Schuman S. - The IAF Handbook of Group Facilitation (2005)(en)

Exploring Behaviors Before and After a Game

In my experience, very few people are indifferent to an invitation to become part of an Improv structure. Ask for a volunteer to help demonstrate an Improv exercise, and a facilitator is often faced with a group that is nervously silent. Asking a question like, “What is keeping the rest of you from volunteering?” can start a fertile discussion. Even if someone does volunteer, the investigation may begin, “How did the rest of you feel when you saw that someone had finally volunteered?” Knowing that you can use whatever happens frees you from the need to have anyone volunteer. (Do not fear, though; someone always volunteers.)

Debriefing allows us to use personal stories as data gathering. As we listen to others, we start to see common themes and patterns. Following a game, the explorations might include, “On reflection, were the beliefs you held before the activity accurate?” or “There seems to be more energy in the group. If you experience that also, how do account for it?”

The members of a rowing team had just finished a game in which players, working in groups of five, attempted to design a creative campaign under the following restrictions: it had to be completed in five minutes and there could be no discussion among the players about the choices that were made. Whatever was suggested first had to be immediately and enthusiastically accepted by the rest of the group.

During the debriefing, I asked for opinions about the experience. One woman hated it: “I’m very introverted and need to process things for a long while before speaking up in a group,” she explained, “and just like in my real life, I’m never quick enough to get my thoughts out before someone else gives theirs.” Another woman raised her hand and said, “I’m very introverted also, and I loved this exercise! Unlike my real-life experience, when I did say something in this group, no one could object or revise my contributions. I loved the feeling!” The result was a keen awareness by all that similar experiences may have radically different interpretations by those involved.

Instructional Moments

Often during the games, players or observers reveal their thinking about important beliefs they hold. These revelations, sparked by something about the Improv game or the way it is being played, are invitations to facilitators to halt the action

temporarily and bring the group into a dialogue. I refer to these pauses as instructional moments. These revelations usually present themselves in the form of a judgment, which may be masked by an overt or implied emotion. They are fruitful times for powerful learning and are one of the greatest gifts that Improv offers a facilitator because the involving nature of Improv means most of the observers have been playing along and are alert to the stoppage. Any questions, comments, or discussions at the instructional moment will thus be relevant to a large portion of the group.

A volunteer and I were at the front of the room playing “The Alphabet Game.” In this game, each of the players is conversing with the other on a topic suggested by the audience. Whoever started the conversation had to begin with a word whose first letter was “A.” The second player’s reply had to kick off with a “B” word, and so on, back and forth. The goal was to continue the conversation in that way until we had reached the end of the alphabet. During the course of the game, my partner skipped the letter “D” and began her segment with an “E” word. Immediately, someone from the group called out, “You skipped a letter!”

I recognized the opportunity for an instructional moment, stopped the game, and asked the person who had called out to explain why he did so. “She made a mistake,” he answered.

“Who else noticed a letter was skipped?” I asked.

Some raised their hands. Others did not. I invited those who noticed the skip and had not pointed it out to tell us why they chose to remain silent. “It wasn’t a big deal,” “The game was fun to watch,” and “I didn’t want to interrupt the flow” were three of the responses.

I then queried those who had not noticed the oversight to comment on how they reacted to the stoppage in play. “It was frustrating” and “He should have let it go” were the most common replies from that group. Learnings that came from this simple instructional moment included the notion that all actions have consequences, some of which may not be evident at the time, not everyone watching an event sees the same things, monitoring someone too closely may inhibit that person’s creativity, and people have differing notions about how closely some rules need to be followed. Following the discussion, I asked the group for another topic, and the player and I started the game again. This time we were able to finish.

FACILITATING IN LIMINAL SPACE

The Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines liminal as an adjective meaning “of or relating to a sensory threshold, barely perceptible.” It defines hybrid as “something heterogeneous in origin or composition” and hybridity as “causing things to blend together and become something new and not realized until some time has passed.”

