art of facilitation

The Art of Facilitation

Alexey Krivitsky www.agiletrainings.eu

#Workjams

HANGOUT WORKSHOPS www.agiletrainings.eu/hangout-workshops

Alexey krivitsky

Cer5fiedScrumTrainer(CST)Cer5fiedScrumPrac55oner(CSP)Cer5fiedLargeScaleScrum(LeSS)Prac55oner

Developer(Java,.NET,RoR)ScrumMasterAgileCoachScrumTrainerwww.agiletrainings.eu/blog/

Three parts

1. Raising Engagement 2. Facilitator’s Stances 3. Designing #Workjams

PART 1.

RAISING ENGAGEMENT.

Find a pair Share - What brought you here

Pair exercise

OUR DEFINITION OF DONE 1.  Nobody is bored.

2. You feel comfortable enough to facilitate a meeting within next 2 weeks.

3.  In long run you would like to become a practicing facilitator in your company.

In theory there are 2 kinds of meetings

“WOAH!”

“meh.”

•  Find a pair •  One person remembers a meh-meeting story •  The other – a woah-meeting story

•  Tell your stories:

what exactly was happening on those MEETINGS?

•  Write on post-its - visible signs of meh/woah meeting •  Write one idea per a post-it, as many as you want

Pair exercise

•  Please Stand-up

•  Split into two groups at your table: meh story and woah story groups meet different sides of a table

•  Quickly Share your post-its in your group

•  Discard duplicates

•  Everyone takes a marker

•  Dot voting: 3 dots per person – which visible signs are most important?

•  Count dots

•  Share your top 3 post-its to the other group at your table

Table exercise

MEETING DYNAMICS IDEALIZED

DECISIONPOINT

NEWTOPIC

CONVERGENT THINKING DIVERGENT THINKING TIME

Let’s look into some data

Meeting ENGAGEMENT LEVEL NUMBEROFPEOPLEONAMEETING

PEOPLEWORKINGINAGIVENMOMENT

Meeting FORMATS USED OPENDISCUSSION

INDIVIDUALWRITING

SMALLGROUPS

DOTVOTING

ROLEPLAY

SCIENCEFAIR

BREAKOUTGROUPS

Meeting solution & QUALITY STANDARDSOLUTIONSCONSIDERED

NON-STANDARDSOLUTIONSCONSIDERED

WORKSHOP

MEETING versus

WORKSHOP TECHNIQUES applicable on meetings

APPLICABLEONMEETINGSNONAPPLICABLEONMEETINGS

#0: GOAL OF A FACILITATOR

Servethegroupwithwhateveritmightneedtoreachitsgoalsandfulfillitsexistence.

#1: GOAL OF A FACILITATOR

Raise engagement level withinthe group for the sake of highercreaOvity, beSer soluOons andstrongerdedicaOontoresults.

WORKING WITH ENGAGEMENT

FREQUENT INVOLVEMENT LONG MONOLOGUES

INDIVIDUAL WRITING ALL-IN BRAINSTORMS

SMALL GROUPS OPEN DISCUSSIONS

STANDING SITTING

trumps

trumps

trumps

trumps

CHANGING WORK MODES SAME FORMAT REPEATED trumps

ENGAGEMENT VITAMINS, DO MORE DISENGAGEMENT PRACTICES, do LESS

Individual exercise Find a page in your hand-out “working with engagement” Go through the list of 5 disengagement practices (right) and 5 engagement vitamins (left) Imagine yourself facilitating a meeting •  Which vitaminS you feel OK to try with a group? •  Which vitamins would feel the most weird to try?

WORKING WITH ENGAGEMENT

FREQUENT INVOLVEMENT LONG MONOLOGUES

INDIVIDUAL WRITING ALL-IN BRAINSTORMS

SMALL GROUPS OPEN DISCUSSIONS

STANDING SITTING

trumps

trumps

trumps

trumps

CHANGING WORK MODES SAME FORMAT REPEATED trumps

ENGAGEMENT VITAMINS, DO MORE DISENGAGEMENT PRACTICES, do LESS

Pair exercise Go back to your pairs Remember the story of a meh-meeting you discussed before NOW Discuss: 1.  Which of the disengagement practices were there? 2.  Which vitamins trumps these disengagements? 3.  What would have changed if the vitamins are taken?

PART 2.

FACILITATOR’S STANCES.

Exercise: role play!

At your table: YOU ARE A TEAM You’re planning your next team buildING discuss •  HOW DO YOU WANT TO RUN IT? WHERE? WHEN? Play your role as realistic as possible

SABOTEUR

You don’t know why, but you don’t like any of THE proposals.

SELFY

You have a proposal that you THINK IS THE BEST.

You don’t know why you need to care about DISCUSSION AT ALL.

You are interested in the meeting outcomes.

HOSTAGE SUPPORTER

SABOTEUR You don’t know why, but you don’t like any of THE proposals.

Also you don’t have any preference.

You don’t care if group agrees or not.

SELFY You have a proposal that you THINK IS THE BEST.

You want everyone to agree on it.

other solutions are less interesting unless proven otherwise.

