I recently mentioned some wonderful visual facilitation training that we took in at The Grove, in San Francisco. Well, we were hardly back and off the plane before I had the opportunity to put some of the training into practice. We were facilitating a two-day planning meeting for a client group, and it was imperative for each manager to “tell their story”, so that all attendees would have a richer understanding of what their peers were doing in service of the common goal. An

All of our client engagements are guided by an intention question. In fact, I’d recommend to anyone that every meeting you hold, short or long, will be more useful if it is held in the service of a question. It lets people know why they are there, and that their input is possible – and more important– valued. In a recent engagement, one of our client groups decided that never again would they call a meeting, except in the service of a clear question. Plagued by incessant, poi

I think it’s safe to state that better information makes for better decisions. Or, more specifically: comprehensive, timely information that is readily available in a useable format can enable more useful decisions. But I tend to wonder why we tend to focus on computer information systems and their data when talking about information and decision making. We can ask the same (and far more complex) questions of human information systems. First off, human systems are WISER. Wise

How do you change an organization? No, how do you REALLY change an organization? Organizations, human systems, are in a constant state of flux – change is one of the few constants. But organizational transition speaks to a whole other level of change – it speaks to what we often refer to as “culture change”: changing the fundamental attitudes that support the choices made on a moment-by-moment basis by the stakeholders within the system in all of their core activities and fun

One of the many and varied jobs of a Lead is what is called “holding hope.” It is a challenging habit for some to acquire, because it is quite easy to fundamentally misunderstand the role in either of at least two directions. This particular task is to hold hope for a human system that is going through the multi-day event process. It’s a tricky one. You could misinterpret it to believe that you as the Lead can always step in to “save” them, offering solutions in their darkest

One of the lessons I’ve tried to pass along to my co-Leads as I mentor them in the art of facilitation is simply this: It’s not about you. It’s never about you. You are there in the service of a human system, and at the end of the day (or the year, or the contract), you leave. The people working within the system understand how their system works. They understand the unwritten rules. You can question into them with open curiosity, but you cannot CHANGE them to suit your need

Sometimes, when we are doing a smaller engagement for a client group, they like to manage their investment (or cut costs) by offering us a “note-taker” to support our work on the day of the event, in place of one of our coLeads. And when we say that we offer something other than facilitation, perhaps this note will help illustrate what we bring to the table. Here’s (minimally) what we expect from a coLead – who will put in roughly as many days as a Lead Facilitator will, in t

One of the guidelines that I use to approach my day is to leave things better than I find them, whenever the opportunity presents itself. When we work in a rented space, we remove all trace that we were there, and often go the extra step to clean up after others or do minor, needed repairs. I remember one facility we used, the toilet seats were screwed down so loosely that I found it hard to believe anyone had successfully sat on them in months. Despite the fact that there we

Harrison Owen gave us all a big hand up when he gifted us with his graceful Open Space Technology, but it is not that of which I speak. Today, I’m thinking of a far more generalized opening of space, one that is referenced in the practice of Zen. The idea is that people in open states will be able to take in a lot of information from a wide variety of sources. Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi explains this concept quite well. It is the job of a Lead Facilitator (on our team, at least)

Alrighty. Here’s a cardinal rule for every meeting in your life where you anticipate meaningful, two-way dialogue. Always (always) phrase the intention of the meeting as a QUESTION, never (ever) as a STATEMENT. This rule is immutable. Look at these pairings, and see which one engages you: A) Strategic Planning 2015 Strategic Planning Session What do we need to do to reach our key strategic goals by 2015? B) New Product Development Development workshop: Widget 14K-7 What do

It’s a word that often comes up in the closing analysis of one of our sessions. The “M” word. Yes, the “M” word. Miracle. “We accomplished 7 years worth of work in the past 12 hours. This was nothing short of a miracle.” “We found solutions, and laid out the timelines to get them done. It’s a small miracle.” “I expected these two days to be a complete and utter waste of time. I can’t believe the quantity of real work we got done. It’s a miracle.” Those are comments from three

Now that’s a bold tag line, but that’s really really what we’re all about. Designing futures for people who care. That’s why we’re looking for visionaries. People with ideas, people who care about making the world, their world, a better place. People who want to make change happen. Change is a tough thing though. Most change attempts fail. 70% of them, statistically, over the past 31 years in which detailed studies have been done. And improved project management hasn’t done a