[IMPACT]

Restorative practices build skills that enable teams to strengthen relationships and transform conflict into opportunities for innovation.

Restorative practices intentionally create workplace culture where innovation is not just welcomed, but cultivated and measured. Through capacity-building in specific skill areas at the individual and team level, members of the Cardano community will learn immediately applicable tools for building and sustaining restorative workplace environments.

How will Restorative Practices be taught?

Initially, two foundational tools will be taught. These tools can be contextualized along the continuum (see graphic) of restorative practices, from building to repairing relationships. Teams will be trained to utilize circle processes as proactive measures to establish respect, trust, and psychological safety. From there, they will learn a practical approach for responding to conflict one-on-one through the Restorative Conversation tool. Training participants’ conceptual understanding and practical skills will be further developed through modules focused on increasing communication skills that enhance social-emotional connection.

In the first phase of the project “Recruitment, Orientation, and Enrollment” we will survey interest and define an achievable size and scale for this initial round of training. At this time, we expect an appropriate pilot size will be 3-5 teams with a total of 40-60 participants, with the expectation that all participants will complete all coursework.

Foundational Coursework to be delivered:

• Course 1: Restorative Practices Orientation
• Course 2: Facilitation of Circle Practice for Building Restorative Organizational Culture
• Course 3: Restorative Conversations for Addressing One-on-One Conflict
• Advanced Skills for Restorative Practices

TRAINING FORMAT

Each of the 4 Courses described below will involve Asynchronous and Synchronous Training Modules.

Asynchronous Modules are available on-demand via an online training platform. Designed in collaboration with an Instructional Design Expert who specializes in Adult Learning Strategies, these modules are interactive, utilizing animations, videos, mindfulness moments with journaling, and discussion that occurs asynchronously with trainers.

Bonus! Asynchronous modules will be accessible for enrolled participants for 1 year

Synchronous Modules are facilitated in small groups with our team’s highly experienced trainers and facilitators. These small group cohorts will focus on live demonstrations, interactive learning experiences, and practice utilizing the restorative tools. Feedback, debrief, and small group discussion will deepen learning.

Synchronous sessions give our trainers insight about how each team is progressing with their learning, and opportunities to talk about context-specific applications of restorative practices.

Course 1: Orientation to Restorative Environments for Innovation

Stage on Continuum: Introduction, Orientation

Objectives:

• Establish foundational understanding of Restorative Justice (RJ) through 3 lenses, including core roles, concepts and goals
• Analyze how RJ is situated within a continuum of Restorative Practices
• Participants are introduced to the Social Discipline Window and how support and accountability are central to our work in Restorative Practices
• Apply and reflect in at least 1 interactive activity to get a direct experience with applying Restorative Practices in the workplace

Course 2: Circle Practice Facilitation

Stage on Continuum: Proactive, Prevention

Objectives:

• Participants gain understanding of the basics of Circle Processes: what, how, when, and why
• Participants learn how to be circle keepers through observation, then practice facilitating circle practice
• Participants use circle practice to identify how they will use this tool moving forward

Course 3: Restorative Conversations (RC)

Stage on Continuum: Maintain, Repair

Objectives:

• Learn about Restorative Conversations and Restorative Agreement Meetings: what, why, when
• Practice the steps of the RC:
• Discern when to use it
• Prepare for the RC
• Initiating and participating in the conversation
• Follow up after the conversation
• Build readiness to utilize the RC model within your team to address conflict and misunderstanding early

Supplemental Modules: Advanced Skills for Restorative Practices

Stage on Continuum: All

Objectives:

• Learn complementary concepts and skills to integrate and strengthen all restorative tools
• Asking Open-Ended, Affective Questions with Curiosity
• Reflective listening and Reflective Statements
• Validations, Affirmations, Reframes
• Utilizing Feelings & Needs to Give/Receive Feedback

Deeper Understanding of the Solution

John Bailie (2019) explains that restorative practices create a sense of belonging, voice, and agency, all characteristics that support individual creativity.

The restorative workplace offers a model that consistently encourages creativity by structuring an intentional workspace that nurtures participatory learning and decision making and where it is safe to innovate. In addition, the restorative workplace is not specific to any one type of business or profession but can be created with any team of colleagues willing to learn some basic skills. While restorative justice is best known as a prescriptive process that addresses harm resulting from crime, restorative practitioners expand the use of values and principles at the heart of the justice model to simultaneously create environments that harness diverse perspectives, provide psychological safety to learn and take risks, and build the skills needed for collaboration. Consequently, choosing to work restoratively provides an excellent foundation for creativity to flourish.

