How to Be a Facilitator: facilitation

Showing posts with label facilitation. Show all posts

Facilitating Other People's Conversations

Ongoing challenges for every facilitator include:

Choosing how much of themself they 'insert' into the discussion that they are facilitating; and
Being sufficiently self-aware to see when and how they are 'inserting' themself into the conversation.

Yes, these are related challenges, as you cannot do the first without having the second.

Some Insights

Most facilitation can benefit from me being nearly invisible. The key to this is asking questions. Good-old-open-questions. And not just any open questions, but questions that encourage people to examine what they think and why. And if there people are listening as well as sharing their own perspective, there is also the potential for them to see points of agreement, and points of disagreement, and points of ignorance.

When I start a session, I do not ask 'Why are you here?' because I want to hear one cohesive answer around the room; I often ask because I suspect people have different reasons for being here, and I want them to have an opportunity to tell me and the other people in the room what they want out of this.

Also, I can always put more of me into the next part of the discussion, but I can never take out what I have already put in. So I often tell myself, 'Hold back; hold back and see where the discussion is going.' And when I do, thinks almost invariable work out better than they would have with my opinion or intervention.

I have recently visited a number of small not-for-profit organisations working for a better life for people in their communities. I think that small not-for-profit community organisations are the backbone of our social contract on a local level. I sometimes tell people working in these organisations that this is what I think. When I tell them what I think, I am inserting myself into the conversation. I am sharing an opinion. This opinion is not necessarily relevant or helpful.

I think I do it to be encouraging - to let them know that people believe in them; that I believe in them. Could this be unhelpful? Yes it could. It could be unhelpful because when I judge them in this way, I am suggesting that my judgement is valid. I am inserting myself. Maybe I could substitute a question, like, 'What are you doing that is making a difference in this community?' or, more simply 'What is valuable about this work?' -- For a little less of me; and a bit more of them.

Conclusion
The title of this post is very intentional. Actually, it is where this post started. If I can have the humility to believe that this is 'the participants' conversation' (and not mine), there is a good chance they will achieve what they came to achieve, and maybe a bit more.

...Geoff
www.performancepeople.com.au

Three Simple Tips for Facilitators

If you keep these three things in mind when planning to facilitate and when facilitating, you should find that you get an improved response from participants:

go-from-the-known-to-the-unknown
escape serial processes
give markers to the participants

go-from-the-known-to-the-unknown

This involves introducing information people are already aware of before you introduce new information. The ‘known’ makes the ‘unknown’ more credible.

escape serial processes

When I do a SWOT Analysis with groups, for the last few years I have started the process (the identification of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) by putting four pieces of butchers' paper on four tables, each with one label, and spreading some markers around. People can have a bit of a think before putting something down, they can leap-frog each other's ideas, and they can write what they like, where they like and when they like.

give markers to the participants

Recently Jim Callan, a lecturer at CQUniversity, reminded me that it is important to find ways to give participants control over how they share their input. As a result, when the students created organisation charts for Nike following a case study in class, I asked someone from each group to draw their group's version of the org chart on the wall-length whiteboard. That way we could all see how the different groups had approached what seemed on the surface to be a straightforward task.

I am giving markers to the participants, in quite a different way, during the SWOT Analysis mentioned above too.

All the best with your facilitation!

...Geoff
www.performancepeople.com.au

Myth: Facilitators Manage the Process and Stay Out of the Content

The title of this post is a quote from blogger and facilitator Andrew Rixon from an interview with Bob Dick (described by Andrew as 'the father of facilitation in Australia') called 'The Top 5 Myths of Facilitation with Bob Dick'. You can read the whole post here.

I recall an interesting P&C (school 'parents and citizens committee', like the US 'PTA') meeting at which I heard someone comment that the President (who chairs meetings) should not contribute their own opinion, and should not vote unless the votes are equal. This seemed to me to be a quaint perspective. The President is generally one of the best informed people in the room on topics of interest to the P&C. Also, the Constitution of that organisation gave the Chair two votes - their personal vote and a further vote if the numbers are equal. More importantly, why would someone put their hand up for this role if it both gagged and sidelined them in decision making?

I think the person seeking neutrality was harking back to a traditional and conservative meeting format which we seldom see in practice - the mythical 'detached meeting chair'. At P&C and in other contexts, rather than pretending to be neutral, then using my role in mischievous ways, I prefer to participate openly.

In a professional role, the situation is different. Often the facilitator is brought in to be 'a neutral party with process skills'. If this is the case, betraying a personal perspective on 'content' may be inappropriate. I use the word 'may' with care. Sometimes a personal perspective can assist in your facilitation.

I recently facilitated a group of people for whom I am sometimes a customer. During the session I intentionally stepped out of character as 'facilitator' by saying something like, "I would like to put my customer hat on for a few minutes ..." I went on to tell them some home truths from their customers' perspective. The group allowed me to take this role, and I think it was useful in pushing the discussion in some new directions.

Tom Peters is fond of stating that people working in services can be most effective when they are provocative. When I am channelling Tom, I use hyperbole and sometimes personal attacks to get a response. I hardly think I am being neutral when I do this, and I do it with caution, as people do not always take my criticism in the way it is intended.

For example, a little while ago I told a group, "Personally, I think you have it wrong, but as a group no-one else seems to be speaking up, so I guess we'll go it." This was definitely not neutral.

I find it useful, in hindsight, distinguishing between situations in which I have striven to be neutral, and situations in which I have not been concerned with neutrality. As I mature, I find myself more often in the latter than the former state.

...Geoff
www.performancepeople.com.au

The Parable of the Plates

# I sat two plates on the bench. (One for me, and one for my wife.)

# I then retrieved two pieces of bread from the freezer, which I could not separate.

# I put the two pieces of bread in the microwave to unfreeze them so they could be separated.

# I fetched butter, Vegemite and honey.

# I looked at the bench. There was only one plate. I looked again. There was still only one plate.

# I went to the drawer and took out another plate.

# I heard the microwave bing, and removed the bread.

# I separated the two pieces of bread and put them in the toaster.

# I looked at the bench. There were now three plates.

# I looked around for the practical joker. There was only me and my three plates.

Yes, this actually happened as described. Yes, it took me a few moments to figure out that the second plate (and ultimately the third plate) had been in the microwave holding the frozen, stuck slices of bread.

What lessons can the facilitator draw from this parable?

((((Elevator Music))))

I'm going to have a turn at this. The lessons I identified are:

(This is an old teachers' trick.) Don't turn your back on the group, even if they appear catatonic.
What appears to be magic is likely to have a plausible explanation.
Do not try to do too many things at once.
Use a minimum of resources.
Pay more attention to what is going on around you.
Never facilitate when you have just woken up.
Learn to laugh at yourself.
Have a bowl of cereal instead.

...Geoff
www.performancepeople.com.au

Facilitation & Marley

The Book Cover

I have just read the book Marley & Me by John Grogan, and thoroughly enjoyed it. There is also a film of the same name, which does a pretty good job of presenting Marley's story.

So, what can a Facilitator learn from Marley?

Towards the end of the book John Grogan writes (page 401):

Was it possible for a dog - any dog, but especially a nutty, wildly uncontrollable one like ours - to point humans to the things that really matter in life? I believed it was. Loyalty. Courage. Devotion. Simplicity. Joy.

The process of facilitation is sometimes a rollercoaster ride - like being out with Marley. You are not sure what is around the next corner, and that is both scary and exhilarating. But beneath the fear should be a solid foundation.

The foundation includes loyalty (commitment to the client) and simplicity (goals and a basic roadmap for the session); and even courage (to get up and do this job) and joy (when things click into place after all the hard work). Devotion is a tricky one to account for, but I'm sure it is there with my long-term clients. I am certainly devoted to their success, and my facilitation is a tool to accomplish that.

