Topics on LinkedIn #facilitation #accelerated learning

It’s all been quite active recently.  Some rather basic requests for information about making training stick and how to cope with quiet, reserved people. So here is a reminder of what we recommend.

Making training stick: (Facilitation of Learning). 2 key obligations here for the trainer. Firstly ensure you spend time developing memory triggers for the individuals – this should not be a rush at the end, but a gradual and determined activity.  Remember the key to training is not so much what you present so much as how do you get people to recall the information when necessary. This is where the right training equipment comes into play – Neuland excels, of course!

Secondly, end with a plan to overcome the blocks they will face when they get back to the workplace. Ask, in a card call question, what the blocks will be (you will get answers like, full in tray, boss won’t understand, colleagues will carry on as before etc).  Problem solve on templates and end with individual action plans. This is where the right facilitation skills and facilitation equipment come into play.

Coping with the more reserved type of person. With Pinpoint it’s easy. That’s what cards do – they allow someone to contribute, vote with dots and thus have input and power without saying a word (but in reality, when ready, they always get in the swing and chat away). This group facilitation process is one where Pinpoint excels.

Happy Pinpointing!

66% feel over HALF of meeting time is wasted

UK Facilitator Practice Group

This is a group of new and experienced facilitators all keen to try new things and learn as much as possible.  A large contingent from the IT department of a corporate company were present keen to find out about facilitation – especially using methods that are not necessarily computer based.

Pinpoint did an afternoon session and several of our customers presented through the day as well. It was a good showing for Neuland equipment!! Fran O’Hara and Anna Guyer gave very effective  sessions on Graphic Facilitation – basics to somewhat more advanced.

The actions agreed have been removed as they could be considered sensitive to the company that attended the day.

Facilitation Training Course - 15th and 16th May 2012

Here at Pinpoint Facilitation we look at different ways of running meetings and training which you can apply to your own style of working in your organisation.

Our Facilitation Training Courses are run from our fully equipped training facility in Chalgrove, Oxfordshire. The next course is the 15th and 16th May 2012.

Workshop objectives:

• to apply Advanced Facilitation techniques which will make the difference in solving business-related issues
• to study how Accelerated Learning can enhance your business team-building programmes
• to plan and run a Pinpoint Facilitation session, effectively and confidently

You will discover how:

• traditional training methods and equipment can limit effectiveness and speed of outcomes
• creativity in facilitation does not depend on artistic competence
• Accelerated Learning, appealing to the 8 Intelligences, can enhance value and duration
• planning activities (meetings, problem-solving, conferences, etc.) can be more productive

In the event that you have to rearrange, we offer 50% refund for cancellations over 4 weeks prior. No refund later than 4 weeks prior to the event.

Normally places for the courses are priced at £785.00 for the two days.

We have a special early bird discount of £50.00 open until the 27th April 2012. You pay just £735.00 instead of £785.00. To get your early bird discount, call Carol on 01865 400 777 today.

Spaces are limited and we only have 7 places remaining - book now to avoid disappointment.

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We also have a One Day Introduction to Graphics workshop that is running on the 17th May 2012 if the two day course is not for you. Click here to book in to the graphics workshop.

 

 

So what is group facilitation?

I don’t want to temp providence, but I do get the feeling that people are feeling more positive about business in the future.  There is much less, “Let’s see what happens” and more “Let’s go for it.”

So as facilitators, we have a golden opportunity appearing through the gloom of recession and cutbacks.  Some facilitators, the tough ones, tried and succeeded to use the downturn as a vehicle for work. All of us can use the upturn for success. 

But please do not just do what so many still do – work with your group around a table, and you busy firing questions and recording answers on flip charts and whiteboards.

This linguistic, perhaps academic, style just does not gel with most people. It’s boring, a time waster and mostly ineffective. It makes you feel good, perhaps, because it shows you are in control.  If you are in control, then the group is not engaged – so best to do something else.

So what are facilitation skills? What is group Facilitation?  Facilitation skills can be used with 1 to 1000+ people.  So if you are visiting a prospect for the first time you can ask questions and get your prospect to write answers on cards. Get him/her to group similar ideas. Get them to clearly show what their issues are. (See my previous blog) 

For groups facilitation the same applies. The more the group does and the less you, as facilitator, do the better the result.  So get them to write ideas, help them sort ideas ensuring all are understood and there is not any bullying. Get them to work on planned templates so that their output is wholly theirs.

Remember if your group is not fully active it is probably not engaged. To achieve this high level of work, you need the right facilitation equipment.

Here are some examples of equipment you may need:

Training Equipment; should include anything that helps the group create effective memory triggers. So this would include pictures of work carried out on Pinboards and graphics.

Meeting Equipment and Facilitation Equipment: should include cards in various colours and shapes, Pinboards and felt pens.  Work should be on the Pinboards whether word-smithing or creating pictures – graphics.

