This session is intended to give the teams unstructured time to develop a written reentry plan for the partnership team at the Institute.
One reentry issue is how team members will transmit the information they learned at the Institute to the rest of the partnership members. Another issue is how the Institute team will present recommendations for changes to the focus, structure, or process of their partnership based on its experiences at the Institute. A third issue is how the team will reintegrate itself into the partnership as a whole.
This is the last team session of the Institute. At its end, partnership members will have a chance to conduct a team closure activity and to complete the Post-Training Evaluation Form. They will also receive their Institute certificates.
This session provides an opportunity for teams to synthesize all that they have experienced in previous sessions. They will review what they have learned and how they can present this information to their partnership in a way that will increase the probability that it will be accurately understood and acted upon. At the end of this session, they will develop a written reentry plan that will be used in Unit 5C.
Facilitators will need signed copies of the Institute certificates for each team member. The stars with photographs of participants from the Gallery of Stars opening activity should be removed from the bulletin board prior to this session. (Usually logistics staff and training coordinator will do this.)
Teams will need extra copies of the team reentry plan form (HO-3). Usually 10-15 extra copies will suffice.
At the close of this session, remind teams to bring a copy of the team reentry plan, or notes about it, to session 5C.
B. Review with the team, or ask the team to review, the questions about reentry listed on HO-1 to help them discuss and plan for reentry issues (HO-1: Questions for Reentry Planning).
Discussion Questions
After you leave today, what issues will keep popping up in your thoughts?
In 2 sentences or less, how will you explain what happened this week to your family, friends, and colleagues?
How will you transfer what you learned to other members of your partnership?
What changes will you recommend to the partnership?
Do you think that there will be resistance to any of your recommendations? How will you work with this resistance?
Some partnerships have reported conflicts between the individuals who attended the training and those who did not attend. How can you reintegrate your team into the partnership in such a way as to prevent such conflict? How will you try to resolve conflict if it occurs?
How will your team from the Institute continue to work together?
What questions did this training raise for you? How will you get them answered?
C. Ask participants to look at HO-2 and HO-3. Review each using the following (HO-2: Introduction to Reentry-Planning Tool):
Content Points (HO-3: Team Reentry Plan)
The purpose of the team reentry plan is to record the team's plans for returning to the partnership and community.
It is important to emphasize that the team at the Institute may not represent all the partnership decision makers. Institute participants must see that their work is to generate alternatives or recommendations to be considered by the full partnership.
The reentry plan considers how best to approach all the members of the partnership and the community with the new information and ideas discussed at the Institute.
The new information and ideas are seen as ways to strengthen the work the partnership has already begun.
The team reentry plan includes 4 columns. The first is the "Goal Statement." In this space, team members will list one goal. A goal is a general statement of the direction in which a defined action will move. It need not be measurable, but must be clear and focused.
The next section is labeled "Objectives/Action Steps." It may include one or both of these kinds of statements. An objective is a specific, measurably achievable action that is consistent with the goal and must be accomplished to attain it. An action step is a clearly defined task, that assigns responsibility for accomplishing the task and a deadline for its completion. It is part of a workplan that is consistent with an objective.
The third column is labeled "Who." In this column, team members can list the person or persons who will take primary responsibility for ensuring that the objective or action step is accomplished. Some teams may also list those individuals or organizations who will share responsibility for completing the task.
The final column is labeled "When." Here team members can insert the planned completion date for the objective or action step.
Directions
D. Point out that the reentry plan form includes a place in the top right corner for the name of the partnership. Remind the team to fill this in before handing in the original for photocopying. It is also useful to number the pages in sequence.
E. Remind the team that the facilitator will need the last 30 minutes of this session for the evaluation and closing.
F. Note that each team will need a summary of its team reentry plan for use in the small group sessions in Unit 5C.
Trainer Note: The role of the facilitator during this session depends on the needs of the team. Most teams can structure and lead this time by themselves. The facilitator may want to leave the room and just check in occasionally to see if there are any questions. For teams that face special circumstances, the facilitator may want to take a more active role. If an observer stays in the room during this session, it is advisable that the facilitator also stay.
G. At the end of this session, collect a copy of the team reentry plan and give it to the logistics staff for copying.
Trainer Note: The activities below may be done in any order, depending on the preference of the facilitator or team.
Directions
A. Pass out the Post-Training Evaluation Forms and ask participants to complete them. Remind participants to include the same date they used on the Pretraining Evaluation Form in the box in the upper left corner. Most people use their birthday. Remember to check the dates when team members return the evaluations.
B. Give out the Institute certificates and stars. Depending on time, you may want to acknowledge each person (Institute Certificates and Participant Stars).
C. Facilitate a team closure activity. The following 2 are frequently used:
Have the group members complete a sentence stem. Examples are:
One thing I learned this week is . . .
Right now I feel . . .
One thing I intend to do when I return to my community (or partnership) is . . .
People can stand in a circle or sit around the table, depending on their comfort level. Start at one point, and go around the group in order.
Give participants an opportunity to express appreciation to one another. Ask team members to state something they have appreciated about each person during the week. Participation is optional and unstructured.
D. Ask your team to join the other teams in the general session room. Ask each member of the team to sit in a different small group for Unit 5C, Reentry Plan Sharing. Depending on the number of team members and small groups, there may be more than one team member in some or all of the small groups.
E. Remind team members to bring a copy of the team reentry plan or notes about the plan to the next session.
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