Facilitation Skills

00:00:03: Hi folks, this is all

00:00:05: things

00:00:06: product with Petra Ville

00:00:07: and Theresa Kortz.

00:00:09: And we're so happy

00:00:10: you here!

00:00:17: Petra I want to dig into a topic today that is very common.

00:00:23: i'm sure you've seen it before.

00:00:25: It's This idea of When A Product Team.

00:00:29: So We're Encouraging Product Trios To Collaborate Cross Functionally.

00:00:33: We do

00:00:36: what happens when they struggle to get along or there's conflict, where they don't know how to resolve differences.

00:00:44: I get this a lot and we can get into how I help with this.

00:00:50: but also you have some super awesome soft skills strategy here that i would like to hear about.

00:00:58: But really let us just frame it as We Have A Product Team They're going about their daily life, they are doing stuff.

00:01:04: Inevitably conflict happens.

00:01:07: What should we do when that happens?

00:01:10: Retrospectives!

00:01:19: I can get so emotional and passionate about that topic, because I know agile.

00:01:24: It's so old nobody wants to talk about it anymore.

00:01:28: But i'm always wondering why are we not at least taking the things That have really worked well for So many product teams?

00:01:36: And this is like pause every once in a while and Talk About efficiency.

00:01:41: that Is what it's all about As a team, how are we collaborating?

00:01:46: How do we approach our work?

00:01:49: Is there a team culture that everybody is subscribing to all these kind of things.

00:01:54: Do we love pair programming or not?

00:01:56: Do we value everybody's time in being on time for meetings whatever it is that people need to discuss?

00:02:03: I think It's important that would give room for that in the calendars and i think its even more important than whoever does is good in facilitating these sessions.

00:02:13: I think the skill of facilitating a group conversation and that could be retrospective, there could be a workshop or stakeholder workshops something like that let alone user interviews but it's different kind.

00:02:32: such a session where people have to talk maybe about interpersonal conflict, may be about why is this one person always taking over these other persons in the meeting.

00:02:44: So stuff that's really tricky to talk about and needs to moderate it well or prepared well.

00:02:51: somebody has half of time and skill for preparing sessions so I'm very passionate.

00:02:57: there need some people somewhere doing that And I have clients where the teams have skills, so whether they do moderation and facilitation around Robin.

00:03:09: That's rare!

00:03:11: A lot of clients still have a good old agile coach sitting somewhere, our scrum master doing this really well because that is what we've done in the past And I always encourage the product people to learn that skill as well, because it's an important skill and you cannot only use it on your team.

00:03:29: You can't use in whatever Team Workshop situation how to prepare the workshop How do facilitate It?

00:03:38: The underlying problems that you see as a facilitator may be clearer than the actual team and what are good.

00:03:47: I for example, we can share it.

00:03:49: in the show notes There is a retro methodology data love or that which I call the team radar Where you?

00:03:57: For example if your sense to team has particular problem then this one axis of your radar And then you add seven other ones.

00:04:04: Then ask them to reflect on those And you can see what the team thinks, and it's not so much about what you think because that doesn't matter.

00:04:12: You're a facilitator That's your role.

00:04:15: But you can See What The Team Thinks About A Particular Topic.

00:04:19: So yeah Facilitation and Time to Have Something Like A Retrospective.

00:04:25: This Would Help?

00:04:37: maybe think of team charters.

00:04:39: So really just talking about this, like what do we have conflict?

00:04:42: About?

00:04:43: so I think i'm going to create two really broad buckets.

00:04:47: the first is teams have interpersonal conflicts.

00:04:50: that often tends to be around norms communication styles personalities yeah and then a lot you talked with these.

00:05:01: One tactic I really like to see teams do is to literally create a team charter.

00:05:06: And when we create team charters, We tend them from the business point of view Like what's our outcome?

00:05:12: What are mission as a team?

00:05:14: That all great but i actually think where Team Charters Are way more powerful Is that As A team have a conversation around.

00:05:21: These are The hours that will be available.

00:05:23: these are Our preferred communication styles.

00:05:25: This how ive liked To make decisions

00:05:28: and then

00:05:30: Yeah, exactly.

00:05:32: And really surface this around like how understanding the individual preferences on the team so you can start to develop a team.

00:05:39: norms that are documented explicit because oftentimes they're implicit and I think just having that in place Can help with reducing this interpersonal conflict.

00:05:53: It's not gonna be one hundred percent but Reducing it from the get-go cuz there is at least clarity.

00:05:59: We know in the intro when I was asking this question, iIwas actually thinking about more of a team conflict around like what to build and Like uh The designer wants to do the design.

00:06:10: This way because it's more usable But the engineer wants to Do it this way cuz It's easier to implement.

00:06:15: And I think Uh the tactic I have there is Part Of the reason why I advocate so much for trios.

00:06:21: To-do.

00:06:21: discovery together Is Because you operate from A shared understanding?

00:06:27: helps to resolve these conflicts.

00:06:29: They happen less often,

00:06:32: but- Yes!

00:06:33: Yeah go ahead.

00:06:34: I think in both cases even if you have a team charter Even If You Do Team Discovery... ...you're always gonna Have Moments Where You Have Conflict And i think this is where what your getting at of like.

00:06:46: How Are We Gonna Resolve This Conflikt?

00:06:48: how are we going to work our way through this conflict?

00:06:50: Somebody needs facilitation skills and then YOU framed it In two different ways which i wanna unpack with you, which is one is can someone on the team facilitate those conversations versus do need a third party to facilitate those conversation?

00:07:08: And who might that third-party be.

00:07:10: Do want talk little bit about like how would think what's needed in situations?

00:07:18: So, if it's a really interpersonal one-on-one conflict.

00:07:22: If its two people involved then obviously I would not advise to bring in the entire team and watch them solving their conflicts together.

00:07:33: Then this is kind of...I don't know if there are counselling Mediation, whatever you call it.

00:07:38: Sometimes HR is offering such a service in doubt.

00:07:43: You could do a joint escalation so the two conflicting parties Could together write down what their conflict Is all about.

00:07:51: that already sometimes helps to solve The Conflict.

00:07:54: if you just like agree That there is a conflict and then you try To put It In writing Then sometimes things are closer than each one of you would have thought or something like that, and then you go to whoever is responsible.

00:08:10: That's most likely one of the line managers of these two people.

00:08:13: so they decide on either we or we basically pick one of them and go say like, hey look this is the conflict that were having.

00:08:22: And there's a difference again in.

00:08:24: Is it very interpersonal conflicts has to do with their value system?

00:08:27: Or personal value systems are something like the designer wants to do some thing One way the product person want us to do any other way.

00:08:34: hopefully then leadership would actually say run an experiment because Sounds a lot like opinions.

00:08:41: if two people holding opinions, they maybe hold them for good reason.

00:08:44: But still in business.

00:08:46: I would then ask him to design an experiment that looks In whatever sort of form that they can test For which opinion may be holds after the experiment run.

00:08:57: and then HR might.

00:09:03: if it's a more hefty conflict.

00:09:06: If the work environment already turns toxic, because these two people having this conflict then I think this is a good primer for maybe HR where you actually want to go?

00:09:17: Because they oftentimes have somebody skilled in this.

00:09:20: conflict resolution conversations i'd say but hopefully its not that so long, not so important.

00:09:32: Not urgent but annoying problem of two people always coming late to meetings for example or... So oftentimes things like that are kind of lowering the mood over time and at some point you have to turn and face the stranger!

00:09:52: at the problem and then think about, okay what are we going to do about it?

00:09:56: And you have to have a conversation about because there is no right or wrong solution for.

00:10:00: There needs to be a solution that the team decides being their solution!

00:10:05: That's why an outside party could be helpful... ...because A brings an outside perspective.

00:10:13: This is how you would pick the person.

00:10:16: They need to be as neutral, the right word.

00:10:19: As neutral that nobody else from the team things like they already have a preformed opinion about the particular topic.

00:10:26: so and sometimes even The Agile Coach was not a good pick in the past Right?

00:10:32: So Even if the Team had an Agile coach the Agile Coach would obviously sit with the teams spend time With the team hang out with the team being all the stand-ups And of course, they have a lot of context and know all the history about the conflict.

00:10:46: So even then it would not have been the ideal mandate for them to moderate the conflict.

00:10:52: maybe sometimes Even the product person was the better pick than because every day, all-day long with the team.

00:11:01: If you have a very skilled engineering team oftentimes to see that product person not attending every stand up because it's basically a tea meeting.

00:11:08: and then sometimes the product person was the better pick.

00:11:12: And if there is no working You can still ask the team of Davey comfortable facilitating in some times.

00:11:17: as senior engineer has built Very solid.

00:11:21: I saw amazing facilitation skills sitting within your engineers if they were allowed to build that over time.

00:11:29: But some of the best retros, as I said in war with senior engineers who had very high standards on their work ethics and how things are approached or all the extreme programming folks for example... They have a clear framework and idea about what works should be done And sometimes facilitating towards such goals was helpful as well.

00:11:58: So pick the person wisely and really think, is it beneficial if they know their context or if its beneficial?

00:12:05: If you don't know your contacts I think that's important.

00:12:08: And then pick somebody who has decent facilitation skills at the door and just really be in this facilitator role.

00:12:19: So you should not write any post-it on virtual or physical walls as a facilitator.

00:12:25: if you facilitate the session other than the headlines, so the headline posts it's allowed to write those ones but other then that its teamwork.

00:12:33: You need to leave your ego out of the door.

00:12:46: Team interpersonal dynamics make a distinction between task conflict and relationship conflict.

00:12:53: So, task conflict is we disagree how to do the task.

00:12:57: Relationship conflict—is there something about that way where it puts us at odds?

00:13:02: And I think team charters help with relationship conflict.

00:13:08: They help with surfacing individual preferences on their teams Like shared discovery helps with task conflict.

00:13:20: And then I would say, who should facilitate varies?

00:13:24: So with relationship conflict this is probably where HR is coming in.

00:13:29: right.

00:13:29: if the two people well first of all relationship conflict i would say you want to try to resolve one-on-one.

00:13:35: it's not a team issue It's a one on one issue.

00:13:38: If you can't resolve that yourselves That's Probably Where HR Comes In.

00:13:41: Yes.

00:13:41: I think

00:13:42: task conflict, even if it's just one-to-one... ...I would want the trio or the broader team

00:13:49: to discuss it

00:13:51: because oftentimes what looks like two people having a conflict over a task?

00:13:57: usually there are other people on that share those tasks conflict they're not verbalizing them

00:14:05: Or

00:14:05: someone else has an alternative approach and can actually resolve this.

00:14:11: And so I like to see task conflict being discussed at the team level, and then if you can't resolve it on a team-level there's couple of strategies.

00:14:23: As mentioned we could run some experiments or collect data in order to try to solve this.

00:14:28: Joint

00:14:28: escalations?

00:14:30: Yeah that is exactly where i was going next.

00:14:33: sometimes its not about what customer wants but having debate Business strategy context.

00:14:40: Yes now we need to escalate it to a leader and get another opinion.

00:14:44: yes,

00:14:44: but I think that Framing of like let's first get clear on is at relationship conflict or as a task conflict

00:14:50: conflict

00:14:52: Helps you with how do i?

00:14:54: what's the first step?

00:14:54: I take to resolve this.

00:14:55: What kind of facilitator might I need?

00:14:58: yeah

00:14:59: And then I think I liked

00:15:01: one thing I've heard in a lot of your responses.

00:15:03: Is this idea of facilitation is a skill You have for it know how you're gonna run the session.

00:15:12: You can't have a dog in the fight, if to set your ego aside and like surface the perspectives of their room.

00:15:17: Yeah And that could be really hard?

00:15:19: I think one thing i would love to explore with you is...I was just going say..you cant' have a doggie on the fight but don't think thats true.

00:15:26: A skilled facilitator Can surface all their perspective & share there own perspective But it's realy hard.

00:15:33: They have make sure they are not advocating when they shared their perspectives

00:15:37: Exactly.

00:15:38: And if you see a skilled facilitator, by the way they sometimes use their body and where they position it in the room to make clear which hat they're currently wearing when saying something.

00:15:47: so I saw that i saw skilled facilitators using two chairs say like hey especially when there are team members right?

00:15:54: They need to facilitate the sessions.

00:15:55: then they just change chairs and say okay now this is with my team member head and moving back into my facilitator role literally chairs, I know in the virtual space that's maybe not so easy.

00:16:09: Maybe change backgrounds?

00:16:11: You get creative people but it is important and as you were saying every conversation has a conflict.

00:16:23: there are friction points in teams.

00:16:25: they just need to be discussed.

00:16:28: So you just have to have the retro and your half-to-half conversation.

00:16:33: And it's not a big conflict, It is easy to solve sometimes like an idea or slight change in how set up certain meeting of wiki page.

00:16:45: that makes entire team slightly more efficient, slightly more oriented maybe more transparent than other teams whatever they want solving for.

00:16:54: And these are in particular task-related things that the team can discuss on their own.

00:16:59: There is not even a conflict inside, it's just you need to look at your own ways of working.

00:17:07: and they're still in favor product principles, for example every once in a while if they're still working well.

00:17:18: And all of that needs time and still a bit of lightweight facilitation and the build-up structure to reflect on.

00:17:25: it's the classical retro item and facilitation I'd say.

00:17:30: You know one thing you just touched on.

00:17:31: what i really like is this idea of conflict as normal.

00:17:35: If your on team then conflict will happen.

00:17:38: That same academic research shows task conflicts are actually good.

00:17:44: Task conflict is how we get to better healthy problem-solving, right?

00:17:48: So you want task conflict.

00:17:51: if there is no task conflict

00:17:53: That's

00:17:53: probably an indicator.

00:17:54: You don't have psychological safety on your team.

00:17:57: Yeah so I think it's a good time as well.

00:17:59: yeah

00:17:59: Yes Oh i think like the absence of tasks conflict Is Probably A red flag And so It Really If We Assume This Is Gonna Happen Its really About As A Team.

00:18:09: How Do We Get Really Good at Working Through this?

00:18:12: I think relationship

00:18:13: com and facilitation skill.

00:18:16: Yeah, i think the relationship conflict is a little bit different.

00:18:19: I Think relationship conflict will happen But it's not necessarily like we don't get a benefit from relationship Conflict?

00:18:26: It's

00:18:27: usually annoying Mm-hmm.

00:18:29: yeah, yeah, I love it.

00:18:31: that was interesting to unpack the topic.

00:18:34: Yeah,

00:18:34: I agree.

00:18:35: Thanks Petra.