See alsoabout me, how I work, who I work with and recommendations & case studies, and please contact me about how we might work together. Please do not delay before contacting me – the earlier I hear from you, the more chance that I will be able to help and the more helpful I may be able to be.
Thank you to everyone who participated in my sessions in Istanbul today as part of the IAF Turkey Facilitation Training Camp, 17-19 July 2019 – and of course to IAF Turkey for the invitation.
In these three sessions, I demonstrated two of the core methods of ICA’s Technology of Participation and introduced something of the theory of those methods and the wider ToP methodology with examples of practical application:
Reviewing the past to prepare for the future – demonstrating a participatory approach for a group to review the past to prepare for the future, by applying the ToP Historical Scan method to reflect & learn together on the development of participation in our organisations – over time and in context.
Building our shared vision – demonstrating the ToP Consensus Workshop method, a five stage process that enables a facilitator to draw out and weave together everybody’s wisdom into a clear and practical consensus – in this case a Practical Vision for the future of participation in our organisations
Introducing ICA’s Technology of Participation – introducing the theory behind ICA’s ToP facilitation approach, including the ORID model, and how it can be applied to engaging people more effectively to build shared understanding and consensus, strategy and action. I shared examples from my own experience, and invite delegates to consider applications to their own context.
Here I am sharing the slides (pdf) that I shared in the session, with embedded hyperlinks to case studies and further resources, and a video of the Historical Scan method in action at #ETF20.
See alsoabout me, how I work, who I work with and recommendations & case studies, and please contact me about how we might work together. Please do not delay before contacting me – the earlier I hear from you, the more chance that I will be able to help and the more helpful I may be able to be.
In this session we explored the role of facilitation in sustainable development and ‘mindful activism’ for social change. I was joined by Robertson Work, author of the 2017 book of the same name, and again by Sunny Walker CPF CTF of the Virtual Facilitation Collaborative.
Rob shared something of how his experience of facilitation and ICA’s Technology of Participation influenced his thinking, and the format of the book, and how he sees the role of facilitation in realising a Compassionate Civilization. We invited you to share some of your own experience of facilitation for social change, and to respond with us to questions that are raised.
Thank you Robertson, Martin and Sunny for a fruitful webinar. Here are some of my take away sketchnotes. Looking forward to the next webinar. pic.twitter.com/jyUhAChO3l
Was great to dive deep into Sustainable Development and Mindful Activism with @robertsonwork on @martingilbraith webinar. Armed with some new insights to sustain my activism work and help other activists from burning out but also be more effective. pic.twitter.com/qchYW9kSKK
See alsoabout me, how I work, who I work with and recommendations & case studies, and please contact me about how we might work together. Please do not delay before contacting me – the earlier I hear from you, the more chance that I will be able to help and the more helpful I may be able to be.
If you’re a facilitator or communicator who wants to help organisations engage people at all levels to align behind a common strategy, read on – this article’s for you.
Common challenges you’ve probably noticed
Digital development is demanding change in the way businesses are run and how they interact with their audiences and their employees. No matter what sector you’re in, you’re likely to be facing at least one of these challenges:
Teams have less face-time as people share, work and interact more remotely.
Employees and customers are enjoying new relationships with employers and brands as we move to self-serving models: this creates the need to rethink communication and engagement with employees and how we structure customer service roles.
Employees want more opportunities to work with their employers to give back to society and the communities they serve.
Organisations want more agile approaches with empowered employees who understand both company strategy and customer needs.
A solution starts with a conversation
Solving these issues requires processes that connect leaders, managers, project teams and front-line staff.
The traditional top down approach is hopelessly inadequate, especially in large organisations. A cascade approach is too slow when there are multiple levels of management and a complex organisational structure. “Top down” also contradicts the message that organisations need to empower their people to take more responsibility for the delivery of satisfaction and productivity.
Achieving that kind of collaboration across an organisation puts a premium on the need for quality conversations – conversations that help people work out how they can support strategic direction. The kind of conversation that encourages people to challenge, work out what they need to do to support change, and feel a high degree of ownership of the outcomes of the conversation.
