The Teacher’s Manual
Transformative Action Institute
Skills for Success
Bonus Teacher‘s Manual Content November 2017
Transformative Action Institute
Transformative Action Institute
Teaching the key skills that young people need to succeed at making change in their lives and in their communities. A WORK IN PROGRESS If you have any feedback regarding this document, please contact Scott Sherman at ssherman@transformativeaction.org
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Table of Contents INTRODUCTION
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COURAGE
10
Time Optimization
16
Strong Mindsets
30
Resilience
40
CREATIVITY
50
Innovation
56
64
Transformative Communication
Problem-Solving
74
COLLABORATION
84
Empathy and Compassion
90
Prosocial Behaviors
104
Teamwork
116
CONCLUSION
124
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1-Minute Drawing
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14
200-Year Gap
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18
Time Audit
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20
Zone of Genius
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22
2100
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28
2100 Plus
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34
1 percent more courage
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36
Status party
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38
Status Role play
42
Gallery of failure
44
Celebrating failure
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46
Three things failure
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51
Remember Antartica
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52
Memory Loss
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54
Curveball
58
Rapid Design
60
Café without Coffee
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62
Reverse Brainstorm
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66
One Story
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68
Story Spine
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72
Act as If
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77
Negotiation or War
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80
Marshmallow Challenge
82
Voice of wisdom
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85
Documentary
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87
Sportscasters
89
Back dancing
92
Lost in Translation
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94
Active Listening
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COLLABORATION
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COURAGE
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Activity
CREATIVITY
COMMUNITY BUILDER
Greetings
Page
REFLECTIVE
ENERGIZER
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Activity Index
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SKILL BUILDER
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COLLABORATION
COURAGE
CREATIVITY
SKILL BUILDER
REFLECTIVE
COMMUNITY BUILDER
ENERGIZER
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98
Self-Compassion
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101
Cultivating Wisdom
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102
Multiple Perspectives
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106
Killing with Kindness
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108
Active Constructive Responding
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110
Make Others Look Good
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112
Seeking Out the Good
114
Spreading Goodness
118
Group Rock Paper Scissors
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120
Cooperative Musical Chairs
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122
Iron Chef
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Transformative Action Institute
Teaching the Key Skills of Successful Entrepreneurs What if we taught the key mindsets and skill sets that help make successful social entrepreneurs? By Scott Sherman / Oct. 31, 2011
Introduction
In the past few years, there has been an exponential increase in social entrepreneurship classes at universities. In most of these classes, professors teach students how to create business plans for social ventures. And many of these courses are excellent.
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But what if we went beyond this? What if we taught the key mindsets and skill sets that help make successful social entrepreneurs? For the past six years, the Transformative Action Institute (TAI) has been promoting a curriculum that teaches these skills. From in-depth studies of social innovators, we have identified seven important competencies that are essential for success:
What are the key skills for success that people need to change the world? In 2011, after significant research, we wrote the following article for the Stanford Social Innovation Review:
Bonus Teacher’s Manual
1. Leadership. These people take initiative and action to solve problems (rather than complaining about what’s wrong). 2. Optimism. These people are confident that they can achieve a bold vision, even when many other people doubt them. They have a strong sense of self-efficacy and a belief that they have control to change their circumstances. 3. Grit. This is a combination of perseverance, passion, and hard work—the relentless drive to achieve goals, complete commitment to achieving their task. 4. Resilience in the face of adversities, obstacles, challenges, and failures. When things fall apart, these people rise to the occasion. They thrive in the most ferocious storms. They see failures as valuable feedback. 5. Creativity and innovation. These people see new possibilities and think in unconventional ways. They see connections and patterns where few other people would imagine. 6. Empathy. These people are able to put themselves in the shoes of others, and imagine perspectives other than their own; this is one of the most valuable qualities for understanding the needs of others whom they serve. 7. Emotional and social intelligence. These people are excellent at connecting with others and building strong relationships. The important thing to note here is that each one of these qualities is something that people can develop with practice. There is a tremendous amount of scientific evidence that people can grow in each of these capacities. They can see statistically significant progress. For a long time, people thought that these traits were fixed. You either had them or you didn’t. There were some people who were born creative, and others who would never have an ounce of creative inspiration. There were some people who were naturally optimistic, and others who just were naturally pessimistic. People couldn’t change. But now we know that people can develop these competencies. Just in the same way that college students can learn a foreign language at age 20, so too can they learn the key skills for being great social innovators—becoming proficient, or even “fluent,” in these core competencies. First piloted at UCLA in 2005, this course has now been taught at more than 30 universities across
