Proactivity
Practical exercise to develop Proactivity
Timing: 60 minutes -> (each section can be prolonged if necessary)
Rationale
Proactivity is a person's ability to anticipate events so that he/she can take control of a situation and prepare for the situation ahead of time. Being proactive means always thinking about the future, planning and preparing for what lies ahead. The training gives an introduction why proactivity is important in team work / in working life and some examples how mentors can support mentorees in strengthening their abilities to be proactive.
Learning objectives
In the training, participants will:
- Discuss the importance of proactivity
- Identify and learn different ways and skills to improve proactivity
- Discuss how proactivity works in a team
Preparation
Have a computer and an overhead projector ready
Prepare a PowerPoint presentation for the introduction
Prepare pieces of paper for all the participants
Prepare exercises that stimulate proactivity
Sources for the further study of the topic:
”Proactivity” by skills-up.eu
”The Proactive Twelve Steps: A Mindful Program For Lasting Change” by Serge Prengel
The Proactive Professional: How to Stop Playing Catch Up and Start Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life!) by Chrissy Scivicque
Procedure
Introduction (5 min)
Briefly explain the objective, aims, and structure of the training session.
(content for the powerpoint presentation
Being proactive is a learned behaviour, and something that is often shaped by the team environment.
By definition, proactivity means proactive persons control situations by causing things to happen rather than waiting to respond after things happen.
By being proactive you can take initiative in increasing the likelihood of success (in opposite of being reactive) . Some tips how to adopt a proactive mindset:
- take responsibility of your own activity: focus more on what you can do than on what others can do for you
- focus on what you can control
- prioritize: you can’t do everything, focus on the most important goals
- think through scenarios: create plans for likely scenarios. Plans can change but they will increase you chances of geind prepared.
- focus on the future
Exercise 1 (15 minutes)
Individual exercise where each mentee will do an exercise to recognise the important skills of being proactive:
Alternative 1 (beginner level)
Ask the participants to look at their own actions in the workplace by answering to following questions:
- Do you react to the events happening around you or do you take initiative to prepare for, participate in and/or control the events?
- Do you take an active or passive role? Do you think in terms of the present or do you look to the future, anticipating outcomes and preparing for the consequences?
- Do you make a decision only when you have to, when you’re backed into a corner or when you’ve put it off for as long as you can? Or do you make conscious decisions as part of a larger, long-term plan?
- How does my actions affect my collegues/team etc
Ask the participants to evaluate and justify if they regard themselves as proactive and/or what needs to be improved.
Alternative 2 (more advanced)
Set a scenario where mentees need to solve a situation by being proactive.
”Scenario XXX” (facilitator adds the missing goal based on the participants’ context (what is their field; what is the need;)
Ask the participants to solve the scenario by ”creating a story” using following stages:
Plan ahead. ...
Set goals. ...
Prioritize. ...
Learn to problem-solve. ...
Take action. ...
Learn to take responsibility for your actions.
Don't dwell on the mistakes from the past, but learn from them.
Discussion: the facilitator sums up the importance of recognising one’s own ways to act and how that affects in a team.
If more time is available (or group is small), individual answers can be discussed and debated by the whole group or use some as an examples for discussion.
The idea of the exercise is to give the participants time to reflect and recognise their own activities and ways of handling issues.
Exercise 2 ( 30 min)
Facilitator presents practical team building tips to support proactiveness (5 min)
- failure as a natural part of the process: when working against deadline etc, you can not think for too long about mistakes
- listen to others’ ideas
- encourage learning: when team members are curious and discuss questions, they are also more likely to solve problems
Facilitator asks mentees to think individually for a moment how proactivity affects team work (5 minutes)
The facilitator puts participants into smaller groups. Each group discusses the same question (how proactivity affects team work) (10 minutes)
Debate: each group shares their thoughts briefly with others. Facilitator opens a discussion to share experiences, practices and tips to foster proactive mindset in team work (10 min)
Facilitator highlights the main/most common conclusions.
The aim of this exercise is to share experience and identify different ways to improve proactivity. Furthermore, the idea is to express thoughts and debate in a way that supports the mind set of working in teams.
Final discussion (10 min)
The mentor leads a discussion to encourage individuals to recognize the most important skills for themselves to be more proactive: ”The five P’s” : predict – prevent – plan – participate - perform
The facilitators sums up:
Best practices for developing proactive skills
- Understand what it means to be proactive. Proactive people are those who take initiative and responsibility for their own lives. They don’t wait for things to happen, they make things happen.
- One of the best ways to be proactive is to set goals. By setting goals, you’re taking control.
- Evaluate and adjust. It’s important to evaluate your progress and make adjustments along the way. Things will happen that you didn’t plan for.
- other features that arises from the discussions