Using articulated principles, embedded rituals, and supportive structures, which are all aspects of a restorative workplace, we will create a pilot educational initiative for 6 months to show how conversations, connections, and collaboration spark innovation through a participatory work climate. Research in leadership and creativity will also be incorporated to show that what we know about the conditions necessary to structure a workplace that sparks innovation can be provided through the creation of a restorative environment. In addition, while many people are drawn to restorative practices for its relational approach, the skills of communication, connection, and collaboration central to the restorative approach offer a creative advantage. Ultimately, instead of a top-down or personality-driven model, innovation emerges from the processes that build organizational creative capacity.

Conflict is Inevitable - It Defines a Culture of Collaboration & Innovation

Conflict is inevitable in any workplace, but how conflict is dealt with will greatly affect employees’ creative contributions. How institutions address conflict defines an essential part of their culture (Fehr & Gelfand, 2012; Schein & Schein, 2017). Workplaces that present a façade of harmony might overlook the importance of what Braithwaite (1989) terms necessary “constructive conflict” (p. 185). Restorative practices acknowledge that conflict is inevitable and teaches employees how to recognize and use the opportunity that conflict presents. In many companies an employee might experience a conflict, have a supervisor document a complaint, and have a Human Resource manager file it away in a locked cabinet, where it remains until it is needed to document a persistent failing if no improvement has been shown.

A more helpful alternative is to position “leaders as ‘climate engineers’ who reinforce employees’ climate perceptions by developing, enforcing, and implementing a consistent suite of organizational practices” (as cited by Baumann and Bennet in Fehr & Gelfand, 2012, p. 676) to uphold the norms for a collaborative and participatory workplace. Restorative practices recognize conflict as such an integral part of human behavior that a continuum of responses has been developed to address conflict depending on the severity and numbers involved. For example, gossip is unacceptable in a restorative workplace; each employee is told this in their orientation. But simply banning gossip would be inadequate to stop it from happening. Instead, employees are taught to address issues colleague- to-colleague with an emotional tenor that allows individuals to recognize how their words or actions may impact others so they can change their behavior. It requires courage and practice but is very effective in stopping gossip, making employees more aware of their words and behaviors, and building empathy.

Further up the continuum, restorative conferencing brings together people who have been impacted, directly or indirectly, to participate in a dialogue process to explore actions and impacts regardless of intention. Rather than minimize or ignore an incident, we speak with candor about how it impacted us and others. All parties to the incident are asked to take responsibility for their part in causing harm; similarly all parties are asked to be willing to make changes to repair that harm. Often, simply having a restorative conversation (one-on-one) or facilitated dialogue (group process with facilitator) is sufficient for repair, but at times a written agreement with specific, measurable agreements can result from the restorative intervention. This kind of written agreement typically includes a specific date for one more reconvening which contributes to a culture of accountability and follow-through, key attributes of a psychologically safe workplace.

How do Restorative Practices Impact Innovation?

1. Raise the collective intelligence of a group through intentional spaces for equal voice
2. Balance the loudest voices in the room
3. Use processes that facilitate inclusivity in idea-sharing
4. Improve morale, sense of community and belonging
5. Retain diverse perspectives and expertise at the table
6. Avoid grudges and resentment that lead to divisiveness and inertia
7. Congruence with Cardano’s Commitment to Change the Paradigm
8. Capacity-building: empower individuals with agency to address their own disagreements
9. Leave the status quo behind: who’s had a productive experience with HR?
10. From conflict resolution to conflict transformation: what if we employ conflict to effectively generate innovation?

According to Google’s Project Aristotle, the two primary behavioral norms associated with the most successful teams are:

1. The ability of all members of the team to practice turn-taking, in other words, the ability to share and hear many ideas without judgment and evaluation.
2. A high level of social-intuiting, meaning an ability to assess others’ emotional states via nonverbal cues.

When these 2 norms are in place, a team is actively building an environment of psychological safety, which Google’s study proved is directly correlated to increasing a team’s collective intelligence. On the flipside, when these two norms are not present, the group’s collective intelligence is diminished.

