Facilitation for Global People

I have been holding a regular weekly workshop in 6 times since 26 October by using Microsoft Teams. My tools that I have tried are from the Finish Style workshop that I took last June. I tried the voting tool when I wanted to choose the topic of this workshop at the beginning. I realised that voting on SharePoint can make participants share all opinions at once, so both the sharing and the decision making were very quick compared to a normal meeting. Another similar thing I realised is that chat is also effective for collecting and sharing everyone’s comments. If we use the remote tool properly, we can make the meeting deeper and more effective. Breakout room was also effective to make “Idealogue”, nobody had not experienced this function, so they were surprised about the convenience of this usability. 

What about the step-by-step process I had facilitated so far? Pepe (a famous Finish facilitator) mentioned that “The process of facilitation consists of two key elements; stages and tools. The typical stages of a workshop start with a clarification stage, followed by a solutions stage and finally an action stage”. The current stage is just before a solutions stage. I facilitated the selection of the topic in the first 2 sessions by using stickers and voting, then the participants decided to know the operational process. After that I had planned to start brainstorming to visualise what the participants know about this topic, then I continued voting to decide the final topic. We decided on the topic and we had moved on to clarifying the participants’ current knowledge by using stickers, after which I had time in the following 3 sessions to share the current operations by process and ask the participants to describe their questionnaires and concerns. Now that I can see all the participants’ concerns on 1 page, I will move to the stage of discussing what the problem is using the Idealogue method. Here is the final stage of a clarification. I would also like to use the Idealogue method for the solutions stage. According to Pepe’s guide, Idealogue is not usually used during the solutions stage of a workshop, but I would like to try if I can use the method during the solutions stage or not. It is my pleasure to try, one by one, how to activate different tools at relevant stages. And how to reflect the participants. This is a practical and serious attempt for me.

Recently I proposed to introduce the new workshop to the company. When I emailed the meeting materials in advance, including this proposal, my colleague asked me if he could attend the workshop. I appreciated his immediate response, so I replied that I would like to run the workshop with him. I confirmed that he would join my workshop before the official announcement at the meeting. Then, after explaining my proposal for the workshop at the meeting, I explained that if anyone was interested in joining the workshop, they could respond either by chat soon or by email later. Someone had asked if participants had to join every time or at any time. I replied that either way was acceptable, but every time was preferable because I would like to continue the discussion in a few months time. She understood my thoughts and said she would let me know later after discussing it with her team member. This is a common conversation in our business, but I thought that when I have the meeting with European people for example, they will use chat if they are interested and available, because their decision depends on their own intention. they will not discuss with their team member whether they will attend the workshop or not. I thought this was the Japanese way of thinking about other people’s behaviour. I’m curious whether the Finnish method of idealogue is directly applicable to the Japanese or not. When I think about such Japanese behaviour, some more ideas might be needed to adapt this idealogue method. That is what I would like to study, and that is the interesting concern for me.

For the past 3 months, I have been attending a weekly 30-minute facilitation workshop, which is used by an English lesson book called “English Hanon”. Our 4 members keep their motivation and the workshop was very effective to learn practical facilitation and English. Last week we finished “English Hanon”, then we reviewed 1 phase of the workshop and discussed what will be next facilitation training as 2 phase. This time we have focused less on preparation, English speaking skill improvement and flexible facilitation skill. so, we have decided no topic to be known for members before, facilitator can bring any topic, then we can discuss the topic the facilitator has shown in the workshop. The reason we decided this kind of style is because we can increase English discussion time and improve English communication skill, and increase flexibility in the workshop which is necessary for facilitator to manage the meeting. I believe that if I can manage a 30-minute facilitation, I can manage a bigger facilitation. I think it is very important for me to create many opportunities to improve my skills. The more times I can facilitate, the more effective I can learn from the real experience. Especially for beginners, practical experience is the fastest way to learn. I plan to do 30 minutes of facilitation not only at FAJ but also in the company. I would like to extend this opportunity.

IAF Japan held the workshop with IAF Romania on 21 Sept. I’m not a member of IAF Japan, but as one of the FAJ staff, I attended this meeting. The co-facilitators from both Romania and Japan had prepared the unique tools, so it was an interesting and good workshop. At the beginning, the Japanese facilitator explained the results of the questionnaires, which were the same for both countries. For example, the Romanian facilitators are relatively younger than the Japanese and the proportion of women is higher than in Japan. These results made the participants curious and create the atmosphere ready to talk. There were about 40 people, so the facilitator used chat for communication, and there was music during the working time to create a relaxing time. Very good preparation! and later the Romanian facilitator introduced the games with national flags on a shared digital board. Each member had moved their own flag to put the point they thought from each question. so people could visually understand the trend. The name of the digital tool is miro. I was impressed that digital visualisation is very effective for many people to understand, I thought I need to be familiar with these digital tools when I think about current business situation. The workshop made me realise that I need more skills and I need to learn a lot. Anyway, it was a good experience.

I find the title “The skills you need to be a great facilitator” from the Grape People Vlog. Pepe, who I respect as a facilitation teacher, mentions many powerful words.

*To be a great facilitator, you do not have to copy the style of other successful facilitators. 

*You need to have a solid foundation of knowledge, traits, and habits. This foundation is your groundwork for how you approach group leadership.

*5 competencies

-1)Neutral role

-2)Choosing the correct stages for a workshop

-3)Choosing the right emergent and convergent tools

-4)Creating a sense of psychological safety

-5)Presence

As for -2) -3), I think these skills are more technical, so I need to study first and try this knowledge in a real workshop. I think -1)-4)-5) are more difficult to learn and are important talents for the facilitator. This could be a warm heart for people to help solve problems. This passion could be an essential element of the facilitator.

