Make Meeting MAGIC!Maggie McGlynn, McGlynn Leadership

Deb Mathias, BUILD Initiative

Appreciative Interview

• Think of a meeting or event from the recent past that you facilitated or helped organize that went well.

• Think of all the things you did in your role before, during and after the event that helped to make it successful.

• Now, without being humble, identify 1 thing you did to help establish these “conditions for success” that the group experienced.

Workshop Objectives

• Examine a frame and method for designing and facilitating meetings.

• Learn some “trade secrets” to tune up facilitation instruments within a supportive frame.

•Apply key concepts from their learning to an upcoming draft meeting agenda.

A Meeting Design and Facilitation Framework

• Listening

• Hosting

• Questions

• Possibilities

• Options

• Agreements

M – Match to Outcomes

A – Accelerate with Inquiries

G – Generate Possibilities

I – Identify Choice Points

C – Create Aligned Action

A Meeting Agenda Framework

A Beginning

The Middle

An End

Consider the present moment, your current context:

Who is gathering, how many people, the overall reason for coming together,

are they already working on something together, are there internal or external forces

driving the conversation, etc.?

M - MATCH TO OUTCOMES

• What you hope to achieve• Your vision for success• Uncover what is most meaningful• Imagine authentic dialogue

• What is working well that would be fantastic to continue or build upon? What else do you hope for?

• What kinds of breakthroughs would be most helpful at this time? What has kept you from achieving this already?

• What have you seen the team/leaders/participants get really excited about? What sparked that?

• If your success was absolutely guaranteed, what bold actions would you take?

A – ACCELERATE WITH INQUIRY

• Prompts and questions that enliven• Where you are already resourceful• Focus that will catapult the work forward

APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY (AI)

AI offers a fundamental shift in the overall perspective of a change process to ‘see’ the wholeness of the human system and to “inquire” into that system’s strengths, possibilities, and successes.

Appreciative Inquiry Assumptions

1. In every society, organization, or group, something works.

2. What we focus on becomes our reality.

3. Reality is created in the moment, and there are multiple realities.

4. The act of asking questions of an organization or group influences the group in some way.

Appreciative Inquiry Assumptions

5. People have more confidence and comfort to journey to the future (the unknown) when they carry forward parts of the past (the known).

6. If we carry parts of the past forward, they should be what is best about the past.

7. It is important to value differences.

8. The language we use creates our reality.

Sample Questions• Describe a time when you were a part of work like this and it

went well. What was your role in the work? What else made that successful?

• What is really working well in this project right now? What else might you hope for?

• What have your constituents been teaching you lately?

• What changes have been made so far that have positively impacted the project? What have you seen lately that inspired you to want to do the next level thinking for this initiative?

G – GENERATING POSSIBILITIES

• Engages the group in thinking broadly• Identifies options and nuances• Generates excitement• Builds on ‘the best of’ • “How is it possible…..” (presupposition)

I – IDENTIFY CHOICE POINTS

• Notice where the group has coalesced• Recognize opportunities to agree• Call the question(s)

C – CREATE ALIGNED ACTION

• Notice where there is a shared direction• Weave together the momentum• Bring to a cohesive and appreciative close

Meeting Design and Facilitation

Leadership Frames and Techniques

Collaborative Team Approaches

Community Engagement

Systems Strengthening

Learning Roundtables

Custom Facilitation and Coaching

Experiential Learning with Horses

Energy Management

Circle Conversations

Maggie McGlynn, Principal

maggie@mcglynnleadership.com

www.mcglynnleadership.com

Deb Mathias, Director of QRIS

dmathias@buildinitiative.org

www.buildinitiative.org