Inaugural Newsletter

Dear Collaboration Colleagues,

Welcome to Facilitate Proceedings, our newsletter dedicated to promoting awareness of good facilitation practices in face to face and virtual settings. For those of you who have been receiving our Facilitation Tips, this monthly newsletter will replace them and add more practical know-how, in the form of articles from expert advisors, book reviews, and more.

What else is new about this newsletter? While we will continue to provide useful facilitation tips and techniques that are just good practice, you'll note a definite bias towards facilitating in a virtual environment. These days, more and more meetings are taking place virtually, and while good, basic facilitation practices still apply, virtual facilitation requires some different skills and techniques as well.

Of course, if you would prefer not to receive this newsletter in the future, just send us an email and we will immediately remove you from our list. Our goal is to provide truly useful information about group facilitation to those who are interested in receiving it. And, if you enjoy this newsletter, please share it with your colleagues.

Cheers,

The Facilitate.com Team

The Situation Room

A group of 12 teleconference participants remain silent for a long period.

You ask a critical question that you had imagined would have inspired passionate conversation and spirited debate. Instead: Protracted silence. What do you do?

Here are some suggestions:

  • First, check that you or someone else has not been disconnected from the conference call.
  • Understand what's behind the silence. Silence can indicate different things: distraction, lack of understanding or simply people taking the time to think.
  • Check for understanding, then ask the question again. Be comfortable with the silence.
  • Give your own input and then encourage input from the others.
  • Call on someone you know is vocal to break the ice. Also call on people that are shy about speaking up.
  • Ask for a check-in. Have the participants describe how they are feeling in one word.
  • Explain that you are going to go "around the room", asking each person in turn to respond to the question.

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Advisors Corner

Get More out of Your Client Advisory Boards

By Nancy Settle-Murphy, Chrysalis International Inc.
and Bruce Peters, PeerHQ

Whether they're called client advisory boards, user groups, or customer feedback sessions, most such meetings are held face-to-face, and for good reason. Trusting relationships are easier to cultivate eye-to-eye, and honest two-way communications are usually far more effective when nonverbal forms of communication come into play. But clients' overbooked calendars coupled with budget restrictions means that you can't convene these groups as often as you would like - unless you can find a way to arrange a virtual advisory board meeting that will keep people focused and engaged. We're not suggesting replacing onsite client advisory meetings with online sessions. But we are recommending that you consider augmenting these onsite sessions with well-planned and productive online sessions to continue vital discussions and build on important relationships.

Here are some points to remember:

  • Start with a face-to-face client group session: Despite all of technology at our fingertips, we cannot circumvent the face-to-face client sessions and leap right to remote client advisory board sessions. It takes face time to create the required trusting relationships among clients, and between you and this client group. No remote session, regardless of how advanced the technology or brilliantly-constructed the agenda, can replace the power of face-to-face conversations, especially when you're seeking candid feedback and bold ideas.
  • Clarify intended outcomes: Make sure that all understand the purpose of the remote meeting, and how it relates to the face-to-face meetings. For example, a remote session may be designed to build on new ideas that sprang up in the face-to-face session or to solicit feedback about a new product or service. If the conversation is likely to be very different from the usual face-to-face meetings, say so to allow people to opt out if needed.
  • Create a multi-pronged communications plan to augment the face-to-face sessions. To keep the momentum going and relationships fresh, create a communication program that allows clients to communicate with each other and with your organization in ways that are easy, comfortable and mutually rewarding. While email may typically act as the glue, consider introducing additional forms of communication, including a private shared portal and web conferencing service that can be used synchronously and asynchronously. If you do a good job selecting your group members, they'll see value in networking among themselves, and they'll appreciate any help you can give.
  • Familiarize clients with new technology during an onsite session. Introduce whatever technology you plan for your remote session while people are face to face. This way, they will be more comfortable and confident using these tools, which will increase the chances of their participation later on. For example, if you'll be brainstorming new ideas as part of your onsite session, have clients use the appropriate web conferencing tool from their laptop in the conference room. Demonstrate one or two capabilities as part of this session, so when you reconvene remotely, people will be ready to go right away.

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What Would You Do?

You're told that your full day in-person meeting must now take 2 hours online.

Additional detail: You had planned a full-way working session for 12 participants to create a detailed action plan. Due to travel and time constraints, you now must accomplish the same results in a 2 hour remote meeting with the same people. You have two weeks to make this happen. How do you start?

Click here to throw your two cents in by posting your ideas to our electronic flipchart. Read and comment on what others have to say. All contributions are anonymous.

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Buzz About Meeting Effectiveness

And here's what newsmakers have been saying about meeting strategies recently

09.27.2006 Business Week Online

How to Run a Meeting like Google
Google's VP of Search Products holds 70 meetings a week. That would be most people's recurring nightmare. How does she do it? Here are her 6 keys to successful meetings:
1) Set a firm agenda
2) Assign a note taker
3) Carve out micro-meetings
4) Hold office hours
5) Discourage politics, use data
6) Stick to the clock
http://www.businessweek.com/

08.07.2006 Business Week Online

Big Blue Brainstorm: IBM is putting some 100,000 heads together for an online Innovation Jam
Good ideas can come from just about anywhere within the organization, according to experts. Companies like IBM are using collaboration technology to conduct global brainstorming sessions involving thousands of employees. The response can be overwhelming, though, and there needs to be a process, whether manual or automated, to combine and trim down the list.
http://www.businessweek.com/

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Facilitate.com: Of Interest

Here's what's been happening at Facilitate.com

Invited to Teach

Julia Young, Vice-President at Facilitate.com, has been invited to lead a full day tutorial, Managing Effective Virtual Teams, at the 2007 International Association of Facilitators North America Conference. For more information, visit
http://www.iaf-world.org/conference/portland.htm

Innovation Labs Take Region by Storm

The future is now in the United Kingdom, where more than a dozen Innovation Labs (or iLabs) have taken the region by storm. Innovation Labs are the next wave of meeting space, melding the concepts of face-to-face communication with play, creative thinking and technology from Facilitate.com. Read the latest article on the i-Lab phenomenon.
http://www.facilitate.com/articledownload.htm

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