Discombobulation, Fire-Breathing Dragons and Wet Noodles: Creating Productive Workshops in Scary Situations
2 likes939 views
The document provides tips for facilitating productive workshops in scary situations. It discusses strategies for dealing with non-participation, over-participation by one person, negative attitudes, stakeholder shutdown, fixed mindsets, and lack of consensus. Suggested activities include pair and share, sticky note exercises, design games, empathy maps, and dot voting. The overall message is for the facilitator to own the process, share ownership of outcomes, and be prepared to adjust the agenda dynamically based on participant behavior and progress.
Discombobulation, Fire-Breathing Dragons and Wet Noodles: Creating Productive Workshops in Scary Situations
- 1. Discombobulation, Fire-Breathing Dragons and Wet Noodles Creating Productive Workshops in Scary Situations Beth Koloski Lead Experience Architect
- 2. Beth Koloski Lead Experience Architect EffectiveUI
- 4. Today’s objective: • Get ideas for dealing with scary situations in workshops • Feel more comfortable going in to your next workshop • Get ideas for design workshop activities
- 6. Scary Things
- 7. • No one participates • Only one person participates • They think this activity is silly • The ‘boss’ discourages others from participating • The mean person • I can’t control the group or someone in the group • No one agrees • We don’t get through everything we need to get through • Everyone is stuck in their mindset…I can’t seem to unstick them
- 10. + Own the Share ownership process. for the outcome.
- 11. Wet Noodles
- 12. What if nobody participates?
- 13. Draw out a silent participant • Direct questions to the silent participant • Ask the silent participant to react to someone else's statement • Reinforce • Check in during a break • Solicit help
- 14. Provide a structure • Pair then report • Stickie exercises • One minute each • Simply say, "Turn to the person next to you and discuss this." • Design games and activities * * this is the fun part
- 16. Still pulling teeth? • smaller groups • more hands on • ask what’s blocking • check initial objectives
- 18. What if one person dominates the whole conversation?
- 19. Dealing with excessive talkers Avoid discouraging the excessive talker, instead.... • At the start of the meeting, establish equal participation by all members as a goal • Interrupt the person with a question directed to someone else • Pair then report • Air time limits • Ask others to react • Design games and activities
- 20. What about the mean naysayer who is poisoning the collaborative tone?
- 21. Dealing with Negative Nelly • special attention on breaks • validate
- 22. What if one person shuts everyone else down? What if it’s the main stakeholder?
- 23. Dealing with Stakeholder Shutdown Before the workshop: • Make sure your stakeholder knows what you are planning to do, that you expect participation During: • Restate your need to hear from everyone • Ask that person to give permission to others to participate • Suggest a short-term solution “Let’s try this for 45 minutes”
- 25. “It’s my first day and the clients are yelling at each other.”
- 26. Prep • know who is coming • set expectations • solicit stakeholder’s desires, concerns • invite participants • reschedule if needed
- 27. Opening • set expectations for behavior • get buy in on objective • working buy in on agenda • change agenda if needed • let go of “everything else I should be doing” http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dmahugh/archive/2009/06/29/wg4-wg5-meetings.aspx
- 28. Fixed Ideas
- 29. What if they just say “That’s the way we’ve always done it?”
- 30. Ideas for unfixing fixed ideas Don’t attack the idea head on, instead.... • Have them argue from the other perspective • Break down pros & cons, assumptions, unknowns • Get the right participants • Enumerate the ways the fixed idea has served them • Explore the consequences of the fixed idea
- 32. Building Consensus & Deciding • Stake in the ground/working agreement • Acknowledge and record opposing views • Dot Vote • Thumbs up/down vote
- 33. “I’m doing all the activities, but we’re still not getting to consensus.”
- 34. Ideas for Dealing with Lack of Consensus • Ask who decides • Ask what’s standing in the way of deciding • Ask if consensus is needed • Go backwards
- 35. Managing Time
- 36. Managing Time 101 • Parking Lot • Get the group to help manage http://www.flickr.com/photos/shawnnap/ 5571400637/
- 37. Managing Time 201 When it becomes apparent you’re not getting where you thought you would, decide as a group: • Timebox the topic/activity and continue another time, • This important, let’s keep going (and reschedule the other stuff for later) • We’ve gotten what we need out of this, let’s just move on • This approach isn’t working, let’s take a http://www.flickr.com/photos/shawnnap/ 5571400637/ different one
- 38. Everything Else
- 39. When all else fails • acknowledge what’s going on if something is going awry • suggest a solution • ask the group
- 41. Engaging in User Research Go Around the Room Each participant says what stood out most from the usability session, study, survey
- 42. Thinking Like Users Empathy Map Participants fill in what a particular type of user is hearing, thinking, seeing, saying and doing. http://www.flickr.com/photos/davegray/ 2380465521/
- 43. Thinking About Users: 4 Square For each user type, participants help fill in each of the following: • goals • triggers • would find compelling • would find disappointing
- 44. Prioritizing/Choosing: Dot Voting Give each participant 3 dots to vote on their favorite/the most important (feature, persona, task flow, whatever).
- 45. Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers by Dave Gray
- 46. We’re hiring! effectiveui.com/ careers Your tips: #workshop_tips Find us here or email: Beth Koloski beth.koloski@effectiveui.com Elias Parker elias.parker@effectiveui.com
Editor's Notes
- #2: \n
- #3: \n\n\n
- #4: \n
- #5: \n
- #6: \n
- #7: \n
- #8: \n
- #9: \n
- #10: 11 year old in Libya. Vest, waved. \nStand\nState that you’ll be leading the session and then do it\nTell people what to do\nIf you don’t:\nsomeone else will\nno one will\n\n
- #11: Quakers\nAsk for buy in on the objective \nAsk for buy in on participation\nChange the agenda if the group wants to \nIf you don’t: \nwhen people don’t share ownership, they don’t care\n\n
- #12: \n
- #13: \n
- #14: \n
- #15: \n
- #16: \n
- #17: \n
- #18: \n
- #19: \n
- #20: \n
- #21: \n
- #22: \n\n
- #23: \n
- #24: “Bob, I’d love to hear from the entire team while we have everyone here today. Could you let everyone know if that’s something you support?” \n\n\n\n
- #25: \n
- #26: \n\n
- #27: \n
- #28: \n
- #29: \n
- #30: \n
- #31: \n
- #32: \n
- #33: \n
- #34: \n
- #35: \n
- #36: \n
- #37: \n
- #38: \n\n
- #39: \n
- #40: \n
- #41: \n
- #42: \n
- #43: \n
- #44: \n
- #45: \n
- #46: \n
- #47: \n