by Facilitation Expert | Feb 6, 2018 | Meeting Agendas, Meeting Tools, Scrum Events
The Agile mindset demands frequent, and continuing, interaction among its stakeholders. Perhaps more so with Scrum, than other frameworks. From Daily Scrum activities to Sprint Retrospective events held every one to four weeks, Scrum facilitation yields an unspeakable value for Sprints. First, an update from its creators.
Scrum Guide Update, November 2020
Definition Enhancements Including Reference to Lean Thinking
Scrum is a lightweight framework that helps people, teams and organizations generate value through adaptive solutions for complex problems.
The Scrum framework is purposefully incomplete, only defining the parts required to implement Scrum theory. Scrum is built upon the collective intelligence of the people using it. Rather than provide people with detailed instructions, the rules of Scrum guide their relationships and interactions…Various processes, techniques, and methods can be employed within the framework.
Scrum is founded on empiricism and lean thinking. Empiricism asserts that knowledge comes from experience and making decisions based on what is observed. Lean thinking reduces waste and focuses on the essentials.
Changing “Roles” to “Accountabilities”
The entire Scrum Team is accountable for creating a valuable, useful Increment every Sprint. Scrum defines three specific accountabilities within the Scrum Team: the Developers, the Product Owner, and the Scrum Master.
Changing “Development Team” to “Developers”
The specific skills needed by the Developers are often broad and will vary with the domain of work.
Changing “self-organizing” to “self-managing”
Scrum Teams are cross-functional, meaning the members have all the skills necessary to create value for each Sprint. They are also self-managing, meaning they internally decide who does what, when, and how.
Additionally
WHY was added to Sprint Planning, the three questions have been removed from the Daily Scrum (and replaced with an “actionable plan”), and they changed the term “shippable” to “useable. Artifacts now stress commitments and the phrase “product goal” now equates to the product backlog.
Scrum Facilitation Framework
Unlike waterfall mindsets, Scrum Development Teams stick together for a while. Theoretically, if forever, they may be called tribes who never disband. As teams transition from product to product, each containing multiple Sprints, new stakeholders may appear. While the Scrum Product Owner® (SPO) remains largely responsible for the relationship between the stakeholders and the Scrum Development Team, the SPO also encourages direct communications, rather than isolating or protecting either group.
Interviewing and asking questions drive the ordering of product features. Therefore, the SPO remains vigilant about developing optimal questions, sequencing them, and listening to responses. Some of the product features contained within an Ordered Product Backlog[1] derive from interviews, rather than formal Scrum facilitation events, meetings, or ceremonies.
When You Facilitate Scrum Events — Here Are The Core Scrum Facilitation Skills
Facilitative skills fortify the Scrum Master® and SPO including:
Likewise, the entire Scrum Team (including the Scrum Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Scrum Development Team), operates more independently when using core facilitation skills. Arguably, we all remain more effective in embracing a servant-leader approach, even in our private lives.
How to Facilitate Scrum Events and Activities Requiring Scrum Facilitation[2]
Scrum Facilitation
Scrum Facilitation — Sprint Null[3]
Product Release
The launch of the Scrum team is typically driven when building a new product (software, hardware, or service). Throughout the following, as the words Product Backlog are used, they could refer to an intangible product or service. (Additionally, when certain words are capitalized, it’s because they are capitalized in the Scrum Guide or because they refer to an MGRUSH tool.)
Some refer to a product release project as an epic, a big chunk of work. An epic breaks into multiple themes, or features. Each theme or feature constitutes requirements or stories. Detailed story ‘slices’ may be called user stories or requirements.
The Scrum Guide does not use the terms ‘epic,’ ‘theme,’ ‘feature,’ or ‘story,’ and we strive to avoid relying on these terms as well. Since Mike Cohn, Kenneth Rubin, and others have used these or similar terms, we rely on you to adapt the Scrum framework and our ‘plain vanilla’ facilitation to guide you.
To launch into a series of Sprints, we need to establish the product vision (or goal) and some of the objectives and reasons for justifying investment. The product vision establishes a baseline for moving forward.
Project charters could resemble anything from over thirty pages to a Six Sigma® charter that fits on a single page. We remain methodologically agnostic but suggest that all frameworks have one thing in common, a statement of purpose.
Purpose of the Organization
First, we need to understand the reason for the existence of the sponsoring group, the customer, or the primary stakeholder. While components like mission, values, measures, etc., may be found, you can also substitute our Purpose Tool to build a quick and consensual understanding of the general intent of the organization driving the product.
Purpose of the Product
Next, at a minimum, we need to establish the purpose of the product (frequently referred to as a project). Again, while teams may build an opportunity statement, situation analysis, etc., we can roll up the primary reasons for any product with the Purpose Tool.
In addition to frequent one-on-one and one-on-few sessions, along with ongoing Backlog Refinement, the Scrum framework requires four formal Scrum events for inspection and adaptation during each Sprint. They include:
- Sprint Planning
- Daily Scrum
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-
Development work (including Product Backlog Refinement) technically an activity, not an event—typically more than one Refinement activity per Sprint
- Sprint Review
- Sprint Retrospective
As a coach, impediment remover, and generally serving as a neutral party, the Scrum Master remains well suited for facilitating Sprint Planning and Sprint Reviews. Occasionally, an outside Scrum Master facilitates the Sprint Retrospective so that the participating Scrum Master may contribute as a participant.
Suggested Scrum Event Durations per Sprint (maximum)
Based on a maximum four-week Sprint, the table shows the maximum allocated time for each Scrum facilitation event or activity:
A Scrum Master should project up to eight hours of Scrum facilitation per week. Allowing a standard ratio of 2:1 for thorough preparation, a Scrum Master could be directly involved in Scrum facilitation sixty percent of their time.
