The Circle Ended, A Circle Renewed...

The group drumming session for staff at my library was this past Friday, and I felt that it was a success!

This was my first “real” HealthRhythms group drumming session, which I tailored to fit the needs of the staff of my library. The guiding idea for the session was to decompress as a group, and to end the semester “on a good note”. From the start, I wanted the flavor of the session to be fun, play, celebration, and the chance to be together in a different-than-usual setting. Besides participants’ initial nervousness about drumming and team building activities, I also envisioned there would be lots of healthy laughter and a good beat (and there was!)

Interspersed throughout the experiential exercise, I tried to play the theme of how each person’s drumming symbolized their unique “voice” they brought to the group. While I didn't necessarily talk about “team work”, I think that this experience created more positive feelings among the group that can improve their work in the future.

I was especially thankful of the chance to continue to deepen my facilitation skills. Judging from the participant evaluations (brief questions about what they did and didn’t like about the exercise, as well as general comments), people enjoyed the exercise. They talked about the session as fun, celebratory, and a chance to “come together” as a group, and these were some of the purposes I set for the session. I also noticed that I was much less nervous than previous times practicing the method, and I looked forward to the day of the session. Because of this experience, I feel more confident about my ability to facilitate group drumming sessions in the future.

HealthRhythms as a Team building Approach

I want to reflect on the upcoming staff planning day, which includes a a percussion-based experiential exercise, facilitated by--yours truly. While this is not the first time I've used the HealthRhythms protocol, it is the first "real" one, where a group is gathered together for the purpose of team building and reflection. Sure, I have some nervousness about it. But, I have felt that before; whether it is a Info Lit class for undergrads, or a presentation for academics, that nervousness usually goes away once I'm there.

I know some key pieces of data as well: who the participants are, and something about how they work together. I know that, as a unit, they have been through some tough emotional times, especially in the last year. But, they also seem flexible and able to enjoy themselves together.

I also know that, as a facilitator, I have good experience in teaching classes, am comfortable leading sessions (once I get over the initial nervousness), and have a desire to facilitate. Of course, I still wrestle with being a perfectionist; I still have that straightjacket-fits-all feeling of having everything "go right". I am still feeling a bit unsure about the entrainment (or "drum groove") part of the protocol; I don't think I have the hang of that quite yet. Perhaps this is the place where I can grow to see the space that the group needs to get to in the entrainment part, and then, once they are "locked in", I can join in myself and let it flow a bit more.

A couple other things that I know: the research conducted by Barry Bittman, Christine Stevens, and others, investigating the health benefits of a group drumming method, is important to the argument that HealthRhythms can be used as a team building method. The main way it helps build teams, in my view, is that it promotes stress relief and positive group and individual feelings; it explores the relations of the group outside of the usual boundaries of work, using a creative experiential exercise; and, it also can celebrate an accomplishment--in this case, the end of a successful semester, and the beginning of a much needed break.

And another aspect that deserves mention: the use of the group drumming protocol in higher education, and libraries in particular. The article by Keith Russell et al., ("Organizational development, best practices, and employee development.” Library administration & management 17(4): 189-195, fall 2003), in which they describe the use of group drumming exercises in the organizational development program at University of Kansas, shows that this is a method that can be used successfully in a higher education setting. The authors observe that "(1) drumming and drum-circle activities have a remarkable and positive impact on stress levels; (2) drumming can be used for meditation, which is one of the stress management techniques that many institutions teach; and (3) corporations have been using drumming activities for years for team and community building." This tells me that the use of an experiential learning method that stretches people's ideas of themselves, can have a good impact on their mood, and that can lead to improvements in productivity. The article also mentions that using teaching methods that employ and speak to more than one of the intelligences delineated by Howard Gardner are more likely to be successful with a larger number of participants.

Overall, through Friday's library session, I hope to gain more confidence, skill, and experience in facilitating group drumming exercises. And, while I don't think we will get too loud, I think that the drum groove started there will have a ripple effect, in ways that I can't even see yet.

