University of Texas
Graduate Program in Community and Regional Planning

CRP 381: Planning Processes and Practices

Unique Number: 01235
Tuesday 2-5, Room Sutton 2.114, Fall 2003

Unique Number: 01240
Thursday 2-5, Room Sutton 2.110, Fall 2003
 

Instructor: Patricia A. Wilson
Office: Sutton 3.112, Phone: 471-0131

Teaching Assistant: Eric Marsh

Course Objectives:

This is the course we have designed in response to many comments by our graduates that they wanted to be better prepared for being effective on the job.  A particularly good time to take the course is during or shortly after your internship, so that you can use the class as a sounding board for reflecting on your on-the-job experiences.

Communication skills form the basis of the course.  The underlying assumption is that technical expertise is not enough to make us effective on the job.  Rather, our interpersonal skills are a crucial determinant of our effectiveness with colleagues, clients, and the public.  We also need to hone our own personal management skills. 

Since planning is a multi-player process, one of the most valuable contributions a planner can make is to create a safe, productive space in which the players can learn from each other and make mutually agreeable decisions.  In this course, we assume that each player has valid concerns.  If they appear to us to be greedy, irrational idiots it is because we have not sufficiently understood their frame of reference!  This course is aimed at improving our ability to understand others’ frames, to create spaces for dialogue, and to develop mutually beneficial solutions. 

Pedagogic Approach:

The new course aims to provide a safe container where students can learn new skills and attitudes through experiential exercises, self-observation, and feedback in the classroom, without the threat of ‘messing up’ on the job.  It will use a whole-person approach to learning, taking into account feelings, thoughts, behaviors, and habits. The course aims to create a ‘learning community’ in the classroom, where the interactive skills will be modeled, not just talked about.   It will be a second year course, so that students can reflect on their internship (or prior work experiences) and try out new skills at work.  It will be taught in a three-hour block once a week, to allow time for exploring issues and concerns in depth, practicing skills and applying concepts, and conducting and debriefing role plays.

The conceptual framework for the course is that of whole systems thinking, which uses the interconnected network as the basic icon, rather than the linear cause-effect model. This approach uses third-sider thinking (not my side or your side, but thinking from the whole), appreciative inquiry (not what’s wrong, but what’s the best thing that could happen here), non-violent communication, compassionate listening, collaborative learning, and understanding of the creative cycle. 

The course purposely will not be heavy in readings. The learning will come primarily from first-person experience and reflection.

The typical three-hour block will include presentation of key concepts/skills; short application exercises of each; a role play to integrate the skills; and debriefing and reflection.
 

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the course, the student should be able to do the following:

	Listen to a point of view that differs from one's own, learn from it, and reflect back an understanding of it, rather than react defensively
	Hear and acknowledge both the feelings and the basic needs being expressed behind an emotional or positional argument
	Act from the assumption that every stakeholder or participant has a valuable contribution to make, and be able to bring that out using facilitation skills
	Discern and discover ways to add value to a team, whether as the team leader or as a team member
	Identify the limitations of one’s own frame, step outside of one’s own frame, look through another’s frame, and develop a larger frame when dealing with difference or diversity, including cultural and racial diversity
	Lead a group through divergent thinking (expanding possibilities), building shared understanding, and convergent thinking, coming to shared ownership of a decision and action plan
	Think from the whole, move others from positional thinking to thinking from the whole
	Guide a group through a learning process using systems thinking
	Identify points of leverage in a system that catalyze responses, rather than trying to control a system
	Design a multi-stakeholder process or event for dealing with an issue in a way that leads to shared understanding and commitment for implementation
	Present one's own position persuasively, in a way that shows understanding of the audience's needs and experience of the issue
	Use every situation as a learning experience, through the skill of self-observation
	Understand and work with the creative process, from visualization to implementation
	Articulate and employ one's own framework for ethical choices at work
	Develop one's own sense of purpose and vision for becoming an engaged civic professional, and a strategy for making career decisions in accord with that purpose and vision

Required Texts :

	Stephen Covey. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. NY Simon & Schuster, 1989.
	William Ury. Getting Past No: Negotiating Your Way from Confrontation to Cooperation. NY: Bantam, 1993.
	Sam Kaner. Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making. 1996. New Society Publishers/ Canada, Gabriola Island, BC.
	William Ury. Getting Past No: Negotiating Your Way from Confrontation to Cooperation. NY: Bantam, 1993.

Highly Recommended:

Sam Kaner. Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making. 1996. New Society Publishers/ Canada,              Gabriola Island, BC.

