ENLIST YOUR AUDIENCE TO MAKE THE LOAD LIGHTER

Ever go to a conference break out session and experience 90 minutes of lecture, paired with the never-ending Power Point slide deck?  It’s not a very engaging experience, is it?  Now, imagine attending a four-hour conference break out session, with 70 other people in the room with you. This was my situation recently as I facilitated a communications break out session at a client’s internal leadership conference. Knowing that conference attendees want to be engaged in their learning, I decided to get creative with the management of the session’s discussions. Here’s what I did and it worked beautifully.  If you are ever in a situation that requires you to work with a large audience, give this “Sector Director” format a try.

Prior to the Session

Divide the room into “sectors”. For example, in my session, the hotel meeting room had nine round tables in it. So I created three “sectors” with 3 tables each: Red, Green Yellow. On each table, I placed a piece of colored card stock (red, green or yellow) in a place card holder on the middle of each table.

I then selected three chairs (one within each of the sectors) and taped an envelope to the underside of it.  Inside the envelope was a note that said, “Congratulations! You’ve been promoted to Sector Director. Please come to the front of the room for additional instructions.”

At the Session’s Start

Towards the start of the session, explain that you want to ensure that all participants have a chance to have their voices heard. In order to do that, you as the facilitator are going to seek assistance. Tell the group to reach under their chairs. Bring the three people who find the envelopes up to the front of the room. Introduce them and say, I’ve promoted (names) to Sector Director.  They will help me manage group discussions.  Brief the Sector Director on their duties. To keep the remainder of the group occupied during this 3-5 minute briefing, give them a question or issue to discuss that’s related to your presentation topic.

Here are the tasks that Sector Directors can help you with: 

• Distribute hand outs. 
• Lead discussions within their sectors.
• Facilitate debriefing of other activities. For example, one activity had my participants pairing up with two or three other people throughout the room to gather data. Then, I sent them back to their sectors to report their findings.
• Helping round up people and get them back from breaks.
• Ensuring that table groups selected a spokesperson for large-group report outs.

Encourage the Sector Directors to delegate if needed. For example, if the Director doesn’t care to write on large flip chart paper, she can ask someone from her Sector to take over that role.

Does It Work?

I facilitated the communications session three times over a two-day period, which presented me with nine Sector Directors. I gave all nine of them the chance to opt out, but none did.  Eight of the nine did a fantastic job and the ninth one needed just a bit of prompting to stay on task. In my opinion, the extra 10 minutes of session time needed to set up this format was time well-invested. The smaller sector groups were able to have more focused conversations, with people feeling more like they could contribute. Additionally, I had an extra three pairs of hands to help me get the 70 participants re-focused after the Sector Discussions.

Next time you’re asked to facilitate a large discussion—in either a learning or meeting context, consider delegating to your audience.  You’ll find that indeed, “a few extra hands” do make the work of managing discussions a bit lighter.

Both of my kids are really into the stretchy bracelet craze. On the way to the grocery store today, my nine year old son remarked that one of his bracelets looked liked Medusa.  Feigning ignorance, I said, “Medusa? Who’s that?”  He replied, “You know, Mom, the mythological character who had snakes on top of her head.”

Of course, I know who Medusa is, but I wanted to know if my kid knew. Later, I realized that this conversation represented a technique honed during my years as a corporate trainer. I think of it as the “low-key testing for understanding.”  This method isn’t a new concept, of course. Greek philosopher Socrates is credited with creating a method to help people form their own conclusions by asking questions.  As a more contemporary example, Dave Meier, founder of The Center for Accelerated Learning, says “never do for the learners what they can do for themselves”. His point is that people know a lot more than we give them credit for.  Given the right tools and encouragement, people can usually figure things out for themselves.

Leaders can use this approach too. The primary objective of leadership is to bring out the best in one’s contributors. When a contributor has a procedural question or is facing a dilemma the “test for knowledge” technique is an excellent way to demonstrate a collaborative leadership approach. Leaders don’t develop others by being the “sage on the stage”; they help their contributors figure it out for themselves.

