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Dear Collaboration Colleagues,
It’s June and that means summer solstice, graduations, family vacations – we
focus on clearing our desks so that we can enjoy the lengthened
daylight hours. As soon as we send this newsletter off, we're headed
to the beach (just kidding); actually we’re
lining up some great articles for the months to come, so stay tuned.
Last
month’s Facilitate Proceedings was devoted to exploring Web 2.0 in the
context of group facilitation. We think we struck a chord, both
from the comments
on our interactive flipchart and some email responses
that came
back to us. Many facilitation practitioners feel the mandate to
establish their own positions with respect to incorporating
interactive web technology into meeting and business processes.
We feel that web technology gives us unprecedented opportunities
to expand the breadth and reach of our individual consulting practices,
or become
agents of collaborative change within our organizations. But first
we need to understand the landscape.
That’s
why you’ll see some interesting
offerings at the 2008 International Association of Facilitators
(IAF) conference in Atlanta in April 2008. Some of us at Facilitate.com
are involved in programming
for this conference,
so we’ve had a sneak peak at the content tracks. This year's technology
track explores the role of social media in facilitation,
how to use web
technology to support global teams,
identifying the right
tool for the job, and using Web 2.0 tools to help run your consulting
business. And of course, there are plenty of the more traditional
dimensions of facilitation and collaboration. There will be a
call
for proposals coming
shortly and we will pass on the information to you. We’d love some to see
some of our readers on the speakers list!
This week our Advisor's Corner features one
of our favorite associates, Nancy Settle-Murphy, who advises
us to blend different types
of facilitated sessions to boost virtual teams. And
as always, we ask
you to
participate in our community of interest by engaging in online
discussion in our Situation Room. Thanks to you, we are defining
our own Web 2.0 entity: this isn’t a blog or a wiki or a social
network – this is (drumroll please) e-Newsletter
2.0!
Best
summertime wishes,
The
e-meeting Epicures at Facilitate.com
Advisor's Corner
Boost your teams using “blended facilitation”
Nancy Settle-Murphy
Guided Insights
www.guidedinsights.com
Let’s say you have a geographically dispersed team that’s pressured to deliver results within an
absurdly tight timeframe. You’re challenged to tap everyone’s best thinking as efficiently and
effectively as possible, keeping the team engaged and focused on shared goals. Some participants are
able to convene face-to-face while others are forced to participate remotely.
“Blended facilitation” enables members of a hybrid team to make the most out of their meeting time,
wherever they are. By blended facilitation we mean using a combination of facilitation tools and
approaches, either synchronously (in “real-time”), asynchronously (at different times) or both.
There’s no single solution that applies to all situations, but consider these guidelines when
determining how to plan the kind of conversations that will yield the richest results in the shortest
time.
-
Think twice about having some people participate in person while
others join remotely. This dynamic tends to create an uneven playing field and inhibits open sharing among all.
Better to have everyone participate remotely, with equal access to the same technology. Or, if you want to take advantage of face-to-face interactions
by those who can get together in one room, use that face time to plow through the work that can more easily be done eyeball to
eyeball, and share the results with the rest of the team. If you must bring together co-located and remote members on a call, adapt the
agenda to minimize the time the remote people must spend on the phone.
-
Plan your agendas to encourage engaging conversations that will
accelerate time to results. Assume that a group will lose focus after 60 minutes on a conference call—90 minutes tops. This means
no more tedious slide decks or extended report-outs on the call. Instead, send them out or post them
ahead of time. Asking people to do a little homework (e.g. bring “three top ideas” or “two major
challenges”) is a great way to encourage people to pay attention to prework. Send agendas in advance,
along with explicitly-stated intended outcomes, so all have a chance to prepare.
-
Make
use of asynchronous web meeting software to augment same-time meetings. This works especially well when participants work across time zones
and speak multiple languages. If you open an online conference a
few days before the same-time meeting, you can solicit vital input to
help sharpen the focus of your meeting. It also provides an easier way
to assess priorities, issues and ideas, saving you valuable phone time
later on.
When everyone finally meets in real-time, you can share results and jump
right into the needed conversation.
-
Pair web-based tools with phone for a really productive working
session. Say you have 12 people on a call.
If you poll each one sequentially about top challenges or new product
ideas, those who are not talking may tune out quickly. Instead, set
up a virtual conference space that people can use while they are together
on
the phone.
