Right. You too.
Yeah.
Alright, welcome everyone. We'll wait just a couple of moments until everyone is connected. We look forward to sharing the next hour or so with you today.
We're going to talk about co-creating community agreements. Fostering collaborative accountability.
We have quite a lineup of content to share with you today, which is probably no surprise for those of you who know us.
But we will be sharing our resources and slides with you later. There are opportunities throughout the webinar today to.
Submit questions via the QA zoom navigation bar. So do click on that if at any point in time you do have questions.
Should you have questions that we anticipate answering a little bit later in the webinar, we will just kind of let you know that, and know that those answers and ideas and insights will be forthcoming.
And if for whatever reason we are unable to answer all the questions that show up today during the webinar, we will go ahead and answer those in a separate document and share them with you afterwards.
So know that we are very committed to not only sharing kind of information that we have prepared for you today, but also answering questions that we have prepared for you today, but also answering questions you might have about for you today, but also answering questions you might have about community agreements.
I'm gonna give it another few seconds as folks are logging in and getting connected. And then we'll go ahead and get started once again.
I'm excited to be here with my co-facilitators. Well, Christa and Dahara, they will introduce themselves momentarily.
We are intending to be here for the next hour or so together and look forward to sharing with you everything that we've sort of learned and assembled.
I think both through trial and error and through research, our knowledge and inner workings around community agreement. So.
It's 2 min after. Let's go ahead and get this show on the road. Once again, just want to welcome everyone to the webinar today.
We're gonna be talking about co-creating community agreements, fostering, collaborative, accountability.
Once again, we intend to be together for the next hour or so. For those of you I don't know, my name is Aaron Wallowic.
My pronouns are he, him, and his, and the founder and president of Event Guard.
And what brings me to the webinar today, are a couple of things. First, st I'm a certified technology of participation facilitator, otherwise known as top.
I've had the opportunity to learn many of the methods that have comprised this methodology. Over the years, have assembled a portfolio and defended that portfolio to become certified and then have gone on to also teach the methods to other facilitators who are interested in learning and growing their knowledge and expertise as it relates to.
Facilitation methodologies. And so with that, Kristen, I'll turn it over to you for your introduction.
Thanks, Erin. Hi, everyone. My name is Crystal Roe. Pronounce she, her, I'm a director of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging for event guard.
I spent about 10 years in public health. Doing health equity and social justice work. I currently co-facilitate some anti racism workshops and work with groups to figure out how they can be more equitable and create more justice in their spaces.
I'm also a certified top facilitator and very recently apprenticing to be a trainer in those methods.
You will find as we continue to talk that I am a big, I think I've been accused of being a nerd on this topic.
So I'm excited to be here and talk with you all about that.
Yeah, Krista would love a full like semester of this, but we have an hour together. Happy to be with you all.
I'm Delhi. I used to be here pronouns, director of facilitation services, that event guard, trained in tabs, the technology of participation that Aaron and Tristan have mentioned.
And have been working and facilitating mostly within like the health and public health. Fields and sectors doing this work across organizations that may involve just their leadership, so board of directors with staff or in events that include both of them.
Within an organization and so community agreements certainly come into place and all of those. Scenarios and so happy to be here to talk about it and just fair some of our kind of best practices with you all.
I want to move us into just some quick logistic for the time we have together today. We have just until the next, I don't know, 55 min together.
And so take breaks as you need throughout that time because we don't have a brake built in.
We do want to invite you to silence those devices that you may have, minimize your email. And just use technology to keep you in the room.
So that means if you have a packed or an email that is urgent and you need to, address and then so you can fully pay attention and participate, do that, but otherwise, want your full attention as much as you're able to provide it.
And Aaron already mentioned this. That please use the Q&A function to put your questions as they come up and we'll let you know if we're going to cover it over the minutes that we have or if we don't get to it today we are certainly going to address it.
Fair resources and that'll all come to you along with today's slides and as you know that being recorded so that will all be on the event guard website.
Anything else Chris or Erin that I Okay. Okay.
For folks familiar with technology participation methods, you'll recognize these words rational aims and experiential aims, but for folks who aren't, we talk about rational aims as the the tangible things we want you to know the product we want to produce when we're done and experiential aims is the kind of experience we want to be able to create.
Even if it's not interactive, we still have experiential aims for our session.
And so today our rational aims are just to better understand the purpose of community agreements. So what they are and what they aren't.
And then to develop some actionable skills so that we can practice community agreements in our groups. And to be able to modify them as we need to.
And the experience we hope you have today is to be able to reflect on how community agreements could be useful to you and in what context they could be useful to.
And the kind of explore your curiosity around community agreements and how and we'll talk more about this, but how they can be an equitable facilitation practice.
So those are for today.
Awesome. Thank you. And so just in a nutshell, if we had to roll it all up into kind of a bullet pointed agenda.
These are the 6 items that we have planned for us today. We'll start with foundation.
So what community agreements essentially are and aren't. We'll move into some resources we recommend you take a closer look at if you want to take an even further deep dive into the practice and really into where they have been 1st initiated if you will.
This isn't a practice or a methodology that our team has developed out of thin air, but rather one that we lean heavily on others.
To share and guide with us. And I think we have amended and adopted some tweaks and changes to them along the way that seem to work well for the groups.
That we work with. We'll move into a little bit of reflection, kind of helping us think generally about where we've had experiences with community agreements in the past.
Really think about application to our facilitated work groups and in particular thinking about how they can create greater equity with the groups that we work.
That creation and commitment, we'll talk a little bit about a case study, of the event card team and how we have generated community agreements for ourselves.
And then of course just some wrap up and next steps. So those are kind of the order of operations that will guide the balance of our time together today.
Thanks, Aaron. So as we move into this next piece on defining a agreements and what it means to kind of start with a strong phone.
So we believe that community agreements are a critical component of container creation, right? As facilitators, we talk about what it means to create a container and that this is foundational to creating that container as a key element of what we do as facilitators and also that this work is relational, right?
And so in order to be able to figure out how we wanna be together in a room and not just what we wanna do together in a room.
Agreements are really critical for creating that kind of container.
You'll see the words brown rules on this side or housekeeping on this slide. And so when we talk about community agreements, we talk about the community that you're creating in the time that you're in the room.
And so when we think about community agreements, I know lots of people have experience with similar words, right?
So if you're at a table and you're in a small group for 15 min and you've been given a question that's your community for the next 15 min, right?
How are you gonna be together? How are you gonna do that work together? And so they can be a tool that's intended for meaningful dialogue to establish trust, to create consensus.
You'll see other things on here like equitable engagement or conflict resolution and certainly around shared accountability and shared decision-making, but this idea that in order for us to get full participation from a group and to power share.
We have to be making those decisions collectively and together. They're not a tool to shut people down.
Right, we've certainly been in rooms where people used brown rules in order to manage dominant voices in the room and sometimes we need tools for that in our tool belt if you will.
But that's not what community agreements are for or how we use them. They're not logistics.
Like you'll notice that we very intentionally have a logistic slider. We have a housekeeping slide, but that's separate then from how are we agreeing to be together.
And so similar to the not shutting people down there also not punitive, right? They're also not used to blame or shame or attack people.
And we really encourage people not to use them performatively, right? You put up a community agreement, you go, what we did it, right?
But to really live into what it means to share decisions around how we want to be together.
And Krista, before we move on, and certainly, if you have anything to add here too, I just wanted to lift up and like underscore your use of the word container.
Meaning if it's in a physical space, the container is like. The room for example or if we're convening people on zoom or teams that a virtual platform is like the container right it's sort of the outermost boundaries if you will of the group and as you think about that container it's not just about bringing people to the place and convening them, but actually setting up these like expectations so people know how to
interact and engage with one another. What is going to be acceptable and what is not? And, you know, I think it's easy to think that those expectations are just obvious and that I would say in particularly a politically charged environment, those things are even less obvious than maybe they have ever been.
Is there anything that you want to add to her before we move on?
No, I think we're gonna get to it in a minute anyway, but all of the things that you both have said is this is not a static thing.
It is a process. I know Chris, you're about to go through the, I know Chris, you're about to go through the, slide anyway, comment until after.
So I'm gonna spend just a couple of minutes. Appropriately so talking about the context of agreements.
We will throughout our time together today introduce a variety of possible community agreements, not as a way to limit.
And the words or verbiage or types of community agreements that you bring forward. But hopefully to provide some context and examples that you can lean on in the environments in which you facilitate and lead.
Some of the agreements that we're gonna introduce to you over our time together feel pretty obvious when we say something like be present.
We mean like show up and be present, like set aside like other things that ding ring or buzz for example.
I mean there will be others that feel fairly like oh like you say the community. And like almost instantaneously folks, although they might think about them a little differently, there is probably some shared agreement around them.
But in other instances, they're not. So some of the terminology that we've adopted over the years, maybe mean something to us as facilitators who use regularly, but maybe are less clear to others or it's really just an opportunity when you contact a particular community agreement just to make sure to level set and get everyone on the same page.
And so we've pulled together 4 of them that we regularly use not always we'll talk throughout today that you know we sort of think about coming agreements as a repository of commonly agreements, go back to the well time and time again, often use a couple on a regular basis, because either we feel like we need them as facilitators or based upon our knowledge and understanding of the group, we think it would best help them
to institute or to recommend that particular community agreement. But for the time being, let me just kind of walk through these 4, as, as examples, particularly if you're unfamiliar with community agreements altogether.
So the 1st one is to make space and take space. Sometimes folks may have heard this and I think I probably originally heard this as step up and step back.
And the language that we've been, kind of moving toward, most often, Now is really that makes space and take space.
I think that it is less ableless language and something that feels like maybe connects to and resonates with a majority of folks.
And when we say makes space and takes space, what we're really getting to is understanding how people tend to participate when they can meet in groups like this.
We've all likely been in a situation where, there's 1 or 2 or handful of people in the room who are always the 1st to respond.
It's like the handful of people in the room who are always the 1st to respond. It's like their hand is like up immediately and like the 1st to respond.
It's like their hand is like up immediately and like the facilitator isn't done speaking and they have something to say.
I've been this person from time to time and it generally like requires like some additional like hand holding and like the waving of my hand.
And we like to introduce this as a community agreement to say like, if that's you, like that's okay.
It's like okay to have like a reaction and a feeling and an idea and a perspective to share.
But we also want to make space for other people to share, to communicate, and to convey their ideas and insight some perspectives.
But also conversely, if you're the person who likes to sort of set back and like let other people kind of feel the space or say the thing, or sure the idea that we also want to encourage those folks to kind of be brave and to lean and maybe take up more space than they usually do.
You see on the screen here is wait and wait. Wait stands for why am I talking and wait stands for why am I not talking and so if you encourage people to kind of think about that and to lean into kind of their complementary participation approach.
One of the acronyms that Krista held out on me for quite some time in our facilitation during this together.