Frames of MInd

What lead me to reading Howard Gardner's Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences ? (New York: Basic Books, 1983) I had heard a lot about it, and it was included along with several other works by Gardner, on the bibliography given to me by the the Organizational Development expert. The big reason, however, was because I am intrigued by the concept of multiple intelligences, and want to learn more. From one angle, I had been a believer in multiple intelligences for a while, probably since a teaching methods course early in my library career. As a popular notion, multiple intelligences seemed to make sense to me. I also wanted to discover what the theory behind it was; I thought that Gardner's book could answer some questions about how the intelligences work, where they come from, and how (if at all) they are different than ingrained personality traits or abilities. Plus, there is something exciting about reading the ground breaking work that created a sensation in the education and psychology world.

In my encounter with Gardner's theories, I also had a desire to see how this applied to team building and group work. I thought that I could get some good information about how the musical intelligence might factor into what people are doing in a drumming session. I focused also on the chapters about the body-kinesthetic intelligence, and the personal intelligences, since I thought these might also play a role in the groups. The introductory chapter where Gardner lays the groundwork for his theory of intelligence by putting it into context of the historical concepts of intelligence, was important. I began to see the intellectual and scientific theories of intelligence out of which the theory comes. As I found out through my reading, Gardner approaches his subject very much from a cognitive psychology point of view.

It seemed that Gardner was painting a picture of intelligence as not being some static thing that each person has a certain amount of, and no more or less (such as the static score given from an IQ test). Rather, he seemed to be building up evidence to show that what goes under the umbrella term "intelligence" is really a combination of differing actions and processes, talents and gifts, or even simply ways of processing information and understanding the world. He states: "Reason, intelligence, logic, knowledge are not synonymous; and much of this book constitutes an effort to tease out the various skills and capacities that have to easily been combined under the rubric of "the mental" (p. 6-7). He wants to better elucidate what is at work when someone "intelligently" interacts with the world. What do they do? He echoes Dewey's Pattern of Inquiry when he states that "an intellectual competence must entail a set of skills of problem solving--enabling he individual to resolve genuine problems or difficulties that he or she encounters, and when appropriate, to create an effective product--and must also entail the potential for finding or creating problems--thereby laying the groundwork for the acquisition of new knowledge.: (p 60-61).

It is instructive that a lot of the examples for the multiple intelligences comes from research into the activity of the brain (the ubiquitous "brain research" you read about in education periodicals) when a person is performing certain activities. If I understand Gardner right, there are specific locations that are energized in the brain when, say, hearing musical tones, than when someone is reading a book. The areas of the brain are a hint to the fact that a "separate intelligence" might be at work.

Of course, I was interested to see what Gardner said about musical intelligence, since I would think that people who are involved in a group drumming exercise might want to know something about their innate musical intelligence. The chapter was interesting, and I focused on his description of the evolution of music cultures: Stone Age instruments have been found, and the fact that there is presumptive evidence that music played a societal role in organizing work groups, hunting parties, and religious rites (p. 115). Gardner also states that there is "a core set of abilities crucial to all participation in the musical experience of a culture. These core abilities should be found in any normal individual brought into regular contact with any kind of music" (p. 104) My point would be to emphasize to participants that, despite a belief they may hold that they "are not musical", that there are basic ways that they make music, and that drumming and rhythm is one of them. Yes, they are musical and we can all participate in this kind of music! Rhythm is very basic, and it is something that we are all attuned to; just listen to your heartbeat, and you will see that you have an innate rhythm. Just tap your feet to some music that you like, and you know that you have rhythm.

While I did not delve into Frames of Mind too deeply, I did learn some things. The book was written in an academic, sometimes stilted style which I sometimes go for, and sometimes think it gets in the way of my understanding. However, I think his attempt to expand the notion of what it means to be "intelligent", is very creative and important to today's world. We need to see how we all have a unique set of abilities, but we also have much in common. All of this is to say that I am glad that I read selections of Gardner's book, if only to get some background and (hopefully) to bring some of these concepts into my group team building sessions. I think I now have a more informed perspective, and can recognize different kinds of intelligences that are at work in everybody.

