Meetings and facilitation skills

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Meetings and facilitation skills

• Insert name of presenter

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Some facts about meetings

• CEOs 17 hours per week
• Senior managers 23 hours per week
• Middle managers 11 hours per week
• Senior and middle managers say only 56 of
  meetings are productive
• Wharton Centre for Applied Research

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Aims of session

• To improve your skills for facilitating, chairing
  and attending meetings.
• To explore some principles of working with large
  and small groups.
• To learn some skills, tools and techniques for a
  more creative approach to solving problems

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How well do it
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Problem 1

• When, where, how and why to use icebreaker
  exercises effectively

Technique 1

• Progressive charting

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Progressive charting - method

• A tables - When would you use an ice breaker?
• B tables - What are the potential benefits of
  using ice breakers?
• C tables - What are the worst things about ice
  breakers?
• Take your pen with youand move on. A to B, B to
  C, C to A. Add new ideas to the list.
• Then move on again.

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Feedback

• Feedback on icebreakers
• Each group to pick three IMPORTANT things from
  the finished charts
• Feedback on progressive charting
• Each group describe one situation where you WOULD
  use that technique and one where you would NOT.

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Problem 2

• Setting the ground rules for teams and groups to
  work together effectively

Technique 2

• Idea collection
• Using post-it notes
• Using the flip chart

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Idea collection - method

• Identify a facilitator
• In pairs discuss what you need to feel safe and
  productive in this group
• A groups put each issue on a separate post it
• B groups write the ideas on a flipchart
• The facilitator gathers these comments to compile
  a final flip chart with the agreed group
  contract

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Feedback

• Three minutes to give me
• One sentence on the problem (what have you
  learned about ice breakers)
• One sentence on the technique (what have you
  learned about idea collection either method)

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Slight pause for thought

• Lets think about being a bit more creative.

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Scores in NASA creativity test
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Scores in NASA creativity test
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Scores in NASA creativity test
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Scores in NASA creativity test
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Scores in NASA creativity test
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Scores in NASA creativity test
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Scores in NASA creativity test
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Scores in NASA creativity test
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Self-Organizing SystemsdeBonos River Topology
Analogy for Thinking
Streams of thinking
Valleys
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Three principles behind all tools of
DirectedCreativity
Attention
Movement
Escape
Paul Plesk
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Creative Problem Solving
2 Data
3 Problem
4 Idea
5 Solution
6 Acceptance
1 Mess
finding
finding
finding
finding
finding
finding
We need both divergent and convergent thinking
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Brainstorming

• Principles
• Defer judgement
• Quantity breeds quality
• Rules of brainstorming
• Criticism is ruled out
• Freewheeling is recommended
• Quantity is wanted
• Combine and improve (hitchhike)

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Problem 3

• Contributing effectively to meetings

Technique 3

• Reverse brainstorming (divergent thinking)

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Reverse brainstorming - method

• Use the principles and rules of brainstorming to
  address this problem

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Brainstorming

• Principles
• Defer judgement
• Quantity breeds quality
• Rules of brainstorming
• Criticism is ruled out
• Freewheeling is recommended
• Quantity is wanted
• Combine and improve (hitchhike)

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and nowconvergent thinking! (Technique 4 Top
three)

• Look at all of the ideas you have generated in
  the reverse brainstorm
• Pick the three that you think will have the most
  impact on making the meeting really bad
• Turn these around into practical suggestions to
  make your contributions to meetings more effective

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Feedback

• What was the best thing about that exercise?
• How will you apply that to your work?
• What was the worst thing?
• How can you learn from this/avoid it when working
  with groups?

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Problem 4

• Leading meetings effectively

Technique 5

• Picture provocations (divergent thinking)

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Picture provocations - method

• Look at the selection of pictures you have in
  front of you
• Remember the principles and rules for divergent
  thinking and get out of the mental valleys
• Use the pictures to provoke ideas about the
  skills, talents, style, approaches, techniques
  that make for effective leadership of meetings

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Brainstorming

• Principles
• Defer judgement
• Quantity breeds quality
• Rules of brainstorming
• Criticism is ruled out
• Freewheeling is recommended
• Quantity is wanted
• Combine and improve (hitchhike)

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Technique 6

• Coloured dots
• (convergent thinking)

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Coloured dots - method

• Take five dots each (any colour)
• Walk around the flipcharts and award your dots to
  your favourite ideas (ie those you are most
  likely to use)
• You may award between one and five dots to any
  idea, but use up all five dots

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Feedback

• On leading teams which idea has the highest
  number of votes on your chart?
• On Picture Provocations and Coloured Dots when
  could you use these techniques?

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Variations on coloured dots

• All doctors have one colour, nurses another,
  managers another etc
• Only one vote per idea
• One colour for a positive vote, one for a
  negative
• and so on

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Planning and preparation
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Planning checklist

• Who are the stakeholders in the design of the
  meeting?
• What do they want out of the session?
• What is the profile of the group?
• Are you sharing the facilitation? Who with?
• Time available?
• Venue details
• Who is recording?
• Action points and success criteria
• What tools will you need?

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Top Tips forTools of the trade

• Flip chart paper (and stand!!)
• Flip chart pens (different colours)
• Felt pens (for writing on to post its)
• Post its (different sizes and colours)
• Coloured dots
• Blu Tack

• Time things always take longer than you
  think !!!!!
• Process Tools
• What else?

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Managing a session

• Youre running out of time?
• Unclear objectives?
• People arent listening?
• Domination by one person?
• Someone not contributing?
• Youve forgotten where you are and what comes
  next!

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CYNICS?

• Be open to what everyone says
• ACCEPT IT there is probably a good reason for
  their views
• Build the bridge

FACILITATORS ASSUMPTION People are doing the
best they can with the experience, resources and
tools they have
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And finally always be prepared for the
unexpected!