The idea is that at the end of the day, you're going to get a more balanced perspective, that people will feel like they have a more equitable voice in the space versus, really always kind of defaulting to the person who always takes up the most face or who always shares kind of their thought and idea.
The second one here is both and thinking the opposite of both and thinking is either or thinking when we think about either or thinking it is either you know red or that there couldn't be a mixture of the 2 colors to create purple, for example.
And so it's important to recognize and as well as on the screen here to be thinking about we can be angry and compassionate.
We are complex human beings with complex ideas and thoughts. And when we kind of approach our work with this either or mentality, someone wins and somebody loses.
But rather if we kind of encourage folks to think about in this both and way, we are combining often parts and pieces of thoughts and ideas and perspectives to create a 3rd or a 4th or a 5th idea that maybe hasn't been considered before.
I mean, if we approach our work in this very iterative way, the likelihood that we're able to solve really challenging problems with really unique and innovative solutions is significantly greater.
The 3rd one here is intent versus impact and. I think that in groups that we work with, we often use the analogy of physical harm.
A former colleague, current colleague that formerly worked with us quite a bit, kind of reference her children and, and sort of just the space that little kids take up.
They don't realize that they're flailing their arms and if they flail too much or if they run around or whatever the case may be they might bump into someone or trip over someone or hit someone else accidentally with their hand or step on their foot accidentally and while the intent is not to cause that harm, at the end of the day, they, they have.
And so our recommendation here is to deal with the impact 1st to deal with actual harm. And then to follow that up potentially with the intent and circle back to it.
But not to prioritize intent over impact. To take it out of that sort of physical harm. Analogy and into the facilitation or training classroom or environment.
We often hear people say like, oh, I didn't mean that racist or that sexist comment.
But at the end of the day, that comment was made and it did have impact on others in the room.
And so we want to deal with the impact of the comment or the remark 1st over the intent.
Alright, and then lastly, our last here is we are all learners. We are all wise.
This comes up in a number of different scenarios, but I think sometimes folks that convene have to be the smartest in the room that they're contribution is better and more important than others.
And what we'd like to remind folks is that everyone convenes because they have some knowledge and intellect and experience to share their all wise.
But at the same time, again, because of both and thinking, we can both be wise and be on a learning journey and still continuing to grow and develop around a certain topic.
And so if we approach our work in a way that we have something to share but sometimes we get things wrong and sometimes we're still learning.
Not only does it, I think, create a more equitable space, but it creates an environment in which we can continue to grow and develop as humans and colleagues and professionals in the spaces in which we operate.
So those are 4 of them. Krista, I'm gonna come to you, because I know you're gonna take us into, the next slide.
I think Dahara will help kind of process with us as well, but I want to make sure if there's anything important that I didn't hear marker flag as it relates to the contexting these agreements that you have an opportunity to do so.
Nothing necessarily missing. The thing that I would add or the nuance, I have a colleague who says let me complicate that for you.
The thing that I would say in the learner space is that's true. Even in our areas of Right.
Those of us who are facilitators are often hard to be facilitated are often hard to be facilitated.
Sometimes because we have a certain level of expertise and so it's hard to turn that off and in the space sometimes.
Or if I have a host of experience around diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging to still show up in those spaces.
Ready to learn, and prepared to be led. So that's what I would add to that space.
So we will a little bit later in the webinar today kind of demonstrate to you via a case study a way that you might do this with a group but for the time being we're going to assume that these community agreements maybe the 4 we just introduced are sort of it for a group and Dahar is going to talk to us a little bit about the process that happens once those community agreements have been established.
Thanks, Aaron. And the point I really want to make is having those agreement is just as important as this part of the profit.
So once you've named the agreement, finishing the process out is what we're talking about as a whole today.
And so the 1st step is asking for clarification. If the group needs more clarification on what an agreement means what behaviors are encompassed in that agreement, really making sure that there's clarity around that, because if we're gonna hold ourselves to an agreement, we need to know what that thing means.
And it's really important for us as facilitators when we introduce agreement to model calling in. And so part of an agreement or the point of having the agreement is that we are holding ourselves accountable to the lift of agreement.
And that the group has agreed to and so it That is not happening at any point in the day, we have to be able to call people in.
And add facilitators for us to give an example of what that might be. And Chris is my favorite person who does this, so well, I'm gonna give her example of how she modeled calling in with a group.
So then I will use Dahara as the person that I often will use as my sample participant.
And just that, if I heard to her say something that I know to be problematic in a, in a particular community or we know based on our experience that something landed or something happened.
Aaron mentioned before racist or sexist comments, but it doesn't have to be that, right?
Something landed poorly. And then I may say, to Johar, are you open to some feedback?
And so Dahara, the greed, it's really important to actually pause and get agreement.
Yes.
I'm not always open to feedback, right? And or I'm open to feedback later in order to be compliant with the agreement.
But once she says she is, I may say exactly what I just said, right? So that's something that I know to be problematic, what I just said, right?
So that's something that I know to be problematic from, you know, what we've learned.
From some other communities, could I offer you this other thing that you might be able to say? Right. And that's 1 way that we can be relational.
Thanks, Trustee.
And still maintain, our community. Thanks.
Thank you. And right that is certainly a conversation you can have with an individual or as the group. I recently had to call in a group as a whole and to say just to say a reminder of the agreement that we made earlier and Okay, paid specific attention to this agreement, which included like not having side conversation.
And so just to say. That's an agreement if we can adhere to that. Moving forward, right?
