17 Professional Toolkit Activities
Full list of professional toolkit activities that are suitable for workplace, professional or more formal training and discussions
Dear collaborative discussion friends,
This week we are sharing the full list of 17 professional toolkit activities for easy reference. These activities can be used for discussions or trainings in the workplace or more formal learning environments. All the activities in the toolkit have an activity key that indicates the level of the activity (beginner or advanced) and other characteristics using icons. Activities that are suitable for professional settings are denoted with the following icon.
If you missed the previous newsletter, 12 Listening Toolkit Activities, you can access it and our other weekly newsletters by subscribing below.
17 professional toolkit activities for the workplace or more formal trainings and discussions
1) Activity 1.1 What is Collaborative Learning?
Activity 1.1 What is Collaborative Learning? It is said that, “the many are smarter than the few,” but under what conditions? This activity encourages participants to reflect upon their own collaborative successes and failures for the purpose of determining which factors help to achieve effective collaboration.
2) Activity 1.3 Anticipating Conflict and Forming Group Guidelines
Activity 1.3 Anticipating Conflict and Forming Group Guidelines. This activity empowers group members to anticipate potential conflict in group discussions and create guidelines that will address these concerns and bring out the best characteristics of the group.
3) Activity 1.5 The Role of Values in Collaborative Discussion
Activity 1.5 The Role of Values in Collaborative Discussion. This activity encourages participants to reflect upon and identify their personal values and to explore the role that values play in group discussions.
4) Activity 1.7 Taking Inventory of Collaboration Skills
Activity 1.7 Taking Inventory of Collaboration Skills. This activity introduces key collaborative discussion skills and invites participants to reflect upon their own skill development. Participants have the option of working in small groups to support one another in skill development. The survey can also help facilitators support individual or group needs.
5) Activity 1.9 Collaborative Goal Setting
Activity 1.9 Collaborative Goal Setting. Organizations, collaborative groups, and individuals have a need for goals. We often fail to meet our goals because our process for creating the goals is flawed. This activity demonstrates how to collaboratively set goals that are realistic and achievable.
6) Activity 2.2 Embracing Contradictions
Activity 2.2 Embracing Contradictions. Contradictions can be helpful. They can help us to see complexity and develop flexibility of thought. Most issues (and people) contain contradictions. Instead of being stumped by contradictions, this activity encourages participants to lean into this discomfort and develop a “paradox mindset.”
7) Activity 2.4 Taking Risks
Activity 2.4 Taking Risks. Often groups will default to safe choices. As a result, groups fail to identify possibilities that are bold, anticipatory, or break new ground. This activity demonstrates a process that encourages groups to take risks together.
8) Activity 2.8 Encouraging Bold Imagination
Activity 2.8 Encouraging Bold Imagination. This activity asks participants to describe a positive vision for the future in regard to a complex topic—and to collaboratively imagine the pathways to achieve this desired future. Instead of getting hung up by what groups think to be “realistic” limitations, this activity helps a group to imagine boldly.
9) Activity 3.5 Seeking Divergent Thinking
Activity 3.5 Seeking Divergent Thinking. This activity describes how to systematically examine a topic from a multi-dimensional approach. It encourages divergent thinking by asking participants to generate different questions and viewpoints about a single area of concern, deepening appreciation for complexity.
10) Activity 3.6 Anticipating Implications and (Un)Intended Consequences
Activity 3.6 Anticipating Implications and (Un)Intended Consequences. This activity offers discussion strategies for groups to use when discussing possible actions and they want to anticipate, assess, evaluate, and prepare for the possibility of unintended consequences.
11) Activity 3.8 Mapping Complexity
Activity 3.8 Mapping Complexity. Complicated issues can overwhelm a discussion group. Discussants can feel daunted by the complexity of a topic or they can rush to a conclusion without fully exploring its complexity. Both approaches fail to constructively engage the topic. This activity introduces tools for mapping complexity.
12) Activity 3.9 Practicing Purposeful Skepticism
Activity 3.9 Practicing Purposeful Skepticism. New initiatives are often met with skepticism, which can be unproductive when based upon resistance to change. Purposeful skepticism, however, can be valuable when it opens up thinking and leads to improvements. This activity illustrates how to share skepticism with others in a purposeful way.
13) Activity 3.10 Collaborative Performance Measurement
Activity 3.10 Collaborative Performance Measurement. Measuring performance is a part of our life. This activity illustrates how to use a collaborative process to create three different types of performance measurements. By practicing how to create performance measures, participants are able to reflect more deeply about what matters most to them.
14) Activity 4.4 Identities & Issues Intersections
Activity 4.4 Identities & Issues Intersections. This activity opens up complex thinking; it helps participants to understand issues of prejudice and stereotypes, and it also helps them to find ways of coming to consensus on issues that affect them.
15) Activity 4.6 Asking Questions to Promote Curiosity
Activity 4.6 Asking Questions to Promote Curiosity. This activity focuses attention on the intentionality of asking questions. A good question can help promote a rich and meaningful discussion and goes beyond talking “on the surface”.
16) Activity 5.2 Developing an Awareness of Stakeholders
Activity 5.2 Developing an Awareness of Stakeholders. This activity is designed to help participants think deeply and methodically about who has a stake in the conversation and should be included at the table. It expands thinking and encourages greater inclusivity.
17) Activity 5.8 Practicing Deliberation with Others
Activity 5.8 Practicing Deliberation with Others. This activity introduces the concept of legislative juries to participants and gives them the opportunity to practice deliberating in collaboration with others.
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Looking forward to collaborating,
Ritu Thomas & the Collaborative Discussion Team