AI Tools and Tips for Beginners.

The beauty of AI is that it can be used by anyone, but its potential is realized only by those very skilled in it. In other words, most AI tools have a low barrier to entry and a steady learning curve. Invest a lot of time learning AI, and its benefits will feel limitless.

To illustrate this point, let’s look at the learning curve of another common tool; Excel. Let’s use Excel as an example. Excel has a low barrier to entry; entering data into a row and column, calculating sums is a skill that most folks can learn quickly. The ratio of time investment to effectiveness is low. Excel also has a gradual learning curve, and those who invest a lot of time are rewarded with a gorgeous, color-coded bundle of formulas that produce veritable wizardry.

(Shoutout to Mike Cassady and Micah Green, our resident Excel wizards.)

AI works like that. Low barrier to entry; steady learning curve; investment = greatness. So, how do you start? Specifically, how can learning and development practitioners unlock the power of AI when creating their next project or course? Let’s break it down into a few key tools and explore how we’ve used them on our projects.

The three tools we will explore are:

• ChatGPT
• Synthesia
• Midjourney

ChatGPT

Ya know it, ya love it. ChatGPT is an AI program, created by OpenAI, that can understand and write human-like text. It helps users by answering questions and having conversations on various topics.

I like to think of ChatGPT as my own personal (and very knowledgeable) assistant. As of August 2024, it is likely the best AI tool available today in terms of versatility, accuracy, capability, and usability.

Level-up your verbal content.

I see ChatGPT as an accelerator. Use ChatGPT to improve the syntax and verbiage of content you’ve already written. It will give you many options – alternate ways to say what you’re trying to say.

Have you ever looked at a sentence and felt there’s a better way to express it, but you’re drawing a blank? ChatGPT to the rescue!

My Prompt

Hey ChatGPT, here’s a sentence that I’m trying to improve the flow of. Can you give me 3 options for this?

“When implementing a software change that will influence every employee, these three most common causes for frustration must be considered.”

ChatGPT’s Answer

Sure! Here are three options to improve the flow of your sentence:

1. “When implementing a software change that affects every employee, it is essential to consider these three common causes of frustration.”
2. “As you implement a software change that impacts all employees, it’s important to take into account these three prevalent sources of frustration.”
3. “In the process of implementing a software change that will affect every employee, you should consider the following three common causes of frustration.”

My Prompt

I like option 3, but let’s shift a little bit and pose it in the form of a question. It will be a click-to-reveal slide and prompt the learner to discover these three causes on their own.

ChatGPT’s Answer

Great choice! Here’s a revised version of option 3 posed as a question for your click-to-reveal slide:

• “What are the three common causes of frustration to consider when implementing a software change that will affect every employee?”

At this point, I modify it to suit my preferences. In this case, I found it a bit too wordy, and the part about “every employee” felt redundant since it was mentioned earlier in the course. Therefore, I adjusted it to…

What Are the Three Leading Causes for Frustration When Initiating a Software Change?

Write learning objectives.

Sample Prompt

I am developing a course, and the learning objectives must align with these points. Provide me five options and please use terminology from Bloom’s Taxonomy: Level 2 when creating them.

Takeaway

The points you provide ChatGPT can be crude and segmented; you can “think out loud” as you provide it with enough content to generate an answer.

Write knowledge checks.

Sample Prompt

Help me create a knowledge check question with the following parameters:

• This must be a single-selection, multiple-choice question.
• Two of the distractors must align closely with the correct answer; one of them can be a bit further off.
• Answering the question correctly will demonstrate that the learner has achieved this learning objective.
• Provide customized feedback on why each choice is correct/incorrect.
• Here is the content: When initiating a change in software throughout the entire organization, things that must be considered are response effort, training needs, and providing ongoing support.”

Write a script.

Sample Prompt

Here is a paragraph of on-screen content I have written. Can you create a script for a narrator that will be in the second person? Use a tone that is informative and nurturing. Examples of this can be “It is normal to encounter resistance to technological changes in your workplace, so you’re not alone.”

Takeaway

When it comes to generative AI tools like ChatGPT, the limitations are often determined by the user. If you’re wondering whether ChatGPT can perform a specific task for you, it never hurts to ask!

Here’s what ChatGPT helped me do.

Synthesia

Access it here.

On one of our learning projects, we had some initial discussions with the client and discovered that they really wanted video narration from a facilitator or mentor throughout the series of courses.

They were considering hiring voice talent to do this, but there were logistical and cost concerns. First, the course content would be dynamic. Second, stakeholders would approve only deliverables that were close to the finished product, narration included. That would mean re-recording narration after every review cycle.

Because of these factors, we proposed using Synthesia. It provided video narration while also mitigating the logistical concerns.

After working with our SMEs, we created scripts for the first course with some input from ChatGPT. Then, we brought the scripts over to Synthesia.

