Effectively Facilitating Group Collaboration

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Presenter: Sally Elatta

The Art of Becoming an Effective Facilitator

About the Speaker

• Sally Elatta• Founder of AgileTransformation.com

• Enterprise Process Improvement Coach, Architect, Trainer

• Coached over 18 teams on adopting more Agile methods.

• Taught over 600+ students

• Certified ScrumMaster, Scrum Practitioner, IBM, Sun, and

Microsoft Certifications.

• [email protected]

• 402 212-3211

Copyright(c) Sally Elatta 2009 www.AgileTransformation.com2

mailto:[email protected]

Copyright(c) Sally Elatta 2009 www.AgileTransformation.com

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The Current Reality and Statistics of Meetings

Top Meeting Dysfunctions Top 10 Must-Have for Effective Meetings The Role of a Facilitator Listening and Questioning Techniques Information Gathering Techniques Closing

Session Agenda


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The Grim Statistics

• Approximately 17 million meetings occur in the U.S. each and every day.

• A PM could easily spend 4-5 hours per day in meetings. That’s 100 hrs/month!

• A study has shown that 25 - 50% of the meeting time is unproductive and discusses irrelevant issues or doesn’t achieve a concrete outcome.

• 63% of the time meetings have no clear agenda or purpose. So what does all this mean???

LARGE WASTE of TIME = LARGE WASTE of $$$

Workshop – Collaboration Challenges

“Not another meeting! Meetings are a waste of

time!” Have you heard this before? What are the top challenges with meetings?Brainstorming Workshop

You have 4 minutes


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Common Meeting Dysfunctions

No clear purpose or agenda.

Multi-headed Groups. The tendency to go in different directions simultaneously.

Not separating the “What” from the “How”

The Dominator who speaks the loudest!

Participants not speaking up or providing input

Late or missing attendees.Copyright(c) Sally Elatta 2009 www.AgileTransformation.com

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No agreement on a common goal for the meeting.

Personal agendas.

Attacking other’s opinions.

No roles defined.

No one “controlling” the meeting process.

Power abuse.

Not tracking decisions or action items.

There is a Solution!

Collaborative meetings are one of the most complex activities you “do”. The success or failure of the collaboration effort has a significant impact on you and the group.

To solve “Collaboration Challenges”, we need to address and improve the knowledge and

skills of the facilitator.


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5 Skills to Improve On

1. Knowledge of the roles

2. Effective meeting preparation and design

3. Listening, observation and questioning

4. The ability to manage dysfunctional behavior

5. Information gathering techniques

Roles for Effective Sessions

To truly achieve effective group collaboration, each meeting must have the following roles identified:– The Sponsor– The Facilitator– The Participant – The Recorder


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The Top 10 Steps for Effective Meetings - Handout


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As a Group, Let’s Review the Handout Titled

“The Top 10 Steps forEffective Meetings”


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Who is the Facilitator?

The facilitator is the meeting orchestrator. They control the “Process” of the meeting not the “Content”.

The facilitator is a servant leader of the group, neutral and non-evaluating.

Responsible for making sure the participants are using the most effective methods for accomplishing their task in the shortest time.

Responsible for helping the group reach its goals.

Skilled at effective meeting preparation, facilitation and closure.


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What Does a Facilitator Do?

Communicates meeting purpose, agenda and roles.

Uses visual tools such as Agenda, Ground Rules, Action Items, Group Decisions as the Group Memory.

Designs the meeting using a variety of possible techniques to help the group achieve their goal and builds consensus around the meeting purpose.

Helps keep the group on track until they accomplish what they set out to do or change direction.

Provides a ‘Safe Environment’ for collaboration. Makes sure all participants have an opportunity to speak and they are protected from personal attacks.

Controls meeting dysfunctions such as domination, side conversations, off topic items, personal agendas … etc


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The Diamond of Decision Making


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Listening and Questioning

• Facilitating open discussion meetings can be very challenging and requires a facilitator who can use effective Listening, Observation and Questioning Skills.

• We call it “Process Listening” as appose to “Content Listening”.

• Example Listening & Questioning techniques in the next 2 slides.


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Promoting Full Participation

• Techniques for promoting full participation by all attendees: – Encouraging– Uncomfortable Silence – Round Robin– Direct Questioning

• Use direct eye contact and physical proximity to engage and encourage participation.


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Promoting Mutual Understanding

• Techniques for bringing about mutual understanding:– Paraphrasing– Drawing People Out– Linking– Tracking

• Also look for body language to gauge if your audience understand what was just said.


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Dysfunctional Behavior

• Examples of dysfunctional behavior:– A Dominator– The Rambler– Power Abuse by Manager– Side Conversations– Naysayer – Anger/Extreme Emotions

Managing Dysfunctional Behavior

Never use anger to confront the person exhibiting dysfunctional behavior.