You don’t know why you need to care about DISCUSSION AT ALL.

Stay silent and not involved.

You can get involved but this requires energy from the others to pull you in.

You are interested in the meeting outcomes.

Make group reach some consensus.

Balance the discussion between loud and silent parties.

HOSTAGE SUPPORTER

Debrief

at a table: Try to guess who played which role

Individually think or discuss in pairs:

which role is most common on your meetings? Which role is your ‘default’ one?

ON meetings: HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE LISTENING to each other?

NOT HEARING. BUT ACTIVELY LISTENING?

LISTENING LEVELS internal

YOU HEAR BUT THINK OF YOUR EXPERIENCES

focused YOU listen STAYING LASER FOCUSED

global YOU EXPAND CONSCIOUSNESS BEYOND WORDS

AH, I’ve had the same story... When I was a kid _______

Yes I SEE… When did it happen last time? HOW WAS IT?

When you said that, it felt LIKE IT STILL TROUBLES YOU. What’s behind this?

FACILITATOR’S STANCES

2: BALANCE INVOLVEMENT

3: ZOOM IN AND OUT

4: HELP GO BEYOND

1: HELP PEOPLE BE HEARD

BALANCING AND ENCOURAGING

REPEATING and summarizing

ASKING EXPLORATORY QUESTIONS

TAGGING AND STACKING

YOU’VE JUST SAID ____. DID I GET IT CORRECTLY? IF I SUM IT UP, IT BOILS DOWN TO ____. DID I GET IT RIGHT?

SO FAR WE’VE HEARD ONE POINT OF VIEW. LET’S HEAR SOME OTHERS.

WE’VE BEEN DISCUSSING A TOPIC-A. NOW WE’RE OPENING A TOPIC-B. HOW ARE THEY RELATED? WHICH ONE YOU’D LIKE TO FOCUS ON NOW?

WHAT ELSE DO WE KNOW ABOUT IT? WHAT ELSE IS POSSIBLE? LET’s ADD TWO MORE …

Exercise! Individually:

Refer to the “facilitator’s stances” hand-out And pick one stance 1,2,3 or 4 your goal is to apply it during next discussion

At a table

continue planning your team building everyone plays his/her normal role

Guerrilla facilitation

QUICK CHECK:

fist to five

PART 3.

#WORKJAM DESIGN.

MEETING DYNAMICS IDEALIZED

DECISIONPOINT

NEWTOPIC

CONVERGENT THINKING DIVERGENT THINKING TIME

MEETING DYNAMICS IN REAL

NEWTOPIC

We’re wasting time!

WE’RE STUCK!

DIVERGENT THINKING TIME

Less meetings! [more real work]

QUICKDECISIONPOINT

NEWTOPIC

TIME

BUSINESS AS USUAL

LOST POTENTIAL

NEWTOPIC

QUICKDECISIONPOINT

TIME

BETTERDECISION

BUSINESS AS USUAL

#2: GOAL OF A FACILITATOR

Guide the group to explorebeyondthe“businessasusual”zone for the sakeof increasedgrouplearningandwisdom.

MEETING DYNAMICS IN REAL

DECISIONPOINT

NEWTOPIC

CONVERGENT THINKING DIVERGENT THINKING

THREE PHASES

DECISIONPOINT

NEWTOPIC

CONVERGENT THINKING DIVERGENT THINKING

DESIGNING FOR DYNAMICS

DECISIONPOINT

NEWTOPIC

CONVERGENT THINKING DIVERGENT THINKING

Meeting design AS USUAL

OPEN DISCUSSION!

Activity STRINGS

Activity STRINGS START

FINISH

START

FINISH

START

FINISH

ACTIVITY1

ACTIVITY2

ACTIVITY3

TYPES OF MEETING BY GOALS

SHARE INFORMATION management sharing decisions

PROVIDE INPUT management seeking input

MAKE DECISIONS team needs to make a decision

BUILD CAPACITY learn new techniques

ADVANCE THINKING post-mortem, grooming

BUILD COMMUNITY Become a better team

GOAL: SHARE INFORMATION ”BUSINESS AS USUAL”

PRESENTATION!

PRESENTATION

PAIRS

QUESTIONS

ACTIVITY1

ACTIVITY2

ACTIVITY3

listen

write

talk

GOAL: SHARE INFORMATION #WORKJAM

GOAL: ADVANCE THINKING #WORKJAM

INDIVIDUALWRITING

COLLECTTOPICS

BREAKOUTGROUPS

ACTIVITY1

ACTIVITY2

ACTIVITY3

write

share&vote

talk&sketch

Dot voting

Pitching ideas

Science fair

Open space

World café

Lightning talks

Mind mapping

Q&A

Silent sorting

game

Role play

interviewing

Individual Writing

drawing

diverging converging Going beyond

ideas for exercises

Story telling

Individual exercise Remember a meeting you were recently IN as a participant or a facilitator.

refer to hand-out: “types of meetings by goals” •  Pick one goal that suits the meeting using activity strings and other ideas from today: •  Create a new meeting agenda with 3 activities •  Make sure each activity has a different work mode:

writing, listening, talking… •  Define planned duration for each activity

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