Where Do We Want To Be?

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Articulating A Bold Consensus Vision of the Desired Future

vision.path2As often attributed to Cat and Alice in Lewis Carroll’s novel, “if you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”

The visioning phase of strategic planning is about becoming crystal clear on your destination – the vivid images of what you’ll see when you get there. This creative, aspirational, and visionary stage is usually the one that your participants are looking forward to. In this phase, the focus of participants shifts from the past/present to the future, while building on the best of today.

Before you facilitate a visioning process, ensure that the group or organization’s mission and values are clear to participants. Why? If not,  the answers they give may include “why we exist” and the “values that guide our work”, rather than “where we want to be in our preferred future”.

Ground the vision with insights from external and internal environmental scan conversations, to leverage strengths and opportunities, side-step issues and address obstacles to success. The questions to ask include:

  • What is our audacious goal?  In your boldest vision of the future, what is the most compelling and motivating stretch goal that you aspire to achieve?
  • What will success look like? How will you know that you’ve achieved your vision; what are the specific results you’ll see when you get there?

Call to Action:

If you are an executive, manager, strategic planner, change agent, professional facilitator, or any leader seeking to facilitate productive, positive and aligning strategic planning meetings and change initiatives, register now for The Strategic Facilitator: Aligning Around Vision and Strategy, Vancouver area, June 19-21, 2013.

You will understand how to guide the entire process of strategic planning, from clarifying why you exist as a group or organization, to assessing your current situation, describing your desired future state, establishing the strategies that will propel you forward, and determining how you’ll know if you’ve succeeded.

Just starting out? These courses will enhance your facilitation confidence and empower you with solid foundational skills: The Confident Facilitator; The Skillful Facilitator.

Dysfunctional Meeting Characters

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Participants Bring Both Their Good and Bad Sides to Meetings

good and badEver meet any of these dysfunctional characters below in your meetings? And if so, are you equipped with facilitative strategies to pro-actively prevent or intervene in the moment, so the meeting is not disrupted?

Monopolizer. This character dominates the conversation with their wisdom, ideas, beliefs to the detriment of fuller participation. As facilitator, your task is to broaden the circle of contribution to others. In the moment: Intervene by inviting a go-round to hear from everyone. Pro-actively: Design the meeting process to start with individual reflection, pairs/trios sharing, then large group popcorning from small groups, so all contribute.

Naysayer. The perennial cynic is ready to slay any idea at a moment’s notice with a negative phrase, “we tried it once and it didn’t work”. In the moment: As facilitator, invite a ‘devil’s advocate’ exploration of why it might work. Pro-actively: Design a pros/cons or force field analysis to ensure both sides of the issue are thoughtfully considered.

Electronic Intruder. Smart phones, laptops, and tablets distract proceedings. It has now been well documented that singular focus is fundamental to productivity and multi-tasking detrimental to that end. Pro-actively: Have the group set clear norms on use of electronic gadgets and PDA’s. In the moment: Make sure the norms are enforced.

The list of disruptive characters goes on… Overbearing Authority; Reluctant Member; Unquestioned Acceptance; Rush to Finish; Motive Attributor; Idea Discounter; Tangent Digresser; Feuding Members.

The good news is that pro-active meeting design ‘before the meeting’ can go a long way to prevent meeting disruptions.   

Call to Action:

Learn how to manage group dynamics in our upcoming course, The Skillful Facilitator: Strategies for Managing Group Dynamics, Dysfunction and Conflict.

Just starting out? This foundational course will enhance your overall facilitation skill and confidence: The Confident Facilitator.

Looking for advanced design skills? Check out: The Agile Facilitator; The Strategic Facilitator; The Artful Visual Facilitator.

Standing in the Fire

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When Facilitating Complex Group Dynamics: The Main Thing is Not to Panic!

stand in fireYou’ve been hired to facilitate a meeting involving a diverse group of people whose ideas, specialized knowledge, expertise, alignment and/or support are needed for an important outcome. Yet the diversity inherent in that cross-functional group, inter-disciplinary project team, organization-wide planning session, or multi-stakeholder meeting is a potential source of complex group dynamics.

What can you do to minimize the possibility of group dynamics disrupting productive work?

And what helpful interventions can you rely on with confidence “in the moment”, if you’ve done your level best, and SHIFT still happens?

  • Rule #1: The main thing is not to panic!
  • Rule #2: Don’t assume you know what is going on.
  • Rule #3: Don’t take it personally.
  • Rule #4: Remember and use the E-A-R Framework; it stands for:                     “Explain – Analyze – Resolve”.

Read the full article…

Call to Action: Register for The Skillful Facilitator: Strategies for Managing Meeting Dynamics and Group Dysfunction. You’ll not only learn the E-A-R Framework; you’ll:

  • Recognize the symptoms and diagnose the sources of disagreement and dysfunction
  • Acquire helpful models to prepare for and deal with group dynamics
  • Master the art of asking good questions to diagnose and facilitate healthy outcomes
  • Practice applying helpful facilitative interventions to different scenarios
  • Gain insights on your personal triggers
  • Learn strategies to more ably “stand in the fire” during conflict
  • Receive personalized coaching after class focused on your needs and situations

Where Are We Now?

