Facilitated Thinking Technology

Problem: Meeting leaders can no longer simply rely on preparing an agenda and expect to have a productive meeting. To run quality meetings, the meeting planner must find ways to improve the thinking effectiveness of everyone attending the meeting. They must learn to “facilitate" participants’ thinking by identifying the right questions to ask, the rights tools to use, and all within the right thinking framework and sequence.

Solution: Now with a few clicks, MindSights Meeting Mentor enables you to find the right questions and tools to help lead your team to more productive meetings and results.

Demo: Simply click on the red hyperlinks. Click on TOC to return here. rtoc

MindSights Meeting Mentor

Main Menu summarymenu

I. Navigation & the Secrets of Professional Meeting Facilitators

II. Pre-developed Meeting Modules

◙ Seven Critical Thinking Types of Meetings

◙ Meeting “Thinking” Tasks Matrix

◙ Quick Start Meeting Planner

III. Planning and Leading Meetings as a Process

Step 1: Planning the Meeting

◙ Decide if a meeting is even needed.

◙ Basic meeting components and decisions.

◙ Meeting Purpose & Planning Thinklet

◙ Identify the right meeting Participants

Step 2: Developing the Agenda

◙ Prepare for opening the meeting

◙ Build an “Automated” Agenda

◙ Prepare for closing the meeting

Step 3: Leading the Meeting

◙ Determine your meeting delivery approach

◙ Determine meeting logistics

◙ Select Meeting Productivity tools

◙ Anticipate common meeting problems

Step 4: Post-meeting Evaluation and Action item Follow-up

◙ Post meeting basics

◙ Conduct a facilitator assessment

◙ Conduct post meeting Evaluation & Action Follow-up

Addendum I: Meeting Productivity Tools

Addendum II: Build an Automated Agenda

Meeting “Thinking” Tasks Matrix matrx

Simply click on the “go” button to find the right questions to ask and tools to use.

1. Basic (90-minute) Problem Solving: Resolve an urgent problem, issue or challenge.

2. Corrective Problem Solving: Fix a problem by restoring it to a pastor original condition.

3. Systems Problem Solving: Resolve a complex cross-functional or organizational problem.

4. Create & Innovate: Develop something new and of value that has never existed before.

5. Improvement: Improve current levels of performance (process, product, service).

6. Planning: Anticipate and prepare for future opportunities or imminent problems.

7. Decision Making: Select a course of action among alternatives.

Common Meeting Tasks	Common “Thinking Oriented” Meeting Tasks matrixmatrix	1. Basic Prb/Solve	2. Fix - Correct	3. System Prb/Sol	4. Create-Innovate	5. Improvement	6. Planning	7. Decision Making
Mission/Vision	Describe the organization’s purpose/mission						Go
Observation	Observe trends, problems and opportunities.					Go	Go
Prioritize	Decide what is most critical to work on NOW.					Go	Go
Problem State	Precisely state the problem or opportunity.	Go	Go	Go	Go	Go	Go
Systems Think	Systems think and validate the real problem.			Go
Goal Setting	Determine the GOAL (desired outcome).		Go	Go	Go	Go	Go
Future State	Identify the preferred future.						Go
Build Team	Assemble a high performance team.			Go
Data Strategy	Identify data gathering strategies and sources.					Go
Define	Gather data and define the current state.	Go	Go	Go		Go
Obstacles	Find obstacles that prevent reaching the goal.					Go
Analysis	Analyze gaps and find root causes.		Go	Go		Go
Requirements	Establish requirements for proposed ideas.			Go	Go
Incubate	Prepare the mind for creativity				Go
Brainstorm	Brainstorm creative ideas, solutions or actions.	Go	Go	Go	Go	Go	Go
Refine Ideas	Refine creative ideas into innovative solutions.			Go	Go	Go
Eval. Criteria	Select evaluation criteria and decision strategy.			Go				Go
Decide	Decide the best idea or solution to implement.	Go	Go	Go	Go	Go	Go	Go
Validate	Validate the correctness of the decision			Go				Go
Design & Test	Design and test the proposed idea or solution.			Go		Go
Plan Work	Develop an implementation work plan.	Go	Go	Go			Go
Implement	Implement the work plan.			Go
Feedback	Create feedback for continuous improvement.		Go	Go		Go
Lessons	Document lessons learned for future use.					Go

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Task 5: Define and understand the problem. pst5

Purpose

The more the problem is understood, the more effective the thinking will be. There is a positive correlation between people who develop more and better ideas/solutions with those that have relevant and accurate background knowledge of the problem. Be careful, however, of analysis-paralysis where you collect too much information.

Thinking Workspace (Use this space to record ideas or meeting notes)

Key Facilitator Questions to Ask & Tools to Use
Facilitator Questions How would you describe in 15 words or less how the problem came about? How much data do we need to collect to understand the problem? Who was involved with the problem when it started? Who is the owner of the problem? What change(s) occurred just before the problem started? What factors (facts) do you think have contributed most to the problem? What is most urgent and needs changing immediately? Where does/doesn’t the problem occur? When did the problem first appear? Why is the problem (easy) or difficult to solve?
Facilitator Tools
Go	Basic Background Information: Understand key facts and knowledge.
Go	Transient (Change) Description: Describes how the current problem came into existence.
Go	Mind Mapping Brainstorming: Develop relationships using geometric interrelationships.
Go	Data Relevancy Analysis: Collect the right data - too much can lead to ‘analysis paralysis.
Go	Input-Process-Output: Systematically collect process flow, activity and measurement data.
Go	Interaction & Relationship Worksheet: Look at people’s interactions and relationships.

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Transient (Change) Data transient

Why Use It

Understanding transient data (how the current situation came about) can initiate identification of the driving forces impacting both the current situation and help identify future solutions.

State the problem/situation that needs analysis.

Current Data	Transient (Change) Data
Who is currently involved?	Who was involved at the time this situation started? Who left or was brought on just before things changed?
What is the current situation?	What events led up to the present situation? What change was made just before the problem started? What successful actions stopped or dropped off?
Where is the situation located?	Where did the situation come from? Where have new or revised policies or procedures been put in place? Where have priorities shifted?
When does the current situation happen?	When did the situation first start? When is the situation triggered?
Why does the current situation happen?	Why does this problem exist? Why hasn’t it already been resolved?
How does it occur?	How has the workload shifted? How pervasive or widespread is it? How quickly is the problem spreading or developing?

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