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用團體工作程序技術(shù)改善會議成效(一)
論文摘要
專業(yè)會議輔助商開發(fā)了許多團體工作程序技術(shù)來促進會議成效,并帶來了一定的效果.但是大多時候會議并不需要輔助商直接參與.
為了更好的運用團體工作程序技術(shù),使會議到達一定的成效. 必須要遵循它的基本原則,在沒有輔助商提示使用哪種技巧的情況下從輔助商使用的團體工作程序技術(shù)中去獲取價值. 在會議前必須預(yù)先策劃做些前期準備,可以使會議達到事半功倍的效果. 其中涉及到整個會議應(yīng)該采取哪種會議類型,決議流程時處于什么位置,哪些流程技術(shù)適合在會議中使用等一系列的團體工作程序流程.并且最后能建立機制確定使用的方法是否有效. 只有合理的運用團體工作程序技術(shù)才能夠使會議到達一定的成效.
關(guān)鍵詞: Key Words
團體工作程序技術(shù) Group process techniques
專業(yè)會議輔助商 Professional meeting facilitators
產(chǎn)生選擇建議 Generate Alternatives
集思廣益 Brainstorming
用團體工作程序技術(shù)改善會議成效
1. 專業(yè)會議輔助商已經(jīng)研制出一種“集團”技術(shù),旨在幫助團體更加有效地開會。這些團體工作程序技術(shù)有所不一樣。研究表明,使用團體工作程序技術(shù)的團體更加滿意自己的決定及更致力于實施.
2. 這意味你需要輔助商參與會議嗎? 輔助商帶給會議的是這些團體工作程序的技術(shù)知識,更重要的是在特殊的場合使用哪種技巧能發(fā)揮作用的理解能力以及何時提供建議時間點把握.所以如果你的會議非常重要. 如果會存在激烈的爭執(zhí), 或者如果會議的主導(dǎo)力量是參與者而非領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者. 那么, 無可非議,輔助商是非常有幫助的.
3. 但是大多數(shù)經(jīng)理也許每個月將有數(shù)以百計的會議。高級經(jīng)理常�；ǘ嘤�50%的時間在會議上。現(xiàn)實是大多數(shù)經(jīng)理不可能為大多數(shù)會議去會見輔助商。這挑戰(zhàn)就是在不是總有一個專業(yè)人士圍繞在你身旁告訴你如何使用技術(shù)，而從輔助商使用的團體歷程技術(shù)中獲得價值.
4. 這有一些你需要遵循的基本原則,。否則,當(dāng)你真的需要字(詞)處理技術(shù)時,你可能發(fā)現(xiàn)用電子應(yīng)用程序處理的事情它可能是一個很了不起的電子數(shù)據(jù)表,但如果它對于任務(wù)是非常不恰當(dāng)，那它就會阻礙而不是幫助團體有效率的工作。
5. 避免這類問題的秘訣就是當(dāng)心你的工作會議。我經(jīng)常告訴我的客戶,在會議之前我所做的工作至少給他們帶來50%的價值。所有的工作開始之前都是“早上好,今天的會議的目的是.... "而一個有效的經(jīng)理承認他或她(或一個他/她指明)需要花時間去準備有設(shè)計者完成的會議策劃。
以下是一些你在工作中需要解決的問題：
一. 會議類型有許多不同的會議類型，例如
信息簡報 項目策劃評估
誠信建立/團隊建設(shè) 決策
產(chǎn)生新的主意或方法 爭議解決
戰(zhàn)略策劃 問題解決/ 危機解除方法
許諾 慶典
6. 這種類型的會議的主題就是告訴你：誰需要參與,為達到會議的目的什么樣的互動是需要完成,并為團隊工作程序技術(shù)提供選擇。 7. 許多會議扮演了多種會議工作功能角色。議事日程第一項可能只是一個簡單的信息簡報，而第二項會是一個決議項，第三項是一個問題解決項。你的日程必須很清楚的注明那一項是什么類型項。清楚的告訴人們：我們期望在這項議程中你要做什么。當(dāng)這個不清晰的時候，即使人們非常努力的想成為一個好的會議參與者，卻因為不知道被要求做什么而變得不知所為。
8. 在未來的發(fā)展中,各類協(xié)同技術(shù)變得司空見慣,確定會議的目的將是一個問題的序幕;“這個會議要求多少意義?”如果會議的目的是誠信建設(shè),你或許需要與在這個會議室內(nèi)的每一個人(所有的五種感官）進行面對面的會談。如果會議是戰(zhàn)略信息,你可以在網(wǎng)絡(luò)上傳一些好的信息,讓他們下載它他們自己有利的(1-2感官)。
二. 決議流程中我們處在什么位置？
9. 做出決策通常需要許多離散的步驟,比如定義問題所在、生成方案、等等。有時這些步驟都發(fā)生在一個會議上。但是重大決策常常需要許多的會議才能通過。.
