Questions for Coaches

The initial conversation with our coaches, Eliot Spack, Jane West Walsh, Susan Shevitz and Seymour Epstein will be framed around their responding to and discussing 2 – 3 questions. We believe that the collective has a lot to say about what we would like to hear them discuss (and for us to discuss with them). Please edit this blog and add the questions you would like to address. If you scroll down, you find the description of the coaches’ task as delineated in their work agreement. Please do this relatively quickly. We will then distill them into the three we think best represent the group’s needs and forward them to the coaches so they can prepare.

Thanks!

Ira, Lillian and Zvi

Fellow	Question #1	Question #2	Question #3
Howard Blas	With which of our settings and learning styles/personalities do you feel you would be most effective as a coach and why?	Have you ever facilitated a CoP? If yes, please share the successes and challenges of this experience. If not, please share with us what, in your background, you will draw on to help us develop our CoPs.	Your resumes are all very impressive. Can you please tell us a bit about your learning and teaching style, your hobbies and interests, etc?
Ellen Dietrick	What are the most important factors to consider when creating a community?	What are each of our learning & leadership styles and how do we use those styles to enhance our CoPs?	Where is Jewish education in the US going? How do you imagine the future?
Barry Gruber	What is the best way to "fast track" a group of "strangers" into becoming a community? How can we most quickly get to know and care about each other?	In your experience, what are some of the best ways to achieve consensus in a community, and how do you recognize when consensus probably won't occur?	Have you been an "official" mentor before? How would you describe your mentoring style? What do you expect of your "proteges?"
Robyn Faintich	What methods to the coaches think we should use to motivate people to enter into long-term PD when they aren't being paid to do so?	How much time is realistic to spend facilitating each CoP (and when do you say enough is enough if it isn't moving forward?)?	What best practice can you point to that engages both lay and professionals in CoP work?
Jonathan Fass	Do you see a critical difference between a CoP and an online CoP? What might that be?	Is it best to launch a CoP using a specific trigger challenge or would an open invitation attract greater interest?	When do you recognize that yout CoP is failing/dying?
Lillian Howard	What is your experience in using and evaluating on-line platforms?	What is your leadership/coaching style?	Why did you accept the position as coach for our program?
nammie Ichilov	I'd like to know how you describe your role as a coach? What metaphor of coaching do you see yourself emulating?	Each of you have incredibly varied professional backgrounds and personal experiences, what do you recommend to us as the best way to filter your variety of coaching suggestions/lessons so as to glean the relevant information to each of us for our unique experiences and communities?
Eliezer Jones	What do you feel is the best platform to facilitate on-line CoP’s and why?	How to you sustain a successful on-line CoP and motivate the group when activity slows down?	What is the role of the facilitator and please be as detailed as possible?
Rachel Meytin	Can you speak about navigating the politics of setting up a CoP in an arena where there are other organizations working on that topic?	How many people do you think should be brought into the CoP to initiate the group? Is there a "too little" amount?	Can you speak to the amount that the facilitator should be in front versus coordinating and promoting from behind the scenes.
Lisa Micley	How would you guide us in building consensus among the important stakeholders- the sponsor ( our own organizations not Jim Joseph), the facilitator, and the community?	What and how can we apply lessons learned from other communities to these online communities and what can we not apply to this setting?	What is your best fit based on your experience with the work we do and the various communities we will be building?
Elana Rivel	How do you 'market' a CoP in order to get buy-in from participants?	Have you participated in an on-line CoP? If so, would you say it was successful? Why or why not?	Is there some underlying goal that, regardless of who our target is, we all should be striving to meet?
Sid Singer
Joy Wasserman	We all have some experience facilatating face-to-face groups? What do you imagine might be different about facilitating online CoPs? What metaphors might you use to describe the role of the facilitator of a CoP?	Would you welcome the opportunity to facilitate an online CoP? Why and/or why not?	What strategies would you recommend for encouraging "over participators" to hold back a bit and for encouraging folks on the "sidelines" to participate more in online CoPs?
Ira Wise

Here is the description of the coaches task from their work agreement with the Lookstein Center:

The Fellows are a diverse group, from all major denominational streams, ranging from pre-school to adult educators in both formal and informal settings. Given the wide variety of people and educational venues, the Fellows will need to develop individual work plans (IWPs) that will reflect each of their unique professional settings.

As coach your task is to be a resource person who will be available to assist the Fellows in developing their networks and CoPs by:

• broadening their circle of colleagues, if necessary,
• brainstorming with them regarding their projects,
• suggesting directions and referring them to existing research and/or best practices
• helping them deepen their understanding of their communities, and
• offer general support and advice.

You will be meeting the Fellows in person at the retreat in Plantation, Florida on February 22-23. The Fellows will be both learning more about technology platforms and developing and refining their IWPs. The role of the coaches would be to join us in working on the IWPs directly with the Fellows in small groups and individually, clarifying who their networks will be, how they will choose the focus of their CoPs and developing a time-line for implementation.

Following the February retreat, the Fellows will be tasked with launching their CoPs and your interaction with them will continue by phone, email, etc. as individual Fellows turn to you for advice. The Lookstein Center staff will be directly responsible for the Fellows' progress; we may call on you to assist with a particular issue that comes up in the course of the program.