Poor Process Skills | Gary Rush Facilitation

November 2018 - The FoCuSeD™ Facilitator eNewsletter

Poor Process Skills | Gary Rush Facilitation

A weakness that many Facilitators, meeting leaders, and project managers, to name a few, have in common is poor process skills.  They struggle when defining a process for the group to follow to ensure well thought-out outcomes.  So let’s focus on defining a structured thought-process that helps get you from point A to point B.

How often have you been in a workshop or meeting where people work together well, but can’t get from point A to point B?  It isn’t because they can’t, it’s because something is missing – a structured thought process.  For example, a group is choosing between vendors for a project, but they disagree about the criteria.  There are two (2) major reasons why most groups disagree in this situation:

• They disagree about what to evaluate because they lack an overarching goal to guide the criteria.  

OR

• They disagree about “subjective” criteria (e.g., vendor viability) instead of defining measurable criteria.

Defining a Structured Process

A structured process allows you to organize thoughts in a logical progression.  It allows you to deliberately, logically, and methodically organize thoughts by thinking through “how to” define the problem before jumping to a solution.  

Thought Patterns

When I’m designing an agenda, I look at thought patterns – how we think through something.  The following thought patterns help me set the overall context – the big picture outcome, e.g., Symptoms, Vision, and Overall Goal, then step through what is needed to think about “how to” get from point A to point B – the outcome.

• For Problem-Solving:
  • Symptoms  Cause Solution
  • Problem Statement Objectives à Solutions Select Solution

• For Setting Direction:
  • Vision Goals Objectives Tactics
  • Why Where How When

• For Defining Actions:
  • What Who When
  • What are we Doing What are the Barriers What do we want to Accomplish How do we get There
  • Overall Goal Steps to reach Goal Sequence of Steps

Questions to Think About

As I think through designing the process, I consider the following questions to ensure I’m not missing a key piece of the puzzle.

• Is the group disagreeing about Objectives?
  • Yes – have them define the Overall Goal.

• Is the group disagreeing about Criteria?
  • Yes – have them define a clear Objective.

• Is the group disagreeing about which is first, second, etc.?
  • Yes – have them agree on the end result – the Outcome.

• Is the group stuck on how to solve a problem?
  • Yes – have them agree on a clear Problem Statement.

• Is the group disagreeing about Priorities?
  • Yes – have them define the Overall Goal or Objective.

• Is the group trying to solve a problem but haven’t agreed on the Root Cause?
  • Ask “Why?” five times until you’ve hit the root cause, then have them agree on a clear Problem Statement.

Structured thought processes generally build top-down, i.e., they begin with a broad, overall understanding (the context) and then delve into the details.  This allows me to keep groups on track and methodically enable them to achieve a well thought-out outcome.

Process skills provide deliberate, structured thought processes to develop the right outcome.