Our initial thoughts about Synthesia were:

• The interface is straightforward and felt familiar, especially if you have experience working with video editors and other AI narration tools like WellSaidLabs.
• The inflection and presentation of the avatars, though clearly AI-generated, were in line with what we were looking for.

To reduce that “AI look,” we shrunk the MP4 output and placed it behind a frame that really tied everything together.

Here’s what Synthesia helped me do.

If my situation sounds familiar to you, consider looking into Synthesia. We found that it checked all the boxes.

Midjourney

Access it here.

Like ChatGPT, Midjourney is a generative AI tool that requires the user to provide a prompt. Midjourney uses your prompts to create imagery.

After a few working sessions with our client, we established a general theme for the courses. We were aiming for a sleek feel with a dark palette. Midjourney allowed us to generate imagery that fit within the theme and branding guidelines.

This tool has been a major timesaver when prototyping and creating visual mockups (Have you ever spent hours creating a concept only to have it declined within seconds?)

• In working sessions with our client, we established a general theme for the courses.
• We used Midjourney to create several options that fit the theme and their branding guidelines.
• After they selected their favorite option, we continued using Midjourney to develop more polished images until everyone was happy with the result.

Here’s what Midjourney helped me do.

Using AI on a learning and development project doesn’t have to be hard. The barrier is low, so get started! With creative prompting and a dedication to quality for learners, an instructional designer can produce great content efficiently.

Tips for post-go-live change management support.

System implementation projects are difficult. They are tedious. They are stressful. And yes, they are costly. Often, we just want to get to the end. Many people think the “end” is go-live, but it is not. Everything you did to get to that imaginary finish line we call go-live just gets you to the starting line of the new way of working for your team. In other words, go-live is the start of the change.

Large-scale change initiatives do take a toll on everyone involved, so it’s understandable that we just want to be done. Many times, organizations begin reducing the project team to save on the remaining budget.

It’s common for the Change Management team to be the first ones asked to leave — immediately following go-live, if not before. After all, the training is done, and you have been “communicating” for months. Why keep the Change Management team?

If you don’t know the answer to this question, talk to projects that released their Change resources at or before go-live. You may get varying responses, but the gist will be, “Don’t release your Change Management support too soon!”

There are critical tasks that should be supported by your Change Management team AFTER go-live. Things like:

• Post-Go-live Communications
• Post-Go-live Readiness Assessments
• Lessons Learned
• Key Performance Indicators
• Continuous Education / Training

Remember: Don’t release your Change Management support too soon.

Post-Go-live Communications

Hypercare typically runs for a month after go-live. During this time, users are working in the new system. Occasionally, they might reach out for help. Your Change Management team can help to coordinate the onsite Hypercare resources, monitor project mailboxes for questions, and provide any on-going ad hoc communication requests. They can also help by creating weekly updates to keep the senior leaders engaged as the organization takes its first steps with the new ways of working.

Post-Go-live Readiness Assessments

The most critical goal for change management is employee readiness. To that end, we conduct readiness assessments, both pre- and post-go-live.

• The results of pre-go-live assessments help you understand what to change before you proceed to go-live to give you the best chance of success. They can be used as a final stage gate; a green light on readiness means you go live.
• The results of post-go-live assessments tell you how to correct course on your current launch, and how to conduct future releases or phases.

In either case, your Change Management team will be best suited to facilitate the readiness process.

Lessons Learned

Your Change Management team can pull together your core project team, key leaders, and select individuals from your stakeholder community, to discuss lessons learned throughout the project.

This is a critical activity. Not only will these lessons help you in future releases and phases of the same project, but these knowledge nuggets will help you and your organization during future initiatives. It’s the way you retain institutional wisdom, getting smarter and sharper with each project.

The most critical goal for change management is employee readiness.

Key Performance Indicators

It is likely that your Change Management team helped to identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) for your project. Facilitating KPI tracking is a good role for Change Management, while other core team members ensure the system is functioning properly and keep the business running.

Continuous Education / Training

Training is usually conducted a few weeks prior to go-live. Once all users have been trained, your Change Management team will support the trainers as users practice in the sandbox leading up to go-live.

• After go-live, someone must figure out how brand-new users will be trained. What are the courses (related to this new system) new employees should take? Who will function as trainers after the project has ended? What role will HR (Human Resources) play in helping to onboard new employees with this new technology? Your Change Management team can help to develop the approach for post-go-live training.
• The Change Management team should also identify and support remedial training. Post-go-live is when you really find out how the new systems, processes, and people are functioning together. If something is wrong, indicated by project KPIs, post-go-live assessments, or employee concerns, additional training might be the solution.

So, as you can see, keeping your Change Management team on board for some time AFTER go-live can be beneficial. What you need depends on your project, your organization’s capabilities, and the scope of the change. You might not need to retain your entire team, but having at least one solid Change Management resource on your team after you go live can make a significant difference in your results as your company begins its new chapter.

Enterprise Resource Planning. The software that touches every single part of your business takes, on average, 18.4 months and roughly 3-5% of your revenue to implement.

Companies make these big investments because ERP can deliver efficiency, productivity, visibility, better forecasting, and data security, all while reducing costs. In fact, many companies consider ERP essential to their future. Nem Fontanilla, who has spent 27 years enabling global transformations, recommends that organizations “Design the ERP with the vision in mind and leverage it to accelerate the achievement of your team’s vision, not to enable the current reality.”

Unfortunately, most companies experience a rough ride on the way to those benefits. A friend of mine is CEO of a midsized company, and is in the the second year of a promised six-month cutover. When he described the team’s difficulties closing the books due to the cutover, and the accounting teams increasing frustration, another friend chimed in. His team had a similar issue with their ERP implementation. He described their reaction as “organ rejection.”

Is your organization fighting off the ERP implementation? Here are some of the reasons.

“No time for that.” It’s more than enough to get the day-to-day work done. Adopting a new system demands attention and energy that equates to another full-time job.

“The best person for this project already has a job.” If you want the new system to work well, you need your best people on the ERP team – the folks who know your business best. So who is running day-to-day operations while they’re focused on your company’s future? The irony is that they’re so essential to the business that they can’t be spared, yet they’re probably worried they won’t have a job when the project ends. You have two obstacles to staffing your ERP team right.

“It’s good enough.” The old system and process works well enough. The team works on auto-pilot – they know what to input and where to send it. They find it hard to imagine the benefits of an operational overhaul outweighing the urgency of the moment. And frankly, some departments might be right about that. They might find the new system is worse for them even though it benefits the company as a whole.

Feeling a little defeated? You’re not alone. It’s chaotic enough to run a business. Now you’re intentionally introducing something that might break it.

Here’s what to do.

Embrace the suck. Assume employees will hate it. It’s a big change. Every living person is here because our ancestors were paranoid enough to anticipate danger and survive. Your new system is an intruder.

Resist cliché communications. Do not create a basic elevator speech. Do not create “talking head” videos of your executives saying how important this is. You will reinforce every cynical assumption your people have about this effort. Instead, create a consistent message frame that is customized by the speaker based on the audience. For more on how to communicate, go here.

Communicate based on impact. Employees care about when they will be affected and how. If you communicate too much, people tune out. You’re just teaching people to ignore you. For each person or team, communicate just what matters, just enough, and just in time.

Say the thing. There’s a natural tendency to hold back information that’s unpleasant or undefined. But fight that urge; the more more explicit you are, the more you dispel confusion and build trust. Spell out your scope and your timelines. If there will be layoffs, say so. Identify who is impacted and how.

Show them this time is different. Sometimes employees resist a change because they equate it to another change that “failed.” So highlight the differences between this project and others in the past. Differences might include:

• New Approach
• Different Team
• Different Budget
• Tighter or Expanded Scope
• Different Focus
• New Code
• Different Timing

Create fresh starts. A long ERP initiative can feel like a slog. Psychologically, we respond better to beginnings and ends. Seize on any arbitrary beginning that feels real: a new quarter, a new phase, hitting a milestone, or new metrics (like testing or training numbers). Help the team and the organization feel the progress and success by celebrating those starts and ends.

Focus on one small win. For each job role, think of only one thing an employee can do to use the new system, even if it’s as trival as logging in. Have them do it, and have them do it often. Make sure it’s easy, and that the experience is positive – for example, that the screen they’re on actually works. This gives them a sense that they can be successful and it makes the new system feel more familiar.

Double-down on From-To. Nem Fontanilla, who has spent 27 years in change and transformation, recommends that teams “(design) end-user readiness activities with (the user’s) day in the life in mind. Help them contextualize and see the change from their vantage point.” Where do your current fields appear in the new system? It’s that level of detail employees will want. Where is the data people used to use – where is it now? Document that, and train that. The more specific you are, the easier you make it for your people.

Prepare to invest in cutover twice. You’re working toward an end state. But in between here and there is a transition state. The support materials you develop differ for each state. You need temporary processes and training for employees who have the context of how they work now. These transition materials will be irrelevant once you complete the cutover. The second set, your steady state materials, are for new employees who have never known your old processes. They live on going forward. Some people try to skip the transition investment and only invest in the end state. However, that forces employees to figure it out on their own, which is a bit like interrupting a line of ants – they find a new path, but you have no way to control or predict it.

Nem Fontanilla says, “Turning on the ERP is the beginning…The functional teams need support to fully realize the value. It does not just happen because the new capabilities are available.”

Getting past the organ rejection takes focus and preparation, but it can be done. The huge investment in your ERP requires no less.

