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Hi, I'm Aimee and I'm going to talk to you about collaborative decision-making. We're gonna talk about what it is, why it's important, and what good collaborative decision-making looks like.

Picture this. Your team is preparing for a classroom competition. You've been testing strategy ideas, collecting data, analyzing the results, iterating and testing again. Maybe you've been out scouting in the classroom, checking out other teams' robot designs or strategy ideas. Now your team has to come back together to discuss these ideas and come to a conclusion on what your team's game strategy is going to be. How do you do this? Well, you do it through collaborative decision-making. That means you're gonna examine your data together, share strategy ideas, listen to one another, and come to an agreement on the strategy you're going to try.

So why is this important? Well, good collaborative decision-making teams are winning teams. You're gonna end up with a better strategy if you're good at communicating about it. Collaborative decision-making is a skill that everybody needs. I can't even think of a job that you would have where you wouldn't need to be good at collaborating with your team members or your coworkers when you grow up. So it's a really important life skill that you get to practice right now.

All right, you're gonna practice it, what does it look like? Each team member needs to listen actively to one another. Don't interrupt each other. Give everyone their full turn to share their idea. Ask questions, and take turns. Every team member needs to share ideas. It is your responsibility to come up with an idea based on the evidence that you gathered during deliberate practice. You have the data to back it up, share your idea, and patiently answer questions. It is every team member's responsibility to make sense of each other's ideas.

Here's a tip for what you can do if you're not sure you understand. Repeat back to someone the idea that you're not sure about. Try to explain it to the person whose idea it is. If you have it right, they'll tell you. If you don't, then you can ask questions until you do get it right. Keep going until you really understand everything that everyone is trying to share. Your team is gonna keep working at this until you come together to get a shared strategy, which is likely going to be a combination of team members' ideas, making your strategy stronger in the end.

What do you do if you can't come to an agreement? You don't need to worry about that. That's gonna happen. You can solve this problem by disagreeing productively and disagreeing respectfully. Probably some of the very best strategies come out of when teams have to negotiate until they come to an agreement on a team strategy. That's okay. Just be sure that you're doing your disagreements respectfully. Use a calm and kind tone of voice. Ask questions calmly, listen to what people's answers are, and ask them to back it up with data so you can be sure, everyone can be sure that you're all on the same page. Keep going until you can come to an agreement. It'll be fine as long as everybody comes to it in a spirit of open-mindedness and patience. And if you really, really can't come to an agreement, ask your teacher. I bet they'll have a way to help you out with that.

So, collaborative decision-making is a key to your team's success. If you come together to make a plan for your competition, share ideas, listen actively and understand, disagree productively and respectfully, and then come to an agreement, you're gonna have a stronger strategy, a better chance of winning, and a happier team having a lot more fun. So go out there and collaborate!

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