1. Tools for Creating and Sustaining a Transformational Change Team2
Tools for Creating and Sustaining a Transformational Change Team
2.1. Guidelines for recruiting interviews
2.2. Change Team recruiting visual overview
2.3. Facilitation guidelines for first meeting
2.4. Puzzle of my multicultural self worksheet
2.5. Human Relations & Culture Quiz
2.6. Facilitation guidelines to move CT into action
2.7. Worksheet to map your MCOD Change Plan

2. 2. 1 Guidelines for Change Team Recruiting Interviews
Plan for minutes individual recruitment meetings
Introduce yourself and explain your role a Change Team Leader
Explain to interviewee that her/his name was suggested as a potential member of the Change Team.
Contextualize invitation as part of the envisioned change process in the organization.
Clarify that interviewee needs to confirm or reject invitation. Provide a date for this.
Ask interviewee what she or he knows about the current organizational commitment to change and what questions he/she has.
Clarify and complement interviewee's previous information's using the MCOD process continuum
Regularly check in with interviewee for further questions or concerns about the initiative
Emphasize that the organization’s success in this process highly benefits from Change Team members bringing their full voices to the process
Use the Change Team graphic overview to explain the role of change team members, expected outcomes and commitment to the process.
Inform interviewee of top leadership support for the process, and of the no retaliation agreement (if you have secured this)
Open the space for questions, opinions or concerns by interviewee
Inform of following steps (date of first change team meeting), remind of date for confirmation.
Ask interviewee for suggestions of other potential candidates.
Thank interviewee and invite her/him to contact you for further information if needed.

3. 2. 2 Change Team Sample Recruitment Visual Overview

4. 2.3 Facilitation Guidelines: Sample First Change Team Meeting Agenda
Preparation: Plan for a 2hr. meeting. Choose a room with good light and space to move around chairs, tables as needed. Have different materials at hand: flipcharts, markers, cards, masking tape, pens, and a projector. Put together a center piece for circle processes. It provides a neutral focus point when sitting in a circle. A simple one can have a piece of cloth (preferably colorful or with patterns), and a couple of objects that are meaningful to you as a facilitator. (refrain from religious and political symbols). Set the chairs in the room in a circle with this center piece to start.
Icebreaker: It helps to have an activity that can help people to shift gears from work to training’ while waiting, e.g. Provide them with blank paper and markers. Have a sign instruction to draw a doodle representing their day at work and how they are arriving at this meeting today.
Welcome & Overview: Welcome & thank them for coming. Introduce yourself using your doodle. Go around the circle for everyone to do the same. Present the common goals and general agenda for the day. Check for questions or readiness to move on.
Sharing Values: Provide participant with a card and a marker. Ask them to think of a personal value they bring to this work and that they consider is key for authentic change. Give them some individual time. Explain that each person will be asked to share her/his value and place it on the center piece. Ask for a volunteer to start the circle share.
Setting Guidelines: Take a moment to acknowledge the importance of sharing values to help the group set their own conversation guidelines for the work to come.
OPTION 1: Ask them to have a conversation in dyads about: What is important for me to sustain courageous conversations and actions around equity in the workplace? Give them some time for this and open the space to harvest and record the guidelines as proposed.
OPTION 2: During preparation print out YWCA CT guidelines and place them around the room. Introduce them as proposed guidelines and have a volunteer read each of them. Open the space for participant to confirm guidelines as they are, add or modify these as it best fits their shared values.

