Facilitating How to - Revision history

Alamb: /* Establishing and ensuring effective follow-up */

2012-03-17T00:33:38Z

Establishing and ensuring effective follow-up

Alamb: /* Ensuring that proper process is followed */

2012-03-17T00:32:40Z

Ensuring that proper process is followed

Alamb: /* Keeping the conversation on topic and moving forward */

2012-03-17T00:32:11Z

Keeping the conversation on topic and moving forward

Alamb: /* Ensuring that proper process is followed */

2012-03-17T00:29:59Z

Ensuring that proper process is followed

Alamb: /* Ensuring that proper process is followed */

2012-03-17T00:12:53Z

Ensuring that proper process is followed

Alamb: /* Keeping the conversation on topic and moving forward */

2012-03-17T00:03:38Z

Keeping the conversation on topic and moving forward

Alamb: /* Before/During Meeting: Establishing and Protecting Ground Rules */

2012-03-16T23:53:39Z

Before/During Meeting: Establishing and Protecting Ground Rules

Alamb: /* Before Meeting: Preparing the Agenda */

2012-03-16T23:49:53Z

Before Meeting: Preparing the Agenda

Alamb: /* Before/During Meeting: Establishing and Protecting Ground Rules */

2012-03-16T23:45:30Z

Before/During Meeting: Establishing and Protecting Ground Rules

Alamb: /* Establishing and protecting ground rules */

2012-03-14T18:59:21Z

Establishing and protecting ground rules

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 For a gateway to lots more information about the Consensus Model, see [[Consensus]].
-==Establishing and ensuring effective follow-up==
+==During/After Meeting: Establishing and ensuring effective follow-up==
 *Conversation can often stall in the realm of stating and restating what we want or “it might be a good idea to do xyz.” Reign this in by proposing commits, and asking individuals to take them on.
 *Setting deadlines for commits can help arrange priorities for future action/follow-up and make future meetings more effective/ensure continuity.
 *If time is left over in the meeting, use this time to review and approve the minutes, and set initial priorities for the next meeting's discussion.

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 **Certain people aren't speaking up on a critical topic: initiate a go-around, or call on individuals who haven't spoken yet.
-==Ensuring that proper process is followed==
+==During Meeting: Ensuring that proper process is followed==
 *Primary example at Free Geek: Consensus Model. Used by the Collective formally/informally, and mostly informally by other committees. Really briefly, consensus process is: A) Open discussion of an issue, B) Development/presentation of proposals, C) Clarifications, D) Concerns and clustering of concerns, E) Resolution of concerns/counter-proposals/further discussion, F) Opportunity to block, G) Consensus. These can happen in different orders, with certain caveats:
 **Clarifying questions are often placed in the category of "Points of Process." What constitutes a Point of Process should be defined and agreed upon in advance, and should warrant interruption of a queue or stack for the purpose of direct response.

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 **Participants are interrupting each other and failing to listen well in general
-==Keeping the conversation on topic and moving forward==
+==During Meeting: Keeping the conversation on topic and moving forward==
 *We all want to get things done in meetings, but unguided discussion will inevitably breed chaos. A few common problems and solutions:
 **The conversation is going on a tangent: ask the group if this topic should be added to the agenda for later discussion. If it keeps coming up and feels urgent, consider discussing it immediately before resuming the topic that was previously being discussed.

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 *Proper process also includes enforcing ground rules, or creating them if they don't exist already within/for a particular context.
-For more information about the Consensus Model, see:
+For a gateway to lots more information about the Consensus Model, see [[Consensus]].
 ==Establishing and ensuring effective follow-up==

@@ Line 46: / Line 46: @@
 ==Ensuring that proper process is followed==
-*Primary example at Free Geek: Consensus Model. Used by the collective formally/informally, and mostly informally by other committees. Really briefly, consensus process is: A) Open discussion of an issue, B) Development/presentation of proposals, C) Clarifications, D) Concerns and clustering of concerns, E) Resolution of concerns/counter-proposals/further discussion, F) Opportunity to block, G) Consensus. These can happen in different orders, with certain caveats: Clarifying questions should be addressed expediently, concerns can't be clustered until they've been stated, counter-proposals may move the conversation toward consensus and should not be skipped over.
+*Primary example at Free Geek: Consensus Model. Used by the Collective formally/informally, and mostly informally by other committees. Really briefly, consensus process is: A) Open discussion of an issue, B) Development/presentation of proposals, C) Clarifications, D) Concerns and clustering of concerns, E) Resolution of concerns/counter-proposals/further discussion, F) Opportunity to block, G) Consensus. These can happen in different orders, with certain caveats:
-*Proper process also includes enforcing ground rules, or creating them if they don't exist already within/for a particular context.
+**Clarifying questions are often placed in the category of "Points of Process." What constitutes a Point of Process should be defined and agreed upon in advance, and should warrant interruption of a queue or stack for the purpose of direct response.
 ==Establishing and ensuring effective follow-up==

