As the Beekeeper, your role is to run the SciFi Hive swarm. The interface is made to allow you to easily follow and track the flow from the start to the end of the SciFi hive as well as provides instructions for each step along the way.
The Beekeeper Interface is split out into a few parts. To run though a quick tutorial of the parts, click on the Swarm "?"
During a SciFi Hive, there are 2 different types of video conference rooms.
- The swarm room - this is the main room where all participants will get together to receive instructions and to share after each section
- Hive rooms - these are the breakout rooms that the small teams (hives) will break out into to work on each section of the SciFi Hive
Join the swarm room by clicking on the "Join swarm room" button or click on "Join swarm room" in the Run tab.
Once you're in the conference room you can also pop the video conference window out into a new window by clicking on the popout button on the top right hand corner.
The popout window can then be moved to another screen so you can work inside the platform and see the conference at the same time. If you don't want to pop out, you can still return to the main tab to view the video conference.
The run tab is where you as a Beekeeper will manage a SciFi Hive session.
You'll work from top to bottom of the run tab in order to complete a SciFi Hive Swarm.
There are several sections in a SciFi Hive Swarm and they all follow a very similar flow which we will look at shortly.
First though, let's look at the top 2 items in the Run tab.
- Join swarm room - This will join the main swarm room (there's also a Join swarm room button)
- Invite participants to the swarm room - Clicking on this will pull any active participants that aren't in the main swarm room into the main swarm room.
The Welcome section is important to provide some background (through the video) on why it's important to think differently during the SciFi Hive swarm.
The breakout activity is optional but if you have time it's a good way for the hives to spend a small amount of time introducing each other and getting to know each other.
Usually 1-2 hour session 1 week prior to Futurescaping to allow the participants time to self explore and expand their thinking.
Participants will search the web for videos/articles related to and adjacent to the topic of the Swarm and log them for sharing.
There's even a dashboard to create some competition for the most exploration.
During Futurescaping, the hives will brainstorm on a digital sticky wall all of their ideas for their utopian future.
They should think really far out (20-30 years) and focus on utopia. Also brainstorm technology needed, ways to get there, changes needed, barriers to getting there, etc...
Hives will use a Hero's journey story writing template to walk them through building their hero's journey story.
The hero's journey story pattern is highly recognizable as most stories and movies follow a similar flow based on this pattern.
During this section, the hives dive into writing the outline of their comic panels and the script for each panel.
This usually becomes a very iterative process at this point and we usually combine the Script writing and the Prototype development into one session.
Now the fun really starts. This is a very chaotic portion of the SciFi Hive but also a lot of fun.
The hives bring their stories to life as they create a digital prototype of their comic that can later be used to create a professional comic and glean out potential initiatives to take a step towards their future vision.
Now that the workshop is complete, it's time to focus on how to use all of the great collaboration that occurred during the SciFi Hive.
Thanks everyone for attending and actively participanting.
Have a date preplanned for a results session and let everyone know of the date and time as well as any follow up sessions required to turn the visions into initiatives into reality.
As you can see, each section of a SciFi Hive follows the same flow. Let's take a look at each of the items in the section.
As the Beekeeper, it's good to start the Swarm off with a few housekeeping items as follows (gray items are optional):
- Click on 'Join swarm room' to enter the swarm room yourself
- Click on 'Invite participants to the swarm room' to bring participants from the lobby into the swarm room
- Introduce yourself any special guests that are taking part in the workshop
- Describe the interface buttons that are important such as the Join swarm room, Join hive room, Leave room and the Video Popout button.
- Describe the workshop sessions if there are multiple sessions. Be sure you have set up the sessions in the admin site so you can have the participants use the sessions button to follow along with you while you describe the sessions
- Let the participants know you're going to watch a short video introducing them to how our world is changing exponentially and why it's important to think differently
- Click on 'Present Welcome' to play the welcome video in the swarm room
- When the video is done, click on 'Stop Video' to remove the video from the meeting
- Let the participants know you are going to break them out to their hives for a few minutes to introduce themselves to each other. They don't need to do anything, they will be sent to their hive room shortly and you will return them to the swarm room in a few minutes. They will see a warning before returning to the swarm room
- Click on 'Start Breakout' to send everyone to their hives
- You will be sent to the 'Breakouts' tab where you will be able to message the hives and visit the different hive rooms
- Once the time is up, click on 'Join main swarm room' on the 'Breakouts' tab
- Click on 'End Breakout' to return the hives to the main swarm room
- Move on to the 'Beekeeper Instructions' under the 'Explore' section
Each section has a video that describes the purpose of the section and instructions for the work that the hives will be doing during the section. The videos are presented by Ken's memoji..you'll see him here and there in the interface.
You must be in the swarm room to present the videos so be sure to join the swarm room first and invite all the participants to also join the swarm room.
Once you're a certified Beekeeper you may want to present your own presentation (don't worry, you'll learn how and practice during the certification course)
Be sure to use the Stop Video link after presenting a video as it removes the video stream from everyones screen.
The Welcome breakout is optional so skip it if you don't think it's necessary. It's a quick introduction in the Hives for the hive teams to get to know each other.
Either way, the hives will be involved in extreme collaboration during the SciFi Hive so they will get to know each other by the end.
