It’s been 20 years since I started my business facilitating teams and training others to do what I do.  Back then, no one even knew how to spell “facilitator”, no less what a facilitator did!

As they say, we’ve come a long way, baby.  The root word, “facil” is latin for “make things easier”.  True enough, “Facilitator” is used all the time to describe anyone who “makes things easier”.

In the world of teams and meetings, a facilitator guides the process – helping the team get from Point A to Point B – the desired outcome.

Now, we all know that the shortest distance between two points is….a straight line.  But do teams march straight to the desired outcome?   I think not!  So a facilitator saves you time, money, and grief by providing process expertise, keeping the group on task, and fulfilling these main functions:

Clarify the charter.  The facilitator gets together with the sponsor and team leader to make sure they all understand the team’s goal(s) and expectations, the composition of the team, timeframes, deliverables, capabilities, and constraints.
Partner with the team leader.  Before the team ever meets, the facilitator gets together with the team leader and agrees on the basic strategies to move the team forward.  They will agree on how to prepare for and critique that meeting – or the series of meetings.  The facilitator then develops an initial agenda for the team to follow.
Guide the process.  As the process expert, you provide structure and process tools to help the team achieve its goal.  At the beginning of each meeting, ensure the team agrees to the agenda and time limits.  Keep the meeting on the topic and moving along.
Ensure a safe environment.  The facilitator thinks through the barriers to effective participation and how to ensure the environment is conducive to collaboration.
Manage participation.  The facilitator opens discussions and invites participation by all.  She tactfully prevents anyone from being overlooked or dominating the discussion.  She also summarizes and closes the discussions.
Intervene when necessary.  When the team gets off track or if the discussion fragments into multiple conversations, the facilitator will step in to bring the team back on topic.
Manage conflict constructively. All teams have some degree of “conflict” where each person has a different point of view.  Otherwise, why would you call a team together?  A facilitator helps the team hear and discuss these differing opinions to ensure they generate “light” around the issue and not “heat”.
Check decisions.  Teams make small decisions throughout the meeting.  When the facilitator senses that a decision has been made, he will check for understanding and agreement.  He then makes sure the team understands the next steps and who will do them.
Clarify next steps.  Every team meeting should end with specific tasks assigned to specific team members.  Otherwise, you have just had a great conversation, but no results!  The facilitator makes sure everyone understands who is responsible for what and by when.
Develop the team.  A facilitator’s secondary goal is to enable the team to function effectively over the long term – that all the team members have good facilitative and team skills.  This means that the facilitator is constantly training, coaching and developing the team leader and team members along the way.
Documents the discussion.  Most teams go through a predictable pattern of discussion: generation of ideas, organization/prioritization of those ideas to be able to select a quality decision to take action.  An external facilitator may document that discussion within a few days so the team can move quickly on their commitments.

When you have a facilitator performing these functions, the team stays much more focused on the desired outcomes, you take less time because the team doesn’t stray off topic, and you have greater commitment to the final decision.

Find out more about how we help you achieve your meeting objectives.

I intend to schedule a webinar in March, June, September, and August of this year.  As far as topics go, I could talk for days about teamwork, but we’re only looking at a 45 minute webinar!

So here are some titles/topics I was thinking about, and would like to have your opinion as to what top four webinars you would not only be interested in attending, but would actually sign up!  2012 will be complementary, as I’ll be getting the kinks out of the system.  I’ve done a few, but I wouldn’t exactly call myself an amazing webinar presenter – yet.

TeamSpeak: Words to Use or Lose to Inspire Better Teamwork

Boring to Bravo: 10 Tips to Make Your Presentations Extraordinary!

