Tag Archives: facilitation

Agile Project Management and a Naval Bombardment in Newport, South Wales

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20121202-193420.jpgThis is actually about the game Battleships and not some sinister plot (probably by Cardiffians) to obliterate Newport in a naval bombardment.

Last week I went to Newport to learn about agile project management from James Scrimshire of hurricanefour.com and got involved in a game of Battleships. It was at a Port80 event organised by all round good guy (and web strategy gun-slinger) Joel Hughes. The methodology for what we did can be found here on James’ site, and here is a link to James’ slides. This is what I took from a very illuminating exercise, thanks James and Joel.

The idea behind the exercise is to demonstrate that when you are delivering a large complex project, small cycles where you repeatedly; plan act and review are far more effective than a single ‘big bang’ approach. I found the phrase ‘waterfall’ used to describe the project management approach of designing and specifying everything at the beginning of the project and then delivering it all together a useful analogy. This was a big contrast to the agile approach where there are repeated cycles of planning, taking action, reviewing and moving into the next phase of action based upon the feedback you have gathered. It’s similar to the Plan, Do, Check, Act cycle used in continuous improvement methods.

If you’ve never played the original game of battleships read the instructions here. This is how the battleships exercise with James worked:

  • Both players placed their ships in secret as required.
  • Player A then launched all of their bombs in one go. There is no feedback between bombs.
  • Player B then launches their bombs. Following each bomb they are given feedback, “was it a hit or a miss?”
  • The game ends when Player B has sunk all of Player A’s ships or run out of bombs.
  • The result? Player B scores more than Player A, because they have more effectively targeted their bombs based on the multiple feedback cycles. It was certainly the case when the results were taken across the approximately 20 pairs of players in the room.

Playing the battleships game it became obvious that the process of pausing, getting feedback and planning the next bomb position in response to the information was far more effective than the single ‘50 bombs in one go’ approach. Playing battleships this way is a very useful practical exercise to demonstrate the difference between the agile and waterfall approaches to project management.

The big question that remains is do we actually recognise this in real life? I don’t think I would have to look very far to find a few complicated projects that are sticking to the ‘waterfall’ approach, tightly specifying everything up front and rigidly sticking to the plan. I have written about something similar previously where I mentioned safe to fail pilots and Trojan Mice. Recognising that the world is a complex and unpredictable was at the heart of what James spoke about, and the title of the presentation, ‘Welcome to Uncertainty’. Unfortunately in lots of cases simplistic and highly rigid project management approaches are applied inappropriately.

James and I did speak about complexity and project management and the Cynefin Framework came up. By sheer coincidence I’d listened to Dave Snowden speak about Cynefin the day before at this seminar in Cardiff.. Dave mentioned that Cynefin has been highlighted by Gartners who said that “By 2016, the Cynefin framework will be used in 10% of IT operations organizations as a sensemaking methodology.” Good news and something to chat more about over a game of battleships.

So, what’s the PONT?

  • No battle plan survives the first engagement with the enemy. The same is true of project plans so why stick with a rigid out of date plan?
  • Utilising rapid feedback loops to plan, act, sense and respond is an effective way of getting a better result.
  • This version of battleships was very useful at illustrating the advantages of taking an agile approach to project management.

 

20121205-201743.jpgNot what I was expecting from a search of ‘cats playing battleships’. Helen Reynolds, Cat Picture Consultant tells me its OK though. Picture source:

http://coverslike.com/cat_vs_battleship-facebook-cover-photos.html

Graphic Recording – My (Very Slow) Time Lapse Photography

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I’m not going to win any prizes for photography here; I just wanted to illustrate some graphic recording in action.

I’m a big fan of using graphics as a method of knowledge exchange and communication.  Previously I’ve mentioned the work of Paul Richardson who did great work at Public Services Wales Summer School and Delta7 who do some fantastic work around engagement and archetypes.  Now I can post about another piece of the jigsaw, graphic recording.

These pictures are by Laura Sorvala (@_auralab) of the work she did at the All in this Together, Co-production Conference held in Cardiff last week. The image was developed over about 60mins and 4 separate speakers.

I think this is an incredibly effective way of capturing the important messages from the conference, in a way people are more likely to share and re-visit.  Enjoy!

My photographs don’t do justice to Laura’s skills. Have a look at Laura’s website and the All in this Together blog for better images.

So, what’s the PONT? (pretty much what I’ve said previously)

  1. Graphic recording is a highly effective way of capturing key learning points (so much better than my notes).
  2. Pictures really do speak a thousand words. People can effectively understand and remember complicated messages through images.
  3. The impact is long-lasting. I’m more likely to re-visit a picture or print it out and pin it on a wall than re-read my scribbled notes.