10. 在每一步,不同的行為需要不同的參與者。所以會議策劃者指明這次會議規(guī)劃的決策過程(或該議程)非常迫切。
描述決議流程步驟有幾種方式，但我發(fā)現(xiàn)使用最普遍一種是：
確定問題或機遇（包括確定接受或者成功標(biāo)準）
提出抉擇意見
評估抉擇意見
選擇行動方法
確定實施計劃
建立機制以決定你的方法是否有效
11.我發(fā)現(xiàn)當(dāng)一個群組需要作出決定的時候,明確定義他們的行動步驟是非常有幫助的,尤其對于那些經(jīng)常在一起工作的人來講�？梢圆皇褂梦覀兩鲜鎏岬竭^的條款, 只要對于組織群體中人們急需解決的問題效果就行。關(guān)鍵的是這種方法使用頻繁足以使人們在流程的每一步形成一種共同的語言及共同的期待.我建議你把這些步驟貼在每一個會議室里，便于與會者馬上把它作為參考使用.
三. 哪一個團體工作程序技術(shù)適合這次會議(或為該議程)?
12. 大部分團隊工作程序技術(shù)被用于決策唯一的步驟。一個關(guān)鍵的例子就是被稱為“集思廣益”的技術(shù)，集思廣益的關(guān)鍵元素是讓參加團體能產(chǎn)生許多選擇的余地,停止一些想法的判斷是可行的。事實上這是一個非常強大的技術(shù)，它常常產(chǎn)生很多的選擇,以致它能在合理的時間內(nèi)超越團隊的能力去評估方案。
13. 但它是一種技巧,在決策時主要為“提供更多的選擇”很有用。但我從未見過人們在其他許多方面使用這項技術(shù)。與會者將會乖乖地產(chǎn)生各種各樣的答案,但沒有人會知道如何處理這些答案,因為他們似乎并不會為決議貢獻。事實上,他們似乎是帶你回到前一步(它們)。
下面是一些決議流程步驟中的問題以及對這些步驟產(chǎn)生效果的技術(shù)梗概:
四. 明確問題或機遇
14. 這一步的最大問題是讓人們?nèi)プ?集團擁有驚人的能力去跳過定義問題和直接思考關(guān)于解決問題的辦法。他們不僅可以直接去解決問題,而且他們就直接去解決他們已經(jīng)知道怎么做,(例如,如果你的公司要制作小部件，你會設(shè)計構(gòu)建部件的解決問題的辦法)。
15. 這種行為的問題是你有可能想出相當(dāng)精彩的解決方法,但并不適合這個問題的解決.或者你沒有思考基礎(chǔ)議題，只是就上一個問題提出一些看法.
五.定義問題的一些技巧:
16. 力場分析法: 讓群組集思廣益分析兩條, 1,驅(qū)動力,2,抑制力 . 再商討策略來消除抑制因素而充分利用推動因素.
17. 關(guān)系圖: 在卡片上寫下一些問題的介紹,然后把卡片粘在空白墻上.給每人這些卡片然后要求他們識別問題的影響因素. 每張卡寫下一條想法 (寫大一些便于閱讀). 洗動這些卡片使這些相關(guān)的影響因素放置在一起.分析出互相之間的關(guān)系. 用顏色膠帶或者繩子來表示因果關(guān)系. 那些作為原因使用頻率最高的卡片(系有最多的膠帶或繩子)很可能就是你問題的根本原因.
18. 深入: 選擇在一個可能讓團體成員走動的會議室舉行會議,把這些團體在細分為更小的組別,或者單獨工作. 在團隊集中以前,創(chuàng)造一個高度激勵氛圍,包含和議題有關(guān)的任何事物,文章,書本,照片(甚至一些能夠用來圖解或者模擬想法的玩具). 分成幾個小組, 要求小組移動巡游需要的物件. 給他們一個截至?xí)r間,用以匯報他們找到的可能適用于問題解決的想法.匯報后商量最有可能的趨勢, 在給團隊布置一些新的和趨勢相關(guān)的任務(wù). 只有在你們?nèi)紡牟煌嵌热ド钊胨伎紗栴}之后,團隊嘗試在問題定義上面達成一致.
19. 提出問題: 深入思考后,會碰到一些問題似乎你知道其結(jié)果,但是卻不知道你是怎樣想到的. 比如: 汽車租賃主管可能說: 想象一下,當(dāng)你登入中央預(yù)定系統(tǒng)，事情進展順利，工作量上去了但是成本在朝下走，你是怎樣做的？
六. 產(chǎn)生選擇建議
20. 這一步的真正挑戰(zhàn)是：1）幫助他們暫停主觀的思維判斷方式，2）幫助人們跳出舊的固有的思維方式 3）想法和個性分離（如果比爾確定10個想法，其中沒有特別的想法和比爾本人有太大關(guān)聯(lián)(因為是比爾提出的,人們才會覺得需要支持(反對)的情況.
21. 大多數(shù)工作在創(chuàng)新性領(lǐng)域的人強調(diào)人們需要保持一個歡快寬松的心情便于最大程度的發(fā)揮創(chuàng)造力。一些研發(fā)公司甚至在會議室里備有水槍、玩具，鼓勵爭搶食物等等讓人們從太正統(tǒng)的情景中脫離出來。
這里有為備選方案的產(chǎn)生的一些簡單技術(shù)
22. 集思廣益: 讓人們想許多許多的點子，把所有的想法列在圖表或白板上。排除一切評估性的評論（即使是積極的）。說不定在你清除舊的思維方式后大量新的創(chuàng)造性想法應(yīng)運而生，數(shù)量越多越好。
23. 類推法（共同討論法）：通過幾倫類推使人們清楚選擇�！叭绻覀兘M織是一個生物系統(tǒng)，那么我們解決問題的方式將會是：……” “如果是病毒，那么我們將…”
24. 如果我能自由選擇，想像一下：不受任何現(xiàn)有規(guī)則約束，包括物理定律，比如重力理論或者市場現(xiàn)狀，而創(chuàng)新出離奇的方案。如果我能自由選擇，我們都會使用ESP交流，我們就不需要。。。。，幾輪想像后，討論一下當(dāng)兼顧物理現(xiàn)象或市場現(xiàn)狀時你會使用到的相似的問題解決方式,比如說使用移動電話而不是ESP.
七. 評估抉擇建議： 25.如果你使用以上提到的技術(shù)來產(chǎn)生抉擇建議，你的問題很可能就是由于提出太多的抉擇建議以至你自己都不知道如何及時的評估這些建議。有時候把評估推遲到接下來的會議是非常有益處的，那樣在會議的進程中你可以讓工作組對你們的抉擇做一些分析。 下面是一些會議中評估抉擇建議的技術(shù):
26. 民意投票：如果你在評估通過集思廣益產(chǎn)生的那些想法,辨別使群體討論時間合理化的項次最快途徑之一就是給參加者每人固定數(shù)量的色彩圓點或有黏性的星星(通常5-10個),告訴他們?nèi)绻麄冇X得那一個想法值得深層次討論的就把彩色圓點或星星貼在墻上或圖表上,貼在此項次的旁邊. 他們特許可以以任何方式來使用圓點,比如:如果他們想把所有的圓點都使用在一個項次上,是允許的. 只有在弄清楚每一項的意思以及相似的想法整合之后才開始投票(使投票不至于分散在以不同的方式表述但內(nèi)容相同的想法上面).
27. 另一種類似的民意投票的方式是讓每個人可以選擇五個他們認為是非常重要的問題（或者值得討論），進行排序。5點給最高排列項，4點給次高項，依此類推。并在項次旁邊記錄各項得分。
28. 民意投票是一種減少項次數(shù)量的方式，但是還是會留下幾個進入最后討論的項次，這些項次不需要進行再次選擇。
29. 放映展示：有時可能通過使用相關(guān)成本、可行性、上線時間（月份數(shù)）、環(huán)境影響等決議規(guī)則對這些想法進行放映展示。其中一條規(guī)則是：總啟動投資額不能超過1，000，000美元。在多次大型的決議使用過這種展示流程，我可以告訴你，這種放映能減少選擇項的數(shù)量但是不會為你作決定。在最后的分析中你可以推算出最優(yōu)的解決方法，通�？梢詮脑缙诘囊恍┫敕ㄖ形战ㄗh。
30. 決議分析：有廣泛倡導(dǎo)的多種決議分析技巧。大多來自在學(xué)術(shù)界被稱為多屬性效用分析理論的相似理論�；镜母拍钍牵�1）基于關(guān)鍵的屬性來評估每一個選擇建議，比如：成本、美學(xué)、性能,2）讓所有的決策者來判定每個屬性的相對價值，比如：就重要性方面成本比美學(xué)重要兩倍，3）分析出哪種選擇最能滿足衡量標(biāo)準。決策者中得到的答案是不一樣的，因為每個人決策者對于屬性會有不同的相對權(quán)重。
31. 說明:當(dāng)你選一款新車時，有幾個你要考慮到的屬性：價格、空間大小、保養(yǎng)記錄、貼換，當(dāng)然還有是否性感等等。首先要做的是確認每一款適合備選車的單個屬性砸在什么位置；第二步就是來衡量這些屬性，也就是說：你可能認為價格并不重要，但是你愛人認為每一個屬性都很重要。用這些分析來確認能達成協(xié)議的部分以及未能達成協(xié)議的部分。這些技巧的一個更為高端的版本是讓你考慮做一些敏感性分析，比如：如果我們把成本的優(yōu)先考慮提升一倍會讓我們改變選擇車型嗎?
32. 評論：這種分析在確認優(yōu)先權(quán)的不同之處非常有用，能夠清楚哪一種選擇能最好地和特殊的優(yōu)先情況進行匹配。但是除非每個人對于屬性的權(quán)衡完全相同（比如：你的愛人和你對成本，性能，保養(yǎng)和性感方面有著完全相同的衡量標(biāo)準）,那么這種分析不會幫你作為決定.
八. 選擇行動方式 33. 對于能會幫你作出決定那種神奇的集團工作程序技術(shù)我不清楚.這就是為什么你能獲得很高回報！一些人基于自己的直覺作決策，而另外一些則基于詳細的量化分析后作出決策。 34. 有時從一些曾令人悲傷的經(jīng)歷來看，我知道搞清楚誰在作出這個決定極其重要的。有時是老板，有是是一致性通過，除非群組反對，然后由老板來決定。所有的這些途徑都能起到作用。無效的情況是讓群組認為是由他們來作出決定但實際上真正做決策的還是老板。期望達到的效果必須是很清晰的、定義明確的確定行動計劃.
九.執(zhí)行計劃的定義 35. 此階段群組斟酌好所有的任務(wù)步驟以實施解決方法，分配責(zé)任以及確定完成時間。 36. 一些更簡化的PERT 圖解技術(shù)幫助群組設(shè)定所有的成功計劃的組成部分。這意味著群組為了設(shè)定所有的組成部件需要在一塊大的白板或者墻上進行工作討論。一個會議中心甚至?xí)袔讐K帶磁性的金屬白板，把其分割成PERT 圖的形狀，這些金屬白板會粘在墻上，或者在墻上移動。 37. 如果你使用一塊智能板或者數(shù)字放映機，你可以使用一個流程圖或者項目管理應(yīng)用軟件并把它影射在白板上。作為一個群組你能使用所有的應(yīng)用軟件工具，然后把所有的結(jié)果下載到筆記本電腦。伴隨智能板產(chǎn)生的會議 PRO 軟件讓你可以在白板上移動項次、不用擦掉，軟件還有一個很好的任務(wù)以及完成時間等的記錄方法。你還可以把所有信息下載到手提電腦，然后通過以電子郵件將任務(wù)發(fā)給相關(guān)人員。
十. 建立機制確定你的方法是否有效 38. 團隊需要確定一些決定是否它的計劃的方法，事實上，在開始時解決問題(或在利用機會)。當(dāng)你建立一個已定義的為評估你可以調(diào)整一下你無進入"推卸責(zé)任"的計劃的表現(xiàn)的過程(例如試著為失敗分配任務(wù))。沒有這個過程，計劃常常在任何人將采取行動前被破壞。然后你被原則問題所束縛，但所有壞情懷，邪惡的意愿由于失敗而生。 39. 全面的質(zhì)量管理文學(xué)對顯示你的尺寸描述眾多的技術(shù)(帕累托圖，散點圖，直方圖)。可真正的問題在決定去采取什么措施。由于詹姆斯·羅賓遜，當(dāng)時美國運通的首席執(zhí)行官，曾經(jīng)說:"雇員做有關(guān)管理檢查，而不是管理期望。" 對于團隊同樣的道理。你覺得采取什么措施時人們也就會關(guān)注什么。
十一.墻面上工作 40. 幾乎上面所提到的技術(shù)都需要把參與人員的評論記錄在墻上的掛圖上，或是白板上。我們有些客戶會議窒的整面墻都是白板。喜歡漫無邊際思考的群組會喜歡這樣的形式的。唯一的問題就是怎樣從這個白板把信息記錄下來便于人們離開時帶走。使用數(shù)字白板比如說智能板就有這樣的優(yōu)勢（我期待那天來臨，智能板取代了整個墻面，群組能夠無拘無束，自由想象，還有可以供下載的優(yōu)勢），數(shù)字白板的另一個優(yōu)勢就是你可以將一個群組流程模板的圖表模板放映在白板上，讓群組成員填寫空白項，然后在下載模板以及群體的反應(yīng)。 41. 如果你沒有數(shù)字白板，考慮把你整個流程展開成一個大且連續(xù)的紙面，預(yù)留一些群組成員的反應(yīng)空間。你的紙質(zhì)模板不僅可以通過流程來引導(dǎo)群組成員，而且會議結(jié)束后還可以疊好帶走。
Using Group Process Techniques to Improve Meeting Effectiveness
By James L. Creighton, Ph.D.
1. Professional meeting facilitators have developed a number of "group process" techniques designed to help groups work more effectively in meetings. These group process techniques do make a difference. Research has shown that groups that use group process procedures are more satisfied with their decisions and more committed to their implementation.
2. Does this mean you need a facilitator for your meeting? What a facilitator brings to a meeting is knowledge of these techniques, and even more important, an understanding of which technique is useful in a particular situation and a sense of timing as to when to suggest it. So if your meeting is exceptionally important, if there are major disputes, or if key players need to be participants rather than meeting leaders, then, "yes," a facilitator may be very useful.
3. But most managers are in scores of meetings, maybe hundreds of meetings every month. Senior managers often spend more that 50% of their time in meetings. The reality is that most managers won't have access to facilitators for most meetings. The challenge is to get value from the group process techniques that facilitators use, without always having to have a professional facilitator around to tell you which technique to use.
4. There are some basic principles you'll need to follow. Otherwise you may find yourself doing something that is the equivalent to using a spreadsheet application when you really need word processing – it may be an absolutely wonderful spreadsheet program, but if it is grossly inappropriate to the task it will impede rather than help the group work effectively.
5. The secret to avoiding this kind of problem is careful pre-planning of your meeting. I frequently tell my clients that at least 50% of the value I bring to their meetings as a facilitator will come from the work I do before the meeting. All the groundwork has to be laid before the first "Good morning, the purpose of today's meeting is...." An effective manager recognizes that he or she (or someone he/she designates) needs to spend upfront time to do the kind of meeting planning that a facilitator would do.
Here are some of the issues you need to address during your pre-planning:
一. What type of meeting is this?There are a number of very different meeting types, for example:
Information briefings Program/project planning or review
Trust building/team-building Decision-making
Generating new ideas or approaches Dispute resolution
Strategic planning Problem solving/crisis resolution
Commitment-building Celebrations
6. The type of meeting, combined with the subject matter, tells you who needs to participate, what kind of interaction is needed to accomplish the meeting purpose, and provides the context for selection of group process techniques.
7. Many meetings play multiple meeting functions. Agenda Item #1 may simply be an informational briefing, while Agenda Item #2 is a decision-making item, and Agenda Item #3 is a problem-solving item. Your agenda needs to clearly specify what kind of item it is. This tells people; "Here's what we expect from you during this agenda item." When this is not clear, people may engage in dysfunctional behavior even when trying very hard to be a good team player because they don't understand what they are being asked to do.
8. In the future, as various kinds of collaborative technologies becomes common, defining the meeting purpose will be a prelude to the question; "How many senses does this meeting require?" If the purpose of the meeting is trust-building, you probably need a face-to-face meeting with everybody is present in the room (all five senses). If the meeting is strictly informational, you may do better to post the information on the intranet, and let people download it at their own convenience (1–2 senses).
二. Where in the decision-making process are we?
9. Reaching a decision usually requires a number of discrete steps, such
as defining the problem, generating alternatives, and so on. Sometimes those steps all occur in one meeting. But on major decisions these steps are often sequenced over a number of meetings.
10. At each step, different behavior is required of participants. So it is imperative that the meeting planner specify where in the decision making process this meeting (or this agenda item) is.
There are a number of ways of describing the steps in the decision-making process, but the one I continue to find the most universal is:
Define the problem or opportunity (may include defining criteria for acceptability or success)
Generate alternatives
Evaluate alternatives
Select a course of action
Define the implementation plan
Establish mechanisms for determining whether or not your approach is working
11. I find it very helpful, particularly among people who work together frequently, to have a clearly defined series of steps that the group uses whenever they make decisions. It doesn't have to be the one above, so long as it works for the kinds of issues people in your organization are addressing. What does matter is that it is used frequently enough so that people develop a common language and common set of expectations for each step in the process. I recommend you post these steps in each meeting room, so that participants can refer to them at a glance.
三.Which group process technique is appropriate for this meeting (or for this agenda item)? 12. Most group process techniques are useful for only one of the steps in the decision making process. A key example is the technique known as "brainstorming." The key elements of brainstorming are to engage the group in generating a large quantity of alternatives, suspending judgment as to which ideas are workable. This is a very powerful technique – in fact, it often generates so many options that it overpowers the team's ability to evaluate the alternatives in a reasonable period of time.
13. But it is a technique that is useful primarily for the "generate alternatives" step in decision making. Yet I've seen people use the technique at many other steps in the process. The participants will obediently generate all kinds of answers, but then nobody will know what to do with these answers because the don't seem to be contributing to resolution. In fact, they seem to be taking you back to an earlier step in the process (they are).
Here's a quick summary of some of the issues at each step in the decision making process, and some of the useful group process techniques for each step:
四.Define the Problem or Opportunity 14. The biggest problem with this step is to get people to do it! Groups have an amazing capacity for skipping over problem definition and going straight to thinking about possible solutions. Not only do they go straight to solutions, they go straight to the solutions they already know how to do, (e.g. if your company makes widgets, you'll assume that the solution to the problem is to make a widget).
15. The problem with this behavior is that you are likely to come up with a truly wonderful solution to the wrong problem, or you don't think through the fundamental issues so you come up with something that is just a patch on top of prior patches.
五. Here are a few techniques for helping groups define problems:
16. Force Field Analysis: Have the group brainstorm two lists: (1) forces that are "driving" for change; (2) forces that are "restraining" change. Then discuss strategies to eliminate the restraining forces and capitalize on the driving forces.
17. Relationship Diagrams: Write a short statement of an issue or problem on a card (or large post-it) and stick it on a blank wall. Give everyone cards and ask them to identify the factors that affect the issue or problem, writing one idea per card (big enough so that they are easy to read). Move the cards around so that the factors that are related to each other are located together. Analyze the relationships. Use colored tape or strings to show cause-effect relationship Those cards that are most often seen as being a cause (have the most tape or strings attached) are more likely to be the root cause of your problem.
18. Immersion: Hold the session in a facility that permits the group to move around, break off into small groups, or even work alone. Before the team gathers, create a "high stimulus" environment containing anything that might be related to the issue -- articles, books, pictures, (even toys that can be used to diagram or model ideas, e.g. Tinker Toys). Break into small groups and ask small groups to prowl through any of the materials they want. Give them a time deadline to report back anything they've found that might apply to the problem. After the reports, agree on promising trends and give teams new assignments related to those trends. Only after you've totally immersed yourselves in thinking about the problem from many different perspectives does the team try to reach agreement on the problem definition.
19. Invent the Problem: After "immersion," state the problem as if you know the outcome, but just don't know how you got there. For example, a car rental executive might say: "Picture this. You've got no central reservation system and things are running very well. The workload is up but costs are way down. How did you do it?"
六. Generate Alternatives 20. The real challenges during this step are to: 1) help people suspend judgmental ways of thinking; 2) help people get out of old ways of thinking about the problem, and 3) separate ideas from personalities (If Bill has identified 10 ideas, no particular idea is so associated with Bill that people feel a need to support or oppose the idea because it is Bill's).
21. Most people who work in the creativity field stress that people need to be in a playful, even joyous, mood to be optimally creative. Some R&D companies even provide water guns, have toys on all the meeting room tables, encourage food fights – anything to get people out of being too adult.
Here are a few of the simpler techniques for generating alternatives:
22. Brainstorming: Get people to generate lots, and lots, of ideas. List them all on a flipchart or whiteboard. Don't permit any evaluative comments (even positive ones). The creative ideas are likely to come after you've flushed out the old ideas, so push for quantity.
23. Analogies (Synectics): Get people to identify options by working through several analogies. "If our organization was a biological system the way we'd solve this problem would be ...." "If it were a virus, we'd ...."
24. "If I had My Druthers" Fantasy: Create fantasy solutions with no rules or "givens" including physical laws like gravity or market realities. "If I had my druthers we'd all communicate using ESP, and then we wouldn't need..." After several fantasies, talk about ways you could solve the problem in a similar manner while addressing physical or market realities, i.e. use cell phones instead of ESP.
七. Evaluate Alternatives 25. If you use the techniques described above for generating alternatives, your problem is likely to be that you've generated so many alternatives that you don't know how to evaluate them in a timely manner. Sometimes it is even worthwhile to put off the evaluation for a follow-up meeting so you can have a work group do some analysis of the alternatives between meetings.
Here are a few techniques for evaluating alternatives during meetings:
26. Straw-votes: If you are evaluating a list of brainstorming ideas, one of the quickest ways to get a reading on which items justify group discussion time is to give every participant a fixed number of colored dots or gummed stars (usually 5-10) and tell them to indicate which ideas they feel deserve further discussion by applying their colored dots/stars to the wall or flip chart sheets, next to the item. Typically they can use their dots anyway they want, e.g. if they want to use all their dots on one item, they can do so. The voting should occur only after everybody understands what is meant by each item, and after similar ideas have been combined (so that votes aren't split between the same idea worded two different ways).
27. Another variation of straw voting is to have everybody pick the five ideas they think are most significant (or deserve discussion), putting them in rank order. Then they give 5 points to their highest ranked item, 4 points to the next highest, and so on. Record the scores alongside the items.
28. Straw-voting is a way of reducing the number of items, but it will still leave you with a number of "finalists," and should not be used to choose among them.
29. Screening: Sometimes it is possible to screen out ideas by using decision rules related to cost, feasibility, months to bring on line, environmental impact. A rule might be: "total initial investment can't exceed $1,000,000." Having used a screening process on many large-scale decisions I can tell you that screening can reduce the number of options, but it won't make a decision for you. In the final analysis you will need to "formulate" the best solution, often drawing from pieces of the earlier ideas.
30. Decision Analysis: There are a number of "decision analysis" techniques that are widely advocated. Most are variants of what is described in academia as "multi-attribute utility analysis." The fundamental concept is to (1) evaluate each alternative based on all critical attributes, e.g. cost, aesthetics, performance; (2) have all key decision makers identify the relative value of each attribute e.g. "cost is twice as important as aesthetics;" and (3) analyze which alternatives best satisfy the weights that have been identified. The answer could be different for each decision maker, because each decision maker assigned a different relative weight to the attributes.
