How to keep your meeting moving when everyone is stuck?
Sometimes conversations just grind to a halt. What do you do when you have prepared an excellent workshop but the group continues to get stuck on an issue that remains difficult to pinpoint? These situations crop up now and again in workshops I facilitate. They can be extremely frustrating for participants and confusing and disheartening for the facilitator. Left unmanaged, these conversations can literally go round in circles for hours.
These are the situations where groups need careful, empathetic facilitation.
When the group is stuck there is always something else going on. When the conversation is stuck it is likely that there is a hidden agenda or an unstated issue. Your role as facilitator is to help the group to acknowledge the trap they are in, to understand the cause of the impasse and to help them to move through it. It is not your role to take on the problem but to present your observations and intuitions to the participants to allow them to take responsibility for the impasse and the underlying issues. I like the process for dealing with an impasse described in The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook by Peter Senge and others. I have adapted this process for my own use in workshops.
This is the strategy I like to follow.
A strategy for dealing with an impasse
When a conversation begins to loop we must act. Sometimes it is difficult to know what to do. When a workshop grinds to a halt it is worth considering the following steps:
- Pick up the cues- Review your role as facilitator
- Help the group to embrace the impasse
- Help the group to identify the source of the impasse
- Agree the best way to move forward
- Talk about the impasse the next time you work with the same group
Pick up the cues
The first signals come from inside us. We know when a conversation is not going well but sometimes in our drive for results or our focus on the process, we deny what our intuition is telling us. People who want to win a debate may not realise they are in an impasse. Even with a rising sense of frustration they may not be able to pause and acknowledge that they are not getting anywhere. Sometimes, though, someone in a workshop may say something like “now we are going around in circles”.
Review your role as leader of the group
As facilitator you are both an impartial bystander and a participant in the group dynamic. This is a good time to quietly become aware of who you are in the conversation and the role you are playing in the impasse. Remember, the reason for someone’s behaviour may not be the one that seems most obvious to you. To focus on yourself ask:
- What is happening right now?
- What do I want right now?
- What am I doing that is getting in the way of me getting what I want?
- What is the best course of action?
Now, take a deep breath and set off …
Help the group to embrace the impasse
When there is an unexpressed conflict in a group the participants often feel more comfortable going around in circles than raising the issue and dealing with the uncertainty and discomfort of the conflict. The group may find it easier to deny the existence of conflict.
- Stop the discussion and help the participants to acknowledge that they are at an impasse.
- Help the group to embrace the impasse and focus on what they know about the situation.
- Assist the members to articulate the conflicting mental models to try to understand the larger picture.
- Get them to discuss the information or logic required to change their views.
- Ask for the groups’ help to redesign the agenda.
- Don’t allow the conversation to stop with an agreement to disagree.
Take a Break
Sometimes when groups get tired they find it difficult to deal with an issue. As the facilitator or chair you will probably have a good idea of how much energy is in the group. Apart from restoring energy, a break also allows the group to caucus informally. This is often enough for them to address the issue. You may also find that some of the group may come to you in the break and explain some background or give you advice about a person or sub group who they feel should be handled in a different way. For instance they may ask you to draw a particularly clued up but quiet person into the discussion. In my experience groups usually resolve the impasse during a break or they agree on a process to move forward.
Help the group identify the source of the impasse
When a group seems to be talking at cross purposes or they have gone really silent and you as facilitator have to drag information out of them, it is usually because there is another agenda or an issue that has not been surfaced. Help the group to pause and identify the issue causing the impasse.
Agree the best way to move forward
If the group acknowledge the impasse and discuss the underlying issues they will reach a point where they decide on how to progress.
Do not be disheartened if they do not acknowledge the problem. The whole situation may be too painful or there may be a real danger of participants making career limiting statements. If you have paused the process and presented your intuitions you have carried out your role as facilitator. If you have offered them an opportunity to deal with an issue they bear the responsibility for using the information they have been offered.
Discuss the impasse the next time you work with the group
If you have an opportunity to work with the group again, raise the issue in the briefing session with the sponsor of the intervention. We all work through issues in our sub-conscious. Raising the issue again may help those involved to acknowledge their role what happened.
StrategyWorks has the expertise and the tools
If you would like to learn more about how I can help you to get moving, please give me a call. I would be happy to discuss your requirements at no charge.
Call me on 083 708 2588.
© 2008 Stephen Quirke, All rights reserved. You are free to use material from these news letters in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including live web site link. Please also notify me where the material will appear. The attribution should read:”By Stephen Quirke of StrategyWorks. Please visit Stephen’s web site at www.strategyworks.co.za“(Make sure the link is live if placed in an eZine or in a web site.)
