Influencing people - The Big Bang Partnership

How to Rebuild a Dysfunctional Team – Facilitation Guide

Jo North — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 20:39:11 +0000

Facilitation and dysfunctional teams

One of the members of my facebook group for workshop facilitators asked for facilitation advice for rebuilding a dysfunctional team, and I wanted to share these tools and approaches with you. I hope they help you and would love to hear how you get on with them.

We’ll start by exploring what dysfunction in teams means, and why teams might be broken. We’ll then move on to the theme of trust.

I’ll also share a suggested agenda that you can use, adapt or tweak in your own sessions.

It’s great to meet you

For those of you who haven’t met me, I am Jo North and I love facilitating.

I facilitate for thousands of people every year. I facilitate all over the world, and I also help facilitators to learn how to facilitate more effectively. My aim is to help you to expand your creativity, confidence and impact.

Sensitivity and courage

Teams can be broken for a whole number of reasons, of course. Your facilitation needs to be infused with great sensitivity and courage. As facilitator, it’s important that you dial up your emotional intelligence. This means really listening deeply. Also, going into the facilitation as ’emotionally clean’ as you can. Make sure that any negativity or emotions you may have are out of the way. You are there ready to listen in, and serve the people you have got in the room.

As a facilitator, you’ll already be a great listener. And with dysfunctional teams that need more support, you’ll need to listen more actively than ever. Have a look at my in-depth guide here for advanced listening skills for facilitators.

If you’d like my full Reconnect & Reset Workshop Toolkit for help you fix a broken team, please click here.

Reality check

I’d also say that a day or two of awesome, skilled facilitation is likely to make a big difference to the team, but sometimes the issues are so deep that it will take much more than that.

So, what I am suggesting here really is a starter for ten. It’s about getting going and starting the conversation on a constructive footing. Also making some progress, rather than getting everything sorted all in one go.

I suggest if possible, if there’s budget and if people’s home and work life allow it, that you book your workshop off site. Even better, get away overnight. Team members can share dinner, relax in the evening together, and connect outside the formal facilitated session. Even if you can go from lunchtime on one day to lunchtime the next, that overnight really can help.

Take a look at my full Team Workshop Toolkit here

Lencioni’s team dysfunctions and trust

If a team is dysfunctional, it may still get things done. But of course it won’t be as good as it could be. It won’t achieve all that it could achieve. Nor will it fulfil its potential.

Lencioni’s work on team dysfunction shows that trust is the very foundation of high performance teamwork. If teams don’t have trust in each other, they won’t be confident enough to share ideas, challenge, have healthy debate and constructive disagreement. This is because they will be concerned about how they will be perceived. They’re unsure about what others might do, or how they might consider them. The risk that concerns them is that speaking up could lead to them being treated or seen differently.

Without trust there is a fear of conflict.

Avoidance of conflict leads to a lack of commitment. The reason is because people haven’t had their say and don’t have a direct stake in the decision-making. This in turn leads to a lack of full accountability, which ultimately negatively impacts team performance and overall results.

When you’re working with a broken team, trust is even more critical to your facilitation approach.

Understanding team dynamics

Before I get into a suggested agenda, you might want to consider using tools such as TMSDI’s Team Management Profile. It is a highly valid and reliable psychometric tool that helps people understand their preferred roles within teams at work with an exceptional degree of depth,

Delegates benefit from a highly personalised, detailed report about their preferences and their impacts on others. You can see the Margerison-McCann Team Management Wheel in the image below.

The individual results are also combined to create a full team profile, which shows everybody’s preferences together.

I am licensed to use Team Management Profile and have done so with people from all over the world. It always generates fantastic conversations, and a really improved understanding from people. The insights get them tuned into their colleagues’ preferences, perspectives and strengths. With that increased understanding, delegates can begin to rebuild the team together.

There are many other great psychometric tools, of course. The Team Management Profile is my favourite, because I have had some fantastic results with it. It helps the delegates understand how they relate to other people, make decisions, structure their time. Also, what they prefer to spend their time doing, and how those things and more drive behaviour.

Facilitation agenda

Right, let’s get started on the agenda, first thinking about the introduction.

Opening your session

Always take time to plan. Think about your session opener, especially when you are working with teams that need some additional support.

How you set the tone and the scene will be really important. I find that it’s really effective to focus on where the team wants to be. This includes what high performance looks and feels like, what being a great team is really all about. Work on getting there rather than necessarily dwelling too much on what is wrong, particularly. You can address that a bit later on.

Agree and write down some house rules, including items such as:

Anything that is said in the room stays in the room. You will reinforce that nothing should be discussed outside of the room unless the whole group agrees.
Be open, there is no judgement. There is an underlying assumption that everything will be said with positive intent and received that way.
There is openness and honesty, and everybody speaks with respect, and treats each other respectfully.

Design team planning for a new project

When you’re doing your introduction, flag that being a high performing team is also about well-being, it’s about relationships. It is not just about doing and achieving. It is about people feeling that this is an amazing place to come to work. These are amazing people to work with, and they can all do amazing things together.

After the introduction, objectives, warm up and ground rules, it’s time to get into creating a shared team vision.

Facilitation for a shared team vision

Using metaphor is a surprisingly simple yet effective technique for helping the team to create their vision.

A metaphor is an object, or something else is removed from the matter in question that also describes it. Metaphors create a shift in perspective.

For example, if I say, ‘I am a busy bee’, then ‘busy bee’ is the metaphor. It creates a picture and sense of what I am like.

We use metaphor a lot. It is all around us, and I wonder if we always notice it as much as we could. There are films that are based entirely on metaphor, such as The Matrix . It is a really helpful technique to use. This is because it puts a little bit of distance between the challenge that people are working on and themselves. It creates some safe space for people to open up and discuss things. Safe space is really important.

Honey Bee

The aim at this stage is for delegates to define what great looks like. Do this early, before they get into where they are now, and all the issues they’re experiencing.

Ask your delegates to collaborate in small groups to think of and draw a metaphor poster. The metaphor should represent their vision for how they want to be, as a high-performing team.

The drawing is important because it usually surprises the delegates, activates different parts of the brain and gets them talking together. They will need to use their imaginations and collaboratively problem-solve on how to express their ideas through a drawing. The activity means that they need to have discussions around what great looks like, and what a metaphor could represent that.

When they have done their poster, ask them to stick that on the wall. Then move on straightaway – with no plenary feedback or discussion about what they have just done. This time, they will to do exactly the same activity, but for how they see the team right now.

What metaphor represents where we are right now?

This second metaphor is something that represents how they feel about working in the team and the relationships within it.

Again, there will be problem solving, drawing, using different parts of their minds. They’ll need to have conversations about what a good metaphor would be and why. It opens up conversations around how they see things and what life is like being in that team right now.

Why are we here?

The groups now have a metaphor for where they want to be, and a metaphor for where things are now.

The next step is to ask delegates to work individually this time. Invite them to write down on sticky notes the reasons why they think the team is how it is. Ask delegates to write to just one thing per sticky note. They can use as many sticky notes as they like.

I like to play some carefully chosen, lyric-free music quietly in the background while they do this to take any edge off the quietness whilst the delegates think and write.

Setting the activity up in this way is really important. It gives people some space to think about how they want to write about team dynamics.

Also it means there is input from everybody, you are not just getting one or two perspectives, or only hearing from the most vocal people.

Now facilitate everyone in plenary, if the group isn’t too large. Ask delegates to put all their sticky notes on the wall, ‘clustering’ them with other sticky notes with similar themes from their colleagues.

Self-awareness and team profile

At this stage you have got a metaphor for where the team wants to be, a metaphor for where they are now, and some understanding why the team are where they are now. If you have prepared any profiling such as a TMSDI Team activity then this might be a nice time to get into the results, and show what they say, because this can enhance the work you have just done. Delegates will not only understand their own profiles, but also the profiles of the people around them, and the impact that is having on the group dynamic.

Through that self-awareness they can then grow, and do a better job of their team working as well. (Just as an aside, I make sure every individual sees and has has time to digest their own profile, including a one-to-one session with me, before any group work and before the team overview is introduced).

Facilitation using models and frameworks

Next I would either use pre-prepared flipcharts, visuals, or maybe a couple of powerpoint slides to share the ideas and principles of Lencioni’s pyramid with the trust at the bottom, conflict, commitment, accountability, and results.

I would also share the trust equation and facilitate a conversation around the the models in the context of the delegates’ own situation and what they have written on the sticky notes.

Trust in business relationships depends on credibility, reliability and intimacy or openness, and that is all significantly impacted by the perception of self-orientation, or self-interest.

Video: The Trust Equation

For people to trust each other in business relationships and teams, they have got to know that they have a sense of credibility. They need to know that people are able to do their jobs, are experienced, and have the right level of expertise.

Second is reliability. People show up, they are there when times are tough, they do what they say they are going to do. They follow through on commitments. You can count on them.

The third thing, which is intimacy or openness, is that people are authentic. They are themselves. Their behaviour is consistent with their actions. There is a level of self-interest that is matched by interest in doing what is best for others.

If people perceive that somebody is out only for their own self-interest, then that can ruin the whole trust relationship.

It is really powerful to walk delegates through the trust equation and get them to think about how they are behaving as a team. Where there are strengths in the trust equation, but also what can be done in the areas that aren’t so strong, to really build on that, and share that.

Facilitation of better mutual understanding

What I would then do is mix it up a little bit, with some speed dating in pairs.

Ask delegates to randomly pair up and give them one question to discuss in their pairs, which is to complete the following statement in conversation with their partner:

“The one thing that I wish you knew about me is that …. “

Give everybody long enough to have a really good conversation, but not so long that the conversation drifts into other things and they run out of things to say, and it feels a bit too uncomfortable. Sometimes this means just listening, watching and using your judgement as a facilitator. Keep rotating the pairs so delegates have the opportunity to speak with as many of their colleagues as possible.

Then, once all the conversations are completed, ask delegates to think individually about they have learned from doing that activity and write it on one sticky note, and attach it to the flipchart. You will find that there is some compelling and really interesting feedback, and you can have a conversation about that with the group.

Depersonalise feedback

So far you have thought about where the team wants to be, you have thought about where they are now, explored a bit why that might be, opened up the theme of trust, and about team working.

You might also want to do some work on the importance of depersonalising constructive feedback – when giving and receiving it.

I also would recommend a mini session on perspectives and empathy. I use the analogy of the dice in my facilitation of this. Opposite sides add up to 7.

If I am looking at 5, the person opposite me – on the other side of the dice – is looking at 2. Neither of us is right or wrong, we are just seeing things from a different angle, and actually neither of us has got the full picture. It’s important for every one of us to make the effort to walk round to the other person’s side of the dice, see what they are seeing. We don’t have to agree, but really getting that understanding of what people are seeing and where they are coming from helps us to understand, communicate and collaborate better.

Finally, it can be very powerful to facilitate a conversation about how we, as ordinary human beings, are all the heroes of our own story. We are in the middle of our own drama, justifying what we do, rationalising our experiences. Other people are the heroes of their own stories too. What we need to do is to create a shared story, where we are all heroes in it together.

Dialling down the emotion

Depersonalising feedback also has the benefit of minimising emotional triggers and responses, helping people to listen to each other and communicate more clearly. If you’d like to explore this theme in more detail, have a look at my article here: The elephant and the rider. How humans make decisions. It shares evidence-based insight on emotions at work.

Facilitation of idea generation

By now you have explored the issues, you have talked about mutual understanding, you have explored trust.

It may have all go a bit heavy. Just the right time to put a random stimulus activity into your facilitation!

I send people outside in pairs or small groups, as long as the weather is OK, to find one random thing between them that is of interest to them.

Still in their small groups or pairs, delegates are then asked to write down fifteen interesting words that describe the object.

Next I challenge them to turn those 15 words into a sentence on the theme of the day.

For example: I’ve sent delegates outside and they have brought in a traffic cone, which seems to be very popular choice in many workshops! Delegates write 15 words down about the traffic cone – conical, fluorescent, dirty and so on…and then turn those 15 words into a sentence about how they could become a better team, using every single word.

We all have a laugh actually, it is really funny, and it is a really nice way of getting people smiling, and bringing them together. That is so important when you are facilitating broken teams especially, but also when you are working with any team.

Storyboarding

Other activities you can use are storyboarding activities, asking delegates to ‘storyboard’ how they get to the current metaphor to the new metaphor.

For the storyboard get some flip chart paper, and draw in 6 or 9 squares. The first square is the beginning, where the team is now, and delegates draw a picture of that. The last square is the metaphor where the team wants to be, and the squares in between are all the different things that they think they need to do them to get from one end to the other, in the right order.

Another nice facilitation activity is to create a team charter. Delegates can do this with pictures, with words, whatever, that you want to do with cutting out from magazines, headlines, or just writing. The team charter is where the group agrees what are their strengths, what are their weaknesses, what do they stand for, what is their mission and purpose and values? If they are part of a bigger organisation that needs to align of course, but they can have their own version of how the corporate version cascades into their own work.

The team charter will also include how the team is going to celebrate together, and some guidelines or operating principles around how they are going to communicate with each other, how they are going to disagree, how they are going to share information, how they are going to support each other. Creating a team charter is a super thing to do, and you can provide a giant canvas or substantial background so they can take it back with them to remind them of their commitments and how your facilitation helped them to move forward.

For more tips and suggestions on getting ideas flowing in your team meeting, click here.

End with a clear plan, and on a high

Make sure you end with an action plan and on a high, so that everybody has had time to speak, time to think things through and move things on, and most importantly, clarity about and confidence in what happens next.

Bringing it all together

When you rebuild a team, start where the dysfunctions of a team usually begin: with an absence of trust. That first step sets the conditions for psychological safety, healthy conflict, and real commitment. Without it, interpersonal conflicts get personalised, poor communication grows, and avoidance of accountability creeps in. Lencioni’s model gives a clear line of sight from trust issues to results, and it also reminds us that artificial harmony and unanimous agreement often mask the key issues and root causes that hold people back. Great leaders treat trust as a key factor, not a nice-to-have, and they model the honest feedback and healthy disagreement that high-performing teams rely on.

Look out for warning signs. Low morale, social loafing, lack of clarity on team structure, and a drift toward “business as usual” status quo often signal deeper procedural issues and poor leadership skills somewhere in the system. Company culture and organisational culture both matter here. Team leaders and senior leaders shape the comfort level people feel with speaking up, and leadership style directly affects employee engagement, innovative ideas, and the team’s success against its key performance indicators. A healthy team is not the quietest team; it is the one where people feel part of a team with a common purpose, where team meetings surface problems early and move them to action.

Key steps

Take a deep breath and set the frame. Confirm the common purpose, the team’s goals, and the few KPIs that define the bottom line for this cycle. Share how you will work together using Lencioni’s model as a shared language.
Focus on building trust. Run short exercises that raise psychological safety and invite honest feedback. Name trust issues neutrally, agree clear behaviours, and capture them in a visible team charter.
Enable healthy conflict. Facilitate one structured session that replaces artificial harmony with healthy disagreement about a real, meaningful decision. Document what was considered and why.
Lock commitment. Translate decisions into owners, dates, and success criteria. Avoid unanimous agreement for its own sake; aim for clarity people can support even if they would have chosen another route.
Raise accountability. Publish simple check-ins and a shared board for progress. Address lack of accountability early, with supportive coaching first, and escalation routes if needed.
Review and reset. Hold a short performance review on the work itself and the ways of working. Celebrate good news, examine key factor patterns and procedural issues, and agree the next six-week cycle.