While many Scrum Certification programs explain the event details, few provide extra training on the facilitation skills required. While many, if not most, of our blogs provide insight into the servant skills of facilitators, our online and in-person training yields greater insight. Next, you will find helpful Scrum facilitation event agendas, inputs required, and comments about the facilitation challenges required to lead them effectively.
Sprint Duration
Scrum Facilitation — SPRINT PLANNING
Purpose
The entire Scrum Team conducts Sprint Planning to determine WHAT can get done over the next Sprint and HOW they will do it (high-level). Strictly time-boxed to eight hours duration for a four-week sprint and sized down according to the length of shorter sprints. The purpose is to identify WHAT will get done over the next Sprint and an approximation of HOW (high-level tasking) it will be completed. Specifically, Sprint Planning answers:
- What Increments can be delivered during the upcoming Sprint?
- How will the work be completed?
Required Inputs
- Product Backlog items (ordered by SPO)[4]
- Pre-identified potentially shippable product Increment (PSPI)[5]
- Development Team capacity (during the Sprint)
- Metrics, especially velocity
- Identified Sprint Retrospective action (Kaizen)
- Draft of Sprint goal from prior Sprint Review and current Sprint goal of the SPO
Deliverable
The Sprint Goal and the Sprint Backlog that upon customer acceptance will yield the Sprint Increment, updated Product Backlog with Kaizen. Optionally, an updated Product Vision and Scope.
Sprint Planning Agenda and How to Facilitate[6]
Sprint Planning Agenda
Scrum Facilitation — PRINCIPLES OF A DAILY SCRUM
Purpose
There are good meetings and there are long meetings but there are not many good, long meetings. The Scrum framework encourages the Developers to conduct a Daily Scrum (frequently a stand-up meeting). Other stakeholders (in addition to the Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Developers), may observe and occasionally, the Scrum Master may be invited in as a facilitator.
Strictly time-boxed to fifteen minutes duration, the Daily Scrum may also be referred to as a roll call (usually morning) or a daily huddle. To amplify team cadence, conduct the Daily Scrum in the same place and time every day.
The purpose allows for inspection and adaptation that helps synchronize the Developer’s plan and activities over the next 24 hours as well as identify impediments for which the team requires outside support.
“Every day, the Developers should understand how it intends to work together as a self-organizing team to accomplish the Sprint Goal and create the anticipated Increment by the end of the Sprint.”
Required Inputs
- Sprint Goal
- Sprint Backlog
- Burn-down chart
- Impediment list
Three Questions Was Changed with Scrum Guide 2000
Because Kanban boards display what has been completed, the 3-questions approach has been modified to focus on impediments or blockers that may be getting in the way
“The Scrum Master ensures that the Developers have the meeting, but the Developers are responsible for conducting the Daily Scrum. The Scrum Master teaches the Developers to keep the Daily Scrum within the 15-minute time-box. The Daily Scrum is an internal meeting for the Developers. If others are present, the Scrum Master ensures that they do not disrupt the meeting.”
Pre-2020 Three-Question Approach
Approximating the format of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, modify three questions to meet your needs:
1. What did I do yesterday that helped the Development Team meet the Sprint Goal? (or, What did I accomplish yesterday)?
2. Next, what will I do today to help the Development Team meet the Sprint Goal? (or, What will I accomplish today)?
3. Finally, what impediments prevent me or the Development Team from meeting the Sprint Goal? (or, What obstacles are impeding my ability to get done)?
Motivational Version
1. What did you do to change the world yesterday?
(or, What did you accomplish since the last Daily Scrum)?
2. How are you going to crush it today?
(or, What are you working on until the next Daily Scrum)?
3. How you are going to blast through any obstacles unfortunate enough to be standing in your way?
(or, What’s getting in your way, keeping you from doing your job)?
Outputs
- Socialized plans over the next 24 hours
- Impediments and blockers identified
Comments
Standing, rather than sitting, ensures that meetings remain brief and discourages wasted time.
The Daily Scrum does not provide the time and place to solve problems. Rather, the Daily Scrum makes the team aware of its current status. If further discussion is needed, a longer meeting with appropriate parties can be arranged or conducted after the Daily Scrum with only the necessary participants. Topics that require additional discussion should always be deferred until every team member has reported.
Remember to have members focus on WHAT they are doing. Discussions about WHY they are doing it should be deferred to a planning meeting. Discussions about HOW they are doing it should be deferred to a design meeting or technical discussion.
Take an MGRUSH Certified Structured Facilitation class to learn WHAT the difference is and HOW to explain it.
Scrum Facilitation — PRODUCT BACKLOG REFINEMENT(S)
Purpose
Product Backlog refinement occurs as necessary and fortifies the product Increment expected over the concurrent Sprint. The Scrum Development Team meets independently. Others may observe or be invited for input. The Scrum Master stands alert to help remove identified impediments. On occasion, they may be asked to facilitate.
Deliverable
Updated Sprint Backlog and story tasking, along with potential impediments to be noted.
Considerations
Sprint Refinement
Scrum Facilitation — SPRINT REVIEW
Purpose
The Sprint Review provides an inspection and adaptation checkpoint for the potentially shippable product Increment built over the prior Sprint and includes the Scrum Team and stakeholders. Because stakeholders attend, consider a dry-run rehearsal before the formal session begins. Strictly time-boxed to four hours duration for a four-week sprint and sized down according to the length of shorter sprints.
Required Inputs
Some of the information that should be brought in or visually displayed include:
- Potentially shippable product Increments (PSPI)
- Ordered Sprint Product Backlog
- Metrics such as Velocity and Burn Down chart
- Sprint Goal
- Release plan including product and/ or release scope and vision (goal) and technical road map (as applicable)
Deliverable
An updated Product Backlog (and optionally updated Product scope and vision).
How to Facilitate
The next table shows you HOW TO facilitate a Sprint Review. There is more than one right answer and more than one right tool per step.
