Communication via leader

Submitted by bpgore on Mon, 2007-12-03 19:02.

Editors rating:

Average:

Group facilitation methods: Combining Ideas, Consensus, Reflection / Dialogue, Sharing Information

Identification

Alternative names:

Constrained Communication, Activity variation

Level of process:

Method

Intent or purpose:

Improve understanding of how teams work when communication is constrained.

Used as component of:

Team building, Leadership development, Communication workshops. This can be used in a variety of situations such as: Conflicts Creativty, a group deciding too quickly, Difficult people and/or situations, Disagreements, Silent Participants, and Undiscussable Topics.

Recognizable Components:

Team building and leadership experiential training

Types of Participants:

Any who have to communicate within or between teams

Howto

Usual or Expected Outcomes:

Participants learn how to combine planning and execution skills with the the difficutlies often faced in real world communication, and importance of putting good communication plan as a priority. Some breaking of the rules is likely and is useful in feedback, considering the potential pitfalls of not following the chains of communication.

Level of participation:

Lessons can be learnt from whatever level of participation occurs. Best with strong desire in participants to succeed at activity.

Ideal Conditions:

Participants who have already taken part in some experientail team building activities.

Potential Pitfalls:

If not strongly facilitatted, adherence to the rules may break down either through deliberate subversion (in order to "win") or by participants getting carried away.

How is success evaluated:

How well were the rules adhered to? Did the team(s) succeed in the activity? Do they recognise during feedback that this is a good analogy of real-world challenges? Have they learnt lessons in how to improve communications?

Examples of successes and failures:

Succeeds where suitable activity is chosen and well-facilitated. Once nearly drwoned a director, due to delays in team communicating a warning to him about the un-preparedness of a raft, whcih could have been a failure (except the lesson was well-learned from this, and good H&S skills by the facilitators prevented any real danger).

Type of Facilitator-Client Relationship:

Facilitator should have good knowledge of actual real-world activities and culture at the client, to ensure exercise can be related to these during feedback.

Level of Difficulty to Facilitate:

Facilitation skills required

Facilitator Personality Fit:

Facilitator must be comfortable monitoring multiple activities at same time, and strong enough to enforce some strict rules.

Setting and Materials:

A sufficiently complex team building activity, that requires the participants to be doing multiple tasks at one time to succeed. Enough room that the participants can split into multiple sub-teams that will not easily over-hear each other.

Resources Needed:

None, unless required for base activities.

Pre-Work Required:

Facilitator must be sure the activity chosen is suitable.

Procedures:

The basic process is to run any team-building experiential activity that requires the participants to be doing multiple tasks at one time, which at some point requrie a level of co-ordination. (An example is a challenge that requires the building of equipment - a raft, hoist, etc while others are preparing to use this by mapping out routes, preparing guide ropes etc, although can also be done with smaller scale and indoor "construction" type activities). Make them split into sub-teams to do the tasks, either during their initial planning or by allocating them.
Appoint or allow them to choose a leader (who is not part of one of the sub-teams).
Instruct them that NO direct communication is allowed between the sub-teams, they can only communicate via the leader. The facilitator must enforce this strictly, and have penalties for any who break this rule (e.g. make them start the current task again).
Run the activity to its end, succesful or not, and then debrief.

Follow-Up Required:

Ensure that the debrief focuses on the issues of communication and leadership, rather than on the mechanics of the activity itself. The focus should be on how the difficulties of having to communicate via certain channels makes the task more complex, but that this is often a real-world constraint and is there for good reasons. If anyone broke the rules, then discuss the impact of this - if everyone is expecting that communication WILL go via the leader and in one case it doesn't, what impact can this have?

How flexible is the process?:

This can be used with a wide variety of base activities for different sizes and levels of teams. It can be used for a wide variety of purposes, from adding a simple level of complexity to team building, through leadership development, making teams appreciate the challenges facing leaders and have more consideration for them, and improving communication, either making participants more aware of how to use a formal communication structure and the risks of not doing so, or as an intervention to demonstrate how an over-rigid structure can inhibit achievement - all depending on how the facilitator runs the exercise and manages the feedback.

Background

Developer:

Bernard Gore

Derived from:

Variant experienced in some team building activities, extracted as a generic variation that can be applied to many activities.

Epistemological Framework:

None

History of Development:

Variant experienced in some team building activities, extracted as a generic variation that can be applied to many activities.

License Model:

Free (or unattributable)

Website:

http://www.optimancy.com

Suppliers

Creators:

Name	City	Country
VALDUS	Port Louis	Mauritius

Trainers:

Name	City	Country
VALDUS	Port Louis	Mauritius

Consultants:

Name	City	Country
Dynamic Vision Consultanting	PORT ELIZABETH	South Africa
VALDUS	Port Louis	Mauritius

Supporters:

Name	City	Country
VALDUS	Port Louis	Mauritius

User login

Poll

How has the current economic downturn affected your facilitation practice?

I have less work than I did a few years ago.

29%

I am facilitating different processes from what I did a few years ago.

14%

I work with different clients than I did a few years ago.

43%

I haven’t noticed much difference.

I have more work now than I had a few years ago.

14%

Total votes: 7

Older polls

Amazon

Making Questions Work: A Guide to How and What to Ask for Facilitators, Consultants, Managers, Coaches, and Educators