Assessment 1
This assessment is based upon the first of a pair of team development sessions that you will facilitate with a real-world group of about five individuals. For each session, conduct an exercise based on one of Peter Senge's five disciplines for team development.
Preparation
Selecting the Team
Identify, contact, and engage a real-life group or team that you can work with in two sessions, to conduct two team development exercises. Select a problem or issue within the group that the team can work on, using the exercise you have chosen. The goal of each session is to bring team perspectives to this problem or issue, rather than to solve the specific identified problem.
Ideally, your team should consist of individuals from your workplace, or with whom you have a professional relationship. If this is difficult to arrange, there is flexibility as to both group composition and mode of communication. You can simulate an organizational team with members drawn from a social organization to which you belong; a church, community, or civic group; a private club; or a group of personal friends, acquaintances, neighbors, or even family members. As part of your final assessment, you will make hypothetical recommendations to a specific audience, based on the results of your two sessions. Ideally, this audience would be the larger organization in which the team functions, but it could also be to the session team itself, members of an educational symposium, or another relevant group.
If necessary, different team members may attend each meeting. Moreover, team members do not have to reside in the same town. The meetings may be held virtually (for example, by phone, e-mail, or Web conference).
The size of your team should (preferably) be about five people, including you. It can be larger, although more than 10 can make facilitating the exercise challenging. It can be smaller, but should not be less than three people, with you included. A very small group can present facilitation challenges, in terms of generating participation and a range of views.
Selecting the Exercise
In each team change management session, you will conduct an exercise based on one of the concepts and tools from Peter Senge's five disciplines. Choose the disciplines your team will focus on from the following options:
o For your first session, lead your group through a team exercise based on the personal mastery discipline, the mental models discipline, or the shared visions discipline.
o For your second session, lead your group through a team exercise based on the team learning discipline or the systems thinking discipline.
Use your judgment in choosing each exercise, based on the suitability of its goals to the nature of the team.
Recruiting the Team
When recruiting your team for each session, introduce yourself (if necessary). Briefly explain the nature of your task, the time commitment required (two one-hour sessions), and that you will be reporting your results on the experience. Indicate that you will protect all team members' personal information and their identities. (You may also want to repeat this information at the start of each session.) In your explanation of the task, include a brief overview of both sessions. Schedule each session to last at least an hour.
Directions
Submit your first team exercise plan and post-session summary based on your completed team session.
Plan your first team exercise and write a team development plan for your first session. Your exercise for this session should be based on one of the following three disciplines identified by Senge:
o Personal mastery.
o Mental models.
o Shared vision.
Facilitate the first team development session, addressing the following:
o Define change management and the first three disciplines: personal mastery, mental models, and shared vision.
o Explain the learning discipline you have chosen and why it is important.
o Explain how you will use the organizational team development material (the exercise) during the session.
o Briefly introduce the problem or issue the team will work through, using the exercise.
o While conducting the exercise, take copious notes. Record the session, if possible.
Write a post-session summary based on the completed experience.
Include the following in your assessment:
1. Define change management and change management principles.
2. Explain the three learning disciplines that you examined for this assessment: personal mastery, mental models, and shared vision.
3. Describe the organization of the team you have selected for your assessment and identify the sector of the organization (non-profit, government, business, or industry). If you will not be working with employees of an organization, please indicate the nature of your group.
4. Team exercise plan:
- Outline the schedule for your first team development session. Include the job titles or roles of the team members participating in the session. List the scheduled meeting date and time.
- Describe the problem or issue you chose as the intended purpose for your team development session.
- Identify the learning discipline that you chose to focus on for your team exercise. Explain the process used to select that learning discipline, the rationale for its selection, and the team development exercise that you used with your team.
5. Post-session summary:
- Describe your team development experience in a narrative format.
- Explain the successful and unsuccessful aspects of the team development exercise.
- Explain the lessons learned for team facilitation, including both planned and unplanned journeys that resulted.
- Explain the lessons learned for your chosen discipline, and its potential for helping a group examine itself, choose new direction, and commit to that direction.
Assessment 2
For this assessment, submit your second team exercise plan and post-session summary based on your completed team session.