Community of Practice

During the last community of practice meeting that took place about a month ago, I realized that the support of people who are doing the same thing as I, albeit in different places, is really valuable. I have counted on their support and encouragement in many subtle ways, and am thankful for it.

One of the people there told me that the main thing to remember is that people will eventually start to feel the rhythm. Just watch where it goes, see where the group takes it.

Readings Review

Some updates on what I have been reading:

• Chemers, Oskamp, and Costanzo. Diversity in organizations . Thousand Oaks : Sage Publications, c1995.

A scholarly monograph, written for social scientists and organizational psychologists. One chapter on diversity in decision-makinig teams seemed interesting; the main points of the chapter were that it is known that diversity affects the work of teams, but in what way is still not fully known. The authors suggest that status is an issue, and that teams with diversity in status sometimes do not function as well--for example, if there are people of various socioeconomic backgrounds in one decision-making team. They suggest that it might be useful for team members to understand the dynamics of status and diversity explicitly; hopefully, factors like expertise promote a person's status, rather than race, gender, class, etc. The authors suggest that diversity training should work both ways: high status groups should understand the issues that low-status members face, and vice-versa. Training should "seek to change the behaviors of all parties involved". (p. 152)

• Dutton, Seaman, and Ulmer. Understanding group dynamics in adult education. Englewood: Prentice-Hall, 1972.

A basic text in the Prentice-Hall Adult Education Series about group dynamics, which explains some social scientific and psychological aspects of the formation, purposes, and maintenance of "groups" (they look at groups in general, and then groups in adult education in particular). The introductory section delineated three factors that have a profound effect on the group dynamics: cohesion, structure (such as formal or informal) and atmosphere (the tenor of the relationships and communication within the group). They also mention that groups need to have goals, and that people look to groups to fulfill certain needs (both psychological and social). A section on the principles of group dynamics, which they define as the complex of forces that act upon a group which cause it to behave the way it does, was interesting; the authors point out that members of a group may learn more about themselves or others in the process of being part of a group, but it may not change the behavior of the group. In other words, just because the change is not visible in the group's actions does not mean that some learning or change hasn't taken place among the members.

As to how this relates to group drumming, I particularly resonated with the fact that people may have a changed image of themselves or others by participating in a group. Group dynamics will certainly come into play--people may be resistant due to their thinking that they are not musically inclined. Overall, I think most people will "want" to be there. My hope is to design the experience in such a way that it might stretch people's images of what they can accomplish in a group setting, by building on the metaphor of the drum circle as a unity of individual voices.

Lenses: Looking at group processes through the Individual and the Group

My reading and research has suggested these two lenses (Individual and the group as a whole), and I am planning to get key information needed from my readings of Gardner's works on multiple intelligences, as well as French and Bell's work in OD to focus on the individual as a power in the group dynamic. Also, a key theme is diversity, and I have a book that covers diversity in organizations. Then, broadening to the group, I will focus on group processes, gleaning information from the French and Bell text, as well as Schwarz's Skilled Facilitator Manual. I may need to define terms, or otherwise ground what I am looking at in psychology and social science.

I would also like to get back to my original questions, to see where I am at with them. Also, needing to post to the blog for updates on readings, as well as thoughts about the last Community of Practice meeting on October 26th.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes...

...in the words of the David Bowie song. There've been some changes in options for carrying out the HealthRhythms/teambuilding project.

Basically, I heard from my library contact at MSU Mankato that the professional development session I was pencilled in for has been taken off the agenda, due to the high number proposals that were accepted. Considering I'm not even employed at MSU anymore, it's understandable, but a disappointment nonetheless. The library contact is going to see if a smaller session could be done for just the library; I'll have to be in contact again with her about this.

However, the flip-side is that I am instead going to do some group empowerment drumming (and hoepfully just plain fun) for the library staff development day here at Southwest Minnesota State. They're looking for a way to relax and reflect at the end of a busy and challenging semester. I'm looking forward to it as my first "real" HealthRhythms session.

That's all for now by way of update.

