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…)

8 Aug, 2018

Try This: Curb Your Evaluation Anxiety

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T20:15:34-04:00August 8th, 2018|Categories: Research & Evaluation|Tags: Capacity Building, program evaluation, Try This|0 Comments

With my program and evaluation clients, I offer the Evaluation Capacity Measure. It’s an assessment created by Ann Price of Community Evaluation Solutions , and I’ve revised it a bit to include some open-ended questions. The assessment assesses an organization’s current capacity to evaluate its programs, strategies and services and assesses its current support around evaluative thinking. Everyone from organizational leadership to board of director members are encouraged to take the assessment.

This assessment helps me to see what the current needs are, and it also gives clients a sense of what we can work on together in the evaluation capacity building process. I offer it to clients first as a baseline, then towards the end of our partnership together. Whether it’s a short-term or long-term project, clients like knowing their staff’s general views on evaluation, and how the process can be aligned with their respective roles and organizational mission and strategy. (At times, they may notice that what they expected to score lower on is higher than expected, and vice versa).

I recently administered the assessment for a new client, whose staff works remotely and is comprised of several departments that work individually and collectively on several programs and strategies. Leading up to sending the assessment to her colleagues, the staff member leading the project with me shared her nervousness about what the results may reveal about her staff, but is excited to see how the results can influence how they can proceed with their evaluation priorities.

The goal of program evaluation is to 1) see if your program is performing in the way it’s intended to and 2) facilitate organizational learning and improvement. In general, people tend to experience anxiety when they’re being evaluated. It’s like when you waited in a line with your classmates to see which kickball team captain would choose you for their team. You want the best players on your team, and the captains are sizing you up. Who is known to kick the farthest? Who has the capability to catch the ball mid-air? Who can run the fastest?

And when you’re last to be picked, it makes you feel a way. “Why wasn’t I one of the earlier picks?”, you asked. More often the not, the team captains probably chose their team based on who they’re friends with, but there’s a lot of emotional reactions that may come up.

You get into the real world of adulting, and the feeling is still there. This time, it surfaces when you’re meeting with your supervisor for you mid-year or annual review. You think you’re performing well in most areas, until you discover (through someone else’s perspective) that you’re not.

In “Strategies for Managing Evaluation Anxiety: Toward a Psychology of Program Evaluation” (American Journal of Evaluation, Vol. 23 Issue 3, 2002), Stewart Donaldson, Laura E. Googler, Michael Striven dubbed the term “excessive evaluation anxiety” (or XEA). Symptoms of XEA include:

Lack of access to important information and data
Compliance and cooperation problems
False reporting
Effects on bias and validity
Reduced utilization of evaluation findings.

This can lead to stakeholders behaving in ways that can destroy the credibility of evaluation findings (and of evaluators). When the findings of a program’s evaluation yield that it’s not performing in the way it was intended, the blame game can happen. Instead of falling victim to XEA, how can you and your staff become more open to viewing the process as a learning experience?

To give you a taste of the Evaluation Capacity Measure I give to my clients (and to help jumpstart the conversation with your staff around evaluation anxiety), here are some questions you can walk your staff through:

Here’s what you need:

Flip chart paper, chalkboards, or walls
Note cards
Pens or pencils

Designate five open areas around the room. Each area will have one question at the top of the flip chart paper, chalkboard, or wall.

Give staff enough time to answer the questions thoughtfully . When time is up, have staff place their note cards under the designated question.

Next, divide up your staff so that each question has several eyes on it. Have staff place the note cards into themes, grouping similar responses together.

Last, have staff do a “walk-around”, where they can view the themes for each question. To close out the exercise, discuss the themes with staff and create an action plan to address the themes.

The steps:

Have your staff answer the following questions alone on note cards:

(more…)

14 Feb, 2018

Try This: Appreciative Inquiry

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T20:11:01-04:00February 14th, 2018|Categories: Research & Evaluation|Tags: program evaluation, Try This|0 Comments

Have you ever noticed that when you go looking for problems, more problems tend to appear?

It’s like peeling back the layers of an onion and chopping it. It’s never-ending and your eyes water in the process.

