I recently had the pleasure of sharing this as a presentation at PMI HNL Professional Development Day 2015 and enjoyed the feedback that I've incorporated into this posting to continue to share and build on thoughts that makes us successful when working with people!
If you want a different outcome, ask yourself what are you doing
differently to achieve this outcome.
Requirements
Understand that project teams are made up with people of
diverse experience & expertise; while valuable to the team, realize that
they each take a different view of the challenge at hand
Physically displaying items – whether in pictures of end result or large words posted on the wall – help clarify and ensure everyone is literally on the same page.
Consider “Draw the Pig” icebreaker –
instructions available at: http://www.whiteman.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-130408-056.pdf
Risk
Draw out the potential outcomes (comic strips are great for
actions) – how likely are they to occur?
Are they worth prioritizing?
Getting Feedback
Post ideas on a large easel sheet of paper (one idea per
page) and post in a common area. Leave
markers and encourage people to comment over a few days. Great for identifying what’s in and out of
scope!
Listening
Listening is about asking the right QUESTIONS (not the right
answers – if you knew the answer, why are
you asking the question?)
Listen to all the information the
person shares versus focusing on just what you want to hear – you may miss out
on valuable information!
Get a scribe – someone NOT a stakeholder to take notes so
that you may engage with your stakeholders.
Then review afterwards with the scribe and highlight key insights from
your listening.
Process Definition
Brainstorming
Use the “Red Cup” or other object – one idea per person,
must say an idea before passing, can only say one idea and continue for a short
amount of time with a hard time limit (push people to go faster!) – focus is on
QUANTITY not quality. It removes the “analysis
paralysis” by focusing on the object while getting equal participation by all,
regardless of position or expertise.
There are no right or wrong answers, just ideas to grow on.
Question from presentation: Brainstorming in this way could still allow influence on others - YES! Participants, even though the focus is on equal pariticipation by all, could still be influencing others; however, the goal of brainstorming is quantity. If you're more focused on not influencing, then anonymous techniques (via email and a facilitator) or non-verbal techniques (using post-its on a wall) may be preferred. Adjust to your situation!
Prototyping
Build something a user can interact with – SHOW what the envisioned
end result is, do not tell them. Give
them something to interact with.
Prioritizing
Write out each item on a post-it, one per post-it. Then provide stakeholders with poker chips
(or other voting item) and have them vote.
They can place as many as they want on each, but no “buying” more.
Just TRY it! And build on Lessons Learned!
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