Our advice: consider welcoming back this old new trend.

In just the last week, I’ve read several articles heralding the arrival of a new trend among office workers: Chronoworking. The term refers to the practice of adjusting your work schedule to align with those times of the day you’re most productive.

The only problem with this new trend? It’s not new.

In ages past, individual workers naturally gravitated toward work schedules that were most productive.  It was only as we entered the Industrial Revolution (with synchronized looms and mills) followed by the Information Age (with its cube farm/corner office dichotomy) that rigid scheduling became the norm.

But even then, there were notable exceptions. Thomas Edison famously took up to three naps a day; he found that the breaks in work allowed for new thoughts or solutions to a problem, and he had a pen nearby to capture thoughts upon waking.

Chronoworking: the practice of adjusting your work schedule to align with the times you’re most productive.

Growing up, I often watched my mom unpack files and manuals on government procurement from her bag and set them on our kitchen table to work on; she tended to do her best work in the evening hours. (With three boys at home, I can’t imagine how our house was conducive to work, but she found a way).

When I worked in an office, I would arrive an hour or more before the workday began; I found that I could accomplish more focused work in those first two hours of deep concentration than I could in the next nine hours.  Working from home, it’s not unusual for me to tackle one or two tasks between 4:30 and 5:30 am, go to the gym, and then return home to “begin” my workday.

Chronoworking is at a new point of inflection. Though working outside traditional office hours has been a “trend” for as long as people could carry home a briefcase, it’s gotten a boost from recent world events and innovations. VPN connections and cloud platforms make it easier. Covid made it normal; the abrupt work-from-home transition necessitated some work hour flexibility that people aren’t keen to relinquish during the return-to-office wave.

It’s now so ubiquitous that we feel we can say it out loud: We don’t all work well at the same times. That’s okay.

So, if you are a leader in your organization and you see this “trend” on the horizon, what do you do?

• Think about your own work patterns. I struggle to think of one executive or entrepreneur who does not (instinctively or intentionally) structure their work patterns to leverage their most productive times of the day. In fact, most leaders get to where they are in large part because they optimize their work patterns. If you have benefited from work flexibility, shouldn’t your employees?
• Foster trust and ownership. You hired great people, right? So let them be great. Give them some choice in the way they deliver on their mission. Working at the right times doesn’t just make people more productive, offering choices makes them feel in control and trusted, which is motivating. If you really need team members to hold down the pneumatic lift on an office chair between 8 AM and 5 PM to feel they’re productive, are they really the best people for your organization anyway?

We don’t all work well at the same times. That’s okay.

• Communicate clearly and intentionally. Employees using flexible work schedules must have stated expectations and accountability. And they need to understand the purposes and benefits of work flexibility. Be intentional in the balance between flexibility and cohesion. For example, create common times when the team comes together, virtually or physically. This sends an important message: While we all work differently, we are one team working toward a goal together.

Allowing chronoworking is a change for many teams, and we know that change is hard. We also know that the most successful organizations embrace change.

Executive Facilitation

Part 5: Use the Emerson difference as inspiration for your sessions.

The team at Emerson Human Capital have constructed and facilitated thousands of executive sessions. In this time we think we’ve learned a thing or two. Here’s how we do executive facilitation differently.

We say the thing.

Before the session, we uncover big issues and potential effects of the decisions coming out of the session. The first step is a conversation with the sponsor or lead executive. We ask things like, “If this meeting goes sideways, why might that happen? Personalities? Politics? Sensitive initiatives? What will the consequences be? This gets us ready to address any elephants that might wander into the room.

Before the session, we uncover big issues and potential effects of the decisions coming out of the session.

Then, as we conduct the session, we set up discussions and activities to remove obstacles and get the tough decisions made. We remind participants that they are the leaders of the organization, and if it were easy, anyone could do it. They won’t be successful unless they lean in and get through the hard stuff.

We make them better decision-makers.

Whenever possible, we combine team effectiveness and business strategy. While execs are together, why not get better at moving the ball forward? Synergy is the word. Sometimes, what comes between a leadership team and its business goals isn’t about facts and figures, it’s about emotional attachment to ideas, or bad team dynamics.

We design on the fly.

If you keep your eye on the prize, and your current agenda isn’t moving it closer, what do you do? You recalibrate and shift, live.

Nothing is more important than getting the group to its outcomes

As facilitators, we take in the vibe, synthesize what we’re getting from the group, and reassess the trajectory of the session Many times, we have redesigned an agenda or activities on a lunch break or after day one of a two-day session. Nothing is more important than getting the group to its outcomes – certainly not our precious agenda and pretty slides. We’re happy to revise them or ditch them and go to the whiteboard to get the right work done.

We don’t deliver a lecture.

