The Art & Science of Facilitation

How Collective Intelligence Can Change Culture

Come think with me!

Here are a few questions I have for you as we start this conversation about collective intelligence.

Do you know how to have a conversation?
Have you ever experienced a time when you thought you were showing up to a conversation, but instead you got yelled at?
You showed up to a conversation and instead everyone was multitasking on their phones, or on another device?
Have you ever showed up to a conversation and instead one person really spoke the entire time and you didn’t really have a voice in the conversation at all?

George Bernard Shaw said it best:

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”

Often we think we are communicating when we are really doing something else entirely!

What Kinds of Conversations Do You Have?

Let’s look at metaphorically how the conversations can be broken down.

[This comes from work done by William Isaacs.]

1) Monologue

Single voice.Turn taking. Download.

2) Debate

Beating down. Advocacy. There is a winner and a loser. I am holding strongly to a point of view and my job is to persuade, convince, cajole: to bring you over to my point of view.

3) Discussion

It means to break apart. It feels a bit like table tennis. You take a topic and pull it apart in different ways and then it gets lobbed back and forth a bit.

4) Skillful Conversation

It’s the first time where inquiry comes into the conversation. It’s a bit like plowing a field. We stick long enough with a topic to understand what’s there, we are inquiring and asking questions of others.

5) Dialogue

It’s metaphorically like a pool of water. We’re contributing to a pool of meaning. And everybody has equal voice. There aren’t any particular sides. There is no known objective. The idea and new thinking emerges from conversation, rather than somebody bringing ‘the idea’ into the conversation.

The Art & Science of Conversations

I believe that conversations are the single greatest predictor of success.

Whether we are or aren’t having them and if we can learn to be more intentional about how we invite conversation, how we participate, cultivate and facilitate dialogue, I don’t believe there is anything, any challenge, any initiative that an organization is taking on that they can not skillfully navigate towards an effective outcome!

Active engagement in skillful conversation and dialogue is the key to collective intelligence and culture change!

“The fastest way to change the culture in an organization is by changing the way we talk and think together.”

Mindset Work is Needed To Engage in Meaningful Dialogue

It might take an organisation 1-2 years to put these concepts in play, and practice, in order to realize their full potential!

It all starts by learning the nuts and bolts of the structure of conversations. You need to fully understand what dialogue is and how to start thinking about it differently!

Dialogue Is How We Access Collective Intelligence

Without dialogue, we can’t change culture, we can’t get to agility, we can’t seek the big things in organizations, these solutions, or vexing issues!

Things like higher performance, agility in business, change culture, innovation, looking to anticipate what’s coming in terms of change.

The solutions to these issues emerge from dialogue. Not from tools, processes or frameworks.

Solutions emerge from that collective pool of meaning!

Interested in learning more?

Watch and Listen!

This article is based on my presentation for the Business Agility Conference in June 2021.

It was recorded and can be watched right here!

Dialogue is the Foundation to Increasing Agility

Dialogue is leadership!

It’s not about what happens, it is about how you chose to respond to it! Learn more about dialogue!

Leadership is a journey and your collaborative leadership journey can begin right here.

yoyo

Leadership is a Conversation: The Importance of Creating Space for Dialogue

—————-

On May 20, 2021 I was a guest speaker at the Business Agility Meetup – Twin Cities edition.

This BAM presentation is part of a series of interviews and conversations I am having about facilitation with the agile community and people in leadership. As the author of ‘The Art & Science of Facilitation’, I am essentially on my second Book Tour!

Join me as I revisit this conversation about dialogue. Make sure to read to the end and watch the full video!

Conversations are Elusive

Effective conversations are elusive. We think we are communicating effectively only to find out that we didn’t.

Instead, we end up in the same conversation over and over again aka a groundhog conversation. People nod politely as if in agreement and then go tell their colleague what they really think after the meeting. Or, there are so many ideas on the table that we lose focus and none of them get adequately completed.

No individual, group or organization is immune to these patterns in conversation.

Conversations: Effectiveness and Breakdowns

It’s not if conversations will become ineffective or lead to breakdowns, it’s when, how often and how leaders are able to respond in the moment when it happens that makes the difference.

Leaders Hold the Key to… More Agility

Leadership is a conversation. And leaders who can create the conditions – facilitate – effective conversations will hold the key to higher performance, greater alignment, and more agility.