Beyond Consensus: 3 Little Known Secrets to Achieving Solid Agreements Among Your Team Mates

A Team Leader’s Toolkit for Handing Difficult People

The Do’s & Don’ts of Teamwork & Collaboration: 5 Critical Skills to Take Your Team to the Next Level

Are you a Light Bulb or a Flame Thrower?  How to Manage the Inevitable Conflicts in Teams

Team Player or Spectator?  3 Critical Insights to Building a High Performance Team

Go Beyond the Ordinary: 5 Critical Decisions Every Team Leader Must Make

Any other topics/titles you have in mind?

Thanks for voting now on your top topics and helping me crowdsource the best titles/topics for 2012!  You have until Sunday, January 15th to let me know.  Thanks a bazillion!

Joseph Sherren

‘Tis the season to make your new year’s resolutions.  If you have attended one of my sessions, you have heard me talk about how you can take control and improve your life significantly by deciding, articulating, recording and committing to your future in the form of written goals.

Research has shown that the probability of achieving your dreams of success and happiness increases significantly when you clearly visualize what you want.  Maintaining Vision Boards, scribing or even finding pictures of exactly what you want is a common habit of successful people.

Unfortunately, most people spend more time planning a two-week vacation than they do their life!  To achieve your life’s goals, follow these five elements for visualization:

Be Clear.  For visualization to work, you must have absolute clarity about what it is you desire.  There is a direct correlation between how clearly you can see your desired goal in your mind, and how probable it is that it will actually materialize.  Visualization is the fuel that mobilizes the power of the Law of Attraction (as outlined in the documentary “The Secret”).

Be Proactive.  When you first set a goal, your initial image may be ambiguous.  The more often you review, think about, and discuss it with others, the clearer the goal becomes. When it is clear in your psyche is when it will happen – like magic.

Constantly spend time imagining you have already achieved a specific goal.  Hold a clear picture of already achieving your dream, or doing what you want to be doing.  The longer you are able to hold the image in your mind, the deeper it will be embedded into your subconscious.  Psychiatrists have an expression, “You will be dragged kicking and screaming in the direction of your subconscious”.

Be Passionate.  One common element of all the successful people I have studied is that at one point in their life they became angry, frustrated or passionate.  When your emotion is intense enough, your goal and visual image becomes even clearer.

Be Committed.  Everyone has a dream, but very few are willing to pay the price to accomplish it. The result is that few will actually realize their dreams.  The uncommitted are the people who go around saying “I don’t believe in that stuff”. Unfortunately, they infect others with that same defeatist mindset.

Over the years, I have known many people who started with nothing or had higher expectations for themselves than seemed possible. I then discovered that those who visualized, wrote it down, made a plan, shared that plan with others, and worked toward the goal with determination – succeeded.

Maintain a Gratitude Journal.  Write down just one thing every day for which you are grateful.  Evidence suggests you should do this just as you are waking up as this is when your brain is more susceptible to new thinking. It will also set your mood on “Positive” for the day.

Finally, visualize your goals in the positive, rather than what you do not want.  For example, if you have a goal to lose weight, phrase it, “My goal is to be 135 pounds.”  Do not phrase your goal as “I want to lose 20 pounds”. Your mind will not process the “negative” and your subconscious will drag you into remaining overweight!

Be aware that these five elements can help you or hurt you. Like most things in nature, the power of visualization is neutral. It is neither good nor bad.  The process will take you in either direction.  Your sub-conscious thoughts can either create success or produce failure. Visualization brings whatever you vividly and intensely imagine, whether good or bad, positive or negative.

An ordinary person with a passionate plan has greater chance for success than a highly educated person without one!

What are your plans for this new year?

This year, we are introducing:

• A new and exciting hybrid between speaking and facilitating that I have termed a “MainStage Conversationalist”
• Two new Executive Forums – one in Phoenix and the other in Prince Edward Island
• A new quarterly webinar series
• More YouTube “how to” videos

As well as our current mix of facilitation, training and speaking services around the whole notion of teamwork and collaboration.  So stay tuned for more details!

And, just in case you’re curious, here is the process we use to set our annual goals:

First, brainstorm a wish list.  Jot down potential goals for the next year.  Remember not to criticize yourself for what you did or did not do in 2011

Then block out two separate days.