So there you have it. Marley & me, & all of you too!

...Geoff
www.performancepeople.com.au

Activities to Encourage Empathy - How Well Do We Know Each Other?

In the excellent book A Whole New Mind Dan Pink writes about an interesting activity which he calls "A Day in the Life". I have not used this approach, but I hope to soon.

The activity is for working with an intact group in which people seem to lack insight into the work situation of their colleagues. I think this will be particularly valuable if some of the colleagues work off-site or are quite introverted or isolated for other reasons.

The approach (with minor tweaking) is:

Have each participant take a piece of Butchers' Paper and fold it in half twice (to make four equal-sized quadrants).
Ask them to write their name on the top of the sheet, and to label each quadrant: My Highs, My Lows, My Frustrations and My Rewards.
These 'posters' are blue-tacked around the walls.
Everyone circulates around the room, writing what they think are the answers for their colleagues (not themselves).
Then each person in turn stands in front of their poster and responds to their colleagues entries and explains what their workday is really like.

If you've tried this approach, or a similar one, please add a comment about your experience.

...Geoff
www.performancepeople.com.au

Ask a Question, Then Let Them Answer It

When you ask a question, please wait for it to be answered.

I was listening to a podcast from the ABC' (Australian Broadcasting Commission) Big Ideas series yesterday. Bret Easton Ellis was being interviewed by Simon Marnie at the Byron Bay Writers Festival in 2010. It was a great interview in which Ellis said a lot about how and why he writes. The interviewer saved a question for last. It was a question from his 17 year old son, who had been studying Ellis's American Psycho at high school. We waited with bated breath for the question to be asked. The interviewer took questions from other people first, and then posed his son's question. Ellis said it was the best question of the session, people laughed and applauded, and then the interviewer closed the interview. He did not let Ellis answer the question, even after it had been identified as the best question of the interview.

I appreciate that the interviewer may have been following the maxim, 'always leave them wanting' (attributed to both Walt Disney and PT Barnum). But I saw it as a lost opportunity to learn more about this fascinating and complex writer.

You really need to know a bit about Ellis's work to appreciate the question. The question was, 'Why are you such a sick f--k?'

Some people will think a while before responding. This may be uncomfortable for you, but assuming your question was valid and useful it is probably not uncomfortable for them. So be prepared to wait, and then listen with all of your being to the response.

I think this also applies to the sometimes overused technique of asking 'rhetorical questions'. As a facilitator, I'd rather ask a genuine question and listen to the answer, than pose a question without giving that opportunity.

(The podcast is available here.)

...Geoff
www.performancepeople.com.au

Learning from Others

There is so much we can learn from observing other people when they facilitate. In meetings, presentations, lectures and facilitated workshops I am sometimes distracted. This may be due to daydreaming, but is more likely to be because my brain is operating on another plane. On that plane I am asking questions like:

What did they just do?
Why did they do that?
What will they say in response to that interjection?
Will they address this obvious problem with their statement?
What will they do next?
Could or would I do what they just did?
When would it be appropriate to do what they just did?
What could they have done differently then?

I am not completely somewhere else when I am doing this, but I couldn't say I am strictly attending to the topic in hand either.

I recently came across some notes I took at a seminar a couple of years ago - I was not writing this blog at the time, but I had been developing a Presentation Skills workshop. I wrote down:

Use the names of people in the audience, lots of people.
Don't stand in front of the screen.
Don't look at the screen.
Don't just acknowledge VIPs, have something to say that is relevant to their portfolio/interests.
Start the session with a question or a confrontational statement.
DON'T read from the slide.
Check the size of the text on your slides (at the venue, on the venue's equipment)!

Pay attention, there is a lot to learn from other people's performance.

