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Facilitator‘s Guide Enterprise Circles™ Developed by Inova Consultancy, UK April 2016
Project partners:
Project number: 2015-1-IS01-KA204-013171
Contents Contents .................................................................................................................................... 2 Chapter 1: Overview of FREE Enterprise Circles™ ............................................................................ 5 What are Enterprise Circles™? ............................................................................................................... 6 Enterprise Circles™ - Purpose and Methodology ............................................................................... 6 Enterprise Circles™ - Underpinning Philosophy ................................................................................. 6 Enterprise Circles™ - Facilitation Aims ............................................................................................... 8 Chapter 2: Outline of Session Content ...........................................................................................10 Chapter 3: The Virtual Facilitation Process ...................................................................................12 Facilitating a Virtual Enterprise Circle .................................................................................................. 12 Using Google Hangouts for Virtual Enterprise Circles ...................................................................... 14 3.1 Preliminary Contracting Overview ................................................................................................. 16 a) Your personal introduction .......................................................................................................... 17 b) Engaging Enterprise Circle™ members introducing themselves to one another ......................... 17 c) An introduction concerning Enterprise Circles™ .......................................................................... 18 d) Establish the meeting process; give a model for how each meeting will work. .......................... 18 e) Communicate expectations about evaluation. ............................................................................ 19 f) Communicate needs regarding administration procedures: initial contract signing, attendance register, evaluation materials. ................................................................................................................. 19 g) Elicit any expectations the group members have of you as facilitator. ....................................... 20 h) Exchange any expectations you have of them in terms of contribution or behaviour or the way meetings run. ........................................................................................................................................... 20 i) Develop ground rules .................................................................................................................... 20 j) Introduction to the method and ways of working, trying out the method. ................................. 22 3.2 NLP for facilitators .......................................................................................................................... 24 What is NLP? ..................................................................................................................................... 24 NLP Communication Model .............................................................................................................. 25 2
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Deletions ........................................................................................................................................... 26 Utilising Values in the Real World .................................................................................................... 27 Chapter 4: Detailed Overview of Enterprise Circles™ Process ..........................................................28 4.1 Check in. ......................................................................................................................................... 28 4.2 Describe current issue(s) ................................................................................................................ 29 4.3 Issue exploration ............................................................................................................................ 30 4.4 Develop solutions, options, alternatives for action ....................................................................... 30 4.5 Summarise action and learning ...................................................................................................... 30 4.6 Goal setting tips .............................................................................................................................. 30 SMART format .................................................................................................................................. 31 Chapter 5: Working through the Mentee Pack ................................................................................32 Exercise 1: Thinking Differently ............................................................................................................ 32 Exercise 2: Old Woman/Young Woman ............................................................................................... 33 Exercise 3: Mind Map and Ideas Generation ....................................................................................... 33 Exercise 4: Wheel of Skills .................................................................................................................... 34 Exercise 5: Goal Setting Worksheet ..................................................................................................... 35 Exercise 6: Using Metaphors ................................................................................................................ 35 Exercise 7: Recipe for Success and Evidence ........................................................................................ 35 Exercise 8: Motivators in Business ....................................................................................................... 36 Exercise 9: Innovation & creating a market niche ................................................................................ 36 Exercise 10: Flow Theory ...................................................................................................................... 36 Exercise 11: Quick Business Quiz .......................................................................................................... 36 Exercise 12: Hot Air Balloon ................................................................................................................. 37 Exercise 13: My Fantasy Business......................................................................................................... 37 Exercise 14: Setting Priorities – The ‘Jelly Bean’ Exercise ................................................................... 37 Exercise 15: Lifeline Exercise ................................................................................................................ 38 Exercise 16: Storytelling Exercise ......................................................................................................... 39 3
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Exercise 17: Innovation cards - Combining Ideas ................................................................................. 39 Chapter 6: Ending Sessions ..........................................................................................................40 6.1 Closing meeting 1 ........................................................................................................................... 40 6.2 Closing the final meeting ................................................................................................................ 40 Chapter 7: Bibliography ..............................................................................................................42 Annex I: Representational System Preference Test .......................................................................44 Annex II: Characteristics of Representational Systems ..................................................................46 V:Visual ................................................................................................................................................. 46 A: Auditory ............................................................................................................................................ 46 K: Kinesthetic ........................................................................................................................................ 46 Ad: Auditory Digital .............................................................................................................................. 46
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Chapter 1: Overview of FREE Enterprise Circles™ As part of the FREE project (Female Rural Enterprise Empowerment), Enterprise Circles™ will be carried out in five partner countries: Iceland – VMST and Icelandic Regional Development Institute UK – INOVA and WIRE (Women in Rural Enterprise) Lithuania – Kaunas Science and Technology Park Croatia – CESI (Centre for Education, Counseling and Research) Bulgaria –BICC (Business Information and Consulting Centre)
Each Enterprise Circle™ will consist of a minimum of 5 mentees (women who are thinking about or currently running a business in a rural area). One trained female facilitator (ideally also an experienced business woman) will facilitate the group in each country, following the attendance of a training the trainers workshop in Croatia facilitated by trainers from Inova (UK). The Enterprise Circles™ will meet for three sessions (as a minimum). It is expected that the length in between sessions will be agreed upon by each Enterprise Circle™ separately as this depends on group availability. Each session will last approximately three hours and should take place in a room where participants are able to contribute in confidence. Depending upon the number of learners in an Enterprise Circle™, the style becomes more or less directed by the facilitator. For example, in a bigger group with more than five learners, more tools will be used with more direction from the facilitator. In a smaller group with five or fewer learners, fewer tools would be used and greater use of the time-slots method to discuss and question over individuals’ issues. This Facilitator’s Guide aims to support the FREE Enterprise Circles™ facilitator through both approaches. After each session, participants will complete an evaluation form and the facilitator will write up their working notes from the facilitator’s perspective. In addition, during the first session participants will complete an audit skills form. The facilitator will keep all evaluation forms at the end of each session. At the end of the third or final session, participants will complete a second audit skills form, a final outcome evaluation form and he/she will write up a summary report in English which summarises the individual evaluation forms per session, the final outcome forms and their own facilitator’s notes/experiences. The report should contain interesting quotes from participants and audio files/photos of the Enterprise Circle™ where possible. This summary report should follow the template provided and be sent to the Output Leader.
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What are Enterprise Circles™? This guide has been produced to give facilitators’ knowledge of Inova Consultancy’s approach to Enterprise Circles™ and to outline our recommended process for working with Enterprise Circle™ groups for the FREE project. We recognize that leading your own business can be a daunting task, especially for women. Inova has developed a unique group mentoring process which brings together skilled facilitation using action learning techniques, coaching and mentoring, combined with career development/self-reflection tools. In order to support women with increasing their career options and in order to foster the associated entrepreneurial spirit, this Enterprise Circle™ methodology will be piloted for FREE. In an Enterprise Circle™, a facilitator works with approximately 5 mentees (5 female business owners) in a group setting. The programme blends group discussion and individual airing of issues, reflection, goal setting and personal action planning. Enterprise Circles™ are led by skilled facilitators with expertise in action learning or by facilitators who have been trained in the methodology by Inova Consultancy directly.
Enterprise Circles™ - Purpose and Methodology • • • • •
Enterprise Circles™ enable an individual to share their problems, issues, opportunities and challenges with others. Enterprise Circles™ provide a safe yet challenging environment where ideas for growing a business can be explored and tested. Possible options for action can be generated and discussed. The individual is helped to find the next steps forward in furthering their idea to grow their business. Encouraging development of self-reflection and self-belief.