Respect and steadily stretch comfort levels

This approach works for a new team or an established group that needs a reset. It respects comfort levels while steadily stretching them. Over consecutive sessions you will spot patterns in communication, team structure, and leadership style, and you will see where career development or extra support for team leaders will make the biggest difference.

Access my expertise

If you want expert facilitation to get your next steps moving, I can help you design and run a session that aligns your company culture with the team’s goals. I use Lencioni’s model in practice, and tailor the approach to your organisational context. Please get in touch here. Whether you are a senior leader or part of a team seeking momentum, the direction is clear: start by building trust, make room for healthy conflict, commit with clarity, and hold each other to account. Do that consistently, and you create a positive team culture where innovative ideas thrive, engagement rises, and the bottom line improves—cycle after cycle.

And finally…

If you’ve found some value in this article, and are interested in expanding your creativity, confidence and impact as a facilitator, then please do come and join me inside my free, private Facebook group, Idea Time for Workshop Facilitators. We all love facilitation, cheer each other on and share ideas. We’d love you to join us. You’ll also find it’s worthwhile to take a look at my Reconnect & Reset Facilitator’s Toolkit for Rebuilding a Broken Team here.

Thank you, and bye for now. Jo

About the Author

Founder and CEO of The Big Bang Partnership Ltd & Idea Time. Innovator. Author. Business Coach. International Keynote Speaker & Facilitator. Director Technology & Transformation at Port of Tyne. Leader of the UK’s Maritime 2050 Innovation Hub. Non-Executive Director. Associate in Business Innovation and Creativity at University of York.

The post How to Rebuild a Dysfunctional Team – Facilitation Guide appeared first on The Big Bang Partnership.

Negotiation Skills Workshop: Train the Trainer

Jo North — Sat, 06 Sep 2025 12:27:26 +0000

Designing & Facilitating a Successful Negotiation Training Workshop: A Trainer-to-Trainer Guide

If you’re a trainer or facilitator tasked with designing or delivering a negotiation skills workshop, this article is for you. As a fellow negotiation expert and experienced facilitator who has delivered negotiation training programs to everyone from sales professionals and account executives to senior executives and team leaders, I wanted to share some tips, content and resources that I’ve found invaluable.

Get Your Negotiation Skills Workshop Toolkit Here

Negotiation Skills Workshop and Training Experience

Over the years I’ve run countless workshops – internal training programs, public courses, in-house workshops, advanced negotiation skills and online courses in virtual environments – and I’ve learned what works through real-world trial and error. In fact, I’ve packaged my experience into a Negotiation Skills Workshop Toolkit that trainers can adapt – more on that later. In this article, I’ll share practical, no-nonsense advice on how to run a successful negotiation skills workshop that engages participants, builds strong negotiation strategies, and supports business success.

This guide covers a suggested agenda, with the reasoning behind each element, example activities, delivery tips for different situations, real examples from the bargaining table to the training room, and FAQs participants often ask (with how I answer them).

By the end, you’ll have a concrete plan, tools and new ideas to facilitate an effective workshop that helps create effective negotiators and yields positive outcomes for your learners.

If you want ready-made slides, handouts, and detailed trainer notes, check out my Negotiation Skills Workshop Toolkit here.

Suggested Negotiation Skills Workshop Agenda

Below is a one-day negotiation training workshop agenda that I’ve honed over many sessions, and which has received exceptional feedback from past participants. Each segment includes what to cover and – importantly – why it matters from a trainer’s perspective. Feel free to adjust based on the time available and your audience (e.g. sales teams, senior executives, new managers). Also, whether you’re delivering as on-site training, private group training, or virtual training.

Welcome & Setup

Kick off with a warm welcome and icebreaker, facilitator introduction, and housekeeping. Set a confident, positive tone. I invite participants to share their personal goals for the workshop (e.g. “close deals with better margins” or “feel less nervous at the negotiation table”). We capture these on a flipchart or whiteboard. This activity immediately connects the content to participants’ needs. It also surfaces themes, e.g. someone mentions they “hate confrontation” or want more emotional intelligence in tough talks, that you can address during the day. Establishing a safe, supportive environment from the start is key. Negotiation can intimidate some people, so emphasize that everyone is here to learn new skills and best practices, regardless of prior experience.

What Expert Negotiators Do Differently

In this interactive discussion, ask small groups to brainstorm habits of successful negotiators and expert negotiators. This gets participants thinking about the art of negotiation at a high level. Common ideas include thorough planning, active listening , strong communication skills, patience, and aiming for win-win solutions. When groups share back, I highlight any insights that match research or real-world best practices. For example, if someone mentions “they never show emotion,” I might gently add that emotional intelligence – managing your emotions and reading the other party’s – is actually a hallmark of an effective negotiator in complex negotiations. This segment creates a benchmark: it shows that good negotiators aren’t born special; they use specific behaviors anyone can adopt (a confidence booster for the group). It also primes the concepts we’ll cover. I call this the “big picture” stage before diving into tactics.

Prepare Well

Emphasize that strategic planning and preparation is the foundation of every successful negotiation. Many participants, especially those without formal training, don’t prepare enough. Introduce a preparation framework covering goals (including specific goals for the negotiation), tradeoffs, BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement), reservation price, and understanding the other side’s likely interests. I often say “50% of negotiation success happens before you ever sit at the table” – preparation is so critical. Have participants discuss in pairs what they usually do to prepare (if at all). With mixed-experience groups, encourage experienced negotiators to share their prep tips so newer people learn peer-to-peer.

Breakout Activity – Negotiation Planning

Now invite your participants to apply the preparation framework. Split the group into small teams and give each a negotiation scenario (it could be a sales deal, a contract negotiation, or an internal budget discussion – choose something relevant to their context, e.g. sales professionals might plan for a client pricing negotiation, whereas team leaders might negotiate resources with a director). Each group spends time identifying their goals, possible win-win solutions, BATNA, and what they think the other side wants. After group work, debrief in plenary: ask what was easy or hard. This turns theory into practice and reinforces that planning leads to better outcomes. It’s also an early chance for interactive classroom participation, getting everyone contributing rather than listening passively.

Mapping Stakeholders: Parties, Interests & Power

Complex negotiations often involve multiple stakeholders and hidden influences. In this activity, groups map out all parties in a negotiation scenario, each party’s interests, and their relative power or decision authority. The goal is to broaden their perspective beyond just “me vs. them.”

Trainers, watch for participants initially focusing only on the obvious players or stating positions instead of interests. Gently probe: “What does that stakeholder really want? Who else is affected?” For example, if negotiating a supply contract, the end-users or technical evaluators might not be at the negotiation table, but their needs matter. When debriefing, highlight how this negotiation process of mapping stakeholders helps uncover hidden factors (maybe “the real decision was made elsewhere”, a common realization). This exercise builds analytical negotiation abilities for complex negotiations, showing that effective negotiators consider the wider picture of power dynamics and interests.

Get Your Negotiation Skills Workshop Toolkit Here

Opening and Rapport Building

Next, shift to the communication phase of negotiation. Demonstrate how to open a negotiation and why establishing rapport and trust matters. I often role-play a bad vs. good opener with a volunteer. For instance, a cold, aggressive start versus a warm greeting and some small talk. Even technical contract negotiations benefit from a bit of human connection. Some participants (especially very analytical ones) may say “small talk is a waste of time.” I address that directly, citing evidence that relationship-building leads to better deals – deals are not just about the numbers, but also the relationship.

Emphasize effective communication: active listening, eye contact (or equivalent in a virtual environment via video – looking directly into the webcam), and finding common ground. This segment’s reasoning: a positive tone and trust at the outset can set the stage for a more collaborative negotiation and an optimal agreement for both sides, rather than a hostile haggle. It’s part of the art of negotiation that pays off in difficult situations.

Offers, Anchors, and Concessions

Now we get into bargaining tactics. Cover making the first offer and anchoring – a great chance to bust myths. Many participants ask, “Should I make the first offer or let them?” I explain the power of anchoring: setting the first offer can strongly influence the final outcome and show how a high or low anchor moves the midpoint. Also I discuss concession strategies: planning your “give-gets” and introduce the idea of a Give–Get log (a tool to trade items rather than simply discounting on price). This encourages win-win solutions by expanding the pie – trading low-cost items for high-value returns. For example, “I can extend the contract term (low cost to us) if you agree to a larger first order (value to us).” The reasoning to convey: practical skills like structured concessions prevent rash discounts and better results. By focusing on value, participants learn to avoid seeing price as the only lever (something many salespeople fall into). They see that successful negotiation isn’t about one side winning at price; it’s about trading smartly to reach an optimal agreement where both sides feel satisfied.

Pricing and Trading Variables

In conjunction with the above, I often include a brief module on understanding value and advanced techniques for complex deals. We discuss not just price but other tradeables: delivery terms, payment schedules, added services, etc. We brainstorm a list (e.g. faster delivery, customization, marketing commitments) to show all the possible currencies in a deal beyond cash. This part ties in practical case studies or examples from their industry, so they can relate. The key takeaway: good negotiators don’t give anything without getting something in return (even if it’s a small concession). This mentality shift is important, especially for sales professionals who feel pressure to cave on price. It sets them up to close deals with better results.

For a complete set of ready-to-use negotiation exercises – from stakeholder mapping to give-get logs – see the Negotiation Skills Workshop Toolkit.

Effective Communications and Influencing

Next I get into communication skills and influencing techniques. This covers active listening, asking open questions, framing your proposals in terms of the other party’s interests, and using emotional intelligence to read the room.

I sometimes start by asking: “Think of the most persuasive communicator you know – what do they do?”

Participants might say things like “they listen well” or “they stay calm,” which reinforces that effective negotiation is as much about listening as talking. We practice reframing statements: e.g., instead of “I need a decision today,” try “How can we work together to meet your timeline?”

A quick paired activity I like: one person explains a viewpoint, the other practices summarizing it back and asking a probing question. This builds the reflex to listen and ask rather than just argue or jump in. Without effective communication and understanding, even the best strategy can fall flat. Negotiation is fundamentally human interaction, so these personal skills are non-negotiable (pardon the pun!).

Negotiation Styles

This is an interactive module where participants discover the preferred negotiation style(s) that they use in their professional life. I use a simple self-assessment quiz (styles like Competitive, Collaborative, Compromising, Accommodating, Avoidant – aligned to the Thomas Killman Conflict Model). They fill it out individually, score themselves, then discuss results in pairs. This often creates some laughs and “aha” moments, e.g. someone sees they’re more accommodating than they thought, which explains why they yield often. No style is “wrong”; each has strengths and weaknesses.

I share how effective negotiators flex their style depending on context (style flexibility is key to handling different negotiation scenarios). This segment is great for interactive participation. It’s personal, introspective, and discussion-rich. From a trainer’s perspective, it also energizes the room in the afternoon and gets people talking about their own habits.

Challenging Scenarios

Now we tackle difficult situations that even expert negotiators struggle with through interactive experience.

I typically cover: handling hardball tactics (e.g. threats, ultimatums), keeping your cool when negotiations get heated (emotional intelligence under pressure), negotiating across different cultures (adjusting to cultural norms and avoiding missteps), and breaking impasses. I share real-world examples, like a time I faced a very aggressive procurement manager who used silence as a tactic, or how different cultures view directness versus harmony.

Encourage participants to share their tough scenarios too. It validates their experiences and we workshop solutions as a group. My reasoning: people often come in fearing these high-stakes or high-pressure moments, so practicing responses in a supportive environment builds confidence. We might role-play a difficult conversation (one plays the “tough negotiator,” the other practices responses), with tips for conflict management.

Emphasize collaborative negotiation where possible, even (and especially) in tough situations, finding mutual respect and small agreements can defuse tension. With preparation, the right mindset, and maybe a few advanced techniques (like knowing when to take a break or “go to the balcony” as William Ury says), participants can navigate high-stakes contract negotiations or other transactional negotiations without derailing.

Get Your Negotiation Skills Workshop Toolkit Here

Simulation and Action Plans

I bring everything together with a comprehensive role-playing exercise, using participants’ real-world scenarios. For new negotiators I assign a detailed negotiation case or negotiation scenarios in pairs or small teams (for example, a supplier-buyer negotiation with multiple issues to trade). This role-playing exercise is where they apply practical skills and strategies from the day. Make sure to keep it realistic: provide each side with some hidden information or conflicting goals to make it interesting. As they negotiate, I walk around (or drop into virtual breakout rooms) to observe and coach quietly.

After 20-30 minutes, we debrief thoroughly: each side shares what worked, what didn’t, and we discuss how tactics and behaviors influenced the outcome. Interactive classroom participation peaks here – participants often get very engaged because it feels like a real negotiation.

In the debrief, I connect back to the day’s lessons, e.g. “Notice how the team that prepared a clear action plan before negotiating achieved a more optimal agreement?”. We also highlight positive outcomes: e.g., how using open questions defused a conflict or how someone created a win-win package. This final exercise boosts confidence by letting them close deals in a safe setting. It’s okay if they make mistakes – better here than in a real contract!

I end the simulation debrief by asking each person to write down one action plan for a change they’ll implement in a future negotiation (a personal commitment, such as “I will ask at least two open-ended questions before making an offer”). It gives specific goals on a personal level to work on post-workshop.

Review and Wrap-Up

I conclude by reviewing key takeaways against the flipchart of goals we set in the morning (go through each goal and note which part of the day addressed it). This reinforces the value of the training. Participants see that their concerns were heard and tackled, which increases positive outcomes and satisfaction.

I invite a few people to share their biggest insight or “lightbulb moment.” Common answers are things like “I realized I wasn’t preparing enough” or “I need to listen more and slow down”. Encourage applause for each share to end on an upbeat, confident note. Finally, thank everyone for their active participation and encourage them to stay in touch with questions or successes.

If relevant, mention any post training resources or support you’ll provide (some trainers email a summary or a checklist as a follow-up). I also mention that building new skills is an ongoing journey. This workshop is a jumpstart, and they should continue practicing these practical strategies in their work.

Congratulations – you’ve run a full negotiation workshop!

Remember, if you want all these agendas, activities, and materials ready-to-go, check out the Negotiation Skills Workshop Toolkit for trainers here.

Engaging Activities to Include in Your Negotiation Skills Workshop

To keep the workshop lively and ensure interactive learning, incorporate a variety of activities. Here are a few high-impact ones I often use (shared briefly here without giving away the full toolkit IP :).

“Planning Your Negotiation” Breakout

Early in the day, after teaching preparation, give teams a realistic scenario and have them draft a negotiation plan (goals, BATNA, trades, walk-away). This turns abstract prep concepts into a concrete action plan. Participants love comparing plans and seeing different approaches. It shows how important strategic planning is before a negotiation.

Stakeholder Mapping Exercise

Especially for complex negotiations or B2B deals, get groups to map all stakeholders, their interests, and influence. For example, in a sales deal, stakeholders might include the technical evaluator, the finance approver, end-users, etc. Visualizing this web is an eye-opener. This activity yields great discussions on office politics, different cultures within a company, and how to adapt. It’s a practical case study in thinking beyond the obvious, which senior executives appreciate because it mirrors real-world scenarios of corporate negotiations.