...Geoff
www.performancepeople.com.au

Some Notes on Preparation

I wrote earlier about the way Carla Rogers of EVOLVE has written about working in facilitation with Indigenous people in a post called 'Facilitating Difference From Oneness'. I wrote in the earlier post about her theme of exploring difference through a rich appreciation of what we have in common. (Click here to read the earlier post.)

In the post, Carla also wrote about preparation and flexibility while facilitating. She sees it as important to have a gap between preparation and facilitation in order to be truly present as a facilitator. I would go a step further and suggest leaving a gap between everything and facilitation, although that might be a bit impractical. In the past I have done this by walking away while people were gathering. Now I feel the need to relate to participants before commencing, so I need to get into my personal space earlier. Being in nature is a good way to do this, as is being with children you love.

Carla also wrote that she could be criticised for undertaking very thorough preparation, as it stifles flexibility when you facilitate. However, although she undertakes thorough preparation, she is happily flexibly, even subscribing to the guiding principles of Open Space Technology. (Whoever comes is the right people; whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened; whenever it starts is the right time; and when it’s over it’s over. More on these here.)

Juxtaposing thorough preparation with flexibility is an interesting challenge. Carla writes 'usually what happens dramatically departs from the plan in terms of approach, while remaining true to the intent and values that we have jointly articulated'.

I believe that when you are working for a client or a cause, it is important that the intent and values be articulated early, and that they are considered while being flexible about other aspects of the session. Being in the moment and being flexible should then be achieved within the context of the larger purpose that brought the group together.

If you haven't been there already, you can read Carla's post 'Facilitating Difference From Oneness' by clicking here.

...Geoff
www.performancepeople.com.au

A Smarter Intro

Yesterday I attended an Urban Water Security Symposium held by Queensland Conservation with support from CQUniversity Australia and other organisations. It was a fantastic event with excellent speakers and topics, and great technical content clearly presented and supported with examples of real world application.

Alan Hoban of Water by Design started his presentation with: "Imagine that an alien came down to Earth. How would you describe what water is?"

Alan went on to talk about water being colourless and odourless and transparent; and how we often talk about water in terms of the aspects that are not water, like whether it is salty or fresh. And then he was off and away telling us about significant design projects harnessing the qualities of water.

In a leadership training session I recently asked the audience to chat among themselves and try to answer the question: "What is this leadership thing about?" This question was purposely extremely broad. It is also very intentionally not a definition from the Shorter Oxford Dictionary, or even the (unsourced) Google Dictionary.

Think about starting your next session by asking people to try to explain the thing you are to discuss. This could work for any topic from organisational growth to genetic mutation to genealogy to governance.

...Geoff
www.performancepeople.com.au

Not Finishing Quite Yet; Maybe Never Finishing

Urgh. I've been here for hours. The chairs are not comfortable. I am not enjoying the session. The topic is wandering. I have a strong streak of super ego saying, 'stay, you made the commitment, now stay to the end'. The time they published to finish is long past. (No, not 5 minutes passed, although I thought Urgh at about that time too. No, about 35 minutes past - which is a more than 25% overrun, and counting.) I actually need to do other things, even if my diary is blank for the next few hours. The air is stuffy. And they just keep going. Why me? Why now?

OK. Let's get some perspective here. All over the world there are people genuinely suffering. I attended a school where speech night tended to go into the wee small hours. This is good practice if I am ever approached to do a part (or worse, understudy) in 'Waiting for Godot'. I could pull out my phone and catch up on email/Plants vs Zombies. I could do Latin declensions in my head (if I'd paid attention at school). I can continue to catalogue the body language of the other participants. I could even pay attention, although I seem to be doing that, and it is not sufficiently interesting to dominate my attention. I could doodle another 5 pointed star. I could close my eyes, just for a moment. No! Don't close my eyes. That would definitely be a mistake, compounded by my head rolling about on my shoulders, or crashing to the table.

