Participating Agreements

Co-creating a safe, respectful group culture

Shared agreements ensure that participants decide on the forms of communication, boundaries, and culture that is appropriate for their group, meeting or workshop.


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About
What are participating agreements?

Participating agreements are a set of directions for how each participant aims to behave in a workshop, course, meeting etc. They are co-created by everyone in the room to reflect the kind of culture that participants seek in order for the group culture to feel safe, respectful and encouraging for all involved. The details will vary from group to group although there are key similarities that any group of people desire.

When and why use participating agreements?

Participating agreements can be used in any context where a group of people will be working together. A weekend workshop, for example, may want to draft shared agreements that include respectful communication, confidentiality, articulating boundaries, speaking one at a time etc. A community group meeting may wish to include agreements about equality, listening to all ideas, allowing the facilitator to close discussions for timekeeping etc. There are no rules about what to include - it will be a group code of conduct that all participants agree to. A facilitator or any group member can refer back to the agreements if difficulties or challenging communication arises.

Categories
  • Ceremony / Ritual
  • Conflict resolution
  • Decision making
  • Empowerment
  • Group communication
  • Problem Solving
  • Social skills
  • Team Building / Trust Building
Innovation Phases
    Train the Trainer seminars including Participating Agreements can be found here:
    Target Group
    Is participant experience relevant?
    It's okay if participants haven't seen the inside of a classroom in years.
    Physical trust needed
    Mental trust needed
    REQUIREMENTS
    Experience level of the facilitator
    self explanatory, no experience needed
    How stationary?
    Stationary necessary, at least in parts
    DO'S & DON'TS
    Do's

    Check in beforehand so that all voices in the room have spoken - you are more likely to get wider participation if the initial ice has broken
    Use a flipchart to write all the suggestions up - big enough for everyone to read, and stick it somewhere visible afterwards
    Encourage quieter voices
    Clarify that all participants agree before moving on to the next agenda item - either go around the room, making eye contact with each participant while asking if anyone does not agree, or you can ask participants to physically sign the sheet in agreement
    It can be a helpful start to provide the group with suggested agreements from your experience as facilitator - most groups find it easier to get going if there is already a template to build on. Discussion can then focus on any controversial topics and it speeds up the overall process

    Don'ts

    Use an old agreement without asking if anything new needs to be added
    Presume that there’s enough like-mindedness in the room that there will be no difficulties, disagreements or disrespectful communication - we can all have our less than perfect moments!
    Think that something has been agreed just because somebody mentioned it, look for wider buy-in

    ONLINE & VARIATIONS

    This exercise can be done online or blended using any collaborative platform that participants can view simultaneously.

    Empathic Interview questions

    Future Music Canvas

    Future Music Canvas Guide

    Evolution Line Flags


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    Project Tree template

    Perspective Carousel video

    Online Transformative Learning
    - a practical guide


    Click on cover to read or download.

    Overview BLAST

    Online Transformative Learning Enquiry

    A transformative Edge

    Click on cover to read.      Get the real book here.

     

     

    Risk Assessment

    A simple way to get an overview of possible risks, and how to deal with them.

    IMPACT

    Participating Agreements for group empowerment

    Enables empowerment through a shared sense of welcome and unwelcome behavior through a sense of safety in the group.





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