Role-Playing Exercises & Simulations

Use negotiation scenarios relevant to your group’s context. If you have mixed experience levels, consider pairing a novice with an experienced person in role-plays. The experienced person can model tactics and give feedback to the newer negotiator, creating a peer learning dynamic that training partnerships in workshops thrive on.

Role-plays should escalate in difficulty: perhaps a simple one on price negotiation before lunch, and a more high-stakes deal simulation in the afternoon that involves multiple issues or a difficult counterpart.

Always debrief after role-plays; that’s where the richest learning occurs as people reflect on their tactics and emotions. In virtual workshops, you can use breakout rooms as virtual labs for these exercises. Just ensure clear instructions and perhaps provide a worksheet for each pair to note their agreement.

Negotiation Style Self-Quiz

As described in the agenda, a style assessment is a fun, introspective activity. Provide a simple questionnaire and run as individual work followed by group discussion. This activity engages participants and gives them a framework (competitive, collaborative, etc.) to discuss training content and their personal tendencies. It segues nicely into talking about adapting to others’ styles, a practical skill for real negotiations.

Case Study Analysis

Asking delegates to analyze their own real-world negotiation case in small groups can be powerful. Ask teams to identify what each side did well or poorly, and what they would do differently next times. This is more of a discussion exercise but can solidify concepts like win-win solutions or highlight difficult situations (e.g. how emotional outbursts derailed a deal, or how effective communication saved a negotiation). It also appeals to analytical learners who enjoy dissecting strategy. It is relevant to their specific challenges (sales, procurement, internal negotiations, etc.), so they see the direct application.

All these activities and more templates are detailed in my Negotiation Skills Workshop Toolkit

Negotiation Skills Workshop Facilitation Tips: Tone, Structure, and Managing the Room

Designing great content is half the battle – delivering it effectively is the other half. Here are some facilitation best practices and tips for running a negotiation workshop that I’ve gathered over years of formal training and dozens of sessions:

Adopt an Interactive, Hands-On Approach

In short, be present, be adaptive, and be the guide. You want your participants to feel supported and challenged in equal measure. The best feedback you can get is hearing that the workshop was a great learning experience that felt relevant and engaging from start to finish. Keep refining your delivery craft and your own negotiation stories. Great trainers are always learning too.

Real-World Examples and Insights from the Training Room

Let me share a few real world anecdotes and patterns I’ve seen in negotiation workshops. These examples illustrate common participant mindsets and how we can turn them into teachable moments:

“I Don’t Actually Negotiate” – Realization of Ubiquity

It’s not uncommon at the start of a workshop to have someone say, “I’m not a salesperson or a lawyer, I don’t negotiate much.” Perhaps a finance manager or technical lead thinks negotiation doesn’t apply to them. I always supportively challenge this. I ask them about times they have bargained or persuaded: “Have you ever asked for a project extension? Discussed a raise? Compromised on a deadline with a colleague? That’s negotiation.” You see heads nodding as they realize negotiation is everywhere in daily work and life.

We negotiate project priorities, who will do which tasks, swapping favors. One participant, a software developer, once insisted he “just writes code” and doesn’t negotiate. By the end of the workshop, he was laughing about how he negotiated with a teammate to handle a tough bug in exchange for taking on code review for them: “I negotiate every week and never saw it!” This realization is important because it opens “non-negotiators” up to learning; they see negotiation as a universal personal skill, not just for sales or contracts.

Fear of Conflict and the Confidence Gap

A very common challenge is participants who have strong negotiation skills in theory but lack confidence to assert themselves. They might say things like “I don’t like confrontation” or “I tend to just agree to keep the peace.” In one workshop, a talented young account manager admitted she often gave discounts just to avoid tough conversations, even when she knew her product’s value.

This is where emotional intelligence and mindset come in. We worked on reframing negotiation not as conflict, but as problem-solving. Through a role-play, I had her practice saying “no” in a polite but firm way and then posing an alternative. She was hesitant at first, but after a supportive debrief (and seeing that the sky didn’t fall when she held her line), she said this was her biggest breakthrough – realizing you can be assertive and likable.

I often share a statistic or two to back this up: for example, research shows that relationship-focused approaches (like building rapport) actually lead to better deals in the long run, so being assertive doesn’t mean being rude. You can aim for a win-win solution and still stand your ground.

As trainers, we need to encourage confidence by giving these participants tools (like prepared phrases, or a moment to step away and think) to manage their discomfort. When they try it successfully in a simulation, you can practically see their posture change. They sit up a bit straighter, with that “Yes, I can do this” look.

Get Your Negotiation Skills Workshop Toolkit Here

Questions and Skepticism from Experienced Negotiators

On the flip side, experienced participants sometimes come in a tad skeptical. They might challenge concepts. I welcome these challenges because they lead to rich discussions. With experienced attendees, I’ll sometimes ask them to share a tough negotiation they faced. They might describe, say, a high-stakes deal with a tight deadline. We then analyze it as a group (almost like a case study) and often they themselves identify something they could have done differently with the frameworks we covered. This peer learning is golden. The key insight: don’t be afraid of the “know-it-alls” or skeptics in your session. Engage them, acknowledge their experience, and position the training as adding structure or new angles to what they already know. Once they feel respected and valued, they usually become your best contributors.

Handling Difficult Behaviors in the Room

Occasionally, your “real-world example” might be happening right in front of you – a difficult participant in the workshop itself! Perhaps someone dominating every discussion, or a pair that always sits with arms crossed not engaging. One time, I had a participant who was a very successful negotiator (by results) but had a brash, somewhat dismissive style with peers in the class. Others grew quiet whenever he jumped in.

As facilitator, you need to manage this tactfully. I spoke to him during a break, acknowledged his wealth of experience, and asked if he could help me by also encouraging some of the quieter people (basically enlisting him as an ally). It worked: he dialed it back a bit and even asked others “What do you think?” a few times.

Managing Cynicism

If someone is really disruptive or cynical (“this is all fluff, I know all this”), address it head on. I might say in front of the group with a smile, “It’s true that much in negotiation seems like common sense, but I find even expert negotiators benefit from refreshing the fundamentals and reflecting. We all have blind spots, right?” This usually balances acknowledging the point without derailing the class. Also, use your activities to channel that energy. Put the talkative person in a challenging role-play where they have to work hard to get a deal, for example.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) from Workshop Participants

In every negotiation workshop, certain questions consistently come up from participants. As a trainer, you should be ready for these. Here are some of the most common FAQs I get, along with how I typically answer them in a training setting:

Q: Should I make the first offer, or let the other side speak first?

A: Use anchoring when you know the market. A confident, optimistic first offer sets the reference point and pulls the deal toward your target. If you truly lack information, ask questions first. Prepared negotiators who anchor high (without being outrageous) usually end closer to their goals.

Q: What if the other party is more powerful or a senior executive?

A: Strengthen your BATNA, prepare well, and get creative. Ask questions to uncover their real interests and constraints. Trade what they value most—speed, certainty, access—for what you need. Protect your bottom line and walk away if the deal breaches it.

Q: How do I handle aggressive or dirty tactics?

A: Stay calm and don’t mirror aggression. Acknowledge, then reset to objective criteria like market data and the value you bring. Label extremes and invite explanation: “Help me understand how you got there.” Use the process: pause, reframe to interests, or take a short break to regain control.

Q: What if we hit an impasse?

A: Diagnose the block. Reframe, add variables (e.g., service, timing, terms), or take a brief pause. Summarise agreements to reduce tension and isolate the sticking point. If progress stalls, escalate, reset expectations, or use your BATNA.

Q: How can I keep improving after the workshop?

A: Treat negotiation as ongoing practice. Negotiate often, then debrief and journal lessons learned. Use trusted resources, courses, and coaching to sharpen your skills.

Negotiation Skills Workshop: Next Steps

If you as a trainer want to save hours of time in the development process and get all the materials and detailed guidance I use to run these workshops – including slides you can brand as your own, handouts, and even suggested scripts, you can grab my Negotiation Skills Workshop Toolkit here. It’s designed with a practical approach so you can deliver your first-class, next negotiation course with confidence, backed by my experience and current research. Check it out if you’re ready to elevate your negotiation skills training game and save time in the process.

Good luck with your negotiation skills workshop, and here’s to turning more of your trainees into successful negotiators in the field! Let me know how it goes here – and if you need any more support or ready-made materials, just get touch. Plus, you know where to find that toolkit. Happy negotiating and happy training!

Get Your Negotiation Skills Workshop Toolkit Here

About the Author

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Advanced Goal Setting for Cross-Functional Teams

Jo North — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 16:30:04 +0000

Advanced Goal Setting for Cross-Functional Teams

Of course, cross-functional teams can address complex problems by combining different perspectives. You’ve probably run a few cross-functional projects and used frameworks such as SMART goals or agile methodologies. The question is, how do you advance beyond the basics to create a truly effective cross-functional team in a complex business environment? Here in Advanced Goal Setting for Cross-Functional Teams, I’ll share higher-level strategies for achieving better results and aligning different departments around a shared goal.

If you’re tired of the usual suggestions—like “have regular check-ins” or “use communication tools”—and need practical, next-step tactics, this is for you. We’ll cover integrating strategic goals with advanced resource allocation, building a collaborative culture that goes beyond polite teamwork, and using data in real time so that team leaders can make better strategic decisions.

And If you’d like more in-depth guidance, real examples, and ready-to-use templates for these approaches, my book Leading Sustainable Innovation: A Roadmap for Technical Environments offers step-by-step methods, frameworks, and toolkits. It explores advanced topics in far greater detail, giving you practical solutions to help you plan and complete more ambitious, sustainable projects.

1. Align Your Strategic Initiatives with Tactical Execution

Bridging Organizational Structure and Daily Work

In most organizations, strategic goals remain at the top, while project teams at the bottom try to complete tasks without clear context. This leads to misaligned priorities and a drop in employee engagement. To fix this, and develop more advanced goal setting for cross-functional teams, I recommend creating a “strategy-to-execution blueprint.”

Here’s how:

Start by defining specific objectives that tie directly to strategic initiatives across the entire organization.
Map these objectives to each functional area—such as your marketing team, product development team, and customer support team—so everyone knows why their role matters.
Use an OKR template (OKRs are suggested by sources such as Harvard Business Review) to connect daily work to key results. Each functional area sets advanced metrics that support the main vision and allow you to track progress.

Advanced Tip: Incorporate a short monthly or bi-monthly calibration meeting where team leaders align on any shifts in strategy. This helps different teams react quickly and keeps them moving in sync with bigger picture changes.

2. Establish a Structured but Flexible Cross-Functional Collaboration Framework

Going Beyond Traditional Project Management

Regular project management often assumes each task belongs to one department. But cross-functional work demands more fluid collaboration across various departments. When different goals conflict or overlap, teams can get lost without a transparent framework. Use these tips for more advanced goal setting for cross-functional teams:

Consider an integrated governance model:

Clear Goals: Each cross-functional project starts with documented specific goals linked to a common goal.
Collaborative Committees: Create small “governance squads” made up of cross-functional team members who rotate ownership of specific project milestones. This prevents any single department from dominating.
Rapid Conflict Resolution: Use short, dedicated conflict resolution huddles to keep tension from escalating. The project manager or a designated facilitator can guide the decision-making process when resource allocation disputes emerge.

Advanced Tip: Equip these governance squads with the right tools to capture real-time updates and orchestrate cross-team collaboration. This ensures that each function sees exactly how their actions affect other functional areas, reducing the risk of siloed efforts.

3. Adopt a Real-Time Data Ecosystem

Moving Beyond Basic KPIs

If your cross-functional collaboration relies on spreadsheets updated once a month, you risk reacting to issues too slowly. High-performing teams rely on a real-time data ecosystem that integrates digital tools, dashboards, and analytics.

What this looks like:

Live Dashboards: Centralize your key performance indicators so everyone—from the sales team to the customer support team—can see metrics updating in real time.
Event-Driven Alerts: When any metric deviates from expected thresholds, the entire team or specific functional areas get immediate notifications.
Root-Cause Analysis: Pair these alerts with rapid investigative tools, so cross-functional team members can dive into the details right away.

Advanced Tip: Combine structured metrics (e.g. conversion rates) with unstructured feedback from user surveys or internal updates. This helps you interpret data holistically and make well-rounded strategic decisions.

4. Resource Allocation 2.0: Dynamic Reassignment of Diverse Skill Sets

Minimizing Delays and Skill Underuse

A common challenge in cross-functional teams is the inefficiency of resource allocation. You might have a specialist in data analytics sitting idle in the marketing team, while the product development team desperately needs those skills to finalize a new product feature.

Try a “skill swap” model:

Publish a live “skill inventory” of all cross-functional team members, detailing each person’s unique capabilities.
Give team leaders access to a dynamic scheduling tool, so they can temporarily assign specialists from different departments to short tasks.
Build an expectation of advanced “skill sharing,” where employees rotate across project teams based on immediate demand and their diverse expertise.

Advanced Tip: Offer micro-incentives for employees who contribute their skill sets to other areas, such as recognition in company-wide meetings or a small bonus. This signals that cross-team collaboration is integral to high performance, not just a nice-to-have.

5. Integrate Emotional Intelligence into Communication Tools and Processes

A More Intentional Approach to Soft Skills

Effective communication isn’t just about scheduling more Zoom calls or Slack updates. It also means acknowledging different backgrounds, different perspectives, and the need for empathy.

Here’s a deeper method:

Emotional Intelligence Routines: Train project managers and team leaders in collaboration skills, and to read between the lines.
Open Communication Channels with Guidelines: Provide a short framework (e.g., always include the “why” behind any request) so cross-functional project members know how to communicate context.
Regular Check-Ins Focused on Person, Not Just Task: Use short but targeted questions about challenges, workload, or concerns. This ensures conflict resolution occurs before morale dips.

Advanced Tip: Use a “communication matrix” where each functional area states its communication preferences (e.g., synchronous calls vs. async messages), so different departments can coordinate effectively without friction.

6. Expand Collaborative Culture with Targeted Cross-Team Initiatives

Creating Shared History and Trust

A collaborative culture doesn’t happen overnight. Cross-functional collaboration often stalls because people haven’t worked with these other departments enough to trust them.

High-Level Initiatives:

Hackathons or Sprints: Organize a short cross-functional project—a new product prototype, a customer experience improvement, or a cost-savings brainstorm—where employees from different teams solve problems together.
Reverse Mentoring: Pair senior leaders from one function (e.g., finance) with rising stars from another (e.g., customer support team). Each side learns from the other’s daily realities.
Shadowing Programs: Let a product development team member “shadow” the marketing team to see how leads are handled, and vice versa. Insights from different perspectives often spark innovative solutions.

Advanced Tip: Always tie these initiatives to specific goals or key results so they don’t feel like extra work. For example, show how a two-day hackathon directly affects strategic goals around boosting customer satisfaction.

7. Rethink the Decision-Making Process for Better Results

Escaping the One-Leader Show

Strong leadership doesn’t mean that you alone dictate the solution. An effective cross-functional team involves a broader decision-making process, especially when dealing with major changes or big resource moves.

