Changes in business and technology are occurring at a rapid pace while companies simultaneously fight to free themselves from the residual effects of the pandemic. Companies and teams must invest in innovation not only to stay ahead but to simply survive in today’s extremely fast-paced environment. Utilizing innovation exercises and innovation training can help create impactful, powerful results. 

A McKinsey study of over 200 organizations across industries found that 90% of surveyed executives said they anticipate the effects of COVID-19 to fundamentally alter how they conduct business in the next five years. 85% of executives said that they expect the pandemic will also impact their customers’ needs indefinitely. Innovation is the critical component companies need to heal from the current crisis, transcend its lasting effects, and adequately meet their customers’ needs.

“The truth is that there is no one ‘true path’ to innovation, no silver bullets and no shortcuts. There are, however, effective strategies that managers can pursue to dramatically increase their chances of success.” -Greg Satell, Mapping Innovation

In this article, we’ll explore five innovation exercises that you can incorporate with your team or organization to spur innovation and get creative juices flowing. There is no one way to approach innovation. Explore what methods work best for your team by applying these innovation exercises and strategies.

1. Group Brainstorming

This innovation exercise is great for getting the entire team involved, regardless of what project or role each team member has. Group brainstorming can take place in person using sticky notes and a whiteboard or wall or virtually for distributed teams using a virtual whiteboard tool like MURAL (and digital stickies). Have everyone write down any challenges they are facing on sticky notes and tape them to a wall or create them in a MURAL template. Next, everyone walks around the room and stops at each sticky note to add an idea with their own sticky note that can potentially solve that problem or challenge. For best results, have everyone write an idea on every sticky note and build upon what others said. This exercise increases productivity and creativity as employees have the chance to interact with individuals from different areas of expertise and perspectives, which helps spark new ideas to solve challenges. It also promotes full participation without anyone feeling self-conscious about sharing their ideas. 

2. Liberating Structures

Liberating Structures is a framework for facilitation that consists of 33 microstructures designed to build trust and enhance cooperation and communication between teammates. Incorporating Liberating Structures into in-person and remote team collaboration strengthens communication and improves attention management so you can do exceptional work as a team. When there is equal participation amongst the group, you get the best performance from everyone, i.e., you are able to create meaningful solutions together. Check out our library of Liberating Structures templates for MURAL and Miro.

3. Mind Maps

This innovation exercise can be done either alone or in a group setting. Start by writing a general idea in the middle of a blank piece of paper. From there, begin making connections that build off the main point and write them down. For example, if your idea or project is developing a mobile app, a connection that might branch out is Android vs. iOS. Continue building on each connection to generate a stream of new ideas. If you find your team is struggling to come up with connections, try to reframe the main idea and start a new mind map to get a new perspective. The output will be many new ideas to start working with.

4. R&D

Research and development is a series of innovation activities to develop new products and services or improve existing ones. This is a reverse version of Group Brainstorming (or standard innovation process). Instead of starting with problems and brainstorming solutions based on them, encourage your team first to examine the latest technological developments and then ideate their application to your organization’s challenges. This is the flow in many engineering industries, where technology comes first. The Design Sprint process is effective for exploring R&D and solving big challenges quickly. The 5-day structure allows you to align team members and key stakeholders to solve a problem, rapidly prototype and test potential solutions, avoid costly delays in the innovation process, as well as decrease the time to bring the idea to market. Learn more about how and when to incorporate a Desing Sprint into your innovation journey here

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5. Template Exercises

Exploring innovative ideas can be daunting. Where do you start? How do you bring an idea to fruition? We’ve created a library of interactive and customizable digital templates for you to use with your teams to ignite and accelerate innovation. The templates are created for MURAL and Miro, digital whiteboard tools that allow teams to work together async and in real-time in a shared space. Each template serves a different purpose in your innovation process. For example, the How to Remix Anything Template helps you vary your points of inspiration and approach to achieve a different outcome for an existing idea. The Beyond the Prototype Template helps you overcome roadblocks in innovation by navigating slumps and maintaining momentum. Explore the full library of free resources here.

Innovation is more important than ever for companies to stay relevant in today’s economy. Stay ahead of the curve by utilizing various innovation exercises and implementing innovation training to incorporate effective strategies for your team to succeed.

Want to learn more about innovation training?

We can help! Voltage Control offers a range of options for innovation training. We know that no two teams are alike. Companies are complex, with their own unique set of structures and company culture. That’s why we build and curate custom workshops to find solutions based on your team’s exact needs.

Voltage Control’s experts will guide you through your choice of experiential, interactive learning workshops and coaching sessions where individuals and teams learn and practice how to successfully apply the best of today’s innovation methodologies and facilitation techniques to any business challenge. Contact us if you want to learn more about innovation training, design sprints, or design thinking facilitation.

The post Innovation Exercises: 5 Ways to Spark Innovation in Your Team appeared first on Voltage Control.

Welcome to Magical Meetings Stories, a series where I chat with professional facilitators, meeting practitioners, leaders, and CEOs across industries about their meeting culture. We dive deep into a specific magical meeting they’ve run, including their approach to facilitation design, and their tips and tricks for running meetings where people thrive.

Today’s story is with Tricia Conyers, founder of Island Inspirations Ltd., remote work facilitator, and learning experience designer out of Trinidad and Tobago.

I spoke with Tricia about her Learning meeting, the reason behind it, and how she imagines her meeting changing in the future.

An Emergent Learning Space

Tricia first started this particular meeting several years ago as a monthly session designed for people moving to Trinidad from different countries. Dubbing her sessions the “Learning” meeting, she designs these gatherings to help businesses shift to a more human-centered mindset in the workplace. Tricia’s goal for her monthly meetings is to help her clients and their team learn from a diverse group of people and different perspectives.

Each month, Tricia makes an effort to further shape her client’s company culture by bringing people together to discuss and ideate around the year’s overarching arc as well as a singular monthly question. Though the meeting originally began as a day-long session, during COVID-19, the meetings transitioned to online-only with hour-long sessions each month. 

In Tricia’s efforts to encourage discourse and increase flexibility in her meetings, she relies on platforms that spark creativity to help explore the main questions. In addition to prioritizing experiential learning, Tricia aims to increase connectivity among her team members in these Learning sessions. 

Let’s take a closer look at Tricia’s process to learn what made this meeting magical.

The Meeting

In a Learning meeting, the main goal is to strengthen trust among team members and encourage an open-minded approach to learning.

Preparation

To set the tone for an effective learning experience, Tricia spends a significant amount of time on preparation. With the help of a small design team, Tricia shapes the year’s curriculum and the breakdown for the following months.

To prepare for a learning meeting, the facilitator will select the question by month and determine how participants will explore the monthly question throughout each meeting. 

In a Learning meeting, the facilitator will choose the following:

In this meeting, the facilitator will choose the following:

• Location: Held virtually on Zoom

• Participants:
  • 14 – 20 attendees
  • Facilitator
  • Tech host

Tools:

• Mural 
• Zoom
• Google Maps
• Jam Board
• Drawing apps

Deliverables:

• A stronger connection with team members
• An answer to the monthly question

As Tricia holds this meeting on a monthly basis, the participants change month to month. Typically, 15 – 20 people are part of this monthly meeting.

Plan the Workshop

• Length of time: One hour

Activities:

• Storyboarding
• Drawing

Agenda:

• Beginning
  • Introduce the concept
• Middle
  • Form breakout groups, pairs, or triads
• End
  • Reinforce the culture of connectedness
  • Identify next steps

Before the Meeting

Preparation

As the Learning meeting is a recurring, monthly session, the preparation begins with preparing a curriculum for the entire year. This curriculum centers around an overarching question that drives the process of learning and growth in an organization.

Tricia likes to split the preparation into short-, medium-, and long-term preparation. In the preparation for this particular meeting, Tricia focused on designing a structure or flow of the meeting that allows for constant discourse throughout the year. Based on the overarching question, Tricia breaks the rest of the meeting’s curriculum into various monthly topics that will further the overarching aims and encourage increased engagement amongst participants.

Tricia then works with her design team and tech host to make sure the Zoom meeting flows seamlessly with the apps and other software used.

Beginning

The facilitator begins the Learning meeting by asking everyone to embrace the space and to share their experiences. To encourage the free-flowing exchange of ideas, the facilitator asks participants to bring their best selves into the meeting and to see what emerges. 

At the beginning of each monthly session of a Learning meeting, Tricia sets the tone by considering questions such as:

• What is the cultural impact that we want to have? 
• How do we want to shape this? 
• What is it that we want to do for people? 
• What values of the organization does this reinforce?
•  How can we make sure that we bring that in?

In this Learning meeting, Tricia worked with team members from across North America with connection and learning as the main deliverables for the session. Though the preparation process is quite heavy-handed, Tricia likes to approach her meetings with a loose structure. This way, she can allow for more of the unexpected as she creates a culture of connectedness through open discussion and ideation.

While the Learning sessions differ from the structured setting of a traditional meeting, the main aim is to free participants from the confinements and expectations that come with following strict guidelines. 

“There’s a lot of flexibility in adapting and seeing where the group wants to go with this in terms of exploring and learning… Being able to respond to that has left the people who want more structure…feeling a bit uncomfortable… And I think they’ve had to learn to try and embrace that over the years.”

With the flexibility in the structure of the meeting comes growth and the ability to improve connection, communication, and understanding amongst team members.

Middle

The middle of the session opens the space even more to encourage increased ideation, more connectedness, and greater flexibility. The facilitator works to create an emergent learning space by forming breakout groups of two, three, or more people to encourage discussion and collaborative problem-solving. 

In this phase of the meeting, Tricia uses technology to support the free form ideation process. She encourages participants to focus on the cultural impact of their ideas as they work together. Using Software like Jam Board and drawing apps, she encourages participants to storyboard their thoughts and ideas. During this phase, Trica splits team members into groups of two, three, or more to encourage further discussion, foster deeper relationships, and center connections in the company culture.

While the monthly nature of this meeting is beneficial to strengthening connectedness, Tricia points out that it presents a potential risk that facilitators should keep in mind: 

“As new people join the business throughout the year, they come into these sessions without having some of the experience of what’s happened before…It means you have to think about…how do you constantly create an environment where they can feel welcomed into a conversation that in essence has already started.”

