin speaking. People only draw for themselves.
3.
As new rules are added for graphic representations, every person is responsible
to decide which graphic should be drawn for.
Thought
clock (for groups of two or more)
Explanation: In a lot of conversations people get stuck
just making comments. “Oh I think this.” “Well I think that.” And so forth. But
this kind of group conversation isn’t Civically Intelligent. Other conversational actions such as paraphrasing,
is not only good for you, but for the entire group’s ability to understand what
is being said. This shared understanding is key to productive and engaging
group conversations.
This workshop will teach
you many different kinds of conversational actions you can take and will
increase your ability to make a group more Civically Intelligent!
Basics
1.
Each player has a hand full of cards depending on what mode us being used (see
below). Don’t show anyone!
2. Each person plays
one card when it is their turn. The order goes clockwise (unless y’all are
feeling rebellious)
3. Each card has a
“dynamic of conversation,” such as “question,” “comment,” or more a challenging
thing such as “synthesize.” Whenever someone plays a card, what they say must
be in the form of the card’s dynamic.
4. If a card has a “!”
you can play it out of order, either directing the conversation to another
player, or to yourself. After that play resumes as normal.
5.
One person chooses a topic for conversation and play goes from there!
6. If someone plays a
card wrong, you can give them a funny look or exchange glances with others.
7. At the end of the
game (when all cards have been played) talk about what dynamics were difficult
or easy.
Draw
and Help mode (recommended for beginners)
1.
Deal out three cards to each person and put the deck in the middle.
2.
Every time someone plays a card, they draw a new one.
3.
If they don’t know how to play a card, the group can help.
Rummy
mode.
1. Deal out seven cards to each person and put the
remainder to the side.
2. Play cards normally.
3. If you don’t know how to play a card place it face
down.
4. After the game ends,
talk about why the face down cards were difficult.
Chain
mode
1.
Deal out three cards to each person and put the deck in the middle.
2.
Every time someone plays a card, they draw a new one.
3. You can play more than one card in a row, but only if
you can reasonably link them within what you say.