A facilitator is not a presenter. He or she facilitates the group’s work. Our job is to manage the process, offer concepts and information, set up scenarios, facilitate discussion and work, get consensus on decisions, and prepare the team for the next steps.

We facilitate in the context of change.

Every executive working session is intended to make a difference, so we view it through the lens of change. We don’t see the working session as an event, but as part of a change process. So, as we plan the session, we plot a course by asking key questions: What Is the ultimate business result we need? What has to happen before, during, and after the session to make sure we get to that goal? And how do we make those results sustainable? Once we answer those questions, we conduct the session. We show participants the whole journey. We make sure we get the outcomes we intend out of the session. Then we define next steps, responsibilities, milestones, and metrics.

We bring our change experience into the room.

We’re not facilitators who happen to know something about organizational change. We’re change practitioners with decades of experience. That means we bring in real-life examples that illuminate the problem executives are trying to solve. We can also identify pitfalls, in the room, and help the group avoid them. And, of course, we set the group up to make real change from the outcomes of the session.

We’re not facilitators who happen to know something about organizational change. We’re change practitioners with decades of experience.

We use behavioral science to help the session count.

We don’t “deck and dash.” Coming out of the session, we are ready to help executives implement their decisions. We do that with the help of science-based methodology. For example, we create motivation profiles that help each group of stakeholders adopt the change. We use three levers that make change stick: making the change feel familiar, controlled, and successful. And we use the power of the organization’s “early adopters” to create momentum toward the goal.

Put another way, we don’t want to leave our clients with a really expensive three-ring binder. We leave them with real, sustainable change that has business impact. You can use these ideas to improve your outcomes too.

ICYMI: Executive Facilitation Series Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 & Part 6

Keep employees sharp during tough times.

In times of economic uncertainty, some organizations decide to freeze hiring. This is a great way to save money for better days.

But the work doesn’t stop. Your business needs to keep running smoothly and hitting its targets. Performance issues might go unaddressed and build up. Without the option to hire new perspectives and skill sets, the future can feel daunting.

You might be thinking, “Surely, there’s another way,” and you’re right. Upskill and invest in your people. But how do you start?

Competency Model

First, figure out what “good” looks like for your people and your organization. What knowledge, skills, and attitudes does each role need to succeed? This is the foundation for competency modeling. It’s the destination on your upskilling roadmap.

You have a competency model? Great, here are some questions for you:

• When was the last time you looked at it?
• Is it clearly tied to your organization’s go-to-market strategy?
• Is it role- and level-specific?
• Do you have skills mapped to your competencies?
• Have you defined proficiency levels for each of those skills?
• Have you identified observable, measurable behavior statements that reflect the relevant proficiency level?

If you answered yes to all these questions, congratulations! You have a comprehensive competency model, you’re ready to move to the next step.

First, figure out what “good” looks like for your people and your organization.

Learning Blueprint

With your end goal in mind, you can now start plotting a course: mapping learning moments to your competency model.

Start with what people need to know and do to exhibit proficiency in a skill. And keep in mind, they don’t need to know and do everything, all at once – that’s an easy way to overwhelm your learners. If you teach everything, it’s too hard to distinguish what is most critical that your learners must get right from what is mundane.

How do we make that distinction? Priorities, with an eye on business impact:

• Common: What do your learners do every day? They have to get that right.
• Critical: What must your learners do right to be successful right now?
• Catastrophic: What must your learners do to prevent disaster? There are hundreds of buttons in a cockpit, only two will cause a crash. Teach those two buttons early and often.

Cross-reference these impactful topics with how complex the subject is to learn. Your top-priority topics are where high impact and complexity intersect. Put the most effort there.

These prioritized topics become the foundation for your learning journey. Meeting them requires a curriculum full of learning moments, beyond just formal training.

Start with what people need to know and do to exhibit proficiency in a skill.

Learning Program

A comprehensive, continuous learning model demands a holistic collection of learning moments beyond formal training. Growth toward competence doesn’t happen just by sending people to training sessions, your learners need more. The reasoning here is that training is not the same as learning. Learning involves doing, reflecting, and then doing again; training is simply the preparation for the doing.

With this in mind, your program should embrace these elements:

• Education: Traditional training, whether it’s in the classroom, virtual instructor-led sessions, eLearning, micro video, etc.
• Experience: Application and practice, which might be in a simulation, in a controlled real-world activity, or on the job.
• Exposure: Social learning, whether as part of a cohort of peers learning from each other, working with a coach or mentor who provides context and perspective, or attending fireside chats or expert panels to broaden horizons and learn new applications.
• Environment: Tools, templates, and infrastructure to facilitate learning over time and support at time of need, within the flow of real work.

Interlace these four components into a deliberate sequence to form learning journeys for each role.

Growth toward competence doesn’t happen just by sending people to training sessions, your learners need more.

