Solve Problems Together Leading Meetings That Matter
Marcus Degerman
© 2016 Marcus Degerman Author: Marcus Degerman Illustrations: Marcus Degerman Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand, Stockholm, Sweden Print: BoD – Books on Demand, Norderstedt, Germany ISBN: 978-91-7699-325-5
Content INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................8 SOLVE PROBLEMS TOGETHER .......................................................................................................9 BOOK STRUCTURE ...................................................................................................................11 REALLY SIMPLE TIPS ........................................................................................................12 SIMPLE TIPS ...........................................................................................................................13 WHY ARE WE HERE?................................................................................................................14 WHERE ARE THE TOILETS? ........................................................................................................16 WRITE EVERYTHING UP! ...........................................................................................................17 1-2-ALL ...............................................................................................................................18 ONE-ACTION MEETINGS ...........................................................................................................20 HOW SATISFIED ARE YOU? ........................................................................................................22 MORE SIMPLE TIPS ..................................................................................................................25 PREPARE TO REACH YOUR GOAL .....................................................................................27 PREPARATION ........................................................................................................................28 NO AGENDA ..........................................................................................................................30 WHY SEND OUT INFORMATION BEFORE THE MEETING?....................................................................32 A GOOD INVITATION ................................................................................................................34 GOAL...................................................................................................................................36 CONTEXT ..............................................................................................................................38 OUTPUTS ..............................................................................................................................40 BUT HOW DO I PLAN?..............................................................................................................42 ONE STEP FORWARD ...............................................................................................................44 MORE ON GOAL SETTING AND CONSTRAINTS .................................................................................46 START MEETINGS WITH A COMMON GOAL AND COLLABORATIVE MINDSET ...................47 THE START OF THE MEETING SHOULD HELP PEOPLE FOCUS ................................................................48 CREATE OPENNESS AND REDUCE RESISTANCE .................................................................................50 SIGNIFICANCE ........................................................................................................................52 CHECK-IN .............................................................................................................................54 COMPETENCE ........................................................................................................................56 ACCEPTANCE .........................................................................................................................59 MORE ON BUILDING TEAMS AND IMPROVING COLLABORATION ..........................................................61 VISUALIZE THE PROBLEM ................................................................................................63 THE MIDDLE OF THE MEETING ....................................................................................................64 VISUALIZING REDUCES CONFLICTS ...............................................................................................66 POWERPOINT IS NOT ENOUGH ...................................................................................................68 VISUALIZE PROBLEM AND CONTEXT .............................................................................................70 VISUALIZE DATA .....................................................................................................................72 VISUALIZE PROCESSES & SYSTEMS ...............................................................................................74 VISUALIZE EVENTS ...................................................................................................................75
VISUALIZE CONCEPTS INSTEAD OF WRITING EVERYTHING ..................................................................76 DRAW THE PROBLEM ...............................................................................................................77 MORE ON VISUALIZING DATA AND PROBLEMS ................................................................................80 FIND INSIGHTS.................................................................................................................81 HOW DO YOU HELP PEOPLE TO THINK AND SEE NEW PERSPECTIVES? ...................................................82 WHAT DID YOU HEAR?.............................................................................................................84 WHEN YOU SEE A CHALLENGE OR OPPORTUNITY.............................................................................86 HOW TO USE STICKY NOTES .......................................................................................................88 COLORS AND DISTANCE ............................................................................................................91 WHAT ASSUMPTIONS ARE WE MAKING? ......................................................................................94 CHANGE YOUR GLASSES............................................................................................................96 DIALOGUE MAPPING ...............................................................................................................98 ONE INSIGHT .......................................................................................................................100 MORE ON FINDING INSIGHTS AND DESIGN THINKING .....................................................................101 CREATE IDEAS................................................................................................................103 STAY IN THE BOX...................................................................................................................104 GENERATE IDEAS BY YOURSELF .................................................................................................106 WAIT UNTIL TOMORROW .......................................................................................................108 MORE ON IDEA GENERATION ...................................................................................................109 GET CLEAR OUTPUTS AND DECISIONS............................................................................110 GATHER IDEAS .....................................................................................................................111 CONNECT BACK TO GOAL AND OUTPUTS .....................................................................................112 ASSESS YOUR IDEAS ...............................................................................................................113 PRIORITY MAP......................................................................................................................114 PRIORITY MATRIX..................................................................................................................117 DOT-VOTING .......................................................................................................................119 PLAN .................................................................................................................................121 ARE WE HEADING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION? ...............................................................................124 ONE THOUGHT ON SOLVING COMPLEX PROBLEMS ........................................................................126 SUMMARY ....................................................................................................................129 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..................................................................................................131 AUTHOR ........................................................................................................................133
Foreword I have been thinking about writing a book on how I work for quite a while, but kept on postponing it. Inspired by a friend, I started doing 90-day challenges to help myself learn and do new things. The first one this year was about writing and publishing fiction daily for 90 days; the second one was drawing daily for 90 days. I also tried working out daily, but failed miserably. I finally changed the goal to finishing my first half-marathon, which I managed. This book kept popping into my mind, and on August 29, 2016, I decided to write, edit, and publish a book in 90 days. It felt like a big challenge but still doable. Just like with all my previous challenges, I started by making it public. I invited people to the Release Party and announced that the book will be released on November 26. Now there was no turning back. I help organizations implement a more Agile way of working. One of the key principles of Agile is to time-box projects: Instead of focusing on the scope, you set a deadline and deliver what is finished at that point. This is exactly what I did with this book. Another principle is to get as much feedback as possible from customers, which is the reason why I published everything I wrote daily and asked for feedback. And while putting everything together and editing during the last month, I have received daily feedback from test readers. I have had so much fun writing this book, and I hope it will inspire you in the work you do with others.
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Introduction
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Solve problems together One of the most difficult things for organizations is to solve problems together. People spend too much time trying to solve problems by themselves, sit quietly in meetings, or push their ideas on people. It is only when we gather people and help them think together that they can start solving the critical and often very complex problems that face our organizations and our world. “There are no problems we cannot solve together, and very few that we can solve by ourselves.” - Lyndon B. Johnson 36th U.S. President This book is not about meetings, but I have noticed that it is the best place to start when you want to get better at solving problems together so a lot of the examples I do are from meetings or workshops. When I say meeting or workshop I mean the same thing, it should be the same thing. The only difference I see today is that people usually prepare much more for workshops than for meetings. “But what should I plan, we are just going to talk?” If you have no clear goal to work towards, or have not thought about how you want to reach it, then you will probably not get there.
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When people try to solve problems they usually call for a meeting to do it. The first problem is that the person who has called the meeting rarely prepares for it, besides writing a short title for the meeting that they assume people will understand. The meeting ends up being boring, way too long, confusing, and few people at the meeting talk. People give up because so many meetings lack an open climate and structure for discussions and problem solving. Instead, they work by themselves or with a trusted colleague, discuss everything beforehand and then push their ideas on the group. It creates a vicious circle where people get used to going to a meeting with the intention of getting all the facts and a complete solution laid out in front of them, so that they can then nag about it or accept it. This book is about how to help a group solve problems together.
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