How to Structure and Normalize a Discussion Around a “Many to Many” Dilemma

The purpose of this topic is to help a group focus its discussion when there are many symptoms, causes, preventions, and cures that should be considered; likely against an array of multiple agents or actors who need to act upon a new plan or process.

Rationale

Meetings waste much time because they lack structure, not because they fail to generate some good ideas.  The problem with most meetings is that the group of participants do not know if they “got it all”, how they can measure their progress, and how much work remains to be done.

Method

This approach can be modified, but embraces the second step of Brainstorming called Analysis.  With a complex problem, consider the following:

• Confirm the purpose of the solution state or the ideal condition. Describe the way things ought be when there is no problem and everything is working properly according to design.
• Fully define the problem state or condition, building consensus around the way things are at present.
• Identify all the potential symptoms that make it easy to characterize the problem or issue. Consider symptoms to be “externally identifiable factors” that can be seen and observed objectively, such as “tardiness.”
• For each symptom identify all possible causes (or consider Root Cause Analysis [aka RCA] or the Ishikawa Diagram).
• Identify the people, agents, or actors that will participate in the solution or plan (eg, participants, management, contractors, etc.).
• Populate a matrix with the agents against a timeline as shown below.  The simplest way to approach the x dimension is to separately cover the before and after phases (such as what can be done to prevent each cause and what can be done to cure for each cause by each agent).
• With group at large or using sub-teams with assigned areas, develop all potential responses or actions with every agent across the timeline (see below).

Become Part of the Solution, Improve Your Facilitation Skills

The FAST curriculum on Professional Facilitation Skills details the responsibilities and dynamics mentioned above. Remember friends, nobody is smarter than everybody, so consult your FAST Facilitator Reference Manual or attend a FAST professional facilitative leadership training workshop offered around the world (see MG Rush for a current schedule — an excellent way to earn 40 PDUs from PMI, CDUs from IIBA, or CEUs).

Daring you to embrace the will, wisdom, and activities that amplify a facilitative leader.

Related articles

• A “Plan” May Be Defined as “Who Does What (and When)” and Answers 10 Questions (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
• 8 Meeting Purposes: What Task(s) Are You Asking Your Group To Accomplish? (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
• Root causeanalysis1 (slideshare.net)

How to Build a Flexibility Matrix to Guide Consistent Group Decision-Making

Triple constraint theory suggests that it is not practical to expect to build the fastest, the cheapest, and the highest quality. Typically, something has to “give.” While most executive sponsors aspire for all three characteristics, the nature of group decision-making suggests that time, cost, and quality are the three most important considerations, yet we need to remain more or less flexible with time, cost, or quality.

To help groups understand the tradeoffs that need to be made, consider building a Flexibility Matrix.

Rationale

All sponsors want the best, the fastest, and the cheapest but something has to give.  You could never ask an executive sponsor ‘which is most important?’ because they would answer “All of them”.  Therefore, we concede that quality, speed, and price are all most important, but we seek to understand where we have the most amount of flexibility, and conversely, the least amount of flexibility.

Method

Since the sponsor may not give us their preferences, we can ask the team to build it, knowing that the Flexibility Matrix captures the group assumptions that support the decisions made.

Build the matrix factors in advance and define or explain the terms time, cost, and quality for your situation. Be certain to work the bookends and ask the team where we have the most amount of flexibility?  Then the least? We know the moderate box by default since it is the only blank remaining.

This is important.  After you have created the visual response, have the team convert each checkmark into a narrative sentence or statement, for example:

Schedule is least flexible because we must have the release ready by October 1.

Quality (scope) is the most flexible because we can release an upgrade or modification after December 1.

Challenge

Make sure you fully define time, cost, and quality in advance of the facilitated session.  For example, if we are deciding on the criteria to support a decision about where to locate a landfill (ie, garbage dump), we might define time as when the landfill opens, cost as the total cost of ownership, and quality as the impact on the environment. As such, the “answer” would likely be the opposite of the chart shown above, with time being the most flexible and quality being the least flexible.

Related articles

• Four tips for better group decision-making (sashadichter.wordpress.com)
• Leading Teams When Lives Are at Stake (blogs.hbr.org)
• Decision Rules and Group Rationality: Cognitive Gain or Standstill? (plosone.org)
• 5 Evidence-Based Ways to Optimize Your Teamwork (99u.com)

A “Plan” May Be Defined as “Who Does What (and When)” and Answers 10 Questions

The WHAT component of plans have many terms including strategy, initiative, project, activity, and task. Depending on the audience, all may be valid. All plans, when thoroughly completed, will provide answers to the following ten questions:

WHO Does WHAT and WHEN

1. Why are we here?
2. Who are we?
3. Where are we going?
4. How do we measure our progress?
5. What is our current situation?
6. What to we do to reach our objectives?
7. Is it the right stuff to do?
8. Who does what?
9. What are we going to tell others?
10. Will it ensure our success?

1. Why are we here?

The first question addresses the passion. While many MBA textbooks refer to this step as Mission, much of the military-industrial complex refers to this as Vision. Yet both answer this question first, which is why do we show up? Answers to this question fill in the blank landscape that provides the background to all other team development.

2. Who are we?

Frequently referred to as Values or Guiding Principles, answers to this question describe the accouterments and what weighs down the participants—ie, what do they carry with them, what do they value? Difference types of people may share similar passions, such as mountain climbing, and yet are very distinctive in their personalities (eg, rope climbers versus Sherpa supported endeavors).

3. Where are we going?

Because success is amplified when people stick together, many teams prudently select a common view of where they are headed. While many MBA textbooks refer to this step as Vision, much of the military-industrial complex refers to this as Mission. Yet both answer this question after the first question above, agreeing on where they are headed.

4. How do we measure our progress?

No proactive endeavor succeeds in a complex marketplace without measurements. While some consulting firms define Objectives as SMART and Goals as fuzzy, other firms use the exact opposite definitions. We are not biased by the term used, but agree, understand, and promote the concept that there are three different types of criteria: namely, SMART (ie, specific—frequently referred to as KPIs or Key Performance Indicators), fuzzy (may be subjective, such as a “great view at the top of the mountain”), and binary (such as, “take only photographs).

5. What is our current situation?

Frequently viewed as four lists, SWOT really contrasts two dimensions. The first dimension captures stuff the group controls, frequently referred to strengths (plus) and weaknesses (minus). The second dimension captures stuff the group cannot control and is referred to as opportunities (plus) and threats (minus). A weakness that can be fixed is NOT an opportunity. It is a weakness by definition since it is controllable. A group of mountain climbers might be agile (strength) and resource thin (weakness) while facing a break in the weather (opportunity) or an avalanche (threat).

6. What to we do to reach our objectives?

The reason for conducting SWOT analysis is to generate consensus when prioritizing hundreds of options. While there is much that can be done, we only have time and resource to manage the most important stuff. The FAST approach to SWOT quantifies the situation analysis, making it easier to develop consensual understanding.

7. Is it the right stuff to do?

Alignment needs to be performed to ensure the proper balance of what is being done to reach the objectives that have been created in order to support reaching the vision. Facilitative with an open-ended approach, as in asking, “To what extent does this WHAT support reaching this objective?” and NOT the traditional MBA approach that suggests, “Does it?”

8. Who does what?

Also called Roles and Responsibilities, once may find over fifteen documented varieties of RACI models, all promulgated by different consulting firms, all of which in their basic form communicate WHO does WHAT. The FAST approach appends the assignment with when it will be done, how much FTE is required, and how much resource will be requested—resulting in a consensually built Gantt chart.

9. What are we going to tell others?

Here is your traditional communications plan. We call it Guardian of Change to prevent the bias found in some organizations where the best ideas are NOT approved; rather the most charismatic “Champions” are approved (a scary thought if you are a stakeholder).

