Worksheets for Structured Reflection on Collaboration
During times of change and challenge, like the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations make adjustments in order to continue operating. Collaborations, in particular, are important building blocks for both stability and adaptation when it comes to getting things done in organizations.
The Coordinating Remote Work during COVID-19 project used the results of its qualitative research to create a packet of worksheets to help collaborations reflect on and learn from these adjustments. Currently the packet is in draft form and is being evaluated through pilot testing. It should NOT be taken as a final version and is for review only. The three worksheets and discussion prompts in this packet are designed specifically to help collaborators reflect and learn from how your collaborative work changed or stayed the same during an ongoing crisis. In the pressures of the moment, we often don’t make note of all the adjustments we are making, how well they work for us, and what we can learn from that. Reflection provides an opportunity to do so.
Completing these worksheet activities will help collaborators to learn from and build on what they have been through and, in turn, build the resilience of their collaboration and/or organization. Through structured reflection and discussion, people can learn from their and their collaborators’ experiences so that they can gain deeper insights into what, how, and why changes were made and what lessons and best practices they might want to take forward and build upon.
The packet supports structured reflection, which is intended to support participants in recognizing the practices they engaged in while working collaboratively during crisis, considering the effects those practices had on them and their work, providing vocabulary to talk about those practices and effects, developing and celebrating awareness of what they learned about themselves and their team, and considering how this increased understanding may be applied to improve their work experiences during regular changes and also challenges and global crises in the future.