31. To illustrate, when you choose a new car there are a number of attributes that need to be taken into account: price, roominess, maintenance record, trade-in, and, yes, sexiness. The first job is to establish where each alternative car fits on the scale for each individual attribute. The second task is to weight the attributes, that is, you may think price is relatively unimportant, while you wife thinks it is all-important. Use this analysis to identify areas of agreement and key areas of disagreement. The more sophisticated versions of these techniques will also allow you to do sensitivity analysis, e.g. if we doubled the priority we gave to cost would it change which car we selected?
32. One comment: This kind of analysis can be very useful in identifying the differences in priorities, and understanding which alternatives best match particular priorities. But unless everybody gives exactly the same weights to the attributes, (i.e. your wife and you both give exactly the same weight to cost, performance, maintenance and sexiness – an unlikely event), this kind of analysis will not make the decision for you.
八. Select a Course of Action: 33. I don't know any magic group process technique that will make decisions for you. That's why you get the big bucks! Some decision makers make decisions based on intuitive "Aha's," while others depend on detailed quantitative analysis.
34 I do know, from sometimes sad experience, that it is imperative to know who is making the decision. Sometimes it is "the boss." Sometimes it's a consensus decision. Sometimes it's a consensus decision unless the group can't agree, then the boss decides. Any of these approaches can work. What does not work is to have the group think it is making the decision but the boss is really going to make it. Expectations need to be clear and well defined.
九. Define the Implementation Plan 35. This is the stage at which the group thinks through all the tasks to implement your solution, and assigns responsibilities and deadlines for completing them.
36. Some of the simpler PERT-charting techniques help groups visualize all the components of a successful plan. This means that the group needs to work on a large white board or even the wall, to be able to visualize all the parts. One meeting center even has magnetized pieces of metal whiteboard, cut in the shape of PERT chart symbols, that will stick to the walls and can even be moved around on the wall.
37. If you use a SMART Board and digital projector, you can use a flow-chart or project management software application and project it on the whiteboard. As a group you can use all the tools from the software application, then download all your conclusions into a laptop. The Meeting Pro software that comes with your SMART Board also permits you to move items around on the board, without erasing, and has an excellent way of recording assignments, deadlines, etc. You can download all this information into a laptop, then send everybody their assignment lists by e-mail.
十. Establish Mechanisms for Determining Whether or Not Your Approach is Working 38. The team needs to define some way of determining whether its plan is, in fact, solving the problem (or is taking advantage of the opportunity) with which it started. When you set up a defined process for evaluating performance you can adjust your plan without getting into the "blame game," (e.g. trying to assign responsibility for failure). Without such a process, the plan usually has to break down completely before anyone will take action. Then you're stuck not only with the original problem, but all the bad feelings and ill-will that result from failure.
39. The Total Quality Management literature describes numerous techniques (pareto charts, scatter diagrams, histograms) for displaying your measurements. But the real issue is deciding what to measure. As James Robinson, then the CEO of American Express, once said: "Employees do what management inspects, not what management expects." The same is true for teams. What you decide to measure is what people will pay attention to.
十一. Working on the Walls
40. Almost all of the techniques described above require recording participants' comments on flip chart sheets posted on walls, or on a whiteboard. Some of my clients have meeting rooms where the entire walls of the room are whiteboard. Groups like to "think big" like this. The only problem is getting the information down from the whiteboard so people can walk away with it. That's the advantage of using digital whiteboards like SMART Board (although I long for the day that SMART Boards cover whole walls, so groups can "think big" yet have the advantage of downloading). The other advantage of the digital whiteboards is that you can project a graphic template of a group process template on the board, have the group fill in the blanks, then download both the template and the group's responses.
41. If you don't have a digital whiteboard, think about laying out your whole process on a large continuous sheet of butcher paper, leaving space for the group's responses. Not only does your butcher-paper template guide the group through the process, but you can fold it up and walk away with it at the end of the meeting.
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