group cohesion Archives

September 5, 2011 By Joyce Weiss Leave a Comment

Did You Ever Facilitate a Meeting That Didn’t Go As Well As You Envisioned?

If so…you are not alone.

This blog post gives you tips to help you plan a very productive meeting.

I had the honor of presenting a workshop to members of MI Society of Association Executives (MSAE) on BEST PRACTICES AS A FACILITATOR.

Thanks to Nichole Tilma (Director of Professional Development & Special Events for MSAE) who invited me to lead the workshop and to Kathy Bart (Director of Sales at Director at DeVos Place) who did a great job as a co-leader.

Kathy Bart, Joyce Weiss, and Nichole Tilma

We started out the program with an important distinction between the words facilitator and expert.

A facilitator is an individual whose job is to help manage a process of information exchange. A facilitator helps HOW the discussion is proceeding. Facilitators ask questions versus give answers. An expert’s role is to offer advice and give answers.
It is important to know the difference because great facilitators understand their role and don’t take over the discussion. They make sure the group moves forward.

I hope that you find the following best practices as a facilitator helpful:

Set Priorities

Find out what the audience needs to know, wants to know and why are there

Set Ground Rules Such as:

Turning off cell phones
No side bars with people whispering to each other
Checking egos at the door in order to have honest conversations
Stopping negativity

Encourage Everyone to Share Ideas by Asking the Group to:

Write down 3 ideas
Share these ideas with a partner
Discuss these ideas in small groups
Bring these ideas back to the large group

Have Fun During the Meeting

Bring small toys for the group to play with during the meeting

Koosh balls
Stress toys
Play dough
Bubbles

Take 30 Minute Stretch Breaks

Have the audience stand and do easy exercises
Share the best idea that they learned so far

Get The Group to Take Action by Using Debriefing Questions

The most important concept that you learned today is…
The first step that you will take is…
The biggest barrier that you will have to overcome is…
You will overcome the barrier by…

If you use these 5 best practices, your next facilitating meeting will be very successful.

Please send me your most challenging issue on how to facilitate your next meeting.

Also, send me your best practices and I will post them in a future blog…giving you credit!

Enjoy co-leader Katy Bart share what she learned from the session

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Feel free to share these tips with your team – Just be sure to give Joyce credit when you share or publish.

Until next time

Remember, YOU Get What YOU Tolerate!

Joyce Weiss, M.A., CSP
Conflict Resolution Consultant & Accountability Coach

June 12, 2011 By Joyce Weiss 6 Comments

Resolving Conflict in the Workplace by Using Lean Thinking

I have the honor of co-presenting a workshop on Lean Culture and Resolving Conflict in the Workplace sponsored by Michigan Lean Consortium.
Gerry Clark and Thomas Smith will be conducting the lean part of the workshop…which requires a complete transformation on how an organization collectively thinks and conducts business.

I will be addressing how changing a culture automatically creates conflict. Participants will learn strategies on how to get people on board.

Participants will learn how to:

deal with naysayers
build trust by resolving conflict
stop wasting time by not dealing with conflict
gain control
use the power talk strategy
protect themselves when being verbally attacked
create solutions even during conflict

If you are not able to attend this powerful workshop, here are some questions that you can ask at your next meeting:

1. Does your organization have top leaders who are seriously dedicated to becoming a lean learning enterprise? If not can they at least seem seriously coachable?

2. Are you committed to this process for the long term?

3. What steps will you need to take to prepare yourself for this process?

4. Are you willing to make enough of a commitment to take time to learn, to observe deeply and to participate in continuous improvement?

5. How will you mentor others?

6. How will your organization get the support needed for this transformation?

7. Is your organization full of conflicting and inconsistent messages? If so, develop a communication plan for beginning the process for sending consistent messages.

8. What will be necessary to change the culture so that a singular consistent message develops?

Lean consists of the following:

Philosophy: Long term thinking
Process: Eliminate waste
People and Partners: Respect, challenge, people
Problems Solving: Continuous improvement and learning

Here are the details of the meeting if you are able to attend. I would love to see you there!

Date: June 17, 2011
Time: 8:30 a.m.-2:00 p.m.

Location: Oakland—Macomb INCubator
Address: 6633 18 Mile Road, Sterling Heights, MI 48314

The event will be cut in half by lunch with the culture piece from 9:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m. and the conflict
resolution piece Noon-2:00 p.m. Light breakfast & lunch included.
To register, email: register@michiganlean.org Limit 50
Cost: $20 for non-members; free for members; check out www.michiganlean.org for more events!

Please let me know if you would like me to present this program to your organization.
Feel free to contact me at 800.713.1926 or joyce@JoyceWeiss.com and I will answer any questions that you may have for me.

Was this helpful?
What is your most pressing issue on keeping your company continuously learning?
If you already are a lean company, please share your successes.

Feel free to share these tips with your team – just be sure to give Joyce credit when you share or publish.

February 6, 2011 By Joyce Weiss Leave a Comment

Do You Have a Super Bowl Team?

Today is the Super Bowl and I am getting ready to go to a party to watch the best team win. How can you tell if you have a winning team?

I just returned from a training in Wynne Arkansas and worked with the winning East Central Arkansas Regional Library System Team. I am extremely impressed at how hard all the team members worked together to develop into an even stronger team.

I asked the group to define what team building meant to them. They came up the following characteristics:

Support
Building relationships
Keeping up the slack when team members are not at work
Building Trust

We discussed all of these characteristics during the training. Building Trust was the one that we all agreed to concentrate on during the training. We discussed that silence in meetings is probably a good indication that lack of trust exists. We came up with a solution for everyone on the team to be fully engaged at meetings. Silence does not hold you accountable. If you agree with your team, tell them. If you don’t agree, tell them why. It is a risk to open up our mouth when we don’t agree with the team. If trust exists, then it is easier to do.

I encouraged the Wynne AR team to talk to team members when an issue comes up in the future. It is dangerous to let it go or gossip with each other. We went around the room and discussed what each team member needed to build trust with each other. We came up with some great suggestions on how to build trust even during challenging times.

Decide how you can build trust with your team when things get stressful. Hope these ideas will help you build your own team synergy.

Please let me know your biggest challenge with your team.
Write your challenge in the comment box of this blog and I will answer.
I am committed to stay in touch with my loyal readers – so please keep in touch!

Please watch Holly Mercer’s (Director of East Central Arkansas Regional Library System) video testimonial that she made right after the team building training:

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For more information, articles, and podcasts, visit https://www.joyceweiss.com

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