However, there is a wrong answer too. That is if you don’t know how you are going to facilitate the session before it begins. Make sure as the session leader, you know what “DONE” looks like.
Sprint Review
Scrum Team Tools
Some other tools that a Scrum Team might consider based on the suggestions and experience of the Scrum Master include:
Scrum Facilitation — SPRINT RETROSPECTIVE
Purpose
Here the Scrum Team inspects and adapts to impediments around the team’s efforts and results over the prior Sprint. Also, planning robust Sprint Retrospective activities helps the team get better while preventing boredom. Strictly time-boxed to three hours duration for a four-week sprint and sized downward according to the length of shorter sprints.
Arguably the most important meeting of all, intended to ensure continuous improvement, experts recommend three hours of preparation for a ninety-minute Sprint Retrospective.
Required Inputs
- Last Sprint Retrospective action
- Metrics (especially burn-up and burn-down velocities)
- Definition of DONE (for each Increment or theme)
- Process standards and practices (i.e., internal framework)
- Impediment list
Deliverable
An improvement plan with an identified focus on one action to improve over the next Sprint (Kaizen).
How to Facilitate
The next table shows you HOW TO facilitate a Sprint Retrospective. Keep in mind there is more than one right answer and more than one right tool per step.
However, there is a wrong answer too. That is if you don’t know how you are going to facilitate the session before it begins. Make sure as the session leader, you know what “DONE” looks like.
Sprint Retrospective
Other Creative Tools
- Amazon Review
- Five Why’s or Quick RCA (Root Cause Analysis)
- Lean Coffee
- Mad/ Glad/ Sad (Stop/ Start/ Continue)
- Participant Prioritization (using various tools over the life-cycle of the project)
- Post-it Note Affinity Diagram
- Remember the Future (Temporal Shift)
- Starfish
- Speedboat/ Sailboat
- Three Words
Scrum Facilitation in Conclusion
Finally, please remember that the Voting Method of prioritization does not generate higher quality decisions, only a bigger number. Consider some of the optional tools offered by MGRUSH as solid options for both prioritizing and conducting many of the activities found during your Scrum Sprint events.
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[1] The Scrum Guide was modified in 2011 and 2020. The Product Backlog became “ordered,” instead of “prioritized,” providing flexibility to the Product Owner to optimize value in his or her unique circumstances.
[2] ©2017 Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland. Offered for license under the Attribution Share-Alike license of Creative Commons, accessible at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode and also described in summary form at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. By utilizing this Scrum Guide, you acknowledge and agree that you have read and agree to be bound by the terms of the Attribution Share-Alike license of Creative Commons.
[3] For empirical reasons to avoid the expression “Sprint 0 (zero)” see: Why using Sprint 0 is a cardinal sin for all Scrum Masters
[4] Depending on the level of resolution or specificity, items could be broad (epic), moderate (theme), narrow (story), or ready (story slice) …
[5] An increment is a body of inspectable, done work that supports empiricism at the end of the Sprint. The increment is a step toward a vision or goal. The increment must be in useable condition regardless of whether the Product Owner decides to release it.
[6] For a nice primer and overview of “How to Run An Agile Sprint Planning Meeting” see “How To Run A Sprint Planning Meeting Like A Boss (+ Meeting Agenda)” by Alexa Huston of the Digital Project Manager.
[7] PTO reflects Paid Time Off or other planned or surprise reasons for absences.
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Don’t ruin your career by hosting bad meetings. Sign up for a workshop or send this to someone who should. MGRUSH workshops focus on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities daily during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.
Our workshops also provide a superb way to earn up to 40 SEUs from the Scrum Alliance, 40 CDUs from IIBA, 40 Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) based on Federal Acquisition Certification Continuous Professional Learning Requirements using Training and Education activities, 40 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from SAVE International, as well as 4.0 CEUs for other professions. (See workshop and Reference Manual descriptions for details.)
Want a free 10-minute break timer? Sign up for our once-monthly newsletter HERE and receive a free timer along with four other of our favorite facilitation tools.
Go to the Facilitation Training Store to access proven, in-house resources, including fully annotated agendas, break timers, and templates. Finally, take a few seconds to buy us a cup of coffee and please SHARE with others.
In conclusion, we dare you to embrace the will, wisdom, and activities that amplify a facilitative leader. #facilitationtraining #MEETING DESIGN
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With Bookmarks no longer a feature in WordPress, we need to append the following for your benefit and reference
Terrence Metz, MBA, CSM, CSPF, PSP01, HTTO1, is the Managing Director of MG RUSH Facilitation Leadership, Training, and Meeting Design, an acknowledged leader in structured facilitation training, and author of “Meetings That Get Results – A Facilitator’s Guide to Building Better Meetings.” His FAST Facilitation Best Practices blog features nearly 300 articles on facilitation skills and tools aimed at helping others lead meetings that produce clear and actionable results. His clients include Agilists, Scrum teams, program and project managers, senior officers, and the business analyst community among numerous private and public companies and global corporations. As an undergraduate of Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) and an MBA graduate from NWU’s Kellogg School of Management, his professional experience has focused on process improvement and product development. He continually aspires to make it easier for others to succeed.
by Facilitation Expert | Dec 5, 2017 | Analysis Methods, Decision Making, Meeting Agendas, Meeting Structure, Meeting Tools
Previously, we defined ‘best’ as projects that performed well in an innovation test, focusing on the relative technology and market risks associated with new ideas (e.g., processes, products, etc.). With the Real-Win-Worth framework—designed for experienced facilitators and meeting designers, but equally valuable for beginners—we take this a step further by isolating the most promising candidates for success.
The Real-Win-Worth Three-step Screening Approach:
- How Real is the opportunity,
- To what extent we can Win compared to competitive options, and
- To what extent the opportunity is Worth doing?
MGRUSH has been a long-term supporter of decision matrices. With some leaning on George Day[1], the following questions provide the framework you can modify for your situation.