End

As the meeting comes to a close, the facilitator should assess if the deliverables are achieved. Facilitators can prepare participants for the next month’s discussion.   

Towards the end of the session, Tricia makes an effort to improve the meeting for the following months. With the overarching topic in mind, it’s important that she continues the same rhythm of creativity and innovation in the next sessions. Tricia points out that having a recurring session with the same participants throughout the year gives her the opportunity to refine her approach to facilitation:

“In a monthly meeting like this…there are 12 opportunities to make changes and to get it right…Or to keep changing things and to try and make it better each time.”

Shifting the Culture

Essentially, this Learning meeting is designed to create a culture of openness and connection among organizations on a regular basis. Going forward, Tricia may take the Learning meetings in an even more emergent direction. Instead of focusing on a learning session, Tricia hopes to create a learning council. Meeting participants will bring a challenge to the council that they explore as a group with a more human-centered problem-solving session as the main deliverable.

With the idea of fostering more emergent sessions in mind, Tricia shared what is successful about her current Learning meeting model. 

“The risk of the session is that you leave people feeling frustrated about the unexpected “emergent space” of the meeting… but things change and we actually allow for that immersion.”

“When we take time to think about how we want this meeting to help shape the culture of the organization, when we take time to frame it through that lens, and through that question, we can make really great things happen.
Meetings are when we bring people together, they’re when stories emerge and that’s when we help to shape the culture that people feel in the organization.”

Do you have your own Magical Meeting Story to tell?

We’d love to hear your wizardry! Share how you are creating magical moments in your work below.

The post The Learning Meeting appeared first on Voltage Control.

Welcome to Magical Meetings Stories, a series where I chat with professional facilitators, meeting practitioners, leaders, and CEOs across industries about their meeting culture. We dive deep into a specific magical meeting they’ve run, including their approach to facilitation design, and their tips and tricks for running meetings where people thrive. 

Today’s story is with Moe Ali, a facilitator, service designer, and creative human enabler based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

I spoke with Moe about the Balcony Bunch meeting, the reason behind it, and what risks he encountered. 

A Meeting in Motion

Moe started the Balcony Bunch as a meeting designed to connect otherwise disconnected creatives in Dubai. The idea for this meeting is that it starts as a guided walk through the streets and parks, ending where attendees sit at a balcony for the rest of the meeting. 

Moe was inspired by The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker to create a meeting that would establish deeper roots with his fellow creatives. The Art of Gathering teaches facilitators how to create high-powered gatherings that move beyond the mundane to meetings that matter. 

Moe created the Balcony Bunch for creatives living in Dubai for longer than ten years as a way to grow deeper relationships. In Dubai, building relationships that span months or years is incredibly challenging due to the city’s transitory nature. Moe discovered that many creatives were no longer incentivized to meet new people so he designed the Balcony Bunch as an opportunity to soften hearts and awaken minds to true community. 

Let’s take a closer look at Moe’s process to learn what made this meeting magical.

The Meeting

In a Balcony Bunch meeting, the main goal is to generate trust and build real connections and genuine relationships by breaking the superficial barriers of roles and titles by asking participants “How do you do?” rather than “What do you do?”

Preparation Guidelines

• No phone calls, no data 
• Understand the prompts beforehand
• Wear comfortable walking shoes

In this meeting, the facilitator will choose the following:

• Location: Held outdoors 

• Participants: Eight people hoping to deepen their relationships
• Supplies: Food and drinks for the balcony

Tools:

• Google docs
• Text messages
• Google Maps

Deliverables:

• Deeper relationships between like-minded people
• Shared empathy amongst participants

In this particular meeting, Moe invited eight like-minded creatives that had been living in Dubai for 10 years or more.

Plan the Workshop

• Length of time: Approximately two hours

Activities:

• Finding the location
• Meditation and visualization
• Following the guided path
• Popcorn style discussion

Agenda:

• The Location
  • Meditation and visualization
    
• The First Prompt (Past)
  • Walking conversation 
  • Debriefing
    
• Reconvening
  • Debriefing

• The Second Prompt (Future)
• Debriefing

Before the Meeting

The facilitator may contact the participants ahead of time to set the tone for the meeting. Moe asked questions such as:

• Who would you like to attend? 
• What would you like them to walk away with? 
• What would make you happy? 

These prompts help attendees keep in mind that they’re participating in someone else’s happiness and helping them walk away with something of value.

The Location

Location plays a large role in the Balcony Bunch. Having the location be part of the meeting gives the attendees a sense of purpose and curiosity.

In Moe’s session, he sends participants a location via Google Maps where they all gather to meet. Before starting the meeting, he asks participants to sit in silence as they meditate by a fountain. At this time, a breathing exercise serves as a meditative and mindful practice while the others arrived. 

Once all participants arrived, Moe asked them to visualize everything they had experienced in the past year. After the brief visualization, Moe paired everyone up to begin the walking phase of the meeting.  

The First Prompt

Participants begin their walking conversations as they answer the first prompt, discussing what they experienced in the past year. The guided path serves as a way for participants to focus completely on their partner’s answers. As the facilitator leads the way, participants discuss the prompt from the first phase and recount the experiences from the last year.

In the walking conversation, Moe encouraged participants to move beyond discussing roles. 

“I always feel that the worst way to get people to talk to each other is by introducing work, or labels related to the work that people do because people always end up talking about the things that excite them if given the chance.”

By having participants share their experiences from the past year, they were able to “widen the net” and have a truly human experience.

Reconvening

In a secluded area like a balcony or a garden, the facilitator brings the pairs back together to reconvene and find patterns in their experiences over food and drinks.

In Moe’s meeting, he walked his group to a secluded garden area, near a reflecting pool. Moe used water throughout his meeting as a point of inflection and reflection as he asked participants what they noticed on their walk.

Participants shared what they discussed in a popcorn-style conversation while Moe weaved each person’s responses into other attendees’ answers. Moe noted who would perk up and show empathy in their body language and facial expressions as patterns emerged within each person’s story.

The Second Prompt

The second prompt acts as a way to bond two people in their shared vulnerability. After the first conversation closes, the facilitator introduces the second prompt with questions like:

• What are you looking forward to creating over the coming year?
• What do you want to invite?
• What are you moving towards that you would like to bring into being this year?

After sharing these questions with the group, Moe paired partners that showed the most empathy to each other’s stories. The goal of this pairing was to allow each person in the conversation to feel heard and seen. 

As each partner showed some level of empathy for the other, answering questions about their hopes and goals for the future was an effective way to create an incredible bond in just a few hours. As Moe shares, “The ties that bind were fairly thin. However, they got thicker by the end of the evening. And I think what was unique about this. Strangers coming together and within that hour and a half, they were relating to each other in a way that they hadn’t before.”

Lighting a Cerebral Fire 

The Balcony Bunch serves as an unconventional meeting that taps into the magic of human emotion and shared experiences. Having a meeting in motion allows for a certain physicality that helps participants get out of their heads and into the moment. 

Likewise, by negating the roles and work responsibilities of each person, attendees can see the humanity in one another, allowing for a level of vulnerability usually not seen in the workplace.

When asked about the potential pitfalls of this meeting style, Moe pointed out that running this type of session may be too risky for a typical work environment. To truly create this type of meeting with the potential pitfalls in mind, it’s important to find the space between the high risk, high reward setting of a retreat and the laid-back familiar environment of a post-work mixer. 

By finding the space in between, facilitators can create an intentional environment that encourages authentic connection. Though this space is hard to navigate, Moe believes it’s worth the risk:

“Now, keep in mind, I’ve only done this a few times. I haven’t done it in a way that I’ve been able to track any sort of metrics. The only metric I have is the sentiment from the people. If I were to ask them now three years later about this meeting, they’d be like, “Oh yeah, I remember the Balcony Bunch. Yeah, that was great.”

Do you have your own Magical Meeting Story to tell?

We’d love to hear your wizardry! Share how you are creating magical moments in your work below.

The post The Balcony Bunch appeared first on Voltage Control.

Welcome to Magical Meetings Stories, a series where I chat with professional facilitators, meeting practitioners, leaders, and CEOs across industries about their meeting culture. We dive deep into a specific magical meeting they’ve run, including their approach to facilitation design, and their tips and tricks for running meetings where people thrive. 

Today’s story is with David Plouffe, a heritage planner from Calgary, Canada. David has worked for the city of Vancouver and Calgary at various levels of public service for the past 23 years. 

I spoke with David about What is Delight and Why We Should Care, the reason behind it, and what he is most proud of. 

Chasing Delight

In February 2021, David got the idea to start a Mug Club that centers delight. The initial inspiration came from the NPR program, This American Life, and Ross Gay’s series of essays, The Book of Delights. The essays are essentially a study of joy on how we can be kinder to each other. The book features the small joys most of us overlook as we get lost in the stress and routines of our daily lives. 

In public service, kindness and joy go a long way. While the work of a public servant can be taxing, David was determined to discover what brings those in his field delight and joy and how to engender more delight in public service. Essentially, this delight-centered Mug Club seeks to pull the extraordinary out of the ordinary. 

To center delight in these meetings, David focuses on two questions:

• How do we bring delight into the work that we do?
• Why should we care that we bring delight to the 1.3 million citizens of Calgary?

Let’s take a closer look at David’s process to learn what made this meeting magical.

The Meeting

In a What is Delight and Why Should We Care meeting, the main goal is to develop a “delight” muscle: to find delight and joy in the public service profession and identify why participants should care to do so. 

Preparation

One month before:

The facilitator and the tech team work together to formulate the structure and flow of activities for the upcoming meeting. The goal is to create a shared language and identify questions that facilitate a conversation about delight in the public service sphere.

One week before:

The facilitator sends three articles and related questions to encourage a common language amongst participants. 

Guidelines:

• No recordings 
• Read articles a week before the meeting

In this meeting, the facilitator will choose the following:

• Location:  Held virtually
• Participants: Any member of the team can participate
• Tech support: To ensure the virtual meeting is flawlessly executed

Tools:

•  Microsoft Teams

Deliverables:

• Open and vulnerable conversation
• Identifying how delight surfaces in public service and how it impacts the community

In a What is Delight and Why Should We Care session, David opens the invitation to all 16,000 people that work for the City of Calgary. Anyone can participate, whether it’s someone in senior leadership or a first-year new employee. In this particular meeting, 30 to 40 people participated, most of which were in middle management from various departments. 

Plan the Workshop:

• Length of time: 50 minutes (8:05 am – 8:55 am)

Activities:

• Answer prompts pulled from articles 
• Share stories around delight
• Use the “chat” feature to share links, gifs, and memes

Agenda:

• Opening
  • Discuss three “delight” articles
  • Prompt discussion with two-three questions

• Middle/Divergence
  • Identify a common purpose
  • Identify similarities/differences around delight

• End/Convergence
  • Consider the larger audience
  • Delightful ideation: identify ways to continue the conversation around delight

Before the Opening

15 minutes before the meeting starts, David suggests the facilitator practice meditative breathing. This helps the facilitator prepare to host an engaging session. 

Opening

The initial goal of a What is Delight and Why Should We Care meeting is to create a shared language around delight. The facilitator kickstarts the discussion with two or three questions related to the required reading. 

David invites all City of Calgary employees to participate and focus on big picture issues, welcoming individuals from different workgroups with various levels of expertise to join. David encourages participants to brainstorm on how they can improve the city as public servants by centering joy and delight. In these sessions, topics such as paving the roads, setting recreation programs, and similar issues are addressed. 

David finds that the participants of his monthly What is Delight meetings are excited to speak with each other and share their thoughts:

“People are energized. They’re maybe even pent up, that they’re wanting to express their ideas, their thoughts, to ask questions, to see people that they might not have seen all month.”

As David facilitates, he works alongside one other person that pays attention to all tech concerns, such as observing what happens on the chat, noting related questions, monitoring the expressions and hands up, and providing general tech support.

Middle/Divergence

Towards the middle of the meeting, the facilitator identifies a common purpose amongst participants. Guests share their ideas of delight and identify similarities and differences.

David encourages active listening as the participants answer the titular questions, “What is delight?” and “Why should we care?” During this phase of the meeting, participants are encouraged to be vulnerable and share new ways of looking at delight. 

Flexibility is a key component during this phase as participants explore the big picture around the idea of delight and how it shows up in public service. At this point, guests may use the chat function in Microsoft Teams to share gifs, post links, and use memes to convey ideas. 

End/Convergence

As the meeting comes to a close, the facilitator will encourage the participants to consider ways to carry delight to their larger audience. This stage consists of ideating ways to keep delight at the center of their focus outside of the meetings.

David ends the What is Delight sessions by encouraging participants to continue the conversation around delight to their audience of stakeholders, community activists, and colleagues. In February 2021, the What is Delight session culminated in the creation of a new “Delight Experiment” Teams channel to further conversation. 

Though the Delight Experiment was designed for one month, it’s still running eight months later. This delight channel serves as a way for the city employees to center delight in their personal and professional lives, prompting over 80 people to continue the conversation in between each What is Delight session. 

The Delight Experiment

Balance, flexibility, and vulnerability are key components of the What is Delight and Why Should We Care meetings. David notes that pairing the three-part structure of the meeting with the freeform ideation phase allows for vulnerability and meaningful conversation amongst participants.

As the meetings continue, David hopes that more of the senior leadership team will enter this conversation. The invitation to the What is Delight meetings are open to all, and he hopes those further up in leadership will join in in the near future. 

In David’s effort to answer What is Delight and Why Should We Care through his monthly Mug Club, he discovered the joy in centering delight daily. In his efforts to stimulate the ongoing search for delight in the public service sphere, David is most proud of the Delight Experiment channel as it is still going strong. 

“A single meeting around the idea, ‘What is delight?’, has prompted over 80 people to continue the conversation every day about what brings them delight, why we should care, and how we bring delight into the public service, and that helps us as the citizens of Calgary.”

Do you have your own Magical Meeting Story to tell?

We’d love to hear your wizardry! Share how you are creating magical moments in your work below.

The post What Is Delight and Why Should We Care appeared first on Voltage Control.

Welcome to Magical Meetings Stories, a series where I chat with professional facilitators, meeting practitioners, leaders, and CEOs across industries about their meeting culture. We dive deep into a specific magical meeting they’ve run, including their approach to facilitation design, and their tips and tricks for running meetings people thrive in. 

Today’s story is with Jackie Colburn, a design sprint facilitator and independent consultant out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. After six years of working in strategy and client leadership at GoKart Labs, Jackie founded her own Design Sprint practice in 2017. Jackie champions the design process in everything she does and is fond of activities that center storytelling as a vehicle for human emotion.

Jackie works with clients to design an environment that facilitates creativity, collaboration, and symbiotic relationships in the workplace. In her practice, Jackie loves to step in when teams are ready to make the change, but aren’t sure what the way forward looks like. Through optimism and openness, Jackie brings teams through the hurdle of miscommunication and damaged dynamics to realize their true potential.

I spoke with Jackie about her Teaming meeting, the reason behind it, and what she would do differently.

A Time for Teaming

Part of Jackie’s facilitation success comes from identifying the perfect time for a Teaming session, as was the case with her client, a sports company amidst transition. In this particular meeting, Jackie’s client experienced two major events: a newly appointed CEO and the recent acquisition of another company. Jackie put together a strategy designed to ease her client out of their current ambiguity and to identify a clearer path towards the future. 

In this time of change, Jackie discovered that the CEO and the founder were both open to creative problem-solving. Jackie shares that both the CEO and the founder “were aware that they had a problem and then they were willing to say, ‘We need help solving this problem.’”

Let’s take a closer look at Jackie’s process to learn what made this meeting magical.

The Meeting

While most of Jackie’s clients bring her in to facilitate a design sprint, this Teaming session was different. To unify the leadership team, Jackie used the following guidelines for her workshop:

Guidelines

Gather office supplies for organization and note-taking:

• Trust the process
• No tech
• Empathy for one another 
• Use “Yes, and” statements

In a Teaming meeting, the facilitator will choose the:

Materials:

• Basket for the “tech check”
• Post-it notes in various sizes
• Timer

Jackie recommends a team of seven people for a successful Teaming session. Jackie’s team included the founder, CRO, new CEO, head of marketing, head of product, founder of the newly acquired company, and CFO.

Plan the Workshop:

• Length of time: 7 hours (10 am – 5 pm)

Activities:

• Issues List: keep, kill, combine
• Storyboarding
• Gain/Pain deep dives
• Sailboat activity (AJ&Smart)
• Action planning

Agenda:

• Grounding
  • Icebreaker
  • Guidelines
  • Tech check

• Opening
  • Introductions 
  • Issues list
    
• Storytelling
  • Storyboarding
  • Gains/Pains
  • Issues list review

• Strategic Plan Review
  • Intro from CEO
  • Team feedback: “I like, I wish, I wonder”
  • Issues list review

• From Issue to Action
  • Sailboat (AJ&Smart)
  • Action Planning

• Closing

Exercises: Grounding

In the grounding phase of a Teaming session, the facilitator reviews the day’s itinerary, identifies the intent of the session, and asks why each participant is there. 

As Jackie’s client experienced chaos amidst the changing leadership positions and the company integration, it was important for her to start the meeting with trust and empathy at the forefront. Jackie led the team with a check-in and asked participants to share the last emoji they used before requesting that everyone place their phone into the basket. Following the check-in, Jackie shared her “people-first” mentality to encourage each participant to see past their roles in the company.

Exercises: Opening

The opening phase of a Teaming session gives both the founders, CEO, and other participants the opportunity to introduce themselves and zero in on the day-long workshop.

During the opening of Jackie’s meeting, the CEO and Founder gave a brief company history and insights of what they observed within the company, as well as outcomes they hoped to reach during the session.

After the initial intro, the rest of the team introduced themselves and shared about their personal and professional bests from the last six months and what they were hoping to get out of the experience, as well as what was working, and what wasn’t. 

Exercises: Storytelling

In this phase of the meeting, the facilitator uses storytelling to encourage authenticity from the workshop participants. 

In her session, Jackie asked participants to storyboard “What’s happened for me over the past six months?”, as well as part of their story that offered the most gain and the most pain. 

During this exercise, each person noted something they did that made the moment a “gain” and what they did that made the moment challenging. Through the storyboarding process, team members also challenged each other by noting ways the other person might make a future challenge less painful.  

Through the storytelling exercises, Jackie kickstarted the cross-team discussion that is the heart of the Teaming process. 

“We had the storyboards up on the wall and looked at one another’s stories and spoke to one another across the team. It was good, it was one of those moments where I felt like, ‘Yay, it’s working.’”

Exercises: Strategic Plan Review

Following the lunch break, the CEO reviews the strategic plan, and the team offers feedback.

In this particular meeting, Jackie encouraged the team members to use “I like, I wish, I wonder” statements to share feedback on the strategic plan. The team then reviewed the issues list again to consider new issues and agree on the most important two.

Exercises: From Issue to Action

During this phase, the facilitator uses the sailboat activity to discuss the top two issues.

Jackie drew a boat as team members identified what pushed the boat forward or held it back in relation to each issue. The team then decided on “to-solves”, reframed them as “how might we” questions, and focused on idea generation. This was followed by an action planning step where each team member identified the top five actions they wanted to take as well as one action they wanted another member to take. 

When asked how she might improve the meeting, Jackie noted that she would have ended the meeting earlier. With such a packed agenda, Jackie shared that the action planning step might have been more productive as a separate meeting.

Exercises: Closing

The CEO and Founder shared their thank yous as the session ended. Team members shared their intentions and closings.

Exercises: Teaming with the Intention of Healing

While it isn’t always easy to identify the right solution to a problem, it’s painfully clear when something isn’t working. However, it is in this setting that Jackie thrives.

“I would say this is the type of session I would run during a moment of transition or if the team feels like their health is suffering. That’s why I liked the name Teaming or Gelling, it felt more like a group therapy workshop but with the intention of healing and working better together.”

Teaming puts a team’s EQ at the forefront, with transparency as the main priority. Through these sessions, Jackie strips each team down to their authentic selves, encouraging members to share their successes, and losses as they prioritize open communication above all. This vulnerability Jackie achieves through her Teaming sessions is what makes these meetings so magical: 

“I’m proud that the team was able… to show up, and not just sugarcoat or talk around the issues, we really got into the issues. I know that they felt like it impacted the health of the team moving forward.”