The End Breakout link will close the hive rooms and pull everyone back to the main swarm room.
Each section ends with a time to share. Sharing across the hives is important to expand thinking and cross pollinate ideas.
In the sharing popup, there are 2 tabs.
- Instructions - how to facilitate sharing for the section and how to give points to participants that do share
- Sharing - list of items to share for each team. Try to share across all teams throughout the SciFi hive but also be sure to be cognizant of your timing.
Note: You can give points to sharers by checking on the box beside the item that is shared.
While running a SciFi Hive you'll want to visit the hive teams as they are working in their hive rooms (breakout rooms) during each section of the SciFi hive.
You can control do this in the Breakouts tab (available for Beekeepers and Facilitators only)
To visit a hive, just click on the hive in the Visit hives list.
Once you do, you'll notice that there are several more tiles on the left side and an new button on the top called "Join hive room".
By clicking on the tiles on the left side of the screen, you can now view the work for the hive that your visiting. This will allow you to follow along while they work and even input into the work with them.
Click back on the "Swarm" tile at anytime to jump to return to the Breakout and Run tab.
Once you've joined a Hive, you can click on the Join hive room button to join the video conference room for the hive. The name of the hive will appear on the video conference screen.
At any point you can use the "Broadcst a message to hive rooms" feature to send a message to all of the hive rooms at the same time.
Usually we will keep everyone up to date on timing using this feature as it's very important to keep everyone working to the set timing for the SciFi Hive.
Feel free to jump around from hive to hive and visit all of the hives (you can only be in one hive at a time). Once you're done visiting, click on the "End hive visit" to leave the current hive without joining another.
To get back to the main swarm room, you can click on the "Join main swarm room" item in the Breakouts tab or you can return to the Run tab to Join the swarm room or just click on the "Join swarm room" button on the top of the screen.
Sometimes you'll find it necessary to update the hive configuration (team members) during a SciFi Hive. You can always go back to the admin interface to do this but we've added the hive and hive members configuration right into the Beekeeper interface to streamline this if needed during a SciFi Hive.
You might need to do this if there are no shows in order to keep an appropriate team size for each hive.
Note: The participants will need to go back to the main swarm screen after you make changes for the changes to take effect for them.
Just like in the Admin interface, you can add/remove hive teams here and see the participants assigned to each team.
Note: The participants will need to go back to the main swarm screen after you make changes for the changes to take effect for them.
Just like in the Admin interface, you can drag and drop participants between the hive teams to make any adjustments needed to the hive team.
Note: The participants will need to go back to the main swarm screen after you make changes for the changes to take effect for them.
Beekeeper Certification Course
Our Beekeeper Certification course is designed to introduce participants to the process of setting up and facilitating a SciFi Hive™ Swarm using the novel aproach to future collaboration. It’s proven to shift to exponential mindsets, deliver practical tools and create disruptive opportunities to empower participants in becoming professionals in transformative change in an organization.
Through a structured 9-week program, participants will receive hands-on experience in configuring the platform, facilitating all stages of a SciFi HiveTM, building connections with innovative leaders, develop important leadership and facilitation skills, and develop results presentations and speaking skills. Upon successful completion of the course, participants will receive a Beekeeper certification.
Course Structure
1-4 hours of class instruction/week, 4-8 hours of homework time
Week 0 - Introduction
Participants will get signed into the platform, complete some self paced learning about the administrative console, and walk through the participant platform. You will then shift from the Google Meet to the SciFi Hive™ Platform where all future classes will be held.
Week 1 - Roles and Interfaces
Participants will complete some pre-reading, learn about the different roles and terms, view the welcome presentation, and meet as a hive to get to know each other and determine what topic they will focus on to run a SciFi Hive™ of their own in week 7.
Week 2 - Exploration
Participants will be provided an “Awake” session around exponential growth, change, and technology and then practice exploration inside the platform. Homework this week will be to continue exploration in their topic space from Week 1 and connect with experts in the space.
Week 3 - Brainstorming and Story Outline
Share your learnings from week 2 and using what you learned during exploration, start brainstorming as a team your utopian future for the topic area.
Learn about the hero’s journey story structure and begin building your story.
Week 4 - Prototyping
Share your story outline from week 3 then finalize your story and build your comic prototype.
Week 5-6 - SciFi Hive™ prepartion
Share your comic prototype then start preparing to run your own SciFi Hive™ as a team. By week 7 you’ll have invited participants to join your SciFi Hive™ and each team member will participate in running the SciFi Hive™ and gathering insights during the SciFi Hive™.
Week 7 - Run SciFi Hive™
This week your planning in weeks 5&6 will come to fruition as you run a real SciFi hive™ in your topic space (either as a global challenge or with one of the teams organizations).
Week 8 - Results
Discuss and do a retrospective on the SciFi Hive™ event and learn about developing a results presentation. This includes how to find a comic artist to create your comic, developing organizational and people focused programs, determining the innovation stars from the SciFi Hive™, and defining potential initiatives from the resulting stories. Additionally you’ll discuss next steps to making the 20 year out vision a reality.
Week 9 - Final presentation
Present your results presentation to your coach and the participants in the SciFi Hive™ (as well as any additonal stakeholders/experts involved)
Week 10 - Retrospective
Receive final feedback from the instructor and provide feedback about the course.
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