The Troost Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering welcomes you to join us for a day of connection and thought-provoking reflection at the 13th Community of Practice Conference.
The conference is designed to cultivate meaningful connections and ignite dialogue and reflection around the shared challenges and opportunities in the “return” to work and the future workforce. We aim to inspire collective learning and tap into the wisdom of the community as we navigate these topics.
This year, our theme will focus on fostering connection in a hybrid environment; participants will have an opportunity to hear directly from the next generation of engineers via a moderated student panel, re-discover the collective wisdom of the Community of Practice though facilitated discussions, and learn about Ready Lab’s latest research on Virtual Communication Patterns & Impact on Team Effectiveness.
We are glad to return to an in-person delivery model; staying true to the ethos of the Community of Practice, participants can expect to engage with a diverse group of engineers, managers, and human resource professionals from the corporate members of the Community of Practice as well as UofT Faculty, staff, and students.
*Please Note: This is an invitation-only event for Troost ILead’s Community of Practice Partners.
Agenda
9:00 – 9:30 AM: Breakfast & Registration
9:30 – 9:50 AM: Welcome Address
Speaker: Professor Emily Moore, Director, Troost ILead
9:50 – 10:00 AM: Introductions
10:00 – 10:45 AM: Student Panel: PEY Co-op Reflections
Through a moderated panel discussion, students returning from diverse work terms will reflect on their experiences in industry and share narratives of their lived experiences adapting to hybrid environments.
The discussion will ignite insights related to the perspectives of the next generation of engineers and cover topics of onboarding, culture, team engagement, and navigating complexity.
10:45 – 11:00 AM: Coffee Break
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM: Speaker’s Corner: Group Discussions
In this dedicated “unconference” session, participants will elect to join 1 of 4 parallel group discussions, each featuring a topic related to different challenges related to connection and engagement in hybrid teams.
In these facilitated discussions, participants will engage with new ways of thinking by engaging in gamified activities.
Designed to foster connection and leverage the collective wisdom of the CoP, participants will explore themes of team culture, collaboration, well-being, and leadership growth.
12:00 – 1:00 PM: Networking Lunch
1:00 – 1:45 PM: Research Spotlight: Hybrid Teams that Work
Enterprise social network messaging platforms such as Slack and MS Teams have quickly become central spaces for connection for virtual teams and have transformed communication and coordination within engineering design teams. This has generated a rich source of data to allow for the quantitative study of communication patterns of teams at a granular level.
In this research spotlight, Sharon Ferguson, PhD candidate from Ready Lab, will present highlights from her own work as well as findings from others’ research to share insights into virtual communication practices within engineering design teams and its impact on team effectiveness.
This session will explore the following areas:
Understanding cycles of convergence and divergence throughout the engineering design process
Identifying discernable trends in communication patterns between strong and weak teams
Exploring the intricacies of the individual contributions and dynamics within teams through network analysis, emoji frequency analysis, and topic modelling of electronic communications.
This talk will also explore how the findings of this work can translate more generally into better understanding of team bonding/connectivity, equitable influence, and how to optimize communication and collaboration in hybrid teams.
1:45 – 2:10 PM: Adapting to Hybrid Communication: Group Exercise & Discussion
In teams, participants will engage in a communication game designed to spark conversation around communications behaviours and practices in teams which operate on the virtuality continuum.
Participants will reflect on the experiences of the exercise as well as the research talk to identify communication pitfalls and discuss strategies to overcome challenges in real-world scenarios.
2:10 – 2:15 PM: Independent Reflection Exercise: Note to self
2:15 – 2:30 PM: Closing Remarks & Adjourn