Program Questions and Answers

Scott Boone, Founder
 
 
What are the primary outcomes of Exploring Teamwork Essentials©? 

• Students gain a glimpse into an expanded world view and growing diversity in this country.
• Students learn the attributes of successful teams and appreciate the need to develop team skills.
• Students understand the importance of respecting differences in team settings.
• Students understand how preferred communication, value, and behavior norms in team settings can differ across ethnic, gender, generational, and work-style groups.
• Students build team skills of listening and suspending judgment on others’ perspectives and ideas.
• Students build meaningful connections among each other.
• While not formally tested, the program holds the promise of building a more inclusive residence hall / campus environment, increasing participation in student-led organizations, and increasing participation in diversity-focused programming and curriculum.

How does the program work?
 
Students read an educational booklet, which they later discuss in small groups. Next, students watch a documentary film that prepares them for more small group discussion. This second discussion is designed to build team skills. Chances are many students will want to continue the discussion parts afterward. Some will ask to keep the materials to continue the dialog. It's happened every time so far. 
 
How long does it take?
 
The entire program requires about four (4) hours. Reading the booklet takes about 40-55 minutes. The booklet discussion can range from 30-45 minutes. The film and its introduction run 45 minutes. And the small group discussion after the film should range from 40-60 minutes. Wrap up adds another 5-10 minutes.
 
You have the flexibility of bringing the students together for a single three-hour session or for two shorter sessions. You also have the flexibility of shortening or lengthening each segment.
 
Who facilitates the program?
 
It’s designed so an upper-class student can run it. The highly structured facilitation segments are a small piece of the total program. By design, the booklet, the film, and the students themselves create 95% of the program's value. I used my experience developing over a dozen structured diversity conversations for non-trained facilitators. It was tested by college students as facilitator. High school instructors find it a snap to execute.
 
How much does the Exploring Teamwork Essentials© program cost?
 
There's a one-time cost and an ongoing cost. The only one-time cost is the Facilitator Kit, which is priced at $29.95. The kit contains discussion materials for 20-25 students and can be easily expanded to accommodate most students. The only ongoing cost is the student booklet. But there's no ongoing cost to the institution if the students incur the booklet cost ($5) as part of a course or room fee.  
 
Why are your materials so inexpensive?
 
These prices make broad adoption feasible. It was built with all first year students in mind: create as many connections and as much inclusion in residence halls/classrooms as possible, prepare all students for group projects, and instill a significant desire to participate in student organizations. I’d like all first year students to experience it.
 
This pricing strategy also reflects a desire to make the program accessible to all schools, not just those most financially capable. If priced to maximize profit, its adoption might be limited to the financially advantaged schools, serving largely the most privileged. 
 
One key objective is to help you retain first-generation and diverse student groups through development of an inclusive student community. The program works its magic while also building a case for students to take advantage of your existing (persistence-minded) programs and opportunities.
 
How is it different from other diversity awareness programs?
 
Many programs focus largely on the ugly side of human behavior, our propensity to hold biases, to prejudge, to stereotype. They attempt to reduce negative behavior, which is a valid goal as the result of such behavior is discrimination and exclusion. Still, these programs almost exclusively emphasize the victim and can produce unintended alienation.
 
While not a replacement for programs that raise awareness for our ‘faults’ and institutionally-rooted injustice and discrimination, this program focuses on the positive potential of our diversity. It answers the question, "What's in it for me to understand and actively respond to our diversity?" It also creates the links between trust, diversity, and team performance, which provide the student a very pragmatic reason for embracing the program's content. 
 
What do you like most about this program?
 
I really like inclusion of the documentary film ONE. This film produces a tremendous emotional response. In corporate team-building sessions I facilitated using the film, participant reactions (link) blew me away. It runs deeper than pure admiration of the film. I think the change process, especially with one's feelings and actions toward others who are different, requires both an open heart and mind. The film opens the heart. The booklet opens the mind. They create a unique synergy. 
 
Why do you feel educators will embrace this program?
 
If we look past cost for a moment, I think many educators are yearning for high quality, inclusion-building events for residence hall advisors and FYS instructors. When student anxiety of being away from home is diminished; when roommates reach an agreement on what is respectful and disrespectful behavior; and when friendships across the hall floor more easily develop, the residence hall advisor is well on their way to being highly successful. And when they also provide students with knowledge and basic skill-building to help them succeed in teams, they are effectively preparing their students for success in and beyond school.
 
I’ve heard some educators lament that today’s students do not embrace diversity programming. Students claim it is not needed as they are accepting of everyone. This program approaches the topic from a different angle. It opens their mind and heart to differences. It asks for differences to be cherished and understood, not minimized or overlooked.
 
With a cost of about $5 per student, they may perceive substantial value.   
 
Why do you feel college students will embrace this program?
 
Most of all it provides them with great information which they can use to more effectively build relationships and participate in teams. Foreign students will appreciate the section that describes Anglo-American communication norms. And I think the movie and discussion to follow crate deep and meaningful connections. The program is highly engaging way to learn and a very cool way to meet others within the residence hall and on campus. At one level the program is a social event with great purpose.  
 
