peter paul cpf, pmp april 28, 2010. this exercise targets the: glutes, quads, fine motor skills of...

Facilitation FitnessThe 85 minute workout

Peter Paul CPF, PMP

April 28, 2010

Workout #1:

This exercise targets the: Glutes, Quads, Fine motor skills of arms

How to do it: Organize yourselves into groups (tables join to

make up a full table) Every person fills out a workout form Elect someone to capture the information on the

summary sheet and give to Peter or delegate

Exercise time: 10 minutes2Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul

Rate your response to the following statements

1. An effective meeting is often more by surprise than by design

2. Predicting meeting success is like trying to capture lightning in a bottle

3. I often ask myself why it takes so long for everyone else to “get it”

4. You can be both a facilitator and a process /subject matter expert in the same meeting

5. If a meeting spins out of control I have a difficult time getting it back on track

6. Facilitation isn’t needed in gathering or validating business requirements

7. Facilitation isn’t needed in managing a project

Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree

Strongly Disagree

3Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul

A B C D E

Workout #1 Results

Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul 4

Strongly Agree

Agree Neutral DisagreeStrongly Disagree

1An effective meeting is often more by surprise than by design.

0% 11% 13% 46% 30%

2Predicting meeting success is like trying to capture lightning in a bottle.

2% 10% 15% 60% 15%

3 I often ask myself why it takes so long for everyone else to “get it”.

3% 35% 33% 22% 6%

4You can be both a facilitator and a process /subject matter expert in the same meeting.

8% 19% 14% 44% 16%

5If a meeting spins out of control I have a difficult time getting it back on track.

5% 19% 16% 56% 5%

6Facilitation isn’t needed in gathering or validating business requirements.

0% 0% 3% 44% 53%

7Facilitation isn’t needed in managing a project. 0% 0% 5% 30% 65%

How many years of experience do we collectively have?


Less than 1 year 11%Between 1 and 5 years 21%Between 5 and 10 years 37%Between 10 and 15 years 21%

More than 15 years 11%

Total years experience in the room today 813

Workout #2:

This exercise targets the: Individual / collective wisdom of peers and colleagues

How to do it: Move yourself so that there is (if possible) one person

at the table with: <1 yr. 1-5 yrs. 5-10 yrs. 10-15 yrs. 15+ yrs.

Exercise time: 5 minutes


Who’s here tonight?


I am currently a Business Analyst 15%I am both a Business Analyst and a Project Manager 20%

I am neither a Business Analyst nor a Project Manager 21%I am currently a Project Manager 45%

Workout #3:

This exercise targets cranial development through: New or different perspectives New or different thoughts New or different ideas

How to do it: Move yourself so that there is (if possible) an equal

number of Project Managers and Business Analysts at the table

If you have people who are both or neither PM / BA they can stay seated!


Basic Principles

All meetings have the same components:

A beginning A middle An endAll meetings need a purpose and a

design: What do we want to accomplish? How are we going to accomplish it? What do we do with what we’ve

accomplished?



Axiom of time managementSecond Law of Thermodynamics:Matter expands to take up all available space (think

balloon)

Second law of human dynamics:People’s conversations expand to take up all

available time

In other words, time-boxing and time management are critical to achieving meeting success

*First Law of human dynamics: for every meeting there is an equal and opposite non-meeting (coffee break, extended lunch, shopping trip)



Make your meetings “POP”

Purpose Needs to get at the heart of the reason

you’re convening Needs to be clear, neutral, and concise Should not be biased (personal agenda) or

vague (creates meeting spin)

Example: “To sustain our existing customer base by identifying and agreeing to an effective customer complaint process/system.”


12Facilitation Fitness - P. PaulGoldman, M. “Facilitator’s Flipchart”, June 2009


Outcomes the “what” of the meeting Tangible and intangible results you hope to attain by

the end of the event. Tangible: action, strategy, document, prioritized list Intangible: emotional state or attitude such as greater

willingness to commit, excitement, buy-in

Example: By the end of this meeting we will have: Decided on a new customer complaints process Completed an action plan to implement our new

process Reinvigorated our commitment to great customer

service!


