Do Business Well

Going to a workshop may seem attractive. Yes, you can pick up some skills. But it’s difficult to transfer these skills to your work environment. The so-called university model of training (sending employees to outside educational institutions) has proven relatively ineffective. On the average, you can expect to see the transfer of no more than 5 to 20 percent of the desired skills two years after the training program.

When you learn skills in your natural work group, your whole group is learning at the same time and everyone can support and reinforce everyone else. There is no problem of transfer. As part of the training, you’re applying the Interaction Method to your everyday real-world problems. People are less likely to question whether it will work. And there is the added advantage of less time off the job. We see at least 4o percent of the skills utilized when we return two years later to a group we have trained in this way.

Since every organization has its own peculiar problems and personalities, the introduction of the method must begin in different places in different ways. However, one series of events must happen sooner or later if this method is going to “take.”

1. Senior executives must decide to have their meetings facilitated.
2. Middle-management groups must adopt the Interaction Method as their standard way of running their meetings.
3. A few people at least must receive some advanced training so that they can serve as internal consultants and facilitate top and critical middle-management meetings.
4. Ideally, someone should receive sufficient training to become an internal trainer, continuing the task of training other employees in facilitation. This person might come from the personnel, training, or organizational development departments.

Once all this has happened, change should be self-sustaining^,and the organization should not require any further assistanc^efrom an external consultant.

Selling the Method in Horizontal Organizations

Probably the hardest place to introduce the Interaction Method is in a horizontal group of elected representatives: a board of supervisors, school board, or legislative body. The win/lose mentality of voting and the debate orientation of Robert’s Rules of Order are usually well entrenched. Your first objective must be to convince group members that there is more to be gained by collaboration and cooperation. If your meetings have bogged down in stalemates and endless arguments, it may be possible to get several members to agree to try collaborative problem-solving and use our method on the next issue to come before your group. Introduce the Interaction Method on a new issue. It’s very difficult to get people to move off a win/lose stance once positions have been frozen!

Explain that the group can always fall back on a majority vote. If the level of frustration with the old meeting practices is high, and the groundwork is well laid, it should be possible to get an opportunity to try the method, but it may take effort. A committee meeting may be a good place to begin. If the committee members gain a positive experience, they will be less resistant to trying the method in other situations.

An appointed group (such as a board of directors or committee) may be more open to trying something new. Often the appointees have much in common and are willing to work in a collaborative style. (But watch out for groupthink!) Again, it may be easier to hire an experienced facilitator to run the first few meetings. If the group agrees that the Interaction Method is a more effective way of doing business, then someone from within the organization can be trained as a facilitator, or group members can learn to rotate the roles of facilitator and recorder.

Persuading the Informal Group

In our experience, informal, horizontal groups that exist only temporarily (task forces, citizen committees, parents’ groups, etc.) are very receptive to our method. These groups know that they can become powerful only if they involve their membership and are concerned about running their meetings in the most open, collaborative, and nonmanipulative way possible. The Interaction Method is ideally suited for this kind of group.

If you’re a member of a task force or citizens’ group, it shouldn’t be difficult to point out how the traditional ways of running meetings are not consistent with the goals of your organization. You can use many of the arguments, particularly. Activities that involve the citizenry at large should operate under rules that allow everybody to feel that he/she “won.” The Interaction Method can be a symbol of a new way of solving problems and making decisions.

If your organization has financial resources, getting some training in our method may be one of the best ways to get the most leverage out of your money. When you increase your ability to solve your own problems, you won’t need as much technical assistance. And what technical consultants you do hire, you can use more effectively.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
Communication, Business Meeting or Presentation, Win the Promotion (Horizontal Organizations)

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