Do you have your own Magical Meeting Story to tell?

We’d love to hear your wizardry! Share how you are creating magical moments in your work below.

The post Teaming appeared first on Voltage Control.

Welcome to Magical Meetings Stories, a series where I chat with professional facilitators, meeting practitioners, leaders, and CEOs across industries about their meeting culture. We dive deep into a specific magical meeting they’ve run, including their approach to facilitation design, and their tips and tricks for running meetings people thrive in. 

Today’s story is with Dr. Myriam Hadnes, connector, behavioral economist, and facilitator from Amsterdam, Netherlands. Passionate about creativity and human behavior, Myriam facilitates business and team workshops with a focus on helping meeting participants “get out of their own way”. 

Myriam is well versed in the art of connecting and leading game-changing meetings as she is the creator of the podcast Workshops Work, founder and curator of NeverDoneBefore, and project facilitator at European Investment Bank (EIB).

With an emphasis on helping meeting members build stronger networks and share knowledge, Myriam is passionate about leading meetings that cut to the heart of the matter and enrich each participant with passion and purpose.

I spoke with Myriam about a meeting template she calls “Project Kickoff”,  the reason behind this meeting, what it accomplished, and where the magic happens.

Finding That Magic Moment

The Project Kickoff is a specific meeting template Myriam uses to connect a team or department as they gear up for an upcoming venture. In my conversation with Myriam, we discuss a Project Kickoff meeting held before the start of a European summer school as they prepared to host 70 students for 10 days.

With Project Kickoff sessions, as with any meeting Myriam hosts, she aims to find the magic moment of any workshop: the moment each team member finds their reason to be there and the motivation to keep going. 

As each participant prepares for the project ahead, this meeting serves as a way to encourage them to work as hard and learn as much as possible heading into a week of unexpected challenges. 

The Meeting Preparation

Before the meeting begins, Myriam identifies the goal and prepares to get participating team members on the same page. Following the Project Kickoff template, the meeting facilitator will choose the following:

• Location: The location should provide space for team members to break out into groups of two or three 

• Setup: The meeting should begin with the chairs arranged in a circle and enough wall space to cluster sticky notes

• Participants: Invitations should be sent to a diverse group of staff that are the most instrumental in executing the upcoming event or project 

Materials

Gather office supplies for organization and note-taking:

• Sharpies
• A4 paper
• M&M’s

Myriam recommends limiting the team to six people for a more focused session. In the summer camp Project Kickoff, Myriam’s team included individuals from various departments such as advisory, finance, and operations. 

Plan the Workshop:

• Length of time: 90- minutes
• Day: Generally a weekday excluding Monday or Friday

Software: SessionLab

Schedule:

• Icebreaker
• Check-In
• Breakout Group
• Check-Out 

Exercise:

At the start of this 90-minute Kickoff session, Myriam led with an icebreaker to help tackle nerves and get the creativity going, passing out M&Ms as a snack. The question, “If you had a superpower what would it be?” helped to break down the barriers and hierarchy of all team members involved.

Following the icebreaker, each individual took two minutes to share who they were and why they were there. This way, everyone understood they were working on the same project, even if their backgrounds and roles were different. The rest of the check-in served to get the entire team on the same page as they geared up for a week of intense focus, hard work, and unexpected challenges.

Myriam’s approach to facilitation prioritizes organization and orderliness.

“If unstructured, it’s quite easy to lose yourself in the details without bringing the meeting back together… For me actually, a meeting is successful if the people leave with a better understanding and less confusion than when they walked in,” Myriam said.

The Breakout Group

With a team of six engaged and energized individuals, the meeting shifts into the breakout portion. 

Identify Needs, Problems, and Roles

The team splits into groups of two or three to identify potential needs, problems, and roles the upcoming project or event will require of them.

In the meeting, Myriam considers the issues the team would face throughout a week of summer camp. Questions like “Who will handle the logistics in the event of missing equipment?” and “How can the staff make sure each camper had a meaningful experience?” are addressed.

Activity: Matching Talents to Roles

These discussions segued into identifying roles that needed to be filled, such as someone responsible for managing the sound equipment and another individual responsible for connecting with the campers. 

With the roles identified, Myriam encouraged each team to create a list of hidden passions and talents. This process served to help each team member connect with their “why”, allowing them to feel like a valued member of the group and giving them a clear responsibility to fulfill when the time came. 

During this activity, each participant notes their primary and secondary roles on a sheet of paper. As a way to encourage connectivity and teamwork in the groups, each individual’s primary role is something they struggle with, allowing them the opportunity to evolve and strengthen their talents.

The Check-Out

A Tech Retro is for and by developers. While pair-programming is essentially continuous code review, it can still be useful to take some time to step back and look at the codebase. Tech Retros often take the traditional “Smiley / Frownie / Meh” format but focus exclusively on the codebase. This is a great time to talk about modeling Similar to the check-in meeting, the check-out brings the group of six back together, wrapping up by giving each team member homework. In her story, Myriam began the check-out by asking questions like, “What are the biggest challenges we face?” and “What are some risks to prepare for?” Myriam gave the team homework to fill their roles with more “meat” as they prepared for their new responsibilities. 

Breaking the Barriers to Problem Solving

Myriam explains that the success of her Project Kickoff meetings lies in the meeting’s transformative power to break the ice, break down barriers, and eliminate anxiety and stress. Thus, creating an open-minded, creative team that is ready to face whatever lies ahead.

As the Project Kickoff meeting gives each person a mission and passion, Myriam hopes to eliminate fear, doubt, and anxiety with each check-in and check-out.

Explaining the power in identifying roles, Myriam shares,

“They walked in as a group of strangers, kind of being maybe intimidated and stressed or, “What will happen? Am I good enough? How will I know what I have to do?” Walking out with new friends and the confidence that now they have their own little thing that they’re responsible about.”

The Power of Six

In any meeting filled with participants pulled from every department, Myriam warns of the risk of creating hierarchies. In her Project Kickoff meetings, she aimed to level the field, no matter the individual’s academic or professional background. 

I ask Myriam what improvements she would like to make going forward and she shares that she would urge her clients to make the check-ins and check-outs a regular part of their department meetings. As her clients experience tremendous success by applying her Project Kickoff template to specific projects and events, she has no doubt applying this method to daily operations would yield successful results as well.

Wrapping up our conversation, I asked Myriam what her favorite part of the Project Kickoff template is. “The power of it”, she shared, “that six people gained confidence and buy-in.”

Do you have your own Magical Meeting Story to tell?

We’d love to hear your wizardry! Share how you are creating magical moments in your work below.

The post Project Kickoff appeared first on Voltage Control.

Welcome to Magical Meetings Stories, a series where I chat with professional facilitators, meeting practitioners, leaders, and CEOs across industries about their meeting culture. We dive deep into a specific magical meeting they’ve run, including their approach to facilitation design, and their tips and tricks for running meetings people thrive in. 

Today’s story is with Petra Wille, an independent product leadership coach and author of Strong Product People: A Complete Guide to Developing Great Product Managers who has been helping product teams boost their skill sets and up their game since 2013. Alongside her freelance work, Petra co-organizes and curates Mind the Product Engage Hamburg, Germany. 

“There’s a saying from the world of coaching: ‘You can’t push the car you’re sitting in.’ It’s the same principle – if, as a product manager, you spot patterns emerging before everyone else, it’s because you’re not really a part of the team. And that’s an advantage you should put to good use.” -Petra Wille

I spoke with Petra about a meeting she designed called Team Radar, the purpose of the meeting, what it helped accomplish, and why it was so powerful.

Showing is Better than Telling

Team Radar was originally prompted when Petra realized she was missing some of the tools and meeting structures she needed to be an effective lateral leader to her product development team. She was searching for a structure that could help her surface topics in a retrospective without dictating the group discussion or directly providing her recommended solution or ideal outcome. Rather, she wanted a way to have the team working on the project or deliverables be able to discuss and ideate, as the direct team can usually come up with workable solutions that work best for them. She wanted to provide the framework to productively discuss and show them that they could figure out the problem on their own, rather than her simply telling them a solution.

“You know that moment when you realize that something is not quite right in the team? Often you think you know straight away what needs improvement, but for some reason, the team can’t see what you’re seeing. What’s wrong with them? It’s so obvious!

There’s nothing wrong with them. There’s a saying from the world of coaching: ‘You can’t push the car you’re sitting in.’ It’s the same principle – if, as a product manager, you spot patterns emerging before everyone else, it’s because you’re not really a part of the team. And that’s an advantage you should put to good use.” -Petra Wille

Petra explained an Agile coach recommended she utilize a spider web graphic with eight axes, with labels for each “leg” (or axis) and a scale (1-7) for each of the axes. Each axis represents a topic to be discussed in the meeting as shown in the example below: 

This structure helps Petra set up some of the topics to have the team discuss them, but then also gives her a chance to observe their take on them rather than her influencing the discussion or decisions. “I was on the lookout for a facilitation method to actually bring this conversation up without me telling them what to do because there was no right or wrong. I was fine with either way, but I wanted them to discuss it to avoid this tension building up,” she said.

Petra has used the Team Radar meeting with various teams she’s coached and worked with. She explained that the meeting purpose varies depending on the specific team situation she’s working with, but that it is fundamentally designed around gaining alignment, understanding, and clarity. “The purpose of this meeting is that a team of people discusses several topics and that somebody else sees what’s in it for them. So, do they consider it a problem? Do they think they’re doing fine and it’s not something we need to tackle now? It’s a management tool, actually, more or less.”

Let’s take a closer look at Petra’s process to learn what made this meeting magical.

The Meeting

Pre-Meeting Prep

Petra’s outline for how to prepare for the Team Radar retrospective meetings:

1. The meeting leader or facilitator should plan the Team Radar graphic and topics beforehand on a flip chart – this way, it can be hung up afterward for reference (if you’re in a physical office with the team). Alternatively, more advanced teams can decide on the topics during the meeting. If the meeting is being held virtually, MURAL or Miro (virtual whiteboard collaboration tools) can be utilized instead
2. Bring pens and Post-Its in four different colors (if holding the meeting in person).
3. The leader, moderator or facilitator should also put some thought into how they want to open up and introduce the meeting. This is where they set the stage for the meeting.
4. Ensure to send a calendar invite blocking off enough time. Petra recommends 2 hours for an 8 axes exercise, or 1 hour for 4 axes.
5. If you’re having the meeting in an office, book a room with plenty of wall space for all those Post-It notes!

Exercise 

Petra recommends holding the Team Radar meeting once a quarter, depending on team needs, with no more than 10 people in attendance (but also depending on team needs and team size). Attendees are typically made up of a cross-functional group or the delivery team, including product managers, engineers, and designers. The meetings can be held in-person or virtually, and are typically structured in the following way:

1. The moderator or facilitator starts by introducing the meeting and setting the stage (as mentioned above).
2. Then they’ll take the team through the Team Radar infographic–either on the flip chart, a whiteboard, or virtual collaboration tool if the meeting is being held remotely. The facilitator should plan to cover the following:
   • Why were the listed topics chosen? Context should be given around reasoning. If the team is more advanced, the topics can be agreed upon by everyone together during this step instead.
   • Ask the team to assign and agree on a rating (1-7) for each topic. Ratings could be confidence level in the topic, future outlook, etc. This will vary by team and organization, and should be defined and communicated by the facilitator. Note: Don’t spend more than 10 minutes on each axis.
   • Decide who will write notes on the Post-Its. Petra recommends utilizing the different colors for organizational purposes, such as blue for positive comments and pink for negative.
3. Next, the team discussion occurs, starting with the first axis and working through all eight, topic by topic, rating by rating.
4. Once all topics have been discussed, connect any dots or determine which topics have scored negatively and why.
5. Gauge general sentiment from the team – ask the team to indicate via quick feedback or thumb voting if a topic is improving or if they expect it to get worse.
6. Finally, derive and assign action items for 2-3 of the topics. Start with topics that scored the worst (or lowest) and note what steps can and should be taken next.

Outcomes and Deliverables

I asked Petra what outcomes and deliverables come out of these Team Radar meetings. She mentioned the two key outcomes being “aha moments” and action items. The “aha moments” will come as a result of learning what others on the team think about particular topics. The action items are especially useful for future improvement, as the lowest-ranked topics should be prioritized in the discussion. 

Tools

There are a few tools Petra uses to create magic and connection in these meetings:

• Whiteboards or flip charts – this is how the Team Radar graphic is documented and displayed if the meeting is in person
• Post-Its: Used for note taking on each topic and rating (organize by color)
• MURAL or Miro – These tools can be utilized if the meeting is virtual or hybrid, in place of the physical whiteboards, flip charts and Post-Its

An Alignment Initiative

We also discussed what makes this meeting unique, along with what Petra is most proud of related to Team Radar. 

“I think it’s the only type of retrospective I know where you can set a topic. So if you as a product manager or Agile coach want to talk about something, then that is a way to really set the stage without influencing the team too much about their take on that,” she said.

She mentioned she’s most proud of the fact that it helps teams discuss underlying or broader issues in a productive way. Even if the meeting doesn’t end with a ton of action items that are being solved immediately, it helps with team building and is an alignment initiative. 

Looking Ahead

I like to end these Magical Meeting Series conversations by asking where there’s opportunity for improvement or what else could be done if the interviewee were to be really bold. Petra said she sees teams usually start with the obvious topics, but would love to encourage more philosophical or high-level topics on the axes. That, she says, is when the most interesting and productive conversations happen.

Do you have a Magical Meeting Story to tell? Share it with us!

The post Team Radar appeared first on Voltage Control.

Meetings are often necessary to get things done, especially in today’s distributed workforce. Unfortunately, not all meetings are productive or created equally. It’s estimated that around 35-50% of the average workweek is spent in meetings and that $37 billion per year is lost due to unproductive meetings. Yes, that’s right…$37 billion. Those facts alone suggest the business world is having a ton of meetings, but not spending all the time effectively. As the first gathering for a project, kickoff meetings often set the tone for the rest of the meetings to follow, and therefore are arguably even more important to be effective and productive. To avoid taking part in that $37 billion loss, read on to learn what makes a good kickoff meeting and kick off your next project successfully with our 5 tips. 

What is a Kickoff Meeting? 

Before diving into the 5 tips, let’s cover what a kickoff meeting is. A kickoff meeting is typically the first meeting at the start of a project. There are many projects that could require a kickoff depending on your organization and team; some examples include: a Sprint, developing a new product or feature, or aligning on user experience. Regardless of what the specific project at hand is, a good kickoff meeting will bring your team (or applicable stakeholders) together to make intros, provide an introduction or overview to the project, and promote an understanding of what’s being done and why. Kickoff meetings usually happen when a project is ready to move from the planning to execution phase and should include the core project team and anyone else who will be directly impacted by the project, or whose input is needed.   

Voltage Control’s 5 tips for a more successful kickoff meeting

1. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare

Preparation is the difference between mundane and magical meetings. Avoid wasted time later by putting time and thought up front into the kickoff meeting preparation. Be strategic about who you invite and ensure only those that are necessary for the project are included. Creating an effective meeting agenda is also important – it should outline the key objectives you are aiming to accomplish during the meeting, along with a realistic schedule (remember to allow time at the end for questions). 

Pro Tip: Check out our Meeting Mantras to learn how to avoid wasting time at meetings. 

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Additionally, don’t assume everyone attending knows each other or has context on the upcoming project. Bake in time for outlining roles and responsibilities, or better yet, send out the information beforehand via email to save those precious minutes during the meeting. Since it’s a kickoff, naturally some items will need to be figured out as you go. But the kickoff meeting is a great time to get everyone on the same page regarding need-to-know details before diving into the actual project work.

2. Consider a Meeting Facilitator

A facilitator is someone who plans, designs, and leads a key group meeting or event. For more information on what a facilitator does and when you need one, see our post here. A facilitator could be a neutral leader within your organization, or you might consider bringing in an expert facilitator when dealing with larger or sensitive topics. They offer a non-biased opinion, are removed from office politics, and take care of logistics while making sure everyone stays on track. Some smaller or less complex kickoff meetings may not require a facilitator, while more complicated or larger projects may benefit. Pro tip: if your kickoff meeting supports a meeting where you need to make a big or important decision, we recommend you hire a facilitator.

Interested in become=ing a more effective facilitator yourself? Check out Facilitation Lab, our weekly virtual meetup focused on helping facilitators hone their craft to help improve the quality of meetings. Control the Room, Voltage Control’s Annual Facilitator Summit is another resource for facilitators. The summit provides facilitators with the opportunity to deepen their knowledge on how to facilitate meetings that matter and connect with other facilitation and meeting practitioners.

3. Use a Collaboration Tool like MURAL or Miro

Interaction and collaboration make a good kickoff meeting. Utilizing tools, especially in a virtual work environment, will help keep people engaged and also help with retention and a sense of ownership. Collaborative virtual whiteboard tools like MURAL and Miro allow team members to engage and work together in real-time. 

Pro Tip: New to MURAL? Download our MURAL cheat sheet for a quick reference for how to use MURAL first. Or checkout our free Magical Meeting Templates to include in your next meeting.

4. Make it Hybrid and/or Remote-Friendly

A successful kickoff meeting today looks a lot different than a couple of years ago, in large part due to the increasingly hybrid workplace. Many of your team members are probably not in the same location, or even if they are, may not all be coming into a physical office. Lean into this and ensure your team is set up for success by making sure you have the right tools and tech in place for hybrid or remote meetings. This will allow for a smooth start to the project and set the stage for future or ongoing meetings. For more ideas on leading effective virtual meetings, see our post here. A quality resource to explore to ensure you and your meetings are constantly improving is the Control Room app. We custom-built it for facilitators to better manage and run virtual meetings with a feature to capture feedback from participants in real-time. Try it out for your next kickoff meeting, or any future project meetings. 

5. Define Success and Next Steps

Last, but certainly not least, a good kickoff meeting will define the project goals and what success looks like. Without a clear goal in mind, teams will likely be more confused and less effective. When everyone is aligned on a tangible goal, their efforts tend to be more focused. Part of a kickoff’s purpose is to communicate a clearly defined, measurable goal and how success will be measured for the project at hand. It’s okay if this changes throughout the project’s course. The most important thing is to communicate the success metrics at the beginning and then throughout (if they change) to hold all teams accountable. Finally, ensure enough time to discuss action items and next steps, and follow up with the team in writing after the kickoff meeting. That way, everyone leaves the meeting with a clear idea of what exactly they are responsible for and when they must meet deadlines

Just because so many meetings held each year are a waste of time doesn’t mean your meetings need to be. By applying these tips and tricks, your next kickoff meeting can be the first step in a successful project. We believe meetings should waste less time and be more effective. Explore how an effective meeting culture can change your organization for the better.

Want to ensure all of your meetings are magical?

Enroll in our Magical Meetings course and you’ll learn how to facilitate meetings that will have participants walking away with a sense of accomplishment. For information, check out the course details or reach out to hello@voltagecontrol.com.

The post What Makes a Good Kickoff Meeting? appeared first on Voltage Control.

“I think it’s important to have silent time because each individual has something unique to contribute to the collective of the group. In order to not be influenced by what others are saying or contributing, it’s important that they listen to their own thoughts or ideas or opinions or beliefs about whatever it is that is being shared, whatever we’re trying to accomplish. So that you can have more variety, possibly more diversity, more genuine personal truth in what you’re bringing to the table.” –Paula Rosecky

In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Paula Rosecky about her extensive experience working with daughters of immigrants and helping them create a sense of belonging in their personal and professional lives. We discuss how growing up in a community of folks who did not speak English formulated Paula’s approach to facilitating safe spaces for people of multicultural backgrounds. We then take a look at three foundations for how people should approach facilitation. Listen in to hear powerful methods that help people move away from conflict and toward shared values. 

Show Highlights

[1:55] Growing Up in a Multicultural Community
[6:00] Connecting with People’s Values
[10:30] The Three Dialogs of a Facilitator
[15:30] Embracing Participants’ Interpretation of an Experience
[29:40] Silent Work and the Collective
[34:40] Facilitating Energy in a Hybrid Work World

Links | Resources

Paula on LinkedIn
Paula Rosecky & Company
Paula Rosecky on Instagram

About the Guest

Paula Rosecky is a certified life coach specializing in cross-cultural issues and legacy coaching. She is certified through The Life Coach School and has over 20 years of experience in research and human behavioral science. She’s known as the culture coach and helps high achieving bilinguals and children of immigrants stop living someone else’s idea of success and start having the confidence, fulfillment, and wealth they want. 

