How you’re missing out on the gold

It’s another online meeting ... the meeting leader or facilitator announces they’re about to put us into breakout rooms to chat.

We get to connect with others, to have a smaller, more intimate conversation and to dive in to a topic or share ideas.

But too often the insights from breakout rooms and group activities aren’t noted or are lost, and not reincorporated into the meeting.

At other times, we can summarise or distill contributions too far.

Recently, 20 mins in breakout rooms was distilled down to one word. That’s taking a summary too far! The meaning gets lost, the effort wasted and the benefits and learnings are ... gone.

If you’re inviting people to have a conversation, be sure to think about how you’ll handle and leverage those ideas and contributions.

Sure ... you don’t have to hear from everyone.

But don’t hear back from no one!

How will you utilize the gold that’s been generated?

Because that’s what it is.

Absolute GOLD! ⭐️

We don’t have all the answers. The group often does.

Listen to them.

That workshop will need some design

Many of us are leading more workshops and meetings than ever before.

We’re bringing people together, helping them with learning, planning, collaborating, discussing and decision making.

So how do you ensure the workshops you lead are interesting, engaging ... AND effective?

By design.

Successful workshops and meetings come via better design.

And whether we’re leading online or face-to-face sessions, they all require some design ... before the day.

Careful though, because we can also go overboard and over-engineer! There’s a sweet spot where we have designed the most valuable elements and then we can let the rest roll.

Focus on these 4 things in design :

1. Engagement
2. Activities
3. Participation
4. Outcomes.

Leading interactive workshops

We’re getting the hang of online meetings. But how are the interactive workshops going? 

If we just press the breakout rooms button and think that’s how to interact and collaborate ... that’s a limited view. 

Some facilitators use apps like Mural or Miro for interaction but still, it’s not about just choosing an app or breaking people into groups. 

The art of facilitating interaction involves:

📐DESIGN
and
📐DELIVERY
of the interactive workshop experience. 

Many workshops default to ‘now, go chat in breakout rooms’. These are usually poorly framed and then not debriefed, totally losing the gold from the group interactions! 

Breakouts are generative... they generate contributions. 

What will you do with all of the generation and contribution? Most of us do little, perhaps asking a ‘so, what did you talk about?’ question. 

Helping a group do great work together doesn’t happen via a button. 

If you’re leading a group in a workshop setting, sharpen up your skills for better group interaction. 

Consider the DESIGN of the experience. 
Then the DELIVERY. 

People won't commit if they don't know where they're going

We need big trust to go with someone and not know where they’re going.

'Trust me, it’s a great restaurant.'

‘Believe me, you’ll love this holiday location.’

We may think people will just follow us or they're at fault because they don’t 'engage or buy-in'. How do we lead so people will change with us as we launch something, try something new or zig when everyone else is zagging?

To reduce anxiety and uncertainty and build trust and understanding use sensemaking. We have some of it in our nature (how we make sense of things) but we can learn more so we become insight seekers and rapid sense makers in this world of complexity and uncertainty.

Do this:

1️⃣ Create a map of what’s possible, what the potential is

2️⃣ Talk through that map, share it with others

Like this:

In my recent Sensemaking skills workshop, a participant created a map about change in the educational sector she works in. She shared and talked through the map with the team. A topic that used to create resistance now had understanding, intrigue and curiosity.

✅Ace!

What do you have to convey:

- Your own thinking and ideas?

- A new product or service?

- A plan or vision for the future?

Agile, Agility and Business Agility

Agile, it’s 'a vast global movement transforming the world of work. And spreading rapidly. So said Steve Denning in Forbes, 'Explaining Agile' article.

While agile was born in software development, other industries, projects and teams the world over are seeing the productivity, customer value and engagement benefits to having an agile mindset.

After years working with a number of agile teams, I wrote 'Agile-ish: How to create a culture of agility' in 2017.

If you’re embarking on an agile journey, you need to start with yourself, your mindset and how you think. As with all journeys, a change to agile and newer ways of working takes time, and might not go as perfectly as you imagine it will. So how you respond to that is what also makes for an agile mindset!

My book 'Agile-ish' acknowledges that:

🌕 experimentation and imperfection are incredible learning experiences;

🌕 getting into action and momentum outweighs time spent over-planning; and

🌕 delivering value to customers sooner is what's making many of today's businesses more successful.

I recently shared these ideas keynote speaking at CPA Congress across Australia. Yes finance/accounting folks are getting agile too!

Q:How about you?