Just keep that in mind. So it's a really kind of, a way to do it and that's non confrontational and the point that we want to make here is you give people a way to call each other in.
And sometimes we don't have the language or we're just kind of a loss of words to say like well I know the thing is happening I'm not happy about it.
But I don't know how to say it without the feeling really kind of. And so us modeling it without the feeling really kind of.
And so us modeling it help both have one way that they can also do that later. And so the next part of the process is giving the group a chance to make changes.
To that list and so asking them what would you change? What is something, you know, if you want to add to an agreement or behavior.
This is the back and forth and this is why it's an agreement and not a rule because you are engaging the group and building this together.
And then moving into. Getting consensus from the group. The agreement means you have agreement. Okay, so you're seeing them model this.
Asking for thumbs up, found sideways or down, but really using that as a really quick way.
So if you're in person, you can do that, you on Zoom or whatever on a virtual platform you can use emojis but what the thing I look for is for everyone to say either thumbs up or sideways meaning like you don't but you can live with it and for the purposes of this group, you can move forward in here and hold yourself accountable and each other accountable to this list.
Not you want these agreements to be in a place that is acceptable to everybody because this is the thing that is going to have a longevity of life.
Beyond the moment that you just talk about it and it's not supposed to be kind of like, okay, yep, we agree and like we don't need to see it or revisit it.
You want it to have it in a place that you can always come back to. If you have to reference back or for people that say like, Oh, wait, this thing is happening.
Is this part of our agreement? So just having it in a place, whether that's the side or if you're in person having that hosted in a place that everyone can see.
And then lastly, coming back to evaluate how it's working, whether depending on the length of time you're spending with both really making sure what's working for us, what's not working, do we want to make changes and this process as a whole So each time you can come back at the evaluation state and then if you are making changes go back to clarity edit right and walk yourself through the whole process and so
it's really meant to be flexible and iterative throughout the life of the agreement that you're with this group.
So, can I add one thing? On the previous slide. We keep talking about the group and we know what we mean when we say that, right?
Yeah.
But just for to make explicit to the folks listening with us that that's true for the facilitators too, right?
The well-crafted agreements effective agreements allow participants to call us in and say, hey Chris, I heard back to I'm still a learner, right?
I heard you say a thing that doesn't feel like it's in keeping with the agreement or you function in a way.
Delhi and Erin both know how happy I get when people actually use them because it means we really have created some community in the space.
So.
Yeah, thank you for that.
So now time to get meta, right? So the community agreements, this community that we've created for hours or days or minutes at the table.
The practice of community agreements was created in community, right? So people came together to say, what is a practice that we need to have that allows us to function in the way be aligned with our values.
And so aorta is a group, that we borrow a lot of both our agreements and the practice around that, rooted in some servant leadership and some nonviolent communication.
Principles. And then first, st Alaskans Institute frames some of the community agreements that we use in ways that we use them.
And there are certainly other organizations that we've seen model things or do practices and we develop those all the time.
But it's important to note that it's not any one person sitting in a room and creating those and then putting them out, right?
These are all created in community.
I'll turn it over to you to kinda get us started thinking about. Reflection and really how we think about, community agreements and our maybe our past experiences.
Okay, so I'll invite everyone to think about just take a moment to think about. And experience whether you've been the facilitator or the participant that you felt save.
And could fully engage. And think about what was present in that moment. In that group in that engagement.
And what behavior look like that helped you authentically participate.
We're in facilitated. Moments so much and so thinking back to what was. It probably, many example may come to mind, but I'm wondering, Krista and Aaron from your experience, what are some things that come to mind for you?
Erin, you want to start? You want me to start?
Okay, I think that one of the examples that comes to mind for me is being, in a workshop where we were talking about anti racism and anti oppression and the facilitator brought themselves into the in some really rich ways.
You can go for it.
So they did a more full introduction of themselves and why they were engaged in the work and what qualified them to be there.
And it really for me modeled the kind of vulnerability that they were asking for from us instead of it being one directional, right?
And so created. A space where I felt more safe to share.
Kristen, when you think about that sort of environment and behaviors, is there a particular community that then sort of comes up for you that as the facilitator or even as the participant you might be really looking for in that container, to really to I think a level set and set the tone our expectation for that.
Level of a degree of, authentic sharing.
I think it's 2 fold for me. It could certainly show up in a host of places, but the 2 that come to mind for me is we're all learners and we're all wise.
And so if the facilitator is saying, here's how I've learned some things, here's some wisdom that I have to bring.
Here's what I'm still learning, then it's a model for I'm still learning even though I'm your facilitator in this space.
I think the other thing for me is why am I talking? Why am I not talking like this make space take space?
Why am I not sharing right now? Is it because I I don't feel safe to share and a container hasn't been made for me to be able to share or why am I talking?
I'm trying to cover or make more comfortable or and so for me it allows more for me to be more intentional in how I share when someone has come forward with that much
What I really like about kind of what you've just outlined for us and it's something that everyone watching this can do as well for themselves whether they're leading or participating is to think about You know, what are the behaviors or experiences that you've had in the past that either you really enjoyed and appreciated and wants to sort of replicate or the environments that have been not ideal or not engaging and what are
those conditions and in both instances sort of like I as a result the community agreement that you might like to see in place in order to account for that.
Issue or behavior. My, my example is gonna, so you have like a sort of more serious like example and illustration and I'm just gonna say that they could be a range of behaviors or experiences at the other end.
I'm just gonna say something simple like, you know, when's a time that I felt like I could really engage and participate?