I believe Improv works as it does because it operates in players’ psychological liminal space. This is where the different aspects of the Improv experience come together. I am referring to the conflicting thoughts, the paradoxical ideas, the surprising results, and the clash between the players’ desire to think or act in one way while trying to think or act in a different way. These incongruous facets coincide and rub up against each other until they begin to evolve into a new behavior. This hybrid behavior displays a new energy, derived from a new way of seeing the world. Not only can participants see ways to change their behavior, they also are able to change how they feel and thereby change how others act and feel toward them. Hybridity is evolutionary change. It is the result of the transformational nature of Improv.

THE FACILITATOR AS ENERGY DIRECTOR

Among the many roles a facilitator must play is one that reads “energy director.” Improv activities are vehicles that help to transform thought, action, belief, and feeling. They do this through the distribution and charging of energy. The redirection is from blocking, or imploding energy to flowing or expanding energy. One of the most common descriptions of what it feels like to be in a successful Improv game is, “I felt we were flowing.” Conversely, difficult or frustrating Improv experiences are often described as “being stuck.”

The participants in a program, when not engaged in an activity, regularly experience one of two states of energy flow: they are either being energized or being drained of their liveliness. Whether the participants remain alert and engaged depends on many things, not the least of which is how we understand and direct the flow of their energy, particularly that which runs between the participants and ourselves. To that end, Improv games are quick, hold the interest of player and observer, and are mentally stimulating to all, so the attention of the group does not have time to sag.

Consider that the energy level of the participants defines the emotional state of the group in the same way lighting sets the tone in a theater production, where changing lights indicate a shift in mood. In the theater, the illumination fills in the holes and occupies the spaces between characters, events, and sets. In facilitation, which consists of sets of human relationships (between us and the participants, among the participants themselves, connecting the participants with the people who are on their minds), the energy illuminates the dynamics of the group. Energy is what fills the space linking the people who are present in the room. The way we manage the energy in a room more or less has the effect of working like a thermostat, controlling the emotional climate among the attendees.

THREE PARADOXES OF IMPROV

To help groups grasp the underlying principles of Improv, I have found it useful to provide them with the following seemingly contradictory notions. Also, they are foundational concepts for developing confidence in using the games.

Practice Spontaneity

Spontaneity, like other cognitive skills, can be developed through practice. For example, fluency in a new language is achieved through practice. Practice is actively responding or doing something over and over. Since Improv encourages spontaneity, it can be practiced.

Experience Freedom Through Structure

The myth about Improv is that it has no structure and is anarchical in its unfolding. The truth is that each Improv game has a simple structure to it. It is this structure that allows for the tremendous amount of freedom in the playing of the game. For example, “One Word at a Time” is described as a game where the players must create a story that has never been told before. They must do this by speaking one word at a time, in turn. For instance, one hundred groups of three persons each can be playing at the same time, with each group starting with the same title. Every group will come out with a different story using this simple structure.

Feel in Control by Giving It Up

Most times, it is impossible to predict what a person will say or do next in a game. Trying to produce a particular response or control a destination is futile. The key to success in Improv is to let go of the need to know where you will end up and just

go along following the structure. The most frustrated players in “One Word at a Time” are the ones who have an opinion on how well the story is progressing or the value of the partner’s contributions. Once the need for control of process and outcome is relinquished, frustrations turn to relaxed feelings. Trusting the process and knowing it will be okay no matter how it turns out is a very powerful way of being.

CONCLUSION

Improv is the absolute and unconditional acceptance of what your partner is offering you. It teaches how to listen without prejudging, how to share control, and how to accept what others offer. Also, Improv is about making your partner look good and developing trust in others by showing that a dilemma represented by the Improv activity can be solved by joint collaboration and trust in self by embracing risk-taking.

Using Improv games is helpful in dealing with resistance to change and exploring the anger, resentment, withdrawal, and cynicism that infect organizations. It sparks people’s belief in their own creativity, and it is a safe way to question one’s beliefs about what others are going through. Improv clearly shows that the weapons you use against others are the ones you use against yourself.

When using Improv theater activities in facilitation, you are inviting participants to enter and embrace the unknown, live each moment without an agenda, exist in a state of absolute and unconditional acceptance of what is offered, relish process, and remain relaxed about outcome. It is applied mindfulness in action. All this is done while enjoying and valuing working with others. (Exhibit 17.5 has tips for facilitators.)

