Collaborative Practice II HES 371 Notes

Acknowledgment of Territory

  • Dr. Meaghan MacNutt respectfully acknowledges the Syilx Okanagan Nation and their peoples, acknowledging the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory on which UBC Okanagan is situated.

Team Collaboration Questions

  • Important questions to ask regarding teamwork:

    • How can I help my team?!?

    • What assets do I bring to my team?

    • What knowledge, skills, or attributes can I contribute to teamwork?

  • Personal Reflection Exercise:

    • Share a story about your worst experience with teamwork and what you learned from it.

Learning Outcomes for the Session

  1. Discuss the role of psychological safety, comfort, and performance standards in supporting optimum team performance.

  2. Discuss how context (issues and relationships) can influence the optimal conflict management strategy.

  3. Recognize and apply the interest-based relational approach for navigating team conflict.

    • Explain how self-serving bias and fundamental attribution error can interfere with objective conflict navigation.

  4. Demonstrate strategies for supporting psychological safety in teams while navigating common collaboration challenges.

  5. List, describe, and recognize the six competency domains defined in the CIHC Competency Framework for Advancing Collaboration.

Essentials for Optimum Team Performance

  • Factors needed to support optimum team performance include:

    • A. Psychological safety for all team members

    • B. Each team member feeling as comfortable as possible

    • C. Clear performance expectations

    • D. A mechanism for accountability

Importance of Psychological Safety

  • Psychological safety is essential to team performance.

  • Interpersonal risks vary for team members; the team is only as safe as its least safe member.

The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety (Clark 2020)

  1. Inclusion Safety: Members feel safe to belong to the team.

  2. Learner Safety: Members are able to learn through asking questions.

  3. Contributor Safety: Members feel safe to contribute their own ideas.

  4. Challenger Safety: Members can question others' ideas or suggest significant changes.

Distinction Between Safety and Comfort

  • Psychological safety is NOT the same as comfort (Snow 2022, Forbes Magazine).

Performance Dynamics

  • Performance Zone Analysis:

    • Learning Zone: People collaborate and learn, fostering high performance and achieving complex tasks.

    • Low Performance Zone: People show up with disengaged attitudes, prioritizing self-protection over productivity.

    • High Performance without Challenges: Teams may be open but fail to innovate.

Misconceptions about Conflict

  • A lack of conflict is NOT a reliable indicator of a well-functioning team:

    • Assessment Statements:

    • A. True

    • B. False

    • Understanding: A lack of conflict could indicate a psychologically unsafe environment. Successful teams manage and channel conflict to achieve their goals.

Personal Conflict Reflection

  • Exercise: Reflect for one minute on a past interpersonal conflict:

    • Think about a specific situation, what it was about, who was involved, what happened, and what actions you took.

Approaches to Conflict Management

  • Approaching conflict requires honest consideration of methods:

    • Forcing

    • Collaborative

    • Compromising

    • Accommodating

    • Avoiding

Contextual Awareness in Conflict Management

  • The best approach to managing conflict depends on the specific context.

Cognitive Biases in Conflict

  • Key Cognitive Biases:

    1. Self-serving Bias: The tendency to credit ourselves for successes while blaming external factors for failures. We assume the best of ourselves.

    2. Fundamental Attribution Error: The tendency to attribute others' failings to their character while downplaying external factors. We assume the worst of others.

Interest-Based Relational Approach (Fisher & William 1981)

  • Key principles for navigating conflict when relationships matter:

    1. S: Responsibility - Reflect on our attitudes and behaviors during conflict.

    2. H: Evaluating Options - Consider everyone's situation for room for flexibility.

    3. A: Safety - Ensure respect and value for all involved.

    4. R: Active Listening - Ensure people feel heard.

    5. E: Humanize - Give others the benefit of the doubt.

Additional Guidelines for Conflict Resolution

  • Prioritize relationships and recognize biases.

  • Approach conflicts with compassionate curiosity, listen carefully to gather information, assume positive intent, and interpret situations generously.

Case Studies for Conflict Reflection

  • Case Study: Group Conflict

    • Ryan’s frustration assessed at multiple intervals:

    • Watch & Reflect: At designated timestamps, evaluate Ryan’s frustration levels.

    • Reflection prompts include evaluating Ryan’s perspective and the possible influences of cognitive biases.

Strategies for Supporting Psychological Safety

  1. Demonstrate engagement with team members.

  2. Show understanding of different perspectives.

  3. Ensure inclusivity in interpersonal interactions.

  4. Promote inclusive decision-making processes.

  5. Exhibit confidence without inflexibility.

  • Address problematic behavior as part of fostering a safe environment (based on Google’s Project Aristotle).

Collaboration Challenges: Problematic Responses

  • Challenge: If a teammate’s suggestion seems inadequate:

    • Problematic Response: "That's wrong."

    • Better Options for Rephrasing: (To be detailed)

  • Challenge: If the team is losing focus:

    • Problematic Response: "Can we just move on already?"

    • Better Options for Rephrasing: (To be detailed)

  • Challenge: If a teammate is not participating:

    • Problematic Response: "You haven't said anything—do you even care?"

    • Better Options for Rephrasing: (To be detailed)

  • Challenge: If someone is dominating conversations:

    • Problematic Response: "Would you let someone else talk for once!?"

    • Better Options for Rephrasing: (To be detailed)

  • Challenge: If the team can't agree:

    • Problematic Response: "Whatever, just pick something!"

    • Better Options for Rephrasing: (To be detailed)

CIHC Competency Framework for Advancing Collaboration

  • The CIHC framework provides insight into necessary knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values essential for collaborative practice.

  • Two central domains support four additional domains with orbiting concepts that influence application.

Upcoming Assignments

  1. Collaborative Practice Review Quiz is due by 5 pm on September 25 (FLEX).

  2. Reflection assignment on Collaborative Practice (select 5 out of 10) is due by 5 pm on September 20 (FLEX).

    • Select a concept from Collaborative Practice I or II and reflect using the format: What? So What? Now What?