About Voltage Control

Voltage Control is a change agency that helps enterprises sustain innovation and teams work better together with custom-designed meetings and workshops, both in-person and virtual. Our master facilitators offer trusted guidance and custom coaching to companies who want to transform ineffective meetings, reignite stalled projects, and cut through assumptions. Based in Austin, Voltage Control designs and leads public and private workshops that range from small meetings to large conference-style gatherings.

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Full Transcript

Douglas:  Welcome to the Control the Room podcast, a series devoted to the exploration of meeting culture and uncovering cures for the common meeting. Some meetings have tight control and others are loose. To control the room means achieving outcomes while striking a balance between imposing and removing structure, asserting and distributing power, leaning in and leaning out. All with the service of having a truly magical meeting.

Thanks for listening, if you’d like to join us live for a session sometime, you can join our weekly Control the Room Facilitation Lab, it’s a free event to meet fellow facilitators and explore new techniques so you can apply the things you learn in the podcast in realtime with other facilitators. Sign up today at voltagecontrol.com/facilitation-lab. If you’d like to learn more about my new book, Magical Meetings, you can download the Magical Meetings Quick Start Guide, a free PDF reference with some of the most important pieces of advice from the book. Download a copy today at voltagecontrol.com/magical-meetings-quick-guide.

Today I’m with Paula Rosecky, a certified mindset and leadership coach and independent facilitator. She’s known as the culture coach and helps high achieving bilinguals and children of immigrants stop living someone else’s idea of success and start having the confidence, fulfillment, and wealth they want. 

Welcome to the show, Paula.

Paula:  Hello, Douglas. I’m really glad to be here, thank you.

Douglas:  So let’s start off with just learning a little bit more about how you got your work started, specifically just curious how facilitators find their path into facilitating, and really just interested in the work you’re doing with bilinguals.

Paula:  Thank you. Yeah, so I noticed early on that I was very fascinated by people who were not quite like me and I loved watching people’s patterns of behavior and how they think. I grew up in a community of folks who did not speak English and I think that really formulated how I approached the world, so much so that I studied sociology and psychology and after college, I went and lived in Europe for a long time and learned a second language, it was the second language of my parents. I lived in their home country for a while and that really formed my professional approach and how I approach people in general.

And then when I came back to the states, I did get a corporate job and when people wanted to work on the fancy brands, I decided, although I was working on a fancy brand, I decided I wanted to work on multicultural work and really help people understand people of other cultures. Even in that setting, I always veered towards people who looked a little different and maybe didn’t sound like me, and I just found them intriguing. So I was always interested in learning more about them.

So that’s my path to why I wanted to help people who were bilingual or children of immigrants, as I am one of them. So that’s how I got to this particular spot. And there’s been a few things in between though, of course.

Douglas:  Yeah, absolutely. So how did you first find your way into facilitation? That’s always really a fascinating moment I think, when folks start to identify with facilitation and even coaching, I would say.

Paula:  Yeah, yeah. So I came to facilitation really through market research and moderation. I’m a longtime qualitative market researcher, and I had been just feeling like market research was about information gathering and facilitation to me was intriguing because it brought in different types of tools, a different kind of energy, and a slightly different level of creativity. Not that moderating can’t be creative, but I felt like just some of the tools that were used were interesting to me to try to figure out how to bring in when I’m talking to actual participants.

But I also loved the idea of using these types of tools when debriefing and coming up with overall takeaways and involving the stakeholders. So I think facilitation was intriguing to me because it just seemed to bring in a whole allotment of tools that I hadn’t been familiar with before.

Douglas:  Yeah, it’s interesting to think about, it’s not just the work that we have to do as far as the product that we’re creating and contributing to the organization but how we collaborate and communicate with our coworkers. So the debrief or the report out that you were talking about, it really… hits on that point.

Paula:  Yeah, absolutely. Just and understanding how you’re going to take all of the insights, collect them, and present them in a way that your end stakeholders can really absorb, internalize, and deeply connect with actually. I really always enjoyed taking the voice of those consumers or participants of our research and highlighting them and actually being the voice of the customer for the end stakeholder.

Douglas:  The thing that jumps out to me there is this idea of shared values or understanding or connecting with people’s values, and if we’re using these techniques with our stakeholders, we understand what’s in it for them. So then if we understand that deeply, it’s going to influence the research we do and then it’s also going to influence how we present the research because we understand what’s important versus just like, here’s what we found. We can layer in that ‘why’ and create that connection.

Paula:  Yeah, absolutely. I think connecting it back to not only the values or what the outcome is intended to be for that individual, but also for the department and for the company overall and where they’re headed and what their overall goals were. I love attaching or connecting what one individual says to how a company wants to craft the experience of what they’re trying to build and how they’re trying to move forward in their organization, and for all of us and what they’re trying to create.

Douglas:  Yeah, it’s really interesting too when you tie back to the conversation we were having prior to the recording here around connection and how important that is and how much we… this is top of mind for us as facilitators. And often when we mention connection, it’s this fostering deeper connection, either visual connection or understanding of the ‘who’ we are as humans. And yet here’s another example of connection at work. It’s like we’re connecting the findings to these needs so nothing exists in a vacuum. And I think if as facilitators we can constantly be looking out for ways we can link things and bring things together, whether it’s our emotions, our feelings. I’d love to hear your thoughts on what the other kinds of connection should we be thinking about?

Paula:  I love the idea of connecting data to humans, that is… it’s a huge topic right now in the market research industry and space of, we have so much information. I think sometimes all of that can get lost and when we don’t think about who it is actually touching on the back end, and who are we actually servicing with all that data? All that data really comes down to each data point, and each data point is a human being. So I actually love thinking about that, and that is one of the reasons qualitative research and facilitation of listening sessions and those kinds of things are so valuable because you’re taking this idea of big data and making it human, which that’s where all the power is.

Douglas:  Yeah, it’s amazing. So much of our work is qualitative research and it’s I think easier to get lost in just the data when folks are doing larger quantitative types of studies. And It, I don’t know, maybe apparently early in my journey into qualitative studies and interviews and just trying to understand customers, I was working a project where there was actually a couple that come to mind, which were sensitive in nature, emotional for the participant. Having to think about that, the needs in multiple levels. What are their needs in that moment in that dialog, because I had to connect with them on this level of, I’m not here to be a therapist but it could easily go into that territory where I needed to offer them safety and say, “Hey, we can abort at any point or would you like me to call someone for you?”

The thing is, the reason I bring all this up is, I think a super profound shift, there was a super profound shift in my thinking and my attitude toward this work having gone through this experience is, because wow, it’s just, talk about the humanity in the work. Right?  You start to really, really connect in on it and I think it just stays with you, you don’t forget those moments. I think people are just swimming in the data, it’s harder to fuel that.

Paula:  Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I mean, some of my favorite research moments were when I was in an unexpected place. I found myself at a bar with people who didn’t look like me. And someone reveals something deeply personal about something they’re going through.  And you’re right, there’s always three conversations going on in my mind, in whether it’s having a one-on-one conversation in research or facilitating a room actually. And that is the conversation that you’re actually having with the person. There’s the conversation that you’re having with yourself about what’s going on with that person, and about what you’re trying to get out of the conversation.  But I also think about the space that we’re in as being an entity and picking up on the communication that’s going on around us, whether that’s in-person in a physical space or if it’s online. I think that space takes on its own energy that is made up of the people within that space. So, it’s something I’ve been thinking about lately, is not only that individual but also, and the collective in that space. What do you think about that, Douglas?

Douglas:  I think that’s super important, and I think what you’re touching on is foundational and how people should approach facilitation. It’s like thinking about, what’s the internal dialog I’m having? How am I connecting with each individual person? Then, what’s happening as a whole? We as a group are an entity and something’s happening there.

Then also there’s to your point, there’s this room, these vibrations that are in the room based on the room. The space itself, the conditions you’ve set ahead of time have an impact. Certainly, if we push people in the Zoom, they’re going to behave differently than if we put them in the Teams or if we put them in the Mural or these are choices that we have to make. When we’re in the physical space it was always, do we have tables or is it just a circular set of chairs? Is it a crescent moon? These kinds of decisions will impact how people interact, how they’ll show up and the vibrations of the room. How does the room resonate?

Paula:  Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. We think about each of the individuals in that room and I think one of the things I love about facilitation is thinking of the design of the experience and what you want people to leave with. I just, I love that there are exercises that are designed for creating a sense of belonging for instance, or to stimulate ideation and just this idea that each one of those types… there are different types of exercises depending on what you want the feel of the room and the overall outcome to be. So I just think it’s really fun to think about the experience of the individuals, the participants on the receiving end of our facilitation.

I do it obviously for my more corporate clients but also in coaching, I think it’s really, really relevant when you’re not only on an individual level for that individual person, but also if you’re doing small groups. It’s making sure that everybody is heard and everybody has something to contribute and can walk away with, so.

Douglas:  When you just brought up this notion of facilitation can… and specifically some of the activities being even designed to create more belonging, it reminded me about your points around multicultural types of work that you’re fascinated in. And it just seems to me that with your background and being a child of immigrants and having… that’s your lived experience and perhaps that fostered your interest in others who are maybe not quite like all the others. There’s an appreciation there, and there’s that lived experience around hey, I want to create environments that invite folks in and create more belonging. I’d love to hear a little bit more about that because it strikes me as interesting.

Paula:  Yeah, yeah, it’s an unconscious thing I think that I’ve been living with pretty much my whole life. Then it manifests in these ways like you said, I noticed that I veer towards people who are not quite like me, or I certainly try to seek out more folks who are not like me if I’m not in an environment where that’s not possible. So creating a sense of belonging.

I think we as facilitators don’t necessarily have control over how someone perceives an experience. All we can do is do our best to try, given what we know, to create an experience that will be open and inviting to the best of our ability. Then each person, each human that shows up gets to interpret that experience however they want, given their context which comes from all kinds of places. Their culture, society, what people have told them before. We bring it all with us and in each experience, we are interpreting given our own context.