Never use embarrassment to resolve the dysfunction.

Always strive to bring the person back into the meeting.

Stay mindful of your own dysfunctions. Know what brings out your bad behavior and control it.

Stay neutral, professional and composed.

Example techniques coming up next.Copyright(c) Sally Elatta 2009 www.AgileTransformation.com

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Managing the Dominator

This is the well-acknowledged expert or the self-appointed expert in the room. S/He controls any discussion or decision being made.

Your Options:– Add or point to an existing ground rule that covers the “Full

Participation” and ask the team to follow it.– Don’t give them eye contact, use body language to shift the

focus away from him/her. – Say “Ok, that is a valid point John, I’d like to hear from

everyone else now ..”– During a break, thank them for contributing great ideas and

ask for their help engaging others and getting their input. Copyright(c) Sally Elatta 2009 www.AgileTransformation.com

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Managing the Naysayer

Of course, we have to have one of them in each meeting contributing: “this will never work!”, “We’ve already tried this, it failed ..” “ We will never get approval to do that”

Your Options:– “That’s a valid concern John, do you have any positive

ideas of how to make this work?”– “You might be right John, team, what positive and creative

suggestions do you have for making this work? ”– “Great list of concerns, now let’s discuss feasible

solutions”– Establish and point to “the art of the possible” as a ground

rule.


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Managing Side Conversations

This is a dysfunction that attacks almost every group session.

Two people engaged in a side conversation may indicate:– They have lost interest in the meeting– They forgot that their participation is needed– They have an interesting thought they want to share

related to the topic being discussed.

Side conversations can jeopardize your group’s confidence in you as an effective facilitator.


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Managing Side Conversations ..

Your Options:– Make sure you have a ground rule stating “One

conversation at a time”. Gently point to the ground rule and say “Folks, one conversation at a time please”

– 2nd time: Make direct eye contact with them, gently smile and repeat the ground rule.

– Stand near them and whisper the ground rule.– If it is reoccurring, ask them if their conversation is

important enough for others to perhaps join them?


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Information Gathering Techniques

• All meetings do not have to be Open Discussion format!

• There are very creative and powerful methods for gathering and processing information from groups.

• “*Thinklet” cards are easy to follow cards that provide you step by step instructions for how to implement these activities.

• * Introduced by Dr. Robert Briggs and Gert-Jan DE Vreede


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ThinkLets for Generate

The core of what you do during “Generate” is brainstorm and list ideas. Here are some activities/thinklets for facilitating brainstorming:– Facilitator-Led Callouts– Post It-Notes– Pass the Card– LeafHopper


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Summary

• To become an effective facilitator, you need to improve your skills and gain new techniques that will help you skillfully bring a team to their desired outcome.

• You need to improve:– Your knowledge of the roles involved– Your meeting preparation and design skills– Your listening and questioning skills– Your ability to manage dysfunctional behavior– Your information gathering toolset

Training & Coaching

Training• Mastering the Art of

Facilitation • Effective Requirements

Gathering• Servant Leadership•

Real World Agile and Scrum team training + Project Jump Start

• Executive and Business Overview of Agile/Lean

• … More!

Coaching & Consulting• Project Management

Skills Assessments• Troubled Project

Assessment & Recovery

• Agile Project Initiation and Planning

• End to End Project Execution

• Process Improvement Roadmap Execution

WWW.AGILETRANSFORMATION.COM

http://agiletransformation.com/index.php/training/agile-training/mastering-the-art-of-facilitation/

http://agiletransformation.com/index.php/training/agile-training/mastering-the-art-of-facilitation/

http://agiletransformation.com/index.php/training/agile-training/effective-requirements-gathering/

http://agiletransformation.com/index.php/training/agile-training/effective-requirements-gathering/

http://agiletransformation.com/index.php/training/agile-training/becoming-a-servant-leader/

http://agiletransformation.com/index.php/training/agile-training/real-world-agile-and-scrum/




THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING!

Copyright(c) Sally Elatta 2009 www.AgileTransformation.com 292929

PLEASE COMPLETE YOUR EVALUATIONS

References

Excellent List of Resources: http://managementhelp.org/grp_skll/resource.htm

International Association of Facilitators: http://www.iaf-world.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3280

RECFTC: http://www.recoftc.org/site/fileadmin/docs/CABS/manuals/Facilitation


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http://managementhelp.org/grp_skll/resource.htm

http://www.iaf-world.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3280

http://www.iaf-world.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3280

http://www.recoftc.org/site/fileadmin/docs/CABS/manuals/Facilitation

http://www.recoftc.org/site/fileadmin/docs/CABS/manuals/Facilitation

http://www.amazon.com/Collaboration-Explained-Facilitation-Software-Development/dp/0321268776/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210037988&sr=8-1

Effectively Facilitating Group Collaboration

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