Charley realized that the skill development practice his interns were about to undertake would require some structure to be successful. He decided to give them specific challenges to accomplish. For the next week, he wanted them to practice the development of the trait they selected. He also wanted to make the practice useful as a warm-up for the difference making projects they wanted to pursue.
He decided to challenge them in the following ways:
- Story Writing – write a story of a difference maker that we are unlikely to know (e.g., who was Down, the discoverer of Down syndrome?)
- Story Telling – share the story of a difference maker with your fellow interns. This will be done after dinner each evening.
- Imaging – create a future image of what society might look like should a current problem not be dealt with.
- Conceptualization – develop a concept of what a college might look like if it focused on difference making.
- Connecting Ideas – using the list of words I’ve given you, select two words at random and connect them to an idea that could apply to a societal problem.
Charley sent them off to do their deliberate practice assignments. While he had given them guidance on the practice challenges, he deliberately had not given them guidance on how to organize themselves. He wanted to see how the organizational efforts would emerge.
At first, chaos reigned. Pairing up those who needed practice with a coach was a challenge. Organizing the various time periods for the practice activities was a problem. There was also a controversy about whether some practice should be group based vs. a single person. For example, they decided that conceptualization would best be done as a group activity.
While all of this was going, Charley was an observer and offered no suggestions. He did take a lot of notes. What he was doing was making assessments of the aptitude traits. These would be used in the further development of the interns.
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“Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.” – Delores Huerta (Activist)