10. Will it ensure our success?

In your traditional “Wrap” be sure to review your work, manage the “Parking Lot” or open issues, confirm a quick communications plan, and get feedback on how you did as the facilitator. No doubt, if you followed these ten questions, the group will understand what it has accomplished.

Become Part of the Solution, Improve Your Facilitation Skills

The FAST curriculum on Professional Facilitation Skills details the responsibilities and dynamics mentioned above. Remember friends, nobody is smarter than everybody, so consult your FAST Facilitator Reference Manual or attend a FAST professional facilitative leadership training workshop offered around the world (see MG Rush for a current schedule — an excellent way to earn 40 PDUs from PMI, CDUs from IIBA, or CEUs).

Daring you to embrace the will, wisdom, and activities that amplify a facilitative leader.

Related articles

• 17 Valuable Tips and Essential Issues for “Chairing” Successful Meetings (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
• 8 Meeting Purposes: What Task(s) Are You Asking Your Group To Accomplish? (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
• How Facilitated Leadership Can Help You Overcome 7 Common Project Pitfalls (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
• “Be Here Now” – Meaning Behind One of Our Most Popular Meeting Ground Rules (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
• The Agenda can be Your Most Powerful Weapon for Leading Effective Meetings (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
• The Meeting is the Message: Every Meeting Speaks Win or Loss (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
• How to Facilitate Group or Team Decision-Making Using a “Pros and Cons” Tool (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)

How to Facilitate Building a Group’s Vision Using the Temporal Shift Tool

It’s hard enough to get a family of four to agree where to go out to eat much less getting a group of executives/ managers agree to where they want to take their organization.

To define the specific vision of the organization—where it wants to go, appeal to both the head and the heart, supporting the question, “Why change?”  A clear statement of the future state helps to gain genuine commitment.  Illustrate with your metaphor.

Defined:  A vision is a desired position specified in sufficient detail so that an organization recognizes it when they reach it.  A consensual vision provides direction and motivation for change.

Relationships

Vision

The vision drives the objectives and defines where the organization is going.  This enables the next step to define key measures and more detailed objectives.

Deliverable

A clearly defined statement between 25 and 75 words in length.

Options

Use one of three methods:

1. Define a vision statement and then have the group use the Creativity Exercise (in FAST Tools) to draw their vision.  Have each group describe their picture to the others and then capture an integrated vision statement based on the discussion.
2. Prepare a draft vision statement (frequently gathered from the senior manager of the group) and write it on a flip chart.  Define a vision statement then review this with the group and have them modify it to meet their needs.
3. Using the Temporal Shift tool below, have the group develop a newspaper or magazine headline that they would like to see in a major newspaper on the date of the vision—eg, “What would the newspaper headline read on January 15, 20xx?”  Have them embellish the headline with the story behind the headline.  This headline and story support the vision.

TEMPORAL SHIFT TOOL

Purpose

Helps groups decide where to go or be at some point in the future.

Rationale

Have you ever had a problem getting a group of friends or family to agree on where to go to eat?  Now try to get a group of bright professionals to agree on where they are headed!  It is much easier to ask and build consensus around “Where have you been?” or, “What type of legacy have you left behind?”

This step defines the specific vision of the organization—where it wants to go.  A vision is a desired position specified in sufficient detail so that an organization recognizes it when they reach it.  Effort is directed towards attaining the vision.  Vision drives objectives and other key measures.

Method

Hand out recent copies of an appropriate industry or organizational or trade magazine or periodical familiar to the participants.  Turn them to a specific page (could be the front cover) or column that is frequently read.  The Wall Street Journal could be a default publication that you use, but decide which section will display the headline based on the nature of the group you are working with.

Have each group develop a newspaper headline that they would like to read on the date of their vision—eg, “What would the headline read on January 15, 20xx?”  Have them embellish the headline with the story behind the headline.

Bring the groups together to compare and contrast.  Work the Bookends looking for similarities and differences.  First work the headline.  The story items supporting the headlines can also be used to support the vision.

NOTE:  Pretend they are on a beach in the future and pick up this periodical, what you are really asking them is “What is the legacy you have left behind as a result of the effort at hand?”