Other Useful Resources:

	Albert Bernstein and Sydney Rozen. Neanderthals at Work! NY: Ballentine 1992.
	Lawrence Susskind and Patrick Field. Dealing with an Angry Public: The Mutual Gains Approach. NY: Free Press, 1996.
	Deborah Tannen. Talking from 9 to 5: Woman and Men in the Workplace. NY: Avon, 1994.
	Marshall Rosenberg. Non-Violent Communication. Encinitas, CA: Puddle Dancer Press, 1999.
	Warren W. Jones and Natalie Macris. A Career Worth Planning. Chicago: APA, 2000.

Syllabus:

Week 1: Listening to Frames: Your Own and Others'

Week 2: Personal Mastery
Stephen Covey. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. NY Simon & Schuster, 1989. Pp. 1-182.
Recommended: Peter M. Senge. The Fifth Discipline. NY: Currency and Doubleday, 1990. Pp. 139-173 (on reserve).

Week 3: Effective Communication
Stephen Covey. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. NY Simon & Schuster, 1989. Pp. 184-319.

Week 4: Confrontation to Collaboration
William Ury. Getting Past No: Negotiating Your Way from Confrontation to Cooperation. NY: Bantam, 1993. Sam Kaner. Pp. 1-156.

Xavier Briggs, "We Are All Negotiators Now: An Introduction to Negotiation in Community Problem Solving," Harvard, July 2003. (recommended)

Week 5: Designing Multi-stakeholder workshops
William Ury. Getting Past No: Negotiating Your Way from Confrontation to Cooperation. NY: Bantam, 1993. Sam Kaner. Pp. 159-168.

Xavier Briggs, "Planning Together", Harvard, June 2003.

Week 6: Dealing with Anger
Lawrence Susskind and Patrick Field. Dealing with an Angry Public: The Mutual Gains Approach. NY: Free Press, 1996. Pp.1-42, 152-176.

Non-Violent Communication (www.nonviolentcommunication.com).

Week 7: The Art of Facilitation: Moving Meetings from Discussion to Dialogue
Sam Kaner. Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making. 1996. New Society Publishers/ Canada,             Gabriola Island, BC. Pp. 23-136. (highly recommended)

Week 8: Thinking from the Whole: Group Learning and Decision-making

Sam Kaner. Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making. 1996. New Society Publishers/ Canada,             Gabriola Island, BC. Pp. 139-245. (highly recommended)

Week 9: Creativity: Tapping the Right Brain

Week 10: Effective Presentations--Visualizations--Diversity
Stephen Covey. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. NY Simon & Schuster, 1989. Pp. 146- 182.
Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline. NY: Routledge, 1999. Pp. 139 - 173.

Week 11: Office Politics and Culture
Albert Bernstein and Sydney Rozen. Neanderthals at Work! NY: Ballentine 1992. (recommended)

Deborah Tannen. Talking from 9 to 5: Woman and Men in the Workplace. NY: Avon, 1994. (recommended)

Week 12: Planning Ethics: Using Frames

Week 13: Symposium: A Conversation with Practicing Planners

Week 14: Conclusions

Assessment of Student Learning: 

25% Participation in class discussions, role plays, and other exercises 50% Semester project: Shadowing a Planner 25% Semester journal

Guidelines for Journal : The journal is a tool for reflecting on action. Done well it can be a learning tool this semester and a reference to be consulted in your future professional life. Frequency: To be effective, entries must be made at minimum on a weekly basis, although I find it useful to write down reflections the same day the event occurs.  Content:   Focus on the tools and concepts introduced in that week and observe your efforts to apply them, especially at work, but you may include school (including our class role plays and discussions), home, or other aspects of your daily life.  The first week, for example, you will want to try out different listening skills; the second and third weeks add mediation skills; the fourth and fifth weeks add facilitation skills; and so on.   It can also be useful to observe other people’s use of these skills and the results, but focus primarily on your own.  Make a note on what you tried or didn’t try, what the outcome was, and what you learned from the experience.  Always find at least one thing that you did well (even if it was simply remembering to try!). A good journal will also include ideas you get from the readings: what is useful from the reading for you eg. tools or perspectives that you want to try out and thoughts about what settings would be most appropriate to try them in; tools or perspectives that you think are not helpful and why; etc.  In the last week of the semester, focus on conclusions or synthesis of your semester’s observations and learnings, and draw out the implications for your (professional) life.  Do you have a vision or goals for the future?  Can you describe what it is about your work that will make you most satisfied?  What will your contribution be?  Anything about values or attitudes along the way?  How will you know you are on the right path for you?  Format:  You may devise your own format, but one that I find useful is to start with a specific observation i.e. briefly describe an interaction or something an author said in a way that could be readily recognized by others present at the scene or who have read the same text.  Then interpret that interaction or writing from your own experience of it. Finally, draw out the lessons or learnings from it.  Some people actually make three columns to follow this format.  If you are visually oriented, feel free to use diagrams and sketches, along with words, to express yourself. Length: 30 pp. total, or an average of 2 pp. a week, would be an appropriate target.