More About Teams

I'm reading about Team Learning as described by Peter Senge in his book The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. Senge espouses "systems thinking" (a way of thinking in more holistic terms) as a path to creating the "Learning Organization". The book has a philosophical bent that aligns with my own thinking in some ways, and so it has been hard to put down.

According to Senge, team learning (as opposed to individuals in a team learning as separate entities) is learning together, and it must be practiced continually; he uses the analogy of a jazz ensemble being "in the groove", or a sports team that has learned together to get "into the zone". He also characterizes team learning as a mysterious phenomenon which, in order for it to be more fully understood, must be practiced and built into teams in the workplace (p. 268). My overall impression is that team learning is a "frontier" experience.

In the section on Team Learning, Senge makes a strong point that problems aren't usually "out there" coming from some uncontrollable external force, but come from the individual or group's actions interacting with "the system". He also talks in-depth about the technique of dialogue (as developed in a theory by quantum physicist David Bohm), where assumptions are brought out into the open and examined in a non-threatening way. He views this as an antidote to unproductive group thinking and decision-making. (pages 238-243).

I wonder where the HealthRhythms protocol might fit into this picture of team learning. Could the process of going through a facilitated drum circle give insights into how the group might learn together? (What does it mean to "learn together"?? That could be something to explore in a session). Or could it show them what happens when their thoughts and assumptions get in the way of learning to "play together"? Is a drum group that is "locked in the groove" an example of team learning in action?

I'm excited to read more of this book. I would like to tie in some of his ideas to what the participants in a facilitated drum circle may be doing--learning to interact as a whole group, and in a different way than they are used to...the drumming way.

About Teams

This project about team building would do well with a definition of teams, so here is a working definition, taken from a very popular work called "The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High Performance Organization", by Jon Katzebach and Douglas Smith.

"A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable." (p.45)

Katzenbach and Smith go on to explain facets of this definition. One point they made (that may be applicable to teams in education) is that, while the right mix of skills is important when a team is forming, it is not absolutely necessary that all the needed skills are there at the outset; essentially, good teams allow people in them to develop and learn, and there should be that room for growth within the team. Seems to resonate with the mission of schools, lifelong learning.

They also stress that both a well-realized vision/purpose, and specific goals to measure success with, are important to functioning teams. Basically, if the purpose of the team is murky or unclear, that's not a good thing; also, goals need to be set. People have to believe in what they are doing, and have an idea of what they are trying to attain. Sometimes, the authors point out, the direction comes from a "higher authority", such as management or administration, and sometimes is comes from within the team. The point is that both elements, an overall purpose to guide the team, and concrete goals, are important for a functioning team.

What, So What, and What Now?

This facilitator's question is a good introduction to where I'm at with the project right now. On the one hand, I have some awesome resources collected (books!) that I will take a look at, and received some great leads and helpful bibliography from librarian/organizational development expert Keith Russell.

A side note:

As a person who is versed in Organizational Development techniques (such as group drumming, a new method, but one gaining popularity), Keith Russell pointed me to some fruitful resources that give a scholarly grounding to team building and OD (Organizational Development). I hope to translate these into practical steps that participants in the session can take away with them. In addition, Keith pointed out that grounding an experiential exercise like HealthRhythms on a scholarly basis, for people in educational organizations says to them "we're not making this stuff up"--it's based on actual research.

On the other hand, I'm questioning where I'm going in the project...questioning my key questions.

Key Question #1: "What relevance do techniques of group team-building have for educational organizations?"

My Question: Why does this question matter to my project?

I'm grappling with this question because I don't necessarily see anymore how it serves the end-product of the project--to present at a professional development day. I guess I wanted to give validity to the use of a team-building exercise; to convince participants that group drumming is a tool that can be used.

But, perhaps they can take away something of value from an investigation of what it means to work as a team. What kinds of situations they might find themselves in at work where team-building might be relevant, where more group unity/togetherness is needed, or where communication (as symbolized by the group drumming) could be a key to attaining group goals. The circle functions as a symbol of a group's common purpose, and perhaps this is where research into work teams could inform the session (ideas from Katzenbach and Smith, or from Senge).

