Leadership: Facilitating Collaborative Processes
A Model for Facilitating Collaborative Processes
In this and the next three posts I will offer thoughts about each of the four steps in my model for facilitating collaborative processes. I’ve included the model as a reference, and in this post we’ll focus on the first step, Deliberate.
The Relentless Search for Better Ways
A Model for Facilitating Collaborative Processes
Deliberate
• Thoughtful input (advance notice)
• Inquiry driven (ask & listen)
• What(s), why(s) & how(s)
Decide
• Choose/"Bless"
• Define Success
• Create Plan
Implement
• Ideas to Action
• Time for Deliberation is Over (for now)
• Team Players vs. Team Members
Improve
• Finding Better
• Processes & Outcomes
• Remember, Apply, Forget
Deliberate
Process improvement, like most other initiatives, will not just happen; facilitation is required. You’ll notice that for each of the steps in my model I have included three key points for facilitators to keep in mind. Let’s look at each of them, beginning with Thoughtful input (advance notice).
Thoughtful input (advance notice)
As people who are expected to facilitate deliberations, leaders should do whatever they can to ensure that participants provide thoughtful input. One of the things they can do to get that sort of participation is give participants some advance notice. Instead of bringing people together and then asking for their thoughts on a topic, leaders should extend the invitations in advance, and identify the specific topics on which participants’ ideas are being sought.
I’ll add one more suggestion, and that is to do timely reminders between the time you extend invitations and the date for the deliberations. For example, if you extend invitations on a Monday, for a meeting to be held on Friday, you might reconnect with participants on Wednesday or Thursday and tell them again how eager you are to hear their ideas at the Friday deliberations. That is a “non-nagging” way to remind them to spend some time thinking about the topics before the meeting.
Inquiry-driven (ask & listen)
As facilitators of this process, leaders are not “on stage”. Deliberation is not the place for leaders to showcase all of their ideas. The objective in this important step is to get participants’ ideas. Effective facilitators initiate deliberations by asking questions; they sustain the process by listening non-judgmentally!
What that means is avoid verbal or non-verbal techniques that convey disapproval of participants’ ideas or of the participants themselves. Yes, you’ll hear some really bad ideas; you’ll hear things that don’t make much sense. But remember, you want to sustain their participation as they work through their initial discomfort and unfamiliarity with this process, so ask questions and listen non-judgmentally to their responses.
What(s), why(s) & how(s)
Too many people in leadership positions underestimate staff members’ potential contributions to deliberations. They expect too little, and—not coincidentally—too little is what they get. As the facilitator of collaborative processes you should expect staff members to come to the table with ideas about three components of the topics being discussed.
What(s)
Process improvement often begins by identifying specific operational areas in which improvements are needed and then identifying specific changes to be made. Participants’ what(s) would be their lists of areas in which those improvements are needed or the specific changes they believe should be made. That is important information, but it’s only the starting point. In order to be able to make good decisions regarding which changes to make, more information is needed.
Why(s)
After listing the specific changes they think should be made, participants should be asked about their rationale for wanting to make those changes. Since there may be several changes that participants suggest, and since it may not be possible to make all the changes at the same time, there must be some basis for prioritizing them. Participants’ thoughts about the benefits of the changes they suggest making (or the costs of not doing so) will be helpful when assigning priorities.
How(s)
Finally, since participants may be the very people who will have to do the work necessary to make the changes being considered, let’s be sure and get any ideas they have about the steps necessary for making those changes. After participants have identified the changes they believe are needed and their reasons for thinking so, ask them to identify the steps necessary for making those changes.
Any collaborative process requires plenty of energetic, good-faith deliberation. Such deliberation depends on thoughtful, honest input and willingness to listen to and consider others’ ideas. None of that will happen without effective facilitation, and facilitating collaborative processes is a key role for people in leadership positions.
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