In their Harvard Business Review article, ‘Embracing Agile’, authors Rigby, Sutherland and Takeuchi wrote

“Agile has revolutionized the software industry…Now it is poised to transform nearly every other function in the industry. At this point, the greatest impediment is not the need for better methodologies, empirical evidence or significant benefits, or proof that agile can work outside IT. It is the behavior of executives.”

Leading Through Conversation

In the video below, I explored with the attendees of Business Agility Meetup what it means to lead through conversation. We discussed the following:

Understanding the importance of reading the room and why it’s everyone’s job
Learning a language for reading the room and how to model it for others
Gaining strategies for how to start facilitating conversations more effectively today

I don’t want to give it all away right here – head on over to the YouTube video to listen to this invigorating conversation!

Watch the Full Video: Leadership is a Conversation

Ready To Learn More About (Virtual) Facilitation

We thought you might be!

This summer, get more knowledge about facilitation by participating in the next Virtual Facilitation Masterclass: “Leading Engaging and Productive Virtual Collaboration”

We’ll show you the common mistakes that keep remote teams from realizing true agility.

Then, you’ll learn practical solutions to plan and design virtual meetings so you can:

Facilitate genuine connection and trust among remote team members
Turn virtual meetings into effective, efficient decision-making tools
Engage your team’s creative power regardless of zip code
Motivate your remote team members to perform to their capabilities with ease
Build a truly collaborative team that gets results

Explore this workshop now!

How and Why Holding the Group’s Agenda is Paramount in Facilitation

As a facilitator, holding the group’s agenda is one of five guiding principles to keep the meeting moving forward.

When a group is resisting the decision they are narrowing in toward or responding with reluctance toward every attempt to move the meeting forward, you are likely encountering the tension between two unspoken but competing agendas in the room.

The principle we are looking at today, ‘holding the group’s agenda, is about continually asking “How can I best serve this group?”. It’s about wondering “ What does this group really need right now?” It’s letting your agenda take the backseat so that you can help a group tackle emergent dynamics. It’s about uncovering what’s really going on in the group so that they can move forward as a team.

The Three Group Agendas To Hold When Facilitating

The first step when it comes to holding the group’s agenda is to understand that there are three different levels of agendas that a group can have:

The Presenting Agenda
The Emergent Agenda
The Developmental Agenda

Let’s look at each of these separately

The Presenting Agenda

This agenda, the presenting agenda encompasses the meeting’s purpose, desired outcomes, and plan. It’s why this group has come together, and it includes the facilitation design anticipated to help the group achieve what it hopes to achieve.

The Emergent Agenda

The emergent agenda is what emergentes live in the room as conversations happen, new perspectives are voiced, and ideas are generated.

New thinking is often behind the emergence of this level of group agenda.

The Developmental Agenda

The developmental agenda is a deeper agenda that focuses on how the group works together. It’s about group behavior and dynamics. Facilitators working with agile teams are not just trying to help a group achieve an outcome for a meeting, they are often helping a team develop.

Hold the Group’s Agenda, Not Your Own!

When you, the group facilitator, work with a group, it’s helpful to know where they want to go. Knowing their presenting agenda enables your to hold their desired outcome – what they hope to achieve from working together – and more fully comprehend what else is happening in the room.

Because along their journey, groups can get in their own way, and it can get especially complicated as a facilitator when what the group thinks they need and what they actually need are two different things.

When you hold the group’s agenda – presenting, emergent, or developmental – you are choosing to be of service to the group over yourself, your position, and your perception of our own worth.

This is about them, not you!

The principle of holding the group’s agenda is about being aware of what the group wants and how they also might be getting in their own way. It’s about being able to really listen to what’s emerging in the team – hearing what the team needs – while remaining aware of what your own agenda might be and not letting it take over.

Go Slow To Go Fast

The slippery slope with agendas is that when your own agenda feels so right to you, you risk missing the group’s agenda. And if you are facilitating a team in which you are a member of the team, discerning your agenda from the team’s agenda becomes even more difficult.

In my book ‘The Art & Science of Facilitation’ I go deeper into these agendas and show what holding the group’s agenda looks like in practice!

