40 Proven Questions to Determine and Mitigate Meeting or Workshop Risk (1 of 5)

This two-part discussion provides a method for evaluating the relative risk of a meeting or workshop.

What is Risk?

Risk is exposure to the following consequences:

• Failure to achieve benefits
• Hardware and software incompatibility
• Higher implementation costs
• Longer implementation time
• Performance that is less than expected

Risk is not “bad”—failure to understand risk is dangerous.

Risk Defined

Risk shows up at three significant levels in a project:

1. Business risk is the potential exposure to the business for an incomplete, inappropriate, or late project.
2. Project risk is the likelihood of a given project failing, missing timelines, falling short of delivery standards, or grossly exceeding its estimates.
3. Technique risk is the potential for failure or major problems using a specific technique or tool in a given situation (ie, workshop or meeting methodology).

Source

We worked with Harvard Business School experts F. Warren McFarlan and James McKenney to create an algorithm that provides as assessment of meeting risk.

Meeting and Workshop Risk Components

A facilitated meeting or technique aggregates up to four discrete areas:

1. Size—a measure of overall project effort, number of dependencies, and numbers and types of meeting or workshop sessions required.
2. Complexity—a measure of the newness of the methodologies being used, the preexisting structure of the business requirements, and complexity of understanding the new requirements.
3. Politics—a measure of the controversy surrounding the project, cooperation amongst the groups, and general tendency of the participants to involve political considerations in a solution.
4. Customer Organization (ie, heterogeneity)—a measure of the size, location, and complexity of the customer organization and potential logistical problems.

Assess each area using the questions and templates that follow in part two. Meanwhile, continue reading with a discussion about mitigation actions.

When To Assess

Assess risk for every significant meeting or workshop.  Perform the assessment as part of the initial preparation.  Reassess risk for each stage or phase gate meeting, decision reviews, and look backs.  If meeting risk is not going down as you progress through the project life cycle, your meeting or workshop is likely facing additional trouble.

Mitigating Meeting Risk

Finding that a meeting or workshop is high risk is not enough.  You must do something to mitigate the risk.  Following are guidelines:

High Complexity

• Structure more participants in your workshops.  Have a speaker (not yourself) stimulate the participants with prototyping ideas and then drive additional creativity to inspire innovation.

High Politics

• Use a politically savvy session leader.  Develop consensus and vision building with management by conducting a management workshop to develop the purpose, scope, objectives, and vision for the new business, process, or system.  Complete this workshop first.

Large Project

• Conduct four to five requirements gathering workshops and then have a review with senior management to see if still on track.  When scheduling workshops, schedule them from Tuesday through Friday and plan to finish on Thursday.  That ensures that the participants have cleared their calendars for Friday in case the workshop runs over—otherwise, they go 
home early.

Diverse Organization

• Lead meetings in a similar fashion as you would for a large project.  Also, schedule numerous face-to-face visits or conference calls for the preparation interviews.

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)
• Meetings Should Include a Communications Plan, Call it “Guardian of Change” (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
• A “Plan” May Be Defined as “Who Does What (and When)” and Answers 10 Questions (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
• How to Facilitate Building a Group’s Vision Using the Temporal Shift Tool (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
• How to Structure and Normalize a Discussion Around a “Many to Many” Dilemma (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)

 

Dr Edward DeBono’s Six Thinking Hats Provides Strong Stimulus for Ideation

If you haven’t read Edward DeBono’s Six Thinking Hats, or studied his concept about lateral thinking, you should.  As one of the rare authors who instructs people on HOW TO think rather than WHAT TO think, he has been hailed as one of the 250 people who have contributed most to mankind.

As shared in our last post, SCAMPER is a Mnemonic to Prompt for Excellent, Impromptu Questions, nobody is smarter than everybody because groups create more options than individual ideas that are aggregated.  Any group or individual is known to make higher quality decision when provided with more options.  The theory and concept driving the Six Thinking Hats also makes it easy to generate more ideas, thus a higher quality output.

While this blog cannot even attempt to do justice to a nearly 200-page book, you can make it easier for a group to take existing ideas by providing this method so that they are permitted to morph their ideas into something different or more substantial. For extensive instructions and options, see the source book.