“The R-W-W (Real-Win-Worth) screen(ing) is a simple but powerful tool built on a series of questions about the innovation concept or product, its potential market, and the company’s capabilities and competition.” – George Day
The Real-Win-Worth approach provides objective scores but requires expert reviews at each stage. If the idea is ‘great’, but we cannot win—there is no need to go further. Even if we have the capacity to win, if the concept is not worth much, there is no need to go further. As a consensus-building tool, the Real-Win-Worth approach provides a disciplined method for exposing assumptions while identifying knowledge gaps (and areas of superiority).
Successful screening depends upon the quality of the questions you use. Therefore, to arrive at a consensual understanding of answers to the final question about each of Real-Win-Worth, develop a robust set of detailed questions. Because neither Mr. Day nor MGRUSH can tell you how to modify the basic questions for your situation, first understand the intent and then determine what you need to make an informed decision during each of the three stages.
To what extent the opportunity is Real
Consider two critical vectors. Value the feasibility of the product, service, or solution and the extent to which it is attractive (e.g., internal or external customers). Answer these factors by exploring the questions they contain. Eight representative questions are provided below. Rarely should the questions be posed as close-ended. Rather, by exploring the “extent” or amount, you develop varying degrees across the vector.
Typically, your best (perhaps most innovative) solutions will score higher relative to each other. For example, with question 2.2. (To what extent do we have the technology and expertise to make it?) Your range could be . . . Note the non-linear weighting suggested below, ranging from zero through nine. Ultimately the ideas that score best will pass on to the next phase or stage.
To what extent we can Win compared to competitive options
After determining the extent to which your customer demand and solution are both real, assess your ability to succeed against competitive options. According to Day,
“Two of the top three reasons for new-product failures, as revealed by audits, would have been exposed by the Can we win? analysis: Either the new product didn’t achieve its market-share goals, or prices dropped much faster than expected. (The third reason is that the market was smaller, or grew more slowly, than expected.)”
Begin by reviewing the additional six questions that explain the two factors of synergies and advantages. Then, consider pulling in the results from any research efforts to help answer the questions. Focus on an open-ended answer of likely outcomes or projections. For example,
To what extent the opportunity is Worth doing
Finally, the last stage addresses predictive factors including financial risk/ reward and strategic fit. Financial projections can be general or refined, but apply consistent rigor to everything you evaluate. Additionally, keep in mind that forecasts of financial returns from innovative solutions are notoriously unreliable. Day notes from his research that . . .
“Given the susceptibility of financial forecasts to manipulation, overconfidence, and bias, executives should depend on rigorous answers to the prior questions in the screen for their conclusions about profitability.”
The ranges you need to use should be modified for your scale. Remember that risk/ reward factors while specific, are nevertheless projections. Therefore, aggregate the group input for evaluation since the Wisdom of the Crowd suggests that nobody is smarter than everybody. Here are some illustrative placeholders for one of the nine questions suggested below.
Facilitator Considerations
Consider holding a facilitated session to collaboratively develop your evaluation criteria and key questions. You may find that having individuals score candidates privately, followed by aggregating the results, creates a strong foundation for decision-making. This approach ensures the session is grounded in collective understanding and diverse perspectives. Remember, the highest-scoring idea(s) may not automatically win, but it’s essential to avoid overanalyzing suboptimal options. Instead, guide the group’s focus toward the most promising candidates to make informed, effective final decisions.
Please consider the following Real-Win-Worth questions as guidelines, meant to be freely adapted and customized to fit your specific context. Additionally, toward the end of this article, you will find illustrative examples of questions along with a potential range of responses for each.
Real-Win-Worth Nodes
Real-Win-Worth Illustration
[1] See “Is It Real? Can We Win? Is It Worth Doing? Managing Risk and Reward in an Innovation Portfolio” which appeared in the December 2007 edition of the Harvard Business Review
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Don’t ruin your career by hosting bad meetings. Sign up for a workshop or send this to someone who should. MGRUSH workshops focus on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities daily during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.
Our workshops also provide a superb way to earn up to 40 SEUs from the Scrum Alliance, 40 CDUs from IIBA, 40 Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) based on Federal Acquisition Certification Continuous Professional Learning Requirements using Training and Education activities, 40 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from SAVE International, as well as 4.0 CEUs for other professions. (See workshop and Reference Manual descriptions for details.)
Want a free 10-minute break timer? Sign up for our once-monthly newsletter HERE and receive a free timer with four other of our favorite facilitation tools.
______
With Bookmarks no longer a feature in WordPress, we need to append the following for your benefit and reference
Terrence Metz, MBA, CSM, CSPF, PSP01, HTTO1, is the Managing Director of MG RUSH Facilitation Leadership, Training, and Meeting Design, an acknowledged leader in structured facilitation training, and author of “Meetings That Get Results – A Facilitator’s Guide to Building Better Meetings.” His FAST Facilitation Best Practices blog features nearly 300 articles on facilitation skills and tools aimed at helping others lead meetings that produce clear and actionable results. His clients include Agilists, Scrum teams, program and project managers, senior officers, and the business analyst community among numerous private and public companies and global corporations. As an undergraduate of Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) and an MBA graduate from NWU’s Kellogg School of Management, his professional experience has focused on process improvement and product development. He continually aspires to make it easier for others to succeed.
by Facilitation Expert | Nov 7, 2017 | Communication Skills, Facilitation Skills, Leadership Skills, Meeting Support
Successful leaders have one thing in common: Strong facilitation skills. What are the core facilitation skills (or, facilitator skills)? Which skills do you need to lead a successful meeting? Depending on who you ask, there may be:
- 6 Essential Facilitator Skills
- 9 Meeting Facilitation Skills
- 9 Facilitation Skill Competencies
- Top 11 Facilitator Skills
- and of course, many, many others
20,000+ hours of experience as facilitators and trainers of professional facilitators have taught us about one indispensable facilitation skill: the ability to remove distractions. Meeting leadership behavior can be guided by the simple question, “Is it a distraction, or not?” Subject matter experts will actively contribute when they all focus on the same thing, at the same time. Getting a group to focus provides a common challenge for any meeting leader.