To learn more about group facilitation, please visit our website at www.pinpoint-facilitation.com

 

 

When selling - don't tell, ask!

 Establishing an immediate bond with a customer is key – this is before any sales are made.

Having someone call in and ask a series of questions while taking notes is standard procedure. But how involved is the customer when we do this?  Real involvement tends to happen after we have come up with some essentially personalised benefits. (If only people would personalise benefits rather than deliver the company presentation!).

Here’s a suggestion for trainer/consultants – but applies to all:

Walk in with a Table Top Pinboard. Have a couple of key questions ready – and write one up clearly at the top of the board. The questions would be the ones that you ask now, perhaps, “What are the key issues slowing or blocking your progress towards your company goals?” or ,”Tell me, how would you like to see your company in 5 years time?”

Rather than have a verbal conversation only, ask the customer to write their responses on cards.  Collect them and, with the customer’s guidance, cluster and prioritise.  Suddenly, you have a customer being involved and showing you their thoughts. This is more than a chat. This is a free think, an involvement, an activity. The customer in not passively answering your questions, they take a bit of a lead. To do this, the meeting equipment is key – a flip chart is not the same, making a list does not have the same involvement as managing cards.

Having got some real involvement, then normal questions can follow. The personalisation is well underway!

Resource: Table Top Pinboards are available from Pinpoint Facilitation’s range of facilitation equipment and training equipment.

PS: Quote: Most Salespeople Are Lazy ‘n Dumb! 

A mnemonic for: Question – Mirror - Stroke -  Attitude – Listen – Non verbal communication – Decisions

Don’t get upset about Lazy and Dumb. Lazy salespeople are those that research and go where there is a sale to be made; they don’t waste time where there is no need.  Dumb ones listen more and talk less. 

Fats and carbs - cheap food for delegates has to stop!

It’s not rocket science. ‘Fast’ carbs give a quick sugar rush followed by a drop in blood sugar inducing sleep.  ‘Slow release’ carbs and proteins help keep us awake.

Most facilitators will have after lunch energising sessions to get the blood away from the stomach back to the body and, more importantly, the brain. Good stuff, but we could all make it easier for the delegates if, I think, we spent a little bit of time thinking about the lunch food we give them.

Hotels and conference centres tend to offer sandwiches, battered covered fish or prawns, potatoes, white pasta, rice, pizza slices and yet more bread . All ‘fast’ carbs that should be banned from the working table.  Oh yes, and bits of needed protein included but swamped by the carbohydrates.

How hard is it for a chef to prepare some ‘slow release’ carbs?  Brown rice and pastas with meat, nuts, fish all providing adequate proteins. For meat eaters it’s simple – cold cuts, stews, chilli con carne, with loads of really tasty salads and vegetables. For vegetarians there are many choices.

I suppose it comes down to price.  But which is more important? Slumbering delegates that make you have to work to keep them awake or lively delegates, energised, active and alert?

At The Pinpoint Facilitation Centre we always ask the question and ensure the food we offer meets the requirements of the group.

As professional facilitators, trainers or managers we should be thinking about the food offered in our events.

If you need a venue – contact us, book your next meeting with us – and find out what it is like to have a proper, balanced working lunch.

Fats and carbs - cheap food for delegates has to stop! #facilitation #meetings #accelerated learning

It’s not rocket science. ‘Fast’ carbs give a quick sugar rush followed by a drop in blood sugar inducing sleep.  ‘Slow release’ carbs and proteins help keep us awake.

Most facilitators will have after lunch energising sessions to get the blood away from the stomach back to the body and, more importantly, the brain. Good stuff, but we could all make it easier for the delegates if, I think, we spent a little bit of time thinking about the lunch food we give them.

Hotels and conference centres tend to offer sandwiches, battered covered fish or prawns, potatoes, white pasta, rice, pizza slices and yet more bread . All ‘fast’ carbs that should be banned from the working table.  Oh yes, and bits of needed protein included but swamped by the carbohydrates.

How hard is it for a chef to prepare some ‘slow release’ carbs?  Brown rice and pastas with meat, nuts, fish all providing adequate proteins. For meat eaters it’s simple – cold cuts, stews, chilli con carne, with loads of really tasty salads and vegetables. For vegetarians there are many choices.

I suppose it comes down to price.  But which is more important? Slumbering delegates that make you have to work to keep them awake or lively delegates, energised, active and alert?

At The Pinpoint Facilitation Centre we always ask the question and ensure the food we offer meets the requirements of the group.

As professional facilitators, trainers or managers we should be thinking about the food offered in our events.

If you need a venue – contact us, book your next meeting with us – and find out what it is like to have a proper, balanced working lunch.

