Team Development - A Fresh Approach!

I have been experimenting lately with a new form of team development combining three successful and time tested methodologies:

• Action Research
• Story Editing / Story Prompting
• The Drexler Sibbet Model

Here’s the technique in a nutshell:

• The team and the team leader contracts with me to create an experiment to improve their team performance significantly
• We all agree to use an Action Research Design and to jointly design and conduct the research and the intervention.
• We make use of the Drexler Sibbet Team Performance Inventory to collect and publish the “current reality” for the team. This inventory reports how well the team has resolved the critical issues relative to developing a high performance culture. It also significant insights into current group dynamics that may be helping or hindering team performance. Finally it helps to create a positive and safe atmosphere where tough discussion topics can be aired and resolved. This work typically takes one day.
• The second day we frame up where we are and where we want to go. To get there we use several powerful story-editing techniques that we have developed over years of practice. These exercises, performed in small groups, create a reframing experience for the team, based on positive norms developed in small groups. Our experience has been that the norms created in the small groups carry over to the large group. The story-editing sets in motion a series of positive actions based on  strengths that enables the team to redirect itself and create highly positive outcomes. The team acts together to bring the new story into being. The whole process is fueled by discovery combined with creation. Its differs dramatically from the old problem solving / team building approaches.

The entire process takes two days. We do all the data collection and story editing around the real work the team must do. We are seeing extraordinary results.

Hive is "Word of the Day!"

To celebrate Hive being picked as the “Word of the Day” on Visual Thesaurus, we are pleased to announce our new business model for The Hive - the internet brainstorming, data collection, voting and prioritizing suite of tools for just $10 a seat at your upcoming meetings!

The Hive works with smart phones and tablets, iPhones and iPads, and laptops. Participants at your meetings can brainstorm, give live feedback, write on electronic flip charts, take surveys, vote on critical issues, prioritize their work, and store their documents. It all works off an easy to use electronic agenda that takes minutes to set up and use. All the data is stored for you, so there is no typing of flip-charts after the meetings.

The best part is that we can train you to use The Hive from our desktop to yours and have you up and running in no time.  

No more excuses for not using Action Research Technologies (ART) at your next meeting - be it large or small. As our inspiration, Yogi Berra once said, “Little things are big.”

Get back to us soon if you are interested in a demonstration of how The Hive can accelerate your next meeting!

Learning from Stand-up Comics

This link is great. Michael Bierut identifies seven things designers can learn from stand-up comics. It’s a great article to keep around for meeting designers, action research designers, and facilitators. Here are the seven in summary, but do read the article. It’s worth it. Thank you Michael.
    1.    It’s all about the basics.
    2.    Once you have mastered the basics, make it your own.
    3.    Respect your audience.
    4.    Know your tools.
    5.    Honor your craft.
    6.    Don’t be afraid of failure.
    7.    Never forget - you have a special gift

"Open Source Meetings" - Elevate The Game

Everyone in the Pool

Stealing a page from open source programming, I’ve created a number of “Open Source” meeting designs. I’ve tested these designs with my clients. They create a high level of participation and a real sense of ownership of the outcome. It is a powerful way to check the wisdom of your team, department, or organization.

The Rules for Open Source Meetings are:

• Everyone’s voice counts.
• Data is collected before we discuss the data.
• Membership is dependent on each individual’s participation and ownership.
• The process is: Collect, Publish, Discuss, Decide, Own.
• Group wisdom determines what gets published and discussed. “Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.”
• Building Strategy is iterative. We suggest, we agree, we try, we examine, we make course adjustments, we repeat.
• All decisions are dynamic. We build the ship while sailing it.
• Hierarchy applies in Open Source –input is open and level specific.
• Unite technology and face-to-face meeting techniques to enable the discussion to go deeper faster.

I like to use The Hive to collect the data. It can be in the form of a survey before the meeting, or brainstorming at the face–to–face meetings. I also make extensive use of clickers and clicker technology to poll the group in the moment. Groups and teams respond well to working data in real time. Like feedback though, it is an acquired taste. Using Action Research methodologies like these increase truth telling, build trust, and boost the team leader in the eyes of the team members. Next time you are thinking about infusing your off-site with energy, think about hosting an “open source” meeting.

On The Presentation of Data

As a small group facilitator with over a thousand meetings under my belt, the thing I enjoy most about my work is seeing groups present critical data in a creative ways. If I ever worry about innovation, creativity, and the potential for seeing situations in new ways, I remember how powerful it can be to simply give a small group permission to create. Over the years, these examples of teamwork have fueled changes in a team’s strategy, launched successful change efforts, and even turned a few companies around!

As many of you know my meeting designs are based on Action Research, believing and knowing that groups can do research on themselves, publish their findings, understand the meaning, and plan effectively based on a clear understanding of current reality. The part I want to emphasize today is the publishing of the data.

Giving teams permission to create means having people make large drawings of their findings, do skits about the current situation, sing songs about what it was like to work here last year, or create a haiku, simple and direct that describes our current dilemma. I have never been let down. The energy and the effort that go into these presentations is amazing. Often, just giving permission to present the data differently subtly allows the group to act in ways they wouldn’t ordinarily act. This alone is very freeing. The important issue for the facilitator is to get out of their way. Put them into small groups based on the data they collected. Give them a time boundary and let the creativity flow.

If I apply Robert Fritz’s theory to what you are doing, it looks like this. In the collecting of data groups most often are in problem solving mode. They are listing problems and finding that the problems are all connected to each other. This insight is both sobering and deflating. When we ask our teams to create a skit, sing a song, or write a poem about some aspect of their data, we see an immediate shift in thinking. Groups shift to the Creation Orientation. They are bringing something new into being.

This shift is almost always preceded by some form of resistance to the activity. The group may dumb down, “Again Mr. Facilitator, what do you want us to do?” They may create vociferous arguments, “This data is so serious and so important and you want us to make fun of it. We simply won’t do that.” When this occurs, push back. I always push back but in the end leave a choice to the small groups about whether they will create an innovative way to present their data. Guess what? Six months from now when all of results from the meeting have long faded, the one thing they will vividly remember is when the CEO participated in a skit about the business failing if we continue what we are doing. Riveting moments, emotionally charged, and presented honestly, with good intent are never forgotten.

Push your teams to create. Give them the permission they need to feel creative and innovative. You and your clients won’t be disappointed by the results. I promise.

Note: The picture at the top of this post was taken at a J&J Asia Pacific meeting in Sigapore and shows the Asian supply chain "dragon" busting through barriers based on the data they collected.