OLIS 611 Sustainability Plans and Indicators
Assignment 1: Functional Analysis of Climate Action Plan Strategies
Presentation: Thursday, October 4th, 2012
I. Introduction
The objectives of this assignment are:
• To develop a team charter and to become familiar with how your team functions,
and your role in effective team functioning.
• To understand the basics of how a Climate Action Plan is prepared and what it
contains
II. The Assignment and Groups
For this assignment you will work in groups of 3 or 4. Each group will first establish its
“charter” (see attached). Each group will be assigned a functional area (corresponding
to the area of the University of Oregon project). You will look at two Climate Action
Plans against a series of questions in order to describe and assess them; and then to
compare to UofO’s plan.
III. Content & Organization
Your results must be presented in a PowerPoint format and should be organized as
follows:
A. Brief Description of the City (Size, geographic area, for city, income, economic
base—something to characterize it for your audience)
B. Comparison of the Two City’s CAPs for all Areas and Assess
1. Preparation of the Plan
• Who is the owner?
• Were partnerships used and effectiveness?
• Scope of the Plan (own operations? Community wide?)
• Did they have a climate action team? Who were they? Role?
• How Long Did it Take?
• Source of Funds to Prepare it? (may not be able to tell)
2. Type of Public Participation Process (p 74 of Boswell)
3. Greenhouse Gas Inventory (describe briefly)
• What was baseline year?
• Scope of inventory (p 97 of Boswell)
• Forecast Year?
• Presence of Reduction Targets? (Boswell, pages 105-110)
4. Emission Reductions Strategies (generally)
Characterize the approach of the city—what is their largest area of concern and
how are they proposing to reduce the emissions? (Use p 118-128 in Boswell)
C. Compare Specific Reductions Strategies in your area
• Look at the reduction strategies in your area in both CAP’s and compare to those
for UofO. Assess UofO’s and identify opportunities.
IV. Presentation Your oral/visual presentation should not exceed 10 minutes. Typical
rule of thumb is one minute per slide. The presentation time limit will be strictly
enforced.
Any photos and data presented should include appropriate citations (e.g. Author/Year,
Title, Source). Preparations and final presentations must be divided equally among all
group members.
Please e-mail your group’s presentation file to velmer@uoregon.edu by Wednesday
October 3rd and your team agreements by Monday Oct 1st.
LIA TEAM CHARTER
Early team discussions center around three basic questions:
1. GOALS – What do we want to accomplish?
2. SKILLS INVENTORY - What resources do we have?
3. ORGANIZING AND MANAGING FOR SUCCESS - How will we use our
collective resources to accomplish our goals?
The initial team charter is a tool for developing a common understanding of those
questions.
LIA is both a team and an individual learning project. As such, the team needs to balance
individual goals with a shared team goal to achieve success.
INDIVIDUAL GOALS
What do individual team members hope to gain from the team experience? List
individual goals and measures of success - how you will know you have reached your
goals.
Team Member Name
SHARED TEAM GOALS
What specifically do you want to accomplish by the end of the term in these 3 areas?
How will you measure your success in each area?
Results (how you will provide significant value to your client):
2. SKILLS INVENTORY
A skills inventory helps the team understand its resources. When thinking of your own
skills and talents, consider those that produce results for the client, create and improve
processes, and build relationships. Be as specific as possible.
Team Member Name
3. ORGANIZING AND MANAGING FOR SUCCESS
Effective teams understand how to organize and manage themselves to get the most out
of their resources. This includes not only task processes, but also processes to manage
team dynamics. Come to agreement on the following areas.
Operating Principles
Operating principles reflect team values and create an environment for achieving
common goals. As the basis for judging team cooperation and behaviors, operating
principles clarify responsibilities, and how decisions will be made. Operating principles
generally cover topics such as work quality, individual commitment, attendance and
punctuality, problem resolution, and accountability. Describe specific principles that are
important for your team and how your team will uphold those principles.
Managing Team Dynamics
As discussed in the article “Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups”, highperforming teams consciously create mechanisms that help the team become aware of
and regulate individual and group emotions. The Operating Principles described above
accomplish some of this. In this section describe specific actions your team will take
to maintain awareness of emotions and to regulate emotions. Examples include checkins at the beginning of meetings, code phrases for awareness (such as “process check”),
scheduled times to discuss only team effectiveness, not the project, and ways to get
feedback from outsiders. For scheduled actions, note when and how often you will
engage in them, such as “every Friday” or “every two weeks on Monday”. Feel free to
include your Faculty Advisor for outside observation and feedback. Finally, include a
date and time for reviewing the Team Charter.