13Facilitation Fitness - P. PaulGoldman, M. “Facilitator’s Flipchart”, June 2009


Process Speaks to the “how” we are to achieve

the outcomes and ultimately the purpose of the meeting

Two aspects of event management: Event structuring – activities, tools Participant management – behaviour

guidelines or norms on how the group wants to relate to one another


Goldman, M. “Facilitator’s Flipchart”, June 200914Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul

Establishing team norms

Norms are important protocols adopted by the team to manage their behaviour within the context of the event

Norms will only work if the team agrees to embrace them as part of their explicit and implicit behaviour

Adopted / embraced norms require very little maintenance (after the initial forming stage) as they will be reinforced by the team (interventions)



Establishing team norms

Elicit them from the team When in doubt, use some common

norms Devices on stun mode All input is valuable One person at a time Vegas rules (what happens in … stays in …)

Make sure norms are reviewed, edited, and agreed upon by the team as part of the startup process



2. Meeting success is like capturing

lightning in a bottle

2. Meeting success is like capturing lightning in a bottle


Group Dynamics

Teams typically go through these four phases:

Forming Storming Norming Performing


Tuckman, B.W., “Development sequence in small groups”, Psychological Bulletin, 1965, 63, 384-399

Workout #4:

This exercise targets the: Rapid development of a team Unconventional ways in which we can bond with others

How to do it: Collect one example of each of the following items from the

people in your team / at your table :1. Business card,2. Lipstick (or lip balm),3. Something blue in colour,4. A sport or entertainment ticket5. A passport The team that comes up with all the items first wins a prize!



Establishing rapport / trust

To effectively facilitate, you must rapidly build a rapport and trust both with and amongst the participants

Don’t confuse rapport or trust with respect, you’re not there to gain their respect – that’s for the SME’s and peers

You need to focus the participants on respecting the process

You will become almost invisible to the participants once they respect the process




How? Take advantage of physicality / logistics:

Arrange the room e.g., U shape configuration Stand up and walk around

Ensure that you can be clearly heard and that you can clearly hear everyone (move closer to subject while they are talking)

Ensure you speak with a calm but inviting voice Maintain a neutral language style Maintain an impartial communications style




How? Be transparent at all times:

tell ’em what you’re gonna do, tell ’em when you’re doing it tell ’em what you just did

Invite feedback from the team at every step: Is this discussion important right now to

the team? What should we do at this point in time?



Teleconference Tips

Establish norms at the beginning of every (new) meeting Take attendance Use attendance list to address everyone who needs to

respond (checkmark) Use a single source of information to keep everyone focused

on the topic (Netmeeting, WebEx, SharePoint) For meeting with face-to-face and teleconference attendees:

Place tent cards on table to represent tele-attendees Remind f2f attendees to speak clearly and in direction of

microphone / polycom Remind team of norms (side conversations tend to exclude tele-

tendees) Check in with tele-tendees Assign an f2f attendee (avatar) to represent a tele-tendee for task

based activities



3. Why does it take so long for everyone else

to “get it”

3. Why does it take so long for everyone else to “get it”


Are you in furious agreement?

Which square is darker, A or B?



Workout #5

This exercise targets the: Optical nerves Cerebral cortex

How to do it: Count the number of times the letter

“F” appears in the following sentence

Ready?



Workout #5

“Finished files are the result of years of scientific study combined with the experience of years”



Making false distinctions

Do you see the spirals of green, pinkish-orange and blue?