Suggestion

See the following website for headlines from around the world:

http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/flash/default.asp    or

http://www.pressreader.com .

Timing

This step typically takes from one to three hours.

Closure

This step is complete when you have a statement (not necessarily grammatically pure) the group believes captures the target or vision of where they want to go.  Check with them to see if they can recognize the target defined by their vision and would know if they get there.

Become Part of the Solution, Improve Your Facilitation Skills

The FAST curriculum on Professional Facilitation Skills details the responsibilities and dynamics mentioned above. Remember friends, nobody is smarter than everybody, so consult your FAST Facilitator Reference Manual or attend a FAST professional facilitative leadership training workshop offered around the world (see MG Rush for a current schedule — an excellent way to earn 40 PDUs from PMI, CDUs from IIBA, or CEUs).

Daring you to embrace the will, wisdom, and activities that amplify a facilitative leader.

Related articles

• Four Activities to Efficiently and Effectively Wrap-up a Meeting (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
• Leadership Style Depends on Source of Ideas & Solution Ownership (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
• Taking Charge of Poorly Led Meetings When You are Not the Leader (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)

Meetings Should Include a Communications Plan, Call it “Guardian of Change”

Meetings Should Include a Communications Plan, Call it “Guardian of Change”

Stakeholders ask meeting participants, “What happened in the meeting?” It’s a good idea to sound like all attended the same meeting.  To ensure that participants harmonize their “elevator speech” (also known as coffee pot, issue bin, and other 30-second synopsis of events or issues), quickly facilitate and get the group to agree on what they are going to tell their superiors and other stakeholders when asked.

Two-column Guardian of Change

For major initiatives such as strategic planning or project launches, it is wise to invest a few hours to build a robust communications plan, but most meetings do not afford that much time.  Rather than skip the activity entirely, Use the FAST Guardian of Change approach to build a quick and simple communications.

Some background.  We learned at a Fortune 50 client that the best product ideas were not being commercialized.  Rather, the products getting approval were the products that were being “championed” by the most persuasive and charismatic “champions.”  From that moment until now, we have learned to avoid the term “Champion,” preferring the term “Guardian.”  We do not want somebody to make their idea into more than it is or allow it to be discounted below its worth.  We want them to protect it for what it is, guard it.  Do not expand it or detract it but protect it for what it is.  Here is how to facilitate the communications plan for a meeting, to homogenize the rhetoric so that everyone’s superiors and other stakeholders hear the same message.

Purpose

Empirical research shows that it is best to guard and protect communications than to simply shout out.  Different audiences need different parts of the message, and may react differently to descriptive terms used and the media used to communicate results.

The overall purpose is to get a group to agree on how it will communicate the results of its meeting and workshop efforts to others.  Students that rely on study groups average a GPA that is 0.50 points higher than students without groups.  Why?  Socialization.

Rationale

At minimum, team members need an “elevator speech” that can deliver an effective synopsis of the meeting results.  At the other extreme, if the meeting is strategic, there could be numerous audience types such as the investment community, suppliers, trade personnel, etc.  If so, identify the key audience members before discussing the message, medium of communication, and frequency of communication for each.

When it is important that it sounds like the participants attended the same meeting together, consider agreeing on the rhetoric used to describe the meeting.  Typically, the two major audiences are:

1. What do we tell our bosses or superiors ?
2. What do we tell people dependent  on our results ?

Method

After identifying the target audiences, ask for each, “What are we going to tell _____?”  List the messages as bullet points that begin to homogenize (ie, create consistency) the meeting participants’ descriptions in the hallway about what was accomplished.

If necessary, discuss HOW TO communicate with the target audience such as face-to-face, email, etc.  For complicated communications plans, further discuss frequency or how often to set-up regular communications.  It may be necessary to schedule the communications so that the superiors are informed before other stakeholders.  Failing to plan, meeting participants will use different methods and different rhetoric that will generate different understanding among stakeholders that may require shared or at least similar understanding.