Method

Note first that we have modified the hats to include a seventh or Royal hat that reflects the perspective of the owner who is both committed and invested in the meeting output and project outcome. Use the Thinking Hats approach to force perspective and capture new ideas:

• You may assign a hat (see perspectives below) to the entire group or a different hat to each person and then rotate the hats to encourage more ideas.
• Any hat can be used as often as you like.
• There is no need to use every hat.
• The sequence may be made up of two, three, four, or more hats.
• As session leader (ie, methodologist), you may permit either a pre-set order or one that is evolving.  Do not however, facilitate the sequence (ie, facilitating method) and ask your participants about which hat(s) they would like to wear.  They do not know and rely on your expertise for the method.
• You may also use Post-It® notes to have participants individually capture a bunch of ideas.  As session leader, transpose the notes so that all are legible for the participants, preferably during a quick break.
• You may prefer to not use all the hats, and you may shape the definitions based on your own situation, but use some type of visual prompt to explain the perspectives you are seeking.

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

• Parallel Thinking with Six Thinking Hats (spin.atomicobject.com)
• Six Thinking Hats (everydaygyaan.com)
• A “Plan” May Be Defined as “Who Does What (and When)” and Answers 10 Questions (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
• The Meeting is the Message: Every Meeting Speaks Win or Loss (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)

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)

Using the Fist of Five to Test for Quick Consensus About Contextual Issues

The Fist of Five approach combines the speed of thumbs up/ down and displays the degrees of agreement that can support more complicated decision spectrums. Using this approach people vote using their hands and display fingers to represent their degree of support.

Method

When a group comes to consensus on a matter, it means that everyone in the group can support the decision; they don’t all have to think it’s the best decision, but they all agree they can live with it.  This tool is an easy-to-use way to test for consensus quickly.

To use this technique the facilitator restates a decision the group may make and asks everyone to show their level of support.  Each person responds by showing a fist or a number of fingers that corresponds to their opinion.

Fist—a clear no vote, a way to block consensus.  “I need more information about the issues and require changes for a proposal to pass.”

1 Finger—“I need to discuss certain issues and suggest changes that should be made.”

2 Fingers—“I am comfortable with the proposal but want to discuss some minor issues.”

3 Fingers—“I’m not in total agreement but feel comfortable enough to let this decision or a proposal pass without further discussion.”

4 Fingers—“I think this is a good idea/ decision and will work for it.”

5 Fingers—“It’s a great idea and I will be a major leader supporting it.”

If anyone holds up fewer than three fingers, they should be given the opportunity to state their objections and the team should address their concerns.  Teams continue the Fist of Five process until they achieve consensus (a minimum of three fingers or higher) or determine they must move on to the next issue.)

Notes

A small problem with this approach is that two standards have emerged and so you really need to be clear upfront if five fingers mean “full agreement” or “no, stop”. With the method discussed above, a fist (no fingers) means no support, five fingers means total support and a desire to lead the charge.

Another model registers resistance to the proposal so that one finger means total support, two fingers means support with some minor reservations, three fingers means concerns that need discussing, four fingers means “I object and want to discuss”, and five fingers (an extended palm like a stop sign) means “Stop, I am opposed.”

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)
• “Be Here Now” – Meaning Behind One of Our Most Popular Meeting Ground Rules (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
• How to Make Better Decisions Together (shareable.net)

Meeting Tip: Take a “Break” to Improve Your Group Performance and Your Own

In addition to taking standard ten minute bio-breaks every hour or so, you may need to take breaks for the benefits of your team, for your own benefit, or to encourage innovation through a change of scenery.  These extra breaks enable people to move around, get the blood flowing, grab some fresh air, and think of the situation in a different environment 
(eg, an outdoor courtyard or near a fountain).

Method

When either you, the session leader, are fatigued or confused or whenever the group gets stuck on a subject, such as an argument, lethargy, etc, take a break.  Before you send them on this special break, however, do the following:

1. Give them a specific time to return (normally fifteen minutes so that they have ten minutes of a ‘normal’ break and an additional five minutes for steps two and three below).
2. Visually post or give them a question to think about while on the break and ask them to consider the question for five minutes during their extended break.
3. When participants return, capture their new ideas or responses.