Sherry and Twiglets vrs Fence Building. How shared action builds relationships, and why I want a walking coach.

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This might seem like an odd admission but…… I have always dreamed of having a boss that would take me out walking in the Brecon Beacons once a month.

There, I’ve said it. Now let me explain why……

I’ve got a new neighbour, who’s doing lots of renovation work on the property including fence building. Whilst I was busy constructing my shed (subject of a previous post on malicious compliance), I popped over to help with fixing the rails between the fence posts. It wasn’t a particularly difficult or strenuous job, but it was just a bit easier with two people. What it did allow was a bit of conversation between us. In the space of 45 minutes we covered a huge range of things, many of which I can’t remember now, other than walking away thinking, “he’s a decent bloke, we are going to get on well as neighbours”.

What also struck me was the difference between this interaction and the ‘sherry and twiglets’ experience we had when the previous neighbour had organised a meet and greet session before she left. There was nothing wrong with the event (the twiglets were excellent), I just didn’t have the same level of conversation or make the same sort of connection as I had whilst fence building. Doing things together seemed to enable a different type of conversation and the development of a deeper relationship.

This got me thinking, and then a few things happened to reinforce what I’d experienced;

  • I watched my Mother, Son and Niece bake cakes together.  A shared (very messy) activity if ever there was one,
  • The re-commencing of lunchtime walks in the park with a colleague who has been away for a while (welcome back btw), and
  • I heard someone talk about ‘walking and coaching’ in a meeting to establish a South Wales network for the EMCC (European Mentoring and Coaching Council).

Walking and coaching intrigued me and following a quick search, much to my joy, I’ve found out that there are people doing it and it is a legitimate business pastime. Have a look at this site by The Walking Coach and Mike from Mentoring for Change who gives a good explanation of why walk and coach. I’ve been extremely happy at learning this. My desire to go walking with my boss isn’t just another peculiar fantasy of mine. It’s a legitimate business activity about coaching, mentoring; and for me building a better relationship and understanding of other people while sharing an activity.

When you think about it, why wouldn’t coaching in the context of walking be an eminently sensible thing to do? I know plenty of people who will happily spend a few hours in coaching sessions sat in hotel lobbies, meeting rooms and other peculiar sedentary locations. Why not get out there in the fresh air and have a walk when you are doing it. It seems like a win, win to me (just remember to wear some decent shoes though).

I’m sure there is theory and technique around how to get the most out of walking and coaching, finding that out is my next challenge. I’m the meanwhile; I’m off cycling for a week in Germany with my friend Geof. Not sure how this is going to work, it’s definitely a shared activity, but I can barely breathe most of the time, let alone talk.

So, what’s the PONT?

  1. Sharing a physical activity with someone does help generate a different level of conversation and help increase understanding and develop relationships.
  2. Walking and talking informally can achieve this (have a walk in the park with a colleague at lunchtime),
  3. Walking and coaching (much to my joy) is a legitimate business activity. Have a think about it as an alternative to hotel lobbies or stuffy meeting rooms. Best of all though, try some joint fence building (or cake baking).

Flipchart foraging and why its worth trying the Draw Something app

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One of my pastimes is checking out the abandoned flipcharts I find in the variety of offices and meeting rooms I get to frequent. It’s quite a revealing pastime (possibly about me unfortunately). Occasionally you do stumble across sensitive material, obviously this goes straight in the confidential waste bin, or back into the hands of the originator. However, it’s the other material on flipcharts that fascinates me. I reckon you can get a useful insight into an organisation from the debris gets left behind on the flipcharts. The more frantic the scribbles, the more I like it.  Line & box diagrams, mind maps, dodgy graphs, stick people and bullet points all feature. Whatever form it takes it’s all a great informal record of organisational life. The real story of what’s going on from the hands of the people who know the place best.

This helpfully gives me an opportunity to talk about some recent experiences where a drawing has helped focus a discussion.

Twice recently I’ve sat in meetings, slightly bored and detached from the action (a familiar situation for many I suspect). What this allowed was the opportunity for a bit of observation and testing a theory of mine about the impact of flipchart drawings.

Meeting 1. Business Process Review.  Nine people sat around a table discussing a document management process. It felt like something from a Dilbert cartoon. The alpha males and females (3 people) were vying for superiority, while two others were doing the best they could to get heard. The rest were in various stages of disengagement.  Plenty of arm waving and use of technical language to demonstrate ‘one’s own cleverness’ was going on. What looked obvious to me was that there were at least two versions of the truth being spoken about, and a contractor (supposed to be delivering the solution) looking confused, frustrated and increasingly desperate.

Eventually some bright spark suggested the contractor draw the process on a flipchart. Bingo! Suddenly everyone was talking about the same thing and rapid progress was achieved. It took 40 minutes to get to this point and 10 minutes to agree some action.

Meeting 2. Comparing Supplier Costs. Thinking about it now, this was a completely daft situation.  A group of 7 people were trying to compare two sets of figures. Most people had the first set of figures. Only one person had a copy of the second, and had only shared them verbally. The discussion was passionate and detailed, with strongly held views about the figures, but completely pointless.

Eventually someone wrote down the figures on a flipchart. It immediately became obvious where the issues where. This was incredibly not in the place where people had been expressing strongly held views! The group then got around to concentrating on the most important issues and developing options. Again, this one took about 40 minutes (of wasted time) before someone wrote on the flipchart and focused the discussion.

A few things I learnt from observing these events:

  • Some people love to talk and express an opinion, no matter how irrelevant;
  • A lack of a clear objective or point of focus allows the misguided (or even the meeting saboteurs I previously mentioned) to flourish;
  • People quickly disengage in these situations; and
  • A few ‘scribbles’ on a flipchart puts it all back on track.

If this is what can be achieved with a few amateur scribbles, imagine what can be achieved through expertly drawn graphics? Have a look at an earlier post about graphic facilitation and the fantastic material organisations like Delta7 generate by working with the people in organisations.

So, what’s the PONT?

  1. Focusing a discussion or a meeting by putting something down on paper can (usually does) help everyone understand and ‘speak the same language’.
  2. Using drawings, graphics or other illustrations can really help, especially with complicated processes, ideas or difficult situations.
  3. Next time you are in a meeting going nowhere, have a go yourself, start drawing and see what happens.

If you are wondering, here is the connection with Draw Something.  If you are slightly nervous about putting something on paper, download the Draw Something app and start drawing. Practice makes perfect … possibly. I wonder if I can fit Elvis into a work context…….?

Linked posts: http://whatsthepont.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/the-staff-dont-understand-quick-draw-them-a-picture-or-something/

The staff don’t understand, quick draw them a picture or something……..

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You are engaged! http://www.delta7.com

Suspend reality and imagine this strange situation…….

  • Boss: “The staff here are a huge problem. They just don’t get my latest initiative, what’s wrong with them?”
  • Smithers: “Ah yes Sir. The words in your manifesto document are so beautifully crafted, truly inspirational, and it’s printed on the finest paper”
  • Boss: “Well here’s something that might work. I’ve heard that some organisations are drawing pictures….. to dumb things down ……..so the staff get it”
  • Smithers: “errrr…… perhaps you mean graphical representation Sir? A picture is drawn so that the  message can be understood and communicated at many levels, in a high impact way?”
  • Boss: “Yes that’s the sort of thing. Right, I want you to knock up an oil painting or bronze sculpture of my fantastic ideas. Then they will understand and I shall achieve true greatness.  Make it happen Smithers!”

This (obviously) is a bit of a parody of a real life situation I heard about. Those involved represent a kind of staff engagement ‘anti-matter’. They were struggling to justify yet another failed initiative and ended up blaming the staff for their lack of cognitive ability. The failure (in their eyes) was on the part of the ‘dumb’ employees, to understand and implement the clever ideas that were being thrust upon them. The ‘draw a picture’ discussion was actually just a diversion to avoid confronting the real problem, a lack of engagement with staff around the ‘clever new initiative’.

This is a great shame as there are genuine benefits in using diagrams, pictures and graphics to communicate messages, understand ideas and generally make sense of the complexities of organisational life.

A good example the approach I’ve seen is archetype extraction used by Cognitive Edge. This is a process where common understandings will emerge out of discussions, workshops, focus groups or other social interactions. A cartoonist / graphic facilitator will capture these common understandings and present them as a cultural archetype. These archetypes are a physical picture of how a community views things; common behaviours, social conventions, rituals and beliefs, common language, role models, “the way things happen around here”, etc (archetypes).  According to Cognitive Edge; “Archetypes can then be used in various initiatives such as branding, communications or strategy. Archetypes that are extracted from the anecdotes told naturally in a community resonate: they have bite.”  Have a look at their website for more details.