“You owe it to yourself and the team to challenge the notion of certain agendas”

Holding the Group’s Agenda is Big Work!

The way to change meetings is to help teams and groups move the meeting from a surface-level conversation where they may as well be rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic to a place where it’s okay and even expected to have real conversations.

Most groups need guidance and help getting to this place, and the organization’s culture and team dynamics will have a big impact on how easy the process is.

There is work to do. Without it, you’re wasting time – yours and everyone else’s.

Don’t shy away from emergent and developmental agendas,, even when it’s tough. This work lays the track for agile teams to become agile, and each meeting is a meaningful step toward more systemic change within the team or organizational culture.

The Five Cornerstones of the Agile Team Facilitation Stance

The cornerstones of the Agile Team Facilitation Stance include:

Honoring the wisdom of the group
Maintaining Neutrality
Upholding the Agile Mindset and Practices
Standing in the Storm
Holding the Group’s Agenda

Learn more about each stance by clicking the links!

How to Work with Conflict in Teams: The Agile Team Facilitation Stance

I always say: “A great leader is ready to merge from everyone!”

Today I would like to share my recent talk with Agile Toronto. We had a conversation about how to work with conflict in teams.

NOTE: If you’d rather listen to me talk than read this article first, feel free to skip to the bottom of this article and find the embedded recording, but …you’ll miss some great visuals!

Conflict… and Standing in the Storm

My definition of a “Storm” is when conflict emerges in the room, or when conflict isn’t in the room but it’s going somewhere else and it’s undermining what happens.

Together, let’s look at conversations, and the way we engage in conversation as a lens for looking at conflict, how teams communicate and how that makes a team effective, or ineffective.

I am going to start with the Kantor 4 player model.

Kantor 4 Player Model

“The structure of our conversation determines the outcome of it.” ~ David Kantor, Theory of Structural Dynamics.

Everything that we say, every sentence, every speech-act can be coded into one of four actions.

Coded into one of these four:

MOVE – sets direction in the conversation
FOLLOW – supports the move
OPPOSE – offers correction or constraint
BYSTAND – offers a morally neutral comment on what’s happening in the conversation

Here is an example of how a conversation with all of these 4 actions would go:

In a foodie group conversation:

“Lets go get Sushi in the 5-star restaurant on the corner” That’s a MOVE!
Your FOLLOW would be “Sounds good. Would love to.”
An OPPOSE response is something like this: “Hey I am not so sure, I am not feeling Sushi tonight”
While the BYSTAND action would go something like this: “It sounds like we have an idea on the table” – naming what’s happening.

MOVE and OPPOSE are the vocal actions of advocacy, bringing something forward and taking a stand for something.

FOLLOW and BYSTAND are vocal actions of inquiry and they provide curiosity and more data.

We need all four of these to be active and voiced in a conversation, when one or more are missing some common patterns emerge.

Common patterns often point to a way of looking at breakdown or conflict in our conversations, doing it in a structural way.

Common Stuck Patterns That Happen in Teams

Having the same conversation over and over again should throw up a bunch of yellow flags!

Here are 4 stuck patterns that happen in teams:

SERIAL MOVING – Not really sure what we accomplished: nothing carried to completion
COURTEOUS COMPLIANCE – Over time, this points to covert opposition.
COVERT OPPOSITION – the thing that is said is different that I really intend or for somebody to bystand what I oppose.
POINT-COUNTER-POINT – move on the table and a very clear oppose. Feels like people are locked in conflict.

When MOVE and OPPOSE are the predominant acts, we are missing a FOLLOW and a BYSTAND. Structure becomes a way to look at to bring attention to or call for one of the missing actions.

Going from Locked Opposition, MOVE and OPPOSE, to being able to bridge and find context, something that I can follow or support, something that you’re seeing, being able to name it and bring it into the conversation, keeps us in the conversation and allows us to move forward!

Groundhog Day Conversations!

Groundhog day conversations are those conversations we are having, over and over without resolution.

What patterns might this type of conversation be falling into? How can you change the nature of the conversation by bringing in a different vocal act?

You would need to manage opposition out of the room. The voice of opposition is needed! When it’s not voiced it’s an indicator that it’s coming out in one of the different actions i.e. move, follow or bystand.