There are also other benefits of participation: • •
Opportunities to network with other women facing similar issues. Opportunities to make new contacts and expand their networks.
Enterprise Circles™ - Underpinning Philosophy Enterprise Circles™ are learner led and learner focused. The concept of Enterprise Circles™ is built on the process of learning as a journey which requires that the individual can be helped to reveal what they need to know, that some knowledge is already within and needs to be brought forward, and that shared knowledge and learning from others can be valuable. The focus is very much on questioning to reveal insights- whether this is through group discussions, completion of exercises and guided questioning from other participants. For example, through guided questioning sections within an Enterprise Circle™, participants take it in turns to have a time slot to talk about their problem or opportunity and the other group members offer questions. The questioning is about discovery, trying to understand more fully any underlying issues which it would be fruitful to explore further. Thus the focus is on questioning rather 6
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than advice giving. Similarly, when completing exercises regarding self-development or self-reflection, participants are encouraged to question their responses and to support other group members in questioning why they responded to an exercise in a certain way. This process strengthens the development of self-reflection. The two models below (Action Learning Process and Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle) are useful in further explaining the purpose and process of Enterprise Circles™. Fig 1. Action Learning Process
Start -Present your challenge, problem, issue or your question Mark learning, draw conclusions, define learning from experience.
Set members question you constructively to challenge views and understanding, perceptions, assumptions
Bring results back to setwhat worked/what didn’t? Why?
Insight? New understanding, ideas on taking action?
Test out taking action in the workplace Fig. 2 Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle (1975)
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Enterprise Circles™ - Facilitation Aims Enterprise Circles™ are generally facilitated in a fairly non-directive manner; however, each facilitator will have their own style which may be more or less directive. It may be necessary to use a more directive approach when appropriate e.g. when an individual might be about to undertake risky or damaging actions which can be foreseen. As mentioned previously, the size of group dictates the level of direction required. Larger groups tending to be led in a more directive fashion than smaller ones. We would expect the learning process to feature some of the following exploration for participants: •
Exploration of what may cause particular conditions or consequences; reviewing decisions or actions and reveal how this has led to the current situation. Could problems have been avoided? What are the implications if a similar situation occurs in the future? What have they learned from this situation?
•
Examining their own thinking that led them to believe something or act in a certain way. Is a decision built on fair assumptions? Have assumptions been tested?
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We can also learn from mistakes; Argyris (1993) suggests that learning occurs whenever errors are detected and corrected.
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The facilitation should also be future focused and solution focused. It is useful to assist members in predicting possible outcomes. Have they taken everything into account? What is the back up or contingency plan? Have they considered all the options in a situation?
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Your facilitation will explicitly get people to commit to goal and action plans, report on their own progress, redefine goals and review outcomes.
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The facilitation should also involve awareness of group dynamics and group process; this may occasionally require that the facilitator may have to intervene to protect someone’s time, to keep issues on track when challenge may be causing distress, when someone is perhaps using power inappropriately or behaving in a way that frustrates or blocks the group’s learning.
•
Participants might wish to experiment with behaviours in the Enterprise Circle™ (with the agreement and support of their colleagues) and obtain feedback. Perhaps a member would like to be more assertive and offer more suggestions in group settings or develop the confidence to disagree with people. 8
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Encourage group members to be creative, to work outside comfort zones and to maximise opportunities.
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Contracting: defining an agreement with the Enterprise Circle™ members about roles and responsibilities in order that a) you can best facilitate: b) they can get most out of the process in a climate which is conducive to learning. Agreements need to be revisited frequently and rules of operation need restating at the start of each session. The following section on Contracting outlines this process in more detail.
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Chapter 2: Outline of Session Content Session indicative content MEETING 1 • •
• •
• •
• • • • • •
Preliminary contracting Personal introductions-your introduction and Enterprise Circle™ member introductions Introduction to Action Learning principles Administration and materials signatures on attendance record, check agreements signed, show and explain mentee pack Completion of audit skills form Go through examples- approach, difference between advice giving, using questions, turning questions into statements, outline way of working Ground rules agreement Exploration of issues Goal setting and action planning Summary of actions and learning Evaluation forms Ensure you have agreed next session, date, time, venue (may be prescheduled)
MEETING 2 • • • • • • • •
Re contracting- checking agreement on ways of working Progress review: discussion of successes, difficulties Articulation of new challenges and opportunities Exploration of issues Goal setting and action planning Summary of actions and learning Evaluation forms Ensure you have agreed next session, date, time, venue (may be prescheduled)
Suggested tools/exercises •
Thinking differently (ref 1)
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Old woman/young woman (ref 2)
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Mind Map & ideas generation (ref 3)
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Wheel of skills (ref 4)
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Goal setting worksheet (ref 5)
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Using Metaphors (ref 6)
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Recipe for Success and Evidence (ref 7)
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Motivators to start up in business (ref 8)
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Innovation- creating a market niche (ref 9)
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Innovation cards (ref 17)
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Flow theory (ref 10)
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MEETING 3 • • • • • • • • •
Re contracting- checking agreement on ways of working Progress review: discussion of successes, difficulties Articulation of new challenges and opportunities Exploration of issues Goal setting and action planning Summary of actions and learning Complete audit skills form (discussion of outcome) Evaluation forms Exchange contact information, agree any further informal networking
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Business Quick Quiz (ref 11)
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Hot air balloon (ref 12)
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My fantasy business (ref 13)
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Setting Priorities- Jelly Bean Exercise (ref 14)
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Lifeline Exercise (ref 15)
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Storytelling Exercise (ref 16)
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Review of Flow, ways of seeing
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Review of innovation
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Review: motivational theory
MEETING 4 (optional) • • • • • • •
Re contracting- checking agreement on ways of working Progress review: discussion of successes, difficulties Articulation of new challenges and opportunities Exploration of issues Goal setting and action planning Summary of actions and learning Strategies for sustainability
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Chapter 3: The Virtual Facilitation Process Facilitating a Virtual Enterprise Circle The facilitation of Virtual Enterprise Circles would be based on the Virtual Group Facilitation model (PERFORM™) by Pamela Van Dyke (2014). This model consists of seven stages which must be adopted by the facilitator in order to run Virtual Circles effectively.
