What's an important point ... and what's 'waffle'?

When I'm facilitating, leading a team session or working with visuals to capture people's thinking (and talking), some feedback I often get throughout the session is - how did you know what the key point was they were trying to make?

People say a-lot of stuff. Sometimes it's their own thinking, working out their views as they're speaking. Sometimes ideas haven't formed yet. Other times, their opinions are changing as they're speaking. 

But here's how I really know when someone is getting to their gold nugget, their kernel, the essence of their point.... their voice changes. You just need to listen. 

One of my earlier 'careers' was in radio, voiceovers and creating voice characters. I spent many hours speaking into a microphone, hearing it in headphones and then adjusting pace, tone, volume ever so slightly. 

This is the stuff to listen out for - this is when you'll be guided to what people are saying... when they are making an important point and when they are, well, adding to that point. 

• Tone change: it won't be as drastic as from a deep baritone to a high soprano, but people's voices will shift from lower registers to higher (or higher to lower) when they're getting emotional and getting to the point
• Volume change: think of our voices like a volume dial - we have low and soft down at levels 1, 2, 3 and higher at 6, 7, 8. Ten is heavy metal stuff. Listen for when volume increases. A key point will be delivered right there. 
• Pace change: when people s-l-o-w down their speech, there can be emphasis there. When theyarespeedingup, there can be energy, passion and enthusiasm there. Their brains are working faster or slower, there is an important point here for them. 

Listen up. It's all there. Along with the content of what people are saying, listen for how it's delivered. Then you'll be more likely to pick up their important points and those that are further down their list. 

The Anatomy of a Collaborative Workshop

The 60 second timelapse video embedded on my webpage here captured a full day workshop I facilitated recently.

But what was really going on?

Have a second look or press pause and you'll see a number of things happened...

Big Paper for BIG Ideas

in the background against the wall there are long paper charts. I use these to graphic facilitate - that is, I facilitate the group AND capture the key content the group is contributing using words and images on the chart.

You'll see a second chart to the left which I'm darting back and forth to at the start. I used this chart when everyone in the session was introducing themselves. This served as a great anchor for the participants to bring them 'into the room' and onto the story wall that was being completed during the workshop. 

Talk and Do

Throughout the workshop there were segements where participants were discussing in tables, contributing as a larger group and standing at the front of the room, reporting back from their table discussions. Keeping the variety going throughout the day is vital. We mixed up the table groups too - by the end of the day, there had been a real mixing and meeting of minds and views. 

As groups reported back, I captured key points presented... knowing that we also had the more detailed content from the groups when needed. 

Break Time

When the room is empty, the teams are just outside the room, enjoying conversation, networking, food, refreshments and a change of 'state'. That gives people space to be alone, be in small groups, be in bigger groups, and space to think, talk, review, reflect, brainstorm, laugh and ... whatever!

Standing

It's important to structure your agenda so you do important work when the team is high on energy. The after-lunch slot in a workshop can be a little quieter (with lunch being digested!) so some standing, moving and quick discussions can help keep the interest, energy and engagement up. 

Resources at the Ready

The room was set up for collaboration. Tables for small group conversation and discussion and working on stuff. The tables had paper, markers and post-it notes to capture thoughts, information, ideas and discussions. There were blank walls, flip chart pages posted ready for use and markers available to capture visual thinking. 

And there were yummy food resources provided on the tables - few sweet treats, mainly nuts and dried fruits and healthier energy choices. 

Start & Finish

The workshop featured a brief introduction by the sponsor of the event from the business and a wrap up of 'where to next'. I also talked through a review and summary of the content of the two large visual charts. 

So if we pressed 'record' on your next workshop, meeting or conversation - how much variety, collaboration and creative engagement would the video capture? Think ahead and plan for your team sessions. My whitepaper 'The 7 Problems with Strategy and Team Sessions' is available for download further down the same page where the video is. It's got some hints you can get happening straight away when planning your next strategy session. 

Visualising TEDx Melbourne

It was a thrill to be at the recent TEDx Melbourne event - not on the stage as a speaker, nor in the audience. I was on the sidelines graphic recording as the speakers presented on the topic of Education Leadership.

Three 18 minute talks showing a global, state and local perspective of leading in education. As the room was being set up before the event, and the TEDx banners and signage were put in place, the speakers did microphone sound checks and a had a final run through of their talks.
Then it was show time; the speakers presented, the audience listened, and I listened too... capturing in the moment the key themes I was hearing. Here's the end product - a large wall chart. At the end of the evening I was interviewed for a podcast (the edited link is here) by the guys atEdTechCrew (the full podcast) about graphic recording and using visuals as well as words. 

So... if the stage was yours, how would you structure your 18 minute TED talk? How would you start off? What would your key points be? What stories would you tell? How would you finish?

There were more speakers to listen to this week at the LAST Conference (Lean, Agile and Systems Thinking) in Melbourne. I presented on the topic of Visual Collaboration and also captured several of their presentations using the ipad. Several speakers had more than 18 minutes to fill and so I wondered, how did they prepare? What were their key points? I was tempted to walk over and 'pull the plug' on the data projector and slide show a couple of times! Too much reliance on what was on the big screen, not enough faith that their content and thinking could be delivered even more powerfully without the technology. 

As Leonardo Da Vinci said "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication". It's not always quick to simplify, but it's most effective and most engaging in a busy firehose-full-of-information world.

Get closer to simple before you stand and deliver your next talk, presentation or workshop. Your audience will be engaged and it will be memorable for the right reasons!