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Questions for Reviewing

~ 1 ~ EDITOR: ACTIVE REVIEWING TIPS   Active Reviewing Tips is back after a long break. Thank you for your patience (or for subscribing if you have just done so!). I hope this issue has sneaked past your filters and firewalls and finds you ready for more ideas about Flipchart-Free Facilitation!   My 'Facts, Feelings, Findings, Futures' reviewing sequence is turning up in surprising places. (If this sequence is not familiar to you, see http://reviewing.co.uk/learning-cycle for an explanation.)   This sequence is now being used to train call centre service staff as a sequence for responding to incoming calls. It is being used for accident investigation. It is being used for reviewing in the outdoors where the card symbols representing the sequence (diamonds, hearts, spades, clubs) are painted on wood and fixed to the trees. It is being used to train internal consultants in consulting skills, and it is used in turn by these consultants to review their clients' interventions and meetings that take place in their organisations.   So if you have found or used this sequence in any strange places or interesting situations, please let me know. I am forever learning about new possibilities and applications. I am fascinated by how ideas spread and how they are developed and adapted. Evolutionary theory highlights the importance of adaptation for survival. So why do we talk about the 'transfer' of learning rather than the 'adaptation' of learning? This is an issue I explore in my transfer of learning workshops (see below) and will cover in future issues of this newsletter.   In this issue, the main tips section is about QUESTIONS. Whatever your preferred style of reviewing or facilitation, you will almost certainly be an asker of questions. Questioning is an essential skill for any facilitator. You will find examples of questions that are useful at different stages of the reviewing cycle. You will also find ideas about different ways of using questions.   Following 'TIPS' is 'TIPPLES' - a chance to sample topics that I will return to in more detail in later issues.   Something else to look forward to is 'Inter-Active Reviewing Tips'. I have decided to experiment with a discussion list focused on active reviewing. More details in the next issue. Even in this newsletter format, interaction is possible - and welcome. Your comments, questions, news, ideas and feedback are always welcome.   ~ 2 ~ TIPS: QUESTIONS FOR REVIEWING   These questions are based on the active reviewing cycle which is described in full at: http://reviewing.co.uk/learning-cycle It is possible to focus on one particular theme, such as 'SUCCESS':   1. FACTS Success story: describe what happened - focusing on successes along the way.   2. FEELINGS What feelings do you associate with these successes?   3. FINDINGS How did you succeed? What was your recipe for success?   4. FUTURES How can you build on this success? Success breeds success. How can you help this process?   Below are sets of multi-purpose questions associated with each stage. If you want to stay focused on 'success' (or any other topic) I am sure you can find ways of adapting these general questions:   1. FACTS (diamonds)   Tell the story of the event in five chapter headings. Make a short news report covering What? Who? Where? When? Did anything unexpected happen? Any surprises? Did anything very predictable happen? What was most memorable / different / interesting? What were the turning points or critical moments? What happened next? What happened just before? What most influenced your attitude and behaviour? What did you think /hope / fear would happen, but didn't? Describe the event from the perspective of ... (e.g. a young child, your boss, a reporter from ...) Describe your role from the perspective of ...   2. FEELINGS (hearts)   FEELINGS Name five feelings that you experienced.   CONTRASTS What were your personal highs and lows? What were your most contrasting experiences?   INVOLVEMENT At what points did you feel most and least involved?   EMPATHY Who did you feel was going through similar/different emotions?   SELF CONTROL / EXPRESSION At what points were you most aware of controlling/expressing your emotions?   CONNECTIONS Did you get a sense of 'déjà vu' at any time? What previous experience was this most like?   ESSENCE / INTUITION What music (instrument/song/style) would have suited the event? (or not)   METAPHOR / INTUITION If you were a ... (e.g. something found in the kitchen) during that event, what would you be?   3. FINDINGS (spades)   Why ...? e.g. why did you take the role that you did?   How ...? e.g. how did your feelings influence what you said or did?   What are you finding out? e.g. about yourself / the group / the topic?   Regrets? Missed opportunities? e.g. What would you like to have done differently / more of / less of?   Achievements? e.g. How (or how well) did you achieve your group/personal objectives?   Opinions, judgements? e.g. What was most/least valuable?   Feedback, appraisal? e.g. What did you appreciate about others?   Links, connections? e.g. In what ways was the experience like/unlike work?   Learning processes? e.g. What is helping/hindering your learning?   What have you found? Gold? A message? Questions? A solution? Energy? Synergy? ...   4. FUTURES (clubs)   BENEFITS How might this experience benefit you in future?   CHOICES What possibilities and choices can you see?   CHANGES What will you stop / start / continue?   ACTION PLAN What do you want to take forwards from this experience? Why? How? When?   