The
example for this week’s coaching assignment is from my previous workplace. A
couple of employees from each department were assigned to attend a workshop
which aimed to generate a vision for our company’s new website. The workshop was held at the headquarters of
another company and one of their consultants was in charge of the workshop.
First he made sure that everybody knew the goal of the workshop and explained us
what kind of process we were supposed to follow in order to reach our goal.
After this he divided us into smaller groups and gave us instructions for our
first assignment that was to study so-called megatrends that are going to shape
the financial industry and the world in general. We had to pick the most
important ones and use them as a base for the next phases. After studying
megatrends we had to start thinking about what kind features in our website
would respond to these megatrends. The consultant gave us post-its, pens and
other material to help us innovate and formulate our ideas better. After coming
up with some ideas he told us again to pick the most feasible and important
ones and create a presentation of them. Finally all the groups presented their
main ideas and the others were able to comment on those. We had really nice
discussions and came up with ideas that we probably couldn’t have come up just
by ourselves. All the presentations were filmed and later showed to our other
colleagues and the management of the company. Everybody seemed really content
with our ideas so I think it is safe to say that the workshop was a success.
There
were several factors that made the workshop successful in my opinion. First of
all, the facilitator was an outside consultant which enabled him to be detached
from the content of our workshop. He was totally objective towards our goal and
did not try to interfere with our ideas. He did not have any insight in our
topic since he was not familiar with our needs and thus, he let us made us our
own decisions. The good thing was also that most of us did not know him
beforehand so he was able to treat all of us equally. Secondly, I felt that he
really cared about the process since facilitating is something that he is used
to do for a living. He made sure that every group was able to complete the
assignments assigned for them within the schedule. He also documented our whole
workshop process and emailed it to us after the workshop to make sure that we
were able to follow it till the end. One of the things affecting his engagement
could have been the fact that our companies were owned by the same company and
thus, he knew that our success might contribute positively to his company too.
Most of the time, when the consultant was not giving us instructions, he was
observing us. If our groups looked like they hit the wall, he came there and
tried to help us find some alternative way to approach the problem. He was not
afraid to ask us questions that could help us move forward with our ideation
process. I believe that just having an outside consultant made a huge
difference because he was able to see things that we could not notice
ourselves. He also facilitated an open environment by setting the rules and
giving the instructions. Since the same rules and instructions applied to
everybody, all the participants were able to speak up and be treated equally
regardless of their position in the organization. He was also able to release
our frustrations by asking about them. The frustrations were mainly related to
IT and all of us shared them. Being able to talk about them openly released
tensions and helped us to concentrate on achieving the goal. He also made sure
that we had everything that we needed to succeed: office supplies to express
our ideas, a room with no additional distractions and enough coffee and food to
make it through the workshop.
I
think my facilitation experience was really good and I cannot think of anything
that I would have improved. The consultant really knew what he was doing and
was able to make us to give our best. I was rather skeptical before the
workshop because none of us really wanted to go there and I felt that it would
really hard for us to come up with anything new and innovative. However, after
this experience I believe that sometimes an outsider can work wonders with a
group that cannot function by itself. Though I think also the group plays a
huge role in whether the facilitation is successful or not. Our workgroup had
always been rather close and it probably contributed positively in this case.
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