and tag responses that come up across multiple team members as “overlap” and unique responses as “dispersion”
Dispersion is good!
The most interesting parts of the conversation often come from the disperse points of view. These are the magic of the pre-work and allowing everyone to answer independently. You’re more likely to get a wider range of answers, and, therefore, a richer discussion
⭐ Star:
select the comments that you’d like to reference in the discussion by starring them
This is particularly useful when you have large groups or large areas of overlap. For instance, if you have 5 answers that say that same thing, select one for the conversation
🗒️ Add facilitator notes:
add any quick notes, observations, or clarifying questions you have to the column provided to help spark discussion
page, respondents can view answers starred by the facilitator
The starred answers are anonymized and grouped by overlap and dispersion
Allow the group to take 5-10 minutes to read these curated anonymized results at the beginning of the conversation
💁♀️
Facilitate the conversation:
First, acknowledge where the group agrees and points of overlap. Agreeing with one another builds trust and creates a dopamine hit from belonging and finding common ground!
Next ask,
“Are there areas where anyone needs clarification”? “What do you want to understand better about everyone’s replies?”
Allow people to follow up with their own clarification questions before kicking off the dispersion portion of the discussion
Then, (here comes the good part!) bring up areas where the team has dispersion, or differing perspectives.
On those points of dispersion, ask questions like,
“I’d love to understand the rationale behind x better”
The goal is for the respondent to convey the reasoning of their perspectives. Respondents don’t need to convince others of their truth for it to be a worthwhile discussion. Questions are for clarification, not convincing
Don’t ask “have you thought about the data this way?”, rather
“what experience prompted this response?”
or
“how could this be better?”
Ask if the group wants to add to their responses or change their minds on anything. Ask this question frequently in the conversation and remind everyone that changing one’s mind is the result of a good discussion - even when it creates more dispersion!
The goal of the conversation is not consensus! The dispersion is allowed to live and remain
The goal is for everyone to be as well-informed as possible to make a good decision, not to universally agree on a specific viewpoint
The group can agree on a decision while still holding different viewpoints
This is a fact of life that happens naturally in groups anyway
Acknowledging dispersion and expressing a broad range of viewpoints helps to prevent “I told you so” if the decision doesn’t work out
Capture team ideas/reflections
Generate action plan & next steps, and assign who is responsible for implementing decisions
Add action plan to the task management system of your choice!
⚡ Tips:
Keep it low-ego. Facilitation is hard; it’s a skill that’s developed over time. Also, acknowledge that you are (likely) part of this team and have an opinion on these topics. Remind yourself to stay open and curious
Mix up the call patterns - move around the “room”/Zoom, taking care to include everyone
For someone who has a lot of dispersion in their thoughts versus the rest of the group,
thank them
for the dispersion because it adds richness to the conversation and will support arriving at a better plan
Facilitator data
Pick a time period to see responses:
June 1 - August 31, 2020
Survey Responses for Facilitator
4
Question
Response (one response per line)
Tag
Star
Person
Date
Facilitator Comments
What’s something we should do more of / keep doing?
Documenting our decisions is working really well
Dispersion
8/4/20
How can we use this strength more as a team?
Let’s keep looking for ways to find the play/flow in our work
Dispersion
8/4/20
What would leaning into this look like?
Work from fun is the best. More please.
8/10/20
Write response here
10/23/20
What’s something we should do less of / stop doing?
Let’s spend more time with the broader team
Overlap
8/4/20
What could be the best forums to do so?
How can we combine our Tuesday and Wednesday leadership meetings?
8/10/20
How can we open up the conversation to more folks on the team?
8/20/20
Write response here
10/23/20
Anything else?
I’m not a morning person
8/4/20
Heck yes
Write response here
8/10/20
Write response here
10/23/20
Filter word cloud by question:
What’s something we should do more of / keep doing?