P. Participant Selection
M
E
Media Interface
Elements of the Group Process
R
R
Result Orientation
Regular Communication
O
F
Organization and Logistics
Facilitation Skills
Source: Adapted from Virtual Group Coaching: A Curriculum for Coaches and Educators by Van
Dyke (2014)
1) Participant Selection: One of the fundamentals for enhancing group performance is the establishment of trust and openness amongst all members (Van Dyke, 2010). The individuals that make up the group are key in determining whether or not group members would get along. Therefore, an understanding of the personality styles of individuals within a group setting is key. It is the role of the facilitator to ensure that all members are comfortable in participating in an online group. This information can be assessed by interviewing group members prior to the sessions to find out if they would be appropriate for the online Enterprise circles. The facilitator may ask questions like the individual’s willingness to participate in an online setting, openness to feedback as well as assess how comfortable the participant is with using technology. 12
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2) Elements Of Group Process: As with face-to-face facilitation, an understanding of group dynamics, the stages of the group process and how to ensure that each member participates is also essential in virtual facilitation. 3) Regular Communication: Facilitators are expected to contact group members about details of the online Enterprise Circles on a regular basis. This involves reminding the participants ahead of the sessions about meeting times, preferences and dissemination of handouts and online exercises. Prior to the session, participants will be forwarded the facilitator’s contact details in order to receive important information required for the course such as links for the Google Hangouts invite and other required Google Hangouts add-on tools for sharing documents, videos and presentations. 4) Facilitation Skills: Taking part in a face-to-face learning experience–for example, a course, workshop, or seminar–is a common experience. But participating in an online environment is a new experience for many people. Participants, as well as facilitators, have few models to rely on for how they are to think, collaborate, share, and build knowledge in an online environment. You may already be an experienced online facilitator or this may be your first experience of facilitating a learning group online. Here are some ideas to ensure you get the best out of online facilitation by understanding more about online facilitator’s roles and responsibilities (Zorfass et al, 1998): •
guide participants to post and read messages, as well as to locate, review, and download relevant messages, materials, and resources
•
make sure that participants understand the expectations and norms for respectful interaction, as well as knowing how to follow directions for carrying out the associated tasks and activities (both online and offline)
•
create a strong, interactive learning environment by encouraging participants to provide information and resources, discuss issues, and collaborate with each other to generate solutions to problems
•
use a variety of strategies to help participants expand their knowledge based on their particular situations, needs, interests, and abilities, such as:
•
•
− asking people to elaborate upon, justify, or support ideas, especially if there are conflicting views or multiple perspectives
•
− infusing content information to nourish the conversation
•
− pointing out ways in which one person’s comment links to or builds upon another’s; encouraging the connection of ideas, thus moving the communication from individual ideas to a group understanding
encourage participants to reflect on what they have learned and what impact this information has on their beliefs and behavior 13
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•
guide participants, as relevant, to critique the online learning experience from a personal and professional perspective
5) Organisation & Logistics: Online facilitation can be more complicated than face-to face facilitation therefore it is important for facilitators to be exceptionally organised with good planning skills. Prior to the session, the facilitator has to: take note of participant location and potential differences in time zones in order to effectively schedule meetings; be aware of the frequency of sessions and overall duration of the sessions; be prepared on the delivery methods to be used i.e. handouts and online resources; and finally be welltrained on the virtual medium to be used. For the Online Enterprise Circles, Google Hangouts will be utilised for video conferencing. Explanations on how to utilise this tool will be illustrated in the following section. 6) Result Orientation The facilitator has to be aware of the outcomes of coaching throughout the facilitation process. As online facilitation is relatively new in practice, the facilitators need to have effective goal-setting skills in order to stay focused on the goal of the program, effective problem solving skills and the ability to overcome any obstacles that they might experience along the way. After the sessions, the facilitator has to actively reflect on the challenges they faced during the process in order to gain an understanding of how to mitigate problems that other facilitators might face during future online sessions. It is also important for facilitators to conduct the post-test evaluation which can be done through the use of an online survey tool to determine if participants felt the online coaching process met their individual needs and expectations. 7) Media Interface Facilitators need to have a clear understanding of the technology to be used for online facilitation as well as the potential benefits and limitations. Based on the Media Richness Theory by Daft and Lengel (1986), online facilitation does not allow for the full depth of communication cues that could be observed compared to face-to-face facilitation. For this reason, online facilitation can tend to feel less impersonal and less likely to evoke participant emotions than face-to face facilitation. However, skilled participants can counterbalance this limitation by expanding their knowledge on how to create an environment where participants feel free to express themselves. It is also important that a coach-client media fit be achieved (Charbonreau, 2002). This is established if the facilitator feels comfortable using the medium, if participants are comfortable using the medium and if interaction between coach and the participants are well established on the medium. Other media factors to consider are knowledge of the technology being used and basic technical skills, internet connection speed and the bandwidth used by the Virtual platform; the utilisation of NLP techniques online.
Using Google Hangouts for Virtual Enterprise Circles Google Hangouts is a useful, easy to use and free platform for video meetings between up to 10 people. A growing number of trainers are now using Google Hangouts to deliver online training in
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more engaging and interactive way. As part of the FREE pilot we will be using Google Hangouts for the Virtual Circles. Hangouts is a free service from Google that offers video chats for up to 10 people (facilitator, plus up to nine others). You can start or join a Hangout using your Web browser on your computer or the Hangouts app on your Android, iPad or iPhone device. Training can be interactive and delegates can ask questions through their microphones. The speaker’s image is always enlarged so that there is no confusion over who is speaking at any moment in time. About Hangouts Hangouts let you have face-to-face video calls with up to nine other people. Only the people within the Hangout can watch or listen to the conversation. You don’t want to lose time at the start of the course fixing any problems delegates may have with listening to the presentation, being heard, and making sure everyone has the add-on apps installed for sharing documents, videos and presentations. The best way to avoid this is to organize a Hangout sometime before the first Virtual Circle itself, to check everyone’s system is correctly set up. Alternatively, the welcome session can be extended in order for participants to practice how to use these tools before the start of any activities. It takes most people about 4-5 minutes to complete this task. To get access to all of Hangouts’ features everyone must login using Google+. Everyone needs a full Google+ account. Before starting the Hangout Virtual Circles sessions, we recommend you add the delegates’ names to a group in Google+ Circles, or check you can connect with them on Google+. How you start a Hangout: 1 Sign in to Google+. 2 Click the Hangout button at the bottom of your share box. 3 You need to give your Hangout a name, so type something into that box – this shows in the post shared with the people you’ll be inviting to the Hangout. 4 Add the people or specific circles you want to join your Hangout. 5 Click Share to post an invitation to your delegates and start the session. You can directly add people to your party from within the video call. Simply click the add people button at the top left of the video call window, enter their names, and click Add people. When you directly add people to your party, they are notified via Hangouts. Presenting your slides – Share your screen with others in Google Hangouts You can use the Screenshare feature in Hangouts to show your slides to delegates without having to download anything. With the Screenshare feature, you can give participants the ability to see what’s on your computer screen. 15
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To share your screen: 1. Click Screenshare on the left side of your screen. 2. In the window that pops up, choose your desktop or choose the window you want to present. If you have multiple windows open, you are asked to choose one to share. Select that window containing your slides, click share. 3. Click Share Selected Window. You can stop sharing your screen at any time by clicking Screenshare again. Seeing your slides and the delegates’ faces at the same time Ideally, you want to be able to see your slides and see the delegates’ faces at the same time. To do this, you need to display the slides in a resizable window on your screen, so that they only take up part of the screen.
IF YOU’RE USING WINDOWS – DISPLAYING POWERPOINT SLIDES IN A RESIZABLE WINDOW
You need to change the slideshow settings in PowerPoint to display your PowerPoint slides in a resizable window: 1. From the ribbon (or menu bar in earlier versions) select Slide Show on the ribbon bar. 2. Select Set Up Slide Show. 3. In the Set Up Show window, select Browsed by an individual (window). 4. Select OK to close the dialog. When you select the Slide Show (or Presentation) view, your slideshow displays in a resizable window, not the full screen. Contracting Block (1981) suggests that a contact with a client is a social contract and is developed to enable the consultant or facilitator to have equal power with the client. It forms an explicit agreement about expectations of one another of the respective parties and develops detail about how they are going to work together. The facilitator needs to develop an informal contract and way of working with the participants. The concept of action learning and Enterprise Circles™ needs to be explained. Each new Enterprise Circle™ will begin with a contracting element which will be described in detail here. This information can be used either for face to face sessions or adapted accordingly to suit delivery online.