Addressing Norm 1 & 2

Restorative Practices (RP) explicitly teach applicable skills and frameworks for inviting equal voice and active listening. RP create spaces for generating new ideas and sharing perspectives, with agreements in place that prevent the cross-talk and judgment that create unsafe environments. In this way, RP foster generative discussions with a spirit of “yes, and” in place of “either / or.” All participants’ ideas and suggestions are valued.

In order to nurture an inclusive environment within a global community, Cardano must deliberately incorporate methods for overcoming cultural differences in order to connect authentically and be mindful about language- verbal and nonverbal- that may inadvertently cause harm. Setting aside intentional time for building relationships is the first step in improving social intuiting skills. Within that time, RP are used as methods for engagement that surfaces how team members are feeling, and what their present needs are. Restorative tools allow for this social connection time to be efficient and productive in accomplishing psychological safety norms 1 and 2. The investment of some time in these practices proactively enables teams to avoid loss of exponential amounts of time when teams react to harm by devolving into complaining, commiserating, and drama.

Collaboration, expressing diverse ideas, innovation and a defined conflict resolution process are key first principles to the success of Cardano and need to be cultivated, tracked & measured. Oftentimes companies or projects copy & paste what others have done to spur innovation, yet this only works if unique leaders are present. Instead, by educating the Cardano Community on the Collaboration - Conflict Continuum, and training champions who help track, measure & analyze this, Cardano provides an environment of High Support - High Control to ensure the Community around the world contributes to a “working WITH” environment [See the "Doing With" quadrant in the graphic below.] This aligns the social capital of the community with the high innovation needed to be an industry leader!

The Social Capital Window of Restorative Practices

Diversity is crucial to invite various experiences, backgrounds, education levels, and ways of thinking (Chin et al., 2016; Giles, 2018; Grant, 2018; Hooker & Csikszentmihalyi, 2003; Hoskisson et al., 2016; Sawyer, 2017). For innovation to thrive, instilling a clear value to honor and encourage diverse thinking is necessary. This is why, for example, simply hiring women and minorities falls short despite good intentions to increase diversity. Research has shown that in mixed-gendered working groups, men are more likely to interrupt, exerting dominance in conversation (Karakowsky & Miller, 2004). Research concludes that workplaces still reflect Eurocentric norms that cause bias and, further, that those biases are ignored if colleagues prioritize group harmony over any other factors (Opie & Roberts, 2017). Supporting true inclusion by encouraging the expression and reception of different voices, ideas, and perspectives may include constructive conflict, which can be challenging to any workplace but especially a workplace that has discouraged dealing with conflict. Inclusive initiatives must be structured and practiced before their value can be appreciated for the wealth of new information and opportunities it can bring to a workplace.

Addressing Financial Impact: Loss of employees/team members from a project is costly

• It costs a company approximately 33% of one employee’s annual salary to replace them.
• Departure of valuable team members from a given project can lead not just to a loss of money and energy invested, but also harm to the team’s overall goals and product.

Through implementation of RP, teams are encouraged to address conflict when it is still minor. Anyone who has been employed at a workplace has either witnessed or been involved in a dynamic where people imagine they are “letting go” of the minor stuff, when in reality, the small problems begin to accumulate and agitate under the surface, gradually growing into big problems, leading to blow-up fights, long-term resentment, and irreparable grudges.

Teams who participate in RP training will learn to practice Conflict Transformation through use of the Restorative Conversation tool. This tool builds agency between parties who have caused harm and been harmed to come together to grow through new understanding and perspectives. By communicating through the conflict, they gain a new lens that lifts them out of tunnel vision, allowing them to discover new and unforeseen solutions. The process challenges and disarms assumptions and biases. Conflict will likely always be uncomfortable, but when teams have a map in place that guides them through a difficult conversation, they will generate new ideas that will both heal relationships and foster innovation in the process. The repaired relationship strengthens the team’s capacity to work well together, and the experience of conflict transformation will organically impact their ability to generate new ideas while addressing differences respectfully.

Challenge 1: Ensuring follow through and accountability by all training participants to complete all training course modules, asynchronous and synchronous.

Addressed by:

• The Learning Management System (LMS) that hosts the Restorative Practices training allows administrators to track every participant’s progress towards course completion. Our team will generate bi-monthly reports that can be shared back with participating Cardano members for accountability purposes. We can establish a required level of completion for “graduation” or “certification.”
• Every training participant will have their own login to the training content, and can complete coursework at their own pace, at times convenient for their schedule and lifestyle.
• For synchronous work with trainers, we will be creative in offering sessions at various times/days, and will send out the calendar info for these sessions with advanced notice. We will request that training participants do their best to adjust schedules in order to attend synchronous sessions, as they are critical for demonstrations, interactive activities, and direct experience practicing and debriefing their skills development.

