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Preparatory meeting

Preparatory meeting - getting to know each other and organizing the Circle

Here we go!

Your lernOS Digital Collaboration journey starts today. The preparation meeting is an opportunity for you and your group to come together, get to know each other and make some basic logistical arrangements for how you will spend your time together. We recommend a 12-week learning sprint - and the guide is designed that way - but you should be guided by the needs of your group and decide what works best for you. If necessary, you can extend your meetings or decide together what your rhythm should be.

It's okay if the decisions you make today are not perfect. We will guide you and help you to rethink your decisions and adjust them if necessary.

Preparation (individual work)

There is nothing to prepare for this meeting.

Agenda (circle/group work)

  • Check-in: (25 minutes)
    Welcome!
    Nice to have you here!
    Introduction: Each Circle member introduces themselves in 5 minutes.

  • Please think for a moment, why are you here?

  • Take the time to write down your personal reasons and share these and other information about yourself with your Circle.

Have fun getting to know each other!

  • Main topic: (20 minutes)
    Plan when you will meet, which tools you would like to use for your collaboration and the meetings and who will take over facilitation (see Kata below)

  • Check-out: (5 minutes)
    Please confirm the next meeting. What will you do before the next meeting?

Kata "Getting to know each other and organizing the Circle"

This first Kata is about organizing yourselves as a circle.

  • Circle moderation and timekeeping: Who facilitates your meetings? Who keeps an eye on the time?
    Suggestion: share the facilitation and timekeeping roles so that everyone gets a turn!
    facilitation includes:

  • Welcome/introduction

  • keeping an eye on time and topic

  • capturing discussions

  • asking for commitments, e.g. for the next week

  • agreeing to (or confirming) the next date/topic/Kata

  • Day and time of the meeting: When do you meet? Who sets the dates? (e.g. 12x Fridays, 10 a.m.)

  • Commitment and punctuality: Your learning success depends on you - i.e. keep the appointments and be punctual. Please plan extra time for the weekly preparations so that you are ready to discuss the main topic at the next meeting and can share your experiences and insights. This will show appreciation for your Circle.

  • Tools: What do you want to use for your communication, your meetings and for your documentation?
    Clarify whether all Circle participants have these tools and can use them.
    To be able to work together digitally in the lernOS Circle itself, it is necessary to agree on a suitable Circle setup.
    After all, we want to apply everything we learn ourselves as soon as possible and thus understand and internalize it.

The following points need to be clarified:

  • Common communication platform (e.g. MS Teams, Slack, possibly Messenger for fast communication)

  • Video conferencing solution for meetings (e.g. MS Teams, Zoom)

  • Shared document storage (e.g. MS Teams documents, SharePoint)

  • Shared documentation (e.g. OneNote, Padlet, Word document)
    Store notes and homework in OneNote or Word in a shared location
    🡪 see also theory "Working together on documents"

If you want to do more:

Create a list of all the channels you use so that you can then create a shared list in the Circle.