Why can't they offer to let people go (if they need to go)?
Why can't they tell us what else they are going to do?
Why can't they tell us how much longer they expect to go?
Why can't they apologise for going past the published finish time?
Why can't they ask permission to keep going?
Why can't they start to wrap-up?
Why can't they suggest that we reconvene in a couple of days?
Why can't they ask whether a small number of people would like to reconvene in a couple of days?
Why can't they call a break so the ones who have to go are not embarrassed to get up and leave?
Why can't they finish? Just finish.

These bullet points are not the result of a rambling mind. (Well, maybe they are a bit.) They are your choices when you go over the allotted time. Whether you allotted it or someone else did, you are still responsible for the consequences of going over time. So check the list and take appropriate action. If you cannot or are unwilling to do the last one, do at least three of the others - any three, just make sure that they are relevant. And if you do some things that result in us keeping going, make sure you keep it interesting and clearly on-topic, and that you finish soon.

Thank-you,

...Geoff
www.performancepeople.com.au

Celebrating Difference

I love the way Carla Rogers of EVOLVE has written about working in facilitation with Indigenous people in a post called 'Facilitating Difference From Oneness'. One of her themes was the importance of exploring difference through a rich appreciation of what we have in common. This can be done in 'cultural sensitivity training' by first discussing what we have in common, and moving on to our differences.

I really like this. The concept of moving from our similarities to our differences is like the subtle process in the SWOT of beginning with our strengths, so our weaknesses feel less overwhelming (and similarly with our opportunities and threats).

If we are about building bridges between people and between cultures, then this is a great insight into meeting as people.

You can read Carla's post 'Facilitating Difference From Oneness' by clicking here.

...Geoff
www.performancepeople.com.au

I found Carla's blog through the AFN-L mailing list. Anyone interested in facilitation in Australasia can benefit from dipping a toe into the often rushing waters of this mailinglist, or even better, diving right in.

Facilitation & The Great Circle Navigators

The Readers Digest Great World Globe (Instagram with Rise filter)

What can we learn from the Great Circle Navigators?

John Kapeleris, entrepreneur and General Manager at the Australian Institute of Commercialisation, blogs on a range of interesting topics around innovation, commercialisation and setting and accomplishing goals. I am a regular troll and some time commenter at his blog. This weekend he incited me to respond by writing about the Red Queen Effect, based on the Red Queen in Lewis Carroll's (1871) Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There.

As an aside my Dad, Ian, has been facilitating a discussion series about Lewis Carroll's two Alice books at U3A (University of the Third Age) over the last few weeks. He is interested in how Alice's experiences, and those of the other characters, align with the very real 'through the looking glass' lives we lead.

Back to John, he explains the Red Queen Effect very well (see his post here), so I won't go into detail except to re-quote two of his quotes from the Red Queen: “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place” and “If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”

My interest in John's post stems from a common issue we experience in trying to keep up with the 'fire hose' flow of new knowledge. (The fire hose analogy is about the difficulty of drinking high pressure water flowing from a fire hose, and the impossibility of drinking it all.)

In a comment on John's post, I wrote about the potential to use the concept of Great Circle Navigation to see the challenge differently. (You can catch up on the concept of Great Circle Navigation here.) These navigators found that travelling in a large arc is quicker than going in a straight line.

My example is...

I often read up to 5 business books in a month and hope the content will stick. Instead I could pick 1 business book; read it two or three times; reflect on how it applies to my situation; encourage a colleague to read it too, and have a coffee with her/him and discuss how it applies; then do something differently as a result. It could take less time than reading 5 books, and result in tangible change.

Maybe there is something you could do differently, rather than falling into the insidious 'work harder trap'.

Further Study: If you are interested in my analogy, you might be interested that for air flight, the Great Circle route may be slower than a different route that takes advantage of high altitude 'jet streams'. (See the Aviation section in this Wikipedia article.) I wonder what this means to my theory?

...Geoff
www.performancepeople.com.au

Facilitation & Yoga

Val, my Yoga teacher, has a great approach. She manages to teach a whole class while making each student feel like they are of personal interest to her.

There is a problem with this - from the perspective of a blogger/commentator. While I am 'in the zone' it is difficult to work out quite what Val is doing to achieve this. And I suspect it would be poor form to say, "Excuse me. Can we just stop a moment, Val? What did you do just then? Cos it made me feel special, and it did not seem to impact on the enjoyment of others."

So I have been keeping my eye out. (Not Yoga 'best practice' I am sure, but at least I am not distracting others this way.) And what I have observed Val do is:

Not panic - she is calm and measured in her manner and voice at all times.
Observe each of us - she is vigilant without making us feel uncomfortable - this might be called 'paying attention'. I am sure she knows what she expects to see too, so she can see when we are 'out of place'.
Achieve a natural rhythm - the class involves a sequence of unfolding activities. We may be told that today we are working on the strength in our lower back or similar, but there is no agenda, and I suspect that Val is open to variation. (Although without an agenda I cannot be sure of this.)
Give clear instructions & demonstrate when necessary - Yoga is about a mind body thing. Val tells us what to do, and shows us too, especially the tricky bits.
Repeat as if for the first time - although Val has said "Lift your left arm back towards the ceiling, then turn your head and look along your left arm towards the ceiling" hundreds of times, it sounds like the first time every time. And for my left shoulder and neck, it mostly feels like it is the first time.
Keep on-time, subtly - there is a bit of a rush on because a class of exercise bikes follows us, but this hardly impinges on our consciousness, although I am sure that Val is aware of it.
Treat us all with respect - Val seems to like each and every one of us, even when we do awful things to what should be graceful and serene.

These are pretty subtle. I had to observe and reflect to see them, and their effect. As a facilitator, not everything I do is obvious. An effective workshop is a combination of lots of things.

If you have been to a Yoga class, you could tell us about your experience in the Comments below.

...Geoff
www.performancepeople.com.au

Selling Facilitation Services

Schmoozing on the Lawn Before
the Business Excellence Awards Dinner

I have not posted about selling facilitation services until now. This is a tricky area. I am prompted to write by a question posted by Dana at the Professional Facilitators Network group on LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com).

Dana says that she is not motivated to sell her facilitation services, and she needs a sales person. I have posted a slightly modified version of my reply to Dana here:

=================
I would suggest that most facilitators struggle with the sales and marketing side of the business. I am unsure whether 'motivation' is the right word. If you really want the work, you probably need to motivate yourself. If you meant that you do not know how to do this, get down to your public library and borrow some books on selling services (or even better, there are some great motivational tapes about selling).

A salesperson typically works on a retainer and commission basis. You could find a salesperson, but unless your business ramps up swiftly, you are not going to be able to pay them their retainer.

If you start small, you may not need a salesperson. I believe that 'soft sell' is the only way to sell facilitation. Sales people are often not great at doing this, as they see their commission at risk if they do not sell. Also, when sales is separated from operations (you), people can over or under promise, or even fail to recognise the service solution.

I think you need to get out there: you need to find people in your area that could benefit from your services, and you need to talk to them about what you do. You need to do this constantly.

Some things you could do include:

Offer your services to government at all levels (especially those closest to home).
Offer your services to not-for-profits.
Offer your services particularly to organisations in industries with which you are intimately familiar.
Ask people to recommend you, and to recommend who might benefit from your services.
Join a services organisation (Rotary or other).
Blog about facilitation.
Put a video about you up on YouTube and link to it in your email footer.
Offer presentation skills training.
Become a conference speaker.
Join the [afn-l] mailing list and keep up with it.
Find your local open university or adult learning college and offer classes.
Join the local chamber of commerce (or similar) and become involved.

If this is going to work, I believe that you are your best advertisement, and you are best able to communicate your service offering to prospective clients.
=================

I am not doing all of these things, but I am doing many of them. I am sure you can too.

...Geoff
www.performancepeople.com.au

Changing 'On the Fly' (& Being Bitten by the Creative Bug)

Sometimes you are bitten by the creative bug, and you wonder whether to ignore it or scratch it.

