{"id":1078,"date":"2019-10-08T15:27:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-08T22:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/?p=1078"},"modified":"2019-10-10T10:06:46","modified_gmt":"2019-10-10T17:06:46","slug":"taking-a-risk-reaching-beyond-and-making-a-difference-a-story-of-new-employee-orientation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/2019\/10\/taking-a-risk-reaching-beyond-and-making-a-difference-a-story-of-new-employee-orientation\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking a Risk, Reaching Beyond, and Making a Difference: A Story of New Employee Orientation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Ilsa Dohmen, Director of Teaching & Learning and Colleen Schilly, Associate Head of School<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Each August our newest employees spend three days together for Orientation. This year, we spent a portion of that time off our campus and it changed an employee tradition at our school. This is the story of that change.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the first day of Orientation. Eighteen new faculty, staff, and administrators had begun their day learning about Hillbrook\u2019s history, sharing some of their own stories, and touring our campus. After lunch, Director of Teaching & Learning Ilsa Dohmen shared our school\u2019s Reach Beyond Block overview\u2014a time in the redesigned schedule devoted to living our school\u2019s Vision to \u201creach beyond ourselves and make a difference in the world.\u201d Something you might not know about this new block of time, which happens in every student and teacher\u2019s schedule each week, is that it is collaboratively designed, by teachers and children, to spring from the community connections, passions, and deeply-held values we each already possess. In the spirit of bringing new employees into this creative process, the task was set before them: join a group of three and\u2014 using your brainstormed responses to questions like \u201cwhat\u2019s something you hope your life makes an impact on?\u201d\u2014design an experience that 20 people could do, in two hours, with two vans, and $200. Also, design it in the next 40 minutes.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ilsa and Associate Head of School Colleen Schilly, had been anticipating this moment nervously. Back in June we had asked, \u201cWhat if we spent part of Orientation this year doing<\/em> a Reach Beyond experience? What if the new employees unwittingly designed it for themselves?\u201d We looked at the agenda, shaved five minutes here and there and came up with less than an hour for the design sprint. Was it worth doing? Was there a reasonable chance of success? Take a risk is one of our Core Values\u2026 so what better way to model than giving it a try! 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to August. Six teams in 40 minutes developed and presented six fabulous ideas. Ideas ranged from investigating Santana Row\u2014its development history, its retail offerings, surveying shoppers\u2014to visiting Vasona Creek Park\u2014looking at the range of users from leisure joggers to people experiencing homelessness and asking what public spaces mean to us and how we care for them. We closed by asking people to place a checkmark next to the design they\u2019d be most interested in learning more about during Orientation.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That afternoon, Colleen and Ilsa met to plan for the \u201cdoing.\u201d The Reach Beyond design with the most check marks had the central question \u201cHow are Hillbrook School\u2019s values reflected in its food systems and services?\u201d The group\u2019s plan included visiting distributors for produce, meat and dairy, meeting with Epicurean Food Services, auditing our food-related expenses, and more. Wow. It met the Reach Beyond criteria\u2014it was inspiring, it challenged learners to engage with real-world experiences and collaborate to make a difference for people and\/or planet, it embraced ambiguity, it embodied the Hillbrook Way and our Core Values. And it was going to be hard to pull-off by tomorrow morning. Should we pull the plug? Since we had not even told employees we would be doing<\/em> an experience, we could use that Orientation time for something else. Perhaps the design sprint experience was enough. But…take a risk is<\/em> our theme this year.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story skips the phone messages left, the articles researched, read and dismissed, and the meeting in which we brainstormed how to scale the experience for Friday. These behind-the-scenes moments, in our experience, are also a significant part for the planners of each Reach Beyond block during the school year. But let\u2019s move ahead.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday morning, with Hillbrook vans gassed up, cash in-hand, and clipboards with templates prepared, Colleen and Ilsa announced to new employees that we would be leaving campus to investigate the central question of the food-values group\u2019s design: How do my\/an organization\u2019s values drive food purchasing choices? <\/em>We would travel to the downtown San Jose Farmers\u2019 Market. Groups of three would have $20 to spend, or not, however they thought it furthered the pursuit of the central question. Employees brainstormed aloud observations they might make, and questions they might ask vendors or shoppers. Then we got in the vans, counting off, offering reusable bags, and sharing sunscreen. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the Farmers\u2019 Market, employees split off to conduct their investigations. Head of School Mark Silver, Colleen and Ilsa found themselves in a group, with a clipboard, a little unsure how they wanted to pursue the central question. How do Hillbrook School\u2019s values drive food purchasing? <\/em>We each had thoughts and examples but none of them immediately felt connected to this experience. So we started visiting booths. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ten minutes later we found ourselves taste-testing plant-based milkshakes poured by the co-founder of VGN Shakes<\/a>, Megan. We spent some of our group\u2019s cash on a peanut butter banana shake. It was low in sugar, it was made by two San Jose small-business entrepreneurs, it was served in a compostable cup, and it was made without animal products. Also, it was delicious. Suddenly, we asked \u201cwait, have we made the reservation yet for the first day of school\u2019s typical Jamba Juice order?!\u201d We texted Director of Human Resources Rozanne Schiro, who for the past few years has helped us celebrate the first day of school by serving smoothies after dismissal. What if, instead of Jamba Juice, we served these<\/em> shakes to employees? Rozanne confirmed the order had not been placed yet, so we ran back to co-founder Megan and worked out a deal.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When we returned from the Farmers\u2019 Market that morning, the excitement was palpable. New employee groups had so many stories to share that we did not tell this one. They brought back: a bean pie and the story of its inspiration by the maker\u2019s political affiliation; three sets of red grapes grown by a large conventional farm, a large organic farm, and a small farm that is working to become certified organic; stories of a multi-generational family\u2019s produce booth; garlic dip and chips and the story of a customer who has been returning to this corner to buy them for nearly 20 years. Employees came back with a mini-podcast they had recorded on-site, they came back with new learnings about farming practices, they came back with connections they hoped to make with students during the upcoming year. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That Friday was a day when the work we’ve done to bring Vision 2020<\/a> to fruition at Hillbrook was made visible. Embodying the \u201cHillbrook Way\u201d, it began with a question. And despite the uncertainty, we just got started. We collaborated to design an experience that provoked us to ask new questions. And we showed our work, by making the unplanned choice to further align our purchases (a treat to celebrate opening day) with our values (being our best for people and planet). 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What this employee-led Reach Beyond design sprint delivered is what our Reach Beyond Block & Week experiences show over and again for students and adults: the world is full of possibility, the richest soil for learning that lasts. At the intersection of Vision 2020, highly skilled employees, and Hillbrook\u2019s Mission, Vision, and values (with a sprinkling of serendipity) lies Reach Beyond\u2014an experience that cultivates changemakers-of-the-future who hold themselves and others capable of making changes today.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, the next time you find yourself waffling between what has been done and what has yet to be, we encourage you to take a page from Hillbrook\u2019s Core Values: take a risk. You might be surprised by the breathtaking, serendipitous reward of asking, \u201cwhat if?\u201d
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ilsa Dohmen, Director of Teaching & Learning and Colleen Schilly, Associate Head of School Each August our newest employees spend three days together for …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","content-type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,197,184,198,187],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-extraordinary-educational-experience","category-faculty-and-staff","category-social-entrepreneurship","category-social-impact","category-the-scott-center-for-social-entrepreneurship"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1078"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1112,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions\/1112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}