The Way Forward

If you got this far, then you have a route and now can take inventory:

• What are the strongest existing learning materials that you can slot into your journeys immediately?
• What’s pretty good, and just needs some modification?
• What do you have to build from scratch or curate from another source?
• What do you have that no longer serves the organization or your learners?

With these defined, you’re ready to hit the road and build your upskilling curriculum. But don’t stop at building; you also need to roll out the program. You can have the greatest learning program in the world, but if your learners don’t know about it, don’t care about it, or can’t easily access it, none of this effort will matter.

Wherever you’re at in your journey, know that you’re doing a good thing for your organization — building a learning culture and empowering your people. Know that there will be a return on this investment. (More on this to come!)

Executive Facilitation

Part 2: Are great facilitators born or made?

While there are no doubt some innate advantages, we lean toward the latter. Here are some tips to help you create compelling and productive sessions for your executive participants.

Take their point of view.

Execs are thinking about the needle they need to move. Do you know what’s important to the people in the room? Can you describe what they need out of the session, and what they want to do with it, going forward?

Find out. That’s your North Star. A good facilitator maintains focus on the executives’ ultimate goal and how the outcomes of the session will serve that goal.

Meet them at their level.

A good executive facilitator has a certain gravitas. A mismatch between the facilitator and participants undermines the process. Own the room so participants feel confident following you through the process.

How? That depends on your role.

• Are you an external facilitator? A contractor or a member of another function within the organization? You might have a little work to do, especially if participants don’t know you well. Establish credibility, both before and during the session. Remind participants of your CV, illustrate points with stories from your experience. and make sure your content is unimpeachably valid to an executive audience. If they feel you’re one of them, in some sense, things will run more smoothly.
• Are you a member of the executive group you’re facilitating? Facilitating a group of your peers has its positives and negatives. The downside is that your own team might resist your efforts to impose process during the session. If you expect pushback, preview the rules before the meeting and then get verbal consensus as you start. On the “pro” side, you have built-in credibility and you’ll have an easier time maintaining focus on what’s important.

Deliver value.

Your role is to help the group produce something better than they could have on their own.

Here are the basics to help you get started.

• Define the session. What is the goal? What does success for the day look like? Which topics will be discussed and what topics won’t be discussed?
• Give people space. Remember, you’re not the presenter; you’re the facilitator. Even if you know a lot about the topic of the session, resist the urge to talk a lot. Also, recognize that some people need more space than others. Introverts need time to process before they chime in. You might need to call on them to get their input. And consider individual styles ahead of the session, so you can plan accordingly.
• Ask good questions. What is a “good” question? It challenges assumptions, plays devil’s advocate, draws out more information, gets at the “why”, or compares to other ideas for the purpose of prioritizing. Also, ask “Why now?” when discussing a strategic initiative; it will spark meaningful discussion.
• Listen. Often, it’s the emotion carried in the words that is most important to pick up on. That’s the area to explore. Great facilitators lead the group into discussion topics they have been avoiding—whether it’s the proverbial elephant in the room or just a touchy subject. Another effective tool is Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats Technique – Exploring your mind. It’s a great way to avoid groupthink and pressure-test the emerging conclusion. It also offers a boost to groups who are disengaged or filled with non-confrontational.

Often, it’s the emotion carried in the words that is most important to pick up on.

• Catch the valuable points. This is one of your most critical tasks. As a good facilitator, you are deeply knowledgeable on the subject and goals of the session. Use that filter to grab the key ideas as they float by in the flow of conversation. Maybe you can tag team: assign a scribe to capture these points on the whiteboard or pad.
• Connect some dots. It’s also up to you to make sense of what the group is offering up. Point out links between one participant’s comment and another’s. Categorize ideas against the session’s goals. Identify recurring themes, issues, or opportunities. As the facilitator, you need to be able to see the forest for the trees.
• Synthesize information. The purpose of an executive working session is to generate something new: a concept, model, strategy, plan, or action. What is it? Help the group see what’s emerging. What are we saying? What does that session outcome look like?
• Invite the group to shape the result. Show them what they came up with. Ask, “Is it right? How should we change it?” Ask the group both what they think and how they feel about it. “Give me one word to describe how you feel about this decision we’ve reached.” can uncover suppressed concerns about a solution. People overthink their answers to “what do you think?” questions whereas “How do you feel?” is typically answered more simply, directly and from the gut.

As the facilitator, you need to be able to see the forest for the trees.

• Check it against the session’s goals. Rewind to the beginning of the session. “What was the goal? What did we expect to accomplish today? Did we get there?”
• Draw out next steps. Help the group decide what should happen after the session, with an eye on the ultimate outcomes for the organization. Then determine responsibilities and timing. Finally, get verbal commitment to your plan.
• Define the message plan. Ask, “What decisions did we make that should be shared with the rest of the organization? What should not be shared outside of the group? What are the messages and who will deliver them?” Add those messaging items to the next steps plan.

