G'day Martin.
A couple of quick responses.
You possibly need to focus your facilitation in 2 areas.
The strategies for both are basically the same, just the audience is different.
1.Outside the group
The purpose here is to find out the goals of the workshop and set up the
dynamic for the process you want to use.
I am into high risk strategies in groups. My belief is that most groups
are now so jaded by groupwork that to tap into their thinking you have to
almost shock them at the start. To achieve this you have to know that
your boss won't shut down your session.
This is not easy to achieve.
You have to find some way in which he will take a risk and not shut you
down.
You therefore need to spend time with him beforehand clearing the way.
Hopefully during this time you will model the behaviour you wish to use
with the meeting.
I do not know what will work in your environment but some things that have
worked for me are. (my success rate is most probably 60/40)
Saying to him:
** He may have responsibility for the outcome you are responsible for the
process.
** He may your boss and you trust his sales judgement. However you expect
him to trust you facilitation judgement.
** Their is a good chance that his judgement may be right and the chances
of it being wrong are minimal. However what if he is wrong ? How about
for a period of this sales training he put aside his judgement and take a
risk (say for 1 hour). During this time you would like to explore some
other possibilities
Setting up a meeting with him where you ask for an opportunity to explore
some possibilities. Then try your questions on him. If he is not
interested ask him why or ask him what you would have to do for his
interest to be sparked.
It may also be as simple as asking him what he wants out of the exercise
and talking through various methods to acheive it. You and he then discuss
the potentials and risks of the various ways and choose the most
appropriate one.
2. Inside the group.
people these days are looking for slick presentations. It is as if the
quality of the powerpoint slides etc. means that they will learn more,
make better decisions etc.
To me most of this is subterfuge or gloss.
I have tried many strategies in my quest to tap into people's thinking
side. I am not sure of my success rate. I still have some clients who
hire me because of it and others who will not have a bar of me. Most of my
new work comes from people who want to be challenged.
My strategies ranges from wearing a sarong and sandals, clearing all of
the chairs out of the meeting room, asking people to stand at the start of
a meeting and then walking out of the room and coming back 5 minutes
later, running meetings and workshops from the back of the room, refusing
to answer questions about why we are here, using silence etc.
All of these are aimed at tapping into the assumptions people bring into
the room and creating an environment where we can discuss them, reach
agreement on the outcomes of the activity and make joint decisions about
the process.
Overall.
I find that having the courage to trust my intuition and being confident
in my ability to survive and learn from any challenge to my style are the
major strengths I now have
Regards
denis
At 09:43 6/02/98 +0000, martin.silcock@wedgwood.com wrote:
>Dear Org learners
>
>I am wondering whether viewers of the list could help me with a live issue
>for me, which may also be a practical issue encountered by others in the
>field of learning organisations. The issue is how to raise questions in a
>way that does not create the feeling that we are waisting time asking
>questions!
>
denis cowan , brisbane , australia. fax ** 61 7 32681869
email: cowandp@gil.com.au, Efficiency+@gil.com.au
http://www.gil.com.au/comm/profcounsel/profcoun.htm
--Denis Cowan <cowandp@iccu6.ipswich.gil.com.au>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>