So I try to be sensitive when I’m creating a designed facilitation experience to try to anticipate what someone else’s cultural background might be. The fact is, is we just don’t know. People have gone through, especially now, people have gone through so much. I just try to be really sensitive about what other people may or may not have experienced in their life and certainly in this short time that we’re all living through together.

Douglas:  So that’s a really interesting point, it reminds me of, songwriters will write songs and listeners will interpret them however they want, right?  But the thing about the songwriter is that they’re not in the room with these people expecting them all to get to some outcome at the end, right?  So we’re in this interesting predicament around yeah, they could lay the best plan possible but if it doesn’t resonate or if it doesn’t hit them in a way that they feel safe or connect with, and it’s still important for us to help foster that and get the team where they need to go. So I’m curious, what are some of your go-to ways to A: diagnose that maybe it’s not landing? And then B: pivoting and maybe correcting for that?

Paula:  Yeah, oh my gosh, that is such a good question. As a facilitator it’s our job to hold space for everyone. I try to approach it with as much empathy as I possibly can, but like you said, knowing on the other side there needs to be some kind of outcome. So this goes back to that conversation in our heads. I’m thinking about, what’s the overall outcome? What am I trying to achieve for a client, if that’s the case? What are the humans in this space experiencing?

So honestly, I think one of the best ways I do it is just through listening, a lot of listening and conversations, and some creative exercises at least to break up the energy or create some energy around what we’re trying to accomplish. I love using just writing prompts, so having some silent time where people can reflect on a prompt, write it down so that they are grounded and solid with what their answer is before being influenced by others. Then I like people to just share on their own what came up for them. Then usually inevitably once everybody shares, then it creates this collective energy. Usually, there’s some commonalities, sometimes there’s some differences. Then we poke around in both of those areas like oh, isn’t it interesting that so many of you feel this way? What are some of the ways that people feel differently? That’s always where some juicy, juicy stuff is in that, the differences.

Douglas:  Yeah, it reminds me of this idea of moving into the conflict. It’s like those juicy bits around the differences and how we can explore that together in a way that’s, I would say, courteous.

Paula:  Courteous and safe. We want people to feel safe if they feel, if they have a difference. So actually, I love that idea. What do you see as ways to create safety for people when you see differences like that?

Douglas:  I think questions are powerful tools as facilitators. So visualizing, so you talked about… and I wanted to come back to that too, this notion of silent writing to prompts, this silent time. And especially if they’ve written, if it’s virtually and they’ve written it in the mural, we got this visual collateral we can point back to. As facilitators, we can triangulate things that are different, especially if they’re sifting things up, and we can just point it out. We can just ask people how they feel about this. Like, this is what I’m noticing, what do you all think?

Paula:  Yeah, the combination of a visual and just powerful questions is always… I mean, it seems so simple and obvious but it really works. Having something to visualize, whether that’s a physical thing. I also actually like sometimes to have people, this is a little more challenging for some folks but to create a visual in their mind and then bring it to life if they can.

Douglas:  Yes, having people imagine the future and present it in a way that others can see it. So it moves from between their ears to out in the open.

Paula:  That’s right, because thoughts become things. That’s how anything comes to life is, it’s an idea-

Douglas:  That’s right.

Paula:  … that was a thought and it needs to be said, and then it has more likelihood of actually becoming true.

Douglas:  It’s not even just the other folks in the room. Internally, we got a process that was not very well defined because I was just managing it organically. I was handing that off to someone else on the team. It seemed quite simple to me and I thought I’d explained all the pieces, but because I never wrote it down as a step-by-step process, they weren’t clear on all the little pieces, the little handoffs. So the first time they ran it, it went horribly wrong. So we sat down to actually document it so they could fully understand it. Even when I was looking at it, I was like well, this is a silly way to do it, because I had just been organically doing it in my head and just having people just ping someone and say, “Can you do this now, can you do this now?” When I wrote it down, it became clear to me that two of the steps were redundant and one was out of order.

So I think just visualizing things just always helps us move forward, even if it’s just one person. Now imagine how that lack of clarity compounds when you got more people in the room.

Paula:  Yeah, absolutely. I’m a big fan of process, if you have a process and you can write it down, it can be really powerful and so efficient. It might be messy in the beginning like you’re saying, if there are different pieces coming from all different parts of who knows where, but then once you collectively can organize it and share it with everyone so everyone can contribute to it and make it more effective or efficient. I mean, it just I’m sure I can only imagine that it has helped you and your business quite a bit, to really solidify those processes and communicate them.

Douglas:  Oh, absolutely. I think the trick is helping people understand that that’s essentially what we mean when we say, “Hey, let’s create a sketch or a prototype or a concept for your idea.” How does it come to life? So often people want to say what it is, they want to describe its attributes, so like a functional specification. It’s going to have a 10-inch nose and it’s going to have… but that’s not very helpful from an understanding how to actually do it, if that makes sense, because the user is going to interact with the thing or other members or our team’s going to have to perform a process and if we just start listing out all the criteria, people don’t fall in love with criteria.

Paula: Right, so I think I hear you saying you’d rather focus on the what is the thing trying to do. How is that thing making that person’s life better? Not necessarily the how but what is the thing, what are we trying to accomplish in the end goal for this person, right?

Douglas:  Well, the way I usually describe it, it’s interesting because a lot of people say the how is not necessary, but I think when we’re trying to leap forward and present our idea, it can be really helpful to present our view of how it could be done, but we have to marry that with the why. I think often people get stuck on the what and it’s hard to get that clarity on just what it is, but if we understand why we’re doing it and how we’re going to generally approach it, then we’ve got a really clear approach on the what comes out in that work if that makes sense.

I think too often when people sit down and think about the what, they end up writing lists and lists of descriptive… I think it’s more powerful to get the story behind how the user’s going to accomplish what they’re trying to do, especially if we’re talking about a user process. Oftentimes when we’re prototyping concepts or ideas or just getting people to come together, it’s like a product where a user’s trying to accomplish a task. An internal process that a team is having to go through or procedures. So if we really put ourselves in the shoes of the person that’s doing that stuff and thinking about how they are going to accomplish what they need to accomplish, because otherwise if we just think about the what, we end up listing a bunch of bullet points like features. The user will be able to add another user, they’ll be able to set the rules and permissions, but I want to know how they do those things because that’s when the real concrete solution starts to present itself.

Paula:  Yeah, so this is so interesting because it’s like, wherein the process? Depending on what you’re trying to accomplish, wherein the process do you put the what and wherein the process do you put the how? I think starting with the why is always really, I mean, you just always want to start with the why. Why are we doing this thing, or why are we trying to accomplish this, or why am I trying to accomplish this?

What you’re saying is, when you’re thinking about a product, you do want to think about how a little bit earlier than I think if when we as humans are trying to accomplish something for ourselves. Now I’m taking it down to an individual level but if I’m trying to accomplish something, I might not at all know how I’m going to do it. I know why I want to do it and I have a probably a good idea of what I’m going to do, but I might not need, I might not know at all how it’s all going to come together. I just see for my future for instance, that this is what I want. Then I just take small steps to get there. The order is a little different, depending on what you’re trying to accomplish.

Douglas:  I agree, and I think that it might have to do with also the granularity of what the problem we’re approaching and how we’re breaking stuff down, because take for instance when we’re doing a design sprint. We want to be very, very clear on the why early on and we also get fairly clear on the what because we have our goal. But the question is, how are we going to accomplish that goal? Getting a very opinionated and a very specific direction on the how is important.

I think where people falter is when they take that big what, that big objective, and they break it down into tiny little what’s, because then those tiny little what’s are just still don’t have any opinion in them. They just basically decomposed it down into like okay, it’s got to have a door handle, it’s got to open, it’s got to allow airflow, it’s got to not go below 50 degrees. It’s just like okay, yes, we all can think about requirements but we need to go beyond that and really put forth our creative ideas on how this comes about in the world, even if we don’t have all the how’s figured out. We need to have some broad strokes, and if we don’t start thinking about that stuff, we haven’t really gotten in the solutioning. I agree, we don’t want to start with solutioning but once we get into some sort of solutioning, we can’t stay stuck in the what because if we keep drilling down more granular versions of the what, we haven’t really gotten into a concrete solution. It’s leaves too much open to interpretation.

Paula:  Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense because in the end you’re creating typically I’m imagining, a tangible thing. So that is much more of a possibly clear step-by-step way to go about it. There are some processes that just might not be quite as clear and it takes I think in prototyping, because you’re testing, you’re iterating, but actually now that I think about it, even in coaching we do that too because we’re all experimenting in life. If I’m trying to accomplish a goal for myself, well, this might be a way to do it, let me try this over here. Let’s see how close I got, if that didn’t work so well, let me just make a little change over this direction and let me try something else. The idea is to just not give up and keep going back to the why. Why are we doing this?

Douglas:  That’s right, so I feel like the whole experimental mindset is jumping a little bit into the how and what if we do it this way? What if we do it this way? Not getting so stuck into trying to get a perfect what. So the perfect what is to me wonderful and doing so much, leaning so heavy into the specification.

So I wanted to come back to…because you mentioned a little earlier this notion of creating the silent writing time. I think that’s what maybe got me off on this not tangent that I’m passionate about, but I wanted to get your thoughts on why that’s so important. What do you think is happening in the room? Facilitators might be a bit skeptical about, well I thought we were supposed to have a conversation? I thought we were supposed to get people connected? Why is the silent time so important if our goals are to get people, include people, and get people connected?

Paula:  Oh wow, yeah, I love that question. I think it’s important to have that silent time because each individual has something unique to contribute to the collective of the group. In order to not be influenced by what others are saying or contributing, it’s important that they listen to their own thoughts or ideas or opinions or beliefs about whatever it is that is being shared, whatever we’re trying to accomplish. So that you can have more variety, possibly more diversity, more genuine personal truth in what you’re bringing to the table.

So I think even just a little bit of that self-reflection quiet time, and that could be quiet time with… it could be writing but it could also be a small drawing just to take some of the thoughts and bring them out into the room so that you know that they’re coming straight from you and your thinking and each individual’s thinking.

Douglas:  That’s awesome.

Paula:  I think it makes the collective stronger.

Douglas:  I agree, it totally makes the collective stronger. So the reason why we love silent work and giving everyone time to collect their thoughts and bring their best ideas forward. In the same answer, you also mentioned energy. I’d love to hear your thoughts around energy, how that plays a role in facilitation and any advice you have around energy, whether it’s observing it or maybe even influencing it?

