Facilitating Crucial Conversations and the Dialogue Model
Numerous alumni have asked if we have read Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High, and so we did. Most of us do not take the time to read everything on our “Book List”. Therefore, please find our takeaways from Crucial...
A3 Project Questions and A3 Project Guide for Facilitation Activities
Here are some sequentially listed A3 project questions, modified from an A3 project approach. These questions serve as a litmus test for determining the overall health of a project. After the questions, you will find an A3 Project Facilitation...
Information is Physical — a brief review of James Gleick’s “The Information”
Information is physical. “To do anything requires energy. To specify what is done requires information.” -Seth Lloyd (2006) c/o James Gleick “The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood” released by First Vintage Books in March 2012, and written...
What is the Difference Between Mission and Vision?
Most people are confused about the difference between a mission and a vision. An MBA grad from a prestigious east-coast USA school told us that he "learned more about strategic planning in the past two hours than during my entire MBA curriculum."...
Remaining Neutral — Take Only Photographs, Leave Only Bubbles
Remaining neutral describes the single most important trait of an effective facilitator. As a YMCA-certified SCUBA diver, we heard "take only photographs and leave only bubbles." Likewise, an effective facilitator should take only participant...
Crashing Through Toward Improved Facilitation
The book "Crashing Through" by New York Times bestselling author Robert Kurson includes innumerable reflections about struggle, collaboration, and victory that also apply to the sphere of facilitation. Most importantly, the book emphasizes the...
Rhetorical Precision and Clear Communications — Stress Substance Over Style
Rhetorical precision suggests that words reflect meaning, much like illustrations, symbols, and numbers. Challenging the fixed meaning of words, our languages reflect dynamic qualities and change constantly. For example, today there are more than...
How to Facilitate Requirements Gathering and Prevent Omissions
When products or projects are accused of poor requirements gathering, the accusation is normally false. The requirements gathered are usually solid, but risk increases with additional costs because some of the requirements are missing....
Mastering Active Listening: 4 Essential Steps and 10 Tips for Interactive Communication
Active listening is a crucial skill for effective facilitation, coaching, and servant leadership. Highly skilled active listeners not only reflect and restate what the participant has shared, but more importantly, they also highlight why the...
Both Facilitator and Meeting Designer: Role of Session Leader
The Role of Session Leader You have a multitude of tasks to perform during the workshop. The success of the facilitator’s effort is dependent upon your skill, knowledge, and abilities as a session leader. The role of session leader includes both...
Promising Meetings Will Fail: Four Causes of Meeting Failures
Sometimes meetings that look promising before they begin, fail unexpectedly. Four primary causes of meeting failures deserve your attention. They sneak up on groups, ill-prepared to anticipate or mitigate them. Participants need your awareness...
Quiet People: 5 Ways to Increase Meeting Participation
A leopard cannot change their spots. In the same vein, you are never going to convert quiet people into extroverts who continuously contribute and dominate your meeting. There are, however, a few simple steps for you to increase the velocity and...
Facilitate Innovation By Using the Brainstorming Tool as Intended
To facilitate innovation for products or processes provides a significant life force and has become a strategic priority for most companies and organizations. An IBM poll of fifteen hundred CEOs identified creativity as the number one “leadership...
How to Facilitate Brainstorming: Ideation and Analysis
The term “brainstorming” is technically a gerund, a verb that wants to be a noun. A gerund implies more than one step or activity. Osborne's original Applied Imagination, also known as Brainstorming, relies on separate Ideation and Analysis...
Facilitate Meaning and Intent, Not Words
One of the toughest tasks of a facilitator is to relinquish judgment and fully seek the intent behind the terms used in meetings. Therefore, facilitate meaning, not words. Structured workshops support the information revolution (as opposed to the...
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