So ladder with friends can be a very useful tool in scaffolding and understanding what's happening in team across each of these levels of observation. So here's an opportunity to practice using this tool in your context. You can look at a team that you are part of, an organization or any other team that you are a part of. And we would want you to, this is again available in the resources section, we would want you to use the Ladder of inference as a tool and observe what are the beliefs and assumptions, what are the judgements made, what are the conclusions drawn, are there any culturally attributed meaning to it and observe what people say and do. As a group we also taught that it be useful for us to talk a little bit about observing. What do we mean by observing? How do we go about observing teams and groups? So when I was in this organizational diagnosis class with Dana, that's when I heard a lot about how do we make meaningful observations, how to make sense of what we see, the data that we collect. So we thought as a group it would be useful for Dana to share a few words about observation and how to make sense. >> Thanks. So observation is an extremely important part of what we're asking you to do, whether we're doing diagnosis or we're just in a meeting. So I encourage you to practice doing some observations in using the ladder of inference but I would even suggest that you do some observations just to get a sense of what's happening in a team or group. So a few things that we want to emphasize. One, is we'd like you as you practice to be as descriptive as possible. It's so easy for us to move from description into judgement or description into interpretation. We really encourage you to just describe what you're seeing. So rather than saying Ellen looks perplexed, we want you to describe what you see. Or, Amrita looks like she's about to jump up on the table and tell an exciting story. How do you know that? What are the indications? So, be descriptive. Wait to do interpretation. And then there are three things in the observation we encourage you to pay attention to. One the setting, what's the room or situation that the team is in. Describe the setting as best you can. Often times the setting influences team behavior. I remember an example where a graduate student observed a team in a meeting that was held in a very cold room and everybody had their arms crossed. And the person interpreted this as non-verbal behavior as people being defensive, but it really turned out as we talked to the people afterwards that they were freezing in the cold room. >> [LAUGH] >> So again describe and wait to make assumptions till you have some evidence. Describe the conversation as much as you can. Jot down quotes. It gives you a sense of the language being used. Often times in team meetings particular types of language is used over and over again. And you can decipher what are the important issues. Or what kinds of things are being discussed by the language or the acronyms being used. And the third thing is to look for non-verbal behavior and to connect the non-verbal behavior with what you see people doing. So often times, when I give this assignment to graduate students, they'll have a list at the end of the observation of all the non-verbal behaviors but I have no idea what they're connected to. So connect them to what's happening. And I think you'll find that if you practice observation a number of times, you'll get much more astute and you'll pick up things in groups or teams that you haven't picked up before. And you will probably even discover what is undiscussable by observing how people interact and what they say and what they don't say. >> Dean, I remember in the class, one of the things that both of us experienced was self as an instrument. How do we use what our own feelings and ourselves as a container and how do we articulate those feeling. Can you tell us a little about that? >> Sure, one of the things that I talk about is that, if we're observing we're the main instrument, the research instrument, the observing instrument. And although and our reactions are important they give us cues and clues to what's going on. But they are only one datapoint. So I encourage you to take into account if you're jotting notes, to jot down your reactions to what's happening. But look for data that corroborates that. If you see someone who looks very angry, don't just use your own reaction, use your own reaction as one cue, but look at their tone of voice, what they're saying, the words they're saying. >> Thanks, Dana. >> I have one thought. This just occurs to me, listening to what you're saying, Dana. We're talking to you about teams, and you know, if you're not the team leader, or the, in the position to sort of make certain things happen, why should you be paying attention to this? Well, I think it's precisely our point, that if you're a team member, not the team leader or the team director or the foreman or the forewoman, but if you're a key member, it's all important that you, everybody use their skills and their observations and use the ladder of inference, because your ability to make that team effective isn't getting other people to do something different. It's you recrafting and rethinking what you recrafting what you say and do. That encourages other people where invites them to a different way of thinking about this. I think that's the beauty we're talking to all of you out there not just team leaders. I would point out too that if you don't have a team you're part of or a group in your organization. You can use the scenarios that we have given you from week one, week two, week three, use the ladder on those conversations. When someone says housekeepers can't be depended on to do those things in the hospital scenario, where's that on the ladder? You figured that out. >> Absolutely, good point. Thank you.