We break down meeting effectiveness into three domain-general areas of skills. Each contains other, domain-specific skills. The three general areas include meeting leadership, facilitation, and meeting design—in that order. The mandala shows these primary skills. You provide other skills while confirming the group goal. Also, ensure that your people find the agenda acceptable.
Facilitation Skills
Core Facilitation Skills
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- Contacting and absorbing—noting both verbal and nonverbal behaviors
- Feedback—responding to participant’s contribution
- Clarifying—both expanding and focusing discussion
- Confirming—the validity of the content
- Challenging—meaning and assumptions
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- Assessing the current behavior—what are the risks, why they persist, what are environmental factors that may hinder progress
- Agreeing on goals for new behavior—what the new behavior will look like
- Forming a strategy for change—finding sources of support for speeding up the change
- Monitoring the success of new behaviors
- Feeding back to continuously improve the process
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Challenging
- Noting emotions, logic, and intuition in participants—being aware of their experience
- Describing and sharing beliefs
- Challenging opinions
- Managing—conflict
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Crisis intervention
- Appraising the nature and severity of the crisis
- Serving in a helpful way—helping to expand each participant’s vision of options, to mobilize each person’s sense of strength and coping
- Reinforcing actions—that which has been determined to be the answer to the crisis
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Leading
- Indirect—getting started (e.g., logistics)
- Direct—encouraging dialogue
- Focusing—limiting confusion and vagueness
- Questioning—guiding inquiries
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- Stating the problem/ issue and turning it into a goal statement
- Helping people express doubts or fears about why an idea “won’t work”
- Documenting options/ action plans
- Gathering information about resources, constraints, related goals or issues, etc.
- Helping them develop decision criteria
- Selecting a backup
- Archiving learning
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Reflecting
- Opinions and beliefs
- Experience and evidence
- Using content—repeating the main message for clarity
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Rhetoric (word choice)
- Parsimony—i.e., expressing the most with the least
- Language command—properly applying the parts of speech
- Capturing meaning in terms used and understood by the participants
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Summarizing
- Pulling themes together
- Reinforcing the big picture
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Supporting
- Creating a climate of trust and respect
- Aiding in a healing method that helps to counter any attacking forces
We break down each domain-general skill into domain-specific skills. Most of our blogs further explain each. Here we provide a simple listing.
Domain-specific Facilitation Skills
The domain-specific skills below have been sorted alphabetically, as opposed to frequency, importance, etc.
1. Meeting Leadership
1.1. Awareness of local culture, life cycle, and terminology
1.2. Consciousness of roles in meeting
1.3. Understanding the holarchy and reason for meeting
2. Group Facilitation
2.1. Active listening and reflecting rationale
2.2. Biases: challenging participants and questioning
2.3. Communications and rhetorical precision
2.4. Consensus building and shared ownership
2.5. Context versus content
2.6. Environmental control and real estate management
2.7. Ground rules and participant behavior
2.8. Group development and performance
2.9. Interventions: Managing conflict and distractions
2.10. Neutrality, non-verbal, and observation
2.11. Output capture and visual stimulation
2.12. Thinking styles and heuristics
3. Meeting Approach, Design, and Methodology
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- Agenda building and tool identification
- Constraints: ease, resources, and timing
- Continuous improvement and participant feedback
- Creativity and innovation
- Daily Scrum and Retrospectives
- Decision-making continuum
- Decision-matrix and decision quality testing
- Definitions, glossaries, and lexicons
- Distributed teams and virtual participation (e.g., video presence)
- Documenting
- Experience adapting and backup planning
- External resources
- Focus: Avoiding many to many
- Interviewing and participant preparation
- Introductory activities (e.g., icebreakers)
- Managing content while maintaining neutrality
- Meeting purpose, scope, deliverable
- Planning, analysis, and design approaches
- Preparation using an annotated agenda
- Prioritization options
- Problem-solving prototypes
- Risk assessment and measurement
- Scoping
- Scrubbing nouns and verbs and mitigating modifiers
- Tools selection and use (repeatability, scalability, and versatility) especially:
- Work breakdown structure and team charters
- Wrap or review activities (e.g., Parking Lot)
Why Do Facilitators with Skills Fail?
There remain a lot of talented facilitators who fail in their sessions. Poor meeting design explains the primary reason for meeting failures. Most groups want to show up, want to contribute, and want to do a good job—yet meetings frequently fail. Why? They don’t know how. Meeting design remains the secret to structured meetings.
A good facilitator could operate successfully in various environments and cultures. To be successful, they need the right agenda, method, and tools. Unfortunately, most organizations do not teach meeting design and the facilitator is forced to take on a role they are not trained to handle.
Our alumni know that we frequently compare facilitation skills and attributes to those of a Navy SEAL. We stress the importance of remaining invisible (ie, neutral), focusing externally (ie, NOT on one’s self), and embracing a strong sense of service to help others—to make it easy.
This is the first time we have recommended a hit in the face.
This extract derives from an article written by Chris Sajnog, a retired U.S. Navy SEAL Master Firearms Instructor and a Neural-Pathway Training Expert. For the entire article, turn your browser to Twelve Ways to Live Like a Navy SEAL.
Mr. Sajnog stresses freedom and independence to help others through collaboration and focus. Thank you Mr. Sajnog for your service, inspiring thoughts, and articulate words. Special thanks to Gr8fullsoul for his inspiring blogs, and pointing out Mr. Sajnog’s article.
Hit in the Face Traits
Use this list of traits found in a competent facilitator. Continue to the list of actions you can take to improve yourself.
- Active — You need to be moving, doing, or functioning at all times. Ideas and theories are great, but action gets things done.
