Author: Michael Wilkinson

A disagreement arises in a meeting you are facilitating. This is an inevitable scenario in many types of meetings where a group needs to come to critical decisions – such as strategic planning or issue resolution sessions. How do you – the person in the room responsible for building consensus – resolve it without breaking group dynamics or creating a tense environment of division? It’s a tough job, but you can (and need to) do it.

Here’s one way to resolve the disagreement. NOTE! It is important to first understand that these steps are specifically for situations where the disagreers are disagreeing on information – what we refer to as “Level 1 Disagreement” in our facilitation training, The Effective Facilitator. For disagreements based on values or past history, you’ll need to apply other approaches that we also teach in The Effective Facilitator.

These six steps will help you resolve disagreement by delineating the alternatives:

Step 1 – Start with Agreement

Starting with agreement helps both parties see that they already have something in common. This initial agreement can serve as a bridge for constructing the final solution.

Step 2 – Confirm the Source of the Disagreement

Identifying the source of the disagreement shows the parties that they are not far apart, despite the fact that the discussion may have become somewhat strained.

Step 3 – Identify the Alternatives under Discussion

Once the source of the disagreement is confirmed, you will then identify the alternatives that have been discussed. If there are two alternatives, create a two column chart – on a flip chart or projected screen – labeling the columns with the name of each alternative. If there are more than two alternatives, you will have as many columns as you have alternatives.

Step 4 – Ask Specific Delineating Questions to Each Party

For each alternative, direct specific questions at the supporter of the alternative and record the responses on the flip chart or screen. For example, in a case where the disagreers disagree about who in an organization should take a specific training course, the questions might be:

► How much will it cost?

► How long will it take?

► What is involved?

► Who is involved?

Step 5 – Summarize the Information

After getting the details for each alternative, summarize the key points from the answers uncovered in the previous step.

Step 6 – Take a Consensus Check

Once each alternative is delineated and summarized, check to determine if consensus has been reached. If consensus has been reached, you will be able to move on. If consensus has not been reached, you will want to move to other consensus building techniques.

Don’t let disagreement bury your group’s meeting outcome. Find other ways to resolve disagreement and create consensus, such as the Strengths and Weaknesses and Merging approaches – taught in The Effective Facilitator.

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Certified Master Facilitator Michael Wilkinson is the CEO and Managing Director of Leadership Strategies, Inc., The Facilitation Company and author of The Secrets of Facilitation 2nd Edition, The Secrets to Masterful Meetings, and The Executive Guide to Facilitating Strategy. Leadership Strategies is a global leader in meeting facilitation, providing companies with dynamic professional facilitators who lead executive teams and task forces in areas like strategic planning, issue resolution, process improvement and others. The company is also a leading provider of facilitation training in the United States, having trained over 19,000 individuals.

When you are gathering input, ideas, and issues from your group at warp speed, it will inevitably be challenging and tedious. As a meeting facilitator, you must employ several techniques for recording information in a session to make it a manageable process. Here are a few methods taught in our course, The Effective Facilitator, that make the process easier – for you and your participants.

The Secrets to Managing the Recording Process (From The Secrets of Facilitation, 2nd ed.) To make the recording process manageable, use the following techniques: Offer participants a format for their responses. Record only as many words as necessary to ensure that the participant’s comments are clear, concise and can stand alone. Use common abbreviations where appropriate. Use the headline technique to get participants to shorten long comments.

Offer participants a format for their responses

One method for managing the recording process is to give the participants a format for their responses. For example, you may ask for a “noun-verb-object” response from participants – e.g. “The Human Resources Department (noun) manages (verb) the onboarding process (object).”

The format method helps participants understand the information you are requesting. It also helps you listen for the information you desire and helps you to know what to document.

Record only as many words as necessary

As the facilitator, your goal is to ensure that your record of the participants’ comments are words that they said, clear to the reader and concise. The words you record must also be able to stand alone without having to rely on preceding comments to make sense.

To achieve these goals, it is not necessary that you record all of the speaker’s words. In fact, given the way most of us speak, recording all the words may reduce clarity! The key is that whatever words the facilitator writes are indeed words that the participants said.