3.1 Preliminary Contracting Overview A structured contracting session to start off the first meeting would include: -
Your personal introduction as facilitator. Engaging Enterprise Circle™ members introducing themselves to one another.
a) An introduction concerning FREE project , Virtual Enterprise Circles™, how they work, why this methodology has been chosen. 16
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b) c) d) e)
An introduction to the theme: women in rural business Establish the meeting process; give a model for how each meeting will work. Communicate expectations about evaluation and commitment Communicate needs regarding administration procedures: initial agreement signing, attendance register, evaluation materials. f) Elicit any expectations the group members have of you as facilitator. g) Exchange any expectations you have of them in terms of contribution or behaviour or the way meetings run. h) Develop ground rules. i) Introduction to the method and ways of working, trying out the method.
a) Your personal introduction This will probably include: • • • • • • •
Your name. Personal history, how you got to where you are in life- focused on yourself as a woman in business and therefore role model to the group members. Fields you have worked in, career trajectory. Professional qualifications if relevant, credibility to be able to facilitate. How you like to work, anything in particular that you value e.g. openness, honesty, sharing. Explain your role- process expert rather than technical expert. Finally give the mentee pack to all members. Ensure all attending have signed the attendance sheet and mentoring agreements have been signed.
b) Engaging Enterprise Circle™ members introducing themselves to one another This need only be brief at this initial stage. It can help to give people a framework to contain their introduction and a set time e.g. two minutes per person.Write headings on flipchart paper/in a Google Hangout chat box, and ask them to summarise their introduction by asking the following: • • • • •
Name. Background (only what they are comfortable sharing – perhaps previous jobs, interests etc.). Business. Three key challenges you face when thinking about your business at the moment. What you want to get out of attending the Enterprise Circles™.
If you have time prior to the first session when delivering online, it can be helpful to ask participants to prepare a short biography and photo of themselves in a word doc or ask participants if they will be 17
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happy to share links to their online profiles. These can then be shared online via Google docs within the Google Hangout or the chatbox. It is also useful to check any prior exposure of participants to action learning or coaching and mentoring, and to introduce the concept of developing self awareness and self-diagnosis as an important part of being involved in Virtual Enterprise Circles™.
c) An introduction concerning Enterprise Circles™ Explain how Enterprise Circles™ work; That they provide a facilitated space where individuals can complete tools, share discussions and have a dedicated time slot each to present their issues, problems and opportunities. Through questioning, the group members help them to gain more insight into their situation; The aim is to help them find ways forward in taking purposeful action. The method works because it places the learner at the centre of the situation; It works in real time on live issues of importance to the individual. It integrates any theoretical learning with real experience; It’s about action and implementation. The benefits of this action learning approach are: • • • •
•
It enables you to generate more insight into the situation you are facing, perhaps helping you to generate more options and solutions. It tests assumptions on which your plans are built. It enables you to reality check plans, ideas and solutions; Are they appropriate, comprehensive and appropriate to your context? By bringing more brain power to look at issues, you have more opportunity to spot issues which you haven’t already thought of; It can help expose blind spots. Your colleagues may help you look at potential consequences or outcomes; They may help you generate more innovative and creative ideas or find new ways to approach situations. It offers a way of constructively challenging your ideas, in order to help you develop them to maximise your chance of success
d) Establish the meeting process; give a model for how each meeting will work. The general process of what happens in a Enterprise Circle™ is as follows: Each Enterprise Circle™ has a trained facilitator who helps shape the sessions. You meet for 3-4 hours. Each person has allocated time to use to explore an issue they are facing or complete tools as guided by the facilitator. The facilitator will help participants develop action plans and goals to go forward and test out new ideas or implement solutions. Participants then bring issues back to the Enterprise Circle™ next time it meets. Enterprise Circle™ colleagues can help hold individuals to account, give them confidence 18
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to push themselves out of their comfort zone. After each time period they will report back to the Enterprise Circle™ to review their achievements, difficulties and success. Learning is about being resilient in the face of difficulty. Participants may not achieve everything that they set out to achieve, however they will be encouraged to review difficulties and learn from them and find ways forward or new paths for action. You may wish to refer them to the diagram of the action learning model or draw one of your own on a flip chart.
e) Communicate expectations about evaluation. It is a requirement of participating in the FREE programme that Enterprise Circle™ members agree to take part in evaluation. There are many materials provided to enable this to happen in the mentee pack (evaluation section). At the end of all Enterprise Circles™ evaluation forms are required. It is helpful if you can get them completed at the end. The response rate is not as good if you allow people to take the form home. Allow ten minutes at the end of the session for them to be completed. When delivering Virtual Circles you can upload the Evaluation Form into the Google Hangout using Google docs.
f) Communicate needs regarding administration procedures: initial contract signing, attendance register, evaluation materials. At meeting 1 there is a requirement for the following administration for the programme: •
Provide each participant with 2 Enterprise Circle™ agreements (in ‘Introduction’ section of mentee pack). Ask them to read them and sign and date both. The participant retains one for their records. One copy is kept by the facilitator. For online Virtual Circles, participants can sign the form by typing in their name on the agreement and posting it back into the Hangout.
•
At the start of each meeting participants are asked to sign in on the attendance register. This is an important record for the administrators and provides evidence to funders that the event has taken place. Please keep the originals for your records and send scanned copies as annexes to your report. If possible, please also record the session and take photos if participants agree to this. For online Virtual Circles, you can take screenshots of all the attendees logged into the call at the beginning and also at various points in the Circle and save these as evidence of the Circle taking place. The summary report of the Enterprise Circle™ once completed should be sent to the Output Leader – Inova Consultancy Ltd. 19
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g) Elicit any expectations the group members have of you as facilitator. This will vary according to your facilitation style and experience, but you might check the following: • • • • •
What level of challenge are people comfortable with? What experience do they have of self regulating in a group and therefore how much do they expect you to intervene? What would be a useful role for you regarding time keeping, enabling time to be shared? Do they require group or individual feedback from what you observe of behaviour in the group? Do individuals have any particular requirements or sensitivities?
h) Exchange any expectations you have of them in terms of contribution or behaviour or the way meetings run. It is worth reiterating your expectations about confidentiality. • • • •
•
What do you expect about openness and honesty? What level of awareness do you expect people to aspire to? What are your expectations about people being responsible for what they find useful and unhelpful in the group and asking for help? Attendance; explain any expectations you have regarding attendance, informing of non attendance, timekeeping, communicating with you or others if there are problems, getting messages to one another in emergencies. Explain your expectations about doing work between meetings whether that is logging progress, reflecting, preparing for next sessions.
i) Develop ground rules Developing ground rules with each new Enterprise Circle™ is a crucial way of ensuring that the group starts off working in a way that fits with the methodology. Potential issues to discuss as part of developing ground rules could include: • • • • • • • •
Confidentiality and respecting others’ intellectual property Attendance and commitment Use of time Questioning and levels of challenge Giving feedback Respect Communication style Different types of ‘helping’ in the group- what people would prefer. What helps? What hinders? 20
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You may have different approaches to developing ground rules. Feel free to use your own ideas. We will outline two examples of methods used to develop ground rules.
Developing Ground Rules Method 1: Write up a list of bullet points/questions on the flip chart
headed ground rules/Share these bullet points on a document in a Hangout:
Invite a brief discussion around each theme and invite people to articulate their thoughts around topics. Write up any additional items, checking all the time that everyone feels able to sign up to what has been agreed. Probe to check that issues resonate with all participants. Pick up on any body language or discomfort that might suggest there is covert disagreement. Summarise the consent. This flipchart can then be taken by the facilitator to the following sessions. • • • •
Confidentiality and respecting others’ intellectual property/ideas Attendance and commitment Use of time Questioning and levels of challenge
• • • •
Giving feedback Respect Communication style What helps? What doesn’t help?
Method 2
Write up the following question on a flip chart headed Ground Rules/start a chat in a Hangout with this question: What are we prepared to do to help us work together?