- Brave — Brave doesn’t mean you aren’t afraid. It means YOU ARE, but you continue despite your fears.
- Confident — A warrior is sure of himself and has no uncertainty about his abilities.
- Decisive — Displaying no hesitation in battle is vital to survival.
- Disciplined — Once you have a plan and confidence you can fulfill it, and have the discipline required to stick with it.
- Loving — A warrior has confronted death and understands the value of life. Warriors whose lives are in balance are peaceful, unselfish, and compassionate of others. The love of others gives the warrior the energy to constantly train for battle and the strength to survive once he’s there.
- Loyal — A warrior needs direction, and that comes from being faithful to a cause, ideal, or group. Loyalty keeps you guided along your path.
- Patient — Having patience means bearing pains or trials calmly and without complaint.
- Skillful — Having the right mindset is vital, but learn a skill set to match.
- Strong — Have a determined will in all that you do. A strong mind can make up for a weak body, but not the other way around.
- Vigilant — You never know when danger is going to come knocking, and you need to be prepared to react appropriately.
Facilitator Actions
Thus, actions you can take to become a better facilitator include:
- Become a master at what you do. Everything in life is either worth doing well or it’s not worth doing at all.
- Embrace competition. Sign up for a race, a fight, or just challenge someone to arm wrestle. Prove that you’re better than someone else at something or work until you are.
- Find something you’re afraid of and go do it. Everyone has fears — warriors (facilitators) overcome them.
- Have a set of NUTs (Non-negotiable, Unalterable Terms) and live by them! Things you’re not willing to compromise in life, period.
- Start establishing routines and habits in everything you do. We are what we repeatedly do.
- Start practicing some form of martial arts — if you’ve never been hit in the face, go find out what it’s like.
- Work out. It doesn’t matter what you do. Breathe hard and sweat.
- Write down your goals and core values. If you don’t have a map for your life, how will you get where you want to go?
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Don’t ruin your career by hosting bad meetings. Sign up for a workshop or send this to someone who should. MGRUSH workshops focus on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities daily during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.
Our workshops also provide a superb way to earn up to 40 SEUs from the Scrum Alliance, 40 CDUs from IIBA, 40 Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) based on Federal Acquisition Certification Continuous Professional Learning Requirements using Training and Education activities, 40 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from SAVE International, as well as 4.0 CEUs for other professions. (See workshop and Reference Manual descriptions for details.)
Want a free 10-minute break timer? Sign up for our once-monthly newsletter HERE and receive a free timer along with four other of our favorite facilitation tools.
______
With Bookmarks no longer a feature in WordPress, we need to append the following for your benefit and reference
Terrence Metz, MBA, CSM, CSPF, PSP01, HTTO1, is the Managing Director of MG RUSH Facilitation Leadership, Training, and Meeting Design, an acknowledged leader in structured facilitation training, and author of “Meetings That Get Results – A Facilitator’s Guide to Building Better Meetings.” His FAST Facilitation Best Practices blog features nearly 300 articles on facilitation skills and tools aimed at helping others lead meetings that produce clear and actionable results. His clients include Agilists, Scrum teams, program and project managers, senior officers, and the business analyst community among numerous private and public companies and global corporations. As an undergraduate of Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) and an MBA graduate from NWU’s Kellogg School of Management, his professional experience has focused on process improvement and product development. He continually aspires to make it easier for others to succeed.
by Facilitation Expert | Oct 11, 2017 | Analysis Methods, Communication Skills, Facilitation Skills, Meeting Support
Alex Osborn, the driving force behind the concept of ‘brainstorming,’ shared a timeless message with public relations professionals in 1948 that remains just as relevant today. His message is especially pertinent now: while facts and scientific research can clarify public issues, evidence alone ‘cannot find solutions unless populated by new ideas.’[1] These ideas often emerge through public relations innovation.
Now, consider the democratic virtues of service, learning, and community building,[2] as outlined by Brian Aull, Ph.D., a professor at MIT. Public relations professionals have a unique opportunity to add significant value to these virtues, particularly in strengthening service and fostering community building within a democratic framework. narrow your scope of understanding to democratic virtues.
Innovating Public Relations to Enhance the Service of Others
Public Relations Innovation
Emotional understanding often holds more weight than intellectual understanding in typical community decision-making processes. As President Lincoln once observed,
“If you would win a man to your cause, first you convince him that you are his friend.”[3]
People don’t change their behavior based purely on facts, but on how those facts resonate with their personal experiences. For instance, most individuals aren’t truly afraid of heights—they’re afraid of falling, or more specifically, the impact of landing.
The greatest barrier to social progress is complacency. People resist change because they fear losing the things they’re attached to. Public relations professionals and other change agents can address this by emphasizing how old attachments can coexist with new ones, rather than framing the past and future as mutually exclusive. Integral thought, not separatism, becomes critical.
PR professionals should aim to simplify complex concepts for the public. Economic information often fails to resonate with the average person due to its complexity. Infusing more creativity and imagination into communication strategies could prevent the use of ineffective, uninspiring techniques. For instance, many organizational mission statements sound alike and fail to captivate or engage their audience. Seek the passion when you want to make an impact. Elmer Wheeler, a friend of Osborn’s developed the expression, “Sell the sizzle, not the steak.”
Community Building Requires Public Relations Innovation
Locally, many municipal challenges demand better solutions, including waste disposal, water access, and traffic safety. What often captivates the public, however, is unusual and unexpected behavior:
“. . . Buffalo safety authorities have dramatized the virtue of good driving. Instead of handing out summons, the police have been handing out flowers. On one evening, patrolmen William Collins and James Kelly ordered 25 drivers to the curb, then complimented them on their careful driving and handed them fresh orchids.”[4]
Internationally, how would one ‘sell’ America to the rest of the world? An overabundance of caution often stifles new ideas, yet innovation is desperately in need of a sponsor—particularly in regions like the Middle East. It is more ideas, not fewer, that will drive real impact. While this article does not explore ‘ideological weapons,’ it’s safe to say that greater imagination could hardly be less effective than many past efforts.