Proactively consider a 3*30 Report, a written summary of results that should take no longer than 30 minutes to write and no longer than three minutes to read and reply.  The 3*30 Report may be ideal for executives and other team members who are interested but not fully invested.

Become Part of the Solution, Improve Your Facilitation Skills

The FAST curriculum on Professional Facilitation Skills details the responsibilities and dynamics mentioned above. Remember friends, nobody is smarter than everybody, so consult your FAST Facilitator Reference Manual or attend a FAST professional facilitative leadership training workshop offered around the world (see MG Rush for a current schedule — an excellent way to earn 40 PDUs from PMI, CDUs from IIBA, or CEUs).

Daring you to embrace the will, wisdom, and activities that amplify a facilitative leader.

Related articles

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17 Valuable Tips and Essential Issues for “Chairing” Successful Meetings

Many skills required to facilitate also apply to “chairing” meetings. Success begins with vision and meeting vision is defined as knowing the purpose, scope, and objectives in advance.  Other issues that support successful facilitating or chairing naturally include people skills such as:

Leadership

 

• Ability to trust in the good nature of the human spirit, even in high-risk situations
• Accepting them for what they are and not what you wish they were
• Capacity to approach people for their present value rather than past performance
• Embracing a nature that does not require approval or recognition
• Willingness to treat everyone, even casual acquaintances, with the same courtesies and kindness

Effective leaders also remain flexible.  Ironically, the best-prepared and fully structured plans afford the most freedom and flexibility because they provide a back up plan if ad hoc or spontaneous discussions prove fruitless.  As emphasized in other blobs, communicating clearly is important to any leader, facilitator or chair.  Beware of participant biases and tendencies including:

• Missing the context in which a claim is offered to be valid
• Overgeneralization to such an extent that meaning in the particular case is lost
• Presumptions that everyone is thinking what the subject member is thinking
• Primacy and recency affects—whereby the first and final arguments carry more weight
• Use of terms that are unclear or ambiguous

Additionally, and specifically for meeting chairs as opposed to workshop facilitators, here are seventeen additional and valuable tips:

1. Always know your deliverable, that is the same as the meeting objective and logically identical to starting with the end in mind.  In the world of Lean Sigma, this is called “right to left” thinking.
2. Always strive to separate facts and evidence from beliefs and opinions.
3. Arrive first and prepare your physical space for optimal seating arrangements.
4. Clarify frequently so that everyone is offered an opportunity to question and challenge.  They will find it easier to challenge you as chair, than the original speaker who may own the content.
5. Consider posting the deliverable visually on a large sheet of paper, and restate periodically to reinforce the purpose of the meeting.
6. Explain your role and aspiration to embrace the people and communication skills mentioned above.
7. Help manage conflict and do not simply ignore it. Some of the best ideas and strongest solutions result from getting conflict out in the open where everyone can understand.
8. Limit the size of the meeting by keeping representation between five and nine participants, known to be the “sweet spot” for optimal decision-making.
9. Manage administrivia such as bathroom locations and safety procedures during your introduction.
10. Manage transitions carefully by reviewing a closed agenda step and clearly moving on to the next open agenda step.
11. Prepare, presell, and at the start of the meeting review the meeting purpose, scope, objectives, agenda, and estimated duration. If you expect participants to own the output, they have a right to influence how the output is determined.
12. Protect your participants but realize that it is not your job to reach down their throat and pull it out of them.  As employees or associates, they have a fiduciary responsibility to speak up when they can offer value.
13. Remain impartial during arguments, or at least demonstrate the appearance of impartiality so that participants can arrive at their own conclusions.
14. Restrict discussion to agenda items or you will subject yourself to scope creep within the meeting, and risk not getting done on time.
15. Seek contributions from everyone but do not embarrass anyone by forcing them to speak.
16. Start on time and police and breaks carefully as well. Do not penalize participants who are on time by starting late.
17. Take breaks when necessary, likely more than traditional.  A five-minute break every 40 minutes is better than a fifteen break every two hours.

