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Peter Paul CPF, PMP April 28, 2010. Facilitation Fitness The 85 minute workout. Workout #1:. This exercise targets the: Glutes , Quads, Fine motor skills of arms How to do it: Organize yourselves into groups (tables join to make up a full table) Every person fills out a workout form
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Peter Paul CPF, PMP April 28, 2010 Facilitation FitnessThe 85 minute workout
Workout #1: This exercise targets the: • Glutes, • Quads, • Fine motor skills of arms How to do it: • Organize yourselves into groups (tables join to make up a full table) • Every person fills out a workout form • Elect someone to capture the information on the summary sheet and give to Peter or delegate Exercise time: 10 minutes Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
Rate your response to the following statements Strongly Agree Strongly Disagree Agree Neutral Disagree • An effective meeting is often more by surprise than by design • Predicting meeting success is like trying to capture lightning in a bottle • I often ask myself why it takes so long for everyone else to “get it” • You can be both a facilitator and a process /subject matter expert in the same meeting • If a meeting spins out of control I have a difficult time getting it back on track • Facilitation isn’t needed in gathering or validating business requirements • Facilitation isn’t needed in managing a project A B C D E Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
Workout #1 Results Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
How many years of experience do we collectively have? Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
Workout #2: This exercise targets the: • Individual / collective wisdom of peers and colleagues How to do it: • Move yourself so that there is (if possible) one person at the table with: • <1 yr. • 1-5 yrs. • 5-10 yrs. • 10-15 yrs. • 15+ yrs. Exercise time: 5 minutes Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
Who’s here tonight? Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
Workout #3: This exercise targets cranial development through: • New or different perspectives • New or different thoughts • New or different ideas How to do it: • Move yourself so that there is (if possible) an equal number of Project Managers and Business Analysts at the table • If you have people who are both or neither PM / BA they can stay seated! Exercise time: 5 minutes Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
1. An effective meeting is often more by surprise than by design 1. An effective meeting is often more by surprise than by design Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
1. An effective meeting is often more by surprise than by design Basic Principles All meetings have the same components: • A beginning • A middle • An end All meetings need a purpose and a design: • What do we want to accomplish? • How are we going to accomplish it? • What do we do with what we’ve accomplished? Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
1. An effective meeting is often more by surprise than by design Axiom of time management Second Law of Thermodynamics: Matter expands to take up all available space (think balloon) Second law of human dynamics: People’s conversations expand to take up all available time In other words, time-boxing and time management are critical to achieving meeting success *First Law of human dynamics: for every meeting there is an equal and opposite non-meeting (coffee break, extended lunch, shopping trip) Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
1. An effective meeting is often more by surprise than by design Make your meetings “POP” Purpose • Needs to get at the heart of the reason you’re convening • Needs to be clear, neutral, and concise • Should not be biased (personal agenda) or vague (creates meeting spin) Example: “To sustain our existing customer base by identifying and agreeing to an effective customer complaint process/system.” Goldman, M. “Facilitator’s Flipchart”, June 2009 Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
1. An effective meeting is often more by surprise than by design Make your meetings “POP” Outcomes • the “what” of the meeting • Tangible and intangible results you hope to attain by the end of the event. • Tangible: action, strategy, document, prioritized list • Intangible: emotional state or attitude such as greater willingness to commit, excitement, buy-in Example: By the end of this meeting we will have: • Decided on a new customer complaints process • Completed an action plan to implement our new process • Reinvigorated our commitment to great customer service! Goldman, M. “Facilitator’s Flipchart”, June 2009 Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
1. An effective meeting is often more by surprise than by design Make your meetings “POP” Process • Speaks to the “how” we are to achieve the outcomes and ultimately the purpose of the meeting • Two aspects of event management: • Event structuring – activities, tools • Participant management – behaviour guidelines or norms on how the group wants to relate to one another Goldman, M. “Facilitator’s Flipchart”, June 2009 Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
1. An effective meeting is often more by surprise than by design Establishing team norms • Norms are important protocols adopted by the team to manage their behaviour within the context of the event • Norms will only work if the team agrees to embrace them as part of their explicit and implicit behaviour • Adopted / embraced norms require very little maintenance (after the initial forming stage) as they will be reinforced by the team (interventions) Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
1. An effective meeting is often more by surprise than by design Establishing team norms • Elicit them from the team • When in doubt, use some common norms • Devices on stun mode • All input is valuable • One person at a time • Vegas rules (what happens in … stays in …) • Make sure norms are reviewed, edited, and agreed upon by the team as part of the startup process Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
2. Meeting success is like capturing lightning in a bottle 2. Meeting success is like capturing lightning in a bottle Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
