[teampractices] A facilitator tool: Meeting Facilitator Control Panel

Mon Sep 11 22:06:59 UTC 2017

In this meeting, we had one long table with seats on both sides, but
everybody was sitting on one side of the table.  I tried to move the slider
to see if they would all get up and move, but it didn't work.

*-- Joel Aufrecht *(they/them)
Program Manager (Technology)
Wikimedia Foundation

On Mon, Sep 11, 2017 at 3:05 PM, Maria Cruz <mcruz at wikimedia.org> wrote:

> This is super helpful, Joel, thank you!
> I have a follow up question: what do "face South" and "face North" refer
> to? I looked it up
> <https://www.google.com/search?q=face+south+vs+face+north&oq=face+south+vs+face+north&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0i8i30k1l2.11981.12407.0.12711.3.3.0.0.0.0.152.304.0j2.2.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..1.2.304...0i8i7i30k1j0i8i13i30k1.de0VqEdKsd4>
> online, and I only found this:
>
>> Typically a south-facing home gets sun for most of the day, especially at
>> the front of the house, and is therefore usually brighter and warmer. A
>> north-facing home gets sun at the back of the house and is typically darker
>> and naturally cooler than a south-facing one
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *María Cruz * \\  Communications and Outreach project manager, L&E Team \\
>  Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
> mcruz at wikimedia.org  |  Twitter:  @marianarra_
> <https://twitter.com/marianarra_>
>
> On Mon, Sep 11, 2017 at 2:24 PM, Joel Aufrecht <jaufrecht at wikimedia.org>
> wrote:
>
>> I experimented with a new tool last month.  I facilitated two different
>> full-day meetings where I had limited contact with the meeting sponsor or
>> chief client prior to the meeting, and was concerned that I didn't know
>> what facilitation approach they wanted.  I called this tool the
>> "Facilitator Control Panel".  The key benefits of this tool include:
>>
>> * Making the facilitator's assumptions about how the meeting should be
>> facilitated explicit and visible to participants
>> * Allowing participants a voice in what tone and approach the facilitator
>> should employ.
>> * Allowing the facilitator to be intentional and informed, rather than
>> reactive and assumptive, in how they facilitate.
>>
>> A picture:
>>
>>
>> 
>> For the first meeting, I drew the first two parameters this on the
>> whiteboard, and then spent a few minutes talking to the meeting
>> participants about it.  The key points included:
>>
>> * This meeting is for the benefit of the participants
>> * The facilitator's job is to modify how the meeting would organically
>> function to make it better serve the participants
>> * Therefore the participants should have some voice in the overall tone
>> and goal of the facilitator(s).
>> * One very common problem for facilitators is, should I help this
>> (temporary, expensively gathered) group use their time to completely
>> address one topic, or to make sure that all topics get an equal hearing,
>> which usually means limiting discussion on one or more topics.  This is
>> shown via the Thorough vs Fast slider.
>> * Another parameter I offered was, should I as facilitator try to make
>> the meeting run smoothly, interrupting arguments between participants, or
>> should the facilitator encourage (constructive, polite) argument, and test
>> apparent agreement to try and uncover premature or incomplete agreement?
>>
>> The names of the first two settings were modified upon suggestion by the
>> group. The last two settings were, I believe, suggestions from the group,
>> and functioned as humor.  At the risk of over-thinking: As a facilitator,
>> this gave me an extra means by which to inject humor into the group at
>> appropriate moments without being especially forced, without having to try
>> and think of something novel and funny (thanks to the magic of running
>> jokes), and with a light touch that reduced the risk of subjecting
>> participants to painfully strained and lengthy "jokes".
>>
>> The "settings" the group chose reflected their composition and the
>> purpose of the meeting; I could imagine other groups choosing very
>> different settings.  We updated the joke settings several times during the
>> day, referenced the serious settings once or twice, and did not otherwise
>> interact with the control panel after the initial discussion.  In
>> retrospectives and an after-action survey, it was mentioned three times:
>> two participants listed the tool as a positive, and one reported that it
>> wasn't "particularly useful".
>>
>> For the second meeting, I did not write out the settings and this tool
>> was completely conceptual.  I talked to the client prior to the meeting and
>> used the settings to help the client understand what was possible and to
>> express what they wanted on behalf of the meeting participants, which they
>> did.  I explained the settings to the participants in brief during the
>> (two-day) meeting.  Some participants did use some of this language and
>> framing to raise related issues during the meeting.  There was no
>> structured review of its value.
>>
>> Overall I found this to tool be beneficial as a facilitator; probably a
>> net positive for participants; very simple and quick to implement; and
>> low-risk.  I will probably use it again, both as an explicit tool and as
>> something to discuss with clients prior to meetings.  I don't think the
>> labels are very clear or that the axes they define are ideal, and hope to
>> improve them.
>>
>>
>> *-- Joel Aufrecht *(they/them)
>> Program Manager (Technology)
>> Wikimedia Foundation
>>
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>>
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