Great minds don’t always think alike – as a matter of fact, having a variety of thoughts and opinions often can help you come up with a better strategy or solution to challenges that lie ahead. In fact, Temple Grandin strongly advocates for inclusive thinking championing the idea that when great minds don’t think alike there is more likely to be great innovation.  Involving stakeholders gives you the opportunity to hear different perspectives and ideas, clarify needs, and maximize resources to develop a coordinated and cohesive plan.

How do you wrangle different perspectives?

How do you coordinate and facilitate large groups with differing viewpoints and make them all feel like their voices were heard and considered?  Using collaborative tools or a step-by-step strategy to collect, organize and utilize information can be the key to peaceful and satisfying conversations around complex topics.

Knowing the importance of community involvement in matters of planning and funding, Tuscaloosa City Schools (GA) trained 28 facilitators to gather input from internal and external community members in ten face-to-face sessions – giving 1400 people a voice. Using a modified SCAN framework, facilitators were able to build an understanding of community priorities around future planning and funding.

From our schools to the White House (to Thanksgiving Dinner), managing community engagement over hot button issues has become a struggle. Using a solid process, like SCAN can help you collect, analyze, and prioritize input to help you make difficult decisions and develop better, well-supported solutions.

We congratulate Tuscaloosa City Schools for their comprehensive work and their commitment to their students and strategic use of TregoED tools not only to benefit current students, but to bring about systemic change that will benefit future students. TCS Schools – we like the way you think!