Group Dynamics Teams typically go through these four phases: • Forming • Storming • Norming • Performing Tuckman, B.W., “Development sequence in small groups”, Psychological Bulletin, 1965, 63, 384-399 Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
2. Meeting success is like capturing lightning in a bottle Workout #4: This exercise targets the: • Rapid development of a team • Unconventional ways in which we can bond with others How to do it: • Collect one example of each of the following items from the people in your team / at your table : • Business card, • Lipstick (or lip balm), • Something blue in colour, • A sport or entertainment ticket • A passport • The team that comes up with all the items first wins a prize! Exercise time: 5 minutes Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
2. Meeting success is like capturing lightning in a bottle Establishing rapport / trust • To effectively facilitate, you must rapidly build a rapport and trust bothwith and amongst the participants • Don’t confuse rapport or trust with respect, you’re not there to gain their respect – that’s for the SME’s and peers • You need to focus the participants on respecting the process • You will become almost invisible to the participants once they respect the process Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
2. Meeting success is like capturing lightning in a bottle Establishing rapport / trust How? • Take advantage of physicality / logistics: • Arrange the room e.g., U shape configuration • Stand up and walk around • Ensure that you can be clearly heard and that you can clearly hear everyone (move closer to subject while they are talking) • Ensure you speak with a calm but inviting voice • Maintain a neutral language style • Maintain an impartial communications style Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
2. Meeting success is like capturing lightning in a bottle Establishing rapport / trust How? • Be transparent at all times: • tell ’em what you’re gonna do, • tell ’em when you’re doing it • tell ’em what you just did • Invite feedback from the team at every step: • Is this discussion important right now to the team? • What should we do at this point in time? Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
2. Meeting success is like capturing lightning in a bottle Teleconference Tips • Establish norms at the beginning of every (new) meeting • Take attendance • Use attendance list to address everyone who needs to respond (checkmark) • Use a single source of information to keep everyone focused on the topic (Netmeeting, WebEx, SharePoint) • For meeting with face-to-face and teleconference attendees: • Place tent cards on table to represent tele-attendees • Remind f2f attendees to speak clearly and in direction of microphone / polycom • Remind team of norms (side conversations tend to exclude tele-tendees) • Check in with tele-tendees • Assign an f2f attendee (avatar) to represent a tele-tendee for task based activities Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
3. Why does it take so long for everyone else to “get it” 3. Why does it take so long for everyone else to “get it” Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
3. Why does it take so long for everyone else to “get it” Are you in furious agreement? Which square is darker, A or B? Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
3. Why does it take so long for everyone else to “get it” Workout #5 This exercise targets the: • Optical nerves • Cerebral cortex How to do it: • Count the number of times the letter “F” appears in the following sentence Ready? Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
3. Why does it take so long for everyone else to “get it” Workout #5 “Finished files are the result of years of scientific study combined with the experience of years” Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
3. Why does it take so long for everyone else to “get it” Making false distinctions Do you see the spirals of green, pinkish-orange and blue? “Our process is better than anyone else’s process” Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
3. Why does it take so long for everyone else to “get it” Workout #6 This exercise targets: • Muscles that may have atrophied over time • Identification of personal stress levels How to do it: • The picture you are about to see was used in a case study on stress levels at St. Mary’s Hospital. • Look at both dolphins jumping out of the water. The dolphins are identical. A closely monitored, scientific study revealed that, in spite of the fact that the dolphins are identical, a person under stress would find differences between the two dolphins. The more differences a person finds between the dolphins, the more stress that person is experiencing. Ready? Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
3. Why does it take so long for everyone else to “get it” Cultural or Generational Differences • Did you want to ask “where’s Mary?” when you saw or heard my name? • Do you know what a pull tab is? • What do you call a small, portable device that plays music? • What slogan comes to mind when you think of McDonald’s? • What do the following mean: ASAP, RSVP, LMK, LOL, LMAO Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
3. Why does it take so long for everyone else to “get it” How to handle difficult people What and Why? • Identify what a “difficult” person is • A difficult person is _______________ • Why do you believe difficult people need to be “handled”? Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
3. Why does it take so long for everyone else to “get it” How to handle difficult people • Be proactive • Analyze the stakeholders in advance i.e., personality types • Structure the event with techniques that minimize the disruption • Be familiar with (and practise if necessary) performing an intervention Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
4. Being both facilitator and SME in the same event 4. Being both facilitator and SME in the same event Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
4. Being both facilitator and SME in the same event Meeting Spectrum Meeting styles vary based on: How long the team has been working together The Content of the event The Purpose of the event Out of the Box Established Established Established Never met / worked together Different Perspectives, Consensus required Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