Collaborative Decision Panels:

Panel Formation: For each strategic decision, assemble a panel of key players from relevant functional areas.
Input Cycle: Each participant presents both data (key performance indicators, user metrics) and a real-time analysis of risks or benefits.
Consensus with Accountability: While the group aims for consensus, specify an ultimate owner—a project manager or executive—who finalizes the call if disagreements persist.

Advanced Tip: Log every decision’s rationale in a shared document. If disagreement arises later, you can revisit the context and reaffirm why certain paths were chosen, improving transparency across different teams.

8. Measure the True Impact on Customer Experience

Moving Beyond Internal Success Metrics

The entire organization exists to meet customer needs, but cross-functional collaboration can veer off track if no one measures how actions improve the end user’s experience.

Elevated Customer-Focused Tactics:

Experience Maps at Cross-Functional Checkpoints: After each major project milestone, evaluate how the changes might affect a customer’s journey. This holds all functional areas accountable.
Customer-Focused Key Results: A shared goal related to customer satisfaction should appear in each departmental OKR—so everyone sees the direct link between their daily work and the customer experience.
Customer Feedback Integration: Your marketing team or customer support team should push real time feedback directly into the cross-functional project channels, prompting immediate adjustments.

Advanced Tip: Consider adopting “customer experience audits,” where an external panel or internal reviewers from outside the specific project assess the user impact. This fresh perspective often uncovers overlooked gaps.

9. Use Structured Retrospectives to Aim for Continuous High Performance

Making Regular Feedback Actionable

You probably know about retrospectives, but I see them used superficially in many organizations. To get genuine improvement, you need a deeper reflection method.

Deeper Retrospective Approach:

Structured Feedback Tiers: Invite feedback from multiple levels—team leaders, cross-functional team members, and even stakeholders outside the project.
Focused on Root Causes: Don’t just note what went wrong or right. Dig into “why” it happened. If resource allocation caused delays, was it due to competing strategic initiatives or insufficient planning?
Actionable Commitments: End each retrospective by identifying at least three changes you’ll implement immediately. Track progress on these changes in your next retrospective.

Advanced Tip: Combine retrospective insights with broader data. If your marketing team highlights lead quality issues, cross-reference that complaint with the product development team’s backlog or remote teams’ availability. Patterns may emerge that guide new cross-team collaboration tactics.

10. Consolidate and Evolve for True Cross-Functional Success

Bring It All Together

Achieving an effective cross-functional team dynamic isn’t about one or two quick hacks. It’s a continuous process of aligning specific goals, refining your communication channels, leveraging collaborative tools, and ensuring emotional intelligence is part of your daily work. By merging advanced collaborative team working, resource allocation methods, real-time dashboards, and deeper retrospective practices, you’ll create high-performing teams with a genuine sense of shared ownership.

Your Next Step

If you’ve tried basic steps without the desired outcomes, build in some of the methods for advanced goal setting for cross-functional teams above. Treat your cross-functional projects like living organisms that adapt to changing market conditions and internal shifts. Invest in digital tools that help you track progress with precision, but also pay attention to the human side, building trust and open communication between diverse teams.

By applying these more advanced approaches, you’ll see strong leadership emerge across different departments, employees will feel their skill sets are recognized, and your value proposition and customer satisfaction metrics will reflect the payoff of a truly collaborative effort.

For a deeper look at these techniques and many more high-level strategies, pick up my book Leading Sustainable Innovation: A Roadmap for Technical Environments. It’s packed with advanced methods, real-life case studies, and templates you can use right away. If you’re serious about taking your sustainable innovation projects to the next level, this is the resource you need.

Final Thoughts on Advanced Goal Setting for Cross Functional Teams

You already know that advanced goal setting for cross-functional teams can help you solve complex problems and generate innovative solutions. The real challenge is raising the level of sophistication in how you link your strategic goals to daily execution, handle conflict resolution, and measure success. If you apply the advanced practices here, you’ll move beyond “decent cooperation” and cultivate an effective cross-functional team approach that elevates the entire organization’s impact—on both employee experience and the customer experience.

I’m confident that by integrating these methods, you’ll bring out the full potential of diverse skills and different perspectives, create better results, and achieve the specific objectives that truly matter in your complex business environment.

Additional Support

If you’d like to speak directly to me, or to one of my team, about exploring some hands-on consultancy support or facilitation for your organization, we’d love to hear from you. Please get in touch here.

About the Author

The post Advanced Goal Setting for Cross-Functional Teams appeared first on The Big Bang Partnership.

Appreciative Inquiry: Guide for Workshop Facilitators

Jo North — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 06:00:00 +0000

Hello and welcome to this article on Appreciative Inquiry, a Guide for Workshop Facilitators.

I cover what Appreciative Inquiry is and show you how you could use the process of Appreciative Inquiry to create and facilitate a highly effective, strengths-focused workshop for your delegates.

If you’d like to download my free Appreciative Inquiry toolkit for facilitators, it’s here in my online Content Studio. Just scroll down to the Facilitation Toolkits section and you’ll find it there.

Video: Appreciative Inquiry for Innovators and Facilitators

What is Appreciative Inquiry?

Appreciative Inquiry means recognising, exploring and building on the positive, aligning with strengths-based development.

Appreciative Inquiry is all about reframing, and, starting from the position of asking, ‘What are we doing well?’, ‘What are the good things?’, ‘What are we great at?’, ‘What are the positives that we have got to offer?’

Having a positive focus is optimistic, empowering and motivational, and for these reasons Appreciative Inquiry can be a powerful ingredient for achieving positive change.

If you want to learn more about the academic theory behind Appreciative Inquiry, the work of David Cooperrider is definitely the place to start.

My focus in this article is on how to make that theory work in practice, with a whole agenda for an Appreciative Inquiry-based workshop, including tools, techniques and activities that you can use.

My video presentation – Appreciative Inquiry for Innovators and Facilitators

Start with the positives

The positives are so important as a starting point because our energy and efforts go in the same direction as our thoughts. So, if we are thinking about building on strengths then that is where our decisions and our actions will go. We will make our strengths stronger, we will be able to stand out. We will be able to do bigger and better things.

In Appreciative Inquiry we start with the positives, and we think about what we can do, what is possible and take it from there. By changing the language we use, we change our intent, and we change the direction of our actions.

That is in contrast with a problem-focused starting point . I am all for a problem-focused starting point sometimes, because that is where a lot of great entrepreneurial ideas come from. It’s a question of using the most appropriate approach for your workshop.

The Appreciative Inquiry process

Appreciative Inquiry Model

The Appreciative Inquiry process is a continuous cycle made up of 4 or 5 key stages, depending on the version of the model you’re using. This model is called the 4-D or 5-D model, because the name of each stage begins with the letter ‘D’. I’m going to use the 5-D model here so that you have a complete view.

The process starts with Define, to think about the challenge at hand and decide what you want to work on.

Stage two is Discovery. The task at this stage is to see and appreciate the best of t the positives in the current situation to define the starting point for the rest of the process.

The next stage is the Dream phase. This involves using imagination to explore what might be possible in the future.

After that comes the Design phase. The focus here is to create a map to get from the current starting point to the new, aspirational future.

Finally, the Destiny element of the process is all about sustaining it, making the transformation happen and keeping it going.

Define, Discovery, Dream, Design, Destiny

A great approach is to use each of the 5-D Model stages, Define, Discovery, Dream, Design and Destiny, as the backbone of your agenda for your facilitation workshop.

Define

Agenda item – Define

Define is the stage during which you and your client will gather data to identify the focus for your facilitation event and the key questions to be answered.

This will be done in advance of the workshop, but you could also explore the assumptions in the final workshop ‘definition’ with your delegates.

You could do this towards the beginning of your workshop by sharing a purpose statement for the event with your delegates, and then asking them to add in or shape it, using an Appreciative Inquiry technique, “Yes, and …”.

Yes, and…

“Yes, and…” technique

The language you choose to use throughout your Appreciative Inquiry process is really important. “Yes, and…” is a nice way of building on somebody’s ideas.

All too often, when someone has an idea, we say, or others respond with “Yes, but…”

The word ‘but’ dismisses everything that has gone before in that sentence. So when we say “Yes, but…” we are in effect dismissing what the other person has said.

When we say “Yes, and…” we are actually acknowledging what the other person has said, demonstrating that we are building on it. That is a very subtle shift isn’t it? But it does make a subconscious difference to how people will feel about the conversations that you are having.

Wherever you can use “Yes, and…”

Discovery

Discovery stage

Let’s move on now to the content of your facilitation session with the Discovery stage.

As a facilitator, make sure that you carefully craft your questions to draw out the positive, current reality. Keep the discussion away from negative issues, deficits and problems.

Facilitation activities you could use include:

•The strengths wheel

•Us at our best

•Read all about it

•Magnet statements

I’ll explain each of these in turn now.

Strengths wheel

We all have strengths, but sometimes don’t use them, or don’t get the opportunity to use our strengths fully.

Ask delegates to think about, identify, and write down all their current strengths. Then ask them to consider how much they use those strengths. Invite delegates to reflect on how much scope they have to make more of their strengths. You could use a template like the one shown here, which you can download for free as part of my Appreciative Inquiry for Facilitators toolkit here.

Strengths wheel template

Us at our best

Another technique for the Discovery phase is to ask delegates to think about when they are at their best and create a poster collage using old newspapers and magazines to explore and visualise that.

Read all about it

Delegates create a newspaper-style ‘front page’ on a flip chart that communicates the very best of what they have achieved up to now.

Magnet statements

Delegates create statements that they believe represent the best features and achievements of the current situation and create a gallery of those statements around the room. Other delegates add to and build on those positive statements.

For instance, if somebody puts a statement on the wall which reads, ‘We are number one in our industry for customer experience, and all our statistics show that’, then somebody else might add in another item which supports that customer experience is excellent.

These are called magnet statements because they are positive, and attract even more positivity.

Dream

Once delegates have completed the Discovery phase, then it is time to move on the Dream stage. The Dream phase is about imagination, possibility and aspiration.

Dream stage

Some of the activities you could use for this part of your facilitation agenda are:

•Dream dialogues

•Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals (BHAGs)

•Exploring scenarios

•Read all about it – future

Dream dialogues

Ask delegates to have conversations in pairs or small groups, prompted by decks of question cards (you can make your own) with questions about wishes, hopes, and aspirations for a better team, business or environment.

Delegates capture their key discussion points on flip charts and then feedback in plenary.

This is a great facilitation technique because it gets people talking and sharing their ideas.

Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals (BHAGs)

“Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal”, (or “BHAG” for short!), was a term coined by strategy researchers and writers Collins and Porras in the 1990s.

Sharing and exploring BHAGs an enjoyable and productive way of inviting delegates in different roles or teams to share their aspirations for the project.

Understanding colleagues’ aspirations can help to create a culture of collaboration and more effective partnership working.

How to use the technique

Ask delegates to work in pairs, threes or small groups to share their own personal BHAGs for the workshop project.

Then ask them to take it in turns asking each other these “What if…?” questions:

What if you had already achieved your BHAG? How would you be feeling?
What if you could ask us for our help? What help would you ask us for, and why?
What if we were to ask you the one thing that you don’t want us to ask you about your BHAG? What would that be, and why? How would you answer if we did ask?

You can adapt these questions, of course, or replace them with your own.

Make sure delegates capture their thinking ready to share a summary with the wider group.

Exploring scenarios

Exploring scenarios

In Exploring scenarios you ask delegates to explore scenarios about the potential future. They create posters, and think about different options and would could happen as a result of those options in the future.

Encourage delegates to go into as much detail with their potential scenarios as possible using words and pictures, and identify 3-5 scenarios to work up.

Some scenarios will be more probable than others, and of course combinations of scenarios are possible too.

Finally, ask the group to develop their most desired scenario explorations to strengthen them and de-risk them.

Design

Design stage

The Design phase is all about thinking about the goals for the future. You have done some work on the possibilities, and now it is about starting to work on how you are going to achieve those possibilities, and making that big vision more tangible, realistic and deliverable. The Bridging technique is a good one to use here.

Bridging technique

Ask delegates to list all their most important goals and aspirations from the Dream phase into the left-hand column of a table, such as the one shown here.

Provocative proposition example

Then, in the right-hand column, ask them to create a provocative proposition for each goal or aspiration that summarises what they need to do to move forward. The provocative proposition is to be written in the present tense, positively stated, be a stretch and inspire the delegates, such as the one shown in the example above.

That is a really nice thing to do, and it’s a really important thing because, it is sometimes a big jump to go from ‘well that is a big imaginative vision’ through to ‘how do we deal with that then’. A bridging phase helps you towards that. Then you can get more onto the nitty gritty with the Destiny phase.

Destiny

The Destiny phase is about more detailed planning and generating collective commitment to making the transformation happen. When you’re facilitating, make sure that you focus the group on getting buy-in and creating a shared action plan.

Destiny stage

The two activities are Blockbusters, and Storyboarding.

Blockbusters

Blockbusters technique

You may remember the 80s quiz show called Blockbusters? Teenage contestants had to get from one side of the board to the other by answering questions.

This technique is based on a similar (sort of!) principle, and it is useful for action planning and helping delegates to visualise moving from where they are now to where they want to be.

First ask delegates to write down the key aspects of where they are now on sticky notes (one item per sticky note) and put them down the left-hand side of a piece of flip chart paper, landscape orientation.

Then delegates are to do the same for the key aspects of where they would like to be, this time placing the sticky notes on the right-hand side of the paper, each one aligned to a relevant note on the left-hand side. For example, if they have a sticky note that says ‘current turnover £1m’ on the left, they might have one that says ‘increase turnover by 35%’ on the right, both positioned level with each other.

The final step is for delegates to fill in the space between with the 5 key actions for each item that will get them from where they are now to where they want to be. These can be different and separate actions, and don’t have to be in chronological order.

You can ask delegates to add in target timescales and owners for each action as well.

Storyboarding

Storyboarding

Ask delegates to create a story board for their selected challenge as follows:

•Draw the current position in the first box.

•Then sketch the ideal / target position in the last box. •Now fill in the boxes in between with drawings of how you will get from the current to the ideal.

•Capture key steps in words under each drawing.

This can be a useful visual technique that helps to create a clear image of the goal and achievable steps towards it, overcoming obstacles on the way.

Have fun drawing as a team – it doesn’t have to be a great piece of art, that’s part of the enjoyment!

Turning challenges into opportunities

When you are facilitating using the Appreciative Inquiry method, remember to stay with the positives opportunities. Turn weaknesses into scope for improvement, risks into opportunities. Create an environment that supports a really positive, can-do mindset.

If you only ever work in the problem solving space you won’t shine or stand out as much as you could. Often you do need to focus on problem-solving, but it’s also important to spend time thinking about where you are really strong. That means you can take things to the next level, achieve excellence, have competitive advantage and so on, because you are building on those strengths. Strengths need your time, attention and development, too. Appreciative Inquiry is a truly great process for focusing on strengths.

Free Appreciative Inquiry for Facilitators Toolkit

You might also like to listen to my podcast episode on Appreciative Inquiry here.

About the Author

The post Appreciative Inquiry: Guide for Workshop Facilitators appeared first on The Big Bang Partnership.

