For the Good of All Concerned - 2024 05 28

SUMMARY

1. Bring together a group of diverse stakeholders to form a learning cohort. Break the cohort into learning groups - it is important to have representatives from different functional work groups learn together - leadership, administration, management, front-line service;

2. Facilitate a process of cooperative critical inquiry where each learning group is comprised of representatives who have experience in specific dimensions of the system are brought together to identify pressure points and service gaps;

3. Facilitate a process of iterative system design wherein each learning group collaborates to achieve the smallest possible intervention to reduce pressure or fill a service gap;

4. Include a communication management protocol so that working group members have online communication connectivity - for sharing documents, brainstorming, group consultations; include spaces for individual learning group communication, but also inter-group communication, as well as space for individuals to reach out to the cohort with questions and requests;

5. Establish a schedule that includes at least one face to face meeting every quarter (paid time); as well as scheduled online meetings, and scheduled online posting to the learning group and the cohort as a whole, budget for the facilitator to carry out periodic one to one interviews with all cohort members to capture experiences and ideas that aren't represented in the group / cohort sharing events;

6. Establish a timeline that is at a minimum the length of a semester, preferably a school year (ie. September to June) to provide the greatest amount of time to implement the smallest change and establish proof of concept, also to build relationship connections through curriculum structure until they are initiating communications without prompts from the program;

7. Include a requirement for sharing findings - for publishing through blog posting at a minimum, with an opportunity to co-author and publish / present to wider group of colleagues;

8. Celebrate evidence of change over time - individually, within the learning group, as a cohort. Think in terms of scalability, of fostering a rhizomic proliferation of cohorts, learning groups, and individuals who feel empowered and supported to implement systemic change in local situations.

Social Learning Systems - Curriculum Development

This curriculum is designed to facilitate the formation of empowered social networks to implement and self-sustain change as a result of shared learning experiences.

Facilitate - designed for active, self-directed group learning focused on systemic issue identification (critical inquiry), problem solving, hypothesis validation, and iterative design in the context of diverse stakeholder interests and needs.

Formation - social, active, experiential learning experiences provide opportunities to broaden perspectives and deepen understanding of participant's own specific pressure points and service gaps, while, at the same time, gaining insight into the pressure points and service gaps identified by their group members. Sharing discoveries, insights, and strategies for solutions leads to the formation of new working relationships based on a shared purpose to improve all working conditions and work outcomes. It is important that the composition of these learning groups is made up of stakeholders from leadership, administration, management and service workers.

Empowered Social Networks - we can do together what we cannot do alone - shared experiential learning experiences build capacity to work through difficulty to find relief from systemic pressure and service gaps. An empowered social network serves as a remote support system to provide an external resource for problem solving, system design, and hypothesis validation in situated, tradition-bound local conditions.

Implement - the combination of cooperative critical inquiry, collaborative problem solving, experimental hypothesis validation and iterative design framework makes it possible to implement small, seeming insignificant changes that aggregate into significant system impacts over time, led by the people whose lives and work are directly impacted by these changes.

Self-sustain Change - designed, implemented, tested, evaluated, revised, re-tested, adopted from within the group of stakeholders directly impacted by systemic change. When diverse stakeholders learn they share pressure points and service gaps in common, they can work together to improve outcomes. Pressure relief and filling service gaps has the effect of improving work experience and work satisfaction. These improvements become self-sustaining because they become the 'path of least resistance'. Functional work groups will sustain change that is supported by leadership and seen to be motivated 'for the good of all concerned'.