Articles & White Papers
Client Success Story: Triumph: An Intense Facilitation Challenge
Have you ever been sitting in a facilitated meeting thinking, "This facilitator isn't very good. I could do better than this!" If so, you're not alone. Rebecca Bodrero, a project manager for a non-profit professional services company found herself thinking the same thing in a recent meeting she attended. When her company recently agreed to pay for training, Rebecca jumped at the opportunity to sharpen her facilitation skills and chose Leadership Strategies based upon the recommendations of several colleagues.
"I've had a multitude of interesting facilitation experiences since The Effective Facilitator course (and the participants) helped me improve my facilitation skills last April (2006)," she recalls. "At the time I was helping to design a federal training program being collaboratively developed by the 5 divisions of the U.S, Military. I knew it was going to be a challenging session for several reasons, so I asked my Effective Facilitator class participants to pummel me with difficult behavior during my practice facilitation sessions. Turns out it was good practice!"
What were your goals coming into this class?
I was really looking to have my facilitation skills rejuvenated because I was feeling a bit stale. I've had a plethora of facilitation experiences, and because of this I actually considered backing out of The Effective Facilitator course, thinking it might be too basic. I reconsidered, however, after talking it over with a co-worker and reading the course syllabus because I realized this course covered several areas that I knew I still needed to master. And I'm glad I did! The course gave me the rejuvenation I needed and prepared me for the difficult meeting I was about to facilitate.
How so?
Well, first off it turned out to be a difficult proposition just to get everyone in one room for an entire week. There were unspoken issues and disagreements between the different agencies. Some were threatening to back out if so-and-so was coming or this and that was going to be on the agenda. Others were instructed not to talk to me. The meeting agenda was changed the day before, but the specific changes were not communicated to me until 5 minutes before the meeting started. I knew that if this meeting were to fail then the whole project would fall apart; if this fell apart then other parts of my client's initiative would fall apart-so there was a lot of pressure to make this work AND I realized the benefits to the government agencies to make this work.
Ironically, the biggest challenge turned out to be managing my own team. When the gathering took place, I had one internal team member who didn't come prepared with anything but a serious attitude, which upset another team member, who was relatively inexperienced in this arena. Instead of resting and regrouping in the evenings, I got to resolve their arguments, help them reframe, and work through behavior problems (the one member was almost sent home and was later removed from the project and the company).
Why do you think there was poor collaboration?
They're not used to working together because for so long each department has been a separate entity. Every department was individually executing world-class programs and change is difficult for anyone. Once they caught the vision that ALL the departments had world-class systems and each was really teaching the same things, they were able to imagine "what could be" if they joined forces. They could work even more effectively and efficiently. It was a very big "aha moment" for them. They set a goal to create the best training program in the world.
So what happened?
Despite the serious roadblocks we faced going into the meeting, it went off with hardly a hitch! It was a remarkable and positive experience for all involved. I think that's due to the people involved - they are all good people at heart who want to do what is best for their programs. I'm not saying there weren't some difficult moments, but all in all, we were able to adapt the session to meet everyone's needs and still accomplish the goals.
The training and my experience with my classmates and Richard Smith [our Effective Facilitator leader] turned out to be invaluable. I got the re-energizing I was looking for, some new ideas to try, and simply a fresh perspective. Whenever I started to feel the pressure, I imagined one of the guys in the group saying "Waaassssaaappppp!" and then I could proceed with a smile on my face.
What are your greatest learnings from The Effective Facilitator?
The materials they give us are excellent and I refer to them often for review. What I really picked up was how to transition from one item to the next, how to present to a group effective-yet-subtle transitions. I also learned invaluable ground rule techniques: fun, lighthearted ways to address serious disagreements. I've also used the review activity with a lot of success. It's very effective to use for multiple day sessions because it gives everybody a chance to talk about what they are still concerned about.-and it gives me the opportunity to address their anxieties. Oftentimes people don't know how to express themselves-they only state, "I don't like this or I don't think we should do that." When you create an environment where these types of conversations can be flushed out, people begin to realize they've been misjudging their colleagues. They recognize and understand that everyone is on the same page and they put themselves in other people's positions (and shoes). When this begins to occur, breakthroughs in communication are destined to happen.
Anything else?
Since the course, I routinely plan my opening statement and memorize it before every meeting and review my opening activities. I facilitate several video and web conferences so I've adapted many of the things I learned in The Effective Facilitator class to facilitating technology-based meetings and online communities.
Any long term bonuses?
Since June, we have had about 15 web-conferencing sessions and a couple of video-conferencing sessions with this group. I was able to adapt a lot of the in-person techniques to this environment (ex: how to refer to time when you have 4 time zones represented), but I still have lots of room for learning and improvement in this area.
We recently wrapped up the first phase of this project. It's quite rewarding seeing all 5 of the government agencies looking forward to doing the follow-on work, which is quite a compliment considering some of their previous opinions. This project is also getting a lot of attention throughout the federal government. Several articles have been published on it and it is being presented within many agencies and at federal and national conferences. It's an incredible career experience and I think focusing on facilitation, neutrality, consensus, and communication is key.
I've begun adjusting my career so that I can do more facilitation work in the future. I truly enjoy it. I'd love to take the Advanced Facilitation class with the same people that were in my Effective Facilitator course because they were thoroughly impressive.
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