Jane Dosemagen November 11, 1999

Learning Task #4, What are my Coworkers Seeking?

My coworkers and I are currently engaging in strategic planning which involves a lot of opportunity for professional development. We started the process over a year ago with a visioning retreat as a whole staff. We reflected on our mission and vision for Hennepin County Extension, then moved into discussion about strategic planning. Due to changes in overall Extension, our local strategic planning process was put on hold for about 9 months. We finally got back into our strategic planning process about 3 months ago. I was anxious to get back to it, as I believe that strategic planning is something that this office really needs.

We are now meeting bimonthly as a whole staff, discussing issues important to our team, particularly on team building. Our first meeting involved discussion around the topic of "Developing our Community." We realize that, as a group, we need to first develop our office community, teamwork, and support to do our best at reaching out to the Hennepin County community. It is interesting to hear from each staff member on how they see our office as a community (there are about 50 people at our extension office), and how we can get to know each other better. We decided that getting together regularly as a whole group is one way to improve our relationship with each other in the office and build our office community.

At our session on community, we learned that developing our community is a 4 stage group process: "forming, storming, norming, and performing." We are at the stage of forming and storming, developing our framework and realizing that we are not all coming from the same place, which can be a difficult stage. To help accomplish this, we are inviting our own staff and other 'experts' in the community to talk with us about issues that we feel are important for professional development.

Following are some of the presenters our staff would like to hear from:

Susan Gust, neighborhood activist in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis who has worked a lot with extension, addressing how extension needs to build community when coming into the neighborhoods.

Rowena Hicks, Crime Prevention Specialist with the Minneapolis Police Department, on safety and security, addressing issues in our building and parking lot, and surrounding area.

Michael Patton, consultant on evaluation and accountability, faculty member of the Union Institute Graduate School, which specializes in individually designed, nonresidential, nontraditional, and interdisciplinary doctoral programs, and author of Utilization-Focused Evaluation: The New Century Text (1997, 3rd edition).

Topics of interest to staff include: 1. Team Building 7 Demonstrations of staff's work with each staff as the presenter so we can better understand each other's work and to better maximize our resources 7 Communication, listening, discussion, dialogue 7 Conflict resolution 7 Myers/Briggs, as related to our work ethics 7 Polarity Training 7 Diversity Training - Juan Moreno is a possible presenter from campus 7 Change, renewal, transformational processes

2. Task Force Skill Building 7 SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) 7 Relationship mapping 7 Program Development/Establishing a Delivery Decision-Making Model 7 Improve our visibility in the community 7 Management system to facilitate work 7 Internal newsletter 7 Program Evaluation 7 Understand our vision and goals and our partners' goals, including U of MN, Metro Cluster, and Extension Compact (entrepreneurial spirit)

Besides our bimonthly meeting as a whole group, we are divided into teams working on the following 4 areas, each linked with a liaison from campus to serve as coach/mentor:

1. Community Programs Task Force - works on program development, program evaluation, and relationships with outside groups in the program area. Scott Peters presented to our whole staff on the history of Extension and our relationship to the community.

2. Communication Task Force - develops a communications plan for both our internal and external environment and identifies relationships in this area. Tom Klein, Marketing Director of Extension is the designated campus mentor.

3. Resource Development Task Force - works on our facility's building plan, grants management, fees for services, and relationships needed in order to accumulate the resources. Kay Anderson, Grants Development Coordinator with U of MN is the designated campus mentor.

4. Technology Task Force - utilizes existing technology to support our work, link with partners, and identifies relationships to implement technology. Larry Coyle, Distance Education and Video Leader with Extension is their designated campus mentor.

Vivian Jenkins Nelson, Co-Founder, Presidents and CEO of Inter-Race is a presenter on visioning. Members of our County Extension Committee are also involved as presenters and contributors who can offer insights into our task force and strategic planning issues and recommendations.

In comparison to my own list of possible presenters, this list of presenters and topics for our staff is much different. My list focuses on my research area and is specific to non-traditional teaching and learning methods. Our staff's focus and presenter list, which is also my list, is one that I strongly feel we need as a staff to encourage a more positive working environment. Just as students need a positive learning environment, we as staff need a positive working environment.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 1999