Cool Facilitation Toys

It's a dirty secret in the world of facilitation that we're all just kids who want to play.

Anytime facilitators get together, the conversation ends up at questions like, "what games do you use?" or "found any good exercises?".

Here's one for you. Sherryl found this one for me a couple months ago, and we've been using it quite a bit.

It's called a thumball. We got it from Trainers Warehouse.

It's simple and fun. You throw the ball from one person to another. As someone catches it, they look at what segment rests under their right thumb and answer the question like, "where you grew up" or "best fast food". It's a great icebreaker - fast, physical, and low-risk.

Try it!!

The Three Steps of Managing People

One of my first managers, Merc Martinelli, taught me a lot about management.

Merc wasn't a terribly talkative guy, so I can't remember if he told me these lessons, or if I just picked them up from him. I'm guessing he told them to me...

Anyway, here's the lesson...

Managing people isn't that complicated. 

There are just three steps:

1. Tell 'em what to do
2. Give 'em the tools to do it
3. Get the hell out of the way

There are managers who don't provide any of these. Run from these folks; they are not managers, they're damagers!

There are managers who tell you what to do, but don't provide tools or autonomy.

There are managers who give you tools, but don't provide goals or autonomy.

There are managers who get out of the way, but don't provide goals or tools.

There are even some managers who will consistently deliver on two of these three, but the one that's missing will kill you.

What you want (NEED) is a manager who delivers on all three. 

If you're a manager, you need to provide these.

It's not that difficult, but it is rare.

Here's an exercise:
Rate your current manager on these three steps.
Use a three-point scale of never (1 pt), sometimes (2 pts), or always (3pts). 

I'm lucky. My manager scores 8/9.

I wouldn't work for someone who scores less than 6, but I'm looking for a 7 or 8.

Then rate yourself if you're a manager (or even if you're not, you manage yourself after all...) .

How'd you do? Would you work for you?

Weekend Getaway: Coyote Ugly? I don't think so...

Yesterday, we hiked in Henry Coe State Park. It was our first visit to the park and the weather couldn't have been better - 80 Degrees and sunny. We only saw three other hikers on the trails, so it was a nice quiet fall hike.

We took the Frog Lake Trail, to Middle Ridge, to the Fish Trail and then returned to headquarters. Oak, Manzanita, California Buckeyes, and Pine were our companions throughout the trek. Here's the Park map.

Although we hiked 7.5 miles, the highlight of the trip occurred within 200 yards of our car. The ranger station and campground area has a resident coyote. This coyote isn't domesticated - let's call him acclimated. He hangs out around the campground, but you can't get within 20 feet or so of him. Still, that's as close as I've ever been to a coyote and that's pretty cool.

He seemed to really enjoy sitting under this tree.

This coyote is notorious for stealing backpacks, fanny packs, and anything else with food in it.

We weren't camping, so that didn't concern us.
We were pleased to spend time up close with such a beautiful animal.

Learning through Film: Mushi-shi

Mushi-shi is an animation series based on a best-selling Japanese manga or graphic novel.

Set in an ambiguous time frame - it looks like the past, but feels contemporary - this series follows our hero Ginko, a wanderer who studies mushi: ghost-like creatures who live on the continuum between plant and animal.

Most people cannot see mushi, and are unaware of their existence, but they can affect humans greatly. Ginko can see them and he attracts them, so he has become a Mushi-shi.

This series has an X-files feel. In each episode we are presented with a problem or mystery that only Ginko can understand or address.

The series unfolds like a Japanese scroll, revealing secrets at its own pace. There is little action, yet each episode moves quickly. The feeling is philosophical and contemplative, the art is stunning, and the music is beautiful. Mushi-shi is, in simple terms, a masterpiece of its genre. A quick search on the internet will show you the universal acclaim it has earned.

You can learn quite a bit about Japanese culture from almost every episode. One of my favorites is episode #23, "The Sound of Rust". A young girl has an unusual singing voice that attracts a species of mushi. This mushi acts like rust and clings to everything in her village, including people (but is invisible to everyone except the girl and eventually Ginko). The girl stops singing or talking.

When Ginko enters the story, she is a young woman. The villagers are crippled my the mushi, and Ginko arrives to help. Ginko thinks he knows the cure and resolves to solve the problem.
In a scene we've all watched in movies a hundred times, the villagers now understand the cause of their problem, and rush to the young girls house, angry at this 'monster' for causing their pain.

Do they want blood? No.
Do they want revenge? No.
What do they want? An apology...

You know, just like in Frankenstein when the villagers rushed the castle with torches and asked for an apology!

This is a very Japanese phenomenon. Japanese love apologies.
If you mess up on your taxes, or any kind of government paperwork (I was once late for visa renewal) you must write a "gomennasai" (apology) letter.
"I'm sorry I caused the good people of the government so much difficulty due to my lack of consideration... blah, blah, blah...."
When you've shown proper humility, the process can move on.

When I lived in Japan, it seemed we were forever attending these "gomennasai" meetings with customers.
"I'm sorry we charge so much"
"I'm sorry the manuals are in English"
"I'm sorry your engineers broke the machine"

And so on... I actually became quite good at looking and sounding remorseful.

A couple of years ago, Hideki Matsui of the New York Yankees broke his wrist on a diving attempt to catch a ball. He would be out for the season. He called a press conference and apologized to his team, the fans, and his Japanese fans for letting them down by being so vulnerable as to have a season-ending injury.
The New York media was stunned by this apology... they'd never seen anything like it.
This article in the Japan Times nicely summarizes the 'apology' gap.

Bottom line: Next time you have a problem working in Japan and you want to resolve it - you might want to start with 'gomennasai'.

Mindmapping slide:ology

A couple of weeks ago, I combined two cool things: mindmapping and Nancy Duarte's "slide:ology".

Since today is DesignComm day at huesworks, I thought I'd share it with you.

I built this mindmap at bubbl.us

Remember to buy the book and practice the principles!

Creative Thinking Through Metaphors

One of the easiest ways to get creative is through the use of metaphors.

Unfortunately, it's way too easy to fall back on cliches when we brainstorm metaphors.

That's why I love using metaphorical images. We lay out 100 or so ambiguous images and ask the group to pick an image that serves as a metaphor for their challenge. After one person shows an image, I'll even ask others to contribute what metaphor they saw in the image. There's usually a big difference.

Today, addressing staffing, one participant picked up an image of a leopard. From that image, the team came up with 'hunting talent', 'scanning the horizon', 'staying hungry', 'tracking leads', 'working in teams', 'moving fast', 'being agile', and 'prowling the popular watering holes'.

Not sure if that last one was about staffing or their Friday night plans...

Either way, the images gave us some power ideas that we wouldn't have reached otherwise.

Using the Parking Lot as a Facilitation Tool

Some things seem too obvious to discuss... but they're not...

I've been working on a training class for facilitation.

One common tool of facilitation is the 'parking lot'.
I took it out of the class, because I thought it was too obvious.

Recently, however, I found that many experienced facilitators have never heard of a parking lot.
Now it's back in my class.

A parking lot is a place where the group can track ideas or questions that are currently off-topic.
It's usually written on a flip chart, a corner of a white board, or a piece of paper.

It's a good idea to set this up at the beginning of a session with a few words, "I don't want to let us get off topic. At the the same time, I want to capture any great ideas we have. So, let's talk freely. If I think something is off-topic, however, or better handled later, I'll put it in the parking lot. Okay?"

This accomplishes a number of objectives.

1. it keeps us on topic
2. it helps us capture great ideas
3. it helps the facilitator look competent

So, next time you have a meeting or workshop, try using a parking lot!