Workshop Wednesday: When Illustrators Draw Teams At Work

Each Wednesday we post a photograph that illustrates some of our work. This one shows some workshop participants generating ideas for the first step of an Affinity Exercise. Over the course of several monthly workshops, the artist generated a whole series of these illustrations. We used them each month to reflect on what was done the previous month, and also to identify any non-verbal behaviors […]

Workshop Wednesday: How Might We Organize Ourselves Best To…?

‘ Each Wednesday we post a photograph that illustrates some of our work. This one shows our combination of two principles: phrasing questions with ‘How Might We…’ stimulates divergent thinking, and inviting groups to self-organize increases the engagement of people in them (which increases performance). In this case, the leader made an explicit grant of authority to the group to determine it’s optimal structure as […]

Workshop Wednesday: ‘X’ Marks The Spot For Engagement & Optimism

Each Wednesday we post a photograph that illustrates some of our work. This one shows how we gathered data privately about participants’ openness and willingness at the start of a team-based workshop. We passed a file folder around the room so each participant could answer independently, then posted the results for all to see. Helping a group orient to itself, and itself, is one of […]

Workshop Wednesday: Personal Posters Compel Learning & Take-Aways

Each Wednesday we post a photograph that illustrates some of our work. This one shows summarized a two-week learning journey we took some clients on, and helped them sharpen their sense of where’d they’d been, what they’d gotten along the way, and what they might do next. Participants who expect ‘training’ sometimes are caught off guard by this level of personal accountability. That’s why we […]

Turn Meetings into Engaging Group Experiences

Want to hold more collaborative, outcome-focused meetings? Start by tossing out the agenda and presentation. Ask questions instead. You need to set up a team meeting, so you book the conference room, draft the agenda, and create your presentation. You’re all set—for another meeting that is likely to focus on getting through the agenda rather achieving worthwhile group outcomes. But by discarding some of the […]