“Our process is better than anyone else’s process”



Workout #6

This exercise targets: Muscles that may have atrophied over time Identification of personal stress levels

How to do it: The picture you are about to see was used in a case study

on stress levels at St. Mary’s Hospital. Look at both dolphins jumping out of the water. The

dolphins are identical. A closely monitored, scientific study revealed that, in spite of the fact that the dolphins are identical, a person under stress would find differences between the two dolphins. The more differences a person finds between the dolphins, the more stress that person is experiencing.

Ready?29Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul


Cultural or Generational Differences

Did you want to ask “where’s Mary?” when you saw or heard my name?

Do you know what a pull tab is? What do you call a small, portable

device that plays music? What slogan comes to mind when

you think of McDonald’s? What do the following mean: ASAP,

RSVP, LMK, LOL, LMAO



How to handle difficult people

What and Why? Identify what a “difficult” person is A difficult person is _______________ Why do you believe difficult people

need to be “handled”?



How to handle difficult people

Be proactive Analyze the stakeholders in advance i.e.,

personality types Structure the event with techniques that

minimize the disruption Be familiar with (and practise if

necessary) performing an intervention



4. Being both facilitator and

SME in the same event

4. Being both facilitator and SME in the same event


Meeting Spectrum

Meeting styles vary based on:

How long the team has been working together

The Content of the event

The Purpose of the event

Never met / worked together Established

Out of the Box Established

Different Perspectives, Consensus required Established



Degree of Facilitation

Team

Content

Purpose

Never met / worked together Established

Out of the Box Established

Different Perspectives, Consensus required Established


Fac

ilita

tion

Str

engt

h

Har

dcor

e

Tra

iner

War

m-u

p


Being a SME is okay wid me…

Ask yourself if you bring more value to the event as a subject matter expert or as a facilitator

If being a SME brings more value, consider asking someone else to facilitate so that you can be fully engaged



But being both will get your goat!

If your meeting requires strong facilitation, you will wear yourself out “switching hats”

Participants will start to get confused if you change “hats” too often

Participants may perceive bias in your facilitation even if there is none



5. If an event goes out of

control

5. If an event goes out of control


Group Dynamics

Teams typically go through these four phases:

FormingStorming Norming Performing


Tuckman, B.W., “Development sequence in small groups”, Psychological Bulletin, 1965, 63, 384-399


Overcoming the “storming” phase

It’s perfectly natural for teams to enter storming

Teams can get stuck in storming phase because they: don’t recognize the signs because they’re in it keep comparing the now to “forming” when

everyone was playing nice have no strategies to move past storming

Keep in mind: you can’t move into the norming or (better yet) performing phase(s) unless you move through the storming phase



Overcoming the “storming” phase

Identify the situation Intervention (if team is spinning out of control) Refer back to planned part of agenda

Assure them a natural part of team-building “knowing is half the battle” – G.I. Joe

Solicit feedback What’s happening? What can we do to get past this?

If the team is unable to provide feedback, suggestions include: Use the parking lot to capture items Remind the team to attack the problem, not the person Remind the team of the group norms (you do have norms right?) Suggest a tool or technique such as brainwriting, Ishikawa (fishbone)

diagram, force field analysis, 2 x 2 matrix, 9 boxes (Triz) that can get them to collectively analyze and act



Definitions should be well… um, defined

An event can spin out of control when participants have different interpretations of words

Example: what’s your definition of “event”?

For this presentation, an event is “a facilitated duration of time such as a meeting or a workshop” 43Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul


Workout #7:

This exercise targets the development of: A resilient epidermis, Unnecessary combat skills

How to do it: As a team, decide upon a working definition that everyone

agrees to for the following: Consensus Alignment Responsible Accountable

Be prepared to present your definitions to the other teams



Managing Conflict

Understand that conflict is neither a good nor bad; in fact it: demonstrates “engagement” or “passion”

about the topic at hand indicates a deeper issue at hand i.e., root cause may be symptomatic of another problem or

issue that’s impacting the team i.e., personalities or communications styles

The idea is to manage through the conflict to a positive resolution



Effective intervention

What is it? An intervention is an opportunity to take corrective or

preventative action when a situation occurs that does not bring value to the event

An intervention should be fact-based, not opinion-basedSymptoms of a problem that might require an intervention: Polarizing viewpoints between two individuals (teams) with no

intention of changing their respective positions Emotional rather than fact-based discussion Individual or collective body language convey boredom, anger,

frustration

When do you intervene?Ask yourself the following question:“By allowing this situation to happen (continue), does it help or

hurt what we have accomplished (trying to accomplish)?”