The same goes for conducting community needs assessments. When designed to identify the pressing needs of a community, they often focus on deficits, which doesn’t do much for community morale. Continuous focus on the problem increases the likelihood of seeing the problem everywhere. This isn’t to say that communities should turn a blind eye to what’s happening, but there’s something to be said about raising awareness of this practice, as it can immobilize communities to create change.

A while back, I wrote a blog post on asset mapping as a tool for community organizing and engagement. One reason why asset mapping and similar strengths-based tools are growing in popularity is due to an increasingly mindset shift away from solely deficits-based to identifying community strengths. Whereas deficits-based practices are problem-focused, needs driven, and questions what’s missing, strengths-based practices are opportunity-focused, strengths driven, and identifies what is currently available that can be built upon.

Today, let’s look at another strengths- based practice, appreciative inquiry.

What’s appreciative inquiry?

Appreciative inquiry (AI) is strengths-based approach, developed by Dr. David Cooperrider in the 1980s. First used in organizational development and change, AI has helped institutions worldwide integrate the power of the strength-based approaches to multi-stakeholder innovation and collaborative design. It quickly gained ground in program evaluation following the 2006 release of Reframing Evaluation Through Appreciative Inquiry by Hallie Preskill and Tessie Catsambas.

AI focuses on identifying what is working well, analyzing why it is working well and then doing more of it. In other words, AI teaches us that an organization will grow in whichever direction that people in the organization focus their attention.

If this can be done in organizations, why not apply it to community change?

Here’s what you need:

(more…)

13 Oct, 2017

Try This: The Story of Me, The Story of Us, The Story of Now

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T19:57:47-04:00October 13th, 2017|Categories: Speaking & Facilitation|Tags: reproductive justice, Try This|0 Comments

“The Story of Me, The Story of Us, The Story of Now” is a reflective call to action process that frames our experiences, highlights the commonalities of our lived experiences, and connects our stories to the current social climate to promote action. I first learned of this process from Jamia Wilson. Jamia shared it with me as I was preparing to speech related to young women of color several years ago.

Here’s what you need:

Sheets of paper
Something to write with

The steps:

This process connects your personal story to current problems our communities are facing, and to the larger vision of a world we want.

Using the topic of Reproductive Justice:

The Story of Me: Share your story of how Reproductive Justice connects with your identities. Use a personal story that brought your attention to various reproductive oppressions and injustices.
The Story of Us: Share the current state of how reproductive injustices are impacting your communities. Use prompts such as “We live in a world where…” or “When I look around my community, I see…”. This can be related to policies that do more harm than good, lack of sex education in your school, or historical or current events such as the shackling of pregnant prisoners during labor and delivery or involuntary sterilization of women of color
The Story of Now: Share your vision for reproductive freedom. Use prompts such as “We will have reproductive justice when…” What would be the end game to have Reproductive Justice? What would that look like in your community?

You can do this process alone or in a group. If in a group, have participants identify the commonalities in their stories and develop a strong call to action (CTA). Try this exercise and let me know how it goes.

SaveSave

RAISE YOUR VOICE: Share one way you can use The Story of Me, The Story of Us, The Story of Now process below in the comments section.

Like this post? Subscribe to the Raise Your Voice newsletter to receive resources, advice, and tips to help you raise your voice for women and girls of color.

Sign Up

SaveSave

Try This: The Identity Wheel

Try This: Brainwriting for Rapid Engagement

This activity is ideal for:

Here’s what you need:

The steps:

Try This: Curb Your Evaluation Anxiety

Here’s what you need:

The steps:

Try This: Appreciative Inquiry

What’s appreciative inquiry?

Here’s what you need:

Try This: The Story of Me, The Story of Us, The Story of Now

Here’s what you need:

The steps:

RAISE YOUR VOICE: Share one way you can use The Story of Me, The Story of Us, The Story of Now process below in the comments section.

Like this post? Subscribe to the Raise Your Voice newsletter to receive resources, advice, and tips to help you raise your voice for women and girls of color.

This Is A Custom Widget