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 ==Keeping the conversation on topic and moving forward==
-*In a hyper-intellectual environment such as Free Geek, it's often easy for us to stray from the topic at hand into tangential ideas. The facilitator must be attentive to this and willing to call it out. If the tangential topic energizes people, or keeps coming up, the facil can ask e.g. “Do we want to put this on the agenda and come back to it later in the meeting?”
+*We all want to get things done in meetings, but unguided discussion will inevitably breed chaos. A few common problems and solutions:
-*Move the conversation forward. Just a few handy tactics for doing this:
+**The conversation is going on a tangent: ask the group if this topic should be added to the agenda for later discussion. If it keeps coming up and feels urgent, consider discussing it immediately before resuming the topic that was previously being discussed.
-**If the conversation is going on a tangent:
+**The same idea keeps getting repeated: ask the group to agree on that statement as a “given” and write it on the board for reference.
-**If one idea keeps getting repeated, ask the group to agree on that statement as a “given” and write it on the board for reference.
+**"Ghosts” are being raised (nonspecific statements about things that haven't gone well in the past): ask the group to agree to productively focused conversation, i.e. "what's possible," "what do we want to achieve going forward?" You may also propose a separate mediated discussion to air out the "ghost" issues.
-**If “ghosts” are being raised (nonspecific statements about things that haven't gone well in the past) ask the group to agree to focus on “what's possible” or “what's wanted moving forward”.
+**Conversation is stalling because people aren't prepared to address the topic: propose to table it for a length of time, and ask everyone to commit to preparing for later discussion.
-**If conversation is stalling because people aren't prepared to address the topic, propose to table it for a length of time, and ask everyone to commit to preparing for later discussion.
+**Everyone wants to talk at once: keep a “stack” or “queue” for round-table speaking, allowing for interjections in the case of clarifying questions/statements.
-**If everyone wants to talk at once: keep a “stack” or “queue” for round-table speaking, allowing for interjections in the case of clarifying questions/statements.
+**Certain people aren't speaking up on a critical topic: initiate a go-around, or call on individuals who haven't spoken yet.
 ==Ensuring that proper process is followed==

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 **Established or adjusted as needed at the start of a meeting (applicable to new/ad hoc committees or stand-alone meetings)
 **Reiterated as needed during the discussion itself
-*The facilitator is the ground rule enforcer. You may want to think about halting the agenda to set ground rules or remind the committee of the ground rules that have already been set.find that discussion often strays off-topic, individual committee members butt heads, people are repeating themselves, arriving late, interrupting each other and failing to listen well in general, you m
+*The facilitator is the ground rule enforcer. You may want to think about halting the agenda to set ground rules or remind the committee of the ground rules that have already been set, when confronted with disruptive situations including but not limited to:
 ==Keeping the conversation on topic and moving forward==

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 *Review recent meeting minutes. Consolidate COMMITS that need checking in. List established "old business" topics and flesh out any others from discussions that have been initiated since the last meeting.
 *Notify participants of the agenda a few days in advance. This allows time for other topics to be submitted.
-*If the wording of a proposed topic is unclear, e.g. "Discuss the clocks at Free Geek," poke the presenter to request contextual information.
+*If the wording of a proposed topic is unclear, e.g. "Discuss the clocks at Free Geek," poke the presenter to request contextual information, e.g. "What do you want to discuss regarding the clock situation?"
 *Consider other ways you can prepare ahead:
 **Check in with presenters to see how much time they expect their item to take, what priorities they have for the discussion.

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 *Writing the agenda on the wall whiteboard can provide a handy reference to overall meeting priorities.
-==Establishing and protecting ground rules==
+==Before/During Meeting: Establishing and Protecting Ground Rules==
-.Each committee/working group may have its own set of ground rules established. These can be adjusted as needed at the start of a meeting, or reiterated during the discussion itself.
+*Ground rules are ultimately about respecting your co-workers' time. They are often oriented around ensuring that:
-.Ground rules are often oriented around ensuring that participants feel heard, disparate opinions are respected, and that generally the work gets done without interpersonal issues getting in the way.
+**Those who are attending participate actively, hear each other and feel heard
-.The facilitator is the ground rule enforcer. If you find that discussion often strays off-topic, individual committee members butt heads, people are repeating themselves, arriving late, interrupting each other and failing to listen well in general, you may want to think about halting the agenda to set ground rules or remind the committee of the ground rules that have already been set.
+**Disparate opinions and perspectives are treated with respect
 . Keeping the conversation on topic and moving forward