This morning while walking from my car to the venue of my Decision Making workshop I was bitten. The creative bug got me right on the topic I'd spent half an hour prepping this morning over breakfast (no, not last minute creation, but last minute 'putting my head in the right space'). The topic I'd prepared was a case study examining decisions made during a fire on the HMAS Westralia that killed four sailors.

The creative bug was of the 'keep it relevant' variety. My audience are not sailors. They are not with the Navy or any branch of the armed services. They do not work with fire. They are at a very low risk of being exposed to sudden and fatal fire in any aspect of their lives. Westralia is not relevant.

I helped to set up the room; and before turning on the projector I 'hid' the slides I'd created on the Westralia, including a great photo of the ship at full steam ahead. And I created a slide that said:

Universities are becoming “dual sector”. As members of the University Council, you are considering whether to become a combined University and TAFE.

How will you decide?

This topic is relevant at Central Queensland University, and it is current (as noted by the Vice Chancellor, Scott Bowman in his blog). The participants are 'emerging leaders' at the University.

I asked the participants to work in table groups and answer the question on the slide, and they went for it. As I hoped, they discussed process, risks, culture, stakeholders, decision making criteria and implementation challenges. We covered these topics during the session, and this became a cornerstone topic for the rest of the session.

...Geoff
www.performancepeople.com.au

Speed Storming (Brainstorming on Steroids)

Difficulty: Moderate.
Audience: People seeking ideas to address a problem or opportunity.
Suggested Time: 10 minutes.

There are many ways to spice up brainstorming, from getting people to type their input onto a common electronic whiteboard to getting people to rotate between different small groups at intervals.

I like to spice up brainstorming by asking people to do it really quickly.

The rules for Speed Storming are a lot like those for any brainstorming, but with tight deadlines. You might wish to use a PC-based tool like the timer at www.online-stopwatch.com, or if you have a smartphone there will certainly be a timing app.

The rules are:

Identify the Topic
Be Positive
Admire others’ contributions
Make constructive suggestions
Smile
Build on Ideas
Pay attention to others’ input
Make suggestions that ‘grow’ ideas
Be Bold
Make BIG suggestions
Ignore costs
Verbalise
Say ‘I think we could …’
Or ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we …’
Instead of ‘Yes but’, say ‘Yes and’
Move Fast
Make a suggestion & move on
Take Note
A scribe writes the ideas down
(Number the suggestions)
Be Self-disciplined
Leaders go last
Everyone puts in
Get Ready
Be clear on the topic
Assign a scribe & timekeeper
Later
Select the Top 3 (only 3!)
List actions with due dates
YOU HAVE 5 MINUTES!
Then you'll have 3 minutes to select your Top 3 & write brief action plans for each.

I have used this approach with students in an innovation lecture. The topic I set is "Mobile phone batteries suck", and they tend to have lots of ideas to overcome or avoid this issue.

Image by Agripolare (no restrictions)

A risk with this approach is of course that there is no time for reflection, and the potential for responses resulting from reflection is diminished. There is also a risk that people will not generate enough suggestions to make short-listing possible. This has not been the case when I have used this method. In fact, given the time-pressure (or perhaps due to it), it is amazing how many ideas can be produced.

This can be a great quick activity to get people to participate in small groups.

...Geoff
www.performancepeople.com.au

Facilitating a Session on How to Facilitate

Thanks to the great people involved in Communities of Practice at CQUniversity Australia, I was recently asked to deliver a two-part session on 'how to facilitate'. I called this Facilitation 101 - Theory and Prac.

The session was targeted at CoPs Champions - the people responsible for facilitating the work of the Communities of Practice. The theory went for half a day, and we covered:

The Facilitator's Role - including self-examination and discussions about confrontation, nurturing and some 'do not's.
Facilitation Skills - covering personal, interpersonal (c/o Covey) and process skills; stressing the challenge of 'being in the moment' while being the person responsible for the process.
The Facilitation Process - which was a modified problem solving process.
Facilitation Tools - in which we discussed, and used, tools for convergent and divergent thinking.