Like when I felt like I had the freedom to stand or stretch in the back of the room if I needed to or step out to use the restroom or refill my beverage and not feel so like confined in like a student, teacher, student, facilitator, environment.
And so thinking about a community agreement like take care of your own needs or something like that and not only introducing it but really kind of identifying those types of behaviors in a way that you're empowering participants to do what they need to be fully present is something for me when someone introduces I'm like awesome like we're on the same page and I'm not gonna have to sort of stay you know just in
my seat you know because I think it does really have an impact on my seat, you know, because I think it does really have an impact on my seat, you know, because I think it does really have an impact on my ability to engage not only with one another, but with the facilitators as well.
And I think the point, I appreciate you both saying that because Agreement or these practices and behaviors.
We do them whether it's listed as a community agreement or not and there's really so much power in saying it out loud and making space for that because then it allows everyone to feel comfortable right taking that break because some people may feel comfortable doing that without an agreement that's explicitly stated but others may not feel comfortable doing that without an agreement that's explicitly stated but others may not and those are the dynamic that we're looking for.
To kind of manage those power dynamics or whatever dynamic that may exist. And really speaking to agreements and making them, explicit is important without assuming that people know.
That they can speak whenever they want or they can take a break. As they want. So thank you both for sharing.
Awesome. I'm gonna move us into kind of the next section of our presentation. This is really if you follow the top methodology around the focused conversation, we're at that sort of interpretive level of thinking right now the focused conversation.
We're gonna like as Krista often says like complicate things here a little bit more. Krista often says like complicate things here a little bit more.
We're at that sort of interpretive level of thinking right now as we consider application. We're at that sort of interpretive level of thinking right now as we consider application and what community agreements look like in action.
This is where we're going to spend a little bit of time talking about the equity that's created.
We work with when we institute community agreements effectively. So I'm going to spend just a moment or 2.
Providing this like, I think there is a book called like a brief history of the world or something like I can't remember exactly the title.
And that book is substantially thicker than the sort of 3 statements that I have here up on the screen.
And so I want to acknowledge that this is incredibly simple overview, but it's 1 that I think is important to lay some context and foundation for some of the subsequent slides that we're going to present.
And so if you have't paused to think about this in Western culture, we have really been socialized in this sort of top-down decision-making process.
Think about in our workplaces, particularly folks that I've been in the workplace for a minute.
I feel like over the years, certainly have started much more top down and yet so many business and workplace environments still look like that.
Others don't and have certainly, you know, evolved over the years. But when we think about the traditional workplace environment, thinking about that top down that, you know, your boss has the right answer and you go to that person.
For, you know, agreement acceptance, green lighting decisions to move forward and that has a really profound impact on contributions of coworkers and certainly on subordinates.
So as a result, there is this sort of prescribed order. When you're in a room or when you've convened a workplace of folks and there are you know bosses and supervisors and subordinates or whatever in a room.
There is this sort of prescription that you're going to sort of look to your boss or supervisor, the person with power, to speak the true and to certainly speak up and and in many cases speak for us.
In this sort of dominant culture, certainly historically within the United States that's been white men, cisgender, middle to upper class, highly educated, and the list goes on.
Certainly we know that the environments that we convene now for facilitations like strategic planning and other important conversations in which we're trying to seek consensus and action.
Hopefully are much more diverse today. But as a result of this sort of history and this sort of lived experiences and the sort of expectation that's been placed upon us.
We are missing out often on perspectives. And so. We are perpetuating these sort of historically.
Established traits and characteristics like secrecy, like efficiency, and as a result, we are missing out again on ideas, insights, perspectives and lived experiences, particularly from people of color, but also from other underrepresented social identities.
And if what we're going to do is create more equitable spaces. Community agreements are one way to do that because they are intended to level set and create greater equity not only in participation but certainly in the engagement and interaction with the product and outcomes of the sessions that we lead and facilitate.
So as a result of sort of that hyper brief history lesson, Chris is going to talk a little bit about some of the anti oppressive practices.
That results when we effectively institute community agreements in the groups that we work with.
Yeah, if we think about community agreements, sometimes I think about them as a quote micro practice, right?
It's the 1st sort of counter-. Sometimes I think about them as a quote, I think about them as a quote, micro practice, right?
It's the 1st sort of counter cultural way of being, to make a move against this, right?
It's the 1st sort of counter cultural way of being, to make a move against this sort of tap down and to make a move against this sort of counter cultural way of being, to make a move against this sort of tap down and to think more collectively.
Some of the ways that that shows up is in our language, right? I already talked about when I did the example with the around calling in that there may be some things that show up.
We're not going to be able to predict all that those are. We don't know all over the world that could be problematic, for people.
And so we need a way in a model for people to be able to say, you know, that doesn't land well with me. I don't feel included. I don't feel safe.
It's limiting my ability to fully participate because when we talk about full and equitable participation, right, it's not just has everyone said everything.
As facilitators, that's often what we default to. Has everyone contributed? But who's contributing?
And in what ways? And how could we change the the type of participation? And so when we think about that, sometimes we think about power sharing, right?
So Aaron already talked about this example of the head of the organization, right? And people default to their answers in the room.
But if we really created an effective container in the space, then we share power, right? We make equitable each of those contributions.
And we've gotta create if our default around our socialization, right, is that the 1st person that raises their hand is who we call, right?
As as facilitators, if there's a room where nobody's talking and somebody does this.
If we do that, if we default to those folks, then we get exactly who has felt socialized to be able to speak interim.
Right? Our tendency is to lean into and to really a list that solicit, participation from those folks.