Back in my supervisory days, whenever my direct reports had a question about how to do something, I’d draw on this “test for knowledge” approach.  Instead of immediately launching into an explanation, I’d start by “testing” for what they already know with a question like, “What have you already tried to solve this problem?” or “Tell me which parts you’re clear about and which parts need clarification.” Doing this accomplishes two things. It: a) Saves time by avoiding a rehash of something the contributor already knows and b) Models open-ended questioning, which the contributor can in turn use with their colleagues.

After discussing the answers to the low-key understanding test, I would then follow up to help the contributor think through their options and uncover answers.  Some of my favorites inquiries:

• Do you know where to find the answer on the company intranet? Let’s go take a look and find it together.
• What part of the process is unclear to you?
• What are the pros and cons of this situation?
• If you decide on taking this action, what’s the worst thing that can happen?
• What’s your gut telling you?
• How can I support you in this decision?

Some say a leader’s job is to remove the barriers to their contributors’ performance. While this is true, a leader must resist the temptation to jump in to “fix” problem so that people can quickly move on with their day. By taking a few extra minutes to fully explore a contributor’s knowledge base, a leader will actually save time in the long run.  Beyond time-saving benefits, employee engagement will get a boost too. Contributors who are involved in solving their own problems gain confidence, which leads to future positive contribution.

Whenever you’re tempted to take the short cut, remember this: it’s not what you know, it’s what they learn. Do Socrates proud and use the low-key test for understanding.

Photo credit: istockphoto.com © Hans Laubel

Last week, I wrote about a powerful leadership lesson learned when my key project crashed and burned.  People Equation reader Nancy asked about the lessons learned from that experience. Indeed, there were several. But first, the story of “The Institute”, the project that gave me both fits and gifts. . .

Years ago, I joined a Fortune 500, “100 Best Places to Work” company to work in their training and development department as a Program Manager. Three weeks after joining the company, I was assigned to manage a project called the Institute. The Institute was an annual, week-long conference that our company offered to the sales force of its distribution channel. Planning the Institute was an intensive, 10-month project. In addition to coordinating the week’s curriculum with 7 product managers, I also managed the conference planning (meals, facility tours, lodging, etc.)

When I joined the company, preparations for the Institute had already begun. That year, a decision had been made to go with a “Go Back to College” theme—complete with the experience of staying in the dorms. Yes, dorm rooms.  What I didn’t know at the time was that Institute participants were a tough crowd, with more than its fair share of prima donnas.

Think about it:

Prima donnas + dorm rooms = very unhappy campers.

Yep, that’s one “people equation” that doesn’t add up. I questioned the choice and was assured that it would be OK and besides, the contract with the college had already been signed. I was new to conference planning and foolishly, I didn’t trust my inner Voice of Reason, which was screaming, “What professional wants to stay in a college dorm? Super bad idea!” Setting my reservations aside, I went along with it.

Boy, do I wish I had listened to my Inner Voice.

Even though we had publicized that they would be staying in dorm rooms, it was still a shock to the arriving conference participants. Things went from bad to worse as word spread throughout the conference about the ill-equipped accomodations. The anger built upon itself until nothing at the conference was acceptable: the cafeteria lunches were deemed “inedible”, the conferences rooms were “freezing” (or, “boiling hot”) and then there was The Train. As in, “Did you hear about The Train that runs right outside our dorm window in the dead of night? I’m nearly deaf from it!”

The rest of the conference went smoothly, but the unacceptable lodging cast a pall over the conferees’ overall experience.  I spent much of the week doing damage control and trying to appease angry, disappointed customers. At the end of working an 80-hour week, I drove home, exhausted and demoralized.

 So, what did the week from hell teach me?