How to Facilitate a Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Jo North — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 19:35:37 +0000

Stakeholder Mapping: Your Guide to Facilitating a Successful Workshop

Stakeholder mapping is an essential tool for any project manager spearheading innovation or undertaking significant projects. At the heart of successful project management lies the ability to understand and engage with the key players who can influence the outcome. Whether you’re on the brink of launching a new product or embarking on a transformative initiative, the first step is always to know who these individuals or entities are, and what stakes they hold.

But how do you collaboratively identify both internal and external stakeholders, deciphering their level of interest and the extent of their influence? That’s where a stakeholder mapping workshop comes into play. This participatory exercise is the best way for project team members to come together, pool their knowledge, and create a holistic view of all project stakeholders.

This article offers a step-by-step guide on how to facilitate a successful stakeholder mapping workshop, complete with a suggested agenda and useful templates. From using virtual or physical sticky notes to visualize and categorize stakeholders based on their level of involvement to advanced stakeholder mapping tools that help refine the stakeholder engagement strategy, you’ll be equipped with everything you need.

So, whether you’re new to stakeholder mapping or simply looking for a refresher, let’s dive into a process that promises to set your project on a path of clarity and positive stakeholder engagement.

My video: How to Facilitate a Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

What is a stakeholder?
A stakeholder is an individual, group or organisation who is impacted by the outcome of a project.

They have an interest in the success of the project, and can be within or outside the organization that is sponsoring the project.

Stakeholders can have a positive or negative influence on the project.

The Stakeholder Mapping Process

Stakeholder mapping is a process designed to determine a key list of stakeholders.

Mapping can be broken down into four phases:

1. Identifying: listing relevant groups, organizations, and people.

2. Mapping: visualising relationships to objectives and other stakeholders.

3. Prioritizing: ranking stakeholder relevance and identifying issues.

4. Planning your approach.

Preparation and Pre-Work for Your Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

You might want to brief your delegates to do some pre-work to bring along to the session. This way, they will come along informed, saving time during the workshop and improving the quality of discussions. Here are some pre-work suggestions:

Review existing documentation: Extract names and entities from project plans, organizational charts, and other relevant documents.
Stakeholder interviews: Engage in one-on-one discussions with representative stakeholders to gain insights.
Surveys: Send out questionnaires to a broader stakeholder group to gather quantitative and qualitative data.

These activities are not essential, but could be very helpful, if you have sufficient notice and time before the workshop date.

Step 1: Introducing the Stakeholder Mapping Workshop and Preparing Delegates for Participation

To ensure a good start to the stakeholder mapping workshop, it’s vital to set the stage correctly. As the facilitator, your primary task in this critical step is to clarify the session’s purpose and its importance in shaping the communication strategy for the outcome of your project.

Begin by explaining that stakeholder mapping is not just a formality but an important process to comprehend the diverse stakeholder’s interests. Highlight that understanding these interests is paramount, as they can either propel the project to success or have a negative impact if not adequately addressed.

Share with the participants that the aim is to identify various parties connected to the project, their stakes, and how to best communicate and engage with them. Emphasize that by doing so, the project team can ensure that all involved parties feel valued, heard, and integrated into the project’s journey.

Warm-up Activities

Here are some suggested warm-up activities.

Stakeholder Bingo: Create a bingo card filled with phrases or characteristics that might relate to potential stakeholders (e.g., “Has a financial interest,” “External party,” “Can veto decisions”). As participants introduce themselves, attendees mark off any relevant boxes. The first to complete a row or column shouts “Bingo!” This activity introduces the idea of varying stakeholder interests and categories.

Expectation Wall: Provide each participant with sticky notes and ask them to write down what they expect from the workshop. Collect and stick these on a wall. This activity gives insight into the participants’ expectations and allows you to address any misconceptions or align the session accordingly.

By the end of this introductory step, participants should feel warmed up, engaged, and ready to delve deep into the subsequent phases of stakeholder mapping.

You’ll find even more suggestions in my article on icebreakers and warm-ups here.

Step 2: Identifying and Listing Relevant Groups, Organizations, and People

At this foundational stage, the goal is to create an exhaustive list of everyone who has a stake in your project. This could range from internal team members to external organizations, community groups, and individuals. Ideally, separate internal and external stakeholders as you work through this activity.

It will be useful to ask your participants to work in smaller breakout groups. Each group could perhaps work on a different stakeholder group or category. For instance: political, community, media, suppliers etc. make sure that the teams write the name of each individual or organizational stakeholder onto a separate virtual or paper sticky note.

Brief your delegates as follows:

On individual sticky notes, write down the names of each of your stakeholders without screening, critiquing or sorting. Include everyone who would like to be involved in or affected by your innovation or project, and everyone who you would like to involve. Where possible, identify individuals / names of roles, rather than organizations.

Just to be super clear, at the end of the activity, your participants should have a virtual or real pile of sticky notes. Each sticky note has only one stakeholder written on it. This is important to set your teams up for the next step.

Step 3: Stakeholder Mapping and Analysis

Stakeholder mapping and analysis helps to visualize the relationship of each of the stakeholders to the project. Here are some activity options that you can either choose from or combine for your workshop. You can of course change any of the words or ‘labels’ to suit your needs.

Option 1: Stakeholder Relevance, Willingness and Value Matrix

I created the stakeholder relevance, willingness and value matrix to prompt delegates to engage in deeper thought, discussion and analysis.

Create the stakeholder matrix template below as a giant canvas, perhaps printed on a large ‘plotter’ machine, on a virtual or real whiteboard, or with a few flip chart pages stuck side by side.

Stakeholder Matrix Template: Relevance, Willingness and Value

Ask your delegates to move their sticky notes into the first column, and then, through discussion, work their way from left to right to complete all the columns:

Relevance, divided into:
- Contribution to the project (e.g. information or expertise)
- Legitimacy (i.e., does the stakeholder have a ‘claim’ for engagement in the project?
Willingness to engage with project
Value, divided into:
- Influence over other stakeholders
- Necessity of involvement

Make sure they write down any their key points and observations onto the stakeholder mapping template as they go. They should also score each stakeholder High, Medium or Low in each column.

Your delegates could get absorbed, or even stuck, in their discussions on particular stakeholders. Make sure that they don’t debate every single thing at length, or you won’t achieve much in your session. Keep it moving and high level. It’s the overall shape and picture that matters at this stage, not the fine detail. That can come later.

Option 2: Stakeholder Relevance, Willingness and Value Map

You could either facilitate the Stakeholder Relevance, Willingness and Value Map after your delegates have completed the matrix in option 1 above. Or, you could go straight to it as a standalone activity.

Stakeholder Map Template: Relevance, Willingness and Value

Delegates can transfer their sticky notes from step 2 (if you’ve NOT asked them to complete the matrix in Step 2 above) to the stakeholder map template over. Or, simply write in the stakeholder names (if you HAVE asked them to complete the Step 2 matrix). Obviously, you’ll want to keep the sticky notes on the matrix so you have a record of which stakeholders the content is about!

Ask delegates to plot each stakeholder onto the map, based on how high or low they perceive the stakeholder’s willingness to engage and support (horizontal axis) and relevance (vertical axis). Participants should then put a circle around the stakeholder’s name on the map to represent the amount of value they bring. A small circle for not much, a very large one for a great deal of value.

As above, value is defined by a combination of:

Influence over other stakeholders
Necessity of involvement

This creates a really useful visualization of the stakeholder population.

Option 3: Power-Interest Grid

The Power-Interest Grid works as a great, quick standalone activity to help your delegates to sort and visualize their stakeholders. Using the grid as a template on a flip chart, virtual or real whiteboard, ask them to take their sticky notes from Step 2 and plot them onto the grid.

Power-Interest Grid Example, adapted from a template by www.slideteam.net

Step 4. Prioritizing Stakeholders

Not all stakeholders are equal in terms of their influence and interest. It’s crucial to determine which stakeholders can significantly impact the project’s success or failure.

It is not practical and usually not necessary to engage with all stakeholder groups with the same level of intensity all of the time.

Being strategic and clear about whom you are engaging with and why, before jumping in, can help save your project team time and effort.

Brief your delegates to create a summary of their top 10 or so priority stakeholders, capturing responses to these questions:

Who are your priority stakeholders?
What issues / interests do they have?
How do your stakeholders’ interests match or differ from your project objectives?

Step 5. Planning Your Approach

With a clear understanding of who the stakeholders are, their interests, relationships, and potential issues, it’s time for your participants to strategize on how to engage with them effectively.

Communication Strategy Discussion

Using the prioritized stakeholders from Step 4, the project team should brainstorm tailored communication strategies for each category. This requires thinking about the needs, interests, and preferences of each stakeholder group.

After each group has had an opportunity to devise communication strategies, bring everyone together to discuss and refine these ideas. Real-world experiences from team members can be invaluable in this stage, highlighting potential pitfalls or areas of improvement.

Action Planning

With communication strategies in place, ask the groups to find volunteers for tasks such as drafting communication templates, scheduling stakeholder meetings, and overseeing any necessary public outreach efforts.

Project team members will be empowered to not only understand their stakeholder landscape but also to devise actionable, tailored communication strategies, ensuring the smooth progression of their innovation project.

Next Steps

By following these four phases methodically, project teams can ensure that they’ve covered all their bases when it comes to stakeholder management. This not only minimizes potential roadblocks but also leverages stakeholder expertise and insights, enhancing the project’s chances of success.

Stakeholder mapping, while intricate, plays a pivotal role in the journey of any project. It’s more than just recognizing the key players; it’s about cultivating relationships, understanding diverse interests, and devising actionable strategies to engage effectively with every stakeholder. While this guide provides a structured approach to stakeholder mapping, the true magic lies in the collaborative energies, insights, and expertise each team member brings to the table.

Use Stakeholder Mapping Tools for Better Understanding and Action

Stakeholder mapping, an important tool in the arsenal of any project manager, goes beyond the mere identification of key stakeholders; it delves deep into understanding their level of influence, from high interest to low interest, in the overarching design process.

Through stakeholder mapping templates and the right stakeholder mapping tool, teams can sift through the vast amount of information to identify which types of stakeholders hold much influence and discern each stakeholder’s level of engagement.

Whether you’re venturing into a new market or embarking on a large project like a construction project, grasping the relative importance of each stakeholder, from those with high influence to those with vested interest, is essential.

The stakeholder mapping exercise is not just a visual tool but a powerful tool that aids in crafting effective stakeholder management strategies, from phone calls to more intricate product roadmaps tailored to stakeholder needs.

Larger organizations often find themselves navigating a sea of potential impact areas, where understanding the specific needs of each stakeholder, from the project sponsor to examples of internal stakeholders, is paramount. By employing a good stakeholder map, you create a visual representation of the relevant stakeholders, ensuring that important stakeholders aren’t overshadowed by those with a louder voice or higher degree of influence.

Ensure Great Communications

From the power interest grid to other stakeholder mapping models, there are different ways to map stakeholders. Each offers a unique perspective, helping to chart out effective communication plans for better outcomes. For instance, a new project might introduce new stakeholders, altering the dynamics of your company’s stakeholders.

Ensuring good communications, through methods like phone calls or more advanced stakeholder engagement plans, can make a significant difference in the success of your project.

This thorough stakeholder analysis ensures that no vital information slips through the cracks. Whether you’re focusing on the global community or your own stakeholder map, the final step is always to ensure that the stakeholder engagement plan aligns with the issue areas, ensuring every voice, from the loudest to those often overlooked, is heard and valued.

Keep Your Stakeholder Map Up-to-date

As projects evolve and new challenges arise, so too will the stakeholder landscape. Keeping your stakeholder map updated and revisiting your engagement strategies will be essential. Remember, the end goal isn’t just the completion of a project but fostering a cohesive environment where every stakeholder feels valued and invested.

Connect for Challenging or Complex Stakeholder Landscapes

If facilitating a workshop or addressing stakeholder mapping seems daunting or if you simply wish to enhance your existing strategies, remember that you’re not alone on this journey.

Whether you’re seeking advice, hands-on assistance, or simply a conversation to share perspectives, I’m here to help. Navigating the waters of stakeholder engagement requires tact, experience, and sometimes, an external perspective.

Feel free to reach out here to discuss your facilitation needs or any other queries you might have. Together, let’s set the stage for successful, collaborative, and impactful project outcomes.

About the Author

The post How to Facilitate a Stakeholder Mapping Workshop appeared first on The Big Bang Partnership.

How to Improve Your Influencing Skills for Innovation

Jo North — Mon, 14 Aug 2023 10:30:18 +0000

Influencing Skills – How to Influence People who can Make or Break Your Innovation Plans

Why Influencing Skills Matter for Innovators

Influencing skills are essential for innovators. Whether you want to get that big promotion at work, get the funding or resources you need for an innovation or entrepreneurial growth, or change the way things at work are done, there are usually some decision-makers who you need to win over.

These people might be from inside or outside the business, for example bosses, shareholders, colleagues, employees, investors, key customer or suppliers, amongst others.

Being able to shape and implement effective influencing strategies will help you to get to where you want to be, more quickly and successfully. Influencing skills are an essential part of your business skillset.

Read this article to learn, step-by-step, how to create a targeted, practical and ethical influencing action plan that will increase the probability of you getting the outcomes that you want. As an added bonus, download my free influencing playbook here.

What is the Meaning of Influence and Persuasion?

The definition of Influence and persuasion is getting others to do things by showing that there is a real and genuine advantage to them in moving in the direction you want.

Having influencing skills means that you have the ability to affect a person’s beliefs or actions, reaching agreement by discussion.

Influencing with Integrity

My choice of the word ethical in the introduction above is really important. This is not about manipulation, or Machiavellian manoeuvres. In my view, unethical motives benefit no-one in the longer-term, and are neither a rewarding way to do business, nor a sustainable way to develop your relationships, especially with those who really matter to you.

At the heart of the approach that I am sharing here is high integrity. It is perfectly possible to be very influential at work, whilst also considering the needs of others and striving to achieve a win-win for yourself and for them.

Influencing and Communication Skills

Influencing is necessary, though, because too often people don’t get what they want due to their failure to communicate effectively. They do not put themselves in the shoes of those key individuals whose support they really need.

The consequence is that, by not taking time to understand the perspective of others, they don’t explain themselves in way that other people can really get, and understand what’s in it for them. So, I am going to take you through a step-by-step process that you can use to make sure that you optimise your chances of success, using my Innovation Influencing Mix.

Have a pen and paper ready, preferably some sticky notes as well, and also download my free influencing playbook here. You can fill it in as you read through this article, thinking about something significant that you want to achieve that needs the active support of other people.

The Innovation Influencing Mix

Successful influencing at work requires a combination of skills and a great understanding of how other people think and make decisions. It’s actually a complex process, but I’ve broken it down for you here, based on the Innovation Influencing Mix (copyright Dr. Jo North, 2023).

Innovation Influencing Mix copyright Dr. Jo North 2023

Step 1: Goal clarity – be clear about what you want to achieve

If you’re not clear about what you want to achieve, you can’t expect others to understand what you want. Starting by articulating for yourself exactly what your target outcomes are will help you to align your influencing approach to achieve your goal. For example:

I want to become a director in 3 months, increase my salary by 20% and qualify for the company profit share, company car and private health schemes.
My goal is for the Board to see the potential of my new product development idea, and give me the go ahead to progress to the next step.
I want to raise $x of funding to launch and sustain sales of new product y as outlined in the business plan I’ve created.
I’d like my team to adopt these new, leaner and more agile ways of working that make the best use of our new technology, improving quality and efficiency.