This week I attended the regular FAJ workshop. Title was “Unconscious Bias”. Workshop was held in 1.5 hours from 20:00 to 21:30 by zoom. The facilitator was well prepared Google slides in advance. Facilitator instructed to be discussed by groups in 5 persons, then after the facilitator explained guideline, each group had discussed the topics. First topic was to discuss the experience when each member unconsciously made others uncomfortable. The second topic was the opposite pattern. These 2 discussions were to conclude that people feel more uncomfortable when they have received from others, rather than people make an uncomfortable action to others. Finally, third session was to discuss the countermeasure tools to minimize unconscious bias for decision making. Our team consisted of 2 people in Tokyo, 1 person in Hokkaido, 1 person in Kyushu, 1 person in Osaka. Each person had different opinions and also seemed to be experienced facilitators, so we were able to have good discussions. What I found is
-1) Facilitator prepared the slide with agenda, time well.
-2) Facilitator has controlled time (He prepared additional agenda and he had adjusted in accordance with the time we spent.
-3) There was relaxed music before the start, and an icebreaker game was prepared before the discussions.
I could find many skills in such a short time, so I realized that it is important for a beginner to attend many workshops to improve knowledge and skills.

DX(Digital Transformation), DX,DX, so every time when I see the company website and discuss on the business, I have found this word, PoC, Agile, every words seems to be new. Actually, computing power and network speed are improving tremendously, so we can use amount of data very quickly. The world is changing. We have to do a paradigm shift. I have taken DX seminars in the company. The teacher mentioned that previous IT solution was to introduce excellent software with excellent SE, but what we need to do as current DX is to build IT literacy in the company to make IT culture normal. DX is not the purpose, but the tool to change the business process according to the new society. What do we need to do? It is not easy to build IT culture and skills in the company. Some experts understand IT solutions, others who are the current business experts do not understand IT mind. Discussion and sharing idea in each other has been more important. The word of efficiency has not been simple process like mathematics, but it is more like human-oriented thinking way to understand fresh and unknown field. I think facilitation is more important than before in the digital era. As a facilitator, I need to use DX materials and think about how efficient we can facilitate and create the value by using IT tools. The tool is also important, but as humans we need to think about facilitation for psychologically stable and deep discussions. There is no other way to communicate deeply with each other, no matter what environment has changed. Essential things depend on human.

I enjoy the morning workshop in every Wednesday. The members of FAJ (Facilitators Association of Japan) are voluntarily proceeding 30minutes facilitation in English. The rules are 1) Facilitator is rotated every time. 2) Theme is from English study book called English Hanon. 3) Each participant must study 2 units of this book before. 4) Documents and speech are all in English. Last month when I tried this facilitation for the first time, I planned 2 facilitation methods such as individual writing and silent movement, but it was too much in 30 minutes, so I could not finish what I planned in the meeting. Last week’s facilitator was OK San, who has more than 17 years of facilitation experience. His program consisted of 4 phases; check in, 2 sets of teaching material’s practice (1 for 1 unit), check out. He managed the meeting time appropriately. He knew the balance of time and content from his experience. I noticed the importance of output practice based on practical experience. His program is focused on the practice of the book. Some of the members are beginners for English conversation, so the combination of practice and review is well balanced. The second thing I learned is that content itself should be considered customer satisfaction. That is what I have learned.

At the company, I am a member of the working group that aims to implement machine translation as the company’s standard tool. Last week, the members discussed and evaluated several machine translation tools. We used Finnish facilitation skills for our discussion. First, individual thinking: We had decided on the evaluation format, then we tested these software and filled in our individual evaluation with comments. Finnish facilitator Pepe Nummi mentions if you jump directly into discussion, the first opinions tend to have an anchoring effect on new ideas and ideas tend to become similar. The individual stage help groups produce a more diverse set of ideas to begin with. So we followed his theory. Second, 3-person discussion: The working group consists of 6 persons, so we divided into 2 group (3 persons in each).We discussed what we had evaluated and those background in 1 hour, and created group evaluation.After that, we exchanged group evaluation, and finalized the evaluation. I found different way of thinking of each person during the meeting, and one idea affected to other ideas, and finally everyone can deeply understand the reason behind the evaluation. Again Facilitator Pepe mentioned Why group of three? Sometimes pair discussion just does not work. I have seen people working in pairs struggle to maintain conversation. When you have more than three participants the silent ones tend to drop out conversation and just fly under the radar. In groups of three you typically have enough diversity of ideas and shy or quiet people feel comfortable enough to participate without feeling overwhelmed. His theory was right again! I really respect his experience and his deep thoughts. In the end, we were able to complete the evaluation, which was thoroughly discussed by all members. At the moment I am reading Pepe’s book called Idealogue again. When I read this book, every time I find many important sentences and words to become hint in real business.

I read a biology book called Dynamic Equilibrium. The author is Dr. Shinichi Fukuoka, who is one of the most popular scientists in Japan. He mentions in “Dynamic Equilibrium” as that: human cells are replaced every 3 months, so the human itself is the snapshot of cell replacement. There is a law of nature called “The Law of Increasing Entropy”. “The law of increasing entropy” is the law that indicates the direction of spontaneous change, which is irreversible disorganization. so that human life system replaces its own cells before cells get disorganized. If it works correctly, human can be alive in the long period. Wonderful theory! His theory is based on the idea of “The Law of Increasing Entropy”. I’m interested in this law. Nature becomes disorganized. For example, hot coffee will become cold if it is left on the table, and will not be hot if no one heats it again. These are phenomena of irreversible disorder. I thought our talk was the same. Of course, if everyone just speaks their own opinion, it would be difficult to reach a consensus in accordance with the law of nature. Facilitation might be the tool to move from disorganization to organization, and that is against the law of nature. Therefore, this is the intellectual challenge of man.