Another good example I’ve seen of using pictures and cartoons is by Delta7. The graphic I have included in this post (you are engaged!) is one of many examples on their website. In a similar vein to the Cognitive Edge archetypes the example I’ve included here does look like a bit of an extreme version of what happens in organisations, or perhaps not? A bit like mentioned above, ‘it has bite’ and could be perceived as a bit uncomfortable for some people. It’s well worth having a look at the Delta7 website gallery for a few more examples of the pictures and archetypes they have created, I bet you will see a situation you recognise.

Coming back to the Boss and Smithers mentioned earlier. I don’t think these are the sort of pictures the Boss had in mind. It’s a case of being careful what you wish for. If all you want are simple graphical illustrations, that’s fine but you do run a huge risk of patronising people and seriously disengaging them by ‘dumbing’ things down. If you go for something that digs a bit deeper that engages people (which I think you should), be prepared to live with the results. The pictures might actually have ’bite’ and tell you how things actually do happen around here, possibly not what you wished for.

So, what’s the PONT?

1. Pictures, graphics and diagrams are a really effective way of communicating complicated messages, ideas or making sense of situations.

2. They are also a good way of engaging staff, particularly if they are involved in creating the image as something that is commonly understood in the organisation, an archetype.

3. Bosses be careful what you wish for here, some egos may not withstand the archetypes created, they can ‘bite’.

Picture source: http://www.delta7.com/you-are-engaged/

http://www.delta7.com/walking-the-talk/  another great one from Delta7.

Meetings Sabotage, Additional Field Examples

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Lately I’ve been spending time in committee meetings. We love our committee meetings here in Wales, although if you’d like an alternative view, here’s Seth’s Blog on “If committees told the truth”. The one thing committees are great for is spotting sabotage and the meeting saboteurs at work. I thought it would be helpful to update the spotting
field sabotage guide so here goes with five of my recent favourites.

What’s going on? This is an effective tactic for creating a general air of confusion and disorganisation. Just preface your contribution with any one of the following statements. You can see the despair in people’s eyes, especially the Clerk.

  • “I haven’t got a clue where we are on the agenda, but………”
  • “I’m not sure this is relevant here, but………
  • “This might have said by someone else before, but……”

The Black Swan.  These are incredibly rare or improbable things. The Black Swan is a book that will explain all of this if you are interested (currently unread on my bookshelf). In the context of a committee meeting it is the astonishingly ‘off the topic’ question that just leaves people slack-jawed thinking “where on earth did that one come from?” It’s a massively effective sabotage technique for just messing things up and disrupting a discussion thread or line of questioning. For example have a look at this Tickling Slow Loris video, you’ll completely forget about this post.

Repeat what just happened. This is a difficult one to pull off. Just calmly repeating what has been said or asked previously. It takes some nerves to remain stony faced and not give the game away. The end result is brilliant and well worth that same slack-jawed astonishment. Sometimes you’ll even get a different response to the same question, always interesting. This happened once to my Sister in a job interview (by committee). I think she was quite happy not to get the job with that organisation.

Doing your Sudoku (or crossword). I’m all for multi-tasking, reading the papers for the next item is fine, but doing Sudoku is ridiculous. What’s even worse is when the Sudoku enthusiast is sitting in clear sight of someone giving a presentation.  A bit of a motivation killer really.

Sleeping. Brilliant! The absolute best,especially when it’s combined with any of the above. It’s amazing how often this sabotage technique is used to maximum effect, even before midday. People are generally very reluctant to wake up the sleeper, or even mention it. The impact is huge though, saying everything you need to know about the meeting,“this meeting is really boring, look I’m asleep!”

Obviously this has all been happening at a low-level, limited significance committee I’ve
been attending; the ‘Village Hall, Repainting of the Bike Shed, Sub Committee’. You’d never see this sort of thing at any hugely important committee that oversees millions of pounds of expenditure and the activity of 100’s of people.

So, what’s the PONT?

  1. The saboteurs are everywhere, highly skilled and you need to be vigilant.
  2. Some of the sabotage is so subtle that the saboteurs might not even know they are doing it.
  3. Challenge is hard to do (what are you trying to prove?). The people best placed to do this are probably peers.

Links to previous posts:

Picture source: http://www.spanishdict.com/answers/208914/la-palabra-del-da-la-comisin

Silence is………. really uncomfortable

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Facilitation toolkit essential?
Facilitation toolkit essential?

This week I have been mostly facilitating. Doing it for real Monday, and learning how to get better at it the rest of the week. Check out Plas Menai near Caernarvon, North Wales if you want a great venue.

