Microlabs Protocol Honors All Voices to Reach "Practical" Solutions

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If you participate in the five-day NSRF Critical Friends Group Training, you will be pushed to speak your mind within the first hour. The "Microlabs Protocol" is one of the first activities in which trainees participate, and this is very much on purpose; this protocol allows time for participants to think deeply about a critical topic and then a structured amount of time to convey their feelings. When participants are asked to do this early in a training, we hope it sets the tone for active engagement throughout the training. 

Importantly, Microlabs is built around the idea that the wisdom in the room is more powerful than any one person's way of thinking. When used in a five-day training, participants often focus on collaboration during this protocol; they communicate what has worked for them in the past, and what has not. While this conversation is powerful regardless of any next steps, the training facilitator can drive off of this conversation to provide the participants the help they need in helping their collaborative vision to become a reality. Again, the wisdom of each individual involved in the training - their collective vision - is more powerful than the vision of any one person. It is more powerful than the vision of the facilitator, and more powerful than the others involved in the training.

While the power of the protocol is certainly evident, participants sometimes have trouble using this protocol to achieve the same vision-laden results that were so powerful within the training. To address this challenge, I encourage participants to keep three words in mind:
  • General
  • Personal 
  • Practical
In the protocol, participants are asked to respond to three questions. According to the NSRF resource "Microlabs Example Questions," the first question allows participants to define the topic being introduced, the second allows them to relate to it personally, and the third should discuss "changes to be made" to reach a desired goal. In other words, that third question should be practical. 

Recently, in trainings I have facilitated, I have had participants spend some time following the initial run of the Microlabs Protocol finding practical uses for it. Imagine faculty meetings where all participants feel their voices were heard, and doing so within the time constraints with which such meetings are usually affected. I believe that any topic - no matter how heavy it may be - can be efficiently and effectively tackled using the Microlabs Protocol. Here are some examples that the teams I work with have thought up...

This one was designed for the first day of school in a high school science classroom:



This one was designed to be used during study of high school literature:



These three were created to address a big topic, diversity awareness:




A wide array of topics can be discussed and powerful wisdom revealed through the Microlabs Protocol. I hope that you can explore the "general," "personal," and "practical" pieces of the topics that are paramount in your organization right now by using this way of thinking.

For more examples of Microlabs questions, members of the National School Reform Faculty can access them by viewing Microlabs Example Questions at nsrfharmony.org.

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