For facilitators, the benefits of games do not come without risk. Because no one can predict exactly how an Improv game will turn out, facilitators using these games step into the uncertainty with confidence in their ability to make use of whatever comes up. In other words, they have to experience exactly what is asked of their participants: trust, vulnerability, spontaneity, and willingness to being uncomfortable in public.

In a sense, the work becomes a practice, a way of being. The concepts and techniques that you offer participants are gifts to you also. You learn to be very present while facilitating with Improv, exuding a calm confidence that comes from your trust of the process. You become comfortably spontaneous as you learn how Improv instills the ability to handle surprise and enjoy the unexpected. Mostly, you

Exhibit 17.5

Tips for Facilitators

•Become as familiar with a game as possible before using it with a group. Try it out on friends, family, or peers. Each time you play the game, it is a bit different than other times.

•Just because a group has played a game already does not mean the same group cannot use it again.

•See as much Improv as you can, whether on television or live.

•Improv games can be stopped and resumed at almost any time. They also can be stopped and restarted with new endowments. An endowment is the information given to the players to help them with the game. Examples of endowments are the title of the story being told, the secret the character brings to the scene, or the relationship of the characters to each other.

•I use only volunteers in activities. You may decide to choose players other ways.

•I always use the first suggestion I hear when soliciting endowments. You may choose to do it differently.

learn to believe in yourself, and as e. e. cummings said, “Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.”

RESOURCES

AppliedImprov.net—the Web site for the Applied Improvisation Network, an organization for those using Improv as a facilitation, training, or learning tool

Humanpingpongball.com—home to the Improv encyclopedia

Learnimprov.com—has descriptions of hundreds of Improv games

Yesand.com—an extensive source of Improv information

Lori Bradley

Michael Beyerlein

Many meetings today occur across boundaries of geography, company, and culture rather than face-to-face. The situation has changed, and that means that facilitation has changed. Or has it?

That is the topic that this chapter discusses: how facilitation changes when the meeting is virtual.

Today’s organizations exist in a complex climate of intense competition and fastpaced, quickly changing global markets. It has become imperative for organizations to adapt quickly in order to thrive. Business reorganizations, large-scale change projects, and mergers and acquisitions have become the norm rather than the exception as companies struggle to maintain the flexibility required to succeed. Given the events of September 11, 2001, the downturn in the economy, and the rapid advances in communication and information technology, many organizations have begun to outsource a number of organizational functions. Outsourcing has created networks of loosely connected organizational entities (LeMay, 2000). These networks, with their resulting porous boundaries, have become a popular response to the challenging business environment as a way for organizations to maximize intellectual capital, employee talent, and synergy and minimize

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travel costs, relocation expenses, and disruption to employees’ lives (Bal and Teo, 2001). Also, networks allow organizations to (LeMay, 2000):

•Share facilities and resources

•Share core competencies and expertise

•Share risk and infrastructure costs

•Respond more quickly to opportunities

•Share markets, customers, and market loyalties

•Create synergies that result in innovative solutions

Virtual networks assume many forms. They may be temporary networks of independent companies, suppliers, customers, even rivals (LeMay, 2000). They may range from a quickly deployed response team formed around a problem or issue and then just as quickly disbanded, to a stable and enduring team that works together regularly and over longer periods of time. Virtual networks are creating a new corporate model that is fluid, flexible, and adaptable—able to come together quickly to respond to business opportunities and morph itself into the best configuration possible (LeMay, 2000).

People involved in a virtual collaborative enterprise are often referred to as virtual teams (VTs). A virtual team is usually made up of members separated by geographical distance, sometimes sufficiently distant as to be in different time zones. Team members may also be from different organizational departments or even different organizations (Duarte and Snyder, 2001). Success depends on the ability of the group to communicate and collaborate effectively, and in a VT, that communication takes place using technology. Much of this collaboration takes place in virtual meetings, defined here as any meeting in which the participants are not all physically present in the same location, but may be connected through videoconferencing, teleconferencing, or Web conferencing (Internet) technology. Geographical and time zone differences often present significant barriers for effective communication and can be especially challenging when high levels of collaboration are sought. According to LeMay (2000), flatter organizational structures may enhance organizational efficiency, but having employees dispersed geographically and organizationally makes collaboration and management much more difficult.