Preparation
If you have not already done so, contact your team members to schedule your second team development session. Remind your team members of your task and how you will use the information from the session. You should also remind them that you will protect their personal information and their identities.
Plan your team exercise and write a team development plan for your second session. Your exercise for this session should be based on one of the following two disciplines identified by Senge:
o Team learning.
o Systems thinking.
Facilitate the second team development session, addressing the following:
o Define the remaining two disciplines: team learning and systems thinking.
o Explain the learning discipline you have chosen and why it is important.
o Explain how you will use the organizational team development material (the exercise) during the session.
o Briefly introduce the problem or issue the team will work through, using the exercise.
o While conducting the exercise, take copious notes. Record the session, if possible.
Directions
Write a post-session summary based on the completed experience. Include the following:
1. Explain the two learning disciplines that you examined for this assessment: team learning and systems thinking.
2. Team exercise plan:
- Outline the schedule for your second team development session. Include the job titles or roles of the team members participating in the session. List the scheduled meeting date and time.
- Describe the problem or issue you chose as the intended purpose for your team development session.
- Identify the learning discipline that you chose to focus on for your team exercise. Explain the process used to select that learning discipline, the rationale for its selection, and the team development exercise that you used with your team.
3. Post-session summary:
- Describe your team development experience in a narrative format.
- Explain the successful and unsuccessful aspects of the team development exercise.
- Explain the lessons learned for team facilitation, including both planned and unplanned journeys that resulted.
- Explain the lessons learned for your chosen discipline, and its potential for helping a group examine itself, choose new direction, and commit to that direction.
Assessment 3
• Note: You will need to complete Assessments 1 and 3 before completing this assessment.
Integrate your understanding of change management and the use of the five disciplines for team development, based on your findings from your two team development sessions, to write an analysis of what you learned about change as a facilitator, and about yourself as a facilitator.
Include the following sections:
1. Theory of the five disciplines as a method of change: Describe a relevant theory of change management and two of the five disciplines. (You are not required to choose the same two theories that you used in your team sessions, but you may use them if you wish.)
- Consider your audience as you choose your theory, and decide how to discuss it and what to present. Ideally, this audience would be the larger organization in which the team functions, but it could also be to the session team itself, members of an educational forum, or another group. Make judgment calls about the audience's needs and setting. Note: After successfully completing this assessment, you may wish to actually present your paper to a professional audience at your organization, in order to demonstrate your own development.
- Invent your own unique metaphor and use it to explain your chosen theory. That is, develop a graphic or verbal image of something familiar to explain an unfamiliar thing or process. An important part of considering an audience is to provide a powerful metaphor to help audience members understand and remember the relevant information. Causal loops and the ladder of inference are examples of graphic metaphors.
2. Team development summary findings: Present your summary findings from the two team development sessions, in which you completed the team exercises.
- Use the best stories and quotes from your session experiences to illustrate the disciplines and how they support change.
- Synthesize your learning from the sessions about team dynamics and the value of the five disciplines for team development.
- Illustrate some action statements made by your team and the subsequent changes you observed.
3. What you have learned from facilitating both team-development sessions:
- Write a section on your learning as a facilitator for the team development sessions. What worked? What did not work? What would you do differently next time?
- How would you change your contract, your explanation of change management, the disciplines, the exercises, your exercise choices, or your behavior during the team sessions, in order to enhance the quality of the team learning?
4. Recommendations: Provide your recommendations for enhancing team development in the future in a way that is practical, justified, memorable, and actionable for your team and your audience (ideally, the larger organization to which the team belongs).
- Include some of your best quotes and stories from your session experiences as examples.
- Show how your recommendations for building more effective teams will help the audience move closer to its preferred future.
- Include some models from your learning about disciplines that support team learning.
- Describe the potential power of using the five disciplines to support team learning.
5. Learning resources: To assist your team in learning more about the change management process, list a selection of books, articles, Web resources, and organizations containing the most important resources you would recommend.
Additional Requirements
o Written communication: Written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.
o APA formatting: References and citations are formatted according to current APA style and formatting guidelines.
o Length of paper: 10 to 15 typed, double-spaced pages.
o Font and font size: Arial, 12 point.