On the first day, review the numbers.  Take a look at what you have done in the past year.  If you don’t have hard facts – go get them and crunch the data on a spreadsheet.  Ask yourself:

• Who are my customers?
• What are my products or services?
• How do I add value (to the top and bottom line)
• What are my core processes?
• How am I performing my core processes – those things I must do exceedingly well to survive?

Then list and recognize your accomplishments.  Don’t forget to give yourself a pat on the back!

Take a look at last years’ goals, and analyze why you met or fell short of last year’s goals – Be brutally honest with yourself and look at your performance and results.

For the rest of the day, share this information with your “kitchen cabinet” – those colleagues, friends and business contacts whom you respect and value their opinions.  Ask for and listen to their feedback as allies, not as adversaries.  Then take some time to think about this first day.

No more than a week later, go hibernate someplace where you won’t be interrupted and revisit your “wish” goals.  Keep only those that are going to significantly propel you forward.  Don’t be intimidated by those “BHAGs” (big hairy audacious goals) – they often inspire us to great things!

Create your goals in concrete sentences: “I will earn $**** this year.  I will expand my market by 20%.”  Write each goal at the top of a piece of paper, then answer “why?” you want to achieve each goal.

For each goal, ask “What are the roadblocks to achieving this goal?” and then identify strategies (the how) you are going to achieve it.

From these strategies, create an action plan – specific items to write on your “to do” list, calendar or planner.  Then go ahead and write each activity in your planner.  This part can be tedious and time consuming, but well worth it.  Each day, when you open up your planner, it will be your decision whether you really want to do that small activity that will help you achieve your goals.

From www.CartoonStock.com

My client was complaining about his teammate’s hidden agenda.  Curious, I asked him to tell me about it – which he did, and in some detail.

I had to laugh.  This isn’t a case of the “hidden agenda.”  This agenda was well-known and in the open.  Instead, it was a case of a “misaligned” agenda.  My client’s agenda and his teammate’s agenda didn’t match up.  To make matters more complex, there are actually four levels of potential misalignment:  1) Between team members; 2) Between a team member and the team’s stated objective; 3) Between a team member and the organization’s stated objectives; and 4) Between the team’s objectives and the organization’s stated objectives.

Most people are pretty transparent. When you take the time to notice their behaviors and what they are saying, that hidden agenda becomes not so hidden.

You also need to take the time to verify that your perceptions are true.  As human beings, we have a great time making stuff up, reading between the lines and dreaming up all kinds of plots and daring-do that are simply by-products of an over-active imagination.  In my experience, people are much more straightforward about their desires.

There is; however, a small, miniscule percentage of the population who is much more machiavellian.  These folks have an ulterior motive – and you don’t know what it is. But you do know they have an agenda – and it is hidden from you.

Regardless of the type of agenda, it is best to get the agendas out in the open, on the table, and constructively discuss them as a group.  The goal is to bring all the agendas (individual, team, organizational) in alignment.  You may even surprise yourself and shift your own personal agenda!

• I need to get my team/direct reports on board.  They are crucial to our success.
• This is a really important meeting that is highly visible throughout the company, to my boss , and to my employees.
• I have waaaayyy too much to do and not enough time.
• I have my folks flying in from all parts of the country/world and we have a finite time to make some agreements about our path forward.
• I recognize the need to have an unbiased, objective person lead our meeting.  This way, I can participate fully without having to worry about process issues (has everyone had a chance to weigh in?, are all the issues out on the table?, what is the strength of the commitments at the end of the day?) and my people won’t feel manipulated.  I can feel confident that people aren’t doing the “dashboard dog” where they are just nodding their heads in agreement with me.  We have a real discussion/debate and come to the best solutions possible.
• Although I hate to admit it, I am at a loss about how to get where I need to go.