Executive facilitation is about making the group more powerful and productive. It’s about guiding them toward meaningful outcomes that align with the organization’s goals. With thoughtful facilitation, you can elevate these meetings and help executives realize their potential as a strategic team.

ICYMI: Executive Facilitation Series Part 1, Part 3, Part 4 & Part 5

Active listening is a behavior we can improve.

You’re telling a colleague about something that happened yesterday. You finally drop the most surprising part of the story, and you’re met with a blank look and “uh-huh.” In that instant, you know they haven’t been listening. Their eyes shift from a point across the room back to your face and they realize they’ve been caught.

It doesn’t feel good, does it? It might feel even worse for your colleague, who realizes they have been outed as insincere, at best.

Next time, you might avoid confiding in that person. They might feel uncomfortable around you. It might not be a big deal, but it certainly didn’t make your relationship stronger.

Humans have a fundamental need to be seen and heard.

Listening is respect; it lays the foundation for trust-based relationships and shared understanding, without which teams can’t succeed.

So how do we become good listeners? Active listening is a behavior we can improve and, like all behaviors, it requires both “being” and “doing.” Think of your being state as your attitude and intention. The doing state is observable behavior.

How to Be

1. Be neutral. This is a variation on mindfulness, or non-judgmental awareness. Being human is messy; the person who is speaking has emotions and thoughts that might not seem logical or sensible to you. And they don’t have to! Don’t feel like you must respond right away. Suspend your judgment. First, just listen and try to understand.
2. Be curious. Imagine the two of you are carrying backpacks into the conversation. The backpacks are full of experiences and habitual emotional responses built up over a lifetime. To listen well, take off your backpack. Forget yourself for a little while and experience what the other person is saying from their point of view.
3. Be regulated. Sometimes we hear things that bring up our own discomfort. Try to regulate your physiology so you don’t react to your own internal responses. That will help you stay present. In other words, “practice the pause.”

What to Do

1. Tune in. Eliminate distractions. If you’re face-to-face, start by turning off your devices. If you’re connecting remotely, turn on your camera and minimize other windows. Give yourself and the other person the gift of space they can fill with their message.
2. Take in what is happening in front of you. As you listen, what are you seeing and perceiving? What kind of energy or mood state is this person demonstrating? What’s their rate of speech? How is their breathing? What are their gestures and eyes doing? Once you do that, you can confirm that you are beginning to understand. For example:
3. Check in. Share something like, “I noticed you got quiet when you talked about your performance review” or, “When you talked about that project, you seemed excited.”
4. Use their words. If someone says they’re frustrated, you can simply say, “Frustrated.” If someone says they enjoy project management, you can say, “You enjoy project management.”
5. Sometimes people just want to vent. They’re not looking for a solution, but rather an open and safe space to hear themselves think. Before inserting your ideas or opinion, ask, “Do you want to be heard, or do you want me to offer feedback?” Then make good on their answer. And if you’re at a loss, ask, “How can I help?”

The more you practice, the stronger your active listening muscle will get. As you turn active listening into a daily habit, you’ll promote an inclusive and productive culture and more easily sustain high-performing relationships at work and in life.

Executive Facilitation 

Part 1: Preparation

Executive facilitation is the process of engaging a group of leaders, in real time, to reach the best outcome. Put another way, it helps the right minds create something better than they could individually. The goal of executive facilitation is actionable synergy.

Are you planning executive facilitation? First, answer these questions.

Why are we spending time on this?

Executives are drowning in meetings. Pre-empt “This could have been an email” by testing your plan with a knowledgeable partner, like the sponsor of the effort or the senior executive involved.

Begin with the end in mind. What will you accomplish during the meeting? Are the outcomes input and ideas or decisions and plans? Will you end with a binding consensus on the way forward?

How are you going to get those outcomes? Do you need all that time? Do you need each of the people you’re inviting? Test the outcomes, materials, and facilitation approach ahead of time with the sponsor of the effort.

Your goal: the value of everything you do during the session will be crystal clear to the execs in the room.

Who are the players and what do they want?

Know your participants. Know the basics: their names, roles, titles, functions, and time with the company.

Then dig a little deeper. Understand their styles and motivations. Are they likely to speak up or not? Will they happily collaborate and hear others out? Do they have any particular motivations or affiliations that will affect the group’s work?

Ask the sponsor: If this meeting goes sideways, how will that happen? What are the potential road bumps? How should we get ahead of them?

All that intel will help you manage the group toward the outcomes they need. You might need to:

• Draw some participants out to make sure their ideas are in the mix.
• Help those with a minority opinion “hold space” during the discussion.
• Form breakout groups or pick discussion leaders to avoid trouble.
• Present or “plant” information to balance out someone with an agenda or maintain momentum.

