Self-selection is a team-formation process in which employees choose who they work with and what they work on. If you’re unfamiliar with self-selection you can learn more about it here, here, and in this 4-minute video.
This fall, I taught the Computer Sciences Capstone at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. We used self-selection to allow students to choose a project team for the entire semester. We held the event completely remotely (thanks, COVID-19!) and it. was just about as smooth a self-selection ceremony as I’ve ever run. Here’s how we ran self-selection in a remote classroom environment and how it differed from self-selection in a corporate setting.
Self-Selection Logistics
In this class, we’d partnered with three companies, American Family, Epic, and Capital One, who developed projects for the students to work on throughout the semester. These students worked in teams of four and most of them didn’t know each other before the class. In fact, we ran our self-selection event in the second class of the semester, without much lead time. It normally takes approximately six weeks to prepare for a self-selection event. So, how did we do it so fast?
Academic Self-Selection Prep
The preparation for the academic flavor of self-selection is a little different than that of a corporate event. Here’s how I prepared the class, corporate mentors, and others for the event.
Preparation
- Project One-Pager: Each company prepared a project one-pager that was distributed to all students one week before the event. It described their projects and proposed technology to use.
- Trello Board: We created a Trello Board with columns for each team. Each student filled out a card with some fun information about themselves (favorite coding language, what they wanted to get out of the class, etc). Before the self-selection event, I asked the students to fill out the card and include a picture. These cards started out in the “I don’t have a team” column. We virtually moved them to the various teams as a way to self-select during the event.
- Moderators: I invited my former O2 Agility partner, Jesse Huth, to assist during the event as a moderator. Having multiple people in the room that understand the process and can help individuals talk through stalemates is really important.
- Break-Out Rooms: I assigned a break-out room for each set of corporate mentors. We also set-up a few extra rooms for side conversations. As you can see above, we assigned a break-out room to each team ahead of the event.
- Project Sponsors/Mentors: I briefed all representatives from each company on what would happen about a month ahead of time. I also held a happy hour with them the day before, where I answered questions.
- Self-Selection Logistics: I introduced self-selection in the first class, going over the principles behind it, the logistics, and how to prepare. I took questions and made sure everyone was comfortable with the concept.
- Get to Know You Sessions: In the first class, I left a lot of time for students to get to know each other. I put four students into a break-out room for about 5-10 mins and then switched up the groups. We did this until most people had met most of the room. That helped students figure out who they’d be interested in working with.
- Office Hours: I held office hours two days before the event to answer student questions. Interestingly, no one showed up.
Event Agenda
On the night of self-selection, we ran the event exactly as you would at a corporation using this agenda:
- Moderators: Logistics Reminder – 5 mins
- Company Representatives: Project Pitches – 30 mins
- Students: Self-Selection Round 1 – 10 mins
- Moderators: Examine Gaps – 10 mins
- Students: Self-Selection Round 2 – 10 mins
- Moderators: Examine Gaps and Work Through Stalemates – 10-30 mins
- Students: Self-Selection Round 3 – 10 mins
- All: Team choices complete! (One of the most peculiar things about self-selection is that it always takes three rounds, though you could have many, many more rounds if needed.)
Outcome
We had six projects, 24 students, and three vastly differently project ideas. Within an hour and a half, we had six project teams with four students each and zero issues. We ran into one stalemate. Two students wanted to work together on the same team — a team that had five people. In the end, we convinced one student to jump over to another team working with the same company.
Self-Selection in Academic Environments vs Corporate Environments
The most remarkable difference between self-selection in an academic setting and all of the other sessions I’ve run at corporations was how quickly the students decided self-selection was a good idea. When you run these events at a company, employees have a huge stake in the outcome: they have skills they want to develop, they have titles they want to hold onto, they have people they love working with, they have salaries to uphold, and they have managers they like or don’t like.
In an academic setting, students have none of that baggage!
Students know this is a short-term project, so, worst case it only lasts four months. They want to build something cool and work with these companies. They don’t necessarily care what their role ends up being within the project.
Because of the above phenomenon, students had far fewer questions and worries than corporate employees have. They never questioned whether it was the right way to form a team. All they needed to hear was that they had some agency over which team they joined and they thought it made perfect sense.
Another difference was the efficiency with which the students formed their teams. After round one, all of our teams were perfectly balanced except two. It took exactly two minutes for students to find a team and then adjust to another team if needed. The students were so laid back about the process, and they were a joy to work with!
Furthermore, planning time was much shorter. When you don’t already have teams in place, you can put together and run a self-selection event in only a couple of weeks vs the six weeks that we recommend in a corporate setting. This likely is more of a reflection of not already having teams and less a reflection on academic vs. corporate self-selection. But, let’s face it, in the corporate world, you rarely get a chance to start from scratch.
Finally, students tended to pick-up the concepts and even the technology much quicker than corporate employees. Why? Probably because they’re used to learning and if you’ve ever seen a child and an adult try to learn the same piece of technology, the younger generation almost always wins.
Lessons Learned
Here’s what I might do differently next time:
- Hold the session in person if possible. Self-selection is always more engaging in person, where we can have mingling, food, and drinks ahead of time.
- More mingling time. Invite the students and mentors to a happy hour beforehand so they could get to know each other better and ask questions.
- Team-building exercises. Run a few of these directly after self-selection so the new teams can get to know each other, develop a team name, etc. This semester, we did this during the next class period, but immediately would have been better.
If you’d like to learn more about self-selection, I’ve written a whole series of articles about it here. I’m always happy to answer questions too and you can email me here.