Extended Hand Book

Everyone is encouraged to contribute to the drafting of this handbook, specially those who have participated in Extended Hand dialogues.

 The BOOK

What is Extended Hand?

1. How the military understands the human environment has always been an important component of military operations but over the last decade the ways in which militaries interact with civilians in theatre have significantly changed. In the past, the relevant engagement with the human environment was mostly decided upon and implemented at the top of the hierarchy. However, today each soldier is in a position of having a significant, if not strategic, effect on the human environment. As a consequence, it is now necessary to provide military personnel with additional skills so that they can engage civilians in ways that do not undermine the success of missions. This need to be able to understand and efficiently interact with people from foreign cultures in operational theaters is highlighted in NATO’s Defense Planning Capability Development PriorityJoint Communication.

2. Extended Hand is a tool that is designed to support military-civilian engagement by developing cross-cultural competency and situational awareness in military personnel using facilitated video dialogues between NATO personnel and civilians living in conflict regions.

3. Extended Hand is grounded in two intertwined ideas: 1. military personnel plan and conduct missions with greater efficacy when they have the skills to effectively communicate and build trust with civilian populations in operational theaters and, 2. operational success of missions is correlated with civilian support and understanding of those missions.

4. Extended Hand relies on experts who have a vested interest in collaboration and understanding along with advanced group facilitation methods that enable exchanges that matter. This tool leverages a worldwide network of civilian participants in conflict countries, high speed internet connectivity, military personnel with training needs, and trained dialogue facilitators -- for a real time, cost-effective method of improving military decision-making and engagement with the people in theater. Whether for education or training and operational planning, military personnel usually discuss human aspects theoretically. However, Extended Hand offers them an opportunity to test their thinking in real time with civilians who are currently living through a conflict or military operation.

Features:

• Provides risk-free live interaction with civilians in conflict/operation zones
• Provides expert facilitators who ensure efficient communication exchanges
• Manages the communication technology
• Is available to NATO nation’s military commanders, educators, trainers and their partners.
• Dialogues are in English (except those that involve foreign language training)

Applications:

• Cultural awareness and education
• Cross-cultural communication skills development
• Mission specific situational awareness (of people and cultures)
• Conflict prevention and resolution
• Foreign language training

Cost:

• FREE to NATO participants
• Negotiated fee for non-NATO participants (but pilot dialogues are free)
• Requirement: all participants must respond to a brief (10 minute) post-program assessment survey

Why Facilitated Dialogue?

5. From time to time each one of us participates in a social exchange that leaves us thinking, “That was a great conversation.” We walk away thinking that we learned something about both ourselves and some other person or group that we never understood before. One key ingredient to every one of these notable interactions is excellent questions. At least one person in the exchange was asking sincere and insightful questions. Another essential ingredient to productive conversations is empathy and the ability to take the perspective of the person with whom we are interacting. People who we label “facilitators” have been trained in critical communication techniques such as how to ask questions that expand a dialogue exchange and how to promote perspective-taking. The presence of facilitators creates among participants greater honesty and engagement by removing impediments to communication and relationship-building.

6. Facilitators are especially important when people are attempting to communicate across cultures because differences in languages and values are nearly always present, and can quickly derail a potentially constructive encounter.

7. Cross-cultural interactions can be a source of considerable anxiety for individuals, regardless of whether they occur in person or online. It is easy to read or watch video about people in distant worlds and imagine all of the many questions we have for them. However, when given the opportunity to pose those questions to real people from those cultures, individuals are as likely to forget what they want to say or have their thoughts come out as a jumbled set of disjointed ideas as they are to have a productive and focused conversation. Facilitators help ensure that this does not occur. 

8. Facilitators also act as neutral parties who can help participants listen to each other and to see the issues from different perspectives. Facilitators ensure that participants are able to ask the questions that most clearly capture their curiosity but do so in a way that the other participants can understand. Most importantly (and with respect to overarching educational processes), facilitators help individuals to communicate complicated opinions and views that must be understood in order to address the core issues.