Become Part of the Solution, Improve Your Facilitation Skills

The FAST curriculum on Professional Facilitation Skills details the responsibilities and dynamics mentioned above. Remember friends, nobody is smarter than everybody, so consult your FAST Facilitator Reference Manual or attend a FAST professional facilitative leadership training workshop offered around the world (see MG Rush for a current schedule — an excellent way to earn 40 PDUs from PMI, CDUs from IIBA, or CEUs).

Daring you to embrace the will, wisdom, and activities that amplify a facilitative leader.

Related articles

• Four Activities to Efficiently and Effectively Wrap-up a Meeting (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
• Taking Charge of Poorly Led Meetings When You are Not the Leader (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
• Leadership Style Depends on Source of Ideas & Solution Ownership (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
• 15 Fun and Quick Tips to Help You Become a More Successful Facilitative Leader (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)

 

The Agenda can be Your Most Powerful Weapon for Leading Effective Meetings

Regardless of source, style, or bias, experts/ authorities on effective meetings mandate the use of structured agendas.  Some organizations even encourage meeting participants NOT to attend if there is no agenda, since the meeting time represents a high probability of wasted time.  He or she who controls the agenda, controls the meeting.  Additionally, a survey of meeting experts suggests the following suggestions are embraced and encouraged by most:

• All agendas should include a beginning, middle, and an end.  Do not skip the beginning or the end.  See other FAST blogs or your Reference Manuals for details on how to manage robust introductions and wraps.
• An agenda needs to be written down so that everyone can refer to the same visual referent.
• Drafting an agenda with the minutes (ie, deliverable) in mind makes it easier to create the natural steps required to complete the meeting.  For example, a “Wedding Plan” might include decisions about food, music, and ceremony while a project plan might include situation analysis, alignment, and assignments.
• Participant input should be captured in advance to make modifications or additions.  Since we expect the participants to own the output of the meeting, they should be entitled to some voice into HOW the output is derived.
• Simple agenda steps ought reflect WHAT is the object (ie, noun) of the step and not HOW (ie, verb) you are going to facilitate the activity.  Save the detail, method, and tools for your private, annotated agenda.  See our picture that illustrates each agenda should focus on a discrete outcome (ie, a condition) or output (ie, something that can be documented).
• The agenda should be circulated before the meeting, earlier is better.
• Time box strategic discussions, unless you are hosting a strategic planning sessions.  Many tactical and operational meetings get bogged down with strategic issues that should be deferred to a separate time and place.  In other words, most meetings waste time discussing stuff not related to the deliverable of the meeting or the agenda; ie, scope creep within a meeting.
  

  Simple Agenda Example

The agenda represent the method by which you are using a group of people to advance a common cause.   Respect it.  Do it.  Share it.

Become Part of the Solution, Improve Your Facilitation Skills

The FAST curriculum on Professional Facilitation Skills details the responsibilities and dynamics mentioned above. Remember friends, nobody is smarter than everybody, so consult your FAST Facilitator Reference Manual or attend a FAST professional facilitative leadership training workshop offered around the world (see MG Rush for a current schedule — an excellent way to earn 40 PDUs from PMI, CDUs from IIBA, or CEUs).

Daring you to embrace the will, wisdom, and activities that amplify a facilitative leader.

Related articles

• Four Activities to Efficiently and Effectively Wrap-up a Meeting (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
• Taking Charge of Poorly Led Meetings When You are Not the Leader (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
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8 Meeting Purposes: What Task(s) Are You Asking Your Group To Accomplish?

Effective meetings are first based on clear line of sight to the end result, preferably something that can be documented.  All too often meetings are held with the intent of determining WHAT the deliverable ought be for a group of people, clearly a sign of weak methodology.  Here are some of the most common reasons for meetings and some of the benefits or problems associated with each.

