Recently I presented a breakout session on Group Dyamanics and the Characters in the Room to about 100 participants. The audience was a combination of business leaders and professionals all striving to improve their abilities to effectively work with groups. An interesting dialogue happened so I thought I would share. Thanks.
As a business leader your business acumen is important to develop. One of the skills you need is the ability to facilitate to solve business problems. Sometimes the group dynamics create challenges that need to be overcome.
In working with groups, there are a number of dynamics at play. It is helpful if you consider the different group characters and how to deal with them. Here are nine for you to think about.
As a business leader your business acumen is important to develop. One of the skills you need is the ability to facilitate to solve business problems. Sometimes the group dynamics create challenges that need to be overcome.
In working with groups, there are a number of dynamics at play. It is helpful if you consider the different group characters and how to deal with them. Here are nine for you to think about.
The Isolate: This is
that one person who
remains outside the group or is thinking about previous topics. Consider
spending time helping
people get acquainted or have discussions using pairing and triads. Provide
opportunities for debriefing or summarizing what was discussed. Get the
participants involved.
The Monopoliser: We all
know this person. They monopolize the time and focus of the group. Be clear on
your expectations, use your body language to hurry the speaker, or when they
take a breath say “thank you” and ask for other comments. You can also use a
parking lot to write their points down. It is best NOT TO INTERRUPT, however, it is OK to watch for the talkers to
draw a breath and leap into the instant of silence this creates to try to
regain control. Move fast, but speak softly and gently.
The Facilitator as Expert: Your best “Rule of Thumb”. . . do not go there.
The facilitator should never set themselves up as the expert. You are there to
understand the requirements and help establish direction. Consider avoiding answering every question
yourself by letting group members respond to each other. Do not feel obliged to
comment on everything that everyone says. Reduce your own authority by sitting
down with the group.
Group
Sharply Divided: This is where the
groups are together physically but not together in interests or point of view.
Mix the group up and get people to move around the room. Put them in new
requirement work teams and assign the groups a specific relevant task to
complete. Have team members present and then
debrief. If a solution cannot be reached, get agreement to park it! Make sure
you ask the group if they feel comfortable moving on even though the issue
dividing them is not settled. Be prepared with several group exercises, tools
and techniques. Most important, keep cool, detached, and unhurried. Use a light
touch.
Antagonistic Duo: These
are the two people exchanging negative vibes and everyone is uncomfortable. Confirm
that conflict is positive and ask them to continue their disagreement. Set the
stage by moving them closer together, arrange other group members as observers,
and establish a scribe. Most importantly make explicit ground rules for
conflict. Ask group members for feedback. Get everyone involved by taking the
issue away from the duo by saying, “You have highlighted an important issue for
us. Here is an exercise for the entire group to participate in that continues
exploring these issues but in a different way.
The Cozy Duo: Here
two friends are choosing to give each other comfort. They are making side
conversations. This is not all right. Best solution is change up the teams and
rearrange the seating locations at a break to split the cozy duo up. Position
the change as an opportunity to get a different perspective.
Unresolved Members: People
are not engaged. It happens. Sometimes people do not understand why they are
participating, they never wanted to participate, they just do not care or maybe
they are bored. Break time! Check the thermostat and drop the heat in the room.
Maybe change things up. Consider a group exercise, a short controversial video
on the topic, have the group brainstorm on a new agenda and create consensus.
Be brave and leave the room while they do it. The break may help you to refocus
and help them to become more active.
Highly
Defensive Group: In this case the group members have erected
barriers to protect their personal or professional images. This is about
self-preservation. You need to get people talking and sharing in a low threat
way. Move slowly with no pressure. Focus on facts and intellectual work for a
time, gradually introducing small amounts of selective attitude. Avoid
role-playing. Be open to revealing more about yourself. Sometimes this sets the stage for other
people to reveal information.
The Big
Group: If the group has many members and no sense of
inter-relatedness be prepared to use pairs, triads and work groups. Rearrange the
group into round tables so they can see one-another. Get people discussing
specific related topic. Make sure you walk around the room making contact with
people. Establish “associate facilitators” to manage the different groups. The
larger the group the more ground rules, definition of roles and leadership
required. Avoid feeling and attitude work with large groups. Keep people on
track.
The most
important thing as a senior professional, business analyst, manager or leader
in developing your facilitation skills is to have fun and enjoy the process.
Find ways to enhance being a facilitator and applying requirements elicitation
best practices. Develop your group dynamic skills along with the tools and
techniques of requirements elicitation. Remember leverage the group unique
character and get the members engaged.
The Red Question: In what way can you use the group character identification to help you facilitate your business planning meetings?
Richard
Lannon 2008© Edited 2014©