9. Non facilitated cross-cultural dialogues usually present the following shortcomings:

• They only address anecdotal topics (e.g., food, sport, entertainment) with no deep cultural understanding
• They stick to and strengthen cultural stereotypes instead of developing cross-cultural skills
• They focus on general opinions read in the news instead of real-life experience and feelings of the participants
• Participants speak diplomatically correct instead of speaking their mind
• Unsafe or inappropriate discussions happen

10. With this in mind, for all of the programs we administer we provide trained facilitators who help ease into the conversations those participants who seek cultural competence.

Extended Hand Applications

11. The following sections describe some of the main Extended Hand applications. Other applications not described below are also possible (e.g., relationship-building between militaries from different NATO and partner nations, pre-deployment team building between allied units).

Application: Cultural Awareness and Education

12. Participants can use this tool to further explore their understanding of each other’s culture, values, beliefs, and how these factors guide their relationships. The experience will allow the opportunity to look at civilians’ cultures from their perspective and for them to reciprocate in the exploration of different values and culture. The dialogue will evolve according to what the participants are curious about. This application could be stand alone, or the first step of a broader cross-cultural education campaign.

Application: Cross-Cultural Communication Skills Development 

13. Participants can use this tool to practice communicating with civilians in conflict zones and to better understand each other’s communication process. Focusing on this goal will strengthen the participants’ ability to express and decipher the essentials of effective cross-cultural communication. The dialogue will evolve according to what the participants are curious about as well as to the pre-determined objectives. This application could be stand alone, or the second step following the cultural awareness in a broader cross-cultural education campaign.

Application: Mission Specific Situational Awareness (of people and cultures)

14. This tool can be used to help the participants to explore and express the obstacles that come in the way of military missions. Focusing on this goal will give the civilians and military personnel an opportunity to express the goals of military operations and the impact of the missions on civilians in conflict zones. The dialogue evolves according to the established objectives. This application should generally be considered only after achieving the “cultural awareness” or the “cross-cultural communication” objectives stated above.

Application: Conflict Prevention and Resolution

15. This tool is an effective way to experience the parameters of conflict between civilians and military personnel. So often the conflict is misunderstood and misidentified because the participants involved are invisible to each other. This experience is fundamental to exploring and questioning the definitions and experiences of conflict. The dialogue will evolve according to the participants exploration and identification of conflicting issues. This is the most difficult application of Extended Had that should be considered only after having successfully practiced “cultural awareness” and “cross-cultural communication” during a series of dialogues. The focus of this application is not on training participants but on the conflict prevention/resolution outcome. The role of the organizer is to help the participants assess the progress and improve their strategies from dialogue to dialogue until reaching the objective.

Application: Foreign Language Training

16. One indirect application of this initiative is the ability for participants to practice their foreign language skills when speaking with students from specific countries related to their studies. For example, cadets in one NATO academy where they are studying Dari have had the opportunity to have a series of advanced dialogues in Dari. This application demands specific and more complex coordination between WinC and the military organizers. For any other application the dialogues are conducted in English.

The Extended Hand Team

17. Military Organizer

• Decides on the programme objectives 
• Contributes to the dialogues schedule coordination with the World in Conversation team
• Monitors the progress of the participants individually
• Briefs and debriefs the military participants
• Contributes to the collection of assessment data
• Coordinates the logistics within his/her institution

18. Military Participants

• Pursue the objectives set by the organizer
• Follow the security guidelines during and outside of the dialogues
• Participate in the dialogues as directed by the organizer
• Fill out post-dialogue questionnaire

19. Civilian Participants

• Extended Hand is currently funded to work with students in Afghanistan
• We offer limited pilot programs in other countries (e.g., Iraq, Pakistan, China)

20. Facilitators

• Guide the participants through conversation 
• Help participants communicate effectively
• Ensure that the dialogue learning objectives are achieved
• Offer questions and reflections to give direction to the dialogue
• Ensure that security is not breached during the dialogues 

21. World in Conversation Center for Public Diplomacy at Penn State University

• Provides the communication platform
• Provides trained facilitators
• Identifies and coordinates civilian audiences
• Leads coordination for all programs
• Works with military organizers to establish learning objectives
• Collects assessment data for the dialogues and monitor progress

22. NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT) - Future Solutions Branch

• Oversees the development of the program to ensure its progress towards NATO operational objectives
• Represents Extended Hand to NATO and national authorities

Implementation

Implementation Plan

23. We have a dynamic and robust scheduling system in place and so once a NATO user group shows interest in Extended Hand, we can under most circumstances schedule the first pilot program very quickly (sometimes within 2-3 weeks). This pilot program aims at providing the military organizers with a good understanding of what Extended Hand is before deciding to develop a full program. We will work with each NATO user group to develop an appropriate implementation plan and timeline for using this tool. 

Preparing the Dialogues

24. The Extended Hand tool is most effectively utilized in conjunction with pre- and post-dialogue briefings of participating military personnel by the local military organizer. Briefing procedures empower organizers and participants to integrate the tool into the overall education/training plans. These briefings will also provide participants with a more complete training experience.The “Lesson Plans and Activities” section (below) of the handbook summarizes briefings that are aligned with the identified goals of this tool and can be used to supplement or compliment other applications specific to any organizer’s objectives.

During the Dialogues

25. Because  Extended Hand is a training tool that exposes military personnel to live, real-world interaction with foreign actors, dialogues may become sensitive at times. This represents one of the greatest strengths of the program and demonstrates the utility of Extended Hand by emulating experiences many military personnel will encounter in an operational theater. As such, potentially contentious and sensitive moments are the best learning and training experiences short of actually being embedded in a conflict environment. NATO users should be instructed to engage with participants in conflict countries as though they were in theater.

26. The military organizers can attend the dialogues but this is not mandatory. Facilitators are trained to take care of all program logistics. Please be aware that having a superior in the room affects the behavior of participants. If they choose to do so, organizers can remotely observe the dialogues in real time through a web application that can be provided to them.

Monitoring the Progress of Participants

27. While facilitators ensure that the participants progress as a group towards the learning objective during each dialogue, it is the organizer’s role to make sure that each participant knows what his/her specific objective is before each dialogue. The intermediary objectives need to bring the participant progressively to the program objective. Examples of objectives are to learn about a specific cultural issue, talk about a specific (sensitive) topic, try to improve mutual understanding, compare points of view, identify topics of conflict, and possibly de-escalate conflict related to those topics. One very useful intermediary objective for a dialogue is to improve an aspect that went wrong in the previous dialogue. Therefore it is important that after each dialogue the organizer collects from the participant the information about what went right and what went wrong from the perspective of the organizer’s primary goals. Recordings of the dialogues can help the organizer in this task. The “Lesson plans and activities” section (below) provides examples of objectives sequences.

Data Collection

28. In 2014, Penn State’s World in Conversation Center received a research grant from NATO’s Science for Peace and Security Programme to work with the Future Solutions Branch at NATO Allied Transformation Command and study the impact of the Extended Hand cross-cultural video dialogue tool. The goal of the research is to understand the impact of cross-cultural dialogues on military operations and civilian perceptions of the military personnel. We request that ALL Extended Hand users submit a short, ten minute post-program survey. The role of the organizer at each location is to ensure that all participants complete this survey after their program as well as distribute the survey to an equal number of students or soldiers from their unit who DO NOT participate in the dialogues.

Lesson Plans and Activities for 

Each of the FIVE Applications

Application: Cultural Awareness and Education

29. Pre-briefing Recommendations:

• Ask your participants to individually write a list of questions and topics that they will want to address with the civilians about their culture and values
  • Your participants can also do this activity as a group, after having engaged in this process individually. It can be productive to build on each other’s individual curiosities by creating more questions collaboratively. 
• Have a meeting with your participants before the dialogue to talk about the following questions. (This process will assist participants to have more engagement and ownership in the dialogue.)
  • What do you know about the lifestyles of the civilians in a conflict zone that you will meet?
  • How can a better understanding of real people in a conflict zone enable your leadership development as a future officer?
  • What about their culture do you need to better understand so that you can be most effective with your role?
  • What is one aspect of their culture that you are certain that you understand? Then test it out.

