Innovative Teamwork and Diversity Program Makes Debut

NEWS RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 9, 2009

 
Contact: Scott Boone
248-348-9312
 
Innovative Teamwork and Diversity Program Makes Debut
Program prepares students for transition out of high school
 
Northville, MI - Positive Diversity, LLC announced today the formal unveiling of its first training program, Exploring Teamwork Essentials©. Designed for college freshmen and upper-class high schoolers, the program educates on the importance of developing team skills, the attributes of high performing teams, and the role of understanding and appreciating diversity in a team setting. Students also engage in small groups to develop skill in listening and suspending judgment on the perspectives of others.
 
"The spark that initiated this program occurred after a decade of diversity and team development work in a large Fortune 500 company," said founder Scott Boone. "Many of my peers inside and outside the company lamented that existing diversity programs were largely outdated for the younger generation and most team skills development is late in coming. I used these insights to build a timely primer. Exploring Teamwork Essentials© positively satisfies the need for young adults to effectively interact and work in a more diverse society."

A Response to New World Realities 

Positive Diversity, LLC was created to prepare young adults for team-based work. The global economy and increasing diversity within the U.S. require new skills for success. Research shows that companies seek employees with applied skills in both teamwork and diversity. Colleges, in turn, are quickly adopting collaborative learning techniques, including team-based assignments for their students.
 
“In addition to preparing students for team projects, the program also serves to alleviate some of the anxiety produced from leaving the comfy confines of home and life-long friends after high school. Workplaces and college campuses are often a young adult’s first sustained exposure to significant diversity. “To feel included and accepted is to be accepted for one’s differences,” said Boone. “One step in the right direction is learning how different people define respectful behavior differently. Students take this step with the program. Residence hall administrators realize the connection between inclusion and student performance. I simply offer another option to assist with student retention and academic success.”
 
How it Works
 
Completing this 3-step program requires a total of about three hours. “Participants begin by reading a booklet that describes how respecting individual differences in capabilities, personal styles and preferences of team members is critical to developing trust within a team,” asserts Boone. “It also links the importance of developing team skills to successfully meeting the needs of employers. The booklet answers a key question, ‘Why should I care about teamwork and diversity?’”
 
Step two entails watching a student cut of a documentary film, ONE. A primary role of the film is to prepare students for practicing good listening and suspending judgment skills. Boone also offers an interesting twist, “Recently, researchers documented a phenomena they termed the ‘Mother Theresa Effect.’ They found that when people watched an uplifting film of the compassionate, giving life of Mother Theresa, their bodies respond with a boost to their auto-immune system. Similarly, when I ask my program participants to offer the single emotion they are feeling after watching ONE, the resounding themes are love, compassion, and oneness.
And the most common courses of action which they desire to take after watching the film is to be more open and respectful to others who are different and to live with greater compassion. To me, it produces an emotional Mother Theresa Effect. If the role of the booklet is to open the mind, the role of film is to open the heart.”
Step three immediately follows watching ONE. Students gather in small groups to engage in structured conversation, taking turns answering the same questions posed in the movie. Since this is an exercise in listening and suspending judgment, students must abide by two rules – no interrupting the person speaking and no disagreeing with the perspective of others. “Students feel empowered when they know they will not be interrupted. Equally important, they feel challenged when they must formulate a cogent opinion to a question like, ‘Why don’t people live to their full potential?’” states Joan Wadsworth, School Board President, Northville Public Schools.
 
“The educational booklet, the movie, and the students create 95% of the program’s value. By design, the facilitator’s role is very small. I wanted to create a program that could be broadly implemented with great ease,” states Boone. “Online programming is one common response for efficiently distributing training far and wide, but my learning objectives require interaction. You can’t build team skills and inclusion by staring at a computer screen. Yet, these times require a leanness mentality. No institution can afford to commit hordes of highly trained facilitators. I designed the program so a residence hall advisor could easily run it. And it would be a snap for a high school or college instructor,” suggests Boone.
 
Best of the Best
 
"Many core components of this program have been very successful on their own," offers Boone. "I was able to draw from extensive research, published works, and even a couple best-sellers. I am fortunate to have enlisted the support of many great minds. I relied heavily on first-hand experience, however, when selecting material that educates on how team-based communication, value, and other behavioral norms tend to vary across different groups of people. I picked the stuff that resonates with younger people."
 
Perhaps the greatest coup occurred when the creator of the award-winning documentary, ONE; The Movie, allowed Boone to edit his film for inclusion in the program. Now released in over 50 countries, this film has been seen by nearly a million people. "In the film 20 timeless questions are asked to a cross-section of humanity," states Ward Powers, the film's creator and director. "These questions, like ‘Why is their so much poverty and suffering in the world or What is the greatest human quality?’, do not lend to a single right answer. Scott was searching for a meaningful exercise to teach participants to become open to different viewpoints. The fit was natural. I was excited to collaborate, especially since the film had already received strong response from schools. Harvard, Yale, Notre Dame and numerous highs schools were among the first to hold film screenings,” concludes Powers.
 
"The film serves yet another role," adds Boone. "By reminding us of our common bond - one world, one human race – a reality young adults tend to understand and value, it reinforces the notion of one team." This impact is not lost on those educators who first showed the film on campus. Offers Riley Lipschitz, former program director for Medical Sciences at the University of Arkansas, “ONE; the Movie is an extremely powerful tool for all young adults. The engaging and inspiring message can reach students across the spectrum, forcing all of us to rethink our perceived differences and reaffirm our collective humanity. My experience in showing this film to our community was nothing but positive. In fact, the discussions continued weeks after the movie was shown.”
 
Early Reactions to Program Strike Chords
 
"This program is exceptional because it delivers two huge benefits at once,” offers Dennis Fiore, a former Wayne State University residence hall advisor. "Students need to be successful at group projects and they want to feel accepted within their residence hall.” Fiore adds, "The first time I witnessed this program in action, it blew me away. Most often, students are perfectly OK when a program comes to an end, but with this one, they wanted to keep going. Their only complaint was that it ended. The good news is that the dialog can continue. There’s nothing to stop an R.A. from letting students continue own their own."
 
William Secrest, instructor at Henry Ford Community College, adopted the program in his humanities class. “Exploring Teamwork Essentials is a very tight program. My students’ ratings were off the charts. Beyond its role with the team skills, ONE is a timely documentary that highlights a way forward towards a more harmonious and peaceful world,” offers Secrest. “I look forward to running it again next semester. In my 20 years of teaching I’ve seen nothing like this.”
 
Up Next
 
With more than a few people commenting that this program should become a part of their company’s training, Boone has plans to adapt it for corporate use. “With some modification I do think it could become a great plug-in to a company’s new employee orientation program. It could serve a foundational role to effectively support all the related team-building and diversity programming that person might experience within a company. I’d gladly accept the call if someone wanted to pilot it. But right now, my focus is with our young adults and their educators,” Boone emphasizes.
 
The Firm
 
The mission of Positive Diversity, LLC is to lead people to discover the positive in others and build skill working in teams. It is fully devoted to celebrating the diversity of a beautiful planet and to building bridges between its people. We are guided by the belief that progress is best achieved with a strong focus on our positive potential.
 
Positive Diversity, LLC
302 W. Main Street
Northville, MI 48167
www.positivediversity.com.