framing
Posted by Marty Siegel on November 1, 2007
One of the most important tasks for the team facilitator is “framing.” It’s a way for the facilitator to tell the team what is coming next, why it is important, and what should be the nature of the outcome. A team meeting should be a sequence of frames beginning with the check-in, the main part of the meeting, and then the postmortem or team reflection. Here are some examples:
The check-in frame (of course using your own words):
It’s good to see everyone again. Let’s take a couple minutes at the beginning to share what’s happening in our lives and then we’ll check-in and get down to work. In this frame, the facilitator has set a goal, a limit, and then once that is out of the way, the team can focus, indicating their focus by checking-in.
The goals frame:
Today we have two hours for our meeting, ending at noon today. Here are the goals for our meeting: [list 2-3 goals on the white board] If we can accomplish these, I truly believe we will move our project forward in an important way.
Notice that the facilitator is telling the team why it would be good to accomplish these goals. Of course, this should be followed by a team vote: I propose these goals. One, two, three… [thumb voting]. If there’s a “thumbs down,” the facilitator should ask, What would it take to get you in?
The postmortem frame (10 minutes before the end of the meeting):
We’ve reached the end of our time together. Let’s reflect on our meeting today. Let’s discuss what went well and what didn’t. From this we’ll have a better meeting next time.
Again, the facilitator is framing the next ten minutes by saying what will happen next, how the conversation should proceed, and why it’s important to have this conversation.
Framing can make a huge positive difference in team meetings. It’s one of the most important tools available to the facilitator.
What other team techniques have you found to be useful?
November 1, 2007 at 11:41 pm
Hey Marty, I’m loving these posts.
Just wanted to chip in that out here in “the real world” the frames you write about here are immensely important on the projects I work on. With respect to the goals frame, every morning my team(s) have a Stand Up meeting. Basically this involves the entire team standing in a circle and individually explaining what one has done since the last stand up meeting, what they plan on doing until the next, and any roadblocks that others in the circle might be able to help fix. There are various other rules for Stand Up meetings, but the key rule is that it should never take so long that you get tired of standing up.
As far as postmortems go, we do “retrospectives.” A great way method for that is to have individual team members write on sticky notes things that have gone well, and things that have gone less well (with recommendations about how to improve the situation). The team then puts all the stickies on the wall and sees what themes are recurring. The facilitator (an unbiased party) then leads the group in a discussion of the issues, both positive and negative. Then, the most important part, the team makes a plan with concrete actions that can be carried out going forward. In the next retrospective it’s important to look back and see how you’ve been doing on carrying out the previously created actions.
Anyway, the devil’s in the details for some of this stuff, but I thought you (and hopefully the students) would enjoy hearing about these methods. They’ve worked for me.
I hope all’s well.
Josh
November 2, 2007 at 11:31 am
Actually, our team have a good experience during the last meeting.
We play some inspirational game before brainstorming the concepts.
It really leads us toward the design space and keep our minds runing faster and faster. Finally, we did get a lot of interesting ideas from our brainstorming session.
Just a thought…
November 5, 2007 at 11:36 am
Something else that I’m finding helpful is to have the agenda emailed out to the group before the session. Writing it down makes it easier to figure out what the next move is. Sending it earlier gives all team members to think about and internalize the frame before getting there.
November 5, 2007 at 5:48 pm
During our “postmortem frame,” after we reflect on the meeting, we actually try to solidify the agenda for the next meeting (as much as possible). This is posted to a shared google calendar that we can all access in order to propose modifications. It’s worked really well for us in presenting small, manageable goals. We are always thinking about the next meeting, and know exactly what we need to do to execute that meeting’s goals effectively.
November 6, 2007 at 2:14 pm
Having the confidence in each other in the team is something that leads to better team dynamics.
The change from saying with confidence that “we” rather than “i” feel something is right.
Letting go of ego, and learning to accept critics with comfort.
All the frame you mentioned is equally important.
November 6, 2007 at 2:45 pm
My team is communicating much better and having more productive meetings now that we are actively practicing framing.
It really does work!
November 7, 2007 at 12:00 am
I second on jenny who is our moderator, i agree on the fact that applying protocols to a meeting/discussion make it more effective. I was thinking of how much time i have wasted in meetings (while i was working); we used to have meetings without agendas :P. Thank you Marty for bringing this to light.
November 12, 2007 at 12:45 am
I appreciate all the ideas that people have shared thus far about teamwork. Indeed, I’m finding that designing the team process is itself a constant design challenge.
I particularly like the idea of the postmortem frame, or retrospectives. Budgeting time for reflection (and doing it effectively) amidst the pressure of deadlines is something I find to be a constant struggle.
Personally, I find that reflecting on my work in a private journal/sketchbook is effective (or at least therapeutic). Publicly, I suppose I should blog more though…
December 2, 2007 at 11:32 pm
I am reminded of David Hakken’s comment about speeches/talks/explanations:
Tell me what you are going to tell me
Tell me
Tell me what you told me