BIF: Action Collabs

Created Feb. 7, 2024 by KatieJ Katz

 

Workshops that spark innovation and transformational change in education.

ISKME’s Action Collabs™ are dynamic workshops that use the design-thinking framework to innovate new ideas with actionable next steps. Collaboration and ideation happen in four steps: Identify Opportunity, Design, Prototype, and Scale and Spread. And throughout the experience, participants engage in improvisational exercises specifically designed to encourage expansive thought and accelerate meaningful collaboration.

Action Collabs access groups' collective brainpower by focusing creativity and structuring brainstorming in a unique method that leads to new thinking and solutions. An Action Collab can focus on detailed projects such as lesson and curriculum creation or on larger systems thinking applied to school and districts.

Action Collabs are an innovative way to:

Tackle a familiar challeng

e from a new angle.

Spark strategic thinking around a new initiative.

Discover partnerships waiting to happen.

"I'd never seen myself as someone who 'makes' things, and for the first time, I saw myself conceptualizing and making a solution. It was really eye-opening." Action Collab Participant
"It was that transformation of creating order out of chaos that struck me as one of the more useful practices and techniques that could be applied to day to day level of an institution, even a smaller level such as a a department. In a sense, it is about letting people talk, vent, and having confidence that no matter how varied their background, there are things we share as educators, and it is very likely that we will come to some broader consensus." Action Collab Participant


Four stages of Action Collab:

Identify Opportunity: During Identify Opportunity, participants gather real-world insights by interviewing people directly affected by the Design Challenge.
Design: The group brainstorms new methods, tools, processes, ideas that answer the Design Challenge and serve research interviewees' needs.
Prototype: The Design is modeled using 3D materials, which allow the group to get feedback on the detailed facets and refine the design into a both innovative and feasible solution.
Scale and Spread: Scale and Spread expands the group’s idea into the world by deciding how it fits within a larger scope and then develops details of how the idea is piloted.

 


Improv

Improv is a major components of our Action Collabs. Improv provides an opportunity for participants to play, let go of familiar beliefs and open to unimaginable possibilities. 

A group of teachers are using their bodies to create an airplane together during an improv exercise.
8387960907_ebecb25cd7.jpgA group of teachers are using their bodies to create an airplane together during an improv exercise.



Some of the tenets of improv are

  • Suspend judgement (stay present evaluate later)
  • Let go of your agenda (be open, be present)
  • Listen in order to receive (listen for where you agree or can support, find the "yes")
  • Buil on what you receive (connect and move forward with your partner, find the "and")
  • Make your partner look brillinat (Focus ourward, buld on what they say)
  • Serve the scene (it's not about you, it's about what you're creating together)






8575685552_9027d04175_z.jpg


ISKME offers a range of Action Collab workshops that vary in audience, length, and focus:

• Intensive Action Collab: Focus on a group's specific Design Challenge (2 days)
• Basic Action Collab: Focused on a group's specific Design Challenge (1/2 - 1 day)
• Process Action Collab: Learn the standard framework of the Action Collab process (1/2 day)
• Team Building Action Collab: Learn new tools for collaboration and field-building (1/2 day)
• Action Collab Module: Inserted into a larger event and focused on a group's specific Design Challenge or the standard framework of the   Action Collab process (1/2 day - 1 day)
• Action Collab Facilitator Training: Training certifies Action Collab Facilitators (2 days)
ISKME will customize an Action Collab to serve a client's individual needs.

Prior to the Action Collab, ISKME and the client craft a Design Challenge and determine the flow and other details for the workshop. A certified Action Collab Facilitator then delivers the workshop. ISKME's expertise in event design and facilitation lead the client through a process that delivers a generative, creative, and results-oriented experience for all participants.

ISKME Action Collab Clients:

AgroKnow: Greece
Bay Area Society for Organizational Learning: California
Big Ideas Fest 2009: California
Big Ideas Fest 2010: Califorinia
Big Ideas Fest 2011: California
Big Ideas Fest 2012: California
Coast Community College District: California
Danish Ministry of Education: California
Green Ideas 2011: Greece
Green Ideas 2012: Italy
Innovation in the Teaching of Sustainable Development in the Life Sciences in Europe: England
Lumina Foundation's College Productivity Initiative: Montana
MDC hosts Developmental Education Initiative: North Carolina
Missoula County Public Schools: Montana
National League of Cities hosts Communities Learning in Partnership: California
Open Discovery Space: Greece
Stanford University School of Education: California
The Shuttleworth Foundation: England
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation hosts OER2011: The Impact of Open on Teaching and Learning: California

 

yes-and


Action Collab Design Team

Lisa Petrides, ISKME
Jonah Houston, IDEO
Chris Miller, LifePlays
Samantha Wayne, ISKME

To bring a customized Action Collab to your organization, please contact ISKME’s Director of Training & Design,Samantha Wayne.

Action Collab™ is a registered trademark of ISKME.

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