22 Mar, 2019

Try This: I Like, I Wish, I Wonder

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T20:27:39-04:00March 22nd, 2019|Categories: Workshop, Program, & Curriculum Design|Tags: Facilitation, Try This, Workshops|0 Comments

This this activity out and let me know how it goes for you.

I’ve used “I Like, I Wish, I Wonder” as a way to get quick feedback from my program and workshop participants.

Adapted from the Stanford Design School’s “I Like, I Wish, How to” process, I first used “I Like, I Wish, I Wonder” during an evaluation project with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s sexual and reproductive justice campaign. The campaign’s Community Engagement Group facilitated local gatherings in the five boroughs to gather insights into how various demographics were advancing Reproductive Justice in their communities.

Due to the gatherings being large in scope and attendance, we 1) needed something quick for the participants to fill out before leaving, and 2) wanted to develop an easy-to-understand evaluation process that was easy for DOHMH staff to volunteers to administer onsite (as I was not able to be at all gatherings) and for participants to not have much of a problem completing. Also, it was a lesson learned in developing an evaluation tool that generates honest constructive feedback AND helping staff and volunteers learn how to look for generated themes by a variety of participants.

This activity is ideal for:

Staff responsible for developing and overseeing the implementation of programs, services, and strategies
Gathering quick feedback in a time-crunch
Breaking out of the standard survey construction model
Staff interested in building their skills and confidence in qualitative data collection and analysis

Here’s what you need:

There are two ways to implement this process:

Option 1: Sheets of paper, writing utensils
Option 2: Butcher paper or a white board, a marker, writing utensils, post-its

The process:

For option 1: Have participants divide their sheets into four quadrants labeled “I Like”, “I Wish”, “I Wonder”. (You can also have sheets that already have the labels typed out. You’ll have an empty quadrant, and I’ll explain what to do with it later.

(more…)

13 Feb, 2019

How Nonprofits Can Build a Bias for Action

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T20:24:45-04:00February 13th, 2019|Categories: Workshop, Program, & Curriculum Design|Tags: Design Thinking, Human Centered Design|0 Comments

One thing that’s fascinated me about the design thinking process is how nonprofits can use it to listen to the needs of their communities and think outside the box when taking action, despite design thinking being primarily known as a business strategy.

Another reason I like design thinking is that it uses the stories of individuals and communities for meaningful impact, storytelling and engagement that advanced an organization’s mission.

And connecting the evaluation process to design thinking seems like a no-brainer.

We’ve discussed the first three steps in the design thinking process- empathize, define, and ideate. Let’s finish out this series with the final two steps in the process- prototyping and testing.

With design thinking, testing and evaluating feedback helps nonprofits observe and uncover additional wants and needs from the communities they serve.

But I’ll admit that I initially wasn’t sold on the last two steps.

(more…)

30 Jan, 2019

We Have the Right Problem. Let’s Find the Right Solution

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T20:23:57-04:00January 30th, 2019|Categories: Workshop, Program, & Curriculum Design|Tags: Design Thinking, Human Centered Design|0 Comments

In 2017, I introduced to my blog readers the design thinking process (aka human-centered design), a process many nonprofits and community groups use to generate engagement with communities.

The first step in the design thinking process is to Empathize: Learn about your audience or community through interviews and observations to answer the question “What do they need?”. This creates our User Persona.

The second step is to Define: Identify the problem you want to solve, based on your User Persona.

When we fall into the habit of thinking we know what the problem is, we end up creating unsuccessful programs, services, and strategies because the voices of the people we want to reach aren’t involved in the process. This is why the first two steps in the design thinking process are crucial. In order to create the right solution, we need to identify the right problem is from our User Persona’s perspective.

Now that we’ve done steps one and two, let’s move on to the third step in the design thinking process: Ideate.

(more…)

23 Jan, 2019

Try This: The Identity Wheel

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T20:23:16-04:00January 23rd, 2019|Categories: Workshop, Program, & Curriculum Design|Tags: Try This|0 Comments

What is identity? More importantly, how do our various identities impact how we view the world, and how the world views us?

For people in the social work field and other helping professions, self awareness aids us in how to prepare for encounters with clients whose thoughts, attitudes, and lived experiences are different from ours. With my own consulting clients, we’ve had conversations about how our identities impact how we gain access to the communities we work with. The conclusion is this:

Just because we share similar identities doesn’t mean we share the same lived experiences.

Here’s an activity, adapted from the University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts’ Inclusive Teaching Initiative called The Identity Wheel.

This activity is ideal for:

Encouraging reflection on the ways we identify personally and socially, and how we perceive the world and how the world perceives us
Identify settings and situations in which our identities are felt the most
Identify ways in which our identities afford us privilege

Here’s what you need:

White sheets of paper
Markers, pens, or pencils
Rulers, if needed
Round color-coding labels in four colors (like these)

The steps:

Pass out the sheets of paper and writing utensils to participants. On the sheets, draw a circle and divided into 8 sections (using rulers, if needed), like this:

2. Have participants label each section with an identity they closely identify with. Here’s an example of my identities:

(more…)

10 Oct, 2018

Try This: Brainwriting for Rapid Engagement

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T20:20:56-04:00October 10th, 2018|Categories: Workshop, Program, & Curriculum Design|Tags: Try This, Workshops|0 Comments

No, that’s not a typo.

But since you’re thinking of brainstorming, let’s identify how it’s different from our focus for today, brainwriting.

When it comes to generating ideas, brainstorming typically consists of getting a group of people together to generate an idea on how to approach a particular problem. During this process, a few things may happen:

It’s a drawn out process
Sometimes the most vocal of the group tend to dominate the conversation
There’s one person documenting the ideas (and can’t fully participate because they’re too busy writing down everyone’s ideas)
The person documenting typically has the most power in how the idea looks when written down
There are a lot of ideas, but fewer suggestions on what to do with these ideas
There’s a greater chance for boredom

In comparison, brainwriting addresses these concerns by:

Limiting the amount of time the group generates ideas
Everyone participates equally rather than the most vocal of the group
Everyone is writing down their ideas instead of one person
Everyone decides how their idea looks written down
Everyone has the opportunity to provide a variation of the ideas, which promotes for creativity and insights into next steps
It’s more engaging

Brainwriting is a more effective process because it allows for more individuality in generating ideas rapidly, rather than conforming to groupthink. Rather than focusing on one person at a time, this method reduces the amount of talking that occurs during brainstorming, which can take time away from idea generation.

This activity is ideal for:

Understanding how an idea looks from multiple perspectives
Understanding how problem can be solved based on multiple perspectives
Having a more engaging process for group work within a training or workshop
Including more creative exercises within a focus group
Creating a more equitable way for introverts and extroverts people to participate

Here’s what you need:

Sheets of paper
Pens or pencils

The steps:

(more…)

Try This: I Like, I Wish, I Wonder

How Nonprofits Can Build a Bias for Action

We Have the Right Problem. Let’s Find the Right Solution

Try This: The Identity Wheel

Try This: Brainwriting for Rapid Engagement

This activity is ideal for:

Here’s what you need:

The steps:

This Is A Custom Widget