Organizing Work
Adopt an agreed upon method of organizing work (i.e. 3-ring binder, Blackboard, etc.).
In the space below, describe specifically how your team will keep track of work in
progress, agendas, task assignments, research data, etc.:
Meetings
At a minimum, effective and efficient meetings need the following:
1. A meeting agenda outlining clear objectives, distributed to all members ahead of
time
2. A written recap at the end of meetings identifying assignments and deadlines
3. A clear start and stop time.
Describe how your team will implement the above managerial tasks (The “Team
Responsibilities” section on the next page will help you manage some of these tasks). Be
specific.
Agree on preferred methods of communication (email, cell phone, home phone, etc.) for
your client, faculty advisor, and each team member. Agree to respond to communication
within
(a reasonable time frame like 24 hours).
NAME
Team Responsibilities
Assign permanent and/or rotating responsibilities in the table below. If responsibilities
are rotating, indicate who will serve and when they will serve. Examples include:
§ External Liaison – primary contact with external contacts related to project
§ Faculty Liaison – primary contact with Instructor/Advisors
§ Internal Communication/Facilitator – coordinates team meetings, creates agendas,
and facilitates meetings
§ Team Record Keeper – Ensures notes are taken during meetings and documents
are organized according to agreed upon method
RESPONSIBILITY
By signing below, I agree to abide by the guidelines of the Team Charter and to
maintain an enthusiastic and positive attitude about team activities and fellow team
members for the duration of this project.
PRINTED NAME
Leadership Behaviors
The following is a non-exhaustive list of leadership behaviors/skills, organized by
Kouzes and Posner’s “Five Practices of Leadership.” These are the types of behaviors
we would all like to see from ourselves and our teammates. They also serve as excellent
topics for peer feedback.
1. Model the Way
• Expressing ideas clearly, succinctly, logically, and confidently in:
o Conversation
o Writing
o Public speaking
• Inviting and rationally considering challenges to one’s own ideas and
work
• Giving and receiving feedback openly and graciously
• Completing work on schedule
• Being on time to meetings
• Taking on fair share of work load
• Keeping promises
• Volunteering to lead pieces of projects
• Demonstrating high standards for own work
• Leading meetings effectively
• Planning how work will get done
• Organizing documents and action items
• Maintaining optimism in team’s progress (e.g., through tone of voice and
body language)
• Controlling disruptive emotions
• Admitting mistakes and finding remedies
• Managing one’s time effectively
2. Inspire a Shared Vision
• Helping to set and stay focused on team goals
• Generating enthusiasm by talking about the future success and benefits of
a project
Talking about the team’s values and why the project matters
Reminding team of the big picture and how they’re contributing to it
Motivating others through effective public speaking
Getting to know others on the team, especially what they care about and
what motivates them
Bridging disagreements in the team by identifying common ground and
generating congruent ideas
Communicating in an upbeat and positive way
3. Challenge the Process
• Asking critical questions
• Challenging team’s direction
• Calling process checks to keep team on track
• Staying current by reading relevant materials as sources for new ideas
• Seeking feedback on team’s work
• Encouraging effective brainstorming
• Ensuring all relevant data is surfaced by researching and asking questions
• Addressing (and not burying) inconvenient data
• Maintaining high standards for team’s work by pointing out areas for
improvement
• Reorganizing work
• Offering different planning strategies
• Encouraging the team to review its team processes
• Taking risks and being willing to experiment with new approaches and
ideas
• Pushing team to try new things
• Encouraging team to review its performance and make required changes
4. Enable Others to Act
• Active listening (through body language, showing empathy, asking
questions to understand others)
• Asking for others’ ideas
• Supporting and developing others’ ideas
• Coaching others as they develop or improve skills
• Sharing speaking time
• Recognizing teammate needs and offering help
• Checking in with others on how they are doing/feeling
• Holding others accountable for their work
• Noticing when others have been passed over or ignored and directing
conversation back to them
• Allowing others to speak without interrupting them
• Creating work plans that allow for team member contributions and/or fit
individuals’ skills
• Suggesting others take on roles or tasks outside their comfort zones
5. Encourage the Heart
Recognizing when morale is low and offering encouragement
Recognizing when others need appreciation and offering appreciation
Offering compliments
Showing optimism in the face of setbacks (through tone of voice, body
language, words)
Showing concern with teammate needs
Using humor effectively
Celebrating team and individual accomplishments