Suggestions for the facilitator

 Become familiar with what discourages creativity and speculation and what encourages it.  Listen to team members. Encourage, nurture and paint any picture they wish in their own words. Avoid making judgments, tuning out, listening to your own thoughts or not really understanding the speaker. Work on improving listening skills, especially the non-verbal ones.  Be vigilant, and deal with members who try to dominate with immediate and endless details. While they are brilliant, they can ruin a meeting so try to steer them away without alienation. Avoid the compulsive speaker’s eye during the discussion.  Keep the energy level high. Use your alertness, intensity and enthusiasm to improve the field. Your attitude is contagious. Your body language can stimulate the group to greater enthusiasm.  Use visuals, excursions and dynamic movement to avoid slothfulness. Changing the location renews the group especially when people are tired. It is often like an actual vacation from the problem and people return with fresh ideas.  Keep the pace fast, but not hurried.  Use humour, laughter breaks and laughter exercises.  Surprise the group. Have a plan to shake things up for post lunch sessions, or low energy times.  Make sure the problem owner is getting what he wants.  Let everyone learn the demanding role of the facilitator.  Keep an eye on the climate. Be gentle but firm. Be in charge of process. The facilitator is like the conductor of an orchestra. Minute to minute he is responsible for getting the best out of team members in a meeting.

Action Teams

The problem owner should identify the team members. This could be done by choosing those keenly interested and involved in solving the problem. It may be a good idea for all members to go on a retreat to understand the problem in detail and to get know each other better. The best teams are small commando teams, where everyone is critically important. Set up ‘3S’ teams – Swift, Small and Strategic.. Here there are no ‘outsiders’, no passengers. Everyone becomes engaged in a small team and becomes completely involved. Each becomes a participant, there are no spectators. ‘How to create a small company mind, in a big company body?’ asked Jack Welch, on the eve of his revolutionary project to make GE, swift and profitable. The best teams are commando teams with 5 – 7 people.’ Within a positive field, genuine team work and collaboration is possible. In commando innovation teams, each one cares about the other, as in a close knit family. They give credit to others who contributed. If Devarajan receives a compliment, he says ‘Thank you. Shivakumar gave me this idea.’ Someone is not available, but when an outsider calls, the person answering says ‘Is there anything I can do to help?’ Everyone has a helpful attitude, whether the problem is official or personal. There should be a constant flow of positive communications among team members. A great team shares many characteristics with the human circulatory system. All feelings of exhilaration, celebration and satisfaction are shared. When the mission is in trouble, ideas are shared and joint action mobilized. A genuine absence of rank in solving problems is required where every member of the team does not hesitate to cross over lines of responsibility and correct what is wrong. All are on the same journey.

Owning a Problem

Call for problem owners. It is essential for every problem to have a problem owner (PO). It is this problem owner who will choose the solution that suits his resources map (6Ms and time). The PO is critical because otherwise the teams will have not have the necessary momentum to reach the finish line and side step hurdles. A problem without an owner is a baby without a mother. The Problem Owner Owner • owns the issue • describes it • directs the content of the meeting by: contributing wishes and ideas, selecting the avenues to explore, paraphrasing ideas to check understanding before evaluating • evaluates constructively • decides when a solution has been reached • commits to next action The team is working with and for this person. The problem owner is responsible to get as much as possible from the team. How the problem owner interacts with team members and their ideas will have a profound impact on the productivity of the group, so it is important that interaction with the team members is designed to increase their involvement.