Notes

This fairly simple exercise has resulted in many issues being resolved, arguments ending, decisions being made, and participants waking up.  It allows some time for evaporation if the team is saturated, thus allowing space for new ideas to develop.  For the session leader, it affords additional time to regroup while the team remains productive. Do not be afraid to take a break as no team has ever been disappointed when the session leader tells the group to take a break.

Ergonomic Break Alternative

The cognitive benefits of exercise have been demonstrated in older people, middle-aged people, and even fourth graders.  Clinical proof exists that you learn twenty percent faster after exercise than after sitting still.

Why?  Exercise improves the blood’s access to specific brain regions and stimulates learning cells to make brain-derived neurotrophic factors, or BDNF, which acts like a Miracle-Gro^® for neurons.

What?  Consider an ergonomic break where you (or appointee) begin a simple series of stretching.  Have participants roll their heads, twist their torsos, bend their hips, rotate their arms, or even massage the shoulder trap muscles of the person next to them.

Everyone will benefit, feel better, and stay awake longer.

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

• “Be Here Now” – Meaning Behind One of Our Most Popular Meeting Ground Rules (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
• 8 Meeting Purposes: What Task(s) Are You Asking Your Group To Accomplish? (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
• Celebrate Pause Appreciation Day (thehealthyhousewives.wordpress.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)

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)

 

“Be Here Now”—Meaning Behind One of Our Most Popular Meeting Ground Rules

Removing distractions so that a group can focus remains the most important goal of an effective facilitator.  Getting the right group of people to focus on issue ensures a successful outcome.  Yet we all know how hard it is to concentrate for more than a few minutes at a time.  Researches claim that meeting participants divert their attention to other or personal topics every six to eight minutes.  If you have a meeting with twelve people, someone is “waking up” every 30 seconds.

Simply apply the ground rule “Be Here Now” won’t alone solve the problem, but it will help, especially if you take the time to explain everything it means to your participants.

• Arrow—post a visual agenda and put an arrow or other device on it to indicate where the group is on the agenda.  Do not use the checkbox approach since it is never clear if the group is on the last checked box or the next unchecked box.  Shopping mall signs indicate where you are, not where you were.
• Consciousness—ask participant to “be here now’ and strive to keep their consciousness focused on listening and contributing.  Ask them to stay fresh, and if necessary, take more frequent breaks.  Bio-breaks should be offered more frequently in the morning and with virtual meetings (eg, video presence).  Consider 30-second “stretch” breaks every thirty minutes; offering up quick deep knee bends or shoulder turns to keep participants awake and fresh.  Some cultures refer to this as a 30-30, and if it is part of your culture, use a timepiece or timer to signal each 30-minute segment.
  

  Electronic Leashes

• Leashes—have participants disengage their electronic leashes and beware because the vibration mode does not mean silent, only lower tones.  If participants cannot wait to address an electronic request, have them take it out of the room, but do not allow laptops, smart phones, and multi-tasking.  Groups that claim to multi-task, perform mentally at the level of chimpanzees.  Do you really want to facilitate a roomful of monkeys?
• Punctuality—participants should not arrive late, either at the meeting start or after breaks.  Start meetings on time so that you don’t punish the people who attend on time.  Use FAST timers to ensure on time attendance after breaks.
• Updates—if participants are late or leave the room and then return, do not stop the meeting to give them a personal update.  Personal updates penalize the on time participants.  Rather, refresh the tardy participants during the next break or pair them off with somebody and send them to the hallway for a one-on-one update, if the update cannot wait until the next break.

To “Be Here Now” is infectious so lead the way.  Arrive early and first.  Watch your time closely and call breaks as needed.  More are better so that participants can attend to their electronic updates.  Most all agree that four 5-minute breaks during a morning session are better than one 20-minute break.  Monitor them tightly however and do not allow leakage.  Your group depends on you for their success.

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)