30. Debriefing Recommendations:
After the dialogue, have a small discussion about the experience that analyzes the topics discussed. This process will allow for the participants to reflect on the dialogue to further understand and examine their own thoughts, ideas, and impact. Consider the following questions:

• What did you learn about this culture that was new for you?
• What did you learn about being a civilian and how does what you learned compare to military culture, values and principles?
• What was the most important thing you heard from the civilians?
• From what you heard, what is something that will influence how you make decisions in the future? 
• What is something about their culture that is still difficult to understand?
• What do you think the civilians now understand more as a result of your dialogue? 
• What did you disagree with in the dialogue? What is important about the disagreement? 

31. Objectives Sequence Example (and this is ONLY an example):

Programme Objective - Understand the concept of culture and cultural bias

• Dialogue 1 - Identify ethnic cultural similarities and differences - compare a day of your life
• Dialogue 2 - Understand why and how cultures are different and similar - exchange ideas on the reasons for these differences and similarities
• Dialogue 3 - Identify civilian-military differences - compare values and modus operandi
• Dialogue 4 - Identify conflicting topics - find something of each culture that cannot be accepted by the other
• Dialogue 5 - Understand the reasons for conflicting topics - discuss until you understand why these conflicting topics have valid foundations on both sides
• Dialogue 6 - Identify your cultural bias - discuss a conflicting topic until you understand the roots of that bias

Application: Cross-Cultural Communication Skills Development 

32. Pre-briefing Recommendations:

• Ask your participants to individually write a list of questions and topics in relation to communication that they will want to discuss with the civilians during the dialogue.
  • Your participants can also do this activity as a group, after having engaged in this process individually. It can be productive to build on each other’s individual curiosities by creating more questions collaboratively. 
• Have a meeting with your participants before the dialogue to talk about the following questions: (This process will assist your participants to have more engagement and ownership in the dialogue)
  • To what degree is trust important when working with civilians in a conflict zone?
  • What are ways in which you could establish trust with civilians?
  • How do you know that you are communicating with trust and clarity?
  • What is needed for communication with civilians that results in effective problem solving, conflict resolution, and greater security?
  • Describe your past communication experiences with civilians (or with people who are not in the military).
  • What are some gestures and body language tools you can use to establish trust during the dialogue?

33. Debriefing Recommendations:

• At the end of a program, it will be ideal to have a debrief discussion to reflect on each dialogue as a team. This process will allow your participants to develop a collective understanding of how this experience can influence their training.
  • What was effective or ineffective about your communication during the dialogue? 
  • What was the most difficult part of communicating with the civilians during the dialogue? 
  • What did you learn is an essential component for valuable communication with the civilians when you are in their country?
  • What differences in communication styles did you notice during the dialogue?
  • How might this dialogue influence your communication methods in your future missions? What factors might you want to focus on?
  • What are the limitations of cross-cultural communication in a military operation?

34. Objectives Sequence Example (and this is ONLY an example):

Programme Objective : Build mutual trust

• Dialogue 1 - Identify cultural similarities and differences - compare a day of your life
• Dialogue 2 - Understand why cultures are different - exchange on the reason why it is different
• Dialogue 3 - Identify conflicting topics - find something of each culture that cannot be accepted by the other and openly discuss those differences
• Dialogue 4 - Contextualize these differences - together with your counterparts discuss differences until they are respected
• Dialogue 5 - Resolve conflict - Start the conversation with a conflicting statement then by dialogue re-establish understanding and trust

Application: Mission Specific Situational Awareness (of people and cultures)

35. Pre-briefing Recommendations:

• Ask your participants to individually write a list of questions and topics that they will want to discuss with the civilians during the dialogue in relation to specific mission goals (although the mission can be an exercise).
  • Your participants can also do this activity as a group, after having engaged in this process individually. It can be productive to build on each other’s individual curiosities by creating more questions collaboratively. 
• Have a meeting with your participants before the dialogue to talk about the following questions. This process will assist participants to have more engagement and ownership in the dialogue.
  • How well do you believe civilians in a conflict zone are informed about military goals and missions?
  • What do you need to know from civilians to better understand their perception of foreign military in their country?
  • What do you need to know from civilians that will help you to better understand their decision-making during a conflict?
  • What do you imagine are the primary reasons that civilians would support or oppose your presence in their country?
  • What are some expectations you have of civilians who are living in a conflict zone?