The main learning point to take away …….. shut up! (me that is).

My default facilitation approach is to keep things busy, maintain the energy in the room and have lots of people downloading their content.  Silence is bad….. and I’ll always step in to fill the gap, in that nature abhors a vacuum style.

Well, that was the old me. From now on I’ll be keeping quiet and using the silence or
the ‘power of the pause’. Perhaps asking the ‘what do you think that means?’ question or just saying nothing.  It doesn’t come easy for me, but it has a few interesting effects:

  •  Useful and unexpected things emerge. The obvious stuff surfaces quickly and then ‘floats off downstream’. Then by waiting in silence other things bubble up from the depths;
  • It does take more time, but even the most talkative person will eventually go silent, allowing others to contribute;
  • Silence is uncomfortable, you’ll get fidgeting and lots of people really don’t like it (me included);
  • Controlling my body language, including eye contact was really difficult. But it does avoid that subtle influencing of the proceedings; and
  • Groups seem to learn the process reasonably quickly. The superficial ‘gap filling’ comment and diversionary chatter drops off and you get down into the deeper content that has greater meaning and significance.

It’s a tough one to pull off. I found that out for myself, but the outputs felt so much better than ones achieved previously using a much ‘busier’ style. Being busy,rescuing people from the silence and helping them find the answers (I subconsciously wanted them to find) is not as effective as letting them dig up the answers for themselves. Even if it is a bit uncomfortable.

At this point I must also apologize for being a bit of a plonker, not getting it, and disrupting things early on. Sorry Daniel, and thanks.

So what’s the PONT

  1. Silence is really powerful and can be used very effectively.
  2. The discomfort it creates can help to surface what people really think, or what really matters to them.
  3. It’s hard as a facilitator not to jump in and rescue people from the silence, but well worth it (use the duct tape on yourself).

Picture source: http://www.itst-shirttime.com/shop/1922-silence-is-golden-duct-tape-is-silver-funny-t-shirt.htm

Ritual Dissent – getting better proposals and dealing with saboteurs

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Ritual Dissent is one of my favourite facilitation techniques. It gets good results quickly and is great for dealing with the saboteurs (see spotting field sabotage post). I was taught it by Dave Snowden of Cognitive Edge who also provides a method statement.

It’s a very structured approach that minimises the opportunities for the saboteurs to do bad things. Essentially you develop a proposal, idea or whatever and then have it subjected to ‘ritual dissent’ by another group. The process generates really robust proposals and ideas that will live in the real world. I find it’s a great improvement on the more nebulous ideas you often get through the round the table, consensus developing approaches.

The ‘ritual dissent’ bit really is ritualised and a bit of a trial. Once the person presenting the proposal to the second group has finished speaking, they physically turn their back on the group and just actively listen.

This does three things that I’ve seen:

  1. It focuses the dissent on the idea itself and not the person presenting……. ‘what is wrong with this idea’………..not a snipe at the presenter.
  2. It removes any body language from the discussion. A potentially powerful tool for both sides.
  3. It makes the person with their back turned listen. It’s not been called an ‘forced listening technique‘ for nothing.

Once the person has ‘listened’, they return to their group and improve the proposal based upon what they have heard.  You can repeat the ritual dissent cycle a couple of times, and even throw in an ‘assent’ phase where the group can only suggest helpful improvements.

One of my best experiences using Ritual Dissent was facilitating the development of a medium term plan with a Strategic Leadership Team. After sitting with their back turned on their colleagues, listening, the Director calmly announced; “that’s the first time I’ve actually listened in years ……if I had been receiving that face to face I would have been eyeballing you lot…..  In fact I wouldn’t have kept my mouth shut”. If you ask me, that outcome had to be a good  thing.

So what does it mean for the saboteurs, well they hate it.  A tight structure with clear tasks reduces the opportunity for mischief.  When it comes to the dissent part, it’s surprising how quiet they can be, even in a group. They don’t like the sunlight very much. Just as importantly to produces robustly tested proposals and ideas that will stand up to scrutiny in the real world.

So, what’s the PONT?

  1. Ritual Dissent is a great facilitation method. It gets robust results quickly and makes people actively listen.
  2. Structure and tasks are a good way of involving everyone and minimising the opportunities for saboteurs
  3. If you intend to use the technique, make sure you download the method statement, it really helped me.
An extreme reponse to ritual dissent

An extreme response to ritual dissent

Having your back turned really forces you to listen, and not eyeball the dissenters, unless you pull a stunt like this. Nice one!

Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joe469/3708318542/