5. 2.3 Facilitation Guidelines: Change Team First Meeting (cont.)
Puzzle of my multicultural Self: Connect activity to common goal of becoming aware of one’s own and each other unique perspectives. Provide worksheet and give some time for them to create their personal identity puzzle. Ask them to pair up and go through questions provided. Facilitate a circle share. (Handout 2.4)
High vs Low context: Transition the group in connecting their identity puzzles to understanding their personal tendency towards high or low context personalities. Provide self assessment and give some individual time. (Handout 2.5). To debrief, ask participants to imagine a line cutting across the room and explain that you will ask them soon to move along it:
Start with one end of the line for high context and the other for low context preference. Identify a middle area for people that have the same score or 1 to 3 numbers of difference between scores. Once they chose their area, provide them with a flipchart and explain that they will have a conversation and use the flipchart to craft a message from their in-group to the other groups in the room. Is best to go one question at the time, have each group report and move to the next one.
Q1: Given your shared tendency, In which ways do you think you can best support the Change Team success as a group and its work?
Q2: Given your shared tendency, What do you foreseenas challenging in team work for your in-group? How can the other groups help you grow in these areas without jeopardizing who you are?
Q3: A question you have for another group in the room? For everyone in the Change Team?
Q4: What is one thing you would want another group to know and respect about you as they communicate with you as part of this CT?
Contextualize: Introduce the general framework and expected outcomes for the Change Team. Connect these activities to better understanding how multiracial, intercultural and cross leadership shows up in their current group. Inform of following steps and meeting dates in their process.
NOTE: Ideally this is where YWCA Madison comes in to facilitate a MCOD assessment and set Change Team to follow it with a more task oriented session focused on creating a MCOD Change Plan and CT members identifying tasks to be responsible for.

6. 2.4 Puzzle of my Multicultural Self Worksheet
In the blank space below, take a moment to create your own multicultural identity puzzle. Use each piece to identify different aspect s such as: gender (e.g. woman), race (e.g. African American, religious background (e.g. Catholic), geographic origin (e.g. rural Wisconsin), and ethnic background (e.g. Hispanic Latino), family role (e.g. big sister), philosophical vantage points (e.g. humanist),or disciplines and affiliations (e.g. sports, clubs, profession, etc).
Share a story about a time that you were especially proud to identify with one of the descriptors you used above.
Share a story about a time it was especially painful to be identified with one of your identifiers or descriptors.
Name a stereotype associated with one of the groups with which you identify that is not consistent with who you are. Fill in the following sentence:
I am (a/an) _____________ but I am NOT (a/an) _____________.
So if one of my identifiers was “woman,” and I thought a stereotype was that women are overly emotional, my sentence would be: I am a Woman but I am NOT overly emotional.

7. 2.5 Human Relations and Culture Quiz

8. 2.5 Human Relations and Culture Quiz (p.2)

9. 2.5 Human Relations and Culture Quiz - Key
Characteristics: Human Relationships and Culture
 High Context: More A’s Than B’s
1. Interaction
 High Use of Nonverbal:
Voice tone, facial expression,
gesture, eye expressions carry significant parts of conversation.
Message Implicit:
Verbal message is more implicit—context more important (situation, people, nonverbal).
Indirect:
Talk around and embellish the point.
Message Art Form:
Communication is seen as an art form, a way of engaging the person.
Disagreement Personalized:
One is sensitive to conflict, which another’s nonverbal communication may express. Conflict must be solved before work can progress.
 2. Association
Commitment High:
Relationships depend on trust, build up slowly and are stable. One is careful to distinguish between who is outside ones circle.
Process:
How things get done depends on one’s relationship with people and attention to the group process.
 3. Territoriality (space)
Space Communal:
People stand close, share same space.
 4. Temporality (time)
Time Polychronic:
Everything has its own time; time less easily scheduled, needs of people may interfere with keeping to a set time. What’s important is that the activity gets done.
Change Slow:
Things are rooted in past, slow to change and highly stable.
Time a Process:
Time does not belong to oneself but to others and to nature.
 5. Learning
Use of Gestalt:
Knowledge imbedded in situation, things are connected, synthesized, global. Multiple sources of information used. Deductive thinking from general to specific.
Learn by modeling:
Learn by modeling, practicing, demonstrating.
Group Orientation:
Prefer to work in groups for learning and problem solving.
Accuracy Valued:
How well something is learned is more important than how soon.

10. 2.5 Human Relations and Culture Quiz – Key (p.2)
Characteristics: Human Relationships and Culture
Low Context: More B’s than A’s
Low Use of Nonverbal:
Messages carried more by words than by nonverbal.
Message Explicit:
Verbal message is explicit, context is less important.
Direct:
Spell things out exactly.
Message Literal:
Communication seen as a way of exchanging information, ideas, opinions.
Disagreement Depersonalized:
Withdraw from conflict and get on with the task. Depersonalize the disagreement. One is explicit about what’s bothering another.
 Commitment Low:
Relationships start up and end quickly. Many can be inside but boundary is not too clear.
Task:
Things get done by following procedures and attention to a goal.
 Space Territorial:
People are further apart; spaces compartmentalized and privately owned, privacy important.
Time Monochronic:
Things are scheduled to be done in a particular time; one thing should be done at a time. What’s important is that the activity is done efficiently.
Change Fast:
Attempt to do things quickly and see immediate results.
Time a Commodity:
Time can be spent, saved. One’s time is one’s own.
Use of Rationality:
Knowledge arrived by either/ or. Reality fragmented and compartmentalized. One source of information used. Inductive thinking from parts to general. Focus on detail.
Learn By Directions:
Things are specifically spelled out with explicit directions.
Individual Orientation:
Prefer to approach tasks and learning individually.
Speed Valued:
Efficiency and speed valued

11. 2.6 Facilitation Guidelines: Moving Change Team into Action
Plan for a 2 hours meeting. Start with a circle setting and group guidelines placed in visible spaces around the room.
Check in: Welcome participants and go around the circle having participants to identify a number from 1 to 10 to identify their mood and energy level. Encourage them to describe how does the number they choose shows up for them, e.g. “ I am starting as a 6, feel somewhat tired but excited for the day”.
Revisit Guidelines: Ask different volunteers to read each guideline.
Overview: Present common goals for the day and agenda.
Revisit MCOD Assessment: Open group conversation about key points and preliminary identified strategies to move the organization forward during this YWCA facilitated session. List all actions identified as following steps in the process.
Introduce MCOD Change Plan: Have a central MCOD Change Plan continuum displayed. Look at the PowerPoint version provided. You can also do a physical version using a flipchart and post it to facilitate editing in the process.
Deciding on a Time Frame: Have participants agree on a time frame to implement a first round of strategic actions. Identify the start point in the continuum and make sure that the end point is understood as a check point for a second round of actions as needed in the process.
Identifying Important dates & windows of opportunity: Have CT members think of important dates and windows of opportunity that fall into the identified time frame for the following actions:
All Staff/ Specific Departments updates
Integration of change in organization strategic planning
All Staff/Specific Departments training and support
Other relevant to the organization

12. 2.6 Facilitation Guidelines: Moving Change Team into Action (cont.)
Putting first things first: Ask them to group by three and identify up to 3 priorities for action as it is best aligned with the identified time frame for their MCOD Change Plan in progress. Give them some time for this task. Facilitate a conversation to agree on CT priority actions.
IMPORTANT: Remind participants that at this starting point of the process it is ok not to have all strategies mapped out. It does not mean they are discarded. Explain that now that MCOD assessment provided a general orientation for the change process, it is best to concentrate on a few immediate steps to activate change. Emphasize that MCOD Change Plan continuum is a living document and that the CT will regularly update, complement and modify it as needed.
Clarifying Expected Outcomes: Have the group identify and agree on expected outcomes for each priority. Guide them on integrating these with tentative delivery dates on their MCOD Change Plan continuum.
Matching Tasks & CT Members: Have a small group chart tasks for each priority action. Also have another group to chart tasks for the best functioning of the CT. Provide a way to record and report these charts (flipchart, markers, or laptops if available). Have every group report and ask CT members to listen with the intention of identifying tasks that best match their skills and time availability. All tasks should have an identified point person.
Closing Circle: Ask participants to share how they feel at the end of this meeting and anything they want to share with the group as they continue to move forward.

13. 2.7 MCOD Change Plan Continuum Worksheet