Sounding Boards

I wanted folks to know today we tried the Sounding Boards activity within the structure of our pre-tenure mentoring initiative. We had 3 groups of 3-4 people. I gave full credit to LIY T3 and also referenced the Every Other Thursday. Thank you for sharing your slides and explanations! We invited the folks that couldn't attend to reference the slides and to check-in with those that were in the room. I'm sharing here a little about how this was planned and how it played out.

Before the program: email invitation was sent briefly highlighting Sounding Boards as a small group feedback process for individual challenges/situations and inviting participants to be prepared to share an issue they were dealing with. It invited folks from 12-1:30, with lunch buffet in the room.

At the program: A 12pm start always realistically begins around 12:15/12:20, so we account for travel between meetings/classes and time to make a lunch plate. I knew with 4 per group, we'd need 40-45 minutes, in time for folks to leave at 1 if needed. The Deputy Provost for Faculty Affairs introduced the topic as recently learned at LIY and passed it on to me. I started by showing and explaining the 4-5 relevant slides from LIYT3 session. I explained what I found personally valuable about it and expressed appreciation for them trying this method on. One of the LIYT3 participants from my institution is also involved on a mentor team; it was great to have his validation that this method is useful to try out in that it worked well for us in Seattle.

Arranging into groups : because our pre-tenure mentoring program is a 2 new faculty x 2 current faculty format, when the entire group attends, the group size is spot on for this type of activity. We had anticipated attendance and were able to use table numbers to direct participants to their group's table.

Assigning Timekeeper: I used the birthdate nearest to today method. I had to clarify what the timekeeper did a couple extra times, but it didn't take long.

During the session: I ran my phone timer in roughly parallel 10 min increments to get a sense if it was still running smoothly. It was. I did not interrupt and check in to see if folks were on their third person. We did finish right at 1p. In the final moments, I invited the attendees to please share any reflections, observations or insights. I didn't push, knowing a few folks needed to get going (and once that starts, we tend to lose the rest- especially since we had 12 people). Some brief feedback/insights were shared from participants:
-The activity works well to process a current challenge
-The flavor of problems individuals in a group faced were similar, even though the strategies and solutions that could work were not always the same
-It was validating to know others not only have challenges, but often same challenges
-Insight: was reminded of solutions previously considered/tried, that are relevant to this situation now.
-While at first 10 minutes seems too long, it wasn't enough time
[To the last point, I replied that this is a good rationale to use the action/contract step as a follow-up with your mentor/mentee group and dig deeper. ]

The DPFA got his final appreciation in and reminded folks there was still coffee/dessert, and they were free to stay and chat until we had to leave the room, if their schedules permitted (Folks were out of the room by about 1:10).

After the session: we are sending the slides and the feedback notes to all those in this voluntary mentoring program, regardless of attendance. The memo asks them to let us know: if you use this method again; if you follow-up on your "contract" statement in future INC/mentoring moments; if you find yourself using this tool in other settings; or if you have suggestions about this type of activity.

This activity seemed to work well enough that we will next consider how to use it in our post-tenure mentoring project(s).