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

the document if the group editing software fails, and what backup communication system to shift to until the main system is working again. Facilitators must expect the unexpected and be ready with suggestions when the unexpected happens. Ultimately, it should be the group’s decision if something is a large enough problem to warrant rescheduling the meeting or if a workaround is acceptable.

One particular anxiety-provoking medium is videoconferencing, which is becoming increasingly popular as the technology becomes more affordable. Videoconferencing is beneficial in that it provides more social presence to the participants and gives more contextual cues about the other participants, but it also seems to provoke a lot of stress about the proper way to communicate. It can feel awkward at first, especially if there is not sufficient bandwidth. This can result in a lag time after comments, which sometimes causes people to speak “on top” of one another. However, most of the newer technology has full duplex sound capabilities, so this is becoming rare. With practice and experience, people will become more comfortable in this environment. Facilitators help by reminding participants to ensure that someone has finished speaking before beginning to speak, to keep unnecessary movements to a minimum, and to remember that the microphones can sometimes pick up and amplify undesired sounds (such as a pen tapping on the table or someone unwrapping a piece of candy). Some general guidelines for videoconferencing are included in Exhibit 18.4.

Ending the Meeting The virtual facilitator should make sure that required follow-up actions to the meeting are made explicit and that responsibilities for each task are clearly assigned (Bradley, Wagner-Johnson, and Ballantine, 2002). It is also helpful to solicit feedback from the group and any cofacilitators on how they felt the technology and facilitation process served them and what might be improved in the future.

After the Meeting

If working with one or more cofacilitators, the facilitator should debrief immediately following the meeting. The facilitators should discuss what did and did not go well and what changes should be made if they work together again. They should also decide who will be responsible for any follow-up documentation. The debriefing captures lessons learned, solidifies best practices, and establishes the groundwork for more successful subsequent meetings.

Exhibit 18.4

Videoconferencing Do’s and Don’ts

Do

•Introduce yourself when you join a conference. Announce your name and location. Avoid embarrassing situations when people are not aware of your presence. Remember that the microphone and camera are always on.

•Let the other person finish speaking before you start talking. Make new users aware of the delay in video and audio switching. Be conscious of side noises (such as pencil tapping or coughing).

•Remember to maintain eye contact with the camera when you are speaking.

•Speak at a normal volume. Many early participants in videoconferences feel that they must speak loudly. Let the equipment do its job.

•Zoom the camera in as much as possible without cutting anyone out of the picture.

•Consider using the feature that will zoom the camera in on whoever is speaking. Caution: This feature can become annoying if the conversation is lively. You may want to reserve this for more presentation-type meetings.

•Control the size of your audience.

Don’t

•Wear shirts or blouses that are checked, striped, have busy patterns, or are all white. Busy patterns can blur or “buzz” on camera. White shirts can appear too bright or can blend in with white walls, creating a “floating head” effect. A solid color, preferably blue, works best.

•Wear large, dangly jewelry. It can reflect light and cause a glare on camera or create noises on the speakers.

•Make repetitive, fast movements, such as tapping a pen on the table, drumming fingers, or other nervous habits. These can cause the camera to freeze or jump and cause sound distortions.

•Engage in sidebar conversations. They are distracting in any circumstances, but in a videoconference with multiple microphones, they can drown out the main conversation.

•Wear bright red lipstick. Bright colors of red can appear to bleed on camera.

Follow-up with the client or meeting owner ensures that he or she was satisfied with the meeting. Changes that might make future meetings go more smoothly should be discussed with the meeting owner as well. Any problems with the equipment should be reported. If the facilitator feels that there was not a good technology-task match, this is an opportunity to educate the client about the importance of this match.

Finally, keeping a facilitation journal in order to document experiences and growth as a facilitator can be a valuable practice. By making notes about what that should be changed or remembered and then reviewing those notes before the next virtual facilitation event, the facilitator can expedite his or her improvement.

CONCLUSION

Advances in technology are creating exciting new opportunities for facilitators. Virtual facilitators are in the enviable role of helping people learn new ways of collaborating. An understanding of group dynamics, conflict resolution, and meeting effectiveness makes facilitators uniquely qualified for this task. Virtual facilitation draws on many of the same skills and abilities and much of the same knowledge that traditional group facilitation does, with the additional necessity of some technological proficiency and an understanding of how being virtual changes a group’s interaction.

It can be challenging for facilitators to keep up with all the available technology on the market today, but those who are willing to venture into virtual facilitation will be rewarded with the knowledge that they are part of building the foundation for a new way of working. Facilitators may find it very rewarding to expand their practices to include virtual facilitation. Furthermore, virtual facilitators can help advance the field by writing about their experiences, joining listservs, and making presentations at conferences in order to share critical success factors and elevate this emerging area of expertise.

The Start-Up is a scripted process that assists facilitators serving a team in its early development. Our definition of team is “a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable” (Katzenbach and Smith, 1993, p. 45). In the Start-Up, when we use the word group, we are referenc-

ing the team.

To give the Start-Up a theoretical context, if it is viewed from the classic linear theory of development—forming, norming, storming, and performing (Tuckman, 1965)—the Start-Up would occur during the forming stage. It is the point at which the team is becoming oriented to the task it will be performing and defining some of the basic roles and responsibilities of its members.