1. Trust your gut. There wasn’t anything to be done about the accommodations—the contract had been signed and there were limited facility choices for a group as large as ours. In hindsight, what I could have done was a better job of communicating the limited amenities and outlining the conference participants’ options. Instead, I foolishly, adopted a hopeful stance—“maybe it won’t be that bad.” Well, it was bad for many of the conference participants.  If I had listened to my gut, I would have been more proactive in helping manage a non-negotiable feature of the conference that had huge implications for its overall success.
2. Hard work doesn’t guarantee a successful project.  I wasn’t the only one who worked hard bring the Institute to life. It was a true group effort involving at least 30 other co-workers, vendors and external instructors.  I personally put in many 50 – 60 hour work weeks to get the conference up to speed.  Still, even with all the preparation and hard work, it wasn’t the success it could be due to the next learning point:
3. Get clear on who your customers are— all of them. Nearly every project has multiple “customers”; this was a point I didn’t consider fully.  I had been assured that lodging the participants in the dorms would be supported because the owners of the dealerships were supportive.  These were the business owners paying to send the sales people to the Institute.  True, the dealership owners were happy because it cost less, but they weren’t the ones staying in the dorm rooms.  I clearly didn’t understand the expectations of my other customers— the conference participants. They were used to being “wined and dined” and treated like V.I.P’s. Staying in a dorm room was not going cut it.
4. It’s OK to fail. Big-time failure leads to better things. This was the first time in my professional career that I had failed so publicly. In the moment, it didn’t feel like there was anything positive about the Institute experience.  In the years since the Institiute, I’ve learned that mistakes and set-backs can be instructive, if you let them. It’s easy to play the victim, dwelling on the bad rap you’ve been given. Truth be told, I spent the first couple of weeks having a pity party over the failure. Then, I slowly began to assess the project: what could I have done better? By objectively analyzing the project, I was able to improve it for the next time  I managed an Institute.
5. Perspective comes, but only after the pain has subsided. As we were cleaning up after the Institute had ended, I turned to our stalwart administrative assistant Lillian and groaned, “I’ve never been so glad to have a project be over with!”  Lillian matter-of-factly, replied, “Well, sometimes projects just don’t always go the way you want them to.” I was taken aback.  Lil and I were good friends and she is a very kind person.  Couldn’t she feel my pain?  Didn’t she stand right next to me while people ranted and raved about the nasty room accommodations?  Well, yeah she did.  And, she had 25 + years’ life experience on me.  Lillian knew that there could be much, much worse things that could happen in my life, so in her book, a failed work project wasn’t really all that much to get worked up about.  At the age of 29, the botched Institute was a monumental deal to me.  Today, not so much. But that perspective can only be gained with the passage of time.

These five learning take-aways have served me well over the years both personally and professionally.  I would never advocate that someone botch a project just for the benefit of learning something. However, when something does go south, I wish for you the strength of self-examination and the support of wise people so that you may grow from the experience.

Readers, do you have an “Institute” of your own to share?  What’s your list of “lessons learned” look like?

Have you ever led a high-visibility project that has crashed and burned? I have and it taught me a powerful leadership lesson. Read on . . .

The Back Story

Many years ago, shortly after I joined a Fortune 500 company, I was assigned to manage a project called the “Institute”. The Institute was an annual, week-long conference that the company offered to the sales force of its distribution channel. Planning the Institute was an intensive, 10-month project. In addition to coordinating the week’s curriculum with 7 product managers, the project also required full conference logistics planning (meals, facility tours, lodging, etc.) on the part of the Project Manager. It was a huge undertaking.

Lessons Learned— the Hard Way

So, why did the project go so badly? In a word: expectations. I didn’t fully understand the expectations of my customers (the conference participants), and as a result, there were some very angry, disappointed (and vocal!) people in attendance. It was a nightmarish week as I struggled mightily to appease demanding customers and keep the conference logistics on track.  Not everything was a train wreck, but the aspects deemed “unacceptable” by many of the group were enough to cast a negative vibe on the entire conference. At the end of working an 80-hour week, I drove home, exhausted and demoralized. I wondered what the following Monday would bring . . . reprimands from my boss? A demotion?

Astonishingly, my boss did not reprimand me.  She had managed a few Institutes herself and was therefore able to take the incident in stride. So, I took inventory of the very difficult lessons learned and then did my best to put the assignment in the past.  I also breathed a sigh of relief—the Institute project was a grueling assignment, and therefore it was rotated amongst the four Project Managers on my team. It would be someone else’s problem next time around.

A Second Chance

Fast forward two months. . .  

It’s time to start planning for the next Institute and the team is discussing who will be the project lead.  My boss Mary tells me I will be the project lead for the next Institute. Wait— no! That’s not how it’s supposed to work. I’m panicked.

In private, I pleaded with Mary to assign someone else to the project. I told her I didn’t have it in me to endure the intensity of that project for a second time in a row. Mary looked me straight in the eye and said, “Jennifer, you need to manage this project again, because you need to prove to yourself that you can do it—and do it amazingly well. I know that the next Institute that you manage is going to be a success.”

