File Under: Advanced Facilitation Skills
Overcoming Collaboration Kryptonite
Facilitating is an essential skill for designers, because design–perhaps more than any other discipline in modern product development–requires engaging multiple perspectives. It’s how we make high quality, usable, and inclusive products.
Facilitation is just that: a family of techniques and methods used in collaboration sessions to draw in multiple perspectives.
Despite their product benefitting from various viewpoints, participants sometimes prevent us by objecting, distracting, or confusing. That is, the very people we want to hear from are the same ones who make it difficult to do our jobs.
There are lots of things that can derail a collaboration session, whether it’s a pre-planned workshop or an ad hoc meeting. While understanding intent factors into managing these challenges, there are some principles that work in most situations. Here are a few common obstacles–things people might say during the course of a collaboration session–and what I do when they happen.
“This is pointless.”
I say: “This is important to the design process. Participation is ideal but optional.”
The operating principle here is put the activity into context. You don’t have to justify the specific method you’re using. That starts a different conversation that isn’t productive. Instead, clarify how this bridges to your goal.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I say: “I know, that’s why I’m here to get a range of perspectives. Let’s go around the table.”
The operating principle is exemplify desired tone. Your intent is to ensure everyone has a voice in the process, whether that be to contribute ideas, to vote on priorities, or simply to introduce a new perspective.
“Let’s get back to my ideas.”
I say: “It’s important to me to give everyone a chance to contribute. Let me set a timer and we can each present our ideas.”
This is another example of the earlier operating principles. There are others at play: personalize the significance, avoid saying “no,” and set constraints. I like helping participants understand that this is not only important to the process, but important to me, too. Processes are abstract, sometimes relentless and unforgiving. Highlighting the importance to me, however, reveals we’re not doing this activity for its own sake.
Shutting down participants, even when they’re trying to shut you down, sets a tone that isn’t collaborative or inclusive. Instead of flat-out saying “no, we’ve heard your idea,” set a timer to help them stay on task.
“What did you say? I’m sorry I was looking at my phone.”
I say: “I can repeat what I said but I want to make sure now’s still a good time. We can catch up later.”
Maybe this is passive aggressive, but I believe that if someone needs an out, you should give it to them, even if they don’t know they need it. The principle here is give participants an exit. Less politely, the principle is that we’re all adults, and if you don’t want to be here, don’t be here.
“This is actually part of something larger…”
I say: “There are a lot of moving parts, and we can talk about the overall impact. To keep us focused, though, we’ll just look at this part for now.”
When they say “something” they mean a major concern, effort, or initiative that is beyond the scope of the conversation. The operating principle is don’t get distracted by problems you can’t solve. It’s easy for people to retreat into paralysis when they feel like a problem is too big. I see part of my role as helping organizations focus on a reasonable goal.
“It’s my product. What I say goes.”
I say: “No doubt. You’re accountable for the outcomes. I’m here to make sure we give you the best possible information.”
The principle here is remember your agenda, which is to minimize risk by integrating as many perspectives as you can. It can be difficult to confront such bald-faced demonstrations of power. My style (for better or worse) is to validate and redirect. You won’t make any progress attempting to undermine the power dynamic.
I also say: “If you’d like to have a separate conversation about the outcomes of this workshop, we can talk later.”
This approach marries several of the earlier principles and perhaps introduces a new one: don’t show up with something to prove. Your message is that you’re moving forward with the workshop, not compete with someone about who owns what.
“I don’t do well in group settings.”
I say: “I totally get that. I’ve set things up to make it easy for you to participate.”
The operating principle here is make your meetings a safe space. My experience is that shy or introverted people can participate in group activities so long as the activities have structure, minimize spontaneous contributions, and provide breaks. If you can set expectations about when and how someone will need to contribute, you can help overcome at least some anxieties about group activities.
Cultivating good facilitation skills means accomplishing your goals even in the presence of kryptonite. Hey, no one said that facilitation skills are for mere mortals. These principles aren’t superpowers, but they’ll help you manage facilitation obstacles:
- put the activity into context
- exemplify desired tone
- personalize the significance
- avoid saying “no”
- set constraints
- give participants an exit
- don’t get distracted by problems you can’t solve
- remember your agenda
- don’t show up with something to prove
- make your meetings a safe space
These principles help you deal with the obstacle and avoid taking the bait. As soon as you get drawn into a power struggle or pissing contest you’ve already undermined the value of the collaboration session. If there’s one overall principle, it’s that you aren’t responsible for other people’s baggage.
I recently ran a workshop on Facilitation for Designers at Enterprise UX. The participants were wonderful, enthusiastic contributors, and indulgent of my off-the-wall analogies and occasional detours. This article includes content from that workshop, along with some tweaks and updates based on feedback from the participants.
See my other articles on facilitation for designers:
This article is part of a series on discovery techniques, an extension of my latest book Practical Design Discovery (A Book Apart, 2017).
Does your team need a tune-up on facilitation skills?
I can come to your office for a one- or two-day workshop to help your team level-up their facilitation skills. Let’s talk!
