Facilitation Fitness The 85 minute workout

1. Peter Paul CPF, PMP April 28, 2010 Facilitation FitnessThe 85 minute workout

2. 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

3. 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

4. Workout #1 Results Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul

5. How many years of experience do we collectively have? Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul

6. 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

7. Who’s here tonight? Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 2. Meeting success is like capturing lightning in a bottle 2. Meeting success is like capturing lightning in a bottle Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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

30. Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul

31. 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

32. 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

33. 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

34. 4. Being both facilitator and SME in the same event 4. Being both facilitator and SME in the same event Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul

35. 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

36. 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

37. 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

38. 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

39. 5. If an event goes out of control 5. If an event goes out of control Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul

40. 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

41. 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

42. 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

43. 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

44. 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

45. 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

46. 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

47. 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

48. 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

49. 6. Facilitation and Business Analysis 6. Facilitation and Business Analysis Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul

50. 6. Facilitation and Business Analysis Business Analysis There are many tools used in analysis and facilitation for identical purposes: Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul