"The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant." - Max DuPree

I recently attended a meeting with a group of senior leaders that was facilitated by an IT management consulting firm.  This was a fantastic opportunity for me to compare my facilitation skills with those of a fellow competitor.  The facilitated portion of the meeting was a Six Thinking Hats session surrounding a proposed governance model for an important IT program.

The session started out well, with a great explanation on how the Six Thinking Hats technique works.  Unfortunately, from that point forward, the session did not reach the desired outcomes and left most of the participants confused and frustrated. 

1. There was no White Hat (Information Seeking) segment in the beginning, which caused the group to continually stop the session to clarify definitions and seek other foundational information. 
   
2. The Red Hat (Intuitive/Gut-Feeling) segment worked well, solicited some very interesting emotions and illuminated some of the change management challenges and fears that surrounded the governance model.  This segment was given three minutes.
   
3. During our Yellow Hat (Praise & Positive Comments) segment, there was some fluff and butt-kissing mixed in with the real positive comments.  It was a meeting that consisted of senior leadership after all.  Sadly, this segment only lasted two minutes.
   
4. The Black Hat (Criticism & Negative Comments) segment is where things started to break down.  The negative comments changed from constructive criticism into full scale assaults and aggressive defensive posturing.  This segment lasted seven minutes.
5. The Green Hat (Idea Generation & Problem Solving) segment actually generated a number of great ideas and alternatives...well, they would have if every idea that was submitted wasn't immediately killed with comments like "that doesn't follow our process model" or "we tried that before and it didn't work" or "let's put that on the parking lot board and look at it later."  This segment lasted only three minutes.

So lets recap...the facilitated Six Thinking Hats session lasted a total of 15 minutes.  This is far, far too short for any substantive problem solving session.  There will be more on this topic in next week's blog entry so I won't go into that now.  The most disappointing aspect of the event was the heavy focus on the negatives and the idea killing that happened during idea generation.  Originally, I felt this was the fault of the group, but on the flight back home, I realized it was really the fault of the facilitator.
 
This reminded me of the facilitation principles that I keep on a note card while facilitating problem solving or ideation sessions:

• Facilitating or Participating?
• Listening or Hearing?
• Check the energy level...Break Time?
• Are there too many leaders trying to take over? Minimize...
• Are you losing anyone? Engage...
• Problem participants? Convert...Remove...
• Speed Check?  Speed up...Slow down...
• Arguments/Fights?  Divert...Re-Focus...

Let's try to remember that any creative problem solving or decision making tool/technique needs to be led by someone with the awareness and courage to keep control of the session and work toward the intended result.  Keep negatives to a minimum, protect ideas, and please...for goodness sake...allow enough time to ensure success.

Have a great week!!!