Consider which topics lend themselves to electronic brainstorming, and
which are better addressed through an open discussion. Make use of voting,
action planning and priority-setting capabilities as well.
-
Consider cultural differences when thinking through the facilitation
options. Especially when people don’t
guage, providing multiple communication paths will elicit more participation
from everyone. For example, if you went around the virtual room and
asked each person to name challenges or propose ideas, you might find
very different
responses. Some cultures place a high value on hierarchy and seniority.
Others relish a high-spirited debate over differences, while some seek
to preserve group harmony at all costs. Some people may feel more comfortable
communicating verbally, while others may be more confident when expressing
views in writing. For all of these reasons, giving people a choice between
verbal and written input on a team call is often the wisest approach
for removing barriers to participation and eliciting the best ideas.
-
Maintain momentum through frequent asynchronous communications. When
teams work from a distance, out of sight really can be mean out of
mind.
Establish conventions about how, when, where and to whom vital group
communications will take place. Find ways to keep members of the group
working together between meetings and milestones by using multiple
channels, both synchronous and asynchronous. Make use of shared portals
to share progress, review and edit documents, raise issues, and generate
ideas. Consider, for example, setting up a permanent asynch meeting
area where you pose a topical question to the team every week or
so
and send via email. Once a critical mass of people has responded, you
can share responses at team meetings, via email, or ask people to
view online. This can help keep the team engaged and
cross-pollinating knowledge and ideas even when they are not meeting
in real-time.
top
Situation Room
The Vote's Not In Yet
Reporting back on last week’s interactive discussion, we asked you,
our readers, to comment on whether Web 2.0 has the potential to help us
better facilitate groups. Click
here to view the
whole discussion on our interactive flip chart and add your own
comments.
To be honest, as a community we’re not quite sure of the answer. We
generally love the freedom and intimacy of web applications like
Attendr, but we express some scepticism when it comes to envisioning
these tools
playing a role in the corporate setting. The moderates suggest
that Web 2.0 tools might be considered a “complementary medium” rather
than an alternative to traditional meetings. Whether or not we
are of common mind that the openness and transparency of Web 2.0
supports the group process,
we seem to agree that these tools don’t take away from the role of
the facilitator. In fact, we have the opportunity to become the
leaders in demonstrating the value of these tools, reaching out to engage
participants and building confidence
in the process.
So
let’s explore this a little more. Here’s another situation to
tackle.
top
Become an interactive e-newsletter
reader!
How
do you get a group to adopt a new technology when they're perfectly
happy with the ways things are, thank you very much? Here's
the situation:
Few people are familiar with the technology you plan to use. You have the client's buy-in to use a
web-based brainstorming tool. You don't know how familiar people are with the technology
or how technology will affect the group's interaction. How do you prepare your participants for a
successful experience?
Click here to add your ideas and comments.
top
Buzz About Collaboration
06.17.2007 Just because you can, doesn't mean you should
A quick little case study about a company that is designing a
new building to increase collaboration. They are getting rid
of cubicles and are considering eliminating conference rooms
as well. The company
has implemented all sorts of technology solutions to support
their virtual workers, but their corporate workers still trudge
down the hall to attend
generally unproductive meetings. The author suggested to them
that the benefits of virtual meetings apply to co-located teams
as well. Why
not allow people to meet more productively from their offices?
Why not eliminate some meetings altogether by having them collaborate
asynchronously,
using wikis or web meeting tools? As this is the whole purpose
of our business, we were nodding our heads vigorously at this
one.
http://www.collaborationloop.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2157&Itemid=39
top
Facilitate.com: Of Interest
Breakthrough
conversations for bottomline results
We are pleased to announce that our associate, Nancy Settle-Murphy, has launched
a new company called Guided
Insights, after operating as Chrysalis International Inc. for more than
13 years. Nancy says: “We are excited about the new name because
we believe it communicates more clearly the nature of our work and the value
we deliver to clients. Our new tagline "Breakthrough Conversations for Bottom-line
Results" emphasizes our ultimate goal when working with clients, to help them
achieve real business
results
from
the
conversations
we facilitate.” Visit Guided Insights at http://www.guidedinsights.com.
Facilitate.com welcomes new clients
New York & Company
State of Vermont
University of East Anglia
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