For example, one participant says, “Somewhere early in the process we in HR place an ad in the paper.” You, as the facilitator, might record, “HR places ad in paper.” While 14 words were spoken, only five words were recorded, and each of these were words that your participant said.

Use common abbreviations where appropriate

Another technique for managing the recording process is to use abbreviations. When using abbreviations, be careful that the abbreviations are clearly understood by the participants and will still be understandable days later when the documentation is finalized.

For example, abbreviations might be used for departments (“Depts”) and Human Resources (“HR”).

Use the headline technique to have participants shorten long comments

Have you ever been faced with a participant who has given you a long, wordy comment? And, there you stand with a pen in hand and have no idea what to write. The headline technique is used for these situations. As the facilitator, you might say, “If the comment you just made was an article in the newspaper, what would the headline of the article be? Would you headline that comment for me?”

The headline technique can be quite effective in helping reduce an 83-word comment to seven words.

The headline technique can serve as a fail-safe mechanism for facilitators. When all other techniques fail, you can use it to bail yourself out when you have little idea of what to write. Keep in mind, however, it should be a fail-safe technique – not a technique used after every participant’s comment. The other techniques described earlier should prevent you from having to use the headline technique very often.

What are other techniques you use when capturing information in your meetings? There are much more to learn. Discover additional facilitation techniques plus get hands-on practice with these techniques in our training course, The Effective Facilitator.

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Certified Master Facilitator Michael Wilkinson is the CEO and Managing Director of Leadership Strategies, Inc., The Facilitation Company and author of The Secrets of Facilitation 2nd Edition, The Secrets to Masterful Meetings, and The Executive Guide to Facilitating Strategy. Leadership Strategies is a global leader in meeting facilitation, providing companies with dynamic professional facilitators who lead executive teams and task forces in areas like strategic planning, issue resolution, process improvement and others. The company is also a leading provider of facilitation training in the United States, having trained over 19,000 individuals.

 

Here we go. We’ve completed March, and now, it’s down to the Final Four in this year’s NCAA March Madness. As I analyze the four remaining teams and highlights of their seasons (and take a look at my butchered bracket!), I think about how March Madness and – more importantly – the game of basketball really does embody what we know about facilitation.

Let’s consider that thought for these reasons:

1. What we call engagement strategies, the players call pre-game activities – like pre-game warm-ups and pre-game rituals. The warm-ups are methodical drills that help the players get in rhythm, exercise their skills, and engage with each other – from stretching to laps to shooting. Many teams also have traditional, superstitious activities that must be done before any game – some are peculiar, some are funny, some stir the spirit outside of the locker room and are felt by the fans. They are just like engagement strategies, which facilitators love because they help focus and motivate the group and the result wanting to be achieved. We have a whole manual on strategies that engage a group, get them “warmed up” and thinking, and prevent boredom. Because pre-game warm-ups and rituals are often performed at the beginning before the game starts, they are also like opening statements because they produce the IEEI – the inform, excite, empower, and involve – that we teach in facilitation training, like The Effective Facilitator. What are the best warm-ups or rituals you’ve seen?

2. Even the word “facilitator” is used to describe the point guard’s position. Some even argue that, because of this, the point guard has the most important role on the floor. The point guard has the ball in his/her hands the most, and therefore, he/she must guide the team play by play. The point guard’s play-making decisions and actions influence the other four teammates on the court. Similarly, a meeting facilitator possesses this same critical responsibility (along with other unique roles) – the facilitator must guide the group throughout the session, and the meeting participants will look to the facilitator to “make plays” to achieve the group’s meeting purpose.

