12 GROUND RULES FOR SMALL-GROUP LEARNING

1.   Respect individual differences, and express appreciation for and use the knowledge and skills of each individual in the group.

2.   Listen to (don’t just hear) what group members say to you and to each other; try to listen to the other person without listening to yourself.

3.   Attend to the quality of group process (how people work together), as well as to the effectiveness of the group in completing the task (assignment).

4.   Invite ideas, suggestions, and reactions from all of the group members.

5.   Look for and make explicit the connections among ideas that are expressed by everyone.

6.   Encourage members to try out the ideas of others without ridicule, embarrassment, or punishment from the members who contribute the ideas.

7.   Surface problems and conflicts among members and work at resolving these as a group.

8.   Document what the group has learned, and reinforce this learning over time. Include multiple sources of information to verify learning; separate hunches from evidence.

9.   Play down the organizational status differences among individuals when working in the group.

10.   Assess the group’s learning needs, both process and task, and provide learning opportunities; employ multiple learning strategies that fit the diverse styles within the group.

11.   Apply the “both/and” principle: When two ideas seem contradictory on the surface, suggest that the lesson might be that “both _________ and ____________” might be true. Resist either/or dichotomies.

12.   Ask “learning questions” in order to focus participants on particular strategic lessons. Prioritize potential group learning questions by asking, “How would this area of learning influence the effectiveness or efficiency of our work if we pursued it? Would anyone use the learning? How?”