the world including Yale, Princeton, Cornell, NYU, Johns Hopkins, and UC Berkeley. Both Echoing Green and Ashoka U have recognized the organization as an innovator in social entrepreneurship education. In surveys, more than 90 percent of students said this class changed their lives. However, the financial downturn has made it more difficult to innovate on campus. Faculty and administrators face an uphill battle because of budget woes. How can you offer new course ideas when universities are cutting deep into traditional course offerings, and hiring fewer and fewer faculty? TAI’s module for social entrepreneurship is adaptable and cost-effective for universities because practicing social entrepreneurs from the local community can be brought in to teach as adjuncts. The TAI curriculum gives instructors a teaching manual to draw from, cutting down their course preparation time, while students benefit from an exchange with real-life social entrepreneurs who can share their experiences. For instructors who have adapted TAI’s curriculum, one of the keys to its success is its flexibility. This is not an all-or-nothing approach. Great success has come from incorporating a small section into an existing course, circumventing the need for new course approval, which can be a lengthy and involved process. Grace Davie, professor at Queen’s College, CUNY, adapted elements of the curriculum into her existing African history course. Davie casts figures in African history as social entrepreneurs: visionaries and innovators who have fought for change in their societies. She uses the concept of social entrepreneurship and a portfolio assignment from the curriculum to help each student identify the changes they want to make in the world. Let me finish by talking about this portfolio assignment, because it’s one of the keys to the success of this course. College students often have passion and energy and a desire to make a difference, but they frequently have no idea what they want to choose as a major, let alone what “big, hairy, audacious goals” they have for changing the world. We have students spend at least five weeks engaging in a rigorous assessment of their talents, strengths, skills, passions, and personal histories. Many students have reported that this was the most meaningful assignment they have ever had at any educational level. It helps them figure out what they want to do with their lives. Our goal now is to help spread this curriculum to more than 200 colleges and universities across the world: to help train the next generation of social entrepreneurs, innovators, and problem solvers for the 21st century.
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Transformative Action Institute
The 9 Essential Skills After several more years of research, and after interviews with countless employers, students, alumni, and parents, we have come up with a new rubric. We have determined that there are nine essential skills – and not just for people who want to change the world. These are skills that are necessary for anyone who wants to have a thriving life. Remarkably these are skills that are rarely taught in traditional education. Here we present a brief overview of these 9 skills, which we have grouped under 3 categories: courage, creativity, and collaboration.
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Bonus Teacher’s Manual
Courage Time Optimization
Having the courage to act according to your highest values
Strong Mindsets
Having the courage to think like an entrepreneur: acting boldly, taking risks, and having a sense of self-efficacy
Resilience
Having the courage to bounce back from failure, loss, and adversity
Creativity Innovation
Using creativity to create something useful and important
Transformative Communication
Using creativity to communicate in a way that engages and wins people over
We‘re just getting started In the coming chapters, we will look at each one of these in turn. We will share activities that help people learn and develop these skills. We will also look at ways to measure each skill, and milestones to help people get there. Like the entire Teachers’ Manual, this is still a work in progress. We continue to develop this further. If you have suggestions, please contact us at info@ transformativeaction.org
Problem-Solving
Using creativity to overcome the challenges that face us
Collaboration Empathy
Fostering collaboration by understanding others’ needs and perspectives
Prosocial Behaviors
Fostering collaboration by serving other people, to help them meet their full potential
Teamwork
Fostering collaboration through working with others towards a better vision of the world
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Transformative Action Institute
Courage In a world where change happens so rapidly – indeed, one where 25 million jobs will be lost to automation in the next decade alone – people need courage to be able to adapt. Here are a few exercises to get people to feel courageous. Most people are scared to try new things, so this helps people get out of their comfort zones, and realize that they have the capacity to overcome their fears:
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Greetings
ACTIVITY
An activity for getting people connected very quickly; everybody in the room greets each other in different ways ENERGIZER COMMUNITY BUILDER COURAGE
LEVEL
GROUP SIZE
Beginner
Any size
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
To connect people and make them feel a sense of belonging
Overview Facilitation
TIME
5-10 Minutes
MATERIALS None
WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT
Because people learn best when they feel part of a community
This is a simple game and a great icebreaker to get the energy in the room up. (If you have an event with a photographer, this is also fantastic for getting great pictures!) Have everybody in the room stand. Then announce that they are going to go around and greet other people in the room. We always begin with this: 1. “Greet the other people like they are your long-lost best friends – your best friends whom you haven’t seen in years!” The effect of this is remarkable. People often start hugging each other with passion and enthusiasm. This works especially well when a group has already known each other. But it’s astonishing how well it works on the first day of an event, when people are total strangers. People often spin each other around, and jump up and down with genuine joy. It’s also a great way to get people feel like they belong. It’s often difficult to stop this, because people are so excited and boisterous. It’s hard to get people’s attention to go to the next greeting. When you do get everyone’s attention, go on to this next instruction: 2. “Greet other people as if they have bad breath.” This is humorous to watch for completely different reasons. People typically laugh for a moment, and then they hold out their arms to shake hands, standing as far away as they can. After they have greeted each other for a moment, you can go to the next one: 3. “Greet other people as if they are celebrities.” Now the students often are very deferential towards each other, even shy and coy. After a minute or two of this, you can move to the final one:
S OURCE : Transformative Action Institute,
4. “Greet other people as if they are cowboys or cowgirls.”