Challenge 2: Measuring Fidelity to Practice, how to effectively supervise that training course participants are applying and utilizing restorative communication tools in a way that is congruent with restorative values. (i.e. It is natural and often unconscious that people default to conventional “punitive” measures while masking them with restorative terms.)

Addressed by:

• In the asynchronous learning modules, participants will be required to answer sporadic open-ended questions throughout, which will be reviewed by facilitators, who will provide follow-up feedback or questions as needed directly to participants. This enables facilitators to keep a climate check on learners, and track and respond when there may be challenges or misunderstanding with the material.
• In the synchronous learning modules, facilitators will utilize a model of “Instruct, Demonstrate, Practice, Debrief” which creates multiple opportunities for training participants to have their questions answered in real time.
• Facilitators will elicit “case studies” from participants and ask them to report on their own experiences applying restorative tools in real life.
• Facilitators can observe and address specific challenges during practice sessions.
• Facilitators will follow Strategies for Adult Learning to empower honest self-reflection among participants about their own comprehension and growth.
• Evaluations conducted throughout coursework will require participants to self-report about their individual and team’s progress with implementing tools- this will shed light for facilitators on how the tools are being applied.

Challenge 3: Supporting training participants with adapting and tailoring restorative tools to be culturally competent in their unique and diverse contexts. (This isn’t too difficult to do generally, but becomes more difficult depending on scale- i.e. If we have teams that are coming from >25 distinct cultural contexts.)

Addressed by:

• In the first phase of the project “Recruitment, Orientation, and Enrollment” we will survey interest and define an achievable size and scale for this initial round of training. <u>At this time, we expect an appropriate pilot size will be 3-5 teams with a total of 40-60 participants. </u>

• From the feedback received on our proposal, we will collaborate with the Cardano community to get recommendations about selecting an initial pilot group of training participants that accounts for this challenge. <u>Note that learning derived from this initial pilot will be applied and allow us to substantially grow the pool of training participants with each subsequent restorative practices training cohort. </u>

  [FEASIBILITY]

<u>KEY</u>

Async. = Asynchronous, meaning training modules that can be completed by individuals on their own, self-paced, via online learning platform.

Sync. = Synchronous, meaning training modules that happen in "real time" occurring in small groups of training participants with trainers and facilitators from our team, via Zoom or similar.

*See graphic timeline in attached "Restorative Workplace Environment Proposal" pdf

<u>TIMELINE</u>

Month 1

• Weeks 1-3:
• Outreach & Education
• Recruitment & Assessment with Participating Teams
• Week 4:
• Participant Enrollment

Month 2

• Week 1:
• Complete Enrollment, Administration, Onboarding
• Schedule Synchronous Learning Sessions in Months 3-6
• Week 2:
• Interviews with Pilot Training Teams
• Administer Pre-Surveys [Data Points 1 & 2]
• Weeks 3-4:
• Course 1 Asynch. Modules: Orientation Restorative Environments for Innovation[4 hrs]

Month 3

• Week 1:
• Cont’d Course 1 Asynchronous (as needed)
• Weeks 1 & 2:
• Course 2 Asynch. Modules: Circle Practice [~4 hrs]
• Weeks 3 & 4:
• Course 2 Synch. Modules: Circle Practice [~2 hrs]

Month 4

• Weeks 1 & 2:
• Cont’d Course 2 Asynch. & Synch Modules: Circle Practice
• Course 3 Asynch. Modules: Restorative Conversations [~4 hrs]
• Weeks 3 & 4:
• Course 3 Synch. Modules: Restorative Conversations [~2 hrs]
• Administer Mid-Surveys [Data Points 1, 2, 3]
• Weeks 1-4:
• Advanced Skills for Restorative Practices available

Month 5

• Weeks 1 -4:
• Cont’d Course 3 Asynch. & Synch Modules: Restorative Conversations
• Complete any outstanding Modules for all Courses
• Synch. Modules for Advanced Skills for Restorative Practices [Optional]

Month 6

• Week 1:
• Complete any outstanding Modules for all Courses (Last Chance!)
• Weeks 1-4:
• Administer Post-Surveys [Data Points 1, 2, 3, 4]
• Recruit Restorative Champions
• Weeks 2-4:
• Synchronous Debrief Calls with Teams to Collect Anecdotal Data

