Facilitator Guide

Welcome to NILS™, the Networked Improvement Learning and Support platform. We at the Carnegie Foundation are pleased that you’ve decided to adopt a system to support your NIC’s online learning. Let’s begin!

• Getting Started
• Best Practices for NILS Facilitators & Hub Members

GETTING STARTED

Here are some best practices for initiating a NIC on NILS:

Activity Center

Populate the Activity Center with activities relevant to your NIC. Some potential activities are:

1. Background statement & narrative
2. Empathy interviews
3. Process mapping
4. Fishbone diagramming
5. Data collection & analysis
6. Develop an aim statement

Assign members to relevant activities during onboarding. Assigning members to activities enables these members to receive notifications about their assigned activities.

• It is critical that members are assigned to activities as soon as possible, so that they receive a “call to action” on the site for participation in the NIC’s work.

You can also populate activities with sample submissions for how you would like members to submit their work on a given activity.

Announcements

Add an announcement on the homepage, welcoming your members to the NIC and including initial instructions for work on the platform.

Events

Add your NIC’s upcoming events on the events calendar.

Resources

Add resources for your NIC to the Resources page.

Directory

Populate the Directory with relevant structural and affinity groups. Structural groups may be based around specific sites or roles in your NIC. Affinity groups may be based around existing interests (early literacy, chronic absenteeism, etc.) in your NIC’s base.

Add all members to the NIC through a General structural group.

Add members to additional relevant structural groups and/or affinity groups.

• It is important to add members to their relevant groups as soon as possible, so that they can seamlessly communicate with improvers at their local sites and around their improvement ideas.

BEST PRACTICES FOR NILS FACILITATORS, CONTENT EXPERTS, & HUB MEMBERS

NILS supports the work of a NIC through its initiation and development, and provides tools for learning and social engagement, but it does not negate the need for active facilitation and the guiding of learning in a NIC. How can a NIC’s facilitators, content experts, and hub members best support their network on NILS?

Onboarding

We encourage you to bring your NIC members onto the platform via an activity. We recommend having them set up their profiles with images and a biography in the Member Profile. This is a simple way to get members logged into the system, and facilitates social engagement by providing personal details about individual members.

Creating an activity in the Activity Center to choose a NIC logo can also facilitate engagement, as well as develop a familiarity with the Activity Center tools to submit, comment, like, and reply to other submissions.

If you are introducing NILS at a convening, perhaps make travel reimbursement forms available on the Resources page.

Maintenance

Keeping a NIC healthy and actively engaged around its problem of practice requires extensive and ongoing curation.

Curation Tips: 

For Hub Members

1. Have at least one hub member engage with every submission in the Activity Center, preferably via comments. Suggesting follow-up areas for thought is also beneficial.
2. Pin posts from the Activity Center which show particular engagement with the NIC’s problem of practice.
3. Join in comment threads on submissions.
4. Always comment from a place of inquiry, rather than judgment.
5. Author reflections on learning after each activity.
   

For Structural Group Leads

1. Have at least one group lead engage with every post in the group, preferably via comments.
2. Pin posts which show particular engagement with the content of the structural group.
3. Post news articles relevant to the group.
4. Always comment from a place of inquiry, rather than judgment.

For Affinity Group Content Experts

1. Have at least one content expert engage with every post in the group, preferably via comments. This is especially important with PDSAs.
2. When relevant, draw out discussions among members about what it means to adopt, adapt, or abandon a change idea. What have we learned?
3. Pin posts which show particular engagement with the content of the affinity group.
4. Post news articles relevant to the group.
5. Always comment from a place of inquiry, rather than judgment.

If you have questions about NILS or NIC processes, please contact [e-mail].