How to revive a ”dead” facilitation

By Andreas Hägglund

Cause of Death

• Lack of oxygen/ventilation

• Lack of food and energy

• Other pressing engagements

• Lack of preparation

• Sleep deprivation

• Level of difficulty

• Politics

• ...

Take a break!

• Go get a cup of coffe

• Grab some fresh air

• Clear your thoughts

Draw something on the whiteboard

You’ll be amazed by the reaction

Get people moving!

• Ask the others to join you by the whiteboard!

• Hand over the pen

Movement increases the flow of oxygen through your body. Standing close together creates a sense of belonging

Think out loud!

People want you to succeed! They will help you, but they can’t read your thoughts!

Change perspectives

Sometimes thinking or being reminded about something ”else” helps you moving forward

Be specific, make examples

The human brain can’t deal with to much abstract information at one time. Be specific first, generalise later.

Let’s talk about Charles! He’s got one personal savings account and one that he shares with his wife. He also has one credit card and one debit card. Are we missing anything?

A person can have zero to many accounts and zero to many cards. Each card must be either of the type credit or debit. Each account can have one or many account holders. Are we missing anything?

DO! DON’T!

Obey the law of least resistance

You need to get the balls in motion! Don’t get caught in discussions on terminology, detailed procedures, right or wrong etc.

Just pick a working name (or two) and move on, revise it later.

Ask questions!

You don’t have all the answers! Ask the participants!

Damn, I should know this!

Hey friends! Help me out here. How should I put this?

Write post-its, lots of them!

Put down everything on post-its, so the participants can see the model grow in front of them. It also makes them realize that their input gives results.

+ It becomes easier to go back and ask clarifying questions later

Don’t be a perfectionist!

Write down whatever information comes up, even if it wasn’t meant to come up.

If you talk about process A and a comment about Process B comes up, write it down. If you talk about goals and problems, and a role shows up, write it down too! Scribble comments and todos on the post-its.

It doesn’t matter if you’re ”supposed” to write it down now or later, or on a separate post-it or not, or if you writing is ugly. What matters is that it gets written, and that you move forward!

Make fun of yourself!

Laughter increases creativity and looses tensions.

”You” are a ”safe” subject to make fun of...

Ask for Feedback

1 = Very ineffective, we’re getting nowhere.

5 = Very effective, we’ve already done more this last hour than we did last year.

Effectiveness Usefulness

5 4 2 4 1 3 5 5

3 2 5 4 2 4 1 3

1 = Useless, we won’t have any use of the result if we keep going like this.

5 = Incredibly useful, keep it up!

Use the feedback as basis for a group discussion on the best way forward.

Remember

Whatever happens, the group is your friend

– Use it!

Want to stay updated?

Ahab1972

/andreashagglund

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