Months 6-12

• Restorative Champions’ Summits - Feedback Collected and Distilled

• Long Term Sustainability Plan developed and presented to Cardano / Catalyst Community

• Visioning for Supplemental Training/Skills/Models Strengthen Restorative Culture & Innovation at Cardano

• Recruitment of Participants for Next Round of Restorative Workplace Training

• Begin Implementation of Cardano’s Long-Term Plan for Restorative Workplace Culture

• Estimated Recruitment, Orientation and Enrollment of Restorative Practices Training Participants

• 24-30 hours / $3,000 USD

• Information dissemination about RP training, benefits of participating

• Orientation for prospective and interested participants

• Enrollment for teams committed to RP training

• Asynchronous (Digital) Training Modules: Initial Content Creation and Customization for Cardano

• 36-50 hours / $4,000 USD

• Administration of current training modules, which include discussion opportunities with trainers through asynchronous learning activities

• Additional development and modifications to asynchronous digital training modules to meet the unique needs of Cardano teams

• Synchronous (Live, Virtual) Training & Coaching Modules: Coordination and Delivery

• 24-50 hours / $7,000 USD

• Live training and coaching with live trainers to deepen understanding and practice through experiential learning

• Conflict coaching and consultation for teams requiring additional support

• Reporting and Evaluation

• 20-30 hours / $3,000 USD

• Conducting assessment with teams to identify challenges and needs prior to training

• Refinement of evaluation measurements based on team’s unique goals and challenges

• Development & administration of Pre and Post surveys to evaluate qualitative data points described above

• Data analysis to identify trends and measure efficacy

• Cardano Restorative Champions Summit

• 16-20 hours / $2,000 USD

• Recruitment and identification of Restorative Champions

• Facilitation of focus groups to collect and distill feedback from Restorative Champions

• Development of future plan and vision for RP work with Cardano based on Restorative Champions’ input

• 1 Year Maintenance Costs

• 10 hours / $1,000 USD

Estimated Range of Hours: 130-190 / Estimated Average: 160

75% of those hours will be facilitated by Kathleen McGoey

Note: Kathleen's current rate is $235/hr [75% x 160 x $235 = $28,200]

<u>Due to Kathleen’s commitment and belief in the potential of this project, she is offering to discount her rate to $125/hr for this initial pilot round of the training project only. </u>

[75% x 160hrs x $125= $15,000]

25% of the total hours will be facilitated by the other team members named, at a rate of $125/hr.

[25% x 160hrs x $125= $5,000]

BUDGET TOTAL: $20,000

Nicholas DeMuth: Project Manager

Nicholas DeMuth, BSN, MBA ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicdemuth/ ) has over 23 years of Leadership, Management, Mentoring & Startup Experience and has been a successful community builder on various projects internationally.

• He has the unique skills of being able to be an ambassador between the various
• stakeholders because of the way he is able to increase buy-in by ensuring that the stories are told in a powerful, emotional (primary factor driving behavior), and individual way that allows for each stakeholder to be fully felt, seen & heard.
• He has experience bridging the gap between developers, makers, artists, marketing, sales, non-technical, social impact and local change agents from all over the world.

Kathleen McGoey: Lead Facilitator

Kathleen McGoey, BA, MA (www.linkedin.com/in/kathleenmcgoey) has been a leader in the field of International Peace & Conflict Transformation for 19 years. After 8 years directing a prominent Restorative Justice NGO in Longmont, Colorado, she launched Kathleen McGoey & Associates, Inc. in 2021 to train companies and communities throughout the US in using restorative approaches for transforming conflict and strengthening organizational culture.

• Kathleen has published her experiences as a restorative practitioner and international peacebuilder in two books and one article in the International Journal of Restorative Justice. <https://www.kathleenmcgoey.com/publications>
• From her background as an Executive Director, Kathleen honed specialized skills in leadership and management that center healthy organizational culture to enable innovation, collaboration, and evaluating evidence-based success.
• Kathleen is a bilingual Spanish speaker who is adept at overcoming cultural differences to bring together diverse groups through embodied interactive experiences that prioritize connection and play.

Erica Lee: Restorative Practices Specialist

Erica Lee (<https://www.linkedin.com/in/erica-lee-2b9b3a1b2/>) worked with youth and adults in the field of Social and Emotional Learning for nearly a decade before transferring her attention to the Restorative Justice world to explore her passion for circular, non-hierarchical communication techniques, conflict transformation strategies and organizational governance structures.

