Since the first (distance) Management Training
Programme, our Board has come a long way. We’ve established a Community
Centre at our housing complex and have written several project proposals which
have all been approved for funding. That, as far as I’m concerned, is
because during the Management Training Programme I acquired a lot of the needed
skills ... but probably even more importantly, we were encouraged to
collaborate with others. At the Innu Band Council a woman who just started a new position as an
administrative assistant was asking me about this course ... she would like to
have done the training ... I’m teaching her a bit ... ‘cause of what
I learned and what I would like to share with her. I work a lot with different groups, sit on various boards, etc., and was
really interested in the discussion that started during this week’s class
on the question of what our communities look like in terms of where the power
is distributed, and how we work with that power and those power blocs in order
to create change. Does anybody have any stories of what they did to work with
the various power groups in their community ...? 
These are the kinds of things that participants said to us (the project facilitators) or to each other, during 20 weeks of what we loosely called “collaborative management training”. From January to June of this year, learning groups from six communities took part in this distance project funded by the Office of Learning Technologies (HRDC). Four Labrador communities including Happy Valley - Goose Bay (central), Cartwright (south east coast), Rigolet and Hopedale (north coast) were linked up by teleconference and listserv with participants in Yellowknife (NWT) and Toronto. The participants themselves represented a broad range of community interests including community living, health, literacy, economic development, aboriginal and women’s groups, ABE students, tenants’ associations and more. For three hours every Tuesday evening these learning groups gathered together to share news and explore topics like personal management, teams, leadership, facilitation, strategic and project planning, and interpersonal conflict resolution. Together we covered the content through a mixture of local facilitation, teleconference mini-lectures, role plays, group dialogue, research activities, and all-group teleconference rounds. In addition to the two project facilitators, each learning group was supported by one or two local facilitators and had access to a kit of relevant resource materials. Everyone in the project received the same large binder of teleconference notes, materials and resources. Despite ongoing difficulties with technological infrastructure and support most participants were linked together on a listserv. How the Project Came About Since 1993, the Labrador Institute of Northern Studies (MUN) and Frontier College have worked with a range of new and emerging groups in Labrador. The purpose of this work has been to support the development of community-based learning activities. Our work often included consulting on some aspect of managing groups and projects. In 1996 we conducted five days of action research with a group of ten Labrador literacy providers. One of the results of that session was a 1997 distance learning, pilot project, funded by the National Literacy Secretariat. This project linked 70 participants from Labrador and Toronto. Participants in that project helped to design, deliver and evaluate a series of non-formal, management training teleconferences. This year’s collaborative management training project was an adapted and expanded version of the 1997 pilot project. The most visible aspects of the project make it seem like a course. What underlies it however is a way of working that is both collaborative and emergent. This has allowed the project to evolve over time according to the strengths and limitations of the people and places who have taken part. So it’s far from being a training package that can be selected and delivered to communities. Some of the project outcomes Participants used their time in the project to reflect on a range of local activities and initiatives. An ideal team was created for national aboriginal day celebrations, and projects were planned for a family resource centre and a toast masters group. Stories and locally developed resources like a presentation skills flyer and a false consensus “lens” (a tool for helping groups to avoid agreeing to things that they don’t really agree with) were shared with the other learning groups and used. Some participants felt more confident about speaking up and understanding what was going on in groups. Others continue to use their binders as a resource for their own work. Still others planned to use what they had learned in further training in everything from engine repair to mediation. The project continues to evolve as the northern network grows. Links with the NWT Literacy Council, the Status of Women Council of the NWT and the Nunavut Literacy Council have lead to the development of a collaborative action research proposal for 1999 - 2000. We are all cautiously optimistic. |