Paula:  Oh my gosh, in the lab within the past couple weeks, we were having a conversation about this, about, what are some ways that you can change the energy level of a group and being clear on what you want that energy to be and why. What is that going to contribute to the project or what you’re trying to accomplish? So this idea of silent more quiet energy is calming, whereas you might have energy that is more uplifted or fun and just being clear on why you want to change that energy. There’s just different approaches and really being attached back to the why. Why do we want to change the energy of a particular room?

Douglas:  Yeah, that’s I think a power move as a facilitator, is constantly helping people connect to that why, because I think that’s one reason we might face… I would say that’s a common reason why there’s dysfunction in a group because people don’t understand the why. They don’t know why you’re asking them to do something.

Paula:  Yeah, exactly. So I think actually along those lines, instructions are so important. Over my many years of being moderating, facilitating, and doing small workshops, having very clear instructions is so key. You want to tell people not always, but there are times where you really want to tell people exactly what they’re going to do and what to expect, unless you want some element of surprise, and it’s contributing to the overall good of what you’re trying to accomplish.

Douglas:  Yeah, I like that, this intention surprise can often lead to the aha moments, especially if we’re trying to help teach people or help with capability building. Sometimes those surprise shocking elements will sometimes make people have those paradigm shifts or aha moments.

Paula:  Yeah, so that reminds me of storytelling. When we can find something surprising in a group, and then bring that out as an example as we debrief or report on some of our insights. That helps to bring alive some insight that we learned.

Douglas:  Yeah, for sure. Stories and narrative can build more connection, which we mentioned before. So I guess that was one of my questions earlier was, what other kinds of connections are there? I think there’s connections to the data and there here there’s connections to the insights. Maybe the narratives help us create those connections, so that’s cool.

Well, we’re coming up on time here. I want to ask you one more question before we go to our closer. That is, given all this stuff that we’re talking about, the general importance of facilitation and creating belonging and inclusion and some of the moves we make to ensure that everyone’s with us and all that goodness. I’m curious where you’re looking forward, as far as the future. What do you think is possible in the near term and what are you hopeful for as things continue to advance in the field?

Paula:  Well, I do think it’s really fascinating to think about this idea of hybrid presentation, hybrid workshop, hybrid conferences. As I’ve been watching how things are unfolding, I think not only from the technical angle but also what connection looks like when we think about ourselves in a hybrid space. So I’m going to share a story about something that I’ve experienced lately, where it really brought home this idea of what hybrid may or may not look like.

So I’m a longtime practitioner of Qigong, which is, it’s not a martial art, it’s a way to move your energy through moving meditation. I’ve been doing it for years, it’s always been an in-person class. Of course over the pandemic, our highly skilled instructor teacher, she has had to move everything online. Now, this is a practice where it’s very visual, we’re very connected because we’re all doing the same moves at the same time. She also does some correction, so she’ll come around the room and help you with your posturing, but all of this moved online. So over the past 18-plus months, most of us have just seen each other on screens. Recently, she’s experimented to have a smaller group of people back in a room while also paying attention to people online.

So, what has been really fascinating to watch during that process and be a part of, is how she as a facilitator needs to watch her energy, watch the energy of everyone online, and watch the energy of everyone in the physical space. So I’m going to be super fascinated to see how technically do people deal with this? As facilitators, how are we going to watch and manage our own minds around all of the different spaces that we may need to pay attention to because now we’re going to have to make sure that we are taking care of and creating space for people in an online setting as well as in-person setting. I think it’s going to be just a huge challenge and really, really interesting to watch.

Douglas:  Yeah, we are certainly very intrigued and have been doing our part to push things forward with the hybrid guide we released and there’s definitely going to be hybrid elements of the Control the Room Conference this year. So, super excited about all of that and just watching how things develop because I think the technology is going to get better and better to support different use cases and needs. So yeah, that’s really cool and we’ll all be watching that together and contributing in ways that we can to move it forward.

So with that, I just want to say that it was a pleasure having you on the show. Just want to give you a moment to leave our listeners with a final thought.

Paula:  Well, thank you. So I do have a final thought. My final thought is, when you run across someone that you find intriguing, I want to challenge you to go ahead and approach that person, whether that’s online or in-person, and have a conversation about anything that is… whether it’s somewhat trivial in your mind or something deep, just anything that intrigues you about that person, because that is how we met actually, Douglas, is we were at a conference together, a design sprint conference. And I was fascinated by facilitation and I decided to approach you and ask you about it, and here we are. So you never know what’s going to happen you approach someone that you think is intriguing. So that’s my challenge to everyone because there are lots of possibilities there.

People can find me at PaulaRosecky.com and I currently am holding some shorter coaching sessions with the topic around how to manage your mother from another culture. This came out of some workshops that I’ve been doing recently and I see the need out there. I also spend a lot of time on LinkedIn, so I hope to see you there.

Douglas:  Excellent, well Paula, thank you so much for joining me today. It’s been a pleasure chatting and I look forward to talking to you soon.

Paula:  Thanks Douglas, it’s been a pleasure.

Douglas:  Thanks for joining me for another episode of Control the Room. Don’t forget to subscribe to receive updates when new episodes are released. If you want more, head over to our blog where I post weekly articles and resources about working better together. Voltagecontrol.com.

The post Episode 61: Cultivating Cross-cultural Belonging appeared first on Voltage Control.

Recently I was asked why people hate meetings. I responded that people don’t hate meetings, they hate bad meetings. 

Most ineffective meetings are a form of therapy

Let’s be honest, there’s a lot of collaborative dysfunction in the working world, and most of it happens in meetings. And that’s a major pain point for a lot of people. When they look at their calendars, they’re just inundated with meetings. And, shockingly, the goal of most of these meetings is to be cathartic rather than productive. 

I remember seeing this headline on BBC.com not too long ago: “Pointless work meetings really a form of therapy.” It’s a hilarious headline, but if you dig deeper into it, it’s actually fascinating. 

In my experience, as the pandemic has rolled on, I’ve seen people have this thirst for connection, and because they don’t have it, they’re self-medicating with a meeting. They’re self-medicating in a way that creates another burdensome meeting — and more disgust, if you will, for meetings and the whole Zeitgeist of work and collaboration.

In the BBC linked article above, Professor Patrik Hall of the University of Malmo also stated that meetings are becoming a vehicle for individuals to express their frustrations. He says that with fewer people making or doing things, those in strategic, consultative, and managerial roles don’t know what they should do. Because they’re unsure about their role, they call meetings to try and find a purpose.

Both of these instances create a vicious cycle of negativity. If everyone became more intentional about team health and points of connection, people would stop scheduling these random meetings for “therapy” time. We wouldn’t self-medicate, we wouldn’t overmedicate and we’d get just the right amount of meetings. 

So how do we get to this place of optimal meeting balance? I believe it starts by clarifying the purpose of a meeting. Doing so will put an end to the post-meeting refrain of “Why did I just spend my time doing that?” 

Giving your meetings a sense of clarity

A big part of my book Magical Meetings is ensuring teams come together for the right reasons, accomplish meaningful goals, and leave with clear next steps. In fact, the first of the ten meeting mantras I share is “no purpose, no meeting.” And while I’d love for you to read Magical Meetings cover-to-cover, you may not have time before your next meeting. To that end, I’m going to encapsulate the first couple of chapters and present a number of questions you should ask yourself before initiating any meeting request.

• Is the meeting necessary? Could it be replaced by an email?

If the answer to the latter is yes, send an email not an invite.

• Will this meeting be generative, explorative or decisive? 

A generative meeting generates ideas or artifacts, an explorative meeting considers options and reviews artifacts, and a decisive meeting makes decisions on options and artifacts. If your meeting isn’t one of the three — where there’s a clear purpose and work to be done — it may not be worth having at all.  

• How will the team know it’s been successful?

Consider the possible outcomes of your meeting and what you hope to achieve. These are benchmarks your team can utilize to gauge success. 

• Who needs to be involved and what are their perspectives?

Just because you can invite someone to your meeting doesn’t mean you should. Everyone’s calendar is littered with meetings, so be strategic about who you invite. Is someone a stakeholder, have relevant expertise or possess an outsider’s perspective that could be valuable? Include them. But don’t invite someone who won’t have much to contribute solely to be inclusive. They’ll appreciate being able to be more productive by instead having the time to tackle the tasks that are of greater importance to them.

• What concerns are likely to arise? What challenges might get in your way?

The more forethought that goes into planning your meeting, the more you (and your participants) will get out of it. You really don’t want to eat up valuable time by doing this kind of triage in the middle of your meeting. It’s counterproductive — and an annoyance. 

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Letting everyone know what to expect

Of course, it’s not enough to know what you want out of your meeting. It’s also important to let others know as well. Preparedness on the part of the organizer — and the participants — is what helps make a meeting magical. 

Key to this is drafting an agenda you can share in advance of your meetings. This should include an outline of the activities that will take place, the allotted time for each activity or topic, and when break periods will occur. Additionally, you’ll want to explicitly state what you need from each participant. To ensure a successful meeting, I recommend circulating all of this a few days in advance and sending a reminder about your needs the day before the meeting is scheduled to happen. 

I also suggest you record a short video of yourself going through the agenda, especially for “high stakes” meetings where you’ll be making important decisions. Creating and sharing this will make your requests seem more human. You’ll also want to provide a link to a shared folder where everyone can place their pre-work artifacts (if applicable).

When people know what’s required of them and what their involvement will lead to, there’s a lower likelihood of them loathing a meeting. By clearly communicating — and setting up systems — people will feel confident that their involvement will lead to something positive vs. just getting caught up in false checkpoints or busywork. 

To that end, Voltage Control can set you up for success with our robust resource library. You can download the Magical Meetings Quick Start Guide, The Facilitator’s Guide To Questions, and other coaching materials. We also have blog posts, workshops, templates, and our Control Room app, which is loaded with meeting activities that keep teams engaged. With our help, you’ll never have another bad meeting again. 

Want to ensure all of your meetings are magical?

Enroll in our Magical Meetings course and you’ll learn how to facilitate meetings that will have participants walking away with a sense of accomplishment. For information, check out the course details or reach out to hello@voltagecontrol.com.

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