Exploring the visualisation of strategy
Couravel has been using Big Pictures to help leaders define strategy and then to help teams engage with strategy. The power of visual representation of strategic and market issues is well proven. It was first written about in the Sears case study in the Harvard Business Review which introduced the Service-Profit Chain. At Sears, groups came to a better understanding of the marketplace and what they needed to do to support competitiveness by addressing questions posed by a visual representation of the High Street.
To explore its relevance today we asked 15 leaders from different businesses how developments in technology would affect their business in the next five years. Using ICA’s Technology of Participation (ToP) Consensus Workshop approach, they grouped their answers into seven main themes:
Collaborative working
Liberating structures
Empowered customers
Dynamic skill sets
Disruptive markets
New world of risks
Big data.
Transformation challenges to address
We then invited them to draw these themes and use their insights and imagination to create a synthesis picture in real time.
The textual list below presents information related to transformational challenges, while the picture conveys the same information visually.
Textual:
Always on and changing working patterns – timing and geography no longer blockages
Feedback is instant and we have to respond instantly
Enable paradigm shift in service design and operation – focus on understanding and improvement
Creating new skills to cope with technology change
Using data to inform decisions
Defining and mitigating new risks caused by over-reliance on technology
Identifying and responding to new competitive challenges
Visual:
What this gives the organisation is a visual representation of Digital Transformation and what it needs to do to navigate change.
To involve people in a conversation about how to respond to these challenges, the visual route represents an engaging starting point because it:
Invites people to interpret what is going on
Is easier to access (you do not need to understand jargon like “paradigm shift”)
Provides information more quickly
Leads to a less critical and more curious audience (lists invite a more critical, sceptical response).
Conversations around the visual
What is more important than the visual are the conversations around it; and they must be well facilitated. The visual becomes the focus for a conversation whereas questions draw people out.
For example, questions we used following the ORID framework of ICA’s ToP Focussed Conversation method include:
What can you see in the picture? What else? (Objective)
How do you feel about what you can see? Anything surprising, confusing? (Reflective)
Where do you see yourself fitting? (Reflective)
What could this picture mean for how we work with each other and our colleagues in other teams? (Interpretative)
What risks do you think technology creates for us? (Interpretative)
How might we be able to mitigate these risks? (Interpretative)
How could we use new capabilities to provide better services for our customers? (Interpretative)
What does that mean we need to do differently? (Decisional)
In the meeting in which we developed this image, we asked the people in the room:
What strikes you (remember they had just co-authored this picture)? (Objective/Reflective)
Can you see yourselves in the picture? (Objective/Reflective)
What does this mean for how you work in future? (Interpretive)
How does this affect your relationships with others in your business? Outside your business? (Interpretive)
How will this affect how you manage change in the business? (Decisional)
Using pictures to lead the conversation around Digital Transformation
This led to some penny-dropping moments for people involved in the leadership of change. For example:
It is increasingly difficult to define and think in terms of “visions” as these rapidly become outdated in the face of global and disruptive competition.
Consultants working with clients are experiencing their own journey of change through the digital landscape and the relationship between client and consultant needs to shift from the expert to the consultative model (i.e. where facilitators operate most effectively)
This is also true of the relationship between customers and suppliers generally, but the changes are complex. In some respects, the relationship becomes more transactional and customers interface with technology to get what they want. This scenario sees people losing jobs as machines and robots take them over. But in other respects, the roles become more demanding and complex as the relationship becomes more akin to partnering: when customers want help it is because the technology cannot address more complex challenges (notice the bridge between suppliers and clients that is itself on wheels and constantly changing)
The value of tangible, visual outcomes that can engage people more because they are visual, different and not prescriptive and that can convey some of the nuances and challenges of change (notice the trolls waiting to sabotage change work)
The widespread application for approaches like this (see below).
Rethinking how we think about change
We need to rethink the process of change. If we want people to let go of past practices we have to pay more attention to the way individuals respond to change. To encourage people to collaborate to define new practices, here are a few “must haves”:
Fun
Novelty
Laughter
Celebration of past achievements
Reflection time
Generating our own ideas
Feeling valued and connected
Using the Technology of Participation facilitation approach and visual thinking tools such as Big Pictures, we can create the kind of approach to collaboration needed to support transformation.
This approach is valuable in most change situations including:
Introduction of new technology
Mergers and acquisitions
New strategy
New strategy communication
Brand evolution or launch/relaunch
Design of new organisational processes
Defining cultures, behaviours and values
Michael Pounsford CPF (author) is the founder of Couravel, which works with clients to clarify and communicate purpose, vision and strategy, to design and deliver engagement programmes, and to develop the communication capabilities of leaders and managers. He is accredited under the NTL International Organisation Development programme and is the President of the UK Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators IABC (2017 – 2018). He is also an IAF Certified™ Professional Facilitator.
Martin Gilbraith CPF (co-author) is an independent facilitator, trainer and consultant based in London. He is a Certified Professional Facilitator of the International Association of Facilitators, an IAF ‘Hall of Famer’ and former IAF Chair and IAF Europe Director. He is a former President of the Institute of Cultural Affairs International (ICAI), and an Associate and former Chief Executive of ICA:UK, the participation and development charity. He has been facilitating and training, specialising in ICA’s ToP facilitation methodology, since 1986.
Michael and Martin will be running a session on the power of visuals and ToP facilitation to encourage open communication at the IAF EMENA Paris conference on Saturday 14 October – see Leading the Big Conversation at #IAFEMENA17 in Paris and register nowto join us!
They are also planning a session for members of the IABC and the IAF to learn from each other and gain reduced cost entry to each other’s events. See also When communicators become facilitators at IABC EMENA.
This facilitated workshop will illustrate the Big Conversation process, and help you to explore your future using visuals and conversations. The Big Conversation supports the implementation of change by enabling teams to understand strategic goals and translate them to local actions. It uses visual approaches that are memorable, accessible and relevant. The workshop will be experiential, and illustrate this approach using insights and ideas generated by participants thinking about their own futures.
New! (May 2017) – Meetings That Work in Brussels and London in September – scroll down for details…
I am pleased to announce three pairs of public courses in Brussels again for 2017, plus a new Meetings That Work course in Brussels and London in September. Please join me if you can, and share these details with friends, colleagues and networks who might be interested.
Now in their 4th year in Brussels, these courses are scheduled in partnership with Social Platform, the largest platform of European rights and value-based NGOs working in the social sector, and provided under license with ICA:UK, the participation & development charity. Most are again scheduled in pairs to allow 1, 2, 3 or 4 days of training at once, in March, June, September & November – read on for courses and dates. For full details of each course, and to book, just follow the links from the course dates below.
I am pleased to offer discounted rates again to voluntary organisations and independent professionals, and in particular to ICA colleagues, to staff and members of Social Platform and other European NGO platforms, and to members of IAF & IABC. Please ask for details if you do not receive them through those channels.
Please contact me with any questions or for further details – including how to commission a tailored course for your group, and availability of scheduled public courses in the UK and worldwide.
“Meetings are a key part of what we do. As a diverse, transnational, multilingual membership network, successful meetings are key to our internal and external successes. Many of our staff mentioned Martin’s training as a highlight in their end of year reviews – several said it was the most useful training they had ever attended, and there was a clear consensus that we should work with him again.”
Eve Geddie, Deputy Director at Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM)
Meetings That Work (New for 2017)
Practical tools to design and lead effective meetings – 2 days
How can I turn meetings into “events” that people want to attend? How can I increase participation, and get the best input and results from everyone? How can I increase commitment to action, and handle difficult or controversial items?
This course will provide you with tips, templates and practical tools from professional facilitators that will enable you to get more from meetings than you ever thought possible. For this new course I shall be joined by Bill Staples of ICA Associates Inc of Canada as guest trainer.
Bill Staples is one of the founders of ICA’s Technology of Participation, a principal partner of ICA Associates Inc. of Canada, and one of the designers of Meetings That Work. Bill is happy to bring Meetings That Work to Europe for the first time in 2017, and will make the course come alive will illustrations from many fields. Bill has worked around the world with many organization and is well known in the field of facilitation. He is the author of Transformational Strategy: Facilitating ToP Participatory Planning, and is the publishing editor of the IAF Journal Group Facilitation. Bill is also a founding member of IAF, and was among the first facilitators to be inducted into the IAF Hall of Fame.