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creative tensionAnalyzing the Current Situation*

Creative tension is a key concept that informs the Insight phase of our model of Strategic Planning, and goes like this: ”Successful change is the result of seeking to resolve the creative tension that arises from simultaneously:

  1. Holding a clear-eyed and honest observation of current reality (where things are now )
  2. Remaining steadfastly committed to a clear and compelling future vision (where we want things to be), i.e., refusing to settle for less than what we want, despite reality.”

The implications for facilitating the process of Strategic Planning is that after the external scan, it is important to guide your group through another series of conversations to analyze, and dialogue about, the current internal situation. Ask: What is our understanding of where we are today? What is our influence and position relative to other players in this industry/sector? What is our current capacity and strengths on which future success can be built? What gaps exist between what is promised and what we deliver? This analysis of competencies, critical vulnerabilities, key potential growth areas and external threats is the first step in building creative tension. (A future blog will cover the second step, vision.)

* This blog follows previous Strategic Planning posts.  The concept of creative tension was popularized for learning organizations by MIT Professor Peter Senge (Fifth Discipline), the concept was first introduced by Robert Fritz (Path of Least Resistance).

Call to Action:

If you are an executive, manager, strategic planner, change agent, or any leader seeking to facilitate productive, positive and aligning strategic planning meetings and change initiatives, consider attending The Strategic Facilitator: Aligning Around Vision and Strategy in Metro Vancouver, BC, June 19-21, 2013.

You will understand how to guide the entire process of strategic planning, from clarifying why you exist as a group or organization, to assessing your current situation, describing your desired future state, establishing the strategies that will propel you forward, and determining how you’ll know if you’ve succeeded.

 

Facilitator? Instructor? Presenter? Coach?

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Is facilitation really so distinct from other fields and disciplines?

which are you?Many points of intersection exist between facilitation and other fields such as education, adult education, organization development, coaching and presentation. There are, however, some very important differences in the outcomes being sought, and therefore the mindset, tools, and frameworks adopted to achieve desired results.

Facilitation is leading a group (from 5 to 500) through guided processes towards desired outcomes with as much participation, creativity and productivity as possible, to achieve results all understand, have appropriately contributed to, and accept. The results are generated by participants with no input from the facilitator. About 20% of a facilitator’s time is devoted to neutrally guiding a group through structured process vs. 80% listening/involving.

Coaching is guiding an individual through focused questions and conversation to enable insight, personal learning and improved performance and achievement of goals. A good coach spends about 10% of their time asking questions and as much as 90% listening, mirroring, reflecting back.

Education, instruction and training use different methods and activities to assist learners to acquire knowledge and develop new skills, behaviours, and attitudes. The best practices of active learning suggest that about 50% of an instructor’s time is devoted to imparting content vs. 50% on inviting co-learning and student interaction. (Note: The adoption of facilitative methods greatly contributes to the instructors ability to design and deliver engaging learning programs.)

Presenting is about sharing information and wisdom. About 80% of a presenter’s time is spent in one-way telling vs. 20% listening or engaging participants.

Call to Action:  Interested in enhancing your facilitation and facilitative instruction skills? If you are:

 

Dimensions to Managing Group Process

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organizationThe word ‘facilitation’ comes from the Latin word ‘facilis’, or “to make easy”. While a professional facilitator makes process work look easy, guiding groups through structured steps to results created, understood and accepted by all participants is anything but!

During your facilitation of longer meetings and workshops, in addition to facilitating the right methods around a good session design, great group process involves that you manage four important dimensions:

ATTENTION: Keeping the group focused involves: What you say and do to frame new processes; provide verbal and written instructions; manage transitions between topics; and staying on topic.

INFORMATION: When it comes to facilitation, the ability to formulate the right questions for the right work to the right people is essential, along with the right tools to gather participant responses.

ORGANIZATION: Managing time from start to finish requires avoiding time wasters, effective group management, reporting/summarizing, and supporting group memory appropriate follow-on reports.

ENERGY: Setting a good pace for the work involves: Flexibility, presence; adopting a variety of methods; making course correction if needed; and appropriate use of humour and fun.

Call to Action:

Advanced Facilitation Skills: Commit to taking your facilitation skills and confidence to your next level of mastery. Register: The Agile Facilitator;  The Strategic Facilitator;  The Engaging Facilitator.

Just starting out? These courses will enhance your facilitation confidence and empower you with solid foundational skills:  The Confident Facilitator; The Skillful Facilitator.

Go Slow To Go Fast Later

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collaborationSay your organization or client needs to bring together multiple stakeholder views. As the facilitator, your fundamental challenge working with diverse boundaries and perspectives will be how to overcome partial views arising from different disciplines, departments, sectors, and participant diversity. This takes time.