Step back and look at the structure of the conversation and yourself:

Can I name what’s happening?
Can I name structurally what’s happening?
Can I let the name of the structural pattern inform how I might make an action as leader, as a facilitator in that conversation?

To listen to this conversation, and the Q & A session, watch this QuickTalk YouTube Video!

Group Dynamics: How to Honor the Wisdom of the Group

When groups convene, they have the power to create something together that would not be possible from the thinking of just one or two people. Groups can see problems in new ways and craft solutions that weren’t apparent before, leveraging the dynamics of leadership and group dynamics.

But, there is a caveat. The creation of new thinking relies on a group’s ability to access their collective intelligence and navigate the intricacies of leadership group dynamics.

Everyone on the Team Has Wisdom to Gain, Wisdom to Share in leadership and group dynamics.

In theory, honoring the wisdom of the group in leadership and group dynamics is really easy. Often, both leaders and group members agree: of course the group has wisdom.

Then real life happens. Decisions need to be made. Directions need to be set.

It’s often easier to honor the wisdom of the group in principle than it is in the moment. In high-pressure moments, leaders, in particular, might be challenged by the concept of honoring the group’s wisdom in leadership in group dynamics. They would rather just make a decision on their own and tell the group what to do.

Putting Honoring the Wisdom of the Group in Leadership and Group Dynamics into Practice

Honoring the wisdom of the group in leadership and group dynamics means placing your full attention on what the group needs rather than focusing on your own needs. It starts with being deliberate about why you are meeting and how you can help invite full participation by creating and sustaining a space that will support it, taking into account the dynamics of group structure.

Here are four lessons on how to plan and design a collaborative meeting to set the group up for success.

1 Help the Sponsor Get Clear on the Level of Collaboration Needed

Factors to determine the degree of collaboration.

One way we honor wisdom in groups is by not wasting their time. Being intentional and deliberate about when collaborative decision-making is an appropriate process to meet the needs of the moment – and when someone just needs to make a decision and move forward.

Not every topic, problem, or decision needs to be collaborative. Higher complexity in decisions means a greater degree of collaboration will be important.

When you interview the sponsor and evaluate the complexity of a decision to be made, think about the scope:

Urgency
Risk
Impact
Durability
Buy-in

2 Decide How to Decide

Not every decision lends itself to consensus and it’s okay. It often depends on the type and complexity of the decision being made.

Help the sponsor and other stakeholders agree to both the decision-making process and the boundaries of the decision prior to the meeting. Here are the types of decisions to choose from:

Leader decides
The leader holds veto power
Consensus Building
Majority Rule

Caution: Teams often decide to “majority rules” likely because reaching consensus can take more time and some teams or leaders become frustrated with the process. If you use “majority rules” as your primary way of making decisions, you might be missing an opportunity to uncover more insight and wisdom, which could improve the shared vision, increase understanding, and change the nature of the conversation and outcomes more positively over time.

3 Design Group Processes That Invite All Voices

The objective is to design a way for all voices to be heard in the room. Factors to consider in your design include:

What is the purpose of the meeting?
What is the desired outcome?
How many people are participating?
Will others be observing?
How will you be meeting?
How long do you have?

The primary question across the design process is: What is the highest and best use of our time together?

4 Invite Opposition – and Separate Yourself From The Process

Opposition is needed in a group in order to have an effective dialogue and, therefore, to access the wisdom of the group. Inviting opposition builds on the practices of ‘Standing in the Storm’.

There are two fundamental principles of inviting opposition:

If opposition is not coming into the conversation organically, ask for someone who sees the topic differently.
When opposition does emerge, don’t shut it down!

As the facilitator, it’s important for you to find ways to invite the opposition in the conversation. But as you develop your skills in relation to opposition, it’s also important to recognize when to separate yourself from the process.

Remember: you are not the process and the process is not you!

Honoring the Wisdom of the Group

Sometimes we can be really good at creating a vision for what we want: teamwork, collaboration, agility. But in execution, we can be really good at getting in our own way.

One of the greatest gifts you can bring to the group is to hold the belief that the team has the wisdom it needs, even when it feels difficult.

Even if the road is bumpy and it feels like you took a wrong exit, holding firm in this stance is one of the most empowering things you can do for a team.

Are you a facilitator in need of more wisdom?

Learn more about The Art & Science of Facilitation by visiting our website!