THE FIRST RULE OF GOOD MEETING FACILITATION
Let's face it. Most meetings under-deliver. The reasons are many -- everything from no agenda, wrong people, sterile meeting room, poor facilitation, monologues, lack of real listening, constant interruptions, late arrivals, and no real closure. But of all the reasons why most meetings disappoint, the biggest can be traced back to one, often over-looked phenomenon: the cluttered mind of the facilitator.
When meeting facilitators are scurrying from one meeting to another, multi-tracking, or just plain mentally overloaded with the flora and fauna of that day's activities, it is difficult for them to be fully present. And unless they are fully present, the odds are low that any of the people attending the meeting will be fully present, resulting in any number of funky meeting behaviors.
Sound familiar? If so, consider honoring the following guidelines for good meeting facilitation.
1. Create your meeting agenda at least 24 hours before your meeting.
2. Unplug from everything else you're doing at least 20 minutes before your meeting.
3. Get to the meeting room at least 15 minutes before your meeting.
4. On the way to your meeting, do not stop and talk to people who "only want a minute of your time." Ask them to email their request and explain that you are on your way to an important meeting.
5. If the meeting room is cluttered, unclutter it.
6. Do whatever you can do to relax, refresh, and focus. This might include meditating, listening to music, going for a walk, or reviewing your agenda. Whatever works.
7. Remember the words of Marshall McCluhan, "The medium is the message." And YOU, my friend, are the medium. The more relaxed, focused, and present you are, the better chances your meeting has of succeeding.
MitchDitkoff
Idea Champions
Creating the Innovation Mindset
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March 29, 2018WE'RE NUMBER SEVEN!
How cool is this. I just stumbled on the Consultants500 website -- an online business advisors marketplace -- and discovered that Heart of Innovation (this blog) is rated the 7th best innovation blog out of 161 innovation blogs surveyed. Whoo! Whoo!
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March 24, 2018Storytelling & the Creative Process
This is bleeping brilliant. Not only WHAT its says, but HOW it's presented. Two minutes on what it takes to really do creative work. Inspiring. Truthful. And in your face like a fresh arctic wind off a lake you've been waiting too long to sail on...
Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.
It took me four years to write this book
Idea Champions
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March 23, 2018DO SCHOOLS KILL CREATIVITY?
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March 22, 2018A Big Clue for Meeting Facilitators
If you facilitate meetings for your company, school, volunteer organization, or team, please know that your STATE OF MIND is going to very much impact the outcomes of the meeting. If your mind is cluttered, the quality of the meetings you facilitate will be severely compromised. If you want your meetings to be more enjoyable and productive, consider these simple guidelines:
1. Always create your meeting agenda at least one day before
2. Make sure your meeting room is set up, ahead of time
3. Unplug from whatever else you are doing at least 30 minutes before.
4. If, on the way to the meeting, someone asks for "just one minute of your time," explain that you are on your way to a meeting and ask them to email their request to you. Do not get distracted!
5. Use whatever techniques you like to "clear your head" before your meeting begins (i.e. go for walk, listen to music, meditate, etc.)
6. Arrive no less than 10 minutes before your meeting begins. Settle down. Center yourself. Make sure you are ready to receive people.
PHOTO: Marion Michele, Unsplash
Idea Champions
MitchDitkoff.com
One more clue
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March 21, 2018Micro-Learning for Storytellers
Time-crunched as you are, I know you don't even have two-minutes to read this. So thanks for your 119 seconds.
I'm not going to sell you on the power of storytelling. You already know it's powerful. What you don't know is how to make it real in your organization. I know how to do that. That's what my Micro-Learning for Storytellers service is about. And all it takes is 15 minutes a week.
What you will get is 52 weeks of my content (i.e. videos, podcasts, stories, and articles) to distribute to your workforce one bite-sized piece of wisdom at a time. Mind openers. Thought starters. Tips. Tools. Techniques. Guidelines. And just enough inspiration for people to make the effort they need to become storytelling masters on the job. Or in the class. Or wherever.
WHO AM I?: Mitch Ditkoff, President of Idea Champions, author of the award-winning Storytelling at Work and the forthcoming Storytelling for the Revolution. My clients.
Intrigued? Email me today with the word STORYTELLING in the subject line: mitch@ideachampions.com and I will get back to you with more details.
Micro-Learning for Innovators
Photo: Sidney Perry, Unsplash
MY NEW BOOK ON STORYTELLING WILL BE PUBLISHED IN MAY, 2018
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March 20, 2018A Clue About Navigating Change
If your team, department, or organization is "going through changes" and your role is to facilitate the process, please understand that it is completely normal and healthy for people to experience doubt, worry, fear, resistance and every conceivable human emotion in response to these changes. Your job? Slow down. Listen. Have empathy. Create authentic forums for people to express their concerns so you can better understand their point of view and, together, get to higher ground.
Illustration: gapingvoid
MitchDitkoff.com
Idea Champions
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March 19, 2018The Marriage of Zany and Practical
Feedback from Charter Manufacturing in response to an Innovation workshop of ours with 27 of their high potential leaders of the future.
"Idea Champions has the unique quality of being able to combine zany out-of-box thinking with a pragmatic approach that appealed to every participant in the session. Even those who relish the status quo and the proven way of doing things couldn't help but relax, laugh. and lean into their untapped creativity. Participants left the session feeling hopeful and powerful about their individual ability to create and innovate."
- Maureen Toshner, Director, Organizational Development & Learning
Idea Champions
What our other clients say
Our Co-Founders new website
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March 18, 2018HOLY FOOLS DAY: March 25th!