Invite a brief discussion around the above question. Invite people to share their thoughts around topics. Identify themes and agreement. Write up notes, checking all the time that everyone feels able to sign up to what has been agreed. Probe to check that issues resonate with all. Summarise the consent. 21
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Check your list in the guidance to see all angles have been covered. Introduce new ideas if anything has been missed. An Enterprise Circle™’s agreed ground rules might look something like this: GROUND RULES EXAMPLE • • • • • • • • • • •
We are prepared for any questions and value being challenged and pushed. Be open and honest with one another, face the reality, what’s happening now, don’t gloss over problems. Be open if we are not comfortable with level of challenge. We will take individual ownership and take action in between sessions. We will be open to new ideas, criticisms, and will articulate what is working and not working. We will develop trust to combine and offer creative ideas to one another. Respect one another’s ideas and don’t take them, seek permission if developing ideas- partnerships are possible. Protect reputations and promote one another. Be ourselves, be authentic. If not able to attend because of illness we will phone Inova and get a message through to the facilitator/ group as early as possible. A special request from Sue: she is not very assertive and would like to be invited to articulate her thoughts more. If she is not being assertive, she welcomes feedback.
At the end of session one, type up the flip chart rules agreed and e-mail them around to each member of the group and keep a copy for the final summary report of your Enterprise Circle™. Print off a copy and keep it in your file to refer to. You may need to re-contract around ground rules if issues arise during the work. Check if people are happy with giving one another consent to e-mail one another and share e-mail addresses/social media contacts with one another. This is not usually a problem at all. You can also disseminate other ways of keeping in touch in between meetings in the email e.g. using a social network.
j) Introduction to the method and ways of working, trying out the method. In your first session you need to give people experience of trying out the method and draw attention to: • •
The role of the presenter and conventions- e.g. asking for input. The focus on questioning rather than advice giving; an exercise or examples may be needed to communicate how to question and how to avoid advice giving. 22
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During your first session you will need to outline not only the general process of working but the behavioural elements of your role and the roles of participants. Explain that the Enterprise Circles™ and way of working is learner led and therefore presenter led. The ‘presenter’ is the person speaking explaining their issues in their time slot. The presenter is encouraged to state what they need and to regulate contributions from others if too directive or unhelpful. If input is required the presenter is expected to initiate it, asking for input from others when required. Ensure that people understand your definition of ‘advice giving’, in its unhelpful sense of directing the presenter towards a particular way of thinking or course of action. Look for sentences starting with: ‘Have you thought about….?’ ‘Have you tried…?’ ‘You could try…..’ Also explain how statements may be focused on a questioner’s experience when the focus should be on the presenter. ‘When I managed the restaurant we used to….’ ‘When I worked as a Manager in London I always found …’ Give examples of how advice can take the presenter’s time and be detrimental to personal learning, bypassing an opportunity for the presenter to learn and explore for themselves. Explore unhelpful comments such as: ‘If I were in your situation I’d….. However also give an example of when advice, if asked for, might be constructive.
Example A presenter might ask for advice about contacts. ‘I’m looking for a recruitment agent in my local area. Does anyone know one to
recommend?’ This may be appropriate; it may help them to save time finding a new agent. However also offer caveats. Each individual would need to take responsibility and check out the credibility of people personally by asking for proof of qualifications and testimonials. They would be expected to make a judgment for themselves concerning competence; the Enterprise Circle™ is not a substitute for professional advice. Sometimes learning from others’ experience can provide a useful shortcut. You might wish to explain about your role in offering support and challenge and how it is boundaried within the specific meetings. 23
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3.2 NLP for facilitators The goal of this section is to give some useful and practical tips that will help to facilitate the Enterprise Circles™ and workshops, based on the Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) methodology created by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in the 1970s. They will help you to enable change in the paradigms of your participants, build a better rapport with them and, through using the right meta-questions, help participants tap into and recognise their unconscious barriers and achieve their goals. According to the NLP methodology people tend to fall into one of 4 representational systems (visual, auditory, kinesthetic or auditory digital) which influence how we learn and process information. As a facilitator, if you can recognise these preferences in your individual participants you can work to present information in a way that is more likely to engage the group1. In Annex I you will find a test you can give to your participants to fill out at the beginning of the programme to help you both understand which representational system they favour. When you are facilitating Virtual Circles, the test link to share is http://www.proprofs.com/quizschool/story.php?title=vak-quiz-visual-auditory-kinesthetic Annex II gives a short overview of the 4 systems with practical tips on how best to interact with your participants taking these preferences into account.
What is NLP? NLP is the acronym for Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Neuro stands for our five senses through which we gather and process information: • • • • •
Sight – Visual Hearing – Auditory Touch – Kinesthetic (although Kinesthetic also refers to emotions) Smell – Olfactory Taste – Gustatory
Linguistic refers to language, also including non-verbal cues, which give meaning to our Internal Representation (IRs).
1
N.B It is quite common for an individual to score highly in 2 systems so don’t worry if this is the case!
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Programming is about behaviours we run internally to achieve our outcomes, like patterns, programmes or strategies.
Put together, ‘NLP’ is about “How we use the minds own language to consistently achieve our desired and specific outcomes.”
NLP Communication Model The below model shows how an external event is put through our different filters to categorize the information we receive. The amount of filters (e.g. language, memories, attitudes etc) show that an event is judged by more than just the most obvious elements, like what exactly someone said, but also how he said it, in what context and how he behaved whilst saying it.
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The following sections will give you some practical tips to lead a conversation with participants in order to influence how they think and encourage them to question why they respond in a certain way to a given situation/event. In this way you can help them to rethink their current perception of an issue and become open to new suggestions and viewpoints. This might be the paradigm shift they need to come up with the solution to a problem or a great new idea for their business. Generalisations Universal Quantifiers: -
All, every, never,
Exaggerate the universal quantifier ... Find counter examples...
Recover counter example – effects
everyone, no-one
➢
Never?
etc.
➢
What would happen if he did?
➢
What would happen if you
Recover effects/outcome
didn’t?
Recover causes
outcome
e.g. “He never talks to me” Modal Operators e.g. “I have to work hard.” e.g. “I can’t stop smoking”
➢
...Or?
➢
What prevents you?
➢
What would happen if you did?
Deletions Nominalisations:
➢ Who’s not communicating what to whom?
Process words, verbs – turned in to nouns
➢ How would you like to communicate?
e.g. “We have a problem with our communication.”
Unspecified Verbs:
➢ How specifically did he reject you?
e.g. “He rejected me.” Comparative Deletion:
➢ Compared to what?
e.g. “That’s expensive!”
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Utilising Values in the Real World In order to build rapport with a participant it is helpful to find out about their values and priorities. Several tools, like the ‘Jelly Bean’ exercise (see exercise 15), can help you with this. Once you have an understanding of the values held by an individual you can use this in conversations to gain a higher level of engagement. Below you can see an example of 5 values and how the facilitator used those in a sentence to speak directly to the participant. Of course in real life it is very seldom possible to use all values together like this, but after identifying some of the participant’s values you should try to work them in whenever it is appropriate.
1. Results 2. Satisfaction 3. Fun
A sample values hierarchy that you established with the client.
4. Money 5. Fulfilment
“Well Sarah, because I am committed to assisting you in achieving your RESULTS and getting SATISFACTION, let me tell you about a new programme that will teach you in a FUN way to make more MONEY whilst gaining greater FULFILMENT from life. Does that sound like a training programme that would be of value to you?”
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Chapter 4: Detailed Overview of Enterprise Circles™ Process
DETAILS ON MEETING PROCESS Your first meeting is dominated by more preliminary contracting, however subsequent meetings generally follow a similar process.