When designing meetings and sessions around complex topics, adopt conversation and dialogic methods that foster respectful communication and collective learning across the boundaries of:

  • Different (and partial) knowledge bases/perspectives.
  • Different cultures, beliefs, values and acceptable practices and behaviours.
  • Different vocabulary, language, and meaning / interpretation of ideas and facts.
  • Non-existent or inadequate links/ connections between units, divisions, groups, organizations.

Whereas the convenor will often be under enormous pressure to make decisions and act fast, the reality is that diverse stakeholders are unlikely to support a chosen path of action without their full participation, mutual understanding, and inclusive solutions. When engaging across diverse perspectives, go slow at first to build common ground and a shared based of information. Invest in fostering trust-based relationships from which innovative and supported solutions can emerge and be implemented.

Call to Action: Learn how to design and facilitate conversation methods for collaboration and wise action – The Engaging Facilitator. Register today for one or more of our other classes in advanced facilitation: The Agile Facilitator, and The Strategic Facilitator.

Just starting out? These courses will enhance your facilitation confidence and empower you with solid foundational skills:  The Confident Facilitator; The Skillful Facilitator.

What to Expect in More Complex Meetings?

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blog picThere is a significant difference in how one prepares to facilitate group work to resolve issues, improve processes, agree on directions for change, and commit to action.  Compared to regular team or status/progress meetings, expect:

MORE COMPLEXITY:  Usually a greater diversity of perspectives and views must be considered, balanced and reconciled, before it is possible to generate consensus and commitment.

HIGHER STAKES: The outcomes of such meetings matter to the organization’s goals. Success is important, and so is the downside of not succeeding.

DESIGN MATTERS: Your facilitation must rely on a thoughtful process to help the group achieve desired outcomes. It is essential for you to have the right process framework to follow, and to know where you are in the process. There is a sequence to what questions must be answered before other work can be tackled.

LONGER MEETINGS: As a result of all the above, more time is needed to achieve desired outcomes, extending to several days, and sometimes weeks and months.

 Call to Action: Commit to becoming a more agile and professional masterful facilitator in 2013! Register for one or more of our upcoming classes in advanced facilitation: The Agile Facilitator; The Engaging Facilitator; and The Strategic Facilitator.

Just starting out? These courses will enhance your facilitation confidence and empower you with solid foundational skills:  The Confident Facilitator; The Skillful Facilitator.

Participants Bored? Some Dominating?

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Adopt a variety of strategies to keep group conversation lively, productive, and all
participants engaged.

Strategies for Lively DiscussionInteraction is essential for understanding, collective learning, and alignment. In a “whole group” conversation, it is easy for participants to disengage and let others (often positional leaders or subject matter experts) dominate the discussion, unless provided with a meaningful opportunity to contribute.

Assuming the right people are in the room, how can you engage everyone to ensure their perspectives, input and ideas are considered?  TIP: To facilitate more lively conversations and productive meetings, you might adopt one of these four facilitation strategies:

  1. SUBGROUPS: Count off subgroups, and assign them the task of fleshing out initial thinking on different aspects of a focus question for presentation back to the whole, e.g., customer, employees, suppliers.
  2. PARTNERS: Invite pairs/trios to discuss the focus question together for 3-5 minutes. Get highlights and record the top notes during report out, using the ‘me too!” principle to avoid unnecessary repetition.
  3. GO-ROUNDS: Once key information has been shared, ensure the conversation is not dominated by the boss or subject matter expert. Invite a timed go-round so that everyone has an equal chance to input, e.g., “let’s take no more than 2 minutes each to….”
  4. POLLING: After the discussion has gone on for a while, invite a straw poll through a show of hands, e.g., ” on a scale of 1 to 5, how much do you agree with _____?”, then discuss the reasons that folks voted as they did.

Call to Action: Commit to becoming a more agile and professional masterful facilitator in 2013! Register today for one or more of our upcoming classes in advanced facilitation: The Agile Facilitator; The Engaging Facilitator; and The Strategic Facilitator.

Just starting out? These courses will enhance your facilitation confidence and empower you with solid foundational skills: The Confident Facilitator; The Skillful Facilitator.

Visioning With Visuals

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In my professional facilitation work, I use visual metaphors and templates whenever possible, to ignite participant understanding, open up creativity, and foster new possibilities. For example, let’s say your group needs to envision a different future, perhaps a new kind of organization, a novel approach, or innovative ways of responding to customers.

Start by giving individuals time to do some visioning on their own, with a visual template such as the Bold Vision developed by Avril Orloff for one of our client sessions. Once ideas have been generated, have participants break into small groups to share their initial thinking, and then collaborate to create a group poster. Their task should be to sketch out their idea with both visuals and words, so that someone from another group will really ‘see’ and ‘get’ their idea.  Once all the posters are ready, invite a Gallery Walk and then host a discussion of the features that are most intriguing, promising, and attractive.

Call to Action:  Register for our upcoming course The Artful Visual Facilitator with graphic recorder extraordinaire, Avril Orloff. You’ll have a blast, and learn how to create your own visual templates to enhance the power and effectiveness of your facilitated processes.