Since it’s unlikely that the federal government will establish a team of creative thinkers within the State Department, perhaps the professional PR community can step in as a transparent and effective surrogate. With Osborn’s encouragement:
“Maybe such a brainstorming group is a bit far-fetched; but, surely, we need somehow to put more creative power into our international salesmanship. We need more boldness. We need to look up to, not down on, audacity in ideas—just as we look up to audacity in armed conflict . . . If the armed forces need a General Staff to create our military strategies, don’t we need a creative group to pan our peace strategies?”[5] (italics are from the original author and source)
Who is better suited to think creatively about international strategies than the professional PR community?
Greater Public Relations Innovation Leads to Higher Quality Decisions
Recall the principles of The Wisdom of Crowds[6] and the logic behind it: groups are capable of generating more ideas collectively than the sum of their individual contributions. One person’s thought can spark an idea in someone else, leading to insights that might not have surfaced independently. This dynamic, often referred to as a ‘chain reaction,’ shows that both groups and individuals make higher-quality decisions when presented with a wider range of options.
When addressing national problems, it’s not necessarily the smartest individuals we need, but the most creative minds. So, what are some simple strategies to fuel the funnel of imagination and foster consensual ownership and shared responsibility for actions and next steps?
Use Specific, Detailed Questions to Spark Greater Idea Generation
More ideas foster solutions, especially when fighting problems proves ineffective—as it often does. Viable options emerge when they offer more attractive alternatives.
Asking the right questions accelerates the development of the best ideas. Broad, unanswerable questions like ‘How do you solve global hunger?’ won’t lead to actionable solutions. In contrast, more focused questions, such as ‘How can we improve food storage capacity in Somalia?’ can spark ideas that contribute to a larger solution.
In the world of processes, we might think of a simple equation like Y = f(X + X + x + x), where ‘Y’ is the outcome and ‘X’ and ‘x’ represent variables that contribute to it. To generate more ideas, it’s essential to focus on asking questions about the large ‘X’ or small ‘x’—the components of the process—rather than directly asking about the ‘Y,’ or the outcome itself. For example, instead of asking, ‘What is the marketing plan?’ it’s more productive to explore specific areas like segmentation, targeting, or positioning.
Some types of questions that inspire more detailed thinking—and that PR professionals might consider—include:
- Any unsuspected facts that can be brought to light? (Look at the opposite, reversal, and vice versa)
- How can the message or delivery be modified? (altered, changed, motion, sound)
- How can the seemingly disparate be combined? (combination, correlation, or synthesis)
- Laws of association that might include questions about:
- Contiguity or nearness,
- Contrast
- Similarity
- The query method suggests primary elementary school learning; namely:
- Why (important, necessary, or beneficial)
- Where (could, should, does) it occurs
- When should it occur
- Who (could, should, does) it
- What (could, should, does) need to occur
- How (could, should, does) it get accomplished or completed
- What can be borrowed or adapted to our needs? (illumination, inspiration, parallels)
- Where can we substitute? Or, rearrange? (interoperability, placement, sequence, surrogates, timing, transposition)
- What should be added, multiplied, or magnified? (dimensions, exaggeration, frequency)
- What should be subtracted, divided, or minified? (dimensions, exaggeration, frequency, understatement)
More Ideas, Less Judgment: Fueling Public Relations Innovation
More ideas are always better, so focus on capturing them without judgment or immediate discussion. This article isn’t about how to analyze ideas, but rather about the importance of capturing them first and analyzing them later.
Historically, early American settlers exhibited tremendous ingenuity—or faced the risk of starvation. Similarly, cultures that foster and inspire the most imagination will be the ones that thrive. The PR community can play a key role in driving that ingenuity by showcasing creativity and imagination, setting an example for the rest of the world. Encouraging creativity may not always be easy or natural, but remember: ‘only hard religions succeed.’[7] Similarly, generating imaginative ideas also requires perseverance and dedication.
[1] Osborn, Alex, “Your Creative Power—How to Use Imagination”, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1948, pg 308.
[2] Aull, Brian, “The Triad—Three Civic Virtues That Could Save American Democracy”, Amazon Digital Services LLC, 4th ed 2017, Preface.
[3] Osborn, pg 295.
[4] Ibid, pg 311.
[5] Ibid, pg 317.
[6] Surowiecki, James, “The Wisdom of Crowds”, Doubleday, New York, 2004.
[7] Dawson, W.J., “The Autobiography of a Mind”, Century Company, New York, 1925, pg 41.
______
Don’t ruin your career by hosting bad meetings. Sign up for a workshop or send this to someone who should. MGRUSH workshops focus on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities daily during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.
Our workshops also provide a superb way to earn up to 40 SEUs from the Scrum Alliance, 40 CDUs from IIBA, 40 Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) based on Federal Acquisition Certification Continuous Professional Learning Requirements using Training and Education activities, 40 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from SAVE International, as well as 4.0 CEUs for other professions. (See workshop and Reference Manual descriptions for details.)
Want a free 10-minute break timer? Sign up for our once-monthly newsletter HERE and receive a free timer along with four other of our favorite facilitation tools.