adapted from popular improv activity
S CIE NCE :
Even when we have done this in Texas, people resort to stereotypes from old Western movies. Some people will strut; others will swing an imaginary lasso; others will do some kind of square dancing. (Note: Even though all of these are stereotypes, they are all meant to be positive. This activity is not meant to make fun of anyone’s culture.)
Eisenberger, N. I., Lieberman, M. D., & Williams, K. D. (2003). Does rejection hurt: An fMRI study of social exclusion.
You can invent your own categories as well. The key to this game is that it helps people feel like they belong. Neuroscientists Naomi Eisenberger and Matt Lieberman at UCLA did a famous study where
Science, 302, 290–292.
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Transformative Action Institute
Greetings
ACTIVITY
(Continued) Facilitation
they found that the pain of social rejection is processed by the same parts of the brain as physical pain. In other words, it hurts to be excluded. This game makes everyone feel welcomed and part of the group. This game typically does not need a debrief. It’s just a great way to get energy in the room to a crescendo, and also to get people to feel like they belong to a community. Once they have had everyone hugging them and treating them like best friends, people tend to feel close and connected – even though they were strangers mere moments before!
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Bonus Teacher’s Manual
One Minute Drawing
ACTIVITY
People draw each other as a way of connecting ENERGIZER COMMUNITY BUILDER COURAGE
LEVEL
GROUP SIZE
Beginner
Any size
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
To tap into “multiple intelligences”
Facilitation
TIME
5 Minutes
MATERIALS
Pen and Paper
WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT
Because some people learn more when they engage in different styles, such as using art
A second way to break the ice is to get everyone into pairs, and tell them that they have one minute to draw each other. Most people think that they have no drawing talent, so when you announce this, everyone usually laughs nervously. They judge themselves negatively, so they are reluctant to do it at first. Fortunately, everybody is in the same boat, and it’s a relatively trivial request, so people go ahead and do it. Indeed, it is a small moment of courage that leads to some connection. Another way we have used this activity successfully is with a group of 20 to 50 people where people have already gotten to know each other pretty well. We usually do this after we have done about 30 minutes of name game icebreakers. We put people in pairs, and then we ask them to draw a certain person in the group. Between the two people in each pair, they have to figure out if they know the person whose name we just announced. Thus it’s a two-part puzzle: They have to figure out who the person is, from among everyone in the group. And then they have to draw the person they think it is. We do this up to 9 times, each time calling out a different name of someone in the group. Finally, for the last round, we ask them to draw someone else in the group who hasn’t yet been called. They can choose to draw anyone at all. The catch is that they then need to go around and show their drawing to other members of the group, and see if anyone can figure out whom their drawing depicts!
S OURCE :
This activity may seem unorthodox, but it draws upon the work of Harvard professor (and MacArthur Genius) Howard Gardner. He insists that traditional education focuses too much on the role of linguistic and mathematical intelligence. In his influential work, he theorizes that there are multiple forms of intelligence, which includes visual intelligence (one that artists and architects often have). By using art in an activity, we hope to appeal to a different kind of intelligence, and different learning styles.
Transformative Action Institute, adapted from popular improv activity
S CIE NCE : Gardner, H., & Hatch, T.; Hatch (1989). Multiple intelligences go to school: Educational implications of the theory of multiple intelligences.”Educational Researcher. 18 (8)
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