Welcome to the Workspace of the Chairing Skills Program (CSP)!

Mark your calendars! The first pilot CSP will be taking place January 2017 through ICANN 58 in March 2017.

Background of the CSP:

Based on the success of the Leadership Program (LP), the ICANN Academy is pleased to announce a new pilot Chairing Skills Program (CSP).  This course addresses the Chairing skill challenges that ICANN community contributors can face when taking up responsibility by leading a working group or stakeholder group. 

Participants and facilitators of the previous ICANN Academy Leadership  Program (LP) in Dublin 2015 agreed it would be valuable to offer a course to develop chairing skills, both for telephonic as well as face-to-face meetings. A pilot was agreed as part of the FY17 Special Requests.

CSP - Details of the Pilot 2017 Program

The ICANN Academy Chairing Skills Program will be divided into two parts:

1)      Telephone Chairing Skills – session to begin in January 2017

2)      Face-to-Face Chairing Skills  - session to take place around ICANN 58

The aim of dividing the course into two parts is to focus both on the development of one skill at a time as well as to incorporate feedback from the first session into the second. 

The Telephone Chairing Skills (Part 1 ) is planned to begin in January 2017. The results of Part 1 will feed into the Face-to-Face Chairing Skills (Part 2) that will start prior to ICANN 58 in Copenhagen and continue during this meeting.

A professional external coach from Incite Learning and community coaches will facilitate the course. Incite Learning has been a regular contributor to  the LP that has been held since 2013.   

The LP is focused on new leaders in the community and includes overviews and current events within the ICANN community as well as skills building in the areas of dealing with resistance, influence, and handling disruptive meetings.  The community facilitators deliver content and facilitate the skill building exercises with trainees. 

CSP is different from the LP in many ways.  It is focused on current chairs with a focus on virtual facilitation as well as f2f interactions.  This course will be designed for chairs of working or stakeholder groups who would like to develop their chairing skills.  The community coaches for the CSP will work directly with trainees. This interaction will include observing the trainees on calls and in meetings and providing specific feedback on how to be even more effective as a chair.  Coaches will ideally alumni of the LP and have previous chairing experience.  The training is in real time using current challenges and issues facing the chair.  Coaches will be available to their trainees throughout CSP Parts 1 and 2 for just-in-time questions and concerns. 

CSP Program Outline:

Part 1 – Telephone Chairing Skills Development

• Coach introduction and training – Call to include Incite Learning the community coaches and staff; Aim is to introduce the course to the coaches and train them in telephonic chairing skills (telephonic;  1 hour)
• Group introduction to course – Call to include Incite Learning, community coaches, trainees and staff; Aim is to introduce the course and introduce the coaches to their trainees (telephonic; 1 hour)
• Individual observations (1) – Coaches (external and community) to observe a call that their trainee is chairing (telephonic; 1-2 hours)
• Evaluation and discussion among the coaches before providing feedback to the trainee (Telephonic; 30 min plus email)
• Individual observations feedback  – Coaches (external and community) to offer feedback to individual trainees; Segments of meeting recordings to be used as training tool; role play included  (telephonic; 1-2 hours for call; 2 hours preparation)
• In conjunction with a subsequent ICANN meeting:
  • Individual coaches and trainees meetings – Coaches to meet f2f informally with their trainee for further feedback (optional)
  • Group meeting – All coaches and trainees to meet f2f to discuss experiences and best practice. (1-2 hours).
  • Individual observations (2) – Coaches (external and community) to observe a 2^nd call that their trainee is chairing to see how the feedback was taken up including a short feedback (telephonic; 1-2 hours)
  • Group call – Call to discuss best practice and lessons learned as well as to review the first session. This call to include facilitators, coaches and trainees (telephonic; 1 hour) 

Part 2 – Face-to-Face Chairing Skills Development taking place during an ICANN meeting

• Coach introduction and training – Call to include Incite Learning the community coaches and staff; Aim is to train the coaches in f2f chairing skills (telephonic;  1 hour)
• Group introduction to course – Call to include Incite Learning, community coaches, trainees and staff.  Aim is to introduce the course and introduce the coaches to their trainees  (optional; telephonic; 1 hour)
• Individual observations – Coaches (external and community) to observe a f2f meeting that their trainee is chairing (f2f; 1-2 hours)
• Evaluation and discussion among the coaches before providing feedback to the trainee (f2f;  plus email)
• Individual coaches and trainees meetings – Coaches to meet f2f informally with their trainee to provide feedback (1 hour)
• Group meeting – All coaches, trainees and to meet f2f to discuss experiences and best practice (2 hours)
• Group call – Call to discuss best practice and lessons learned as well as to review the second part This call to include coaches, trainees and staff (telephonic; 1 hour)