Many speakers get nervous and answer their own question (otherwise known as a “rhetorical” question), which severely limits interaction.  They might ask a series of rhetorical questions where they don’t get, nor were they expecting a response.  Then, when they poll the audience (a show of hands, please), they wonder why people don’t raise their hands!

Most audiences get confused.  Do you want an answer or not? If you want an answer, pause and listen for the answer.  If you are going to poll the audience, ask the question and model the behavior you are looking for.  For example, “Who here…” and while you are asking the question, raise your hand high in the air.  This sends a clear signal that you are expecting those people who will say “yes” will raise their hand with you.  Moreover, you are the one person in the room who can see all the results, and enquiring minds want to know.  Share the results in the form of a statistic: “That looks like thirty folks, so that’s 10 percent of the group.”  Or, if you want to make it a tad bit funny, be more precise, even though it is obviously a best guesstimate:  “27 folks agree, and that is 13.3 percent of the group.”

And these people tend to be leaders of – or within – their organizations.  Leaders who know what to do.  Yet they also know that the more people contribute to a decision, the more “buy-in” or commitment they will have to that decision.  I call this “fingerprinting”.  The more people can see their fingerprints in the final decision, the more likely they will endorse, support and carry out that decision.

It’s a fine line.  As a leader, if you have already made your decision, please do not open up the decision-making process for input – only to have the team confirm your decision.  (And if they don’t confirm your decision, you have a real mess on your hands!).

If you are leaning one way or the other, let the team know that you want their opinions, but you are going to make the final decision.  And if you truly want to build a consensus, then be willing to be one voice among many – wrestling with the best option.

What do you do to ensure people’s fingerprints are on an important decision?

It’s true.  The words you use to describe any change you want to see on your team, in your organization or with your clients makes all the difference. Especially the words leaders use to cultivate a cultural change in behavior.  Leaders may use a “hinge”: a word or words that capture the essence of the change.  Here are some examples I have run into lately with some of my clients:

Game Changing Innovation.  What does that really mean?  It meant one thing to the Leadership Team, and yet when you talked to the frontline, they had a hard time getting their arms around the concept.

Edgy.  What does that really look like?  Edgy has two sides of the same coin: a healthy, intense trend-setting vibe – but can also be seen as touchy, irritable, or intolerant.

Lean.  What’s the goal? Cut to the bone, anorexic lean or optimum body mass?  And what’s driving the diet?  You’ll take different strategies depending on the answer….

Unfortunately, you can’t assume that everyone has a common understanding of these words – especially in the context of the organization.  Each person brings their own experiences, biases and nuances to the word – and interprets the meaning differently.  As you use these hinge words, take the time to make these crucial words come alive.  Try to:

Expound.  Explain the meaning of the words in as much detail as you can.

Examples.  Provide examples to demonstrate the meaning of the words.

Analogy.  Tie it to a completely different concept with similar characteristics.

Demonstrate.  Show them concrete ways they can contribute.

Sometimes, you have to slow down in order to speed up to make the change happen.  It is well worth the investment of time to get everyone on your team and in your organization singing off the same sheet of music.

We have become masters of teasing out the common understanding of these critical hinge words in our high stakes meeting facilitation services and our presentations as a mainstage conversationalist.  Give us a call to find out how!

If it is the latter, I have always found it helpful to put together a “team map” – a graphic or visual representation of the team’s journey.  The team map shows the high-level components of a series of meetings – all leading to the end result.

Use the team map much like you would use a roadmap to drive to a specific destination.  Talk about it at the beginning to get agreement and alignment to the overall process.  Post it on the wall to remind team members where they are in the process. And celebrate when you move from one phase to another!

Here is a simple example of the Shewart Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle:

When improving a process, you can use this simple visual:

Or, you can use a more detailed version.  (I call this the left brained version as it is just a table with no graphics or colors!):

You can throw in a bit of color:

Or add in graphical elements:

Just as you use a roadmap when driving to your destination, try creating a team map to show the critical milestones along the way to success.