Getting real commitment to action

This week, I was surprised to see a very experienced facilitator asking on LinkedIn, “Any suggestions on tools, questions to get a group to really focus down on actions in the action planning/next step session of an agenda?"

It seems her groups have been coming up with weak and woolly actions and ideas.

So where to start?  How about at the beginning.

What can be done to get engagement in achieving the objective before the meeting starts?  Pre work will probably do more damage than good  as people tend to be too busy to focus on something they don’t need to do just yet. 

This is where an ‘Entry Board’ is essential. The names of the group should be posted up before they arrive and as they arrive, having their coffee, they write up an answer a couple of questions – one of which should be about what their expectations are relevant to the agenda. Now their minds are on the job in hand.

Now comes my pet passion. I really do not feel you will get engagement into ideas generation and action planning by sitting at a table with someone filling in a flip chart with the ideas being called out. Nor will getting people to write on wee Post-its that can’t be read from a distance and then getting them to organise and cluster.

No, this is where facilitation is key.  Pose a question and get answers written on large cards (about 10 x 5cm). The answers should be clear, concise and brief. There are many ways to handle this writing – individually or working in groups of 5 or so. In the latter case everybody writes and then a have quick discussion to isolate the top X number of ideas. Collect in these key ideas and process them on a large Pinboard or two.

What do I mean by process them?  Give the guide lines : ‘your cards, you say where they go, if you don’t understand a card, ask. If it goes into more than one cluster write it again and put it into its other correct cluster’.  So the group tells you into which cluster they go and develop clusters as they go. The facilitator places the cards ensuring that he/she reads each and every card ensuring understanding. The group are involved ALL the time managing their own cards through the facilitator.

When done, ask for any other cards not handed in originally – but only ones which are significantly different. Put working titles onto each cluster and vote for the priorities.

Now the group can choose what they wish to take further and they will naturally form sub groups, each one working on what the topic they think is important and worth their time.

Give each sub group a template to work through ensuring they end up with a clear definition of their recommendation or action. Classically, we would use sectors on the template such as : We could.... (where they generate ideas)  But.... (where they play the black hat) and So we recommend that......(where they put their final recommendation. This operation must be card driven – otherwise the one with the pen runs the group and you have lost engagement. Classic flip chart activity just does not work.

So far, your group has done ALL the work – so don’t waste it now by asking each group to present their thinking. (Rarely are groups good at it, they take too long and worse, those not presenting are passively doing nothing.)

Instead ask the groups to go round in their groups looking at the other groups’ work. Get them to work out the thinking behind the recommendations. If they like the recommendation get them to put a heart on a card and pin it up.  If a recommendation has a heart from each group, you have consensus and it can go straight onto the action plan. If they do not like, or do not understand the recommendation, get them to pin on a question mark.

As facilitator ask, “What is the question?” The group can give their answer which removes the question mark or requires some rethinking before that particular recommendation goes into actions (if at all).

Now groups can fine tune their recommendations into action:

Topic, Specific steps, Who (in the room!) will do it, With whom (if necessary) and finally When.

Note: action plans go wrong when someone has an action that commits someone outside the room to do something. Never allow this. The action can only be for the person to talk with the other person and try to get their agreement. Going beyond one’s authority will naturally create resentment and failure.

So in summary: No flip charts. No Post-its. Stop doing it yourself. 

 

Meetings: Difficult to get solid commitment to effective actions?#facilitation

Efficiency is doing things well. Effectiveness is doing the RIGHT THINGS well. We are running the following event Pinpoint Facilitation Demonstration:         London 16th March. to help you reconsider  what is right, what needs to change and what needs to be treasured.  More info?  For details apply to: keith@pinpoint-facilitation.com Many people use Post-its on whiteboards and Neuland cards and pinboards – and some facilitate using the tools well.  However, many do not use them as well as they could and don’t realise it. How do you tell ? –  especially bearing in mind that probably whatever you do will be better than sitting watching someone fill in a flip chart? Here are some things to think about: ·         Do you operate using a wall ?– ie the group move to a wall and work near it, leaving the rest of the room vacant. ·         Are the Post-its or cards legible? Is your own writing immaculate? ·         Do you use colour on purpose? Have you a selection of shapes to do                         different   things? ·         Do you think it good to let the group sort, on their own, their ideas into clusters? ·         Do you, when training, make time for the group/individuals to develop                         memory triggers? ·         Do you use music – with a purpose? ·         Do you advocate a lunch to be slow release carbohydrates and protein? ·         Do you keep sub groups in the same room or send them off to other rooms? Some people think one or more of these are absolutely the right thing to do, others have a different view or have never really thought about them. For a  view based on: Getting engagement ( not just participation) Getting ownership of process, and Real commitment to action come to a Pinpoint Facilitation demonstration and see some of the alternatives and options. Perhaps there is not a right or a wrong, but you can decide what is effective for the work you do.