Bens, Ingrid: “Advanced Facilitation Techniques”

Effective intervention

Intervention steps: “I observed x saying / doing…” (action) “I observed y saying / doing…” (reaction) “The result was z…” (impact) What should we do about this? (obtain feedback

from group) In the absence of feedback, have some options

available to the team: Take a break Is this relevant / important to what we are trying to do? Can we put this in the parking lot? Should we carve out time from the agenda to address this

specific issue?



How to bring People back on Time

Music breaks Countdown timer:

http://www.online-stopwatch.com/online-countdown/

Shhhing Charity collection e.g., $1 if you’re late Time check announcement and begin

countdown from 10 seconds Gongs, chimes, Tibetan singing bowl (for

workshops)

Note: they can get annoying if overused;mix them up! 48Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul




6. Facilitation and Business

Analysis

6. Facilitation and Business Analysis


Business Analysis

There are many tools used in analysis and facilitation for identical purposes:Purpose Technique

Idea gathering BrainstormingBrainwriting

Sharing or discussing guiding principles

Norms

Grouping or sorting ideas Clustering

Organizing and prioritizing 2 x 2 matrixDot Voting

Root Cause Analysis 5 why’sIshikawa (fishbone) Diagram



Workout #8:

This exercise is targets the: Cranial capacity Fine motor skills of arms

How to do it: Adding only a single line, transform this into a

“6”

Exercise time: 5 minutes

I X51Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul


7. Facilitation and Project

Management52Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul

7. Facilitation and Project Management

PM Best Practices

Current methodologies recognize facilitation as a core skillset and critical across the entire project lifecycle: JAD Six Sigma PMBOK exCITE! Lean Agile 53Facilitation Fitness - P. Paul


Project Management

There are many facilitation tools that lend themselves to project management:

Purpose Technique

Project Charter, Risk Planning, Project Plan development

BrainstormingBrainwritingVisioningPERT

Project Status meetings Norms

Crashing the schedule Clustering (tasks, resources)

Organizing and prioritizing, risk response

2 x 2 matrixDot Voting

Root Cause Analysis 5 why’sIshikawa (fishbone) Diagram



PERT Analysis

What is it?• PERT stands for Program Evaluation and

Review Technique• PERT is derived from fairly complex

mathematical models and simulations but is simple to use

• An invaluable tool for building out realistic project plans and timelines

• More accurate than “best effort” or “happy path” project plans and less pessimistic than “standard interval” project plans



PERT Analysis

How to use it? Basically, you need to ask the same three

questions but in creative and non-repetitive ways to get honest answers

The basic three questions are: How much time does it take normally? How much time does it take on a good day i.e., when the

stars and planets are aligned How much time does it take on a bad day when

everything seems to be going off the rails?



PERT Analysis

Now feed the answers into the following formula:

PERT =Optimistic + 4 x ML (Most Likely) + Pessimistic

6

Practice: 1. From group consensus, ask how long it takes to get an oil change2. Use PERT to calculate an oil change3. Compare answers and see if PERT is useful!



References

1. Tuckman, B.W., “Development sequence in small groups”, Psychological Bulletin, 1965, 63, 384-399

2. Goldman, M. “Facilitators Flipchart”, June 2009

3. Bens, Ingrid: “Advanced Facilitation Techniques”


peter paul cpf, pmp april 28, 2010. this exercise targets the: glutes, quads, fine motor skills of...

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