The angle of using this particular team-building approach as a way to talk about teams and team building in general....I could ask for ideas from the group about the "what, so what, and now what" of the session, and what they might take away from the session to bring back to their areas, teams, etc. This feedback could provide some kind of answer to the question--how do team building techniques "matter" to educational organizations?

Systems in Motion

I've started researching aspects of the core questions of my project, corralling some good books together from the library I work at. Here's what I'm reading:

The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. (Peter M. Senge). Looks at teamwork and organizational effectiveness from a "systems thinking" perspective. A highly cited work.

Frames of Mind: the Theory of Multiple Intelligences. (Howard Gardner) Another highly cited work I've always wanted to read.

Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century. (Howard Gardner) Updating his earlier work with new research and an several added intelligences.

This week I will be speaking with Keith Russell, a librarian colleague from Kansas who also works part time in his human resource office's Organizational Effectiveness unit (I think it's called). He's also a versed in group drumming as an staff development tool, so it will be good to ask him some questions and get his opinion on team-building.

Tempo

Some reflections on Native American drumming:

We visited the Makato Pow-wow/Wacipi this past weekend, and I was amazed by the power of the traditional drumming. It was a feeling of being deep into a way of life. The drummers and singers kept a heartbeat to which the dancers danced. In the twlight, it was a unique site to see.

I watched the men sitting around the drum during one of the dances (one group of 32 drum groups which were there that weekend!)...Each person had a unique "voice" in playing the drum, and in keeping the beat. Sometimes the beat would be steady, and then one man would start an alternate rhythm to the main one. Their singing voices were in tune with the drumming, and the drumming was in tune with the dancers. It was really a show of unity, above all else.

If I could draw some conclusions from this brief dip into another culture, one which is all too often forgotten, especially in this region, I would say that there is a culture of drumming, just as there is a culture of dancing, of traditional arts, and of singing. The fact that the drum itself, and the drum beat, was a focal point of the event, the movement, and the meaning, is sort of a revelation to me. It would be interesting to see how this native culture of drumming works--what the men did, how they feel, what they know, who they are....what lessons could I draw from them?

Someone told me that drums and drumming had been "demonized " over the past century or so, and that it's been pushed to the side in our modern culture (except perhaps in rock and jazz bands!). Thankfully, the drums are alive and well, at least in a native culture within our dominant, non-drum-friendly (that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but that's how I feel) culture.

My goals is to drum up some research, which so far is sorely lacking from this project.

SummerFall Again

The time of change between the seasons of summer and fall, SummerFall, is here again. The tone of the less hectic schedule of summer quickens to the more staccato pace of coursework, libraries, and Professional Development Plans. It is a time also a time for evaluating and reflecting, and setting off on new adventures.

I'm setting a similar course on this blog, in keeping the beat of the previous project. My goal now is to deepen my skills as a facilitator, using the Health Rhythms protocol, as well as to learn more about group dynamics, teamwork, and communication.

That's where I'm at, and I'm excited to start. Despite my nerves, I'll try to keep that beat. Watch this space for more.

A New Circle

Today I was treated to another chance to facilitate a drum circle with HealthRhythms.

A librarian colleague and two of her social worker friends and I got together at the high school where my wife works to drum and discuss the method. What a great place the school was! Nobody around to bother with our drumming and even the classroom we squatted had chairs set up in a circle.

Surprise, surprise...each time I do this with a group, I feel nervousness, anxiety, worry about "will I get it right?". Afterwards, of course, I feel good about the experience. The more I practice this method, the more confident I will be in explaining the background, running the protocol, and learning to facilitate the rhythm of the group. I'm in uncharted territory, here, but I am learning to be open to the experience of what will happen next.

Today's group (Monika, Deborah, and Chris) had some recreational drumming experience already, and were using drumming with their social service clients. This makes me think that Mankato would be a good base to explore HealthRhythms. It could be a helpful adjunct to social workers and social service agencies, long term care facilities, and other health care places in the area. I'm finding that there are plenty of people who march to the beat of their own drummer here in Mankato!