Those folks that Aaron was talking about, right? So why cisgender men, we have data around the fact that if we just go with 1st called, that's who responses we're going to get.
And so it's a way to be able to share power in the room. For this accountability piece, we've already talked about one of the ways that it's an anti oppressive practice or that there is equity in the space is you have to be able to hold people accountable to their behavior, right?
It's not enough to just say, here's how we're gonna as facilitators say this is how we're going to be and where this is back to that it's not punitive right it's collective accountability.
It's not oh you did this thing and now you go to the principal's office or now you're in a timeout right it really is how are we gonna hold one another accountable.
And that which is why I get so happy when a participant says, hey, I'm not sure what you said landed with me.
In a way that I can live with because it means we've really done we've really set the stage for what it means to hold one another accountable.
Which leads us into these feedback loops, right? What is the process for feedback? Feeling like I could give feedback and I can share and I'm safe to.
To say some things that maybe I don't get to say in other rooms. Maybe I don't get to be in other rooms.
And so feedback is definitely a key part of how we do that, right? Wanna be able to create spaces when you say, why am I not talking?
Well, Maybe it's because I know that I'm gonna be shut down when I do. And so it's certainly not to say we don't want the perspectives of the people who would, who would raise their hands first.st
It's to say we have to recognize that that will automatically be skewed in that direction if we don't do something to counter it, right?
If we don't do something to move against that, it'll be overrepresented. So in order for it to have equitable representation in this space, we've got to do something to move against that space.
Erin, anything you would add in that space? Yeah, go ahead.
Yeah, So that you know I think that it's a good reminder that community agreements are one way to affect and elicit the behavior that you're sort of looking for and there are so many others so use them as a tool and not the tool thinking about as you so often do for us Krista having people think about and respond to a prom silently by themselves in a journal for a couple of minutes.
And then when you ask, like, is there an idea that someone's willing to share? Everyone's had some time to think and write something down.
And so the greater the likelihood that somebody who doesn't always speak 1st has something that they've thought about and are now willing to share is certainly greater.
So use this in concert with certainly other tools and other instructional design strategies.
Yeah, when you said that it reminds me of, sorry, to hard. Did you have something you wanted to add there?
Yeah.
I just wanted to add the part about power dynamics, but it also makes space for different ways of thinking.
And so some folks, right, like Aaron is very much the type to like he'll have a thousand responses immediately and I may need a minute to process and really like get that and you're we talk about power dynamics but also you're making space for other ways of thinking and being here.
Yeah, the example I think of from what both of you said is my mentor in the tab space I saw I observed them do I'm creating a queue even in person, right?
We do that some like if you have everyone who wants to answer a question or wants to contribute, raise their hand and you leave a moment.
For them to be able to do that. Now I can lean into a person that maybe hasn't spoken as much, right?
Now I can kind of control who's sharing and how they're sharing.
And after hearing kind of The theme to me and if you have been listening long enough, you know the 3 of us are not the group that says this is how it has to be done at the hard and fast rule.
And in that there are certain things you want to be mindful of as a facilitator, right?
You can do it how you want, to be mindful of here when you're practicing and introducing group agreement.
We've talked already about this pop-down decision-making, introducing a list of agreements and saying here's what we're going to do.
That is the ground rules for the community agreement part. And so you're reinforcing some dynamics of top down division making if you do that.
Similarly, when Folks are not sticking with the group agreements or maybe their behaviors are showing up in ways that are not part of the group agreement calling and some but not others.
You're reinforcing and this is somehow, sometimes how bias can show up even within our own practice.
And it's important for us to recognize those things and be mindful. Of who your calling in and who you are not.
And so just being mindful of that. As well. And really just having such. The kind of the next 2 are very similar in having such a rigid like enforcing of, saying this is what we're going to do and not asking for feedback or additions or edits and for clarity.
Create a environment where you are saying this is what we're going to do and not allowing for diversity of thought for folks to say it I don't agree with this.
I want it to look different. And for in our practice at facilitators we are often brought in and working with groups that create change.
Within an organization within a group, but at the same time we have to be open to change as well and be disruptable and so for us to be open to that is really important.
And similarly in terms of being flexible. This is why we say check in, see how things went after consent back or edit that the group has because if we are really strict on the list of agreements or the list of behaviors that lead up to those agreement, you're not really creating the space that you may and be intending to do.
And lastly, if, and we've looked at this already of just not call showing what that looks like in practice to model calling in.
Can be. You may be missing a moment for somebody to practice that themselves and keep the group true to the agreement.
So some things that we want to just be mindful of as we're going through this as facilitators.
Right. I was just gonna note that a while back. I just wrote down on my little pad of paper calling in versus calling out.
Anything.
I wanted to take a just a quick moment to say that we're very intentional around the use of the language.
Calling in, in, suggesting that we want people to stay in the group that we want to work through.
It together versus calling out, which to me is very like baseball sort of language where when you're out, which to me is very like baseball sort of language where, you know, when you're out, you are out, which to me is very like baseball sort of language where, you know, when you're out, you are out of the baseball diamond or you are out of the game or whatever the case may be that there isn't
an opportunity to process and navigate a way to be with the group together, but rather you are out.
And so thinking about what it means to call in versus call out. I think is an important not just language, not splitting cares, but really it's really intentional about how to keep people engaged in part of the community versus like, sort of in a survive, very survivor way voting them out of or off of
Erin, if we do have a resource for folks who want to know more about that concept. So it is something that's on our facilitate me, Facebook page.