• Currently, she serves as a Restorative Justice Facilitators and Trainer in a consultant capacity with businesses, non-governmental organizations and communities.
• In this role she focuses on cultivating clarity within the organization's justice, equity, diversity and inclusion (JEDI) goals, restorative communication skill building and facilitation of restorative conversations.
• Some of her recent projects include recruiting a team of restorative practitioners to fulfill a contract aimed to implement a restorative justice program in one of Colorado's most diverse cities of four hundred thousand residents, Aurora, CO.
• She is proud to have recently worked with educators and administrators in schools to support their community’s culture shift by curating curriculum to fit their need for engaging restorative education.

Dora Iyigun: Evaluation Specialist

Dora Iyigun, BA, (<https://www.linkedin.com/in/dora-iyigun-34a46a172/>) has over 5 years of Data Analytics, Impact Measurement, Leadership, Operational & Startup Experience.

• Techstars Workforce Development Accelerator - Supporting founders enabling human potential through work and economic mobility.
• Created & managed the program schedule of 1,500+ meetings between 12 organizations & 150 mentors and 30+ workshops
• Worked directly with accelerator companies on projects; customer and competitor research, business model, operations, strategy & pitches.
• Facilitated workshops on conscious leadership and restorative practices in the workplace for 12 startups.
• Program Measurement & Evaluation Research Projects: Longmont Community Justice Partnership (LCJP) & Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD)
• Developed a strategy to gain insights into whether or not the LEAD program is working by programming Stata code, creating data templates, developing sample data, cross referencing different data sets, and building data models using pivot tables.
• Analyzed the empirical determinants of recidivism using Stata. Co-authored a paper on these findings.

Abby Whipple: Project Advisor

Abby Whipple, BS, MBA (<https://www.linkedin.com/in/abby-whipple-083524158/>) has worked in the restorative justice field since 2011. Most recently, she co-founded a non-profit which is developing a web-based application and database for restorative justice programs (www.velaweb.org). Before co-founding Vela, Abby served as a program, strategy, and data consultant for a restorative justice organization in Colorado.

• With a focus on strategic planning and implementation, in 2015 Abby saw a need to bring consistency to the application of restorative justice practices in Colorado. Abby chaired the training committee for the Colorado Coalition of Restorative Justice Directors from 2015-2017. This committee produced the nation's first state-wide standards for restorative justice facilitator training.
• Abby is a seasoned restorative justice facilitator and trainer, having trained more than 300 volunteers in restorative justice practices and facilitated restorative justice conferences for more than 200 individual cases. She brings an in-depth knowledge of the needs of conflict resolution programs.

Picture of Team at Kathleen McGoey & Associates, Inc. in Colorado, USA, December 2021

Team members involved in this project are:

Erica Lee (second from left)

Kathleen McGoey (center)

Abby Whipple (second from right)

[AUDITABILITY]

Data Point 1: [Qualitative] How has a team’s self-reported progress toward social-emotional intelligence factors been impacted by Restorative Practices (RP) training, through pre- and post- surveys. Goal areas to include:

• Psychological safety: empathy, ability to voice ideas freely, degree of feeling seen, heard and valued
• Innovation factors: trust, creativity, collaboration, execution, follow-through
• Specific Challenge Areas: participants identify and report on 3-5 predicted challenges that are unique to their team and how their ability to address those challenges changed throughout the duration of the project.

Data Point 2: [Qualitative] Evaluate improvement of leadership and communication skills

• See Harvard Business Review “[Top 10 Leadership Competencies](<https://hbr.org/2016/03/the-most-important-leadership-competencies-according-to-leaders-around-the-world >).” Participants rate themselves before and after training in key qualities for leadership competency.
• Use Social Capital Grid for self-assessment, pre and post RP training

Data Point 3: [Qualitative] Team efficacy and accountability

• Participants report how RP tools impacted progress towards overarching team goals (i.e. how did new decision-making approaches impact efficiency in product development)

Data Point 4: [Quantitative]

• How many teams/individuals completed RP training?
• Of those who completed training, how many times did they use the 3 primary tools:
• Circle Practice (including: to what degree of complexity)
• Restorative Conversation
• Facilitated Restorative Dialogue

Success Criteria for this project will look like:

• A comprehensive evaluation of progress towards the 4 Data Points outlined in the previous section, as well as additional data points that get identified through program development.