Meeting Types

• Analysis—highly complex situations may require multiple subject matter experts.  Frequently experts have their own vernacular or vocabulary, and a meeting is appropriate to homogenize understanding and agreement.  Have you ever run a meeting with PhD engineers and creative marketing folks together?  Sometimes it sounds like they are from different planets.
• Assignments—structured meetings or workshops provide an excellent means of building agreement around roles and responsibilities.  When embracing our popular FAST technique, you can leave the meeting with a consensually built GANTT chart, estimation of resource requirements, and approximation of budget needs.
• Decision-Making—since resources typically fall short of the demands, prioritization is critical for high group performance.  No team has the time or resource to do everything.  Consensual understanding around prioritization provides one of the best justifications for hosting a meeting or workshop.
• Idea Generation—the reason that groups are smarter than the smartest person in the group is because groups create more options than simply aggregating the input of participants.  Many of the best ideas did not walk into the meeting; rather they were created during the meeting, based on stimulation from others.
• Information Exchange—by far and away the most common reason for meetings is also one of the worst possible reasons for justifying a meeting.  With instant access and electronic filing cabinets, coming together face-to-face is a very expensive way to exchange information.  A better justification would be to address questions about clarity, agreement, and omissions of related information or the impact the information ought have on the behavior of participants.
• Inspiration and Fun—meetings can be effectively used to both reward, incent, and incite but usually on a large-scale that involve complimentary events or sessions that also involve learning and building teamwork.
• Persuasion—probably the worst reason for holding a meeting is to convince other people to change their behavior.  There are three primary forms of persuasion; namely identification (eg, advertising), internalization (ie, long-lasting), and forced-compliance (ie, “gun to the head”).  Meetings are sub-optimal for all three forms of persuasion, and therefore are rarely successful at persuasion.
• Relationships—simply pulling together people face-to-face provides the glue that can pull people together and get them to work more cooperatively.  Frequently venting, or managing conflict, can result in increased effectiveness.  Probably the best time to invest in face-to-face meetings is when people don’t agree with each other and need to both reconcile their points of view and agree to move on.

For what other reasons have you found yourself in a meeting?  What other reasons do you think exist to justify a meeting?  We would love to receive your input on this topic.

Become Part of the Solution, Improve Your Facilitation Skills

The FAST curriculum on Professional Facilitation Skills details the responsibilities and dynamics mentioned above. Remember friends, nobody is smarter than everybody, so consult your FAST Facilitator Reference Manual or attend a FAST professional facilitative leadership training workshop offered around the world (see MG Rush for a current schedule — an excellent way to earn 40 PDUs from PMI, CDUs from IIBA, or CEUs).

Daring you to embrace the will, wisdom, and activities that amplify a facilitative leader.

Related articles

• Taking Charge of Poorly Led Meetings When You are Not the Leader (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
• Primary Types of Meetings and the Boundaries to Closely Manage (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
• Leadership Style Depends on Source of Ideas & Solution Ownership (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
• How to Build a Roles and Responsibility Matrix for Multiple Sites (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)

 

The Meeting is the Message: Every Meeting Speaks Win or Loss

Without effective leadership, you can win the agenda but lose the meeting.  Take responsibility to prevent collective incompetence.  For example, do not allow showboating and meetings within meetings.  Additionally, consider some of the following suggestions to improve the quality and effectiveness of the meetings you run and attend:

The Meeting is the Message

• Acronyms and BuzzWords—expound or create a visual legend for cryptic terms.  Participants assume that others understand everything they say.  We don’t but we need a facilitator to help expound acronyms and explain buzzwords.
• Competition—do not allow participants to play political games.  Keep them focused on the deliverable of each question, agenda item, and meeting result.
• Different Agendas—ensure participants that you know where you are and where you are going and do not permit competing agendas that cause scope creep and meetings that go out of control.
• Distractions—the guiding principle for every facilitator is to remove distractions so that the group can focus on the issue at hand.  Distractions range from creature comfort (eg, temperature) to cultural (eg, electronic leashes such as smart phones).
• Incompetent Members—many meetings involve people who are brought in to observe, rather than contribute.  If so, separate them physically by seating them in the back or around the perimeter.
• Miscommunications—listen, observe, clarify, and confirm.  Need we say more?
• Outside Pressures—get to know your participants and some of the issues that drive their thinking and behavior.  Complete your assessment before the meeting begins.  You cannot conduct personality profiling during a meeting and be an effective listener at the same time.
• Personal Feelings—as a neutral facilitator, depersonalize issues that arise and have others focus on performance, not the people.
• Triviality—do not allow your participants to dive too deep in the weeds and talk about HOW when most discussions should focus on WHAT needs to be different.  If strategic issues (ie, WHY) arise, set them aside for a different forum.