Gail Larsen initiated Holy Fools Day in 2014, and in this fourth year of bringing a wonderful spark of madness to the world, you're invited to join Gail, Wisdom Healing Qigong Master Mingtong Gu, Sacred Activist Andrew Harvey and a fervent group of transformational speakers to take your own wild leap of faith. What one bold action are you ready to take toward the change you want to see in the world?
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March 14, 2018MICRO-LEARNING FOR INNOVATORS: A Testimonial
THIS JUST IN FROM from one of our forward-thinking clients who recently licensed our Micro-Learning for Innovators service.
"Idea Champions' Micro-Learning for Innovators service provides us with an the ideal mix of easy to digest, thought provoking content. We have engineering and marketing team members participating in monthly meetings to share insights. I am pleased at their enthusiasm and the depth of their discussions. The videos and articles give folks a shared starting point for talking about a topic that normally isn't on their radar. People have let me know they are taking away some new tools and new ways of thinking. The Micro-Learning format made it easy for us to initiate learning in an area that was getting crowded out by other development initiatives." - Angelo Marasco, Director of Corporate Discovery, ODL
Idea Champions
Our creative thinking workshop
Brainstorm facilitation training
ANGELO ON A DAY OFF
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Connect to Your Community!On a scale of 1-10, how connected are YOU to your community? And if your reply is "8" or less, take a moment and ask yourself how you can become more connected. Speaking of which, here is a cool online creative thinking tool about the power of making connections.
Illustration: GapingVoid
Idea Champions
MitchDitkoff.com
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March 13, 2018The End of the Meeting Blues
Yesterday, I attended a meeting and witnessed a very curious phenomenon just when it was about to end -- a phenomenon that is very common and a big reason why many meetings leave people's heads spinning.
At the end of the meeting, when it was time for closure, a few inspired participants took center stage and began pitching a bunch of new ideas.
Their enthusiasm was wonderful to see, but it was the wrong time to be entertaining a new wave of possibilities. The facilitator, not wanting to offend the participants, let them go on... and on.... and on.
Meanwhile, the clock was ticking, and the other participants (who had been promised that the meeting would end on time) started getting restless. The meeting had been a good one up to this point, but now things started feeling dense and dizzying.
If this was a restaurant, we were just about to finish our last sip of the end-of-meal cappuccino and the waiter was suddenly bringing out a new entree -- organic, pecan-encrusted salmon with a side of mashed potatoes. Good food, for sure, but at the wrong time.
If YOU run meetings, be aware of this phenomenon.
When you're in the "dessert stage" of a meeting, stay with it. Allow closure to happen. If inspired participants start teeing up new topics, new questions, or new ideas acknowledge them for their contribution, but also remind them that the meeting is just about to end and that their new input can be addressed offline, after the meeting, or added to the agenda of the next meeting.
Done well, no one will feel offended, "overstuffed", or late for whatever is next on their schedule.
Photo: Stefan Cosma, Unsplash
MitchDitkoff.com
Idea Champions
How to facilitate good brainstorm sessions
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March 10, 2018Group Mind, Propaganda, Selfhood, and the Need to Belong
Big thanks to Val Vadeboncoeur for the heads up.
MitchDitkoff.com
Idea Champions
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March 09, 2018Deconstructing the Problems of Most Modern Day Schools
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March 06, 2018Why Make the Effort to Create a Culture of Storytelling?
Unless you've been living in solitary confinement for the past few years, chances are good that you are a member of some kind of organization, or community -- a gathering of people who have come together in service to a common goal. Whether it's a Fortune 500 company, school, non-profit, or softball team, we are all, whether we know it or not, involved in the process of creating organizational culture -- "a collective way of thinking, believing, behaving, and working."
How conducive the cultures we create are to the success of our missions is anyone's guess, but what is not a guess is the fact that high-performing organizations exhibit the same kind of mission-enabling qualities: trust, shared vision, collaboration, clear communication, diversity of thought, commitment to learning, freedom of expression, and a sense of belonging.
While there are many ways to enhance these qualities, the most effective and least expensive way is through storytelling -- a culture-building phenomenon that's been going on since language first began. Simply put, in order for a group of people to accomplish extraordinary goals, they need to know each other at a level far beyond title, role, or resume.
When people tell their stories to each other and are heard, magic happens. People bond. Barriers dissolve. Connections are made. Trust increases. Knowledge is transmitted. Wisdom is shared. A common language is birthed. And a deep sense of interdependence is felt. That's why, in days of old, our ancestors stood around the fire and shared their stories with each other. Survival depended on it and so did the emotional well-being of the tribe.
Times have changed since then, as have our methods of communication.
Where once story reigned supreme, now it's technology and all her attention-deficit offspring: texting, Twitter, Instagram, email, Facebook, and drive-by pep talks.
What we've gained in efficiency, we've lost in effectiveness. The spirit of the law has been replaced by the letter. People may be transmitting more, but they are receiving less. We share data, information, and opinions, but not much meaning. And it is meaning that people hunger for. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why employee engagement is down in so many organizations these days. It's because people feel isolated, disconnected, unseen, and unheard.
Idea Champions
Excerpted from Storytelling at Work
Our storytelling workshop
MitchDitkoff.com
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March 03, 2018JEAN HOUSTON on the Need for Transformational Storytelling
MitchDitkoff.com
Storytelling at Work
My storytelling blog
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March 02, 2018Storytelling for the Revolution
Here is a possible cover of my forthcoming book on storytelling to be published in May. To pre-order and/or learn more about where I'm coming from, click here.
"The world is not made of atoms. It is made of stories." - Muriel Ruykeser
"A story is a way to say something that can't be said any other way." - Flannery O'Connor
"The most important question anyone can ask is: What myth am I living?" - Carl Jung
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