In the context of the cyclical or pendular models of group development (Smith, 2001), the Start-Up, or activities selected from it, would occur when needed to help the team resolve the developmental issues that these models suggest the groups will revisit. This revisiting occurs both at the beginning of the team’s existence and during the team’s life as a reaction to issues that arise in order to define or revise their task, problem, or direction.

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The immediate objective of conducting a Start-Up is to define the project’s purpose and scope. The Start-Up will establish a healthy foundation for the team’s work. It attends to “team basics . . . size, purpose, goals, skills, approach and accountability. . . . A deficiency in any of these basics will derail the team, yet most potential teams inadvertently ignore one or more of them” (Katzenbach and Smith, 1993, p. 3).

At the completion of the Start-Up, the team will have created and agreed on:

•A clear and common understanding of the team’s charter

•Meeting ground rules and operating procedures

•Defined roles for the team members

•An identification and understanding of the team’s interests

•A vision of the desired outcome

•A mission statement and a draft work plan

Each team member will also be able to confidently answer the following questions:

•What is the project’s purpose?

•What problem or gap is the team addressing?

•What impact will closing this gap have on customers?

•What other reasons exist for addressing this gap?

•How will the team know it is succeeding?

•What is the team’s plan for this project?

We have already defined the term team. Here are some additional definitions that will be useful in reading about and using the Start-Up:

Chartering body—the organization or individual that is the core initiator of the project. The chartering body describes the performance challenge that must be met. Often it is an executive or executive committee.

Team sponsor—the person, normally a manager responsible to the chartering body, who is tasked with answering the performance challenge.

Team leaders—the persons, usually designated by the team sponsor, with the responsibility for organizing and directing the development of the solution to the performance challenge.

Facilitator—a neutral servant of the group whose purpose is to help the team become more effective. (See Chapter Two for a detailed discussion of the facilitator’s role.)

Throughout the Start-Up, the team establishes how it will tackle and resolve issues, and practices doing so. Trust, common understanding, mutual accountability, and group ownership will begin to develop among team members; we call this group of feelings teamness. The Start-Up has been used effectively with information technology development work teams. It is also used with diverse work teams such as labor-management partnership teams. The Start-Up allows the team leaders to fully participate in the session, while the facilitator introduces the use of meeting skills and models appropriate meeting behaviors that should improve later meetings, whether or not they are facilitated.

From our experiences, we recommend that a block of time (three or four hours) be set aside for this activity when a team begins its initial meeting.

PLANNING THE START-UP MEETING

The team leaders, the team sponsor, if possible, and the facilitator should meet in advance to discuss the team, its makeup, and its tasks and how the Start-Up will be conducted. As part of the planning meeting, the facilitator should ask about potential problem areas or sensitive issues that the team is to tackle and discuss how best to approach them.

The facilitator should begin the planning meeting by asking the leader, “Tell me about your team,” or “Tell me about your project.” The answer to these inquiries will give the facilitator a sense of the scope of the team’s task. It will help the facilitator gain a sense of what the leader may require in terms of additional coaching or support. This meeting also forms the basis of the relationship between the facilitator and the team leader. (See Chapter One for more information on these relationships.)

The facilitator should review this guide with the team leader and explain what is expected to occur during the Start-Up. Based on this discussion, the facilitator and team leader together develop and select the statements to use for the datagathering exercise.

During this meeting with the team leader and team sponsor, the facilitator learns about the project, the team, its history, its members, potential problems, and how clearly they understand their charter.

The facilitator discusses the procedural agenda with the team leader concerning methods, tools, and responsibility for materials, setup, and leadership of the StartUp. The topical agenda will be developed after these procedural items are addressed. He or she explains that the Start-Up will produce a number of flip chart pages that will need to be transcribed and ensures that the team leader understands that it is his responsibility to arrange for someone to transcribe the flip charts after the meeting. The facilitator and team leader should establish ground rules for how they will work together. For example, the facilitator and leader may agree to a ground rule that they will meet two days before each team meeting to assess group progress and review the expected outcomes or, when working with a new leader, the facilitator may enter into a ground rule covering leadership coaching sessions with the leader (see Chapter Two for a discussion of other facilitative roles such as trainer or coach).

The facilitator should identify which chartering body members should attend the Start-Up to launch the project. Ideally one or more should attend to say a few words to inspire and encourage the team. The chartering body members should also be prepared to answer questions from the group.

The facilitator explains the data gathering exercise to the leader and sponsor. The exercise is used to elicit information, ideas, and opinions that the team will use as the basis for the team process: a clear and common understanding of the charter, mission statement, ground rules, member roles, vision statement, interests, and draft work plan. Also, this exercise reinforces positive meeting behavior in that it causes all team members to participate mentally and physically. The facilitator should go over the questions in the data gathering exercise and decide with the leader and sponsor which will be most useful and appropriate.

Occasionally, a team leader will request team training for his or her group. When this occurs, we still use the Start-Up, but we refer to it as “team training,” during which the team learns by working through their tasks.

Developing a Meeting Agenda

Working with the team leader, the facilitator creates an agenda for the Start-Up. Exhibit 19.1 presents a sample agenda that employed multiple facilitators.

Preparing the Meeting Room

The room for the Team Start-Up should be large enough to hold the team and several flip charts, and still allow enough open space for team members to move around. It is important that the room have adequate wall space to post flip chart