There is a whole video if calling in and calling out is something that you want to see.
Thank you. I'm just gonna. Mention this briefly and then we're going to move on to a case study.
And then we're going to move on to a case study of event card using community agreements within our own organization.
The example on your screen right now is a reminder that depending upon, in this specific example, the racial makeup of not only the participants but the facilitators in the room could have an impact on the way not only community agreements are raised but how they are navigated with the group both in terms of it their creation as well as in terms of their implementation and accountability throughout, thinking about when white people show up
or push back on agreements with the facilitators of color for example that with a white facilitator they may not only be may never do that or could be more affirming and less challenging.
So it's just it's an interesting dynamic to sort of see who is at the front of the room, kind of who is leading the process of coming agreements and who the participants are.
And how in this particular case race alone could have a pretty profound impact. And the way that the experience is felt by participants in a similar way like if a wife facilitator was leading a particularly like rigid community agreement process that might feel or look more like ground rules, how that could really not only look oppressive, but really feel oppressive to participants as well.
And, and we, we just raised this as a sensitivity as you think about how you're showing up and how you're introducing community agreements, how they look and feel.
But also how race is one example of another complication, that you should be mindful of when thinking about and talking about community agreements, but also other social dynamics.
So, As for example, a gay facilitator, how that might show up in a different way or what are the intentional considerations that I might have with Co-facilitators when, for example, homophobic comment is made during a facilitation and we need to call someone in on that particular behavior.
And whether I want to do that again as the gay facilitator or I want a sort of great colleague of mine that's co-facilitating to raise and call in that particular point.
And so just want to like punctuate here that social identities are an important consideration when it comes to community agreements.
They definitely complicate the situation in terms of both facilitators and participants. But also in terms of not only the way they show up and are created, but also on how they.
How you help hold. One another accountable to them throughout the experience. Okay, Krista, anything else that you want to say about that to hire anything you would like to add?
Okay, so we're going to move into this. Application period, if you will, this case study example of community agreements and action.
I know our time is winding down, so we'll get right into it straight away and I'll turn it over to Crystal to do that for us.
Thank you. So what you're looking at is an example of the community agreements that Event Guard created somewhat January, 2,023 we went to a retreat and we did a whole activity where we said, what are the things we need to feel safe at a Vancouver?
What are the things we need to be able to really, fully thrive in this space? And so here are the agreements that we came up with.
What's important to know is that underneath those are the behaviors, right? So just like we need to know what we are consenting to, right?
These are agreements. So we model calling in because I need to also be consenting to how I'm being held accountable.
I don't know how many of us have said the word, well, I just need to be respected.
And so if that's gonna be true, then we need some examples of what that behavior looks like.
That means different things to different people. And so so for example, Aaron's already talked about weight and weight, but intake of accountability, we have using eye statements.
One way that I can take accountability is not to globalize, right? Not to say, we always do this, but to say I'm feeling a way about a thing.
And to hold myself accountable. And so this behaviors piece and one thing that can look like in the room is that I will ask the group.
Right. So when you look at Makespace, take space. What are some behaviors? What's a way we could demonstrate that we've made space or take in space?
And then people will populate this, right? And so that we're agreeing to, I know what the behavior is that I've agreed to.
I know how to call it in if it doesn't happen versus, oh, well, that's not what I thought we meant.
When we said make space take space, we're clear about that. We use these at the head of our monthly directors meeting.
We check on them regularly. We say How are we living into them? How are we not? And sometimes we'll be like, oh yeah, we did say we were gonna take good care of ourselves, didn't we?
Like where do we need to lean in and how do we need to support each other in that and do these agreements a year and some change later, still hold it for us.
Is this still what we need? And so,'ll talk about more about that process, but. These are ours just so you can see what a completed list.
Looks like I think the other thing on here that some folks have used but maybe not everyone is oops and app right so that if I say something and I'm like I really didn't like the way I frame that, then I can say, oops.
That's not how I that wasn't a fully formed thought and that's not how I wanted to say that right and if I said something and I didn't realize that it might have landed that I also have the opportunity, someone else has the opportunity to be like, Ouch.
So that we can hold one another accountable. Erin or Dahara, anything else you want to say about this slide?
I will just say that in our case, we're really specific on the behavior that lead up to each of the agreement, but this is not the case.
You don't have to have a full list of behaviors and an agreement on display for the group but it is key that you talk about the behaviors at least like verbalize those things, but you can, you know, on a flip chart or something in person, you don't have space any way to lift all the behaviors but having had some type of conversation, whether that you're providing example or the group is
providing example than what they want to be encompassed. It's important.
And I would just say that these are not only community agreements that we hold ourselves accountable, but we also when onboarding new clients or new partners have a conversation about these community agreements so they understand not only our expectations for ourselves internally but do get some additional buy in from our clients and partners as well so that we know, kind of the expectations for behavior and interaction, that we anticipate and strive to achieve.
I wanted to include this slide just briefly. We won't Dehart did a great job earlier kind of deep diving into it.
I just wanted to raise it here in this moment to say that the community agreements and the behaviors are developed and then this process map is followed through in each of the 5 steps that you see here including the clarify the edit the consent the posts and the evaluate We could certainly talk more about each of those within event guards context, but for the sake of time, there are just a couple of key points that we want to be sure to touch on before we
Yeah, this is certainly not as one size. It's all model. And so depending on the time you're spending with the group, you want to spend more and more time on developing and talking about the group agreement.
wind down for today.