36. Debriefing Recommendations:

• At the end of a program, it will be ideal to have a debrief discussion to reflect on each dialogue as a team. This process will allow your participants to develop a collective understanding of how this experience can influence their training.
  • What is one thing from this dialogue that you could apply to a future mission? 
  • What did you learn from the civilians about their understanding of specific missions and goals that have been carried out in their nation?
  • What obstacles rose to the surface during the dialogue?
  • What perspective did you gain about how military missions, goals and personnel impact the lives of civilians?
  • Understanding that every mission is unique, what are the most important things about civilians in an operational theater that you would relay to soldiers under your command?

37. Objectives Sequence Example (and this is ONLY an example):

Programme Objective - Gain a understanding of civilians in a particular culture that is valuable for military operations

• Dialogue 1 - Identify cultural similarities and differences - compare a day of your life
• Dialogue 2 - Identify your cultural bias - discuss a conflicting topic until you understand it is because of your cultural bias that it is conflictive.
• Dialogue 3 - Understand Religion - compare religions and deconflict when needed
• Dialogue 4 - Understand Politics - compare politics and deconflict when needed
• Dialogue 5 - Understand Gender - compare gender roles and deconflict when needed

Application: Conflict Prevention and Resolution

38. Pre-briefing Recommendations:

• Inform participants thoroughly about the background of the potential conflict
• Ask your participants to individually write a list of questions and topics that they will want to discuss with the civilians during the dialogue.
• Leveraging each other’s individual expertise help participants design a common strategy. 
• Have the participants consider the following questions:
  • What are some misunderstandings that arise when different cultures encounter one another?
  • What does it mean to “understand” another culture?
  • How can understanding a culture different than your own aid in reducing interpersonal conflict?
  • How comfortable are you asking questions to others about their cultures? 
  • What is something an individual can do to ease tensions between different cultures?
  • How has your culture shaped your method of communication and argument?
  • When has your own personal method of communication been misunderstood in the past?

39. Debriefing Recommendations:

• At the end of a program, it will be ideal to have a debrief discussion to reflect on each dialogue as a team. This process will allow your participants to develop a collective understanding of how this experience can influence their training.
  • What is a value expressed by the civilians that helped you better understand their point of view?
  • What are some ways this conversation (between at least two cultures) was different than a conversation between people within your culture?
  • What insight did this dialogue give you about how to resolve conflict with civilians in a conflict zone?
  • What was a viewpoint you heard that you rejected (or wanted to reject)?
  • What was conflicting for you in the dialogue? How did you resolve that for yourself? 

40. Objectives Sequence Example (and this is ONLY an example):

Programme Objective : Identify conflict topics and address them to terminate the conflict situation

• Step 1 - Identify cultural similarities and differences - compare a day of your life - compare values
• Step 2 - Identify conflicting topics - find something of each culture that cannot be accepted by the other. Military occupation, Religion, Politics and Gender are usually conflicting topics.
• Step 3 - Understand your bias - not in video dialogue but among the military participants and with the organizer(s) empathize with the counterparts’ point of view to identify reasons on their side and bias on your side
• Step 3a - Deconflict a topic - address a conflicting topic then by dialogue re-establish understanding and trust.
• Step 3b - Dialogue 5 - Prevent conflict - address the most conflictive topic without losing mutual understanding and trust
• Repeat these steps until the objective is met.

Application: Foreign Language Training

41. An indirect application of the Extended Hand tool is the opportunity to use the technology, civilian connections in conflict countries, and trained facilitators to improve foreign language verbal skills. For example, one NATO Academy used Extended Hand for cross-cultural dialogues with Afghan civilians for four weeks and then had four weeks of facilitated dialogues in Dari, a language that cadets were studying.

