Dear Collaboration Colleagues,

A word about this newsletter. We envision a newsletter that is interactive, sort of the way a blog is. According to marketer Seth Godin, blogs are akin to conversations. He says, “One of the key characteristics of a blog is the ability of readers to leave comments on what you have posted. This ability paves the way for two-way communication that creates the feel of a true conversation and in many cases help builds meaningful relationships.” But he does admit that sometimes blog comment streams can get trivialized and off topic. We’ve incorporated a different collaboration tool into our newsletter to encourage meaningful exchange of ideas about facilitation techniques. We call it the Situation Room. Please give it a try!

We have invited Sharon Drew Morgan to write our Advisor’s Corner article this month. Sharon (www.newsalesparadigm.com) is a thought leader, decision strategist, and the author of a New York Times best selling book about collaborative selling and buying.

Finally, we are excited to let you know that a new release of our web meeting software is imminent. Look for an announcement in the next issue of Facilitate Proceedings. If you'd like a sneak peak, give us a holler.

Cheers,

The 2-way Communicators at Facilitate.com

The Situation Room

A couple of people join the call late and insist that you start over.

You're facilitating a virtual meeting with a dozen people. You had established a start time of 9 AM. You're 10 minutes into a jam-packed agenda. Two senior managers drift in late and insist that you start the presentation over so that they can catch up and comment. How do you respond?

How would you handle this situation?

OK, readers. We really want to hear from you. We’d like this newsletter to be interactive and we have the technology to make it happen. So, how would you handle this situation? Please click here to post your suggestions to our interactive flipchart and comment on the other ideas you find there. We’ll report back on this experiment in idea exchange in the next issue.

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Advisor's Corner

Facilitate Collaborative Decision Making

By Sharon Drew Morgan

What is stopping you from reaching decisions collaboratively with teammates? What are you losing in the way of fresh thinking, innovation and lost human capital by not ensuring that all teammates become part of important decisions? And how can you facilitate decision making so that the most innovative, comprehensive and diverse ideas are available to ensure a solution that will support everyone’s needs?

Decision-making is an incomplete science. Decisions are affected by the type and presentation of material to be decided upon and based on information as it is understood by both questioner and responder.

Typically, we ask questions based on either what has been decided already (How are you doing Z? Why is X happening?), or plans for new decisions (When will you do Y? What are you planning around Q?). These questions are biased by the questioner’s motives (for example, ammunition or clarification) or by the responder who answers the question without thinking about why it is being asked. They lack vital context - like decision criteria, values, feelings, history or relationships.

People do not make decisions based on information alone. They actually make decisions based on their own set of internal criteria that are unique and idiosyncratic. We need questioning techniques that identify those internal criteria and use them as true tools for collaboration.

FACILITATIVE QUESTIONS

Facilitative Questions differ from conventional questions. They actually teach people how to recognize and manage their own internal criteria and approach a decision in a way that supports their values. Consider these examples:

Situation: selecting a vendor
Old way: How are you currently choosing vendors?
Pulls information on a decision already made and does nothing more than give the questioner old data.
Facilitative Question: What would you and your decision team need to understand about your outcomes and your team process to be able to choose the vendor that would support your objectives?
Supports new decision making that would incorporate team beliefs, needs, values, criteria and make it possible to take action immediately.

Situation: project kick-off
Old way: How should we go forward with this new initiative? Does anyone have thoughts about first steps in moving forward?
Gathers information on everyone’s current thinking including biases and partial understanding of full range of options to be considered.
Facilitative Question: What do we need to consider to move forward in a way that supports the entire group working together, based on shared buy-in?
Adds personal criteria and demands action that includes the entire team.

Since decisions are belief-based and teams include several juxtaposed, and unspoken objectives, this approach helps teammates recognize their unspoken criteria and make more reliable decisions. Facilitative Questions start with either ‘What’ or ‘How’ and engage the brain in a way that allows change to happen. Facilitative Questions can help teammates, customers, and suppliers collaborate with you. Questions such as:

  • What would we need to know or do differently in order to enable us all to participate in this project?
  • How would we be working together so that all of our values could be encouraged and ensure that no one gets left behind?
  • What needs to happen first to ensure that we all get heard and feel safe? And what would that look like?

Collaboration occurs when everyone is heard and individual ideas and values become part of the process. Because if we’re not working together, we’re working alone.

Sharon Drew Morgen (www.newsalesparadigm.com) is a thought leader, decision strategist, and the author of New York Times Bestseller Selling with Integrity, Sales on the Line, and Buying Facilitation: the new way to sell as well as over 400 articles. She is the pioneer behind the visionary sales paradigm the Morgen Buying Facilitation Method®. As the architect of a wholly original sales model, Sharon Drew has provoked, inspired, and motivated thousands of sales professionals world-wide. She can be reached at sdm@austin.rr.com.

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Have you added your ideas on our situation yet?

Come on, don’t be shy. All responses are anonymous, and besides, there’s no such thing as a bad idea!

Click here to participate.

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Buzz About Meeting Effectiveness

Note: We’ve discovered that people seem to enjoy the articles and blogs that we select because they contain interesting opinions or advice about facilitation and collaboration. It’s probably time that we let you know that this doesn’t imply that we recommend or endorse the effectiveness or accuracy of any particular statement or technique that you may find here. This is just for your reading enjoyment!

And here's what popped up on the web:

You're kidding, right?

According to the Wharton School of Business, the average adult attention span is 20 seconds.

02.07.2007 Collaboration technology needs a steward

From David Wilcox's blog, Designing for a Civil Society. David is interested in how to foster an openness to change, in particular to new technology. He suggests that every organization should have a technology steward, someone who knows how and when to introduce a tool, and to whom.
http://partnerships.typepad.com/civic/2007/02/steward_bring_m_1.html

Hot Find! The A-Z of Effective Participation

This glossary has over one hundred entries covering topics and techniques about participation. It’s part of a web site created by David Wilcox for community activist and professionals seeking to get other people involved in social economic and environmental projects. But it is useful to any one who works with groups and wants them to be fully engaged.
http://www.partnerships.org.uk/guide/AZpartic.html


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Facilitate.com: Of Interest

Facilitate.com welcomes new clients

Lord & Hogan For more than 20 years as a performance consultant, facilitator and organizational development coach, Dan Hogan has strongly advocated that organizations deal with the reality that human interactions are as important as work processes.
Chrysalis International Chrysalis International helps teams achieve great results in less time. With a special focus on virtual teams that span cultures and time zones, we design and facilitate productive conversations that make every minute count.
Infrasonics Coaching For facilitation, coaching, and consulting, Infrasonics means deep listening—listening beneath the words, creating the future within organizations, communities, and individuals. Where individuals consistently do their best work together, the organization achieves breakthrough results.

IAF Portland Conference Update

Client Bethany Spaulding will present Turn Your Inside Out – Me and My Shadow. Karen Bading (Infrasonics Coaching) and Nancy Settle-Murphy (Chryalis International) will present Virtual Mettings at the IAF Conference in Portland Oregon March 8-10, 2007.
There are a few open seats at the Pre-Conference session Getting Great Results from Virtual Meetings lead by Facilitate.com's Julia Young. Call 805.682.6939 for more information and to sign up.
http://www.iaf-world.org/conference/portland.htm

Facilitate.com to launch FaclitatePro 9.5 in March

We've had rave reviews from our beta customers about the new facilitator features and ease of use. Watch this space for more details in next month's issue.
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