Group Facilitation Methods
Introducing the foundations of the Technology of Participation (ToP) approach, two powerful techniques for structuring effective conversations and building group consensus – 2 days
How can I have more purposeful & productive conversations, bring out the wisdom of a group, encourage feedback between people, and reach shared awareness in meetings? How can I generate and weave together a diverse range of ideas, develop creative solutions and build a group consensus?
This course provides a structured introduction to the ToP Focused Conversation and Consensus Workshop methods, which form the foundations of the ToP Action Planning method, Participatory Strategic Planning and other applications.
Action Planning
Participatory planning for short-term projects and events – 1 day
23 March in Brussels
22 June in Brussels
How can I get all members of a group to participate in planning a project or event together, and build their commitment and responsibility so that they can successfully implement their plan?
This course introduces a structured, participatory process to enable the successful implementation of a group project or event. The ToP Action Planning method uses the ToP Focused Conversation and Consensus Workshop methods to engage all members of a group effectively, and so it builds commitment and ownership at all stages. The method is suitable for planning short to medium-term projects, or completing projects that have stalled.
Participatory Strategic Planning
Bringing people together to create strategies for action – 2 days
“How can I enable my group to come to a common vision for their future? How can I help them make their vision happen by creatively addressing the root causes of the challenges that are blocking them, rather than focus simply on fire-fighting and problem-solving? How can I ensure a real sense of ownership, so that for once their plan actually happens?”
The course presents a structured long-range planning process which incorporates the ToP Consensus Workshop method for building consensus, the ToP Focused Conversation method for effective group communication, and an implementation process for turning ideas into productive action and concrete accomplishments. Those with more experience of facilitation, strategic planning or ToP facilitation may need no further support to apply the process effectively in their own situations, and for others the course serves as a powerful, experiential introduction to the process.
Please contact mewith any questions or for further details.
Thank you to all who attended my workshop in Geneva last Friday Introducing ICA’s Technology of Participation, including Nadene Canning who tweeted the photo of some of us, above. Special thanks also to Pamela Lupton-Bowers and all at IAF Geneva for hosting me and for arranging the workshop.
The one-day tailored master-class (pdf) introduced four core methods of ICA’s ‘Technology of Participation’ (ToP) methodology. Below are links to some of the case studies and other resources I shared on the day, and some that I didn’t.
ToP Focused Conversation
A structured, four-level process for effective communication which ensures that everyone in a group has the opportunity to participate:
A powerful tool to enable a group to share and learn from their varied perspectives of a journey through history, and in context, to review the past in order to prepare for the future:
ToP Historical Scan (‘Wall of Wonder’) overview – pdf
Reviewing the past to prepare for the future: #FacHistory in Copenhagen – blog post
Facilitation case study: Celebrating 20 years with the European Training Foundation in Turin – #ETF20 – case study
Staff Away Day with George House Trust – case study
ToP Participatory Strategic Planning
A structured long-range planning process which incorporates ToP Consensus Workshop for building consensus, ToP Focused Conversation for effective group communication, and an implementation process for turning ideas into productive action and concrete accomplishments:
ToP Participatory Strategic Planning overview – pdf
Transformational Strategy: from trepidation to ‘unlocked’ – case study slides & webinar recording
Facilitating change in complexity – the Oxfam Lebanon ‘One Country Strategy’ process – case study
Building a future together – broadening ownership in corporate planning – case study
Regularly scheduled public ToP training courses are also provided by ICAs elsewhere including in Australia, Canada, Taiwan, Ukraine & the USA. Other ICAs also offer public courses, and in-house courses on request – see ICA Worldwide.
Thank you to everyone attending my session at today’s February meeting of the Moscow Facilitators Club hosted by Personal Image. I am pleased to share the slides I used here below, in English and Russian, along with the video we used during the session – What do facilitators do really? The second video below is a longer introduction to ORID and the Focused Conversation method of ICA’s Technology of Participation, in Russian, from Elena Litvinova of Facilitator Club.