The flow of the session went surprisingly well. I didn't worry about sticking exactly to "the script", but went with basics--the wellness exercises (I love that part), the say your name and play your name, shaker share, the drumming entrainment, and the final wellness exercise. At times I felt like I was "losing control" of the group, as if I had to live up to some prescribed method. I realized that this was a learning session, and that the two social workers were teaching me a little bit what they know from doing drumming sessions with their clients. They are even going to incorporate the name and shaker games in their work, as well as use some of the research and protocol material from the manual.

Overall, they were very interested in this, and was even invited to their drum sessions with their clients with severe mental disabilities. I wish that I was still living in Mankato to be able to follow up with this more. It seems like they are trying to get a more long-lasting, coordinated drum group together, but no one has time to do it. Could I help them out with this in the future?

I really need to practice this more with people like Monika, Deborah, and Chris. We'll see, maybe I can set something up with them for a weekend when I'm in Mankato.

Define and Cultivate

I thought it might be important to at least provide a definition of Communities of Practice, and to highlight the suggestions for designing and developing an "alive" Community of Practice, from an accessible text on CoP's for organizational and community development--this is a good book to keep handy in the future:

Definition:

Communities of Practice are “groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis.” (p. 4, Cultivating Communities of Practice, by Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, and William Snyder, Harvard Business Press, 2002).

Seven Principles for Cultivating Communities of Practice*

• Design for Evolution
• Open a dialogue between inside and outside perspectives
• Invite different levels of participation
• Develop both public and private community spaces
• Focus on value
• Combine Familiarity and excitement
• Create a rhythm for the community (I love that one!!)

*(p. 51, Cultivating Communities of Practice, by Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, and William Snyder, Harvard Business Press, 2002).

After the Circle

The first meeting of the Community of Practice went really well! (We didn't choose a name, though). After some setup and goodies--both food and drum kind-laid out, people came to the circle, and we began. I gave hearty thanks to everyone, introduced the purpose of the group, explained how I was working on an independent study project for graduate credit, and then went right into the HealthRhythms protocol.

This is where it was important for me note that I had only practiced once since the training (in our living room, the day before this meeting). Everyone knew I was a bit rusty, but that didn't stop me from going along as if I knew exactly what I was doing, and it didn't stop everyone else from giving me helpful comments, and even role-playing difficult group members!

During my run-through of the protocol, I felt safe and supported, even though I knew that I was probably messing some steps up. What a great way to learn this method, without having to fear that "train wreck" when a session doesn't go right. One person gave honest, and insightful comments--"you lost me at this point...". One person opened a great discussion on how to deal with participants who are disruptive or who are invasive with the way they are playing their drum. On the way home, I had to jot down people's comments and my learnings before I forgot them!

Overall, I am amazed at how well the Community of Practice meeting went; I felt we connected as a group again, especially during our free drum jam. We are currently trying to decide on our next meeting; evaluations were positive and still coming in. Also, I am looking forward to another friendly practice session this coming weekend with a librarian colleague and two social workers at a local park.

With this project, I saw even more how embodied, project-based learning (not just writing a paper, but actually doing something) is another great way for me to learn new skills, while also building up skills and abilities I already have (such as organizational and communication skills).

Ready for the Circle

I'm excited about tomorrow's drum circle meet-up. Things have been coming together nicely, and the weather should be nice enough--rain isn't forecast until the afternoon. So, maybe we'll get chased under the party tent by a thunderstorm!

I've created a bit more content for the wiki, which I hope might serve as place for information about the CoP in the future. I'm still investigating a colleague's interest in a practice session with her and a couple of her friends--they're social workers, which would be a great trial group to work with.

I began reflecting about my attitude and feelings about this group earlier this week. I noticed that I was a bit annoyed (?), or maybe just flustered, when another group member invited more people to the meeting (they are flautists interested in group drumming). It served as a "reality check" to me; I became too "close" to this meeting, and needed to back off, and just let things happen as they're meant to. I feel a lot more at ease, and I'm really happy that this meeting is coming to fruition! Despite my initial reaction, I'm really glad that more people are expected.

