PNI Practicum Level Two: PNI Essentials

In this course you will:

Choose a topic of common interest to your group, family, community, or organization
Select and adapt a set of questions that elicit stories about experiences related to the topic
Conduct group interviews and story-sharing sessions
Gather 24+ stories from 6+ participants
Prepare stories for use in sensemaking
Facilitate sensemaking sessions in which people work with the stories to make sense of the topic together
Complete your project by returning the stories to the community

This course also includes up to two hours of one-on-one coaching.

Upcoming Essentials Courses

Questions about course enrollment? Email me at cfkurtz@cfkurtz.com.

Course Syllabus

Common questions about the Essentials course

Overview

Requirements

Your Course Project

Overview

Why should I choose this course?

The Essentials course is the best course for you if you want to:

Deal with a pressing problem. If you would like to address a specific problem in your community or organization, this course can help you make sense of what is happening and discover new solutions.
Give PNI a try. If you think PNI might be useful to your community or organization, this course can help you evaluate PNI’s potential to meet your needs.
Walk the path of stories. If you love stories and everything to do with them, this course can help you turn your passion into a valuable skill you can use to help people and grow your career.
Add PNI to your bag of tricks. If you are an educator or facilitator, this course can help you broaden and diversify your groupworks skillset, complementing other methods you use in your classrooms and workshops.
Ground your research in stories. If you are working on a master’s or PhD project, you can use this course to carry out a pilot study on your topic. Your pilot study can help you explore and test your ideas and plans for your overall thesis project, whether or not you intend to use PNI for that phase of your work as well.
Build your own PNI practice. If you are a consultant and would like to consider running PNI projects for your clients, this course can help you to develop your unique flavor of PNI.

What will I get out of this course?

You will plan and carry out your own small PNI project, gathering 24+ stories from 6+ participants. Along the way you'll learn about the theory behind PNI, and you'll experience story collection and sensemaking both as a participant (in our sandbox meetings) and as a facilitator (in your own project). When you finish the course, you'll be ready to do more PNI projects on your own.

What will the online meetings be like?

This course relies on weekly 2-hour online calls that alternate between training meetings (in which you will discuss techniques and participate in group exercises) and support meetings (in which you will talk about your project plans and progress, ask questions, and get feedback and advice).

What are the course materials like?

This course uses the same materials as its open-source counterpart, with the same readings, discussions, facilitated group activities, and outside-of-class assignments (as you carry out your PNI project). The only difference is that I (Cynthia Kurtz) will lead the discussions, facilitate the group activities, and coach you through your assignments.

Requirements

How much time will I need to put into this course?

The Essentials course requires a time investment (per student) of 6-8 hours per week (including class time) for 12 weeks. If you take the course with another student, or if you find a collaborator in your course cohort, you might be able to save some time by working together on a shared project.

In your course project, you will gather at least 24 stories and use them to support group sensemaking. You can start the course without a specific project in mind, but you will need to find at least 6 project participants who are willing and able to spend a few hours participating in interviews and/or group sessions on a topic of common interest.

Do I need to take the Introductory course before I take this one?

No. All of the PNI Practicum courses stand on their own.

What are the course readings?

In this course we will read through several chapters in Working with Stories, though you can read the corresponding chapters in Working with Stories Simplified instead if you want to.

What are the course assignments?

These are the assignments you will carry out during the Essential course:

Observe story sharing. 30+ minutes. Record or take notes on a conversation with 2+ people who are not taking the course. Practice listening to and supporting story sharing in a group.
Plan your project. 1 hour. Answer some questions about your project and participants; build a privacy policy; write a project synopsis.
Choose and adapt a set of questions. 30+ minutes. Work with The Working with Stories Sourcebook.
Conduct a group interview. 2+ hours. Interview 3+ people who are not taking the course. Ask them to answer a few questions about their stories. Record the interview and transcribe the stories, preparing story cards for sensemaking.
Facilitate a group story-sharing session. 2+ hours. Invite 3+ people who are not taking the course. Facilitate a story-sharing exercise. Ask people to answer a few questions about their stories. Record the session and transcribe the stories, preparing story cards for sensemaking.
Facilitate a group story-contact task. 1+ hours. Invite 2+ people who are not taking the course. Introduce them to the stories you collected in a simple task and discussion.
Facilitate a full sensemaking workshop. 2+ hours. Invite 2+ people who are not taking the course. Facilitate a complete (though short) sensemaking session with a contact task, exercise, and wrap-up activity.

I'd like to take this course, but I'm afraid I will not be able to keep up with the assignments.

It might be hard to schedule all of your participatory sessions on your project schedule. People might be busy. They might say they’ll come but not show up. Or you might get sick or have a busy month. That’s fine. You will be practicing story collection and sensemaking two times. So even if things get delayed, you should still be able to complete all (or most) of your assignments.

In the Story Collection part of the course, you should gather at least 24 stories during the two story-collection parts of the course, ideally with one activity every two weeks. However, you will have four weeks to do this. If you end up collecting all of your stories in the last week of the four (and in only one way), that’s okay. It will be a busy week, but you can do it.

In the Sensemaking part of the course, you should hold two sensemaking sessions, ideally one every two weeks. But again, you will have four weeks to do this. If you end up holding both sessions in the same busy week – or even if you can only fit in one session – that’s okay. It won’t ruin the course for you.

Your Course Project

What kind of project should I bring to the course?

All of the projects everyone does in this course must be synchronized (on the same schedule), not secret (about a topic you can talk about), and rightly sized to fit into our time frame.

I can’t think of a project I want to do. Is that a problem?

Not necessarily. Participants are more important than projects. If you can find at least 6 friends, colleagues, family members, or members of your community or organization who you are pretty sure will be willing and able to spend some time participating in your project, you can decide on the project’s topic (maybe in discussion with your participants) as the course begins.

I can’t think of any participants I want to invite. What should I do?

Ask around among your family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues. Most people can convince (drag, bribe, guilt) at least a few people to spend a few hours sharing stories around an interesting topic. Say “I’m taking a class!” and offer pizza or donuts. Also, you might be able to collaborate on a project with another student. For example, if three students were to bring two participants each into a shared project, they could do the project as a team and take turns facilitating. Students can also act as participants in each other’s projects.

Do my project participants need to have a lot in common? For example, do they need to live or work at the same place?

No. You can do a project with people who have nothing in common except a mild to moderate interest in the topic of your project.

Do I have to identify all of my project participants before the course begins?

It depends. If the pool of people from whom you can draw participants is small (say just enough to do the project), you will need to get them to agree to participate before you start the course, so you can be certain that you can fill your interviews and sessions with participants. However, if your pool of potential participants is much larger than the number of participants you need, you can invite people to participate as the course goes along. For example, you might gather some of your stories by simply hanging out at a local gathering place and finding people who are willing to share a story or two.

Can I use this course to do a project I get paid to do?

Yes, but make sure the course schedule aligns with your client’s expectation of what will happen. My suggestion is to look at the course schedule and make sure a project with that schedule and scope will meet your client’s needs.

Why doesn’t this course use NarraFirma?

You can use NarraFirma if you want to. It’s a good place to plan your project, organize your stories, and record your reflections. However, you may not want to learn how to use a new piece of software in this course. And since you will be collecting relatively few stories, it’s not necessary to do so. Your favorite word processor will work fine. Even pen and paper will work fine. The only software you absolutely need to use in this course is your internet browser, to participate in meetings.

Have a question I didn't answer? Send me an email at cfkurtz@cfkurtz.com.