With meetings, less can be more.  Holding unnecessary meetings can undermine your reputation.  Do not confuse or substitute meetings for work.  As a meeting participant, never attend yourself without knowing what you want to accomplish during the meeting and what you need to take out of it.  As we say repeatedly and illustrate as the title of the FAST holarchy, know what “done” looks like.

Become Part of the Solution, Improve Your Facilitation Skills

The FAST curriculum on Professional Facilitation Skills details the responsibilities and dynamics mentioned above. Remember friends, nobody is smarter than everybody, so consult your FAST Facilitator Reference Manual or attend a FAST professional facilitative leadership training workshop offered around the world (see MG Rush for a current schedule — an excellent way to earn 40 PDUs from PMI, CDUs from IIBA, or CEUs).

Daring you to embrace the will, wisdom, and activities that amplify a facilitative leader.

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How to Facilitate Consensual Definitions with Structure and Focused Listening

To build an operational definition that the group can live with, in its own words, and with its own understanding use the following method. Since narrative descriptions alone may fall short of the entire meaning, we also want to support the definition with illustration and examples.

Rationale

To provide support to a group that needs to consensually arrive at the definition and meaning of something, whether concrete or abstract.  This FAST tool supports consensual understanding around terms and phrases but is not robust enough to develop rich definitions for complex ideas like processes.

Method

When a term or phrse requires further definition or understanding, it may be best to start with a dictionary definition(s).  However, do not use dictionary definitions alone. Rather, offer them as stimulus for the group to draft their own operational definition.  Additional steps are:

1. First identify “WHAT THE TERM OR PHRASE IS NOT”.
2. Next, compile a narrative sentence or paragraph that generally describes it.  Perhaps avoid starting with a blank sheet of paper (ie, use a dictionary or other professional definitions and support).
3. Then list the detailed bullets that capture the specific characteristics or specifications of the term or phrase.  For example, with a camera, we might detail the requirements for mega pixels, zoom, etc.
4. Obtain or build a picture of concrete items or create an illustration if the item is abstract or dynamic (eg, process flow).
5. Illustrate the definition with real-life examples from the participants’ experience that vivify the term or phrase.  For example, a utility bill can be defined, but it is helpful to show an actual invoice (eg, electricity for the period 15JAN20xx to 14FEB20xx).
   

   Vivification

Become Part of the Solution, Improve Your Facilitation Skills

The FAST curriculum on Professional Facilitation Skills details the responsibilities and dynamics mentioned above. Remember friends, nobody is smarter than everybody, so consult your FAST Facilitator Reference Manual or attend a FAST professional facilitative leadership training workshop offered around the world (see MG Rush for a current schedule — an excellent way to earn 40 PDUs from PMI, CDUs from IIBA, or CEUs).

Daring you to embrace the will, wisdom, and activities that amplify a facilitative leader.

Related articles

• “Brainsteering” Recommends 5 Activities to Improve Brainstorming (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
• Four Activities to Efficiently and Effectively Wrap-up a Meeting (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
• Leadership Style Depends on Source of Ideas & Solution Ownership (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
• Brudney & Baum on Dictionary Use by the Supreme Court (lsolum.typepad.com)
• 5 Other Online Dictionaries (dailywritingtips.com)
• The Best Free Dictionary and Thesaurus Programs and Websites (howtogeek.com)
• Test You’re 2012 Slang Skills (pbs.org)