ACTIVHISTorian Training

 

Audience: Versions for educators & organizations

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This interactive workshop extends beyond the foundational, "We Can All Be ACTIVHISTorians" presentation, and it is recommended that attendees have that experience prior to attending this training.

For educators, the focus is on bringing basic ACTIVHISTorian skills into the classroom and is especially appropriate for those teaching high school and higher education courses, but is available to all educators. Educators come away with:

• increased knowledge about using an ACTIVHISTorian approach to engage students

• a greater understanding of how to help students locate historical documentation related to their interests/projects

• ideas for directly engaging with families, communities, and organization to help students see how much knowing their history matters

For organizations, this workshop increases skill development for solving specific challenges pertinent to the attendee's role or organizational goals. Individuals come away with:

• increased knowledge about using history to uncover challenges and setting organizational goals

• clear steps for moving forward in addressing a challenge

• a greater understanding of how to locate historical information relevant to their goals

• how to situate themselves as a go-to person for adding insights for solving the next challenge

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What's the Real Problem

 

Audience: Organizations, non-profits, companies, institutions, government entities

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Has your organization set goals or written an aspirational mission statement? Might those asked to carry them out sometimes notice a gap between aspirations and actual problems they grapple with in their roles? The "What's the Real Problem?" interactive workshop teaches organizations how to zero in on what might be creating that gap.

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This interactive workshop allows attendees to discover how historical thinking

• can help identify whether a mission is still in focus

• allows for a realignment between goals and actions

• encourages greater collaboration among people at all levels, leading to prevention of a disconnect between goals and outcomes.

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Digging Up Your History

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Audience: Small groups, organizations, institutions, companies

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Do individuals in your group have an interest in their personal history or has your group ever considered how its own history might be learned, recorded, and preserved? Does a rotating cast of volunteers that does a lot of your organization's work sometimes wonder "how that used to be done" or "is this a new problem"? "Digging Up Your Own History" offers attendees opportunities to consider why their history matters in crucial ways that go far beyond what accountants, lawyers, and HR staff may require.

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This interactive workshop offers a foundation for discovering

• why knowing and preserving your history matters

• how individuals and groups can locate and preserve original documents while still promoting that history in digital form

• where people can look to discover history they didn't know existed--or mattered.

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We Solved That Problem . . . Didn't We?

Audience: All

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Do you or your group notice that a challenge previously addressed seems to have morphed into a revised version? Has a solution to one problem inadvertently seemed to create a new one? This workshop grows from the foundational 

"Solving Today's Problems" presentation, offering an interactive experience especially useful for those attending with common goals.

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Participants will discover more about how historical analysis can

• aid in more carefully assessing root causes of problems

• offer a collaborative approach to understanding a recurring problem

• prevent whack-a-mole approaches to solving problems

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Making the Invisible, Visible

 

Audience: Organizations, government entities

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In the interest of other priorities, has your organization postponed a more careful assessment of the deeper roots of the challenges it faces? Do some seem to respond with resistance when questions enter that territory? This interactive workshop is designed for larger organizations that are ready to explore the vast opportunities and productive outcomes that are possible when we actively assess the past as we seek good questions--and good solutions.

 

Also adaptable for smaller groups, "Making the Invisible, Visible" allows participants to

• view questions as opportunities, rather than threats

• explore how looking to the past increases opportunities for the future

• fully engage with how integrating historical thinking can reap organizational rewards

• establish a stronger sense of trust and vested interest among employees and a client or customer base

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