At the time, being told I had to manage the Institute for a second time in a row seemed like a huge punishment. In retrospect, I now see if for what it truly was: a gift. It was a chance to redeem myself. Mary gave me the opportunity to prove to myself that I had what it took to manage a complex, demanding project. And, I’m proud to say that seven months later, I hosted a highly successful, well-attended Institute. It wasn’t easy getting to that point, but without Mary’s decisive leadership action, I wouldn’t even have had the chance to do so.

A Leader’s Choice

When projects go awry on a team, a leader has several choices: coach, reprimand, or remove. In my case, it would have been easy for Mary to “remove” me by assigning the Institute project to someone else. After all, that was the standard procedure and I was clearly not interested in jumping in again. However, Mary knew that if I didn’t get “back on that horse” immediately, I would forever doubt my ability to handle such a large scale project.

How leaders respond to mistakes or failures on their team shapes the way team members will respond to challenges. Team members who know that there will be “hell to pay” if something goes wrong will play it safe. I was trying to “play it safe” by not managing the Institute again. Luckily for me, Mary didn’t buy into that mindset. Mistakes happen and savvy leaders know that in order to get the best out of their people they need to create a culture that allows a bit of room for the occasional slip-up.

A little bit of redemption goes a long way.

JA Changes Lives

Miss Mulder greets me at the entrance to the kindergarten classroom. I settle into a child-sized chair at the front of a brightly colored floor rug (“The Pretty Rug” as Miss Mulder calls it) and arrange my reading materials. “Good morning!” I say cheerfully to a group of smiling, upturned faces. “Good morning!”responds the enthusiastic chorus. And so starts the first lesson of this semester’s Junior Achievement class.

The Junior Achievement organization has been a part of my life since 1990. First I volunteered to work with teens in the JA Company Program®.  Then, for six years, I served on a local JA board of directors.  Now, I volunteer by teaching a series of classes from the JA Elementary Program Curriculum. Over the years, stories have unfolded: teens can make tough ethical choices; JA helps students gain entrepreunurial skills to succeed in today’s global work environment; lives are changed. Surely, I’ve learned far more than the students whose lives have intersected with mine.

Having been a board member, I know that each year teachers desiring a JA program in their class go without, because there aren’t enough volunteers.  If you have any interest in helping in your community, I urge you to contact your local JA office.  There are opportunities to work with any age group, kindergarten through 12^th grade.  I know from personal experience that the time commitment for the Elementary classes is minimal— it’s 5 visits to the classroom to conduct a 30 – 40 minute session. Personally, I invest about 20 – 30 minutes of prep time prior to my classroom visit. The instructional materials are completely laid out for you in a very easy-to-understand way.    The teachers stay in the room with you, so you need not fear about “handling” a class of unruly kids.

Undoubtedly, you’re busy.  Aren’t we all?  Today when I kicked off the JA Ourselves program to that group of kindergartners, I was given a generous gift in return for my time: 23 young people, at the start of their educational journey, chiming “Thank You, Mrs. Miller!” as I left to start my work day.  A handsome payment, indeed.

Photo credit: istockphoto.com © Rosemarie Gearhart

Yesterday I was talking “shop” with two colleagues.  We’re all in the business of helping develop leaders and the talk turned to instructional design.  One of us asked, “How do you go about finding an instructional designer who also has deep experience in creating leadership programs for senior-level staff?”  

We noodled this idea around for awhile. . .  “Is it more difficult to create solidly designed content for senior leadership?”  Here’s where we ended up: as with many things in life, creating good content is always about the art and the science of it.

 One way to picture this issue would be:

I have a lot of leadership development readers out there.  What do you say?  Do you agree or disagree? How would you draw leadership development?  Send me your artwork (jmiller@people-equation.com) and I’ll post it!

Not everyone’s a critic, but some days it sure feels like it. 