Check-in
Describe Current Issue
• Current Situation Now Personal emotional/motivati on
• The problem The challenge The opportunity
Issue Exploration
• Participants help explore issue/complete tools and exercises
Develop Solutions/Options • Facilitator and participants help individual move on to next steps and actions
Summarise Action and Learning • Individual presenter summarises next steps and action and what they learned from the process
Here is more detail about the process within each stage of work:
4.1 Check in. This is the introduction when you find out how people are, what they have been working on, what challenges they have been facing, what progress they have made, their review of any changes. It helps to structure a format. You might wish to write the following on the flip chart/ add these questions to a Hangout chat to help structure the individual presentations. • • • •
How are you feeling? What’s been happening? What actions did you take? What progress have you made?
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4.2 Describe current issue(s) At this point the individuals have separate time slots for airing issues. Allocate equal time for each person leaving enough time for a summary and evaluation at the end. Establish a turn-taking order. Then in this section the ‘presenter’ talks about the issue they wish to discuss at the moment. The ‘presenter’ (the person airing the issue) gives enough information to give the Enterprise Circle™ members an understanding about what they are facing. In Google Hangouts, all participants apart from the member who is sharing their issue should mute their microphone to prevent distractions. Materials which can be used for this include the sheet ‘ My problem or issue I want to talk about is…’. (under Evaluation in the mentee pack). Individual thinking time can be given prior to starting this stage. Then the Enterprise Circle™ members question the presenter. At the early stage questions are probably information questions to provide enough understanding to grasp the context. It can be time consuming to do 2 rounds, 1 for a check in, the second to air the issue, so decide if it’s best to combine the check in with the airing of the issue. This will depend on numbers, time available, and talkativeness of the members and complexity of issues. If this is your approach add other questions on the flip chart to structure the format. You are enabling the presenter to articulate and describe their issue at this stage. • •
What’s your priority/challenge now? What do you need help with today?
It can sometimes be difficult for participants to prioritise which issue is requiring work. Some questions that may help include: • • • • • •
What’s the issue? What makes it an issue now? Who owns this issue/problem? How important is it on a 1-10 scale? How much energy do you have for a solution on a 1-10 scale? Are you concerned with a number of issues, if so what does it make sense to tackle first?
Some problems are so complex that sequential goals are needed to get to a solution; therefore be flexible, and keep them on track. Also be aware when a participant is flitting from one issue to another that it might be symptomatic of other issues which may need tackling, confidence, poor self organisation, fear of failure, or procrastination in avoidance of committing to one decision. You will use your judgment as a facilitator when to probe usefully to maximise learning. There can be value in exploring why actions have worked and why things don’t work at the check in stage too.
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4.3 Issue exploration By now the participants should have a grasp of the situation and be able to question to probe and explore. Questions are used to create more options, to elucidate, to probe more deeply, to ask discovery questions which might lead to insights or new ways of seeing things or more alternatives for action. Judge whether or not you need to offer some input on how to question here, particularly in the early stages. It may be necessary to explore closed and open questions, hypothetical questions, discovery questions and leading questions. Discovery questions help uncover the hidden assumptions and limiting beliefs that may be preventing the individual from taking useful action. As part of issue exploration, a series of tools/resources are available in the mentee pack for the facilitator to choose to work with in order to support participants. Suggestions for tools to use in each session are provided under ‘Outline of Session Content’. A description of each tool is provided under ‘Working through the Mentee Pack’.
4.4 Develop solutions, options, alternatives for action Following questioning, discussion or completion of tools, the process then moves onto resolving issues. Issues may only be resolved slightly; sometimes opportunities may have been explored so there may be further actions identified rather than solutions. This stage is characterised by people moving from ‘not knowing’ to ‘knowing what to do next’.
4.5 Summarise action and learning At this stage ask the individual members to summarise their actions and verbally commit to goals or actions. The Goal and Task Worksheet is the key tool to help participants make sure they have concrete goals recorded after the first session which they would like to focus on during the Enterprise Circles™ programme.
In session 1 you may also need to pay some attention to SMART goal setting which will help them undertake credible actions which can be measured (using the Goal Setting Worksheet in Tools).
4.6 Goal setting tips If you write your goals down you have more chance of achieving them. Visualising goals also helps to make them come alive. Before participants start to write down the goals they would like to focus on throughout the Enterprise Circles™ 30
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programme, ask participants to think about the following questions:
• • • • • • • • • •
• •
What time do you have available? What’s your energy and appetite for achieving this goal? What level of knowledge does it require? Will you need any new knowledge? How are you going to achieve that? Can you estimate the effort required in relation to the value of the likely outcome= valence? Is it a very large goal that needs to be split into sub goals? What’s the timescale? Are there any quick wins? Do you need to gain support to achieve your goals? Who from- colleagues, your partner, staff? How will you do this? Can you organise goals into a framework- Short term, Medium term, and Long term? Do you know other people who have achieved goals like this- can you learn from them and model your behaviour on their success? Are you able to write your goals using the SMART format?
SMART format SSpecific
DDefines exactly what is your focus.
S Measurable
aAttainable
Realistic
TTimed
Is capable of being measured and has a clear outcome described.
Is achievable.
EExpresses a goal which is achievable but which may have some challenge.
SSpecifies an end date or a date by which the objective will be achieved.
T
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Chapter 5: Working through the Mentee Pack The Mentee Pack contains five sections: • • • • •
Introduction (containing summary of FREE and Mentoring Agreement) Contacts (local and national websites for business support) Tools (Several tools to support self-reflection and business development) Resources (Several resources to support the tools) Evaluation (Session evaluation, self-evaluation)
All exercises and tools will be demonstrated during the Training the Trainers workshop for FREE Enterprise Circle™ facilitators. In addition, the mentee pack exercises contain instructions for participants on how to complete each tool. These can be useful as a reminder for facilitators. We will provide an overview of three of the tools focused on in the first session here also.
Exercise 1: Thinking Differently This exercise aims to encourage participants to understand how easy it is to get stuck in certain thought patterns or problem solving behaviours rather than thinking more creatively and applying new ways of solving problems each time a problem comes along.
Write out the three images on a flipchart/on a Google Doc in Hangouts. Ask participants what the first image is- most people will eventually say ‘a 3 in Roman Numerals’. Ask participants what the second image and third image is. Then ask them how they could turn the second image into a 4, and how they could turn it into a 10. Then ask how they could turn the second image into a 6. Most people will try adding a I by the right hand side of the upper V of the X. Then write the solution – write the two letter SI next to the X to make SIX.
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Exercise 2: Old Woman/Young Woman What does a Typical Entrepreneur look like? Seeing Things Differently... Step 1. Ask participants what they see when they look at the picture? An old lady or a young lady? Most people look at the picture and see one thing first - either the old or young lady. If participants can’t see both, ask someone else to take a look and see what they can see. Ask another group member who can see both to explain how. Discuss the following questions with the group: How did they feel if someone else saw something different to you and you couldn’t see it? Maybe they felt frustrated, annoyed, stupid, curious, amused? Can they see both now? Could they go back to only seeing one? The meaning of this exercise is that we often get ‘stuck’ seeing ourselves or our lives in certain ways. Ask participants to try and look at hobbies and interests and see if any of them could help them in their business. For example, they’ve always been a keen cook at home but you haven’t thought about turning the love of making home-made chutneys into a business. Encourage participants to look at themselves differently- as someone would who didn’t know them very well. What skills/passions would they see?
