the bowl of

noodles

tools for unpacking case-in-point moments

systems thinking


the process of understanding how groups of things ("systems") influence each other within the whole

way of framing questions


  • What's your intention right now?
  • What did you notice as you were speaking?
  • How did what you said/did appear to affect others?
    What data do you have?
  • In this moment, what do you need from the group to proceed?

offerings (your own thoughts, feelings, stories)


  • It feels to me like we are stuck. Am I the only one who feels that way?
  • I notice that the tension is much higher before class starts today than normal. Did anyone else notice something different today?
  • It seems like everyone who had a chance to speak agrees with you. What do you know about everyone else?

unconscious triggers


way of framing questions


  • Why did you react in that way?
  • What did your reaction show about your triggers?
  • What did this show about your / other's fears
    or motivations?
  • What needs might your feelings about this reveal (e.g. I feel extremely frustrated; I have a need to feel in control)

offerings (I notice, I feel, In my experience...)


  • When Daryl said "I think it's juvenile that we have to learn each other's names in a college class", I immediately felt, "Oh no! What if everyone else believes this?"

  • Usually, when I am preparing for this class, I feel energized. Today, when I was coming to class, I couldn't help but feel a sense of dread and I started to wonder where that came from...

learning theory

questions


Our questions can scaffold toward
higher levels of learning.

  • If we have just learned to explain "Technical vs. Adaptive Challenges", I might ask: What adaptive challenges are we facing in our developing community?
  • After understanding and applying two frameworks, I often ask students to evaluate how they would apply each to the same situation. How are the results different? How do we decide which to use?

offerings


Tell stories that reach toward
higher levels of learning.

  • Fight or flight? Wait... Ask!

How to create movement


  1. Ask
  2. Information
  3. Social Norming
  4. Bartering
  5. Reward
  6. Punishment
  7. Force

developmental theory


way of seeing


  • How are students understanding their needs? Values?
  • Where do their values come from? Do they seem externally based or to come from within?
  • Does a student seem capable of holding more than one competing idea simultaneously, weighing them against each other?
  • Do they tend to take responsibility for things which are not theirs? (They are feeling bad about x; that must be my fault)

questions


  • What was at stake for you in that moment?
  • What might your response in that situation tell you about yourself?
  • What were the costs/gains to you in that particular moment?
  • What was the outcome you were hoping for?
  • What commitments of yours were at play in this moment?
  • What big assumptions are behind those commitments?

vulnerability & shame


offerings


"We are impressed by your strengths but
connect through your vulnerabilities"

  • Scaffolding moments of vulnerability (otherwise we stay in our comfort zones).

  • Refer back to your own experiences that make you vulnerable or share current vulnerabilities.

  • The refrain: You are enough... even if we didn't succeed (or maybe especially when we didn't succeed).

questions


  • What changed when Neela shared her story? What did it make possible for others?

  • Where did our fear of asking a deeper question come from in that moment?

  • What's a way we could handle the situation of forgetting someone's name that engaged with vulnerability?

sticky teaching (memes)



  1. Seek to Understand
  2. Relationships are the Currency of Power
  3. No Comfort in the Growth Zone
  4. The Problems are Complex
  5. Come in Right
  6. Follow the Joy

offerings
  • Stories demonstrate the application of the concept.

  • Apply the concept to an emergent moment.

  • Return to the concept in following class sessions.

questions


  • How does "seek to understand" come into play right now?
  • What tool might you have used in that moment to change course?
  • James, when you said what you did, what was running through your head at the time?

leadership theory


Know your frameworks.
  • Adaptive Leadership (Ron Heifetz, et al.)

  • Community (Peter Block)

  • Socially Intelligent Leadership (Daniel Goleman)

  • Ethics (R.M. Kidder)

questions


Example: Adaptive Leadership

  • What did you observe happening in the room? How did you interpret it?

  • How are we addressing technical problems? Adaptive challenges?

  • Who has authority in the room? How is it operating?

  • What roles are being played in the room by different people?

intercultural development


questions


  • As a group we've just had a tense conversation about Fair Trade. At what IDI level did we have that conversation?

    Why?

  • What would that conversation look like in Acceptance?

  • What would we need to make that change in this room?

  • Stop and notice your feelings right now. Where would you place those on the IDI continuum? Where do they come from?

offerings


  • Personal stories of not being good at navigating intercultural moments.

  • Stories of "getting back in the saddle" after failures.

narrative




The stories we tell about ourselves serve to
enable and limit us.

questions


  • What is the story that you/we are telling about us?

  • How is that story influencing how we think about: our selves, our relationships, our work?

  • Where does this story come from?

  • What are the taken-for-granted ideas in society or this community that keep this story alive?

  • Are there alternative stories available to us? Where do they come from?

mentoring


Mentoring occurs in class and in  many other places,
before and after CIP moments.

  • Email follow-up
  • Conversations before and after class
  • One-on-one conversations
  • Small group projects

inspiration


Critical thinking distances us from our defaults.
Inspiration gives us the energy to create something new.

  • Return to inspiring moments from class as parallel or in contradistinction to the case-in-point moment that occurred.

  • Be inspired by the amazing work that took place; open room for even more amazing work to continue.

questions


  • How did what just happened relate to the 5 minutes of inspiration Ellis shared earlier?

  • Did anyone else notice how differently we responded this time around?

  • When Andrew said what he did, did anyone else think, "YES!" ?

Tools for Unpacking Case-in-Point Moments

By Alex Fink

Made with Slides.com

Tools for Unpacking Case-in-Point Moments

Presentation for the 2013 Leadership Can Be Taught Symposium Pre-Session Training at the University of Minnesota. Titled "The bowl of noodles: tools for unpacking case-in-point moments", this presentation offers a series of "handles" for unpacking case-in-point moments in undergraduate education in order to turn them into significant learning about the practice of leadership. Each "noodle" is a handle, with the 2nd dimension of the presentation suggesting example questions and "offerings" from the instructor's own experience to illustrate ideas. The bowl of noodles is a set of these handles, each offering "nutritional" learning, some perhaps better than others depending on the situation. Yep, the metaphor is stretched a bit far... but good luck forgetting it!

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