Category: Activity instructions

Activity instructions – meetup #12


Here are the instructions for meetup #12 – design your perfect scrutiny officer. We publish these for participants to refer to during the meetups.

Nine Minute Networking

Two rounds of nine minutes in threes (or fours)

Talking points:

  • What’s something you like about the meetups?
  • What’s something you might change?
  • What might be a good topic for a future meetup?

Five Strengths

  1. Consider the warm up question in silent self reflection (3 mins)
  2. In groups of 4/5, using jamboard, share ideas for the important strengths that the perfect scrutiny officer might demonstrate (10 mins)
  3. Agree a set of five strengths and agree the person that best represents each  – present them nicely (15 mins)
  4. Each group share their five in turn to the whole group (10 mins)
  5. In the same groups, swap between one and five of your strengths with any that you heard from the other groups (5 mins) 
  6. Each group shares their changes and reasoning (10 mins)
  7. Favourite qualities in the chat (2 mins)

 

 

Activity instructions – Scrutiny Meetup #11


Nine minute networking

Two rounds of nine minutes in threes (or fours)
Talking points:
What’s a piece of feedback you have been pleased about?
How did you find out about something your organisation has done well?

Triz (40 mins)

The ‘Theory of Solving Ingenious Problems’
Also known as the ‘anti-problem technique’, sometimes identifying ways to solve the opposite issue to the current one makes it easier to find a new solution
The prompts are provocations

Step one- Capture everything you could to do generate the worst result possible (12 mins)

Introduce yourselves and add names to Slide 1, then move to slide 2. There you can add examples of behaviours for:
What are the practical ways you and your team could ensure that Scrutiny’s successes go completely unnoticed by local residents and the rest of your organisation?

Be creative! No need to stick to the rules of acceptable behaviour / organisation policies / the law…

Step two- Shortlist any examples that (slightly) reflect current practice, and capture any detail/examples (8 mins)

Move to Slide 3, referring back to Slide 2 when needed

What are the practical ways you and your team could ensure that Scrutiny’s successes go completely unnoticed by local residents and the rest of your organisation?

Move to Slide 4, referring back to Slide 2 when needed
What are the practical ways you and your team could ensure that Scrutiny’s successes go completely unnoticed by local residents and the rest of your organisation?

Not trying to resolve the whole issue or create a grand strategy, but think about the small things that could start to make a big difference

Conversation Cafe

Share the purpose and structure of Conversation Cafe, including the requests. (1 min)
Participants will be put into groups of 3-5 via Zoom breakouts.
In the first round of conversation, each participant is invited to briefly sharing what they are thinking, feeling, or doing about the theme or topic (5-7 mins), one by one.
If you are not the person speaking, mute your mic.
When you are done speaking, pass the “turn” to someone else by name. They should unmute to share or to pass.
In the second round, everyone is invited to contribute again after hearing initial responses to the question (5-7 mins).
In the third round, everyone is invited to contribute via open discussion (10 minutes)
In the last/ fourth round, each participant is invited to share their takeaways, using the person-by-person approach of the first and second rounds. (5-7 mins)

Activity instructions for Meetup #10 – Nine minute networking, appreciative interviews, 15% solutions


Here are the instructions for Meetup #10 – all adapted from Liberating Structures.

Nine Minute Networking (20 mins)

Two rounds of nine minutes in threes (or fours)

Talking points:

  • What’s something you’ve done virtually this year that you are pleased about?
  • What’s something your organisation has done virtually that has impressed you?

 

Appreciative Interviews (40 mins)

  1. Everyone invited to think of any scrutiny inquiry or review that you were involved in, that went reasonably well (real or virtual)
  2. In groups of 3 (or 4) allocate three roles: 
    • Interviewer – asks appreciative questions to learn about what helped
    • Interviewee – answers the questions, focussing on the practical
    • Note taker / time keeper – jots down the most interesting ideas and points about ‘what helped’ – keeps the group on time
  3. Each interview takes 7 mins
    • Interviewer asks questions, interviewee answers (5 mins)
    • Note taker feeds back the main points of ’what helped’ without response from the other group members (2 minutes) 
    • Rotate the roles around the group
  4. After three rounds the group uses the remaining time to discuss what stood out.
  5. Return to the main room and put the best answers in the chat

Interview script

  1. Tell me about an inquiry that went reasonably well
  2. What helped to make it go well? 
  3. What did you do?
  4. What else helped?
  5. What else?
  6. What else?

 

15% Solutions: What do we have the freedom and resources to do now? (20 mins)

  1. Alone, generate a list of 15% solutions (3 mins)
  2. In small groups briefly share your list, up to 3 mins per person, one at a time
  3. Staying in your group ask each other clarifying questions and build on suggestions using “yes…and” (10 mins or whatever is left)
  4. Return to the main room and share your favourite suggestions in the chat