3. There will be dysfunction. Whether a personal foul, a poor officiating call, a technical foul, etc. – there will be dysfunction on and off the court, as there will be in meetings (in and out of the room). What happens when a team is assessed a foul? Turnovers, free throws, and a lot of frustration, as I’m sure Kansas State can attest to after that odd, technical call the team was given before the game even started. In basketball, fouls happen, and just like in meetings, they interrupt the group’s momentum and overall purpose. The team must find ways to overcome dysfunction – whether it be shifting player match-ups, utilizing your bench, or strengthening your defensive techniques. The good news for meeting facilitators is that we’ve found ways to manage dysfunction. Unfortunately, there is no officiating crew in meetings who assesses fouls on participants and rewards the other participants with free throws. Instead, we rely on facilitation methods to prevent and manage dysfunction to keep the meeting productive, as outlined in this eBook. Note – unlike in basketball, it is important that meeting participants not strategically try to draw dysfunction/fouls as part of their game plan!

4. Upsets happen in meetings too, as they do in in the Big Dance. Of course, my bracket this year is a prime example of that. Always count on a wild card or that Cinderella team – i.e. this year’s Dayton Flyers – that will go on an impressive run and upset the leading teams predicted to be in contention – i.e. Ohio State and Syracuse. You will find this in meetings as well – there may be participants expected to come up with the most innovative idea or the solution to the problem, but in a facilitated session, all bets are off – it’s no longer about competition. It’s about consensus. And, true consensus means that everyone has a say. You may be in a brainstorming session with senior-level executives in the room expecting to get approval on their implementation plan, but the chosen ideas born from that meeting might come from the new, entry-level person who had a chance to speak up, suggest brilliant ideas, and gain buy-in from the group. That’s the power of facilitation – helping all participants get to the answers through a structured process.

5. Hope is not a strategy on the court nor in the meeting room. Coach Billy Donovan will certainly not depend on his Gators to run up and down the court “hoping” the ball will find its way through the rim. He will come up with other strategies for their Final Four game against the historic powerhouse that is UConn. Similarly, as meeting facilitators, we cannot “hope for hope.” Come prepared for your participants in the room. Have your purpose clear and your meeting agenda ready. Like good basketball players, you have to know what you’re up against on the court. A good meeting facilitator is aware of everything in his/her room – from the participants to the flip charts. Use this checklist for meeting preparing and agenda setting.

So, who will advance after this weekend – Florida, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Kentucky? Who will facilitate their way to the national championship?

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Certified Master Facilitator Michael Wilkinson is the CEO and Managing Director of Leadership Strategies, Inc., The Facilitation Company and author of The Secrets of Facilitation 2nd Edition, The Secrets to Masterful Meetings, and The Executive Guide to Facilitating Strategy. Leadership Strategies is a global leader in facilitation services, providing companies with dynamic professional facilitators who lead executive teams and task forces in areas like strategic planning, issue resolution, process improvement and others. The company is also a leading provider of facilitation training in the United States, having trained over 18,000 individuals.

Ever been to a meeting that made you grimace with sympathy for the meeting leader, as you witnessed him/her struggling to facilitate the group? Why did that meeting facilitator struggle? Was it lack of preparation? Perhaps, a classic case of the “wing it” meeting?

Many times, we, as facilitators, are not prepared (or ill prepared) for meetings, and that leads to some horrific results – including those feelings you experienced while watching a fellow facilitator suffer through a meeting. What are some things you’ll hear in an unprepared meeting? Look out for these words. And, don’t let this happen to you.

1. “I don’t know why we’re having this meeting.” — This is something you, as the facilitator, should be able to answer. And, in fact, this is the very foundation of your meeting – the most critical thing you should state at the beginning of your meeting. At Leadership Strategies, we teach the Purpose of the meeting as the most important “P” in our “6 Ps of Preparation.” Otherwise, why would you have the meeting?
2. “We’re running out of time, but I think that what we have is fine… Right?” — What if that’s wrong? What if your meeting wasn’t really over until your group walked away with “x” (whatever “x” is)? When preparing for your meeting, you should always identify what your deliverable is – what the group should have in its hands when the meeting has finished. Is it an agreement on a new policy? A completed action plan? A final committee vote? Know what that “x” is, and if you don’t have it at the end of your meeting, get consensus from the group on what to do about it next (whether it’s schedule another meeting, etc.).
3. “Was she supposed to be here?” — Uh-oh. When you planned for that important group meeting, did you think about the stakeholders who needed to be involved – even those outside of your department? Part of your preparation should include this so that your group isn’t missing key faces in the room.
4. “Oh, I didn’t think about that.” — Surely, you’re not expected to be a mind-reader, but we do teach our facilitators that part of their role is to be clairvoyant. Facilitators take the time to see probable issues that lie ahead and may surface during facilitated sessions. How? By doing their homework, by interviewing key stakeholders/sponsors before a meeting, by asking about their perspectives – these are all essential in your preparation. Especially in strategy work or complex project meetings, a facilitator is always prepared.
5. “I don’t have an agenda prepared for this.” — Yikes. Without an agenda, how will your group stay focused? How will YOU stay focused? Many times the agenda also outlines your process and structure for facilitating the meeting. Without it, you have no navigation. And, furthermore, you don’t have your team’s buy-in to proceed with talking through the agenda that you might have prepared (in your head).
6. “Did anyone remember to reserve a conference room or set up a conference call?” — The logistics of the meeting are overlooked more times than you might think. Some individuals are so focused on merely getting the meeting date set on everyone’s calendar but forget to input details like: meeting place, if special building security access is needed, if someone in the group will need to call in, etc. As you prepare for your meeting, think about how your participants will be involved, where they should gather, what challenges might arise with the meeting place, etc. Isn’t it aggravating being delayed by fifteen minutes just because you scrambled putting together a conference dial-in or finding an empty conference room at the last minute?

If you find yourself hearing (or saying!) these expressions during your meeting, take some time to better prepare for your next meeting. Use this checklist, “Meeting Preparing and Agenda Setting,” for help. And, don’t forget that effective facilitation doesn’t end with good preparation – get trained on how to execute during your meetings too.

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Certified Master Facilitator Michael Wilkinson is the CEO and Managing Director of Leadership Strategies, Inc., The Facilitation Company and author of The Secrets of Facilitation 2nd Edition, The Secrets to Masterful Meetings, and The Executive Guide to Facilitating Strategy. Leadership Strategies is a global leader in facilitation services, providing companies with dynamic professional facilitators who lead executive teams and task forces in areas like strategic planning, issue resolution, process improvement and others. The company is also a leading provider of facilitation training in the United States, having trained over 18,000 individuals.

800-824-2850 | www.leadstrat.com

While Richard Smith and I wrote CLICK: The Virtual Meetings Book, we received many questions on quick and easy ways meeting leaders can prepare for and begin virtual meetings on the right track. Here are 8 practical tips to help you prepare for and start virtual meetings to completely (yet easily) transform your meeting outcomes:

(You can get this checklist of 8 tips in a print-friendly version too – download it here.)

1. Distribute relevant information prior to the meeting – including the meeting objectives, agenda, specified time zones of start/end times, and ground rules.

2. Limit agenda items so that the entire call can be completed in two hours or less. If necessary, break the meeting into several
calls.

3. Ask participants to submit preliminary input and ideas before the meeting.

4. Request for multiple people at the same location to assemble together in a conference room or other suitable office/environment.

5. Create a list that shows the name and location of each person expected in the meeting.

6. Conduct a roll call. Ask each person to state his/her name and location.

7. Inform-excite-empower-involve in your opening words:

• Inform participants of the meeting purpose.
• Excite them about their participation by explaining the benefits.
• Empower them by letting them know the authority they’ve been given.
• Involve them by asking a Type B question that engages them. (Learn about the Type B question in The Effective Facilitator!)

8. Add any specific ground rules to assist with “remote meeting etiquette,” such as the following:

• Announce yourself when joining or leaving the meeting.
• Always identify yourself before speaking.
• Avoid using the “hold” button.

Want more tips like these? Here’s another free checklist – learn 6 additional tips on keeping your participants engaged in virtual meetings.

Happy Virtual Facilitating!

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Certified Master Facilitator Michael Wilkinson is the CEO and Managing Director of Leadership Strategies, Inc., The Facilitation Company and author of The Secrets of Facilitation 2nd Edition, The Secrets to Masterful Meetings, and The Executive Guide to Facilitating Strategy. Leadership Strategies is a global leader in facilitation services, providing companies with dynamic professional facilitators who lead executive teams and task forces in areas like strategic planning, issue resolution, process improvement and others. The company is also a leading provider of facilitation training in the United States, having trained over 18,000 individuals.