Case in point: in my community this year some very enterprising philanthropists organized a fantastic event called ArtPrize. The event opened September 23, 2009. In essence, it’s an art competition with an “open source” feel.  Artists from anywhere in the world are eligible to submit their art entry.  The venues are any public area in Grand Rapids, Michigan that chooses to accept an artist’s submission.  There are no curators or jurors. All told, 1262 artists in 150 venues are currently being featured throughout the greater Grand Rapids area for a two-week period. Here’s where the “prize” in ArtPrize comes in— the artists are competing for a grand prize of $250,000.  The “winner” will be determined by the art submission receiving the most votes.  Anyone can vote, as long as they register by showing valid ID. Votes are submitted by going to the ArtPrize website or via text messaging.  It’s a very contemporary take on the art world.

From where I sit, the event has been a phenomenal success.  Nearly 20,000 people showed up this weekend to view many of the entries.  Restaurants downtown ran out of food because they were so busy.  There’s been a palpable excitement in our city because of this bold and unique way to showcase art. Several of my business meetings this week have started with, “So, what do you think of ArtPrize?”

But it hasn’t been without its critics.  Comments I’ve seen in various media range from “total waste of time” to “putting a prize value on art is wrong” to “I hope that thing [entry positioned on the Grand River] falls into the river and washes away. No loss.” Sigh. Seriously?

Why are so many people expending so much energy on criticizing something that on the whole seems to be doing so much for our community? Sure, there have been glitches, but this is the event’s first year and those glitches seem nominal.

My hope is that the event organizers are able to sift through the various data points of “feedback” and be able to discern the genuinely helpful pointers from the vitriol.  There seems to be a dearth of one and an overabundance of the other.

Your thoughts?  Is social media is bringing out the critic in us?  Or has it always been there and now there’s just a more accessible way to criticize?

I was comparing notes on competency development the other day with Mollie Lombardi of the Aberdeen Group*. At some point during our conversation, the talk turned to Twitter because that’s where I met Mollie.  We were discussing the massive flow of information via the tweet stream and Mollie said, “Yes, Twitter gives me a chance to practice the ‘art of serendipity’.”

The Art of Serendipity. Doesn’t that create a wonderful image in your mind? 

Serendipity is defined as “having good luck in making unexpected and fortunate discoveries”.  How many times have you looked for one thing, only to discover something totally unrelated, yet truly “fortunate” in some way?

Today I challenge you to just “go with the flow” to see what delightful, serendipitous things come your way.  Remember, it’s an art form, so the beauty will be in the eye of the beholder.

*Side note: Mollie’s organization offers great complimentary research documentation on human capital management during the first 10 days of release.  Check it out here.

In her 30 Day Blogging Challenge Sandra Martini asserts that to move your business forward, you have to “get in the habit of doing one ordinary thing each and every day.”  Well, that seems simple.  Or is it?  The online Merriam-Webster’s definition of “ordinary” is the regular or customary condition or course of things.  So do you think that doing something regular or customary each day will bring you different results? As it relates to blogging, Sandy thinks so.  She says that by blogging each day— the effort will compound, much like an interest-bearing savings account.

I’m eager to try.  The effort is minimal—I’ve wanted to post more blogs and a bit of a contest is just the push to get me going.  Even if the “interest” accrued is as paltry as my current savings account, it’s still more than I would have had if the money was stuffed under my mattress.

So now, I offer the same challenge to you:  what one ordinary “thing” could you pluck out of your daily life to commit to for the next 30 days?  What one seemingly mundane activity could you do faithfully for the next 30 days that will, when compounded, have positive results?

Some ideas:

• Drink more water.
• Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
• Say “I appreciate you” to an important person in your life.
• Smile at a stranger.

I’ve picked my One Thing. Now it’s your turn. Chime in.  Let’s build the list.

During my 30 Days of Tweeting Experiment in May, I jumped into Twitter with both feet and very low expectations. As it turned out, I loved Twitter. One of the delights of tweeting was discovering the blogsphere and its many opinionated, generous, insightful writers contained within. Before I knew it, I had set up a WordPress account and was cheerfully blogging along.

 So I guess it’s no surprise that I’m embarking on a “30 Days of Blogging” experiment hosted by Sandra Martini on her blog.  She’s challenging bloggers to post at least 30 times during one month.  She says by getting in the habit of “doing one ordinary thing each and every day”, we will move our business forward. If you’re on Twitter, you can follow the progress with the hashtag #30dayblog.

 Hmmm, what one “ordinary thing” could you do each day that would move you forward?  Let’s think about that for awhile. . .