4. Being both facilitator and SME in the same event Degree of Facilitation Team Content Purpose Out of the Box Established Established Established Never met / worked together Different Perspectives, Consensus required Facilitation Strength Hardcore Warm-up Trainer Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
4. Being both facilitator and SME in the same event Being a SME is okay wid me… • Ask yourself if you bring more value to the event as a subject matter expert or as a facilitator • If being a SME brings more value, consider asking someone else to facilitate so that you can be fully engaged Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
4. Being both facilitator and SME in the same event But being both will get your goat! • If your meeting requires strong facilitation, you will wear yourself out “switching hats” • Participants will start to get confused if you change “hats” too often • Participants may perceive bias in your facilitation even if there is none Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
5. If an event goes out of control 5. If an event goes out of control Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
5. If an event goes out of control Group Dynamics Teams typically go through these four phases: • Forming • Storming • Norming • Performing Tuckman, B.W., “Development sequence in small groups”, Psychological Bulletin, 1965, 63, 384-399 Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
5. If an event goes out of control Overcoming the “storming” phase • It’s perfectly natural for teams to enter storming • Teams can get stuck in storming phase because they: • don’t recognize the signs because they’re in it • keep comparing the now to “forming” when everyone was playing nice • have no strategies to move past storming • Keep in mind: you can’t move into the norming or (better yet) performing phase(s) unless you move through the storming phase Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
5. If an event goes out of control Overcoming the “storming” phase • Identify the situation • Intervention (if team is spinning out of control) • Refer back to planned part of agenda • Assure them • a natural part of team-building • “knowing is half the battle” – G.I. Joe • Solicit feedback • What’s happening? • What can we do to get past this? • If the team is unable to provide feedback, suggestions include: • Use the parking lot to capture items • Remind the team to attack the problem, not the person • Remind the team of the group norms (you do have norms right?) • Suggest a tool or technique such as brainwriting, Ishikawa (fishbone) diagram, force field analysis, 2 x 2 matrix, 9 boxes (Triz) that can get them to collectively analyze and act Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
5. If an event goes out of control Definitions should be well… um, defined An event can spin out of control when participants have different interpretations of words Example: what’s your definition of “event”? For this presentation, an event is “a facilitated duration of time such as a meeting or a workshop” Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
5. If an event goes out of control Workout #7: This exercise targets the development of: • A resilient epidermis, • Unnecessary combat skills How to do it: • As a team, decide upon a working definition that everyone agrees to for the following: • Consensus • Alignment • Responsible • Accountable • Be prepared to present your definitions to the other teams Exercise time: 10 minutes Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
5. If an event goes out of control Managing Conflict • Understand that conflict is neither a good nor bad; in fact it: • demonstrates “engagement” or “passion” about the topic at hand • indicates a deeper issue at hand i.e., root cause • may be symptomatic of another problem or issue that’s impacting the team i.e., personalities or communications styles • The idea is to manage through the conflict to a positive resolution Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
5. If an event goes out of control Effective intervention What is it? • An intervention is an opportunity to take corrective or preventative action when a situation occurs that does not bring value to the event • An intervention should be fact-based, not opinion-based Symptoms of a problem that might require an intervention: • Polarizing viewpoints between two individuals (teams) with no intention of changing their respective positions • Emotional rather than fact-based discussion • Individual or collective body language convey boredom, anger, frustration When do you intervene? Ask yourself the following question: “By allowing this situation to happen (continue), does it help or hurt what we have accomplished (trying to accomplish)?” Bens, Ingrid: “Advanced Facilitation Techniques” Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
5. If an event goes out of control Effective intervention Intervention steps: • “I observed x saying / doing…” (action) • “I observed y saying / doing…” (reaction) • “The result was z…” (impact) • What should we do about this? (obtain feedback from group) • In the absence of feedback, have some options available to the team: • Take a break • Is this relevant / important to what we are trying to do? • Can we put this in the parking lot? • Should we carve out time from the agenda to address this specific issue? Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
5. If an event goes out of control How to bring People back on Time • Music breaks • Countdown timer: http://www.online-stopwatch.com/online-countdown/ • Shhhing • Charity collection e.g., $1 if you’re late • Time check announcement and begin countdown from 10 seconds • Gongs, chimes, Tibetan singing bowl (for workshops) Note: they can get annoying if overused; mix them up! Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
6. Facilitation and Business Analysis 6. Facilitation and Business Analysis Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul
6. Facilitation and Business Analysis Business Analysis There are many tools used in analysis and facilitation for identical purposes: Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul