Structured Conversation 1—Discovery

Specifications: Nothing is more important than truly understanding your clients: their history, their goals, their challenges and their management philosophy. Discovery is typically done through research and one-on-one interviews. (See Questions to Get to Know an Organization on page 37 in Chapter Two.) Even if you do background research and conduct one-on-one interviews, it may be a good idea to also have a discovery conversation with a group of stakeholders.

When discovery is conducted in a group setting, people are stimulated by the comments of their colleagues. This results in a more detailed and nuanced profile of the organization. Note that this meeting is non-decision-making in nature, since the goal is to gather information. That means that while you can take the pulse of the group to determine the extent to which people share the same views, there is no need to reach a consensus. This meeting is designed to help you understand the organization more than create a vision or set objectives for the consulting assignment. The ideal group size for this conversation is eight to twelve participants.

Purpose: To engage key stakeholders in a discovery conversation to build a picture of the organization's history and culture.

If this is a virtual conversation, use the following process.

• List the names of the meeting participants.
• During a videoconference or group call, read one question at a time.
• Call on one person to respond to each question or statement.
• Ask the responder follow-on questions.
• Invite others to also answer the question. Keep track of who has spoken so no one is missed. Record comments and offer a summary of each question before moving on.
• Clarify with the group whether or not they wish to receive a summary.
• Adjourn.

Structured Conversation 2—Environmental Scanning

Specifications: In most projects, the parameters are clearly defined before the consultant is hired. Despite the fact that the basic outline of the project is in place, you may find it advantageous to hold strategy discussions to build participation and buy-in for your project. This meeting is an ideal activity for the key stakeholders or the new project team.

This first aspect of strategy planning engages the client in looking around to ensure that nothing of significance has been missed. This meeting works best when there are from eight to twenty participants. If the group has fewer members, run it without breaking into subgroups. This will make the meeting shorter.

In this section of the book, strategy development is divided into two separate meetings. This one focuses on scanning the environment. The second part is outlined in Conversation 4—Vision and Mission. Breaking these discussions into separate meetings allows you the flexibility of conducting the sessions together or separately.

Purpose: To gain an understanding of the forces at work in the environment in order to assess their impact and develop strategies for managing them.

If this is a virtual conversation:

• Send out an email that contains an invitation to take part in a strategy-planning session.
• Attach a link to a page where people can add their thoughts about strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Leave this page open for two weeks. People can add their ideas at any time. Ask people to read what others have already written to avoid repeating ideas.
• Deploy multi-voting software that allows people to select the four most important elements in each category.
• Send the tabulated results to the group in advance of a conference call so that people can think of solutions.
• During a videoconference or group call, solicit suggestions for strategies to deal with the top-ranked items in each category. Review all of the suggestions. Hold a verbal multi-vote to identify which strategies should be implemented.
• Ask for volunteers to develop action plans for the strategies deemed to be most important. Set a time for reporting on the action steps.
• Adjourn.

Structured Conversation 3—Team Launch

Specifications: If your initiative requires a strong team effort, you should hold a meeting that welcomes people and builds a sense of cohesion. This agenda includes basic team-building elements to help team members identify each other's skills and determine how they will work together.

This agenda is short. If time allows, continue the team development process by including Structured Conversation 4—Vision and Mission, which is another important element in team formation. This meeting agenda assumes a group size of from six to ten participants.

Purpose: To build a foundation for the project team.

If this is a virtual conversation:

• Send out an email that contains a short profile of each member of the new team. In that email include the four norming questions mentioned earlier to allow people to prepare.
• Hold a videoconference or group call. Start the call by welcoming everyone and making a positive statement about the strengths of everyone on the team.
• Invite each person to self-introduce using the same headings as mentioned previously. Introduce yourself last.
• Facilitate a discussion based on the four norming questions above. Since this is a decision-making discussion, be sure to encourage people to comment on each other's suggestions. Keep summarizing and ratifying ideas to ensure that everyone can live with the group norms and parameters being set.
• Give a summary of what was discussed. Then inform the group when and where these recommendations will be posted. Stress that this is an iterative process and that new parameters can be added as time goes on. Thank everyone for taking part.
• Adjourn.

Structured Conversation 4—Vision and Mission

Specifications: Even when a project has been given a set of parameters, there's real value in bringing the members of the team together to build a shared vision. Think of this as a way to make the parameters come to life and help people make the project their own. This is an ideal team-building activity for the early stage of any team. You could also conduct this session with key stakeholders who are not on the project team but who need to be supportive of your work.

Combine the responses and share them with the participants. After a few months you could bring the details of the vision back in the form of a survey that lets participants rate the extent to which each item is being achieved. If you use the vision and mission as the basis of a survey, refer to the structured conversation on page 104 to process the results.

Purpose: To build a compelling vision for the project and clarify the mission of the team.

If this is a virtual conversation:

• Send out an email explaining the process.
• Send out the Visioning questions for each person to complete.
• Ask each person to call two other people working on the initiative to share their visions.
• Open a page online where group members can share their responses to the questions. Allow two weeks for this input phase. Ask people to read what others have written before they add their comments to avoid duplicates.
• Deploy tabulation software that allows group members to multi-vote on which elements they see as most important. Tabulate the results and send an email asking people to review the results.
• Ask people to submit statements that can guide you in writing a mission statement.
• Review the results of the multi-voting exercise during a conference call.
• During a videoconference or group call, read the draft statement to get additional guidance. Ask the group to ratify the final statement.
• Adjourn.

Structured Conversation 5—Work Planning, Roles, and Responsibilities

Specifications: In most major projects, people are assigned roles based on their area of specialty. This is usually done by whoever is managing the project and is then communicated to team members. There are situations, however, when you may need to create a work plan with input from a group. One example of the need to develop a collaborative work plan within a project might be in conjunction with a special event. Let's say your consulting assignment is almost complete and you now need to hold a major exhibit to communicate with a large group of people. If you need to bring a team together to decide who will do what, the following process can be very helpful. It matches people to tasks and ensures that work is fairly distributed. The ideal group size for this conversation is from six to ten participants.

Purpose: To clarify who will be doing what on an important project activity.

If this is a virtual conversation:

• Send out an email explaining the initiative: describe objectives, expected deliverables, budgets, time frames, and target audience.
• Create a chart showing each objective. Ask team members to send you detailed information about what needs to be done to achieve each objective, how, and when.
• When you've received this information, complete the chart.
• Hold a videoconference or group call to review the chart to ensure that it's accurate and complete.
• Help members identify the time, skills, and other requirements related to each set of activities.
• Introduce criteria that will allow the group to assess the activities as high, medium, or low. These criteria are: degree of complexity, degree of difficulty, and time required for each.
• Ask for input from the group about how they would rate each of the work activities according to the criteria. Listen to all the input but for the sake of simplicity, reserve the right to make the final call on how each activity is rated. At the end of this discussion, you should have some idea about which tasks are complex and time consuming, compared to those that are simple and quick to complete.
• Begin matching people with activities. Start by allowing people to select their top item. Keep assigning tasks until all tasks have been assigned. Use the criteria to ensure that no one person has all the difficult tasks, while others take on all the simple, quick tasks.
• Adjourn.

Structured Conversation 6—Risk Assessment

Specifications: Almost all projects encounter circumstances and events that have the potential to hinder progress. While it's impossible to accurately identify every potential risk, it's prudent to think ahead to the most likely problems and develop strategies in case they occur.

This is a decision-making conversation that makes use of a decision grid to help sort risks. Be prepared for lively debates about where each risk ought to be placed within the grid. If possible, avoid playing the role of decision maker. Instead, encourage people to really hear each other, and then help them to find a middle ground.

Write risks on sticky notes so that you can move them around on the grid, since people's understanding of each risk might shift during the discussion. This meeting works best when you include people from outside the project team. This ensures that important risks aren't missed. An alternate approach is to hold the meeting with only the project team, but then circulate the results to key stakeholders for their comments. The time frames shown below assume a group of ten to fifteen participants.

Purpose: To assess potential risks to the project and develop contingency plans.

If this is a virtual conversation:

• Send out an email describing the need for the conversation. Ask team members to suggest who needs to be involved.
• Distribute the seven questions on page 241 in advance of the virtual meeting. Allow at least a week for people to respond. Ask people to send you their answers. Tabulate the comments to create a single list of risks.
• Create a survey that asks each person to rate the level of impact and the probability of each factor. Use a 1–5 scale for each indicator. Allow a week for the respondents to complete the survey. Use survey software to tabulate the results.
• Place the risks on the Probability/Impact Grid as per the survey results. Share the completed grid.
• Hold a videoconference or group call to discuss the results and ask for volunteers to take on the task of developing contingency plans for specific risks.
• During this call, discuss as many of the high-impact items as time allows. Ask the volunteers to take notes.
• Set a time when all contingency plans need to be sent to you.
• When the plans have been compiled into a final document, review them at a future virtual meeting so everyone is aware of all of the strategies.
• Adjourn.

Structured Conversation 7—Stakeholder Analysis

Specifications: In every consulting assignment, some individuals are simply more important than others. These are the people who need to be constantly updated and whose needs should be in the forefront of everybody's mind. This is a conversation that you need to have early in your project—certainly before you create your general communication plan.

Since the nature of this conversation tends to be confidential, this is probably a meeting for the insiders on the project team. The time frames shown are for a small group of from four to six participants. If you feel that you don't want to have this conversation with a group, you can nonetheless use the questions and the grid on your own to help you develop your strategy for managing stakeholders.

Purpose: To identify key stakeholders and create strategies for effectively managing those relationships.

Agenda	Process Design Notes
Welcome (2 minutes)	Describe the purpose of the meeting. Review the meeting agenda. Review and ratify the norms for the meeting (page 83).
Identify Stakeholders (10 minutes)	Facilitate a discussion to generate a list of all of the stakeholders related to the project. These can be both inside and outside the client organization. Write all of the names on a flip chart or whiteboard. Ask group members to also write the names on sticky notes.
Sort Stakeholders (25 minutes)	Draw the Power/Interest Grid on a flip chart. This helps you identify who is most interested in the project, as well as who has the most power to impact the outcome.
	Facilitate a discussion to sort stakeholders into the four quadrants of the grid. Be prepared for lively debate as people may not readily agree. High Power/ High Interest = Maintain close contact. High Power/Low Interest = Keep satisfied. High Interest/Low Power = Keep informed. Low Interest/Low Power = Check in periodically. Review the completed grid. Check with each person to ensure that they can live with how the stakeholders have been sorted.
Stakeholder Needs and Interests (30 minutes)	Hand out a sheet with the questions listed below. For each stakeholder identify: —What are their financial and/or emotional interests? —What motivates them most? —What information do they likely want? —How do they want that information? Facilitate a discussion to build a profile of each stakeholder. Start with the high-power/high-interest individuals. Record comments on a flip chart to build each profile. When the profiles are complete, identify who needs to maintain contact with each stakeholder.
Next Steps (10 minutes)	Decide on how you want to share the notes for the session. Agree on how you will update each other on these strategies as the project unfolds.
Adjourn

If this is a virtual conversation:

• Invite project team members to send you their list of stakeholders.
• Tabulate that input into a single list.
• Preliminarily, sort the stakeholders using the Power/Interest Grid.
• Share the draft grid with the team.
• Hold a videoconference or group call to ratify the grid.
• Decide who should manage which stakeholders.
• Discuss the answers to the above-listed questions for each of the top stakeholders.
• Identify how you will monitor and report during the project.
• Adjourn.

Structured Conversation 8—Communication Planning

Specifications: One of the challenges all external facilitators face is that they often don't understand the internal communication patterns of the client organization. This structured conversation engages people inside the organization in helping to create a coherent communication plan for the project.

This meeting may need to be repeated a number of times, especially for lengthy contracts, since the players can change. In addition to this structured dialogue, remember that it's important to discuss who needs to know what at the end of every significant decision-making session.

Unlike the previous conversation that related only to key stakeholders, communication planning is about how to update employees, members of the community, suppliers, key customers, and others about the progress being made. This conversation is for a small group of from four to six participants.

Purpose: To develop a communication plan for the project.

If this is a virtual conversation:

• Send out an email explaining the need to develop a comprehensive communication plan. Ask each person to send you a list of who needs to be kept informed about progress on the project. Tabulate that list.
• Conduct a videoconference or phone call to share the list of stakeholders. For each person or group, identify what they need to know and how to best deliver that information.
• Summarize this information and share it within the group.
• Adjourn.

Structured Conversation 9—Status Update Meeting

Specifications: Of all the meetings typically held by teams, the Status Update Meeting is the one that happens most often. These meetings happen anywhere from once a month to several times a week.

Status Update Meetings are about exchanging information—just presentations and current project status. They're designed to make sure that everyone's in the loop. They're not designed to generate a lot of discussion. That's what helps keep them short and to the point. This parameter needs to be stated clearly at the beginning of each of these meetings so that everyone understands the scope.

Issues or differing points of view should be noted and parked for later discussion at a well-structured, decision-making meeting like the Systematic Problem-Solving meeting and others described in this section of the book.

While Status Update Meeting formats vary, most include the standard set of items described that follows. Note that while status update meetings are typically attended by only project team members, outsiders may be invited if there is a need to update them about the project. The typical update meeting that's attended only by project team members has from four to ten participants.

Purpose: To review progress, identify what's next, surface issues and ensure that everyone on the team is well informed.

If this is a virtual conversation:

• Start the videoconference or group call with a roll call.
• Ask each person to briefly describe recently completed work and successes. Congratulate people on their good work.
• Go around the group to hear updates on progress compared to what was originally planned. Discuss both unexpected wins and issues that others need to be aware of.
• Review any items on the work plan that were scheduled to be completed but have not been started or are behind schedule.
• For each delayed item, explore the reasons for the delay and commit to a new target date.
• Identify any ongoing issues that could affect progress and that have not been resolved.
• Identify who needs to work on specific issues. Set a date and time for those affected to meet to engage in a structured session of Systematic Problem Solving (Conversation 12).
• Ask each team member to offer a quick snapshot of what they're doing next and anything they need from other members of the team to support their actions.
• Adjourn.

Structured Conversation 10—Creative Thinking

Specifications: There are times when it's important to be able to help a group think outside the box. This may be to identify a new way to deliver a service or ways to create a new product. In the past, it was common to think that only a few people in any organization were creative. To correct that mistaken assumption, the first step in running a creative thinking session is to bring together the types of people who aren't typically seen to be part of the creative process. A broad mix of participants, ranging from end-users to front-line production workers and customers, will help ward off conventional thinking.

To set the stage for this meeting, ask participants to do some homework to find at least one innovative or creative product or service. Ask them to bring in pictures or samples of these items if possible. Color photos stimulate the creative centers of the brain. In the case of services, you can ask meeting participants to conduct informal interviews in advance of the meeting. Suggest that they ask others about a recent experience with an outstanding service or to share what makes a particular product desirable. Another fruitful area of inquiry is to learn more about the problems that people are currently wrestling with. Some of the most innovative solutions come from the need to solve an existing problem.

Finally, give some thought to the meeting location. If possible, move it to a more inspiring spot than the usual meeting room. Find a space that takes people away from what they're used to seeing, to reinforce the notion of doing things differently. The ideal group size for this conversation is from eight to twelve.

Purpose: To explore new ideas, put existing ideas together in new ways and make connections between seemingly unrelated areas to arrive at innovative solutions.

If this is a virtual conversation:

• Ask team members and key stakeholders to suggest participants for this creative-thinking activity.
• Call each participant and explain the need for innovation. Describe the homework.
• Set up a page on the group site for people to post the results of their research.
• Conduct a videoconference or group call to review the highlights of the ideas that were posted.
• Invite people to identify the innovative/creative traits that were demonstrated in the examples that were collected.
• Allow a few minutes of quiet time while people write down strategies that incorporate these traits.
• Facilitate a discussion to share ideas. Record these as people talk.
• Challenge people to engage in multi-hat thinking. Record any additional ideas that surface from this process.
• Continue the conversation online by posting the innovative ideas shared at this meeting on the group site. On this page, invite people to write their names next to the ideas that they're interested in pursuing.
• Coordinate these subgroups to develop their thinking further.
• Ask these teams to report back during a future videoconference or group call.

Structured Conversation 11—Midpoint Check

Specifications: During any consulting assignment that lasts longer than a few months, it's important to stop and assess how things are going. This meeting is designed for the project team, although it can be repeated with the leadership of the client organization. Since it surfaces issues and seeks solutions, this conversation demonstrates your ability to face problems head on.

This Midpoint Check activity is divided into two sections. If time allows, combine this agenda with the one that follows on Systematic Problem Solving. The only caution about this conversation is that it asks people to surface issues. Be sure that you invite the right people and that you create an environment in which they can be frank. The optimal group size for this activity is eight to twelve.

Purpose: To identify what is working and what's not working.

If this is a virtual conversation:

• Send out an email explaining the importance of conducting a midpoint check to catch anything that isn't working and take corrective action.
• Establish a page for this activity on the team's group site.
• Post the questions as per the face-to-face agenda. Ask people not to repeat points already posted. Set a deadline for input to this step.
• Send out an email inviting people to review the completed analysis and rate the items. Use multi-voting software to identify their top four to six items in both lists. Post the results on the site.
• Hold a videoconference or group call to review the top-rated items. Invite suggestions about how to leverage the top-rated positive factors. Discuss how to tackle the top-rated negatives. Some can simply be handled by brainstorming solutions and assigning responsibility to team members.
• Identify the top-rated issues that need to become the focus of a dedicated problem-solving discussion.
• Schedule time to deal with these. Refer to the step-by-step process for Systematic Problem Solving that follows in this book.
• Adjourn.

Structured Conversation 12—Systematic Problem Solving

Specifications: One of the most important sets of steps to understand is Systematic Problem Solving, which allows you to assess issues and find solutions. This agenda outlines a simplified version of that multi-step process. It walks you through the key steps of analyzing an issue, identifying potential solutions, and then collaborating on a set of action plans.

The usual steps of naming the problem and stating a goal for the problem-solving exercise have been omitted. That's because these steps represent traps. Writing a complex sentence to name the problem before all of the relevant facts have been surfaced tends to lead to naming the problem incorrectly. That's why this structured conversation starts with a thorough analysis of the problem in question. You will find that doing this step first will ensure that the group arrives at a deeper understanding of the issue than would be found by writing a goal statement without that analysis.

Likewise, this structured conversation skips the step of asking group members to set a goal for the problem-solving exercise. Setting a goal opens the door for people to state the solution they favor. Jumping to solutions before conducting a thorough analysis leads to polarized thinking. The ideal group size for this activity is eight to twelve.

Purpose: To engage key stakeholders in a discovery conversation to build an organizational profile.

If this is a virtual conversation:

• Send out an email explaining the process.
• Create a page for the problem-solving activity on the group site for the project team.
• Post a one- to two-sentence description of the problem. Post the analysis questions suggested for the face-to-face meeting. Invite people to add their comments. You can use a fishbone diagram or affinity chart or other chart if that helps sort the ideas into coherent categories. State the time frame for adding to the problem analysis.
• Eliminate duplicate comments and streamline the analysis input. Post the results and invite team members to brainstorm ideas. If you used a chart or graph, keep that structure so that suggestions can be recorded next to the problem analysis.
• Eliminate duplicates and streamline the suggestions. Invite people to rank the suggestions using multi-voting software. Tabulate the results into a list of the top-rated suggestions.
• Hold a videoconference or group call to review the suggestions and identify actions. Assign tasks to members of the team. Set a date to receive detailed action steps.
• Make a note to review progress on implementation at a future meeting.
• Adjourn.

Structured Conversation 13—Constructive Controversy

Specifications: This structured conversation is designed to exploit differing points of view to ensure that ideas are thoroughly tested before they're implemented.

Unlike most meetings where you try to avoid differences of opinion, this agenda deliberately provokes controversy in order to challenge all aspects of an idea. It's the ideal approach to take when there are two or more ideas competing for approval and the group is divided about which to pursue. This dialogue works best with six to ten participants, but more people can be included.

Purpose: To encourage differing points of view in order to thoroughly test an idea.

If this is a virtual conversation:

• Send out an email explaining the process.
• Create a page on the group site for the constructive controversy. Ask advocates for the conflicting positions to post all of the positives of their idea. Set a time frame during which these notes can be reviewed.
• Invite everyone on the team to write what they think are the challenges, issues, downsides, mistaken assumptions and unintended consequences of each proposal.
• During a videoconference or group call, review both the upsides and the downsides of each proposal.
• Facilitate a discussion to draw out the insights gained through this discussion.
• Invite everyone to go to the group site after the virtual meeting to distribute ten votes between the two proposals.
• Assign teams to undertake the implementation of the selected idea. Ensure that they consider all of the downsides identified during the constructive controversy process.
• Adjourn.

Structured Conversation 14—Survey Feedback

Specifications: Consultants often conduct surveys. These can be about employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, or the performance of a product or service. The survey can be conducted on paper the old-fashioned way, or completed and tabulated online.

Once the results are in, you will need to do something with them. The Survey Feedback conversation is designed to enable a group of people to review survey results together and jointly identify strategies for dealing with the items that received low ratings.

This meeting can be conducted with a small group but is actually best with a large group of twenty or more individuals. That's because a large group size makes it possible to deal with a greater number of issues. A large group also creates more anonymity and hence safety, since it allows you to create small discussion clusters.

This meeting design is ideal for a joint meeting of the project team and members of the stakeholder group. It provides a mechanism for safely dealing with sensitive issues, since all of the conversations take place in small groups, and because the design is forward looking with its emphasis on improvement strategies.

Purpose: To engage key stakeholders in dialogue to assess the results of a survey and identify improvement strategies.

If this is a virtual conversation:

• Send out an email explaining the process. Post the survey on the group share site. Encourage people to be candid and forthright when completing the survey so that problem areas can be identified for corrective action. Specify the time frame for completing the survey. (People will only see their own survey.)
• Share the tabulated results. Create a summary of all the items that received favorable results. List all of the items that received the lowest scores. Create a separate sheet for each of the low-rated items. For about five days, allow people to anonymously type their thoughts about why each of these items received low ratings.
• At the end of the time period for input, send out a new email asking people to read all of the accumulated comments and then identify strategies for improvement that relate to the underlying causes that have been identified. Allow five days for this segment.
• Send out an email asking people to rank the suggested improvements for each survey topic. Apply multi-voting software to tabulate the results.
• Conduct a videoconference or phone call to review the top-ranked improvement suggestions. Ask for volunteers to take responsibility for developing action plans for specific items. Set time frames for follow-up.

Structured Conversation 15—Interpersonal Issue Resolution

Specifications: All relationships have the potential for strife. This is especially true in consulting assignments where the stakes are high. Issues can range from differences in work styles to a clash of personalities. Regardless of the source, differences between you and your clients need to be surfaced and resolved as quickly as possible.

It's important to note that most conflict-resolution dialogues focus on airing disputes. In other words, people revisit what went wrong. This is dangerous for a number of reasons. First, rehashing the past tends to reopen wounds. Second, it tends to feel confrontational. Little wonder that most people practice avoidance when it comes to resolving interpersonal issues.

This conversation offers a safer and more constructive approach. Instead of dredging up the past, it invites the parties in a dispute to describe exactly what they need from each other going forward. For example, instead of telling someone that they have been communicating poorly in the past, you would simply tell them that you need a simple bullet point summary of important information via email at the end of each day. The best requests are detailed, specific, and avoid all judgment about the past.

This is an ideal dialogue to have at the midpoint of any project, even when there are no outward signs of trouble. Think of it as a proactive way of getting ahead of issues before they become problems. Because of the nature of this conversation, it's best reserved for small groups: you and the person who hired you; you and your inner team; you and one member of the team with whom you're experiencing friction. Even though this is a private chat, it should never be conducted over lunch or in a public place. Seek a private room to avoid disruptions. You may find it helpful to also review the steps of resolving a dispute between two parties on page 131 in Chapter 8.

Purpose: To identify specific actions, two people in a dispute can take to resolve their issues and improve the relationship.

If this is a virtual conversation:

• Make a personal phone call to the other person to express your desire to explore ways of further improving the relationship.
• Explain that you want to schedule a personal phone call to discuss specific things that that person would like you to do in order to improve project management.
• Explain that you will make specific offers back to that person once you have seen their list of needs. Offer a couple of examples. Offer to allow the other party to send you their list of needs via email if that's easier for them.
• Set a time to talk about their needs and to make offers.
• Gain their approval to make the process work in both directions.
• Share your list of needs. Accept offers made by the client.
• Indicate when you will share both offers lists.