Take a moment now to write down your own target outcome(s).

Step 2: People clarity – identify who can make or break your plans

The next step is to write down all the names of your stakeholders. Your stakeholders are the people who can really make or break your plans.

Also write down why and how their support matters to you in this situation. It is important that you identify who the stakeholders are in your project, which stakeholders are important and why. You’ll then be able to create an effective stakeholder engagement plan.

Either make a list of people, or write each name on a separate sticky note, to help you with the next stage.

Think as widely as you can, using these prompts as appropriate for you:

Family
Shareholders / investors
Bosses / leaders
Associates
Peers
Other departments / functions
Direct team
Employees
Customers
Suppliers
Other key stakeholders

Stakeholder Mapping

Now it’s time time to start your stakeholder mapping. Place each stakeholder onto the grid below. Either write names directly onto the grid, or attach each sticky note where you think it sits.

Grid for Stakeholder Map

The grid has two axes. For each person, use these axes as follows:

Importance of support. Decide how important having this person’s support for your plans is – low to high.
Level of support. Decide how supportive of your plans this person is right now – low to high.
Then place the name of the person where your decisions for 1 and 2 intersect.

Once you have worked through all your names, literally just plotting them onto the grid, identify who influences your most important stakeholders, i.e. in the medium-high category.

For each of these high importance people, think of who they listen to and are swayed by. Make sure that you add the names of those people who influence the influencers to the grid as well. Locate them appropriately in terms of importance and support.

Active Listening

The best way to ensure your point of view resonates with others is to become a good listener first. Active listening, a valuable skill, ensures that you genuinely understand the concerns, insights, and perspectives of those around you. This fosters mutual respect, an essential component in relationship building.

But remember, being a good listener isn’t just about the words spoken. Body language is a key part of interpersonal skills. Savvy innovation leaders are attuned to the non-verbal cues of those they interact with on a daily basis.

You can download my free, advanced listening skills workbook here to learn more.

Analyze the Communication Needs of Internal and External Stakeholders

You now have a really useful, visual map of where you believe your decision-makers sit.

Just seeing this on paper, rather than carrying all the information in a disconnected way in your head, is incredibly helpful in itself. It allows you to step back and assess so that you can plan your route to success.

Work through these items now, making sure that you:

Put yourself in the shoes of each person. Do your best to see things from their perspective, even if you don’t agree with their views; and
Strive to achieve a mutually beneficial outcome.

1. For each of those people in the high importance, high support category.

Write down the actions that you will take to keep their support levels high on an ongoing basis. This is important. Complacency or lack of attentiveness to supporters is risky. It’s better ad easier to maintain support than it is to regain it once it’s been lost.

2. For every individual in the high importance, low support category.

Write down the actions that you will take to increase their support levels.

3. For every individual in the low importance, high support category.

Write down how you you will maintain their support and use it productively.

4. For those in the low importance, low support category.

Make a mental note to keep an eye on things, just in case anything changes.

Step 3: Create a Compelling Case for Change

The next step is to create a compelling case for change. Paint a picture of the difference that your innovation or ideas will make. Make sure your it connects with your key stakeholders on an emotional level, as well as making great business sense.

Thinking about the emotional connection to the change you want to make skyrockets your influencing skills to the next level. Remember that humans make decisions and take action based on how we want to feel. We then explain them to ourselves based on logic after the event.

To achieve this emotional connection, find the common ground where your goals overlap with those of your stakeholders.

“People don’t buy WHAT we do, they buy WHY we do it.”
Simon Sinek

Use the power of data and evidence to support your assertions and build your innovation business case. Be clear how you will measure your innovation success.

Create a vision of what your innovation will achieve, and how you will get there, through storytelling techniques and principles.

If you’d like a definitive guide to becoming a successful change maker, you’ll find my article and videos here useful.

You may also find my guide to successful presentations helpful, too.

Step 4: Improve your Influencing Skills through Emotional Intelligence

Working on building your emotional intelligence will lead to better working relationships and increased self confidence. Plus, the ability to understand how you can adapt your behaviour and approach to influence others.

You’ll also be able to take on board feedback from your colleagues and business decision-makers with a growth mindset. This will help to strengthen your innovation plans. Diverse perspectives contribute to reducing potential risk and blind spots.

Before you interact with your key stakeholders, take the time to check in with how you feel. Adapt your mindset if how you feel isn’t helping you to get the impact and outcome that you want.

Once your mindset is in a good place, you can then bring your influencing skills to the fore. You’ll be in a better position to truly listen to and empathize with your stakeholders. You’ll be able to communicate clearly, directly and sensitively, increasing the probability of influencing for a win-win outcome.

Cultivating Leadership Qualities and Soft Skills

A strong leader doesn’t solely rely on their leadership abilities in direct tasks. Soft skills are an equally important part of their arsenal. In the course of action to becoming a successful influencer, one should focus on:

Positive Attitude: Approach situations with a can-do spirit. A positive attitude can have a positive impact on the work environment.
Good Communication Skills: Not to be mistaken with mere talking. This encompasses clarity, understanding, and mutual benefits.

Step 5: Use the 6 Universal Principles of Influence and Persuasion

Robert Cialdini‘s research identified these 6 Universal Principles of influencing and persuasion. You can use these appropriately to strengthen your case for change and enrich your influencing skills.

The 6 Universal Principles of influencing and persuasion are:

Reciprocity
Social proof
Scarcity
Authority
Consistency
Liking

1. Reciprocity

People repay in kind. Do good things for others, and they are more likely to do good things for you in return.

2. Social proof

People follow the lead of similar others. Enhance your influencing skills by identifying people or businesses that your stakeholders respect. Show that they have had great results from doing something similar to the idea or innovation that you’re proposing.

3. Scarcity

It’s human nature to want more of what we think we can’t have. Let your stakeholders know that they are special, that this is a unique and important opportunity. Also, that there is a short, optimal window of time in which you need to take action to get the best results.

4. Authority

When unsure about something, people defer to experts. Your influencing plan will be more effective when you demonstrate that experts support your ideas and innovations.

5. Consistency

Stakeholders support commitments and causes that are consistent with their own goals and values. Use your influencing skills to show how your proposals connect with your stakeholders’ priorities.

6. Liking

We are more likely to listen to people who we think like and appreciate us. Find the positive in everyone. Demonstrate your respect and appreciation, even if they hold very different views to your own.

Step 6: Use the Trust Equation to Strengthen your Stakeholder Relationships

When you’re asking someone to collaborate with you, or buy into your ideas, you’re asking them to trust you. Use David Maister’s trust equation to identify how you might strengthen trust in your key stakeholder relationships.

Trustworthiness is a combination of credibility, reliability, intimacy (also called openness) and a balanced approach to self interest. This means self interest that also prioritizes the interests of the other party, for a win-win outcome.

You’ve now got a really useful, actionable high-level plan. Use it to begin gaining more support for your target innovation outcomes. All that’s left is for you to go and make your plan happen! Keep your grid updated as things change, so it always reflects the latest situation at all times.

Innovation Leadership

To innovate in today’s rapidly-changing world, the critical steps involve mastering the art of persuasion and refining interpersonal skills. It’s also about understanding that there are no truly wrong answers, just new ways to approach problems. Building mutual respect and discovering common goals will strengthen your relationships. This will, in turn, support your innovation process and open up a new way of addressing challenges collaboratively.

Great leaders, or those with great influence, aren’t just born. They’re made through daily refinement of their skills, role-modeling a good example, and most importantly, understanding human beings. It’s not just about the technicalities of leadership positions or the opposite effect of bad leadership. It’s about being a good human being, one who recognizes the needs, desires, and potential in others. This creates a win-win culture, that is mutually supportive.

Influence by Elevating Others

To be a good innovation leader, be a good influencer. And to be a good influencer, always aim to understand, respect, and elevate those around you.

What Works for You?

I will post more on specific influencing techniques for different people and situations in future articles. I’d love to hear what you think in the meantime. Where are your challenges, and what works for you?

As always, if you’d like any one-to-one support and advice, or would like us to run an online or in-person Influencing Skills training programme for your business, please do get in touch with me direct via the contact us form here.

The post How to Improve Your Influencing Skills for Innovation appeared first on The Big Bang Partnership.

How to Deal with Difficult People at Work

Jo North — Fri, 09 Jun 2023 12:30:00 +0000

Difficult Individuals and Navigating Challenging Conversations in Professional Life

Dispelling the Myth: Redefining ‘Difficult Person’

Most of us feel that they have encountered difficult people in their career. As a facilitator who has trained a myriad of professionals aiming to become successful change-makers, business influencers, and creative facilitators, I have frequently encountered the question: “How do I effectively handle difficult individuals?”

Whether it’s in our personal relationships or professional life, we all face challenging conversations and difficult situations, often grappling with the notion of a ‘difficult person.’ This term, however, could be misleading and an oversimplification of reality.

From my experience, labeling someone as a ‘difficult person’ often stems from a lack of understanding of their personal circumstances, natural reactions, emotions, or needs. It might lead us down the wrong way, blocking our ability to establish healthy, respectful relationships.

Embracing Empathy: Setting the Stage for Healthy Interactions

Through hard work, continuous learning, and frequent encounters with diverse individuals, I’ve learned that the best ways to handle difficult behavior involve a dose of empathy and setting clear expectations. In each interaction, regardless of the person’s perceived difficulty, I take the first step towards empathizing with their point of view. I approach the situation as if each individual is in pursuit of something meaningful – acceptance, understanding, and a sense of purpose.

This shift in perspective has enabled me to foster mutual understanding and cultivate healthier relationships, even in the most challenging situations. It might seem like an uphill task, but the peace of mind and professional harmony it offers are worth the effort.

Shifting Perspectives: Unraveling the Root Cause of Difficult Behavior

Difficult conversations and problematic people often result in incredibly awkward situations. It’s our natural tendency to avoid these situations or to react negatively, considering it a type of self-preservation. However, such reactions can lead to a negative impact on our mental health and the overall professional atmosphere.

A more effective approach to dealing with such circumstances is to understand the root cause of their behavior. Research, including from Psychology Today and the Harvard Business Review, shows the importance of comprehending the needs and emotions of others when dealing with difficult relationships.

Throughout my career, I have found the dice analogy incredibly useful in understanding others’ perspectives. Imagine a dice placed between us. If you’re looking at the number 5, it means I’m looking at the number 2. This is because the opposite sides always add up to 7. We are both viewing the same dice but from different perspectives – and we are both correct in our views. The same goes for dealing with difficult individuals. By walking around to their side of the dice, we get to understand their point of view better. We foster mutual understanding and respect, even without necessarily agreeing with them.

It’s important to see all sides of the dice

Turning Challenges into Opportunities: The Path to Personal Growth

Navigating through the labyrinth of difficult relationships, understanding the different types of difficult people, and handling challenging conversations effectively generates personal growth. Each interaction, even the ones that seem difficult or problematic, can be a learning experience. If we embrace these opportunities, they can help us broaden our understanding, improve our communication skills, and cultivate empathy.

In the long run, skillfully managing these complex relationships leads to peace of mind and professional growth. It also creates a healthier, more positive work environment. The next time you find yourself facing such a situation, take a step back. View it with a growth mindset. Let these experiences be your stepping stones to higher ground, helping you evolve into a better version of yourself.

Approach challenging conversations with a growth mindset

Difficult People Help Us To Develop

Every individual and every situation we encounter in our professional life offer us a lesson. The more we learn, the better equipped we are to handle similar situations in the future. There’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach here. Instead, we evolve our methods and strategies based on our own experiences, forming our unique style of handling difficult relationships and situations.

Dealing with Difficult People: Final Thoughts and Reflections

Understanding, empathy, patience, and clear communication will help you enormously when dealing with difficult individuals. This shift doesn’t happen overnight – it’s a journey requiring constant effort, reflection, and a willingness to adapt. But the end results are worth the effort – peace of mind, healthier professional relationships, and improved personal growth.

Remember, the “difficult person” might just be someone struggling to voice their concerns, ideas, or emotions. Being patient, showing empathy, and offering an understanding ear can work wonders in these situations. At the end of the day, we’re all different individuals with our unique challenges and strengths. Embracing this diversity can open doors to a more harmonious professional life and personal relationships.

Get in Touch

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The post How to Deal with Difficult People at Work appeared first on The Big Bang Partnership.

How to Be a Change Maker. The Definitive Guide

Jo North — Sat, 30 Oct 2021 10:39:53 +0000

In this article, ‘How to Be a Change Maker. The Definitive Guide“, I do a deep dive into what being a change maker means, give examples of change making leadership and projects. I also share some tools, techniques and insights to help you develop your change making skills.

By the end of this article, you’ll have a clearer idea of what is involved in being a successful change maker.

I hope that you’ll also have also learned more about how to develop, communicate and influence, as well as making your great business ideas happen, becoming a successful change maker in your organisation.

How to Be a Change Maker – Contents

How to Be a Change Maker – Part 1

In the first part of the article, I go into detail about what becoming and being a change maker means in practise, including:

What is a change maker?
What is another word for change maker?
What is the role of a change maker?
What is the relationship between change making and innovation?
What are change maker values?
What are the characteristics of a change maker?
What are the skills and mindset of a change maker?
Change maker talent development
Who are some change makers?
Follow LinkedIn’s Change Makers-UK
Ashoka Young’s Change Makers Program

How to Be a Change Maker – Part 2

In part two of the article, I share practical tools, techniques and insights to help you to develop your own change making skills and confidence. Part two includes:

White Square Thinking
What keeps people stuck?
Co-creation and change making
How to make your big idea take off
Behavioral economics for change makers
Next steps

How to Lead and Manage Change – Livestream.

Developing your change making skills and impact

Would you like to develop the change making creativity, confidence and impact of you or your team? If so, please do get in touch. We run awesome Change Maker programs to support emerging and established leaders achieve their purpose-driven leadership mission.

Our programs are customized to your specific needs, wherever you’re located in the world, and whatever your positive change mission. We deliver online or in-person, to suit you.

We are also in the process of developing an affordable, on-demand online self-study Change Making program. if you’d like to know more, please get in touch and I’ll look at inviting you to participate in our beta version, or add you to the waiting list for launch in January 2022.

Change Making. How to Make Great Things Happen.

How to Be a Change Maker – Part 1

1. What is a change maker?

A change maker is someone who spots opportunity that will contribute to the greater good. They creatively set about innovating to fulfil that opportunity. The change maker inspires and influences others to join and support them in their change making journey, persisting until the positive difference is achieved.

The term change maker was popularized by Bill Clinton, who often described his wife, Hillary Clinton, as a change maker. In fact, change maker was the term first used by Bill Drayton (Yale Law) in the 1970s.

Bill Drayton was also responsible for the increased use of the term ‘social entrepreneur.’

2. What is another word for change maker?

Other words for change maker include:

Innovator
Entrepreneur
Intrapreneur
Change agent
Change leader
Reformer
Influencer
Mover and shaker
Activator
Agitator
Disruptor
Spearhead

Sometimes, ‘change maker’ appears as one word: ‘changemaker’; or with a hyphen: ‘change-maker’.

Thought Leadership and Innovation Livestream.

3. What is the role of a change maker?

The role of a change maker is to achieve positive change for the greater good by taking innovative action. It is also to influence and inspire others to join, support and contribute to the change effort until it is achieved.