What sparked your desire to create it?
 
After 14 years as an organizational and team development professional, I developed a few strong conclusions about human nature. One is that no matter how much strength and resiliency we may exhibit we also feel awfully vulnerable and insecure. It's not that we hold one or the other, but good amounts of both. Given this conclusion, I was dismayed by the lack of programming that explored diversity from the positive perspective and which did not constantly beat us down for holding bias and prejudice - natural outcomes of holding insecurities. I simply felt a new piece to the larger puzzle was sorely needed. I attempted to create this piece with a life-giving program.   
 
What’s your experience with team-building and diversity programming?
 
I spent 10 years dedicating much of my time shaping the diversity management agenda, designing programs and events, leading teams, and participating on senior-level diversity committees for a Fortune 500 company. It is worth noting from this experience that the program earning the greatest success viewed diversity management as a personal development endeavor, a quest for building leadership skills by learning how to relate with and respect diverse people. This optional program - Masters in Diversity Awareness - gained over 700 active enrollees in its first year. The satisfaction scores surprised most people. This experience fueled my desire to develop similar content for younger adults. 
 
How do we have that conversation to explore bias, prejudice, and discrimination?
 
If your goal is to create community and inclusion, I think this is a down-the-road question to address, using trained facilitators. In my experience, it is best to first appeal to student self-interest and answer the “What’s in it for me to become diversity educated?” question. It is important to create understanding of similarities and differences in a positive context – developing teamwork skills - and to connect team skill with becoming more employable and performing better on group projects. With this foundation established, students may also become more interested in your programming that touches bias and prejudice. I believe sequencing the student experience is extremely important. The trick for community-building is to not create “us and them” divisions. Build first; explore what separates second. 
 
How have you engaged young adults in conversation on bias, prejudice, and discrimination?
 
Two ways. One method placed adults in a class setting. Through whole-group and small group work, participants recognized that we reach false conclusions about others based on appearance, color of skin, age, etc. We watched a film that clearly illustrated how two people with identical backgrounds, but different skin color, were treated dramatically differently by apartment managers, store sales staff, and job interviewers. We watched a training video that illustrated the hurt in others from stereotypical remarks. And we ‘walked the line’ to illustrate white privilege. The training proved the pervasiveness of bias and discrimination. Evaluations revealed mixed outcomes.
 
A second method took place in a private setting – one on one. This conversation, which I titled Diversity Walk a Mile, was a component of a larger educational experience. Not coincidentally, that larger experience was marketed as a personal leadership and teamwork skills development program. Before the participants got together, they both would have taken an online test which reveals personal bias. Their conversation begins with exploration of common ground, then moves into questions to share personal experiences with and perceptions of discrimination. Evaluations revealed highly positive outcomes.
 
Do you offer training or consulting services?
 
Yes, I offer an Exploring Teamwork Essentials© train-the-trainer session which can be completed in three hours. I am also very willing to help you craft strategic and tactical approaches to building an inclusive campus community. Most of my 20 year career is concentrated in consulting and diversity management. My value proposition includes the lessons from great successes and relative disappointments.
 
How many schools are using your program?
 
Since its formal launch in early 2009, a dozen schools have purchased the program – high schools, community colleges, and four-year colleges and universities. I’m pleased to report that most every school to test the program has purchased it. Recently, my very first customer has expanded its use into multiple classes and reported that the student council president, upon taking the program, is now pursuing its adoption in new student orientation. Really, we're just getting started. Moreover, before this integrated program was crafted, its components enjoyed great success for three years, including with many top universities and several project teams.
 
You can view the program evaluations from the three pilot schools on the website (link).
 
How has your upbringing influenced you, perhaps leading you to do this work?
 
My mom's example was tremendous. I recall back in the 1970s when greater school integration was desired. Busing kids from our virtually all-white district to Pontiac schools, a mix of white, black, and Hispanic, was a proposed and hotly debated solution. Instead of protesting, my mom drove my brothers and me to the Pontiac YMCA on Saturdays to play with these kids. We went to this Y’s summer camp too. She told us we'd learn they are more like us than not. Fast forward 20 years. I was a bachelor living with four other men. One of them came out to reveal he was gay. Upon telling my mom, it went something like this: "Mom, John is gay. He told us at dinner last night." To which she replied, "Isn't that great!" Stumped, I asked, "You are happy he is gay?" And she said, "I'm not saying that. I just think it is great he feels comfortable enough living with you that he gained the courage to tell you. And now he can be his full self." Many, many more demonstrations of tolerance and acceptance filled my upbringing. My mom gave everyone she met a chance, always starting from the position of acceptance.
 
That my career has focused on building organization and team performance through inclusion and management of diversity is a reflection of the values with which I grew up.
 
What else would you like to share about the topic of trust, respect, diversity, and teams?
 
There is no substitute for interaction. In my mind, the best and quickest way to embrace and benefit from our diversity (and to dissolve bias and stereotype) is through face-to-face interaction. Reading and seeing  how different people define respectful behavior differently is well and good, but your soul will not be fully satisfied and your learning complete until the richness of our diverse humanity is truly experienced firsthand.