Ketso - a hands-on kit for effective group work and engagement

Through using Ketso, participants experience learning impact in two ways - the first is learning about the topic being explored (for example enterprise development, project management, or engaging stakeholders in their research). “The Ketso tool was helpful in terms of group work. The fact that it is movable enabled us to ‘mind map’ our ideas and then revise and alter them as a group. It also enabled us to make connections better for the stages and aspects of the project” (Sussex DPhil student). Through using the kit in a training setting, they also learn skills in creative thinking, collaborative working, and pattern formation. With a degree of reflective learning, it is possible for the participants to learn about the process of planning and running workshops and stakeholder engagement events - e.g. by asking the learners to step back and reflect on the processes used and the way the toolkit enables such process, they can learn at a meta-level about planning and running engagement events.

When trainees go on to apply the skills in engagement and creative thinking that they learn from using Ketso, they are able to improve their research. An example of this came from Dr. Claire Furlong, who experienced using Ketso during ESRC funded Enterprisers training during her PhD. She went on to use Ketso in ESRC funded field work to take the results of her PhD back to the community members in Peru. A paper about this can be downloaded here http://www.ketso.com/sites/default/files/docs/Furlong_C%20Tippett_J%201.pdf

What is the rationale for doing this?

How does it fit with institutional strategy?

What are the main features of the provision?

What are the aims and expected outcomes?

There is a growing need to increase people's involvement in discussion and decision-making. There aren't enough trained people to help manage all of this involvement successfully. Meetings and workshops often suffer from the same old problems: a lack of energy and enthusiasm, the frustration of people not having their say, no clear sense of purpose, let alone fun!

Ketso has been designed to make running a good workshop easier. Decades of research into engagement and active learning are built into the toolkit, with each piece acting as a prompt for key aspects of running a workshop. The toolkit incorporates insights from creative thinking (inspired by mind mapping and De Bono's parallel thinking) active learning and multiple intelligences, appreciative enquiry and community planning.

Ketso as a social enterprise is a spin-off from Joanne Tippett's research at the University of Manchester. The toolkit is re-usable.

These depend on the particular workshop or engagement process.

Are there any pre-requisites for engagement, e.g. levels of skill, years of experience, essential pre-activities?

How many participate in each 'activity'?

The toolkit is designed so that anyone can use it. There are free training videos and resources, such as workshop plans and a User Guide, available to download from the website. We encourage people to have a practice run with colleagues or friends before using the kit in a pressurized situation, but it is easy to use and does not require specialist training.

We recommend that you think through the aims and objectives and process before running a workshop – ideally after watching the brief introductory videos available on Ketso’s channel on Youtube.

How do you monitor effectiveness?

Who do you seek feedback from?

Do you have benchmarks?

effective engagement

enhanced creativity

everyone has a voice

effective use of people's time

synthesis of people's thinking

clear sense of priorities and key issues

wider exploration of issues from many perspectives

a sense of ownership and commitment

Using Ketso does not mean that you don't have to plan your engagement activities and workshops. It is important to consider who the stakeholders are and what they would like to gain from engagement. We have made a series of training videos available, to help people plan their workshops in advance -at http://www.youtube.com/user/KetsoLtd

We are developing eKetso, an online tool for recording and analysing results.

We have a library of workshop plans available for use, and will be developing a social forum for discussing their use and modifying the workshops in a community of practice. See www.ketso.com for more updates.