The 'prac' involved everyone coming back the next day for another half day. Each participant facilitated a 25 minute session using one of the tools from the course materials - brainstorming; Forced Analogy/the dictionary method; von Oech's Creative Whack Pack; the affinity diagram method; flowcharting; the nominal group technique; or De Bono’s six thinking hats. I also made special mention of the tools in the Stanford d.school Bootcamp Bootleg and IDEO's Human Centered Design Toolkit.

The whole thing was an absolute blast. Thank-you Dr Peter Reaburn for giving me this opportunity!

...Geoff
www.performancepeople.com.au

How Important Is Attitude?

This blog is not about teaching you how to suck eggs, or even to teach you how to be a better person. However, it is appropriate that I have the odd 'Yoda moment':

If you do adequate preparation, keep an open mind and expect the session to go well, it probably will. The converse also occurs. If you expect it to go badly, your pessimism will show through, and you are unlikely to connect and get a good outcome.

I believe I have an open-minded, eager and optimistic approach as a facilitator. This is not the only way to facilitate, but it is the only way that works for me.

For those unfamiliar with Yoda, you might like to watch this video. (Or a shorter version of the same message here.)

...Geoff
www.performancepeople.com.au

Finishing, Concluding, Ending, Stopping (4)

In an earlier post I made reference to the way I finish up a fairly long training workshop series: "don't just list the topics that were covered - take advantage of the opportunity to reinforce key aspects of what has been learnt".

I have been taking this approach with a leadership program called the Emerging Leadership Program at CQUniversity. We generally have lunch with a prominent leader to conclude the program, and during lunch I run a PowerPoint loop which has key slides from each topic (see the graphic at the top of this post) and photos of the participants at work. The photos are taken from the more 'active' activities that the participants undertake. Also, when I ask questions like 'What is leadership?', I write the participants' answers on the whiteboard, and then photograph them to include in the PowerPoint slides.

Some slides from one of these 'highlights reels' is included above.

PowerPoint Concert Review

Stellar, who participates in the trainingzone group 'PowerPoint Users' shared details (below) of a similar approach which she calls 'a PowerPoint Concert Review':

"This works best for slides that are not full of words or content heavy - but then best practise would suggest that applies to all slides.

Make a copy of your slides from your presentation or workshop (around 20-30 slides is probably a max - that would represent 2-3 days slides for me)

Annotate each slide as if you were talking people through the sessions e.g.
'You arrived yesterday and started discussing ....'
'then we moved on to ....'

Include some reflective questions that will help people think about content e.g. 'what did you think about these 3 features of... '

Each slide needs some a message at the top - make the message look a bit different to any other writing on your slides so it stands out.

Automate all the slides so they automatically move on after a fixed time - I find about 8-9 seconds is about right.

Then add an additional slide at the beginning inviting people to sit back, relax and enjoy the show - leave this one controlled by a mouse click so you can move it on when you are ready. And another at the end asking them to reflect on what they have learned/ understood/ want to know more about - depends on your purpose.

You can either record a piece of music to run with the Powerpoint or I find it easier to just switch on a CD - usually more reliable than fancy AV equipment

Use a piece of reflective music - no words - 60 beats per minute has been found to be most effective.

Sit back and watch everyone go back in time to the beginning of your session - I've had really powerful responses from people, including tears and rounds of applause. Almost everyone is amazed at how much they've covered.

Reviewing is one of the key features of helping people to learn or absorb information and this is a great way to do it particularly if you're short of time. I did it in 5 minutes at the end of a very full 'Communicating to Influence' workshop the other day. That just gave everyone time to reflect before filling in their action plans."

(Thank-you for permission to use this content Stellar.)

...Geoff
www.performancepeople.com.au