It's the Thought Clock. Copyright Galen Radtke (Oh yeah!)

My work from Civic Intelligence!

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.