______
With Bookmarks no longer a feature in WordPress, we need to append the following for your benefit and reference
Terrence Metz, MBA, CSM, CSPF, PSP01, HTTO1, is the Managing Director of MG RUSH Facilitation Leadership, Training, and Meeting Design, an acknowledged leader in structured facilitation training, and author of “Meetings That Get Results – A Facilitator’s Guide to Building Better Meetings.” His FAST Facilitation Best Practices blog features nearly 300 articles on facilitation skills and tools aimed at helping others lead meetings that produce clear and actionable results. His clients include Agilists, Scrum teams, program and project managers, senior officers, and the business analyst community among numerous private and public companies and global corporations. As an undergraduate of Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) and an MBA graduate from NWU’s Kellogg School of Management, his professional experience has focused on process improvement and product development. He continually aspires to make it easier for others to succeed.
by Facilitation Expert | Oct 10, 2017 | Analysis Methods, Meeting Tools, Prioritizing, Prioritizing
Project portfolios focused on the best opportunities, and accelerate innovation. So how do you build consensus around the term “best”? George Day’s article[1] provides excellent logic to help you drive a consensual view of risk analysis.
“The risk analysis matrix employs a unique scoring system and calibration of risk. It helps estimate the probability of success or failure for each project based on how big a stretch it is for the firm.”
Risk analysis tells us that “best” is a function of something. The two main vectors identified by Day include the intended market (x-axis) and the product or technology (y-axis). The charts below show the ranges. Both axis range from “Same” to “New” to the company. Since each question to be asked (below) yields five points, the x-axis extends 30 points with six questions and the y-axis extends 35 points with seven questions.
We modified Day’s original questions that were biased toward product development. Therefore, while product development represents one type of project, we have expanded the rhetoric to embrace various project types. Modify the questions further and adapt them to your own situation.
The Risk Analysis Matrix
A project’s position on the matrix is determined by its score on a range of factors, such as how closely the behavior of intended customers will match existing customers (internal or external). Thus, consider how relevant the company’s brand or reputation may affect the intended market and how applicable its technology capabilities are to develop and provide life-cycle services.
Assessing Risk Analysis Across an Innovation Portfolio
Risk Analysis – Failure or Innovation?
Internal Positioning
Product/ Technology
Take Time To MODIFY
Providing a set of questions relevant to every reader requires broad and less meaningful phrasing. Therefore, take time to modify the questions above to reflect your personal environment, market conditions, and constraints. You might even expand or contract the number of questions to more fully embrace your project parameters and culture. Remember that the key to building consensus is getting a group of people to focus on the same thing at the same time. Additionally, never underestimate the value of sharp and appropriate questions to drive consensus.
Begin to interpret
A portfolio review team—typically consisting of senior managers with strategic oversight and authority over development budgets and allocations—conducts the evaluation, with input from each project’s development team. Team members may rate each project independently and then explain their rationale. Or, time permitting, conduct a facilitated workshop to build consensus around each factor and score.
Drive consensus by isolating reasons for any differences of opinion and appealing to evidence and your organizational holarchy. The determination of each score requires deep insights. The resulting scores serve as a project’s coordinates on the risk matrix. According to Day:
“When McDonald’s attempted to offer pizza, for example, it assumed that the new offering was closely adjacent to its existing ones, and thus targeted its usual customers. Under that assumption, pizza would be a familiar product for the present market and would appear in the bottom left of the risk matrix. But the project failed, and a postmortem showed that the launch had been fraught with risk: Because no one could figure out how to make and serve a pizza in 30 seconds or less, orders caused long backups, violating the McDonald’s service-delivery model. The postmortem also revealed that the company’s brand didn’t give “permission” to offer pizza. Even though its core fast-food customers were demographically similar to pizza lovers, their expectations about the McDonald’s experience didn’t include pizza.”
Once completed. . .
. . . the risk matrix typically reveals that:
- Organizations have more projects than they can manage well, and
- A majority of projects cluster in the bottom left quadrant of the matrix, and a minority skew toward the upper right, where impactful innovation occurs.
Expect an imbalance between incremental improvements and breakthrough innovation. Discounted cash flow analysis and other financial yardsticks for evaluating development projects are usually biased against the delayed payoffs and uncertainty inherent in massively innovative projects. Again from Day:
“What’s more, minor projects tend to drain R&D budgets as companies struggle to keep up with customers’ and salespeople’s demands for a continuous flow of incrementally improved products.”
The risk matrix provides a compelling and structured visual display to stimulate facilitated discussion. Professionally facilitate discussions and dialogue about the mix of projects and fit with strategy and risk tolerance. Next take a deeper dive into what we cover in our next article, on Real-Win-Worth (R-W-W). R-W-W develops a closer look at each project’s prospects and according to Day represents:
“ . . . a disciplined process that can be employed at multiple stages of product development to expose faulty assumptions, gaps in knowledge, and potential sources of risk, and to ensure that every avenue for improvement has been explored.”
______
Don’t ruin your career by hosting bad meetings. Sign up for a workshop or send this to someone who should. MGRUSH workshops focus on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities daily during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.
Our workshops also provide a superb way to earn up to 40 SEUs from the Scrum Alliance, 40 CDUs from IIBA, 40 Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) based on Federal Acquisition Certification Continuous Professional Learning Requirements using Training and Education activities, 40 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from SAVE International, as well as 4.0 CEUs for other professions. (See workshop and Reference Manual descriptions for details.)
Want a free 10-minute break timer? Sign up for our once-monthly newsletter HERE and receive a free timer along with four other of our favorite facilitation tools.
______
With Bookmarks no longer a feature in WordPress, we need to append the following for your benefit and reference
Terrence Metz, MBA, CSM, CSPF, PSP01, HTTO1, is the Managing Director of MG RUSH Facilitation Leadership, Training, and Meeting Design, an acknowledged leader in structured facilitation training, and author of “Meetings That Get Results – A Facilitator’s Guide to Building Better Meetings.” His FAST Facilitation Best Practices blog features nearly 300 articles on facilitation skills and tools aimed at helping others lead meetings that produce clear and actionable results. His clients include Agilists, Scrum teams, program and project managers, senior officers, and the business analyst community among numerous private and public companies and global corporations. As an undergraduate of Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) and an MBA graduate from NWU’s Kellogg School of Management, his professional experience has focused on process improvement and product development. He continually aspires to make it easier for others to succeed.