So at the very least, if you are funding just an hour or just a few hours with a group, you certainly can really based on what you know about the group, you certainly can really based on what you know about the group and what you need at the pre populate some agreements that you need.
For the work that you're doing. Do the process of where you have for clarity do the example the modeling of calling in and then getting consensus rate the kind of the basic path that we talked back and happened pretty quickly within a group.
At the top of whatever the session you are in. If you are spending more time, so it's a couple of days or multiple days with this group.
You can add a little bit more to that process. So this is where you can make time sometime to ask for edition.
Have the group really get into it? Talk about what behavior that, these things look like go around and talk about example what the agreements encompass and also make sure you're coming back and editing and thing what's working and what's not, especially if the group that you're going to be funding, right, coming back to or, having a longer relationship with.
And certainly if this is like a month long thing and the K 30 you thought event guard our team that works together for months and years.
So it did make sense for us to spend a quite a bit of time populating this. From scratch.
So that is an option you don't have to always have a pre populated agreement to show the group but it is advisable for you to at least have as a facilitator a lift of minimum agreements that you need to make things work for you.
And if the group doesn't come up with some of those things, then you can offer that they their group agreements.
And so if this is a longer, engagement, certainly making sure that you revisit and see if it's working, what changes need to be made, and then you can use a little bit of time, right?
You can use up to an hour if it's a really long engagement to talk about more details and what that looks like and how we call in and what resonates with folks like really get into it because the work will be so much better.
For the time that you invest in this piece and the like part of the process.
Just briefly, a couple of agreements we don't use that come up often people will say Krista, can we assume the best intentions?
Hmm.
Back to our intent and impact piece, we don't use this one because we've said we want to prioritize the impact, right?
So we assume that you came to learn. We assume that you have the best of intention. So in that way we are assuming intentions, but we're still going to tend to the impact.
Sometimes folks will use this because they want to deflect away from impact. And defaulting to trust, we've already talked about some of the ways social identity showed up, right?
And so we don't all have the same level of trust when we enter, either as the facilitator or the participant.
And so we can't always say trust the process, right? Trust has to be earned and we have to establish that trust.
Community agreements is one way we can establish that trust.
And this is just a bonus list of some additional agreements you may use. You will see there's quite a bit of overlap between what event guard uses in our community agreement and at least in terms of the behavior level, practicing eye statements could fall into practice self-focus.
It can fall into one. And so I'll just quickly make the point here is to me it's less critical of what we're used to call the agreement but being really clear what those behavior are that lead to that agreement.
Yeah, I think I would just add. That we probably have collectively a list of A dozen to maybe.
1520 max of community agreements that we routinely come back to, because I think they're ones we use most often and we have created great clarity around and can easily explain to others.
It's not to say that those like dozen, 1520 are right, wrong or otherwise. It's just to say that given our work and our practice, they're ones that we've established and we sort of come back to you as a reservoir.
And sometimes we might need 3 or 4. Sometimes we might need 5 or 6. More is not more here.
I would say the fewer that you can have, that, the container environment that you really wish to have with the groups that you're leading, the better off, but you have to get real clear about what they mean and if behaviors arise that cannot be addressed by one of the community agreements that are thinking about next time or thinking in that moment, what, what's a community agreement that could be added that would speak to that or would
that address that need? And obviously moving forward, starting with that as part of your default list.
Okay, my friends, we have expired our time together today just want to say, that we are all always, I think generous with our knowledge and resources.
And so if you have a question about something we said today, would like to go deeper, would like to see a specific resource.
Don't hesitate to reach out to us. We will be sharing with all of our live webinar participants, a recording, and of course the slides from this presentation.
So hopefully you can go forth and practice an experiment and hopefully grow your knowledge and confidence of using community agreements with groups you work with.
But if you stumble or if you run into a roadblock, don't hesitate to come back to any of us we're happy to share and explain.
I think the the worst thing to do when it comes to community agreements is just simply copy and paste an example and experience you've had with someone else.
You can understand the underarching why why we do it and how to do it effectively, then you can modify it and be specific for the groups that you're convening.
Although there is this thread of similarity between all the times we use community agreements, there is some adaptability that happens based upon the groups that we can.
And it's important to understand those nuances to truly do them well. Delhara and Krista, I'm gonna come to each of you for like a final thought.
Before we log off. So, Dahara, I'll come to you first.st Any sort of final thought or takeaway or something that you wish you would have said that you didn't get an opportunity to do so.
Always. My thing is either you have to know the group or find information out about the group.
For you to be able to pre populate that. Agreements list and know what you need. Be really clear on what outcomes you're trying, what your, you know, we started with retinal.
Experiential aims, be really clear on what the goal for your time is and what the group needs to have at the engagement.
So being, I think just doing your homework. There.
Krista, how about you?
Just one thing, in part of your resources, what you'll get is a link to the model that, Vanguard has created.
And we have a pretty well established practice and model of how and why we use them. And so, in addition to the slides that you' if it's helpful to have access to that model and some of the other models we've mentioned, those are on the website.
That's awesome. Thanks, Chris. Thanks to Hara for joining us today. I hope you all have found this useful and beneficial.
We'll remind you that event card.com we have a lot of resources digital videos and recordings blog posts PDFs so many different model samples examples that you can use and would just really invite you to check those samples, examples that you can, use and would just really invite you to check those out, to see how they can, use and would just really invite you to check those out, to see how they can continue
to flash out, to see how they can continue to check those out to see how they can continue to flesh out, improve and enhance your practice around facilitation and community agreements.
In the meantime, that's all for today. Thanks for joining us. Have a great afternoon.