Collaboration Skills for Professionals and Academics

Presented Wednesday October 18, 2017

View the Recording

Last updated 11/5/2017

 

Visual: Presentation opens with title slide “Collaboration Skills for Professionals and Academics.”

Audio: Nancy: All right. Well, it looks great. Thank you very much. Sorry about that disconnect. Again, everybody, welcome to collaboration skills for professionals and academics.

Visual: Slide changes to “Presenters” and includes a photograph of the presenters along with names and qualifications.

Audio: Nancy: Jessica and I are your leaders today and we're very excited to have you all here.

Visual: Slide changes to “Overview” including benefits, key elements and tools.

So let's start today with an overview of what we'll be covering. Today we'll explore the benefits of collaborating with others, what are the key elements for successful team meetings? What skills do I need to develop to be successful at collaboration? And what tools are available for online collaboration.

Visual: Slide changes to a definition of collaborate.

Audio: Nancy: Let's start by defining the meaning of collaborate. Merriam dictionary defines it as to work jointly together or with others, especially in an intellectual endeavor. As students, we collaborate in the classroom every week through discussion posts and on occasion, we collaborate with others on group projects.

Visual: Slide changes to “Benefits” and includes aspects like brainstorm, share, learn, build skills and network.

Audio: Jessica: Collaboration plays a large role for the mission and future of higher education. Collaboration improves both the effectiveness of the teacher and improves student learning. The benefits of collaboration are many. And not limited to fostering student brainstorming, developing problem-solving skills, sharing their unique perspective and enhancing the multi-cultural awareness of the group. Collaboration enhances our own line classroom and learning while enhancing our experiences with teamwork. Collaboration fosters networking and building skills not present in independent learning. Collaboration assists in the overall growth and development of the student, the teacher and the group.

Visual: Slide changes to “Key Elements for Success” and includes aspects such as meaning, impact, clarity and psychological safety.

Audio: Nancy: In 2012, began an initiative named project Aristotle. The initiative studied hundreds of Google teens to discover why some were successful and some failed. The researchers reviewed academic studies through diagrams and studied Google teams to discover what skills and personalities have an impact on team success. After a year of research and observation, there was very little to show on what type of people mix or personalities were keys to success. So, they began looking at the norms of the groups and the behaviors that successful groups displayed. After more than three years of research and observation, they discovered the number one behavior that a group must have is psychological safety, defined as conversational turn-taking and empathy.

Great team members listened to one another and are in tune with other's feelings and needs. Team members need to know they can take risks and offer their thoughts and feelings without feeling insecure or embarrassed. Second on the list, dependability. Teams need to count on all team members to participate, do the work and stick to deadlines. Next, structure and clarity. Goals, roles and responsibility, and execution plans are all clearly defined. And understood by all team members. And the final two, meaning of work and impact of work. Members need to feel connected to the work being done. It must be important and significant to each member of the team, and the team must fundamentally believe the work being done matters.

Visual: Slide changes to “Use Your Communication Skills to” and includes contribute, be polite, use critical thinking and evaluation, and commit.

Audio: Jessica: Communication skills, whether in person or virtual, may not come naturally to every student. It may seem daunting at first but communicating with the intent to collaborate last some basic concepts. First, contribute to classroom learning by being attentive and sharing your knowledge and perspective. Be polite. Politeness goes a long way and fosters approachability and collaboration. Use critical thinking and evaluation. Your unique perspective and thought process will expand the classroom conversation. And finally, commit, being present, responsive and following through encourages progress and development.

Visual: Slide changes to “Free Online Tools” and gives a list of different free online collaboration tools.

Audio: Nancy: Let's review some examples of online tools that can be used for team communication. No matter what online tool you may use, make sure it's available to all team members and that everyone is comfortable with using the system. Skype and free conference call, those provide internet communication products that allow conference calling, web cam use and screen sharing. White boards are great for brainstorming sessions, building ideas and develop storyboards and visuals. Those all and -- AWW  realtime board have a free multi-functional use. Setting project goals deadlines and follow-up can be done through project tracking tools such as TRELLO and freedcamp, and for multi-personal document sharing, apps such as Dropbox and Google products are free, functional solutions.

Visual: Slide changes to “Available in the Walden Portal” and includes images of the Office 365 package.

Audio: Nancy: Recently Walden University made available to office Microsoft Office 365, which includes multiple apps that can be used by students for free. Skype for business is available for verbal and web cam communication as well as screen sharing. [Lost audio] Documents can be shared via a link or in the Microsoft Office 1 Drive folder. SharePoint and planner apps are available for project planning and tracking, and Yammer is a multi-purpose communication tool. Visual: Slide changes to “Resources” and has links to various resources.

Audio: Nancy: So here is a recourse link slide. The first three links are to Walden Academic Skills Center archived webinar series group work, found on YouTube. The next two items are handouts you can use during initial group instructions. The national communication association link will take you to their website where you will find useful information and resources on effective communication. Sample introduction and first meeting transcripts can be found on the example group dialogues link. Finally, there is an example timeline developed in a word table and a sample meeting agenda.

Visual: Slide changes to “Questions?”

Audio: Nancy: We have some time for questions before we move on to a little practice scenario for everybody. If you have any questions, feel free to type them in the chat box or the question and answers area.

Visual: Slide changes to “Scenario: Let’s Collaborate”-

Audio: Nancy: And so let's talk a little bit about the scenario we're going to be

Audio: Nancy:  Let's practice the scenario that fosters collaboration. Let's visualize that we are a group that must work together on a project. Think about the locater map when you first arrived and we'll use the notes from the presentation. As you saw, this group is diverse and we must collaborate successfully to meet the need of our project assignment in the word chat box that you see in front of you, please list key words that identify what it takes to work as a team.

Visual: White screen.

Audio: Nancy: We'll go back to the main screen and summarize our event for today and open the floor for questions.

Visual: Slide changes to “Summary” and reviews what as previously covered.

Audio: Jessica: If there are no questions. I would like to summarize. Thank you to all those that joined our presentation this afternoon. Nancy and I are confident that you will apply your new skills to foster safe and clear communication while being a valuable participant in the group. By using your collaboration skills, you will be networking an enhancing your growth and development. Don't forget all the wonderful tools that we are -- that are currently available at Walden, specifically the new Microsoft 365. Have a great day and enjoy the rest of your webinars.

Visual: Slide changes to “Closing slide” and includes information about the Academic Skills Center, including email, and monthly updates with the Savvy Student Newsletter.

Audio: Shawna: Thank you, once again, everyone for attending and we're going to go ahead and close the session now.