Exercise 3: Mind Map and Ideas Generation
Participants will draw a mind map based on the ideas they would like to generate about their business. For Virtual Circles, participants can go to mindmup.com and ‘create a new map’ on Google Drive which can then be shared with the group once finished. Drawing their business as a mind map is a good way to express the complexity and uniqueness of the business. Here are some tips to give to participants. An example mind map is in the mentee pack. • •
Use key words, or wherever possible images. Start from the centre of the page and work out. 33
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• • • • • • • • • • •
Make the centre a clear and strong visual image that depicts the general theme of the map. Create sub-centres for sub-themes. Put key words on lines. This reinforces structure of notes. Print rather than write in script. It makes them more readable and memorable. Lower case is more visually distinctive (and better remembered) than upper case. Use colour to depict themes, associations and to make things stand out. Anything that stands out on the page will stand out in your mind. Use pictures or images. Use arrows, icons or other visual aids to show links between different elements. Don't get stuck in one area. If you dry up in one area go to another branch. Put ideas down as they occur, wherever they fit. Don't judge or hold back. Break boundaries. If you run out of space, don't start a new sheet; paste more paper onto the map.
Exercise 4: Wheel of Skills
For Virtual Circles, participants can go to http://www.pure-coaching.com/Flash/InteractiveWheel/Demo/InteractiveWheel.swf to complete a wheel of skills online. Choose ‘custom’ from the list and ask participants to add their 8 skills for business and they can then build their Wheel of Skills online and print it off at the end. The aim of this exercise is to help participants to understand what skills are useful in running a business and to think about how they would rate themselves on their confidence level in this skill currently. Participants add new skills to the general list of business skills and then choose the 8 skills they think are most important to their business and write each skill on each of the lines by the side of the wheel. For each skill, ask participants to rate how confident they feel in this skill from a scale of 0-5 where 0 is not confident at all and 5 is extremely confident. Then ask participants to join up the Xs on the wheel. A general group discussion following the exercise helps participants to see ways they could increase confidence in their skills where necessary or to see what skills they have confidence in currently to use these to their best effect.
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Exercise 5: Goal Setting Worksheet
Virtual Circle participants can do on: (Online Interactive tool)
Participants can be led through the information on setting goals (under Resources) before choosing 3 goals to work on throughout the Enterprise Circles™ programme. Remind participants of the SMART methodology when setting goals and make sure they’re clear of the breakdown of tasks in order to achieve each goal.
Exercise 6: Using Metaphors
Virtual Circle participants can do this on: (Online Interactive tool)
Encourage participants to see themselves in their business/business idea now by using images as metaphors to represent their feelings and compare this with how they would like to see their business in the future. Use this exercise as an opportunity to discuss the power of positive thoughts and images in keeping motivated and enthusiastic about the future possibilities for their business.
Exercise 7: Recipe for Success and Evidence 35
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Virtual Circle participants can do this on: (Online Interactive tool) Engage participants in a discussion about what they think are the key ingredients for being successful in business. Following the discussion, encourage participants to complete the evidence table by listing each ingredient and writing down evidence that shows they have this ingredient and if it is missing, what they could do to bring in this ingredient.
Exercise 8: Motivators in Business
Virtual Circle participants can do this on: (Online Interactive tool) Encourage participants to engage in a discussion about what motivates them in general and to start thinking about what would motivate them in business. Look at internal and external motivators and encourage participants to complete the table thinking about their own personal drivers and motivators.
Exercise 9: Innovation & creating a market niche
Virtual Circle participants can do on: (Online Interactive tool) After explaining example of a beauty salon and the way they decided to innovate, ask participants to reflect on their own business niche. What innovations are they bringing into the business? Who is their target audience? Are they aware of the needs of their target group?
Exercise 10: Flow Theory
Virtual Circle participants can do this on: (Online Interactive tool) After explaining the theory ask participants to engage in a discussion about their anxiety and boredom and the impact this has with regard to procrastination. Ask them to think about strategies to move into flow. Ask them to provide you with examples of times when they have been in flow.
Exercise 11: Quick Business Quiz
Virtual Circle participants can do this quiz as a Google Form at http://goo.gl/forms/CU08nOyc5s 36
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Remind participants that this is just a quick fun quiz about business but they can complete it in order to start thinking about their answers to the questions and how ready they feel. Encourage all participants that regardless of their final score, they can still think about growing business but may need more support to plan and gain business advice in order to feel more ready.
Exercise 12: Hot Air Balloon
Virtual Circle participants can do this on: (Online Interactive tool)
Ask participants to put 6 things they want out of their business on a separate post-it - one thing per post-it note. This exercise is best started by the facilitator working with one participant to provide an example. With a picture of a hot air balloon on a flipchart, the facilitator pins the 6 post it notes at the bottom of the balloon. The facilitator says “all the things you want out of running a business are weights weighing down the hot air balloon. It’s got a hole in it and in order to keep flying high, we need to start losing some of the weights. Which weight are you going to let go first?” The participant chooses one post it to ‘throw away’ first and then continues with the balloon moving higher on the paper until there is only one post it left. The facilitator then shows the ‘priority list’ to the participant and asks them to reflect on how they would feel if they were able to get all these things from running a business and also to reflect on the key priority – the final post it left on the balloon. Participants can then form pairs and do the exercise together with a partner.
Exercise 13: My Fantasy Business
Virtual Circle participants can do this on: (Online Interactive tool) Ask participants to visualise their ideal business and try and see as much detail as possible- not thinking of any constraints or difficulties in reality. Ask them to write down the vision using words, pictures, quotes, cut outs from magazines etc. A general group discussion follows regarding reflections on the exercise and how it can be useful to visualise what you want to get out of your business in order to help you connect with your end goals.
Exercise 14: Setting Priorities – The ‘Jelly Bean’ Exercise 37
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Participants are given 15 Jelly Beans (using sweets works well as participants can eat them as a treat but any counters would work as well) and 6 cups. Ask participants to brainstorm their priorities in life and write these on a flipchart: examples of common priorities are family/friends; freedom; security; money; reputation; status; love relationship; making a difference; work-life balance; health, etc. Each participant should choose the 6 which are most important to them and write one on each cup (you can use stickers for this).
Ask participants to distribute the Jelly Beans between the cups based on how high in their priorities each cup comes and then place the cups in order from highest priority to lowest. For example: Success = 4 Jelly Beans Money = 4 Security = 3 Independence = 2 Fun = 1 Family/Friends = 1
Then ask all the participants to take away 2 Jelly Beans from any of the pots. Then another 1. Then another 3. Then another 1. Then another 3. As they are forced to remove Jelly Beans, the participants will have to reconsider their priorities and the order will gradually change. Eventually, some priorities will be removed completely. Finally, they will be left with the most important priorities in their lives and can reflect on whether their current life actions are reflecting these. Are participants spending too much time at work when family is their priority? Or forgetting to take care of their health in pursuit of more success? Discuss what was most difficult for them to give up and whether setting up a business could compromise their most important priorities. These reflections are a useful way to help participants reflect on their lifestyle and how a business could fit into that.
Exercise 15: Lifeline Exercise Using a blank sheet, participants will be asked to list out some of the key events in their life- education, employment, relationships and any key changes –shaped around what their life goals were at these various points. They will then be asked to think about how they were feeling about their lives at that time and then rate each event from plus 10 to minus 10. Participants will then be asked to plot these events in terms of highs and lows on a timeline. They will be asked to write key words alongside the
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peaks and troughs and change points to indicate what event they represent. This exercise is a great way to reflect on past events in your life where you have needed to make a change
Exercise 16: Storytelling Exercise This exercise helps people think about how they present themselves and their business ideas and is inspired by TEDTalks and the book, ‘Talk Like TED’ by Carmine Gallo. Participants should be given an example of a story from a female entrepreneur and asked to write their own stories, no more than 2 minutes long. Ask for volunteers to share their story with the group. Using these examples discuss whether, as listeners, the group felt engaged and inspired by the stories they heard. Discuss what makes a good story. Key things to think about are: Passion Body Language Engagement Creativity Appeal Following the discussion, show a second version of the example story which is more engaging and have the participants rewrite their own stories with these points in mind.
Exercise 17: Innovation cards - Combining Ideas This can be a group exercise or done with a group of people. It works better with groups but with just adjustments can be used to help creative thinking in one-to-one sessions. Materials needed for this exercise: • •
Various items (alternatively you can provide the learners with a paper with pictures of items on a piece of paper and make them choose from there. Much like below) pens and paper for making notes
Place your items on a table in the middle of the room. Divide people into smaller groups of 3-6 and make them choose up to 4 items from the table. Using the 4 items they have chosen, their task is to 39
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think of a totally new product/service or business idea by combining the different images on the page. They have to be able to describe it in full to the rest of the group when they feed back. Give the groups or individuals 10-15 minutes to think about the task. They should then present their results to the rest of the groups. Have a discussion at the end. The purpose of this exercise is to help people think outside the box and make connections between items and things that are not traditionally connected with one another. When the group or a person is forced to make these connections, they are thinking creatively.
Chapter 6: Ending Sessions Finally ascertain what people have learned in the session. What have they learned about themselves; and about their problem or issue? Have they learned anything from others? What were the most useful questions? What impact did they have? This helps participants to have time to reflect on the outcomes of the session prior to completing the evaluation forms. Evaluation forms should be completed at the end of each session.
6.1 Closing meeting 1 • •
• • •
Ask people to summarise their actions and comment on any learning for the session. Explain any arrangements for encouraging group members to hold one another to account. You may decide to ask people to allocate a ‘chasing buddy’ to their left around the table. This person chases them up, asks about progress and generally checks informally on their success in between meetings. This can also help to build relationships more strongly within the group. Ensure everyone has the date of the next meeting diarised and has venue information. Confirm any action you will take e.g. emailing the ground rules agreed. Close the session by asking people to complete the relevant evaluation form.
6.2 Closing the final meeting • •
Ask people to summarise their actions and comment on any learning for the session. Ask participants to score themselves on the soft skills form and analyse their changes since the first session. The audit skills form results will look something similar to this:
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•
• • Self Motivation
1
Work life balance
Knowing clearly what my limitations are
Knowing clearly what I want to achieve
Understanding what's important to me
Getting things done
Goal Setting
Time Management
Building new relationships
Sense of Humour
Presentation Skills
Delegation skills
Management of Stress
Enthusiasm
Sensitivity to others
Problem Solving Skills
Leadership Skills
Entrepreneurial spirit
Assertiveness
Sense of achievement at work
Knowing what I want next
Knowing how and where to get…
Knowledge about mentoring
Confidence
Negotiation Skills
Knowledge of how to motivate others
Communication Skills
Efficiency
Networking Skills
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5
P1: Self Assessment
4
3
2 At the start of the Mentoring Circles At the end of the Mentoring Circles
Close the session by asking people to complete the relevant evaluation form and a final outcomes form. Confirm any arrangements for continuance or informal networking outside of the group. Discuss sustainability plans for the group.
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Chapter 7: Bibliography Arygyris, C. (1993). Knowledge for Action: A Guide to overcoming barriers to organizational change. Jossey Bass
Block, P. (1981). Flawless Consulting. Jossey Bass Publications, San Fransisco USA
Kolb, D. A. and Fry, R. Toward an applied theory of experiential learning in C. Cooper (Ed.) Theories of Group Process, London: John Wiley. (1975)
Revans, R. The ABC of Action Learning in Mike Pedlar Library: Developing People and Organisations. (1998).
Bandler, R. and Grinder, J. (1979). Frogs into Princes: Neuro Linguistic Programming. Real People Press
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Project number: 2015-1-IS01-KA204-013171
For more information on Enterprise Circles™, please visit www.inovacircles.org.uk. Please note, the content and methodology cannot be reproduced without the written consent of Inova Consultancy.
For more information about the FREE project please visit http://ruralwomeninbusiness.eu/
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Project number: 2015-1-IS01-KA204-013171
Annex I: Representational System Preference Test For each of the following statements, please place a number next to every phrase. Use the following system to indicate your preferences: 4 = Closest to describing you 3 = Next best description 2 = Next best 1 = Least descriptive of you
1. I make important decisions based on: ____ gut level feelings ____ which way sounds the best ____ what looks best to me ____ precise review and study of the issues 2. During an argument, I am most likely to be influenced by: ____ the other person’s tone of voice ____ whether or not I can see the other persons point of view ____ the logic of the other person’s argument ____ whether of not I am in touch with the others person’s true feelings 3. I most easily communicate what is going on with me by: ____ the way I dress and look ____ the feelings I share ____ the words I choose ____ my tone of voice 4. It is easiest for me to: ____ find the ideal volume and tuning on a stereo system ____ select the most intellectually relevant point in an interesting subject ____ select the most comfortable furniture ____ select rich, attractive colour combination 5. ____ ____ ____ ____
I I I I
am very attuned to the sounds of my surroundings am very adept at making sense of facts and data am very sensitive to the way articles of clothing feel on my body have a strong response to colours and to the way a room looks
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Project number: 2015-1-IS01-KA204-013171
Step One: Copy your answers from the previous page to here:
1. ____ K
2. ____ A
3. ____ V
4. ____ A
____ A
____ V
____ K
____ Ad
____ V
____ Ad
____ Ad
____ K
____ Ad
____ K
____ A
____ V
5. ____ A ____ Ad ____ K ____ V
Step Two: Add the numbers associated with each letter. There are 5 entries for each letter.
V
A
K
Ad
1 2 3 4 5 Total
Step Three: The comparison of the total scores in each column will give the relative preference for each of the 4 major representational systems.
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Project number: 2015-1-IS01-KA204-013171
Annex II: Characteristics of Representational Systems V:Visual People who are visual often stand or sit with their heads and/or bodies erect, with their eyes up. They will be breathing from the top of their lungs. They often it forward in their chair and tend to be organized, neat, well-groomed and orderly. They are often thin and wiry. They memorise by seeing pictures, and are less distracted by noise. They often have trouble remembering verbal instructions because their minds tend to wander. A visual person will be interested in how your program LOOKS. Appearances are important to them.
A: Auditory People who are auditory will quite often move their eyes sideways. They breathe from the middle of their chest. They typically talk to themselves, and can be easily distracted by noise. (Some even move their lips when they talk to themselves.) They can repeat things back to you easily, they learn by listening, and usually like music and talking on the phone. They memorise by steps, procedures, and sequences (sequentially). The auditory person likes to be TOLD how they are doing, and responds to a certain tone of voice or set of words. They will be interested in what you have to say about your programme.
K: Kinesthetic People who are kinesthetic will typically be breathing from the bottom of their lungs, so you will see their stomach go in and out when they breathe. They often move and talk ‘verrry slooowly’. They respond to physical rewards and touching. They also stand closer to people than a visual person. They memorise by doing or walking through something. They will be interested in your programme if it “feels right” or if you can give them something they can grasp.
Ad: Auditory Digital These people will spend a fair amount of time talking to themselves. They will want to know if your programme “makes sense”. The auditory digital person can exhibit characteristics of the major representational systems.
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