Structured Conversation 16—Overcoming Resistance

Specifications: It's very common for people to resist change. The standard approach to getting through resistance is to communicate a compelling vision to get people inspired. This is nothing more than glorified selling. It not only doesn't work, but will likely drive the resistance underground. In other words, people may pretend that they approve of the changes, but passively resist implementation.

Facilitators take a very different approach to managing resistance: they engage people in honest dialogue about why they're stuck, and then support them while they identify what they need to be able to move forward.

If your project encounters resistance and you want to really find out why people are pushing back, consider having a conversation based on the following agenda. It works with a small group, but is actually more effective if you can get more than twenty people to take part. The larger group size provides greater anonymity and yields more recommendations. Refer to page 148 for more about the principles of dealing with resistance.

Purpose: To identify resistance to change and develop strategies to move forward.

If this is a virtual conversation:

• Send out an email explaining that resistance to change is natural and that it represents an important opportunity to look for ideas to move things forward. Set a time frame for gathering input.
• Create a page on the team's group site for this activity. Include an illustration of the four stages of resistance model described earlier. Include instructions that you're looking for very specific examples of resistance: who is resisting which changes and why. Offer at least one example to show the level of detail you're looking for. Also invite people to offer examples of high buy-in for the commitment category.
• Hold a videoconference or conference call to review the data collected. Encourage people to discuss the data so that everyone in the group has a shared understanding of the resistance factors.
• Hold a verbal multi-vote: invite each person to identify the top three blocks that need to be addressed. This will surface a list of the key blocks. Do the same for the items in the commitment box.
• Facilitate brainstorming to generate strategies for addressing each resistance factor and for leveraging existing buy-in.
• Summarize and ratify the strategies the group feels are worth pursuing and assign people to develop action plans. Identify the next step for implementing actions and reporting on results.
• Adjourn.

Structured Conversation 17—Project Retrospective

Specifications: At the end of any project or event, it's important to identify lessons learned. To get a wide range of perspectives, a group of between fifteen and thirty participants is recommended. The large group lets you create small subgroups. This provides more anonymity and hence yields a more honest assessment.

Before the meeting, you will need to create a large chart that displays a detailed, top-down flowchart of the project. This chart should show the stages and timeline of the entire project. Post this chart in the meeting room. Distribute a small version of this project map to the participants in advance of the session so that they can refresh their memories. Note that since any retrospective involves some level of critique, it's important to engage people in setting rules or norms of conduct so that people feel comfortable surfacing problems.

Purpose: To debrief the project to identify what worked and to glean lessons learned.

If this is a virtual conversation:

• Create an intranet page displaying the top–down project flowchart. Add a brief description of what was accomplished at each stage.
• Send out an email inviting people to visit the page to identify what worked well and also what did not work well at each stage. Set a specific timeframe to gather this data. Point out that all comments are anonymous.
• Invite participants to review each other's comments. Provide a mechanism for rating both the positive and the negative assessments.
• Use multi-voting software to rank both sets of comments. Tabulate the results and share the assessment.
• Hold a videoconference or group call to identify lessons learned and recommendations about how to avoid the top-ranked issues or mishaps.
• Describe how the information from this process will be shared.
• Adjourn.

Structured Conversation 18—Project Adjournment

Specifications: The completion of a project represents an opportunity to end on a positive note. This conversation is somewhat intimate, so it works best with a small group of from six to ten people. Whether you use all of the steps as outlined below, or create a less formal version, this conversation is a reminder about how important it is to celebrate success with the people who made it happen.

Note that if you're uncomfortable with the personal nature of this discussion, this activity can be conducted virtually. Just set up a feedback page, then send each team member an invitation to make a positive comment under the photo of the other team members. It needs to be said, however, that nothing beats the positive impact of having this discussion in person.

Purpose: To end a consulting assignment on a positive note.

If this is a virtual conversation:

• Create a team page on the group site. Post each person's picture.
• Send out an email that invites everyone on the team to go to the site to add a positive comment under each team member's photo. This can include positive personal traits, how they went above and beyond, or what was most appreciated. Set a time frame for the posting of comments.
• Hold a videoconference or group call to review the positive feedback. Ask people to read out the feedback that was sent to other teammates.
• Invite each person to share what they're personally taking away from the project. Share your own takeaway.
• Thank everyone for their contribution to the success of the project.
• Adjourn.