What’s the scoop?

It’s important to ground yourself with information, especially if you’re an “outside” facilitator. Sometimes participants make assumptions that aren’t right. This can set the whole group in the wrong direction.

Another problem: you might not have all the information represented in the room. For example, maybe no one in the room represents “the work.” Often, non-executives have the best understanding of the implications of the decisions made in the room. But they’re not there. You, the facilitator, might have to bring that information to the session.

Do a little research.

Talk to the sponsor or trusted experts to make sure the assumptions and data underpinning your outcomes are sound. In other words, make sure the group is having the right conversation.

How should participants prepare?

Participants need the why, when, where, who, and what.

• WHY — Give participants the vision: the outcomes of the session and what those outcomes will do for them and for the organization.
• WHEN and WHERE — Set clear expectations on time and place. Will you start on time? Will there be a buffer, like breakfast or lunch, before you start? Will you offer breaks? When should they expect to finish? Is it ok to join virtually or not?
• WHO — Let everyone know who else will come and what their work role is or whom they’re representing.
• WHAT — Give them a sense of how the day will go. Are there any big topics, activities, or ground rules? What decisions will be made? There’s a big difference between “We will discuss…” and “We will decide…” Let them know the stakes.

And tell them what to prepare or bring to the session. For example, do you need some participants to be ready to report on their areas of expertise? What form should it take? (Slides? Handouts? Written data on a whiteboard?) And make sure the sponsor or senior exec is ready to set up the purpose and expected outcomes of the session; if you’re an external facilitator, you should not do that.

Well begun is half done. Isn’t that what they say? It’s never more true than in executive facilitation. Set yourself up for success by doing the right prep work

ICYMI: Executive Facilitation Series Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 & Part 5

A global retailer once hired me to help install PeopleSoft—it was their 3rd attempt. Their pain is not uncommon. Enterprise resource planning, or ERP, is a vital management tool, but its implementation can often be a nightmare.

For example, the average cost of an ERP implementation is $4.5 million or 6% of revenue. The average time to implement is 1-3 years. (!) With these painful stats in mind, it makes sense the Wall Street Journal once described SAP implementation as a “corporate root canal.”

Here are five questions you need to ask and answer before implementing an ERP.

1. Who is on the team? The most common mistake is to assign responsibility to IT and whichever department will use the system the most. Those two silos typically don’t appreciate the implications of their decisions on the groups who will input, maintain or receive outputs from the system. This can scuttle your ERP. Instead, get a cross-section of expertise on your team. Every group interacting with the system should be there.
   

   Your ERP team should be made of your best employees—their decisions will impact how this system (and your business) will run for years.

2. What one behavior drives the business case? If your team is serious about the business case, they must articulate what they need people to do in clear, tactical terms. Then focus, focus, focus; focus relentlessly on that. An IT firm spent millions on enterprise resource planning to help them make money on license renewals. The one activity they needed most from their sales team was to call clients the month before their contracts expired. Because they didn’t make that specific request, sales people didn’t do it consistently. The firm could not hit the business case; it was wholly based on “license renewals”—a lovely concept that no one acted upon.
3. How are we managing first impressions of the system? Shteingart, Neiman & Lowenstein’s 2013 research, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, shows that “first experience has a disproportionately large effect on subsequent actions,” something they labeled “outcome primacy.” In other words, first impressions matter. So the first employees who touch the system—starting with requirements definition—had better be wowed. Only someone in marketing should be giving the project a name. And if user acceptance testing sucks, stop implementation. As Kahneman and Tversky found, we feel the pain of loss more acutely than the pleasure of gain. We compulsively avoid anything that smacks of failure. Manage the employee experience as rigorously as you manage the project itself.
4. Who will be our first users? In the 1960s, Everett Rogers published a book called the Diffusion of Innovations, which analyzed why certain ideas and products capture the public’s imagination. He mapped those who adopt the idea against a bell curve, showing that 3.5% of the target group are eager early adopters, and 13.5% are positively predisposed to change. You can use this to create momentum. If you want your ERP to look like a winner, find the early adopters. Enlist the 3.5% for system test, and the 13.5% for UAT. Pilot with these employees intentionally. They’ll make the system seem safe and successful to everyone else.
5. How are we ensuring the system is employee-centric? Employees don’t think about the system. They think about their jobs. Training must be about how to use the system in the context of their jobs. What will they do, day to day? Where will new tasks and handoffs take place? Where are the data and tools they relied upon—which will stay and which will be replaced?

Generic ERP training is a waste of time and money. Train people to do their jobs, not use a system.

Enterprise resource planning is one of the most invasive and expensive undertakings your company will ever face – even if it’s “cloud-based” and “intuitive.” If you get these five things right, you’re ahead of the game and on your way to a return on your investment.