The power of collaboration comes from inclusion—specifically, including all relevant stakeholders (Straus, 2002). Research has shown that teams that effectively

use the knowledge and resources of a number of organizational units are more creative than teams working within a limited and defined functional area (Creighton and Adams, 1998). When the full range of existing interests and varied points of view is involved in solving problems or making decisions, the solution is likely to be more comprehensive and creative than if a small group of like-minded individuals acted on its own (Straus, 2002). Increased support for decisions and increased likelihood of implementation are fortunate by-products of effectively involving all appropriate stakeholders.

As organizational management focuses more on teams rather than individuals, ensuring that the organization has an effective system of collaboration becomes a survival factor. Historically, much of the collaborative process took place in face- to-face meetings where two or more people worked together on their shared project. Creighton and Adams (1998) found that meetings are the most frequent form of collaboration and that both meetings and collaboration are crucial to project success. Yet effective collaboration is made more complex when the virtual meetings substitute for face-to-face meetings.

According to Attaran and Attaran (2002), companies in the United States were turning to videoconferencing, teleconferencing, and Web conferencing to reduce travel costs even before the 2001 terrorist attacks; since then, the adoption rate of these virtual tools has dramatically increased. The Web conferencing market especially has seen aggressive growth, with vendors reporting interest levels up more than 50 percent since the attacks. For example, immediately after September 11, 2001, PlaceWare saw a 40 percent increase in business. It was subsequently acquired by Microsoft Corporation, and its Web conferencing software is the core of its new product, Office Live Meeting, which displaced NetMeeting. Recognizing the emerging importance of virtual collaboration, Microsoft created a business division, the Real-Time Collaboration Business Unit, dedicated to marketing and developing tools to support virtual collaboration.

While organizations are attracted to the concept of working virtually for the convenience and savings in time and travel costs, the challenges in maintaining expected levels of performance and supporting virtual collaboration are considerable. Some of the most commonly cited frustrations related to working virtually involve technology and the inability to hold efficient and productive virtual meetings (Anderson, Ashraf, Douther, and Jack, 2001; Fels and Weiss, 2000; Whittaker, 1995). With the recent and rapid advances in technology capable of connecting large numbers of globally dispersed people, meetings can take on various

forms and a daunting new level of complexity. Here are a few examples from our experience:

•A group of eight regional managers for an airline conduct a weekly conference call to share updates and review performance statistics for each of the airline’s regions.

•A staff of human resource executives located at corporate headquarters conducts a virtual interview with a job candidate by videoconference. The job candidate is at a videoconference facility at a branch office.

•A team of industry professionals that is creating a presentation for an upcoming conference e-mails drafts to each other for editing and holds weekly teleconference meetings. They will meet each other in person for the first time thirty minutes before their joint presentation.

•Forty-five credit card company application designers, dispersed among four different international sites, edit and review a document that outlines business system requirements for a new project. They use group editing software to view and make changes to a document that they view simultaneously. They use videoconferencing technology to communicate with each other as they work on the document.

•A project team made up of engineers from three aviation companies meets to discuss the design and manufacture of an airplane component. They are connected by a videoconference except for the employees of company A, who must teleconference into the meeting. They cannot share documents because of company B’s firewall. Company C’s employees cannot be present when certain details of the project are discussed due to competition on an unrelated project.

These examples should make it obvious that while no two situations are identical, what most VTs have in common is the complexity of their meetings, their topics, and their infrastructures. Traditional meeting skills may not be enough for successful virtual meetings.

Connell (2002) suggests that technology has evolved so rapidly that organizations are challenged to catch up with the human factors. The challenge becomes the ability to perform at the level the technology will allow without compromising the quality of the interaction and the work of the team members. The bulk of a VT’s real-time interaction happens during virtual meetings; thus, it is critically important that these go well. It is in the best interest of any organization using VTs to design and conduct virtual meetings as effectively as possible.

The fastest route to improved virtual meetings may be with a skilled virtual meeting facilitator who has the requisite knowledge, skill, and experience. However,