Meeting facilitation

Tired of poorly-run, unproductive meetings?

Whether you plan to meet online or face-to-face, I’ll work with you to apply the right PROCESSES, map them to the right PLATFORMS, and implement them with the right PEOPLE.

PROCESSES

There are group processes and task processes. I’ve spent years finding and refining the best of both:

  • Group processes like the Nominal Group Technique and 1-2-4-All method determine the order and manner in which the group members interact. They are designed to make the most of a group’s knowledge, skills, and judgment.

  • Task processes specify the steps required to complete a task. Examples include strategic planning processes, foresight processes, opportunity-finding processes, design processes, decision processes, and creative problem-solving processes.

I work with you to design meeting and multi-meeting processes that do the best job of accomplishing your objectives.

PLATFORMS

I map the processes to the most appropriate technology platform(s):

  • Collaborative workspaces are websites with news, threaded discussion, calendaring, project management, library, and directory pages.

  • Electronic brainstorming groupware enables meeting participants to contribute their ideas simultaneously and anonymously, organize the ideas into categories, and vote to select or rank order the ideas. See the Electronic Brainstorming page for more.

  • Artificial intelligence technology is combined with electronic brainstorming technology. The combination increases the group’s ability to think of creative solutions. See the video on the Electronic Brainstorming page.

  • Specialized software tools are used for creating a strategy canvas and for diagramming, journey mapping, touchpoint analysis, causal analysis, multi-criteria decision analysis, and more.

PEOPLE

As your meeting facilitator or workshop facilitator, I make sure you have the right people practicing the right behaviors:

  • Imagine a complex strategy or solution as a completed jigsaw puzzle. A group has the right people for completing the puzzle when its members possess all the pieces. Complex organizational problems typically need a cross-functional group to solve them. Social problems usually require interdisciplinary collaboration and/or the collaboration of people from the nonprofit, government, and commercial sectors. Whatever the case, I’ll help you put together a group with the right knowledge and skills to create your strategy or solve your problem.

  • But having the right people at the table is only half the battle. The other half is making sure they practice the right behaviors. If, for example, one or two people dominate the discussion, the remaining people have little opportunity to contribute their pieces of the puzzle. I make sure the group members practice the behaviors that enable everyone to contribute.

For more on using PROCESSES, PLATFORMS, and PEOPLE to collaborate, watch this video: