A standard approach to project initiation workshops is to get people to discuss their concerns, expectations and assumptions in small groups. This conversation surfaces all the issues the team need to consider as they set a clear objective and map out a plan.
Last week I facilitated a workshop in which the sponsor asked me for a process to generate enthusiasm and urgency around the project. I suggested techniques from Solution-Focussed Coaching. After workshop preamble and a scene setting presentation from the sponsor, I asked the team to work in three groups (4 or 5 in each group).
Setting the vision. Their first task was to define the ideal situation. What it would look like to them if everything was as they wished it could be. Solution Focussed practitioners call this the “Miracle Question” and a coach may spend a good bit of time creating a creative cocoon in which the team can let go of constraints and imagine themselves in the ideal future. The team discussions picked up tempo and volume and as I walked around I heard each group creating a rich view of what they could be achieving.
Back to reality. I then asked the teams to scale their current experience. If the ideal picture they had sketched was “10” on a scale of 1 to 10, where were they now? The teams looked at each of the points they had compiled and agreed on a number, which most felt was in the lower half of the scale.
But with a positive spin. I really enjoy the next question: “Please explain what you are doing now that places you at that point on the scale and not at a point lower down”. In other words, “what are you doing right?” The teams brought out all of the reasons why they were successful in what they do. They raised a number of core strengths that they would otherwise have taken for granted. Systems and processes came up, individual and team skills and one or two unexpected, encouraging and refreshing self-observations.
And a view of the lower hanging fruit. Then they described what they needed to do to take one step closer to level 10.
Then we danced. This is what Daniel Meier calls a “Scaling Dance”. I created a scale from 1 to 10 across the front of the room. Then each team stood at “10” to present their vision of the perfect future. They walked to their agreed number to present where they are now, looking back to “1” to agree on all they were doing right. Then they each took a big step towards “10” and described the actions they felt they should take.
When we came to defining a high-level plan all the thinking fell into place. The team almost seemed to enjoy speaking from experience. It was most invigorating.