Change makers work in a variety of contexts. Some examples are: social change, business, education, environment, technology.

4. What is the relationship between change making and innovation?

Innovation is a new method, idea or product that satisfies a need and creates value. Something innovative renews or alters the way something has been done.

Innovation requires the skills of creativity, critical thinking, communication, strategic thinking and problem solving.

Innovation and change making are inextricably linked.

Change making is about making innovation happen. It’s also about spreading great ideas for positive change, and influencing others to actively contribute towards making a positive difference.

Innovation is structural, change is about people. A change maker combines the two to create a lasting, meaningful, positive difference.

5. What are change maker values?

Values are the important beliefs and guiding principles that we see as being non-negotiable in our lives. They are a sort of personal moral compass.

The change maker’s over-riding purpose is to contribute towards making a difference for the greater good.

Values are highly personal, so each change maker’s values are different. That said, change maker values are usually consistent with being responsible and accountable, open and transparent, doing the right thing and working collaboratively. Whatever their values, they do their best to remain true to them at all times.

6. What are the characteristics of a change maker?

Successful change makers share these characteristics:

Resilience – the tenacity to persist, and also to withstand criticism
Vision – a clear view of the brighter future they are working towards
Commitment – a deep conviction, demonstrated by action, that what they are working towards really matters
Integrity – they do the right thing, no matter how difficult that might be
Connection – they relate to others, create community and galvanize people to join the change mission.

7. What are the skills and mindset of a change maker?

Change makers are thought leaders.

Change makers need a growth mindset to succeed. They have high levels of emotional intelligence, especially communication and influencing skills.

Leaders of change think creatively to solve problems, and to set out a compelling vision of the potential future that inspires others to take positive action. They have courage, and dare to be different.

8. Change maker talent development

As a leader, it’s important to not only be a change maker yourself, but also to develop change making talent in others.

Me and my team here at The Big Bang Partnership are super proud to be working with Port of Tyne on their Change Makers talent development programme.

Over two years, new graduates and employees of the Port will undertake the Port’s ‘Change Makers’ programme, a high performance learning and development programme aimed at developing their skills and potential at the Port, and supporting the future of the Port from within. In the first year, the programme will cover 7 modules including managing projects, communication excellence, and implementing change, amongst others identified as key capabilities for future leaders.

As part of the Change Makers programme, the participants will have the opportunity to hear from guest speakers based within the Port and externally, and the option to take advantage of regular one-to-one mentoring sessions with the Port’s leadership team.

The programme will also encourage ‘reverse mentoring’ in which the participants will be encouraged to bring their skills and knowledge, as the next generation, to help the managers, directors and executives understand new thinking and approaches to work, both culturally and professionally.

9. Who are some change makers?

Here are just a few examples of change makers:

Matt Beeton, on Leadership. You can see one of Matt’s TedX Talks below. Matt shares the message that leadership is based on people, vision and passion.
Amanda Selvaratnam of the University of York. Through her work with Department of International Trade and as a DiT Export Champion much of Amanda’s work involves promoting the UK Higher Education and Corporate Training sector to overseas governments and corporations. She regularly speaks to audiences of UK businesses on export and international business.
Traci Shirachi, CEO of The Mark USA Inc. The Mark USA Inc is one of the few women-owned and managed evaluation firms focused on social outcomes, passionate about bringing different or divergent interests together as one to define impact. You can listen to Traci’s podcast here.

Matt Beeton, sharing 20 years’ research into what all great leaders have in common.

10. LinkedIn’s Change Makers

For stories of inspirational change makers, Follow LinkedIn’s Change Makers UK is definitely worth a read. The article features eight people who are making a significant difference in domains such as diversity and inclusion, career development, mental health and sustainability.

11. Ashoka Young Change Makers Program

If you know a young person under the age of 20 who is looking to champion positive change, you might want to introduce them to the Ashoka Young Change Makers Program.

“Ashoka Young Change Makers Program is a carefully selected network of young people who have found their power to create change for the good of all, and who are engaging their peers and the entire society in realizing a world where everyone is a changemaker.”
Ashoka.org

How to Be a Change Maker – Part 2

In this part of the article, I share practical tools, techniques and insights to help you to develop your own change making skills and confidence.

1. White Square Thinking

So what is white square thinking? Well, there is a great story to illustrate this for you.

As the story goes, and this may be a true story, or a myth, no one really knows!

One day, a group of veterans was brought into the very grounds they had previously trained on so they could watch the training and visit the very place where they trained in years gone by.

Before training had begun, one of the veterans walked into the middle of the parade ground and started inspecting it and prodding the ground with his stick. Wondering if he was OK, his friends inquired what he was doing.

The veteran soldier said, “It used to be my job to paint all the white lines and the markings on the floor of the parade ground. And one day, I spilt some paint and made a real mess. So, I painted the spill into a square to make it look as if it should be there.

Looking at this now, they’ve still been painting that same square ever since I was a young trainee here in this very place.

They’ve been painting the same square, even though it has no purpose.

But it’s nice to see that the square is here.”

So that is White Square Thinking is. It’s about things that we do just because we’ve always done them. Things that we have or things that we use just because they’re there, rather than thinking about the purpose they might have and challenging it and doing things differently.

Sometimes we can be so used to our environment or routine, that we don’t see the possibilities around us!

Change makers see these possibilities, and use their visioning, communication and community-building skills to help others see and pursue those possibilities, too.

2. What keeps people stuck?

So what keeps you stuck? What makes change so difficult? Why do society, businesses and communities need change makers?

When we begin to understand this, we can develop strategies that change makers can use to to help get people ‘unstuck’.

There is good evidence that shows there are a number of things that keep us stuck and unable to change.

First, there is inertia. We actually use a lot of energy keeping things where we are right now. And we have a system as humans called ‘homeostasis‘ or the ‘whole ethos’.

We are designed to stay where we are, to keep our temperature even, to keep us in a routine and security, and to keep everything ticking as it should.

Change means that we’ve got to rethink things, to reimagine and work out different ways of doing things.

Our brain is such a large energy consumer in our body and it uses a lot of glucose, so we’d rather not expend energy where we don’t have to!

So sometimes it’s easier to stay where we are.

And sometimes because we know our environment, we know our routine, it can be more challenging to change.

Another reason it’s challenging for people to change is that the more embedded our thought patterns and habits are, the stronger the neural pathways in the brain.

We have trillions of neurons, more than there are stars in the Milky Way, and they’re always connecting, sharing information, connecting our thoughts, our ideas, our processes.

“The brain has as many neurons as there are stars in the Milky Way, each connected to other neurons by billions of spines.“
Leading female neuroscientist — Nancy Coover Andreasen

Stars in the Milky Way.

So the more we have a repeated way of doing things, the more we think the same way, the more strongly connected those neural pathways become.

It’s like having a path, and the more you go up and down that path, the more worn that path is going to become.

So when we say that we’re in a bit of a rut, we really are, from a neural point of view!

The good news is that our brains have neuroplasticity, so they have the ability to develop in different areas and strengthen other connections.

Our habits can all be overcome. It might take a bit of work and some persistence, but we can indeed overcome, develop or even just enhance them with other types of thinking.

And, of course, there’s a paradox. We need both certainty AND uncertainty!

And this is really interesting, because as changemakers ourselves, sometimes we can experience tension when we want to do something. We really want to try, but we talk ourselves out of it or hold ourselves back.

Change makers can see how and why people or society might be ‘stuck’ in a suboptimal way of thinking. They aren’t afraid to challenge this, point out the flaws, inadequacies and inequalities, and share a vision for a brighter, better future.

3. Co-creation and change making

Another reason we sometimes get stuck where we are is referred to as the IKEA effect.

The Ikea Effect is the idea that we always prefer something that we have contributed towards building or that we’ve built ourselves.

If we have a part in the change, we’re more likely to want to see that change through and make sure it happens.

Whereas, if the change is done without our involvement or when we perceive that somebody else is subjecting us to the change, then we tend to resist that change and it doesn’t feel as comfortable or as positive for us.

Co-creation means collaborating to shape the change together.

Change makers use co-creation to get people engaged in the change as early as possible, let them know that their opinions count, that they have influence, and that they can be part of designing the change.

4. How to make your big idea take off

Making your big idea take off begins with thinking about why you’re doing it in the first place. Not the rational reason, but what is motivating you to make this change.

Watch the Start With Why video from Simon Sinek. You can also read his book, Start with Why.

To summarize, Simon Sinek says that organizations and people often start with what they want to do, and then think about how they’re going to do it, instead of actually starting with why.

Simon uses the example of Apple and how they want to think differently. What we get from Apple is usually distinctive and successful, because they start with why.

Successful change makers start with ‘why’.

They also need belief and skill to make their big idea for change take off:

Belief in their ‘why’; their vision – that it can be done; in themselves – self-efficacy.
Skill with influencing, creativity, problem-solving, and more.

Change makers also need to be able to adapt as their change develops.

5. Behavioral economics for change makers

Behavioral economics is is the study of psychology as it relates to the economic decision-making processes of individuals and institutions (source: Investopedia).

Having a working understanding of how people make decisions is important for successful change making.

Understand the subconscious nature of decision-making

Change makers understand that 95% of the decisions that people make are subconscious.

Professor Zaltman of Harvard performed research on decision-making and found that 95% of the decisions that people make are subconscious.

His research found that many consumers report comparing multiple competing brands and price points when shopping, but that not actually being the case.

When making decisions, people actually shortcut them based on the other judgments that they make.

What this means is that change makers need to focus on the non-conscious decision-making processes. They should also be focusing on behavior rather than simply making people aware of things or thinking about having a change in attitude.

The change makers who drive true transformation and change drive changes in behavior.

Frame the change challenge well

Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel Prize winner, conducted an experiment where he asked people to pick which doctor they would prefer.

Imagine you have a health problem and the doctor suggests an operation. You would like to understand whether the Doctor could be relied upon for the surgery.

You receive the following framed answers.

1. Out of 100 patients who had this operation, ninety are still alive, even after five years.

This gives a positive view of the doctor and many were comfortable to choose this doctor.

2. Out of 100 patients who had this operation, ten were dead before the end of five years.

Not many were willing to choose this doctor.

You can see that the information is actually the same, but how it was framed drove the ultimate answer for the patients choosing a doctor.

Change makers might use either positive or negative framing when they’re looking to influence a change, depending on the outcome that they’re aiming to drive.

Use present bias

People have a tendency to prefer benefits that they’re going to get in the short term to benefits that they’re going to get in the longer term.

This is one of the reasons why some global financial services companies are finding it challenging to sell pension plans to people in their 20s, 30s, and early 40s. The focus on retirement seems such a long way away!

People like quick wins. When they are aiming transformational change, change makers make sure there are some quick wins for the people involved, as well as the long term vision and benefits.

Loss aversion

People prefer to prevent loss over achieving gain. Avoiding loss is sometimes a bigger motivator than attaining something that we don’t have.

Once we’ve had something and experienced something, we miss it more and we regret that we’ve lost it.

There have been studies that show that we feel more disappointed when we lose £10 pounds of money than if we were to get £10 that we weren’t expecting.

To combat loss aversion, change makers ask people to make a public commitment to the change.

People who sign up are more likely to follow through on their promises to themselves, because they’re committing and pledging publicly.

Confirmation bias

There is a cartoon by thedecisionlab.com that has one person saying, “Did you read my paper on confirmation bias?” The other person responds with “Yes, but it only proved what I already knew.”

Source: thedecisionlab.com

And that’s a brilliant summary of what confirmation bias is all about.

People subconsciously look for things that corroborate or validate the point of view that they already have.

And this is where social media works so brilliantly as a concept, because the algorithms are working out what we like, what our beliefs are, and our paradigm of the world, and then presenting us with things that are consistent with that. Social media algorithms understand confirmation bias!

Change makers understand confirmation bias, and aren’t afraid of going against the grain. They appreciate that the greater the diversity of opinion, points of view and lifestyles that we’re all exposed to, the more tolerant we become of each other, the more understanding we have and the wider our perspective becomes.

Change makers stay front of mind

I like the illustration that you can find on James Clear’s website.

Imagine a big circle that says “What actually happens in the world” and then in that huge circle there’s a tiny little circle, or a dot that says, “Covered in the news”.

Source: James Clear

This illustrates the ‘availability heuristic’. We focus on what’s covered in the news because that’s the stuff we’re hearing about all the time. It’s accessible to us and we’re hearing it repeatedly.

However, just because the information is readily available doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a true priority for us.

When change makers have got a change coming, they start to prepare the audience by talking about it early. This helps to warm people to the idea by frequency of conversation. It means that when change makers are ready to share their ideas more fully, the ground has been laid and people will be more receptive.

Change makers also use the principle of the availability heuristic to help their cause stay front of mind in the minds of others.

Norms

Change makers intuitively appreciate that people are influenced by norms, and two types of norms in particular:

What we see other people doing, leading us to ask ourselves if we, too, should be doing the same thing; and
What we think others think we should do – what we believe the expectations of others might be.

Change makers create a movement, community or sea change of support to use these norms for the greater good.

Competition heuristic

The competition heuristic happens when people measure what they are doing and how they are performing against others. And let’s be honest, many of us want to do as well as others on things that matter to us.

Change makers share information about how other people are doing, because that helps motivate others make the changes.

A good example of this comes out of Cape Town where water shortages are particularly severe. The local water supply company shows maps with water usage by each house.

When water is short, you don’t want to be on the map as being the house that’s using too much water!

So of course, that’s something that drives positive change.

Similarily, in the United States, multiple studies have found that giving customers feedback on how their water consumption compares to their neighbors also drove reductions in consumption as well.

Change makers let people know in a responsible way how they’re doing to drive progress towards positive change.

Change makers use social proof

Examples of using social proof to drive change include the merge used by HMRC, which is the tax office in the United Kingdom.

They published a campaign that said, “Nine out of 10 people in the UK pay their tax on time.”

In using that message, they received £210 million additional in tax payments, above and beyond what had already been paid.

Similarly, hotels place notices about towel usage, such as “Nearly 3/4 of hotel guests choose to reuse their towels each day.” This messaging cuts the number of replaced towels by 17%!

These are things that have been studied, tracked, and researched, and they really do work.

As a side note the more personally relevant or local the message is, the better. So use your local town, community, organization, team, or business.

Next steps for developing your change making skills and impact

Our programs are customized to your specific needs, wherever you’re located in the world, and whatever your positive change mission. We deliver online or in-person, to suit you.

The post How to Be a Change Maker. The Definitive Guide appeared first on The Big Bang Partnership.

Business Storytelling for Innovators, Facilitators & Change Makers

Jo North — Fri, 24 Sep 2021 06:38:00 +0000

It is super-important that, in our roles as innovators, facilitators and change makers, we learn to use business storytelling to engage others, bring ideas to life and communicate brilliantly. Business stories can be about our innovations, products, services, brands, businesses, and about ourselves as leaders.

Business Storytelling for Innovators, Facilitators & Change Makers video

Tips and Techniques for Business Storytelling

This article is all about why business storytelling is such a powerful tool in your your innovation or facilitation leadership skillset. I also share some great techniques and approaches to help you make your business stories compelling and on point.

