My favorite new adult grouping structure

Hopefully you are getting a little summer R&R or my favorite, B&I - Beach and Ice cream.

But if you're like me, even on vacation, you can't help but start to collect ideas for your back-to-school workshops and team meetings.

Here's a twist on a grouping formation I discovered this past year and absolutely love!

I was partnering with a district to develop its Instructional Vision with a 50+ member leadership team made up of administrators and teacher leaders from the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Many had never worked together before.

When I do a series of workshops for a large group like this, I typically mix and match people each week during break-out conversations.  It sparks cross-collaboration, builds new connections, and keeps the energy high.

However, collaboration for this project required vulnerability and accountability.

I was asking people to engage in honest conversations about the gaps between what we say we value and what we actually practice. 

To do this authentically, team members needed to gather feedback week-to-week from teachers, families, and students and bring it back to the group. 

I instituted accountability partners so people would feel a responsibility to one another and to the shared vision—not to me.

How Accountability Partners Work:

Two people who hold different roles (e.g. Elementary and high school teacher leaders), partner-up for the series of workshops. Each session they check-in to share what tasks they've done related to our project and what challenges they encountered.

Now, there's no "hammer" of accountability here. I don't require them to document their discussion and no partner is going to come down on the other if someone doesn't follow through.

And yet, an organic accountability emerged.

Because the pair knows they'll see this accountability partner each session, people want to be a good partner and have something to share.

By the end of our 4 workshops (and a rockin' Instructional Vision), people highlighted “accountability partners” as something they loved.

The team liked the:

- Comfort in knowing they'd talk to this same person each session.

- Trust that formed with their partner over multiple sessions.

- Perspective they gained from regularly meeting with someone who held a different vantage point from them.

Pair it with other group formations:

Throughout a session, I do still have people group in different formations depending on the activity (e.g., job-alike partners, same school partners), but I always begin or end the session with accountability partners.

Overcoming a hiccup:

If you are meeting as a team over a series of sessions, inevitably someone's "accountability partner" will be absent forcing that singleton to join another pair or go solo, which kind of' undermines the whole continuity + vulnerability thing.

This led me to discover the magic of Trio accountability partners!

Trios are great because:

- If someone is absent, two remaining people can engage in rich discussion

- Less of a chance of getting off topic because someone brings everyone back

- Higher likelihood of assembling a diverse group

- Heightened energy with more people

- Having two listeners instead of one can promote deeper analysis.

(Caution: Watch for verbal ping-pong where 1 person is unintentionally excluded.)

There are so many ways to configure collaborative partners in a team meeting or PD. I'd love to hear what you do!

*"Accountability partners" was a term I first heard on a Food Network show years ago in which a contestant shared that she and her friends kept one another accountable to action steps that would help them reach their goals.