Case Study: American International School of Rotterdam Visioning Event, September 2014

Synapsis

On each of the first two days, groups of about 70 persons, representing a diverse mix from our community—including students, faculty, staff, parents and board members—were lead through an interactive process to explore our collective values and aspirations, how we might make our school an even better place to learn and teach, how we might express the essence of AISR and how we will put our values into action.

The knowledge we created in the first two sessions were correlated by our facilitators and presented on the third day to a plenary group consisting of participants from the first two days. This group then collaborated to craft working vision and mission statements for the school, and language for our guiding principles.

The beauty of this process is that the new knowledge produced was made—and owned— by the whole community, rather than by a few individuals. Everyone was represented and acknowledged and had an equal part to play in the outcome. The process itself helped to build capacity in our community to collaborate well, to hear and understand each other and to work together to achieve our goals.

Using ZING

We used a collaborative meeting system, called Zing, to assist in facilitating the program. This conversation-based methodology allowed people to quickly and easily make the shift from gathering as a group to working as a high-performing team. The tool provided a common “thinking space” for multiple minds, each bringing a different perspective to an issue. All participants were able to simultaneously view and contribute ideas (via wireless keyboards) to synergistically co-create new knowledge. Output from sessions was instantly available in electronic form.

View full AISR Visioning Event Report
View PDF on Guidelines for Best Use of Zing in Small and Large Groups

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