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Best Practice Tips
4 Steps to Closing a Session
All too often meetings end with many loose ends dangling. Participants may be wondering, "What did we accomplish?" There may also be differences of opinion concerning what was actually decided upon or what actions are to be taken. Open issues may have been left unresolved.
At Leadership Strategies, we believe the close of the meeting is critical. Participants should leave the room knowing:
What did we accomplish?
What are the benefits of what we accomplished?
What will happen once we leave this room?
How will we ensure it will happen?
These outcomes are achieved through the 4-step closing sequence: Review, Evaluate, Close and Debrief:
REVIEW…the activities performed, the participants' objectives, the parking boards
EVALUATE…the value of the session and the results achieved
CLOSE…by formally ending the session
DEBRIEF…with the project team to identify strengths and areas for improvement
These 4 simple steps not only give your attendees a sense of accomplishment and closure, bust also help keep them on track for future activities. Closing a session well is a critical key to success for a facilitator.
For more tips on having productive meetings, consider our one-day course Making Meetings Work.
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Adapt Your Agenda to Address the Need
This month's tip focuses on ways to adapt your agenda using consensus-building principles.
In a meeting, people often disagree due to a lack of shared information. Therefore, it is important that the agenda be designed to provide a common set of information early that will serve as a foundation for the session attendees.
Example:
Our process improvement and process reengineering models start with "How does it work today?"
In agenda setting, it is helpful for the session attendees to have early successes of agreement before tackling the more difficult issues.
Example:
In our strategic planning model, visioning and goal setting is done before the very difficult tasks of establishing objectives.
When faced with making a decision, always have the session attendees build a common set of values by which the decision can be made.
Examples:
In our issue resolution model, strengths and weaknesses and evaluation criteria are used to help guide the group through their decision-making process.
In strategic planning, barriers and critical success factors are used as the anchors for developing strategies.
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Hand clapping is a simple yet powerful way to raise a group's energy level. Encourage participants to applaud:
At the end of each agenda item
After each breakout group reports their results, and
Before every break
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Building Commitment
In closing a session, it is important to confirm
agreement on decisions made. At Leadership
Strategies, we recommend three alternative
methods for achieving this end. Documenting the
Decision/Benefit is one that we use often.
As you are review the decision list, this is the time to take steps to ensure that the decisions are followed up with action.
As the session progresses, document the decisions made on large post-its or 8.5 x 11 sheets.
During the closing for the session, create a two- column chart labeled, "Decision | Benefit."
Review all the decisions quickly and ask the group if there are any decisions missing.
One at a time, place each decision post-it on the chart and ask the group to document the benefit of the decision. (Since you do not know how much space will be needed to document each benefits, using post-its allows you to move the post-its to adjust for variable space).
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.
For more tips on having productive meetings, consider our one-day course Making Meetings Work. Click here for more details or call (800) 824-2850.
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Detailed Agenda Building
Detailed facilitator guides ensure that you, the facilitator, have completely thought through the details of the entire session. At Leadership Strategies, we use the letters "OPQRST" as a way of remembering the six components of a detailed facilitator guide:
Order of the facilitation processes (the agenda)
Process technique you will use to gather information throughout the process (e.g., listing, brain-storming, grouping)
Question (starting question) and the explanation you will give to initiate each facilitated process
Recording method you will use to document the information as it is received during the process (e.g., three column matrix)
Supplies you will need to perform the process (e.g., post-its, dots)
Timing and estimated duration for each process
It's always best to be prepared in advance for the types of meetings you're called on to facilitate. Consider having a variety of agenda models for on hand for sessions in Strategic Planning, Process Planning, Issue Resolution, Process Improvement, Data Modeling, Procedures Design, etc. Or, if you prefer, Leadership Strategies has already done the work for you! See our Products section for information on purchasing a set of facilitator guides for these and other agenda models.
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Guerilla Facilitating
There will be times when a meeting is not going well, and yet the meeting leader is not taking action. "Guerilla Facilitation Techniques" are techniques you can use to help manage a meeting, even when you are not the meeting leader.
If the meeting leader starts by first giving the agenda, say, "Excuse me. I may have missed it. Could you take a second to go over the overall purpose of this meeting and what we need to have when we are done?" If the discussion seems to be getting off track, say "These are excellent points we are discussing. Can we record them on an 'Issues List' so we can discuss them later, and get back to our main topic?" If one person is dominating the discussion, or there seems to be a general lack of participation, say, "I would love to hear everyone's opinion on this. Can we go around the room and have everyone say what they think about this idea or how to make it better?"
If a leader is about to end the meeting without a review, say, "After such a productive meeting, I would hate to leave unclear about what we decided or what is going to happen next. Could we take a minute to review the decisions we've made and the actions that need to occur once the meeting is over?"
For more tips on having productive meetings, consider our course Making Meetings Work.
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Hints for Team Building Activities
Team Building activities can add fun to any session as well as reinforce important learning points. To ensure that your activity is productive, keep these guidelines in mind:
State the purpose for doing the exercise in advance. Ensure that you select an exercise that is appropriate for the purpose.
Be sure to give clear directions and an example if appropriate. Outline any exceptions to the directions, and ask for questions.
Monitor the activity while it is in progress to ensure that objectives are being met.
Once the activity is complete, take several minutes for a debriefing session. Have the participants identify observations and lessons learned, and make sure they understand how their experience with this activity is applicable to their work environment or the issue under study.
For lots of other ways to build teamwork, consider our Effective Facilitator course.
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Responding to Questions Effectively
Whether you are giving a presentation, discussing a project with your boss, or responding to a customer's request for information, answering questions effectively is one of the keys to successful communication. When answering a question posed to you, remember to PAC it - Playback, Answer, Confirm.
Playback - Begin by repeating or summarizing the question to make sure you have clearly understood it. This is especially important when answering questions in front of a group since everyone may not have heard the full question. "So, what I hear you asking is …"
Answer - Answer the question as clearly as possible. Try to give your end point first, and then give any supporting data that is necessary to clarify your answer. "The direct answer to your question is No. Let me tell you why …"
Confirm - Nothing is more frustrating than having someone give a great answer, but not the answer to the question that was asked. So before continuing, make sure that you have answered the question to the asker's satisfaction. "Does that answer your question?"
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Reviewing Action Items
At the close of the session, review the Action List to remind participants of actions that still need to be taken. Make sure that each action on the list is assigned to an individual in the room and ask that person to establish a date by when the action should be completed. If the action is better performed by someone outside the room, assign the action to a person of authority in the room whose responsibility it is to delegate the action and to ensure that it is accomplished.
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Reviewing Decisions
At the close of a session, review the Decision List to remind participants of decisions made. Consider the following as you review each decision:
Change / Benefit - Identify all the changes recommended. Ask, "If we make this change, what will the benefit be?"
Potential Barriers / Success Strategies - Determine potential barriers to implementing the decision and create success strategies that will overcome those barriers.
Poll the Jury - Ask each participant individually if he/she can support the decisions agreed upon by the group.
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Roles of a Facilitator
A facilitator must wear many hats in a facilitated session. Here are just a few:
Guide: The facilitator must know the steps of the process from beginning to end, and must carefully guide the participants through each phase.
Motivator: From the rousing opening statement to the closing words of cheer, the facilitator must ignite a fire within the group and keep it well lit. The facilitator must establish momentum and keep the pace.
Bridge Builder: Where other people see differences, the facilitator must find and use similarities to establish a foundation for building bridges to consensus.
Clairvoyant: Throughout the session, the facilitator must watch carefully for potential signs of strain, weariness, aggravation and disempowerment - and respond in advance to avoid dysfunctional behavior.
For more tips on having productive meetings, consider our Effective Facilitator course.
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Rotate and Run Brainstorm
When the energy level gets low during an afternoon session, try this technique to get people out of their seats and get the creative juices flowing. Start by positioning four or more flip charts in different areas of the room, as far apart as possible. Title each chart in advance with different but related topics for the brainstorm session. For example, if the objective of the brainstorming session was to find ways to increase revenue, you could title one chart with "How To Find New Customers", another with "New Products We Could Offer", a third with "How to Increase Business with Existing Customers", and a fourth with "Ways to Sell Multiple Products in One Sale."
Divide the group into small teams, with one team positioned at each chart. Give each team a different color marker and have them elect a team scribe. Kick off the brainstorm by explaining the overall objective, and tell the teams they have one minute to come up with as many ideas as they can for their topic and record them on the chart. When the first minute is up, have the teams rotate as quickly as possible to a different chart. When they reach the new chart, they should read what the previous team has written and add any new contributions. After the next minute is up, have the teams rotate to a different chart. Continue the rotations until each team has visited each chart.
Keep the energy high by shouting "Rotate and Run!" and encouraging the teams to move quickly during the rotations. You can also increase the energy by offering a prize to the team that has the most total contributions across all the charts. You will be able to identify each team's contributions by the color of the marker. You'll be amazed at how many ideas you can generate in four short minutes! Like any brainstorm session, be sure to follow the activity with some type of grouping or prioritization to highlight the best ideas.
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What if the Session is Going to Run Over?
Starting and ending a session on time are important ways of demonstrating respect for your participants. But some delays may be unavoidable. If the session is going to run over:
Alert the participants
Conservatively estimate the additional time
Ask for alternatives
Check impact of continuing
Confirm the agreement
Hold firmly to the agreement
Do you know all the 10 Principles of Facilitation, and the 90 strategies that go behind them? No? To learn those and other practical tips, register for The Effective Facilitator course.
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