LEARNING PLAN What do you want to explore further? Why? How? When?   PREDICTIONS What are your pessimistic and optimistic predictions about the real value of this event?   PRIORITIES I will be disappointed / pleased /delighted if ...   RE-AWAKENING This event has renewed my ...   The above questions are listed on an easy to print page at: http://reviewing.co.uk/learning-cycle/questions2.htm   The question now is what you do with these questions! It may sometimes be appropriate to ask a question to the group and wait for the first response. But if you like the concept of 'active reviewing' you will soon be looking for more dynamic ways of using these questions. Here are some possibilities:   Prepare four sets of ready-made cards with each set corresponding to each of the four stages of the above reviewing sequence.   BRIEF ENCOUNTERS Shuffle and deal the first two sets (FACTS and FEELINGS) - one card to each person. Ask everyone to interview a partner based on the question on their own card (for about one minute each). Everyone then swaps cards with their partner, finds a new partner and the process is repeated (for as long as you or they want).   SURVEY Shuffle and deal the third set of cards (Findings) Pairs choose one of their cards and carry out a survey by visiting everyone else (together or separately) noting their responses to their chosen question and then reporting back on their findings to the whole group.   STATEMENTS Spread out the Futures cards and ask everyone to identify a card that they want to respond to. Each person then makes their 'future' statement to the whole group.   You may have noticed that in the above process the facilitator is setting tasks rather than asking questions. But it may need to ask other kinds of questions to assist the reviewing process, such as:   - When setting up BRIEF ENCOUNTERS: ''Is anyone not happy with the card they have been dealt?'' (Allow them to adapt the question, take a spare card or write their own question)   - At the end of BRIEF ENCOUNTERS: ''How easy / difficult was that?'' ''Did you discover anything about yourself?'' ''Did you learn anything new about someone else (that is not confidential)?''   - At the end of the SURVEY: ''Have you learned anything new or surprising from the surveys of others?''   - At the end of STATEMENTS: ''How can we best go forwards from here?''   You will never run out of questions - however many you give away!   You may be wondering why the first two stages (facts and feelings) are mixed together when using cards. This is partly to speed up the process. It is also because the distinction does not always matter when your purpose is to get people communicating about what happened. In this exercise both 'facts' questions and 'feelings' questions serve as triggers to encourage people to tell their story. These trigger questions should also provide fresh and interesting angles that encourage participants to 're-view' their experience with new eyes.   If you want to make question-based reviews more active than having participants walk around with question cards, then ask participants to respond to the questions in active ways e.g. by asking them to show, demonstrate, re-enact, draw, mime, perform, create or find something that represents their answer.   Your comments, questions, news, ideas and feedback are always welcome.   ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~   ~ 3 ~ TIPPLES:   MAPS and LEARNING JOURNEYS   Have participants create their own metaphorical maps on which they can represent their learning journeys. Such maps can include places such as: Sea of Possibilities, Safe Haven, Mountains of Work, Pool of Relaxation, Stretch Zone, Swampland, Play Area, Shifting Sands, Road to Nowhere, Stream of Ideas, Point of No Return, Moving Goalposts, Launch Pad, Laughing Water, Terra Incognita. For a reviewing tool participants tell their story while tracing their journey across their map with a finger. They can add extra places on their map as needed. A wonderful source of inspiration for such ideas is at: http://www.worldofexperience.com where you can make your own map (for a fee).   More uses of maps in future issues.   EMPATHY TEST   Pairs (Person A and Person B) stand back to back following a paired or group exercise in which they have just taken part. Ask A to guess something about B that can be shown in terms of a spectrum. Questions can be about feelings e.g. ''How much did B enjoy the activity?'' or about opinions e.g. ''How impressed do you think B was with the quality of teamwork?''. Hand high = very much. Hand low = not very much. Both A and B put their hands in position while still back to back, and on a signal they jump round. 'A's will suddenly discover how accurately they knew, guessed or 'intuited' B's response. Repeat with a question about A's feelings or opinions. Alternate for as long as you or they like. Invite the participants to suggest suitable questions.   More empathy exercises in future issues!   ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~   ~ 4 ~ LINKS: DEBRIEFING, ICE BREAKERS, LEARNING STYLES   DEBRIEFING LINKS   The July 2001 issue of Thiagi's Play for Performance newsletter includes a tool-kit section on debriefing games http://www.thiagi.com/pfp/Generic/july2001.html#ToolKit   The September 2001 issue of Thiagi's newsletter includes an interview with Roger Greenaway entitled ''The Game after the Game'' followed by a description of ''Action Replay'': http://www.thiagi.com/pfp/Generic/september2001.html#GuestGamer   ICEBREAKER LINKS   Many people visit http://reviewing.co.uk looking for icebreakers, but you won't find very many, even though many icebreakers do involve people talking about past experiences - which is a kind of reviewing. One of my favourite icebreakers is asking people about their least favourite icebreakers - followed by my favourite which is 'success cards' - described at http://reviewing.co.uk/success/icebreaker.htm   If anyone ever tells me that 'success cards' is their least favourite I will need to trawl through these icebreaker pages looking for inspiration:   http://www.flora.org/mike/poped/icebreakers.html http://www.scn.org/ip/cds/cmp/modules/tm-ice.htm http://www.susan-boyd.com/tenways.htm http://adulted.about.com/library/blicebreakers.htm http://www.residentassistant.com/icebreakers/Default.htm   Garry Platt recommended these sites in a message sent to http://www.ukhrd.com which, incidentally, has an excellent archive search where you will find many answers to questions about training.   'Diversity Icebreakers' (1994) and 'More Diversity Icebreakers' (1996)  by Selma Myers & Jonamay Lambert are available from http://www.amazon.com   LEARNING STYLE LINKS   David Kolb's site has a useful FAQ about learning styles: http://www.learningfromexperience.com (FAQ is top right)   Peter Honey's site has a lot of information about learning styles and the opportunity to find out your own style online: http://www.peterhoney.com   ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~   ~ 5 ~ NEWS: OPEN TRAINING WORKSHOPS in 2002   April 17th-18th, Ripley, England (see below) April, Hong Kong (provisional) May 16th, Glasgow, Scotland September/October, South Africa (tba) November 28th-29th, Elspeet, Holland.   The emphasis of each workshop is different. Please enquire for more information. Further details: roger@reviewing.co.uk   HOW TO TRANSFER LEARNING and give your training lasting impact   This is an intensive trainer-training programme with Roger Greenaway, Reviewing Skills Training at Log Heights, Ripley Castle, North Yorkshire on Wednesday 17th April - Thursday 18th April, 2002   Topics include:   - how to help learners develop strong links between their course experiences and their everyday world. - how to organise reviews towards the end of a training course when there is 'too much' to review. - how to integrate appraisal, feedback, learning plans, action plans and evaluation into your programme. - how to review a lot in a short time - how to help learners test their plans - how to evaluate the training you provide - how to review your own experiences of facilitating reviews. - how to develop strategies for your own continuing professional development in reviewing skills. Log Heights has since evolved into Azesta - same castle, same Shirley, more twist   If you are interested in attending or hosting a reviewing skills training event in your home town or country, please write to roger@reviewing.co.uk   TRAINING WORKSHOPS IN THE UK During the period April - June 2002 I will charge no more than £100 for travelling to anywhere in the UK for workshops of 2 or more days booked at least 2 months in advance. There are such good special offers on trains and planes that I can get to many destinations for much less than £100.   TRAINING WORKSHOPS OUTSIDE THE UK With enough warning I can get return fares to most European destinations for under £200 and most other destinations for under £400. I will be pleased to investigate flight costs if you are thinking about hosting a workshop.   NEWS AND EVENTS PAGE http://reviewing.co.uk/_news.htm   ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~   ~ 6 ~ SITE UPDATE: What's new at http://reviewing.co.uk   How Transfer Happens - new article http://reviewing.co.uk/articles/transfer.htm   Critiques of Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory - extended. http://reviewing.co.uk/research/experiential.learning.htm   The Active Reviewing Cycle - revised and extended. http://reviewing.co.uk/learning-cycle/index.htm   Active Learning Books and Reviews - new titles and reviews http://reviewing.co.uk/reviews   Is you favourite book about active/experiential learning included? Please send me an email or take part in the survey at http://reviewing.co.uk/reviews/survey.htm The results will be published here in Active Reviewing Tips. Recommended books will be added to the bookshop.   ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~   ~ 7 ~ QUOTE OF THE MONTH: ALIVENESS   Aliveness of the body ... vivid reality ... sharp perception ... capacity for feeling ...   Could there be some common ground here with active reviewing?   ''A person experiences the reality of the world only through his body.....If the body is relatively unalive, a person's impressions and responses are diminished.  The more alive the body is, the more vividly does he perceive reality and the more actively does he respond to it.  We have all experienced the fact that when we feel particularly good and alive, we perceive the world more sharply.....The aliveness of the body denotes its capacity for feeling.  In the absence of feeling, the body goes 'dead' insofar as it's ability to be impressed by or respond to situations is concerned....It is the body that melts with love, freezes with fear, trembles in anger, and reaches for warmth and contact.  Apart from the body these words are poetic images. Experienced in the body, they have a reality that gives meaning to existence.''   Alexander Lowen, The Betrayal of the Body, MacMillan, New York, 1967, pp 5-6 POSTSCRIPT Your ideas, views, questions, links or comments about questions in reviewing are welcome. It is a theme to which I am sure to return!

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