• Assessment of how closely the project addressed the challenge, according to KPIs.

• Integration of the previous two sources of information to inform a Sustainability Plan:

During months 6-12, we will coordinate a Restorative Champions Summit, to bring together individuals from the Cardano community who self-identify as advocates of restorative workplaces for innovation. This group of champions will engage in feedback and visioning to co-create a plan for prioritizing and sustaining restorative culture at Cardano. A potential plan could look like building protocol so that all future prospective partners in the Cardano community participate in restorative practices training as a prerequisite for engagement, possibly earning a “restorative certification.” This kind of strategy will ensure that all Cardano partners operate with a shared baseline commitment to communication tools that build foundations for respectful relationships that enable innovation.

The feedback and proposed plan envisioned by the Restorative Champions will inform modifications to future RP training courses to meet the Cardano community’s unique needs. From there, interested groups and individuals will have the option to enroll in a paid membership program to the Restorative Practices for Innovation Training customized for Cardano. This could include a standard set of required courses as well as supplemental courses, coaching, and facilitation determined by the members’ specific challenges and goals.

Long-term sustainability will rely upon Cardano’s commitment to bring Restorative Practices training in-house. To this end, our team can design and deliver train-the-trainer modules so that the Restorative Champions and other interested individuals can become Cardano’s in-house restorative trainers. This Cardano RP training team can continue to receive coaching and consultation support to ensure that the restorative tools are being taught and practiced with fidelity to restorative values.

Potential Training to Expand on Skills & Restorative Interventions

(Completing the Continuum)

This proposal describes a structure for a pilot training project, to accomplish the goal of delivering training to a select number of Cardano teams and community members. To fully integrate and sustain restorative practices and see continued impact to innovation will require a culture shift. Culture shift necessitates sustained commitment to training and practice with restorative tools at all levels of the project.

At the top of the pyramid pictured in the “Continuum of Restorative Practices” graphic pictured in the “Solution” field are restorative interventions that require a greater depth of training and skillfulness, including Restorative Dialogues and Conflict Transformation processes. These processes typically involve more complexity because in addition to the directly harmed and responsible parties, indirectly impacted community representatives also participate. They are also typically used for incidents with more severe harm. Facilitator training in these modalities is not included in this proposal, but will be an offering for those who complete the initial 3 courses in this pilot. During the pilot period, participants are welcome to inquire about additional training opportunities that can be arranged through contractual agreements.

This is an entirely new proposal.

SDG Rating

This proposal corresponds with SDG #10 Reduced Inequalities, #16 Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions and #17 Partnerships for the Goals.

While obtaining her Master's degree in International Peace and Conflict Studies in Innsbruck, Austria, Kathleen McGoey, (Lead Facilitator on this project), studied the UN SDGs in depth. As well-intended and aspirational as the SDGs may be, one of the primary competencies lacking in the arena of International Aid and Development– which results in a lack of meaningful change– is the capacity for effective cross-cultural communication and facilitation. Training in Restorative Practices responds to this need by providing practical skills tied to universal concepts for effective communication and building more trusting, respectful communities. These skills are applicable across diverse contexts– at their best, they are truly skills for life, as much as skills for innovation in the workplace. To that end, the most successful training participants will internalize these skills and concepts and use them in their lives beyond their involvement in the Cardano community. Specific correlations can be made via the following:

• SDG #10 Reduced Inequalities: Restorative Practices will enable individuals and teams to create more inclusive environments that create respectful spaces for listening to those coming from historically underrepresented and marginalized groups. Participants will acquire self-reflective tools that challenge them to confront their biases and power dynamics that (often inadvertently) perpetuate inequality.

• SDG #16 Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions: Restorative Practices provide tools for changing the centuries-old paradigm that relies on adversarial, punitive responses to conflict and reframes conflict and disagreement as opportunities for transformation and peace building. Participants in RP training who integrate the restorative paradigm into other environments will infuse those communities with non-violent practices characterized by compassion and cultural sensitivity.

• SDG #17 Partnerships for the Goals: The individuals who choose to continue practicing their restorative communication skills will become experts in collaboration and accountability. They will be able to innovate and inspire teams who may feel stagnant and inert by bringing creative facilitation techniques and using elective methods to discover unforeseen solutions. These individuals can play a key role in intentionally progressing the SDGs forward without leaving anything– or anyone– behind.