Logistics and Technology

Security Recommendations

Online security

42. The videos, live or recorded are not published or shared, and when possible, are encrypted. The internet remains an environment no one can fully control. As a consequence, Extended Hand participants and organizers should conform to the following recommendations.

Personal security

43. Don’t provide personal information such as last name, address, emails, phone number or information about your life and family that would allow strangers to locate your home or your familiars.

• Using first names, ranks and wearing a uniform during dialogues are not issues.
• Make sure no name tag is visible on the uniform. However, we encourage making large print name tags (with first names only) that can be placed on a table if cadets are seated behind one.

Military and operational security

44. Nothing discussed during the video dialogues is classified.

Don’t provide details that would allow strangers to locate precisely military facilities. Don’t provide operational details about things happening right now. It is fine to talk about past activities and unclassified missions. A good rule when talking about operations is not to be specific about places, times, people and about how many military equipment, personnel and capabilities were engaged. Having said this, in the many hundreds of dialogues with civilians in many different conflict countries we have never had someone ask a military participant a question that required an answer that could in any way compromise NATO operational security.

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45. It is important for participants to keep in mind that whatever happens during the dialogues they are not representing the armed forces, a specific unit, or an institution. However, the civilians will anyhow perceive them as a representative of those. So it is important that NATO participants mind what they say, be respectful of their institution and country, and be polite to their counterparts and dialogue partners at all times.

During the video dialogues

46. Facilitators are familiar with these security recommendations and will make sure there is no breach.

After the dialogues

47. The most important security concern is not during the dialogues but after the dialogues. It is natural that after some dialogues participants would develop a trust relationship and start interacting through other communication channels such as the social media. This is fine, but remember that the internet is an environment that no one can fully control. Even if the dialogue participants are selected, you cannot know who their personal and online friends are. Therefore, it is recommended that you don’t share personal and operational information online ever.

48. For more information about online and social media security, consider taking the NATO Social Media Awareness Online Course at https://innovationhub-act.org/smcourse/registration

Questions can also be addressed to [email protected]

To the organizers

49. Make sure that all the participants know and understand the security recommendations.

You don’t need to monitor the video dialogues, the facilitators do this.

Contact [email protected] for assistance, question or concern.

Translators

50. If there is a translator, working to establish rapport and trust between military and civilians is critical - and understanding the full extent to which translation may be trusted is an important component of developing situational awareness. 

Recordings

51. Many Extended Hand sessions will be recorded if consent is granted unanimously before a session begins. ONLY staff at World in Conversation have access to the recordings. Sessions are recorded for several purposes:

• To ensure the highest quality of service from Extended Hand we review dialogues and evaluate facilitator skills
• For review by organizers and participants upon request (so participating NATO institutions can review the recordings of their dialogues)
• As a means to maximize the educational and training efficacy of the Extended Hand program

52. Recordings are made for research and monitoring purposes. They are not meant to be published. We will NOT publish or share any video recordings without the consent of participants and organizers.

Technical Security and Setup

53. Extended hand leverages a modern video conferencing technology called BlueJeans to connect military and civilians from anywhere in the world. This technology allows participants use ANY internet capable device to connect to each other - including mobile devices and traditional VTC equipment. It does not require an account to log in and access is provided through Extended Hand. 

BlueJeans uses 128 bit AES encryption as well as SSL to ensure that all communications are secure. Additionally, BlueJeans meetings are set up to exclusively allow secure (encrypted) devices to participate. Read BlueJeans security specifications here. 

We suggest using a windows PC and Firefox (BlueJeans will NOT work with Google Chrome) to connect to BlueJeans when a VTC device is not available.  Please see setup instructions here.

Testing Your Connection

54. To ensure punctual start and end times, partners are encouraged to visit https://bluejeans.com/111/ to test their connection and install any necessary plugins before the scheduled date of programming. 

55. Additional Resources

 

• Extended Hand website
• Promotion video
• Extended Hand Facebook page

56. Contacts

Serge DaDeppo, Project Officer, Future Solutions Branch, NATO Allied Command Transformation

[email protected]

 

Sheffy Minnick, Global Program Manager,  World in Conversation, Penn State University

[email protected]