(Adapted from my book, The Secrets of Facilitation, 2nd ed.)

Throughout a facilitated session, you use three parking boards to track important information:

• The “decisions list” identified decisions or recommendations made by the group during the session.
• The “issues list” included topics that need to be discussed later in the session or entirely outside the session.
• The “actions list” documented actions to be performed sometime after the completion of the session.

At the end of the meeting, review all three parking boards, starting with the decisions list.

The goal of the decision review is to remind the team of the decisions that have been made. In addition, you can use this review to strengthen the commitment to action, identify potential issues, and develop strategies for overcoming those issues.

Smart Facilitators use four steps of the methods for reviewing decisions list. After completing the first step, you may choose to do one or more of the other steps, depending upon the amount of time you have available, the importance of the decisions, the need for commitment to action, and the level of resistance expected from others outside the meeting.

Method 1: Simple Review of Decisions

The most straight-forward method for reviewing decisions is simply to read through the list of items on the decisions list and asked, “Does this list fairly portray the decisions we made in this meeting? Were there any other decisions that we made?”

Sample Decisions List: 1. If internal candidate identified in advance, allow for fast-track hiring process based on 14-day internal posting 2. Provide interviewing training to all hiring managers and interviewers 3. Scan resumes into computer to permit searching 4. Permit departments to be involved in screening process at their discretion 5. Provide avenue for giving signing bonuses to attract top candidates

Method 2: Document Decision and Benefit

After reviewing the decision list, you can help ensure that the team members understand the value gained by documenting benefits of each decision.

• Make sure your decisions on the decision list are numbered.
• Create a two-column chart, with the first relatively small, about four inches. Label the first column “Decision” and label the second column “Benefit.”
• Place a “1” in the first column and asked the following question.

• Continue until the team has documented benefits for each of the decisions.

By tracking and reviewing the decisions made, every person in the meeting will have a clear understanding of the results of the meeting. By also documenting benefits, the participants will have a common vision of the value gained by the decisions. This common vision can be beneficial as participants communicate to others the reasons for the decisions.

Decision	Benefit
1	Creates a fast-track process for internal candidates, while still making the position available to others in the organization
2	Increases likelihood of identifying stronger candidates and eliminating weaker candidates; reduces risk of legally inappropriate questions by interviewer during the interview process

Method 3: Barriers and Potential Strategies

After documenting decisions and benefits, consider having the group identify potential barriers to implementing the decisions.

Sample Potential Barriers: Lack of management buy-in to the recommendations Lack of participation in the interviewing training Signing bonus budget wasted on people who are not top candidates

• After recording all of the potential barriers, create a four-column chart labeled “Barrier | Strategy | Who | When,” with the first relatively small, about four inches.
• Place a “1” in the first column and asked the following question.

• Document each success strategy identified by the group.
• Once all the success strategies are documented, ask the group to decide who in the room should lead the implementation of each strategy. Have the leader of the strategy commit to a date by when the strategy will be completed.

Our experience suggests that the Barrier/Strategy discussion is most needed with organizations in which there is considerable resistance to change.

If you do document barriers and potential strategies, we believe it is important to first identify the benefits for each of the decisions. By documenting the benefits first, the team will more likely see the value of overcoming the barriers. If barriers are identified without documenting benefits, it is possible that the team can get so discouraged by the barriers they have to overcome, that they begin second guessing the value of the decisions.

Barrier	Strategy	Who	When
1	Hold a management briefing on the recommendations and benefits to gain buy-in for implementation	Robert	Within 3 weeks
2	Hold briefing for supervisors to ask their help in defining what they would want to see in the interviewing training; have supervisors select three to serve as an advisory team for HR in developing the training	Sandra	Within 6 weeks

Method 4: Polling the Jury

In several types of facilitated sessions, it is essential to have a confirmation of agreement from all participants before beginning the implementation of solutions. Sessions related to strategic planning, issue resolution and process reengineering are three types in particular in which it can be helpful to ensure that you have the agreement of all involved.

One method to ensure you have full agreement is to poll the jury.

• At the beginning of the session, define consensus, “I can live with it and support it.” (See Chapter X., “The Secrets to Building Consensus,” for a sample dialogue for defining consensus.)
• Also at the beginning, indicate that at the end of the session you will ask all participants if they can live with and support the solutions created.
• After reviewing the decisions made, and optionally, the benefits, potential barriers and success strategies, go around the room asking each participant,

• If any concerns are raised, you might ask the participant the following.

• Alternatively, if you believe the concerns might be less severe, you might first ask the following.

• If changes are recommended, suggest a time limit for discussing the recommendation and ask the participants if they are willing to enter into the discussion.
• Once resolution is reached, ensure that you still have the consensus of the prior participants before continuing to poll the jury.

Facilitator: We just heard a suggestion of a change to one of the actions. Let’s review it…Any questions or concerns about incorporating the change?

Get more information and training about reviewing decisions and closing a meeting with impact – visit Leadership Strategies’ website.

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Certified Master Facilitator Michael Wilkinson is the CEO and Managing Director of Leadership Strategies, Inc., The Facilitation Company and author of The Secrets of Facilitation 2nd Edition, The Secrets to Masterful Meetings, and The Executive Guide to Facilitating Strategy. Leadership Strategies is a global leader in facilitation services, providing companies with dynamic professional facilitators who lead executive teams and task forces in areas like strategic planning, issue resolution, process improvement and others. The company is also a leading provider of facilitation training in the United States, having trained over 18,000 individuals.

High energy does three important things:

1. It energizes the topic.
2. It engages the participants.
3. It elevates the facilitator.

How does High Energy Energize a Topic?

When a facilitator leads a session with energy, the energy transfers to the topic. By being passionate about the topic, you are implicitly saying to the participants, “This is important to me, and it should be important to you.” Your actions and your energy around the topic help energize the topic for the participants. And, just as high energy can make a topic more interesting, likewise, low energy can make a topic less interesting.

How does High Energy Engage the Participants?

For most people, high energy is just more appealing to listen to than low energy. In essence, high energy is just more fun. Of course there is a point where high energy goes “over the top” and becomes less interesting and more irritating. But, short of being over done, high energy invites participants to listen and stay alert. Unfortunately, low energy can invite participants to check out or fall asleep. I’m sure you, like me, have experienced this many times with speakers in a variety of circumstances.

How does High Energy Elevate the Facilitator?

Energy can have a significant impact on the participants’ perception of the facilitator. As a consultant, when I spoke with clients, I used a low-key consulting voice, which was intended to project sincerity and concern. I wanted to let my clients know that I was concerned about their needs and wanted to be as helpful to them as possible.

Unfortunately, when I facilitated, I would speak with the same, low-key voice. While it was an effective consulting voice, it was a lousy facilitation voice. Why? When a facilitator drops his/her energy, the session drags. When a facilitator keeps his/her energy up, the participants follow. One participant said he followed a facilitator because “he seemed to know what he was doing.”

The critical point here is that the facilitator’s high energy projected confidence. High energy gave the impression that he knew what he was doing. Let’s reverse the point. If high energy can project high confidence, then low energy can project low confidence. So, during my consulting days, my low energy during facilitation was projecting to the participants that I had low confidence. In other words, I was giving up power when I facilitated.

So, keep up your energy high and remember the impact those 3 “Es” have in your meetings. Want to learn how to start a virtual meeting with high energy (and keep it that way)? Read more here.

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Certified Master Facilitator Michael Wilkinson is the CEO and Managing Director of Leadership Strategies, Inc., The Facilitation Company and author of The Secrets of Facilitation 2nd Edition, The Secrets to Masterful Meetings, and The Executive Guide to Facilitating Strategy. Leadership Strategies is a global leader in facilitation services, providing companies with dynamic professional facilitators who lead executive teams and task forces in areas like strategic planning, issue resolution, process improvement and others. The company is also a leading provider of facilitation training in the United States, having trained over 18,000 individuals.