Here are some of the things I've been reading:

• A guide for a special facilitation method for schools: The Art of the Focused Conversation for Schools, by Jo Nelson
  
• I just had to read something about Project Management, to see what the buzz is about. Hopefully it will help me with future projects (group drumming related?), as well as my upcoming contract year at Southwest Minnesota State: Project Management: Techniques and Tips for Today's ILS Professional, by Barbara Allan
  

Getting It Together

The first meeting of the HR CoP is fast approaching this weekend, and my head and notebook are full of things to do...my plan is to use the blog to document the lead-up to the first meeting, so I can reflect on how it came together, how I feel about it (excited and a bit nervous about my skills using the protocol), and, after the last drum has stopped beating, how I think it went.

I decided to make a wiki to serve as an online version of a manual for the CoP. I'll send an invite to Scott, so he can see it too.

I have been bad...very bad.

It has been a very busy month. I can't believe I haven't posted anything here in more than a month!

Project update:

1. The Community of Practice is set to meet at French Regional Park in Plymouth, July 19th. There will be 6 particpants. Everyone in the group seems really excited about it, as am I.
2. Starting to get references together for my literature review; books, journal articles, and web sites. It seems Etienne Wenger is one of the main people writing about Communities of Practice.
3. I am going to set up a wiki to serve as an electronic manual for the CoP. Looking forward to that, as it will also serve as professional development for future positions.
4. Am organizing an informal group to practice the method again, after the first CoP meeting. Should help cement the process.

Ok, the computers about to run out of juice. More later!!

This Beat Goes On (Eventually)

Ok, I knew this was going to happen.

After getting geared up to start this project, lots of other things (mostly job related--finally landing a position for next year) came up to take my attention away. So, belatedly again, I am starting to get a Community of Practice heartbeat going.

Here's a "summary report" of what I've achieved in the last two weeks:

• Date and location set for the CoP: July 19th, French Regional Park
• Continuing to build relationships with those who have gone through HealthRhythms (note: hereafter shortened to HR) training
• Universe throws me a gem: after asking Keith Russell (the librarian at the University of Kansas who first turned me on to the drum facilitation for organizational development) for feedback on a "drumming in libraries" article draft I'm working on, it turns out we get to meet up for coffee in Minneapolis!
  
• The results of the this meeting: Keith's great perspective, having done this thing in libraries and higher education institutions. Turns out, I'm up for a challenge (of my life, I think)

I haven't really done much with the research side of this project (looking into the literature on "communities of practice"..I could ask Keith for his opinion, being in the OD field), and I promised I would do a lit review. Besides that, I need to actually talk to someone at the Minnesota Technology of Participation to get the low-down on the what they're like.

That's all for now.

Starting on a Journey

This is the first "official" post to my new blog. I don't want to start too fancy or eloquent, so I'll give the mundane details.

This blog is serving as an online archive of my thoughts, feelings, successes, and failures related to the HealthRhythms "Community of Practice" project, which I am taking as a graduate course in Experiential Education at Minnesota State University, Mankato during the Summer term. My intention (and we'll see if I can carry this through to completion) is to blog at the end of each week as a way to explain my thought processes and concrete actions taken during the project.

Sufficed to say, I am quite excited to see where this leads.

"Begin with the end in mind" is a mantra that I am trying to follow in this project; I always want to keep my project outline in mind to keep me on track. (I'll have to post a link to that dcocument later on). So far, here's what I've accomplished:

• Drawn up the learning contract and project outline
• Contacted my fellow "colleagues of the drum" to guage their interest in forming a "community of practice"
• We're working on setting a date and location in July!

Something that I have intended to do--it's on my calendar-- but haven't done yet (so chalk this up as a challenge, staying on schedule!)

• Need to contact the facilitator from Minnesota Technology of Participation to begin the process of finding out the practitioner angle on the CoP

Challenges and Opportunties: Staying focused on the long-term goal, which is creating the community of practice and following through with the products I said I would create as a result of this project.

I have a lot on my plate--need to find a job for next year, move to a new apartment next month, a marathon to train for--but I know that, with persistence and positivity, it can all come together. It's all about the drum!