Leaning 'Til You're Dizzy

The Book (image c/o wired.com)

Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook gives advice to women in government and industry - she says they need to 'lean in' to demonstrate their abilities. Sheryl has come in for some criticism about asking women in management to act like clones of men in management. However, I love this idea. I don't know whether it will break the glass ceiling, but I do know it is hard to get a job done when you are leaning back. And it is hard to reflect when you are leaning forward.

I propose two complementary and critical states: Leaning in to get the work done. And leaning out to think, really think.

I am leaning in now - as I type I am leaning forwards. I also do this when I am totally engaged in a meeting - I lean forwards and pay close attention to what people say, and I project my voice into the mix.

I also want to promote leaning out. I just leant out to think about how I could phrase this idea. I lean out to get some space between me and what I've just written, so I can better see whether it makes sense. I think that in meetings by leaning out every now and then we can get a helicopter view of what is going on. This might help to think more strategically, and should assist in avoiding groupthink.

So what has this got to do with facilitation?

I suggest that I need to 'lean out' some more when I am writing new stuff - to consider how to phrase things; to visualise how people are going to respond; and to give an opportunity for new ideas to appear.

And I need to keep 'leaning in' when I need to get things done - whether it is planning a session; cold calling a potential client; digging through my files for an activity I've used once before; or writing up outcomes from a previous session.

While facilitating, leaning in can show you are engaged; and leaning out can help you to figure out what you are going to do next. Consider leaning in, and out, a little more decisively - you might find it makes a world of difference.

...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

Finishing a Meeting - Once Around the Table

Once Around the Table (all rights reserved)

Going 'once around the table' is a good way to finish a meeting, especially one at which not everyone has had an equal opportunity to speak.  This technique allows people to walk away from the table feeling that they have had a say, or at least an opportunity to speak.

The Insiders program on the (Australian) ABC television is a good example of this.  There are three members on the panel, and the host Barry Cassidy finishes the program by asking for 'final observations' and giving each panelist an opportunity to say something.  In many cases these titbits are a highlight of the program.

You can also use this at other parts of a meeting or a workshop.  For example, when an important decision is being made.  It breaks from the 'jump in when you want to say something' style most of us adopt; it encourages people to make a contribution; and it reduces (without eradicating) the chances of someone who attended saying later that they did not get to contribute.

Give it a try.  I am sure you will get some rich input you would have missed otherwise.

...Geoff
www.performancepeople.com.au

How to Create & Use Wordles

Wordle on Performance People Webpage (created at www.wordle.net)

I have previously written about what Wordles can used to achieve (click here for the post).  I thought it might be useful to explain how you can make one yourself, and how to transfer it to Word or PowerPoint.

Create a Wordle

1. Open the Wordle webpage at www.wordle.net (or Google 'wordle').
2. Click on Create in the sentence 'Create your own'.
3. Paste some text into the large box on the screen.
4. Click on the Go button.
5. And check out your Wordle.

Edit a Wordle

Click 'Randomize' to see your Wordle presented in a number of ways.

You cannot add words (or 'grow' them by duplicating them multiple times) without going back to the Create window and repasting your text.

You can remove words by right clicking on the word and selecting 'Remove word'.  For example, a word which appeared in a header on every page may not be suited to the topic of your Wordle.

Browse through the menus immediately above your Wordle to see what you can change.  I particularly like the 'Edit Custom Palette' option.

At the bottom of the Language menu is the option 'Show word count'.  This brings up a box with the number of times each word appears.  You can re-sort the list by clicking on the column titles.  In case you are curious too, I pasted more than 25,000 words into Wordle to see whether there was a limit.  I did not find a limit.

Transfer a Wordle Elsewhere
Once you are satisfied with your Wordle, you will probably want to use it.  The Wordle creation screen includes options to 'Open in Window' or 'Print'.  However, these may not be sufficient.  You might like to put the image into a Word or PowerPointit file, or save an an image file or a PDF file.

To create an image file, or put it into Word or PowerPoint as an image, you can use a screen capture utility, like the useful Snipping Tool in Windows (Vista or later).

1. Click 'Open in Window'.
2. Drag the bottom right corner of the window out-and-down to fill your screen (to get the highest resolution screen capture you can).
3. Launch the Snipping Tool using StartMenu>AllPrograms>Accessories>Snipping Tool (or on the keyboard, WindowsKey>snip>enter).
4. Click in the top right corner and drag the pink box to envelope the Wordle.  (You may need to change the snip type to 'rectangular snip'.)
5. The Wordle is now in your clipboard, and you can paste it into a Word or PowerPoint file.  Alternatively, you can use the Save function in the Snipping Tool to save the image as a JPG file.

To create a PDF, you can use a PDF creator, like the useful and free CutePDF Writer. Once installed, CutePDF Writer creates PDF files by pretending to be a printer.  (Click the 'Print' button on the Wordle creation screen; then select the printer called CutePDF Writer from the mini-menu on the Print box.  You will get another box in which you specify where the PDF file should be saved.)


All the best creating and using Wordles!

...Geoff
www.performancepeople.com.au