I’ve actually started using this idea of turning the camera off during brainstorming. It has worked surprisingly well in the meetings I’ve facilitated! Thanks so much for the suggestion.

Ooooh. “Poke at a source of power.” I didn’t remember that part, but it’s extremely important. Power is a resource that people don’t like to give up.

I also agree about front loading the conversation to make the gift worth the risk. Super important.

Love it @Sara . 💜 You have to make it the rule, not the exception.

Love the idea of giving people “permission” to turn their cameras off during brainstorming. These little things can make such a big difference.

@Joann Absolutely! And I think those stump speeches are super important–especially when talking to certain groups–Parents want to see the confident principal. Our advantage is that we create the space to explore sprout speeches–and it is through this exploration that our sprout speeches become stump speeches. Even the biggest stumps started…

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@Sara I like the idea of building horizontal connections, and it reminds me of something we discussed in a previous chapter about highlighting commonalities we have, even outside of work (maybe @brandi_kujalapeterson mentioned it?). I think about one of my closest friends that I have here in Harrisonburg. Our kids went to school together and…

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@Joann That’s an important reflection about how few people did the prework. And I’ll add that thinking through a way to include the prework in the meeting, maybe start with it? That will help to add value to the work–It’s not just busy work; we are actually going to use it. And doing that consistently will help to enforce the value of…

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@Sara Agreed. So many times, we list of group norms and check the box that we covered them without ever going back to them or enforcing them when they are broken.

I like the idea of using pop up rules to add freshness. And like the idea of asking principals to bring their own pop up rules. I’d be interested to see what they come up with… And…

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@Sara I love this idea. Do you have any concrete actions that coaches/facilitators can do to equalize? It’s so important and takes a master facilitator to enforce. I think back to some of the facilitation I’ve done (e.g., chairing a conference session) and definitely think I could improve this…

@Joann I like that you pointed out it is our job to rescue our guests if it fails. I think that can be a scary part of trying something new… What if it doesn’t work? We have to acknowledge that we are trying to something new and that it may not be successful. I think we can be open about this as we set up the purpose and invite our guests to…

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@Nina Agree. Defining what protecting, equalizing, and connecting looks like for Portico will be key to ensuring that it happens. When we make the abstract concrete, it becomes so much easier to implement. Otherwise, we spin our wheels on what it could look like.

This reminds me of an example from Switch by Chip and Dan Heath (great…

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@Nina Absolutely! The first step is ensuring that we have a common definition of generous authority. And I love the idea of practicing during the calibration meetings. One thing that will be extremely important is educating all coaches on what we are learning during this book study. The need a definition and we all need opportunities to…

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@Joann I appreciate your comment that you were not always clear on the purpose of the CoPilot and Counterpart meetings. I’m curious whether the purpose will be different for each cohort and to what extent is their overlap in the purposes across cohorts. This is particularly important as we train coaches. If each coach is responsible for…

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So true @vanessa-brazilinflexion-org ! As someone who hates icebreakers, they definitely have to be tied to our purpose and not just space filler or obligatory getting to know you activities.

@sara_ticer I really like the idea of having principals come up with something that is meaningful to them. We could also compile the list of their suggestions so principals have different strategies to try.

I love it!! 💜