Read on to find out more about:

Why everyone has a story to tell
What is a story?
Why are stories so compelling?
Business storytelling and transformation
How to construct a great business story
Making an impact with business storytelling
How to be a great business storyteller

Business Storytelling – Why Everyone has a Story to Tell

You have a story to tell. You actually have multiple stories to tell, and you’ve been telling stories all your life!

If you think about company presentations, business articles, run-of-the-mill business performance updates, training courses and so on that you’ve experienced, I’m sure you might agree that they are so much more engaging when there’s a story involved.

This is because stories provide more meaning, and a more personal connection.

As humans we relate to stories. We tell each other stories all the time – for example sharing great or bad customer experience, what we did on holiday, the conversation we had with a client or the boss. All those daily anecdotes and catch ups we have are packed with mini stories.

Storytelling in business doesn’t have to be about major things. Sometimes those small, thoughtful or everyday anecdotes can really help in your meetings or business writing as well.

Drop in a story about what you’ve been doing, something that you’ve experienced or read to really bring your business communication to life. Share short anecdotes, or even centre your whole communication piece around a single story.

What is a Story?

Stories go beyond time and space, and they’re not just confined to writing.

We see stories in great art, film, music, film and photography. Stories are all around us.

Stories are fundamental to successful businesses.We can use them to share how our product or service will help our target customers

We can use stories to explain, to sell, to inform, to communicate, and to inspire. Stories are also what make us human.

No other animals on earth (as far as we’re aware) are capable of telling them!

So stories are really part of who we are, part of our evolution.

Stories help us to remember facts

We’re 22 times more likely to remember a fact when it has been wrapped in a story.

There’s been some great work carried out by cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner, which demonstrates that if you want people to remember something or you need a fact to stand out and be remembered, tell a story about it!

Why are Stories so Compelling?

Stories are..

Words, sounds and pictures
How we communicate and connect with one another

Stories are a key characteristic of being human, they are part of who we are. Humans have been telling each other stories in the most primitive stages of our development as a species, in cave drawings, around the fire, in songs, passing on history and information about hunting, danger, skills, the environment and much more.

Cave painting

Benefits of Stories

Through stories, we create community.

Through stories, we use our imagination and our creativity. We can envision a world that doesn’t exist, put ourselves in somebody else’s shoes, and see life through their eyes.

Using stories we can think about different possibilities and play around with different options.

Storytelling is a shared communication, in which can ideas come alive and can light up our imaginations with collective engagement and wonder. Great stories are super powerful.

Get Storytelling Techniques for Facilitators FREE here

Pictures are Important in Storytelling

Our brains process images 60,000 times faster than text.

Andrew Huberman, biological neuroscientist from Stanford University, tell us that our eyes are part of our brain, the only part which is ‘outside’.

We’re constantly taking in and processing information very quickly, and working out what’s relevant and what’s not.

90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, so images are hugely important.

Stories Stir Emotion

We want to listen to stories and know what happens next. We feel the ups and downs of the characters. This is why many of us would rather watch a movie on Netflix, rather than listen to a company presentation!

So how can we take some of those principles and apply them to our work lives? And how can we bring them appropriately and practically into the day-to-day?

One thing that we can learn from a Netflix blockbuster is shown by some research by the American neuroscientist, Anne Krendl.

In an experiment, Krendl had people watch a Clint Eastwood film, and tracked their hormones and their reactions whilst watching the film.

When the actor’s character displayed emotion, the viewers’ brains responded as if they, too, were feeling the emotion. This is because when you enjoy a story with an empathetic protagonist at its centre, your brain floods with the love hormone, oxytocin.

However, during a tense scene, the audience released the stress hormone, cortisol.

When you are telling your stories, take people on a journey and vary between exciting, dynamic, inspiring, thoughtful moments to really engaged your audience and connect them with your communication.

Business Storytelling and Transformation

We are all building a story about everything and everyone around us at every moment of every day.

If we don’t tell a story fully, the people listening will fill in the gaps for themselves.

Sometimes you’ll want them to do that, because you want them to be creative.

At other times, though, there may be a clear message that you want to get across, and it’s important then that you tell the full story so that your audience isn’t being left to their own devices to fill in the gaps, potentially with incorrect interpretations.

Take into consideration the different stories that your audience might be telling themselves, as well as the stories that you tell yourself, because all stories are about transformation of of some kind.

The aim of any business communication, from a high stakes presentation through to an update at a regular team meeting is to achieve a transformation. It could be as simple as giving people a small piece of new information, or inspiring them to take action and make significant change.

Because if not, then your communication at best is maybe mildly interesting, possibly entertaining.

So as you prepare to tell your business story, really think hard and ask yourself these questions:

Why you want to tell your story, and why now?
What is the transformation that you want to create and why?
What do you want your audience to think, feel, say and do as a result of it?

How to Construct a Great Business Story

The Hero’s Journey Story Structure, also known as the Monomyth

Joseph Campbell studied many stories across time, and saw that each different story is actually the same story. In his book, Hero with a Thousand Faces, he called this story “The Hero’s Journey.”

There is a hero who is in the known environment, then something happens or something changes. And then that hero goes off into an unknown situation, something different, something that he or she hasn’t experienced before.

And during that journey into the unknown, there may be helpers along the way. But there are challenges, there are things that the hero needs to overcome. And that’s where it can be really quite nail biting and interesting and exciting. Will they do it, won’t they?

Now, the hero is someone that needs to be flawed, imperfect, but also with enough good in them to make us, the audience, empathize with them.

So this flawed character goes through challenges, usually overcomes them, and then goes back into the known world again, a transformed person with learning that they can never unlearn.

In every story when you think about it, whether it’s a Star Wars Story, your favorite soap opera, even a reality TV show, people are going through that sort of journey, and we see the Hero’s Journey repeated over and over again.

So you can take your team, the people you’re working with or your clients on on that hero’s journey through structuring your business communication by “borrowing” from the Hero’s Journey format.

The Mountain Story Structure

A complement or alternative to the Hero’s Journey method of structuring your business story is the mountain.

In the mountain storytelling structure you start off at your introductory position, the foot of the mountain, and the story builds and builds until you get to the summit, or the height of the story.

And then there’s a really big finish! Everything in the story has been building up to a massive ending, a crescendo.

The Sparklines Story Structure

The sparklines story structure reminds me of a roller coaster, because you’re taking people from the reality of where things are today and then lifting them to the potential vision and future that tomorrow could bring, and then you bring them down to reality again, and then lift them up to the future again.

You can see this in action in this extract of Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech.

“I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.”
Martin Luther King, I Have A Dream Speech

Analysis of Sparklines

When you analyze Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech, you can see the sparkline format in action.

“I say to you today, my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today, and tomorrow, I have a dream.”

So he’s saying today, and tomorrow we have difficulties, but there is a dream. So we’re immediately going from here at the bottom of the roller coaster, and up again.

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

Again, the contrast continues about what that future could be.

And there’s a line in there, which is “I have a dream that one day, even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.”

So in Mississippi today there’s injustice and oppression, and it’s going to be transformed one day into an oasis of freedom and justice.

This is a really powerful example of the sparkline story structure in action, and it works by juxtaposing the reality of now with the future of tomorrow.

You can use this method to construct any business story about future change, showing the contrast between how things are today, and the benefits that you believe the change will bring.

The Medias Res Story Structure

Media Res is Latin for ‘in the middle of things’.

This is where you start a story not at the beginning, but partway through.

A great example of this is in Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, where she wrote:

“I’d never given much thought as to how I would die, though I’d had reason enough in the last few months. But even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this.”
Stephenie Meyer

Isn’t that a great start? We don’t know what’s happened before, as this is our starting position. But we are intrigued and we want to find out more!

It’s different from the linear story structure, which is “Once upon a time there was … “, with events happening in a chronological sequence from the beginning.

So in your business storytelling, you could start in the middle or end, hook your audience quickly, and then build from there.

Making an Impact with Business Storytelling

Business storytelling is about engaging the head, heart and hands of your audience. Here’s what I mean.

For the people listening, it’s about the head. They need to recognize that the message you’re putting across is logical, rational and that it makes sense.

Storytelling also needs to connect with people’s hearts, because we are emotional creatures. We make our decisions based on emotion, on how we want to feel. Then we rationalize those decisions with logic after the event, even sometimes in seconds.

Plus your story needs to mean something to your audience. When we’re listening to a story, particularly when it involves a change, or some learning for us, we’re always asking how it applies to us and “what’s in it for me?”.

Finally, we come to the hands, which means inspiring your audience to take action. I love Brene Brown’s approach, as she says that when we learn something, we only really learn it when we use our hands, meaning that we only truly learn when we put it into practise.

Steps for Applying the Head, Heart & Hands Storytelling Structure

Step 1: Question – help the audience to reflect and think about the ‘why’
Step 2: Story – help the audience to imagine; make the journey resonate: include the challenges on the way (Hero’s Journey)
Step 3: Result – help the audience to see and remember the positive impact that will come
Step 4: Call to action – guide the audience to what they need to do next

Tips for Business Storytelling

Look at the Storytelling that Happens All Around Us

Think, for example, about the Coronavirus pandemic, and all the storytelling that politicians, leaders, and the media have been doing throughout to manage the situation and communicate with people. They’ve been using stories to share the latest statistics, let us know how they think we should behave and why, and the actions we need to take to stay safe and save lives. Some of that storytelling has been brilliant, and some has been really lacking.

Whenever you see storytelling in action, look and listen closely. Think about what’s working well and what’s not, then build those lessons and insights into your own practise.

Are you Ready to Tell Your Business Story?

Sometimes you’ve got a great business story to tell and it’s really easy to prepare for. At other times in business we have to deliver tough news. Make sure that you’re in the right place mentally and emotionally to get your message across in the most effective way possible.

Be Authentic

The key thing is to be yourself, to be AUTHENTIC. Being authentic in leadership means being genuine, self-aware and transparent. Being authentic inspires loyalty and trust. In business, of course, trust is invaluable. Trust takes a long time to build and it can be destroyed quickly.

The Trust Equation. Trust in Business. Video

So always do what you say, be as honest and open as possible, and be authentic.

Empathy and Authority

Is also about achieving the right balance between having empathy for the audience, or where they’re at and what they’re feeling, and demonstrating that empathy.

Empathy is the ability to put yourself into somebody else’s shoes and to see things from their perspective.

You also need high levels of authority. In this context, authority is about credibility, confidence and clarity. When you’ve got empathy and authority working together, you’ll inspire confidence and trust.

If you’ve only got high levels of authority and low levels of empathy, you’ll come across as being cold and uncaring.

If you have low levels of empathy and low levels of authority, you’ll inspire neither confidence nor trust.

And when you have high levels of empathy, but you’re not credible, confident and clear, you’ll come across as being caring, but ineffectual.

So it’s important to have authority (which is defined as credibility, confidence and clarity), as well as a strong connection with the point of view of your audience, and to demonstrate that you genuinely appreciate their point of view, too.

Amplify the Signal and Minimize the Noise

There’s a lot of noise, distraction and interference that can get in the way of people understanding your message as you intend it.

Nancy Duarte, as you may know, worked with Steve Jobs in presentation skills and storytelling.

And what she says is “Amplify the signal and minimize the noise”.

This means doing these things:

Tell your story as clearly as possible.
Remove anything that can get in the way, such as…
- Using unclear words or phrases
- External noise
- Bias
Focus on the things that you want to say, and say only those things. Sometimes we can say too much, and in doing so, we don’t get our message across. We actually communicate less than if we’d been more concise in the first place.

Next Steps

I hope you’ve got some great tips for your own business storytelling.

I run customized live, virtual sessions on this topic for clients, packed with examples and designed to help my clients craft their own specific business stories.

If that is something you’d like to know more about, then do get in touch and I’d love to help you.

Also, I have a free storytelling for facilitators toolkit available for download on my website as well as loads of other resources for innovators, facilitators, change makers and leaders.

If you’d like to book us to deliver some professional virtual facilitation for you and your team, or would like a one-to-one virtual facilitation training and coaching session, you can find out more about what we do here, or contact me direct using the form below and I’ll get straight back to you.

Join my free Idea Time for Workshop Facilitators private Facebook Group

If you’re interested in facilitation and developing your professional practise as a facilitator, come and join me in my free, private Facebook Group, Idea Time for Workshop Facilitators.

As well as a fantastic community of likeminded people, you will get access to free facilitation trainings, tools, techniques and time savers.

The post Business Storytelling for Innovators, Facilitators & Change Makers appeared first on The Big Bang Partnership.

How to Write a Business Case for Your Innovation

Jo North — Wed, 21 Jul 2021 11:58:47 +0000

Do you need to write an innovation business case?

In this article, I show you how to get started with creating a business case for your innovation, and how to overcome some of the challenges you’re likely to experience, such as dealing with risk and uncertainty.

Live video recording: How to write a business case for your innovation

What is an innovation business case?

An innovation business case captures WHY you want to action your innovation. It’s usually a short, written document that includes the tangible and intangible risks and benefits of the innovation, and the rationale of why the innovation should be actioned and supported.

An innovation business should contain all the key financial and non-financial data needed so that the reader can make an informed decision on whether or not to proceed with the innovation. It justifies the investment decision – investment in time, money and opportunity cost- in the innovation, taking known and “known unknowns” into account.

Overall, the fundamental purpose of an innovation business case is to stack up whether or not your proposed idea worth doing.

Trust and your innovation business case

When you present someone with an innovation business case, you’re asking them to trust in you – your idea, judgment and capability for achieving the results that you say your innovation will achieve. Your innovation business case needs to be reliable, credible, transparent and directly aligned to the strategic and tactical objectives of your organisation.

60 second video on trust in business relationships

It’s essential that you invest time, care and attention in creating your innovation business case. Its quality is a reflection of you and your personal brand.

How long should an innovation business case be?

An innovation business case should be as long as it needs to be, and no longer. It’s important to make sure that you only include information in your business case that is material to the decision-making process, and leave out superfluous items. The reason is that by excluding information that is not influential in the decision-making process, you’ll make your business case much clearer to your reader. Present extra information in an appendix if you need to, but you should be able to articulate your argument clearly and succinctly.

I’ve presented business cases successfully valued in the tens of millions of dollars to just a few thousand. In my director and leadership roles, I have also been a decision-maker at the receiving end of other people’s innovation business case proposals. For many, even complex, long-term and high-value innovation proposals, the idea, rationale and supporting evidence can be communicated effectively in just a few pages.

What should you include in an innovation business case?

Each innovation business case is different, or course. That said, my starting point is always this list of heading prompts that I created. Expand on the ones that are more relevant to you, and skip over any that don’t apply.

BUT beware of not including something simply because you don’t know what to write, or don’t know the answer.

One of the great benefits of going through the process of writing your innovation business case is that you are prompted to consider factors that you haven’t thought of so far. In this case, make sure you explore it and see how you can get the answers – or at least some of them – that you’re missing.

A “known unknown’ is something that we know that we don’t know. If something is genuinely a “known unknown”, don’t skip over it. Address it head on, and show how you’re going to mitigate, or reduce the risk. Doing so actually increases the credibility of your innovation business much more than simply trying to brush the risk or gap under the carpet.

An innovation is, by definition, something that hasn’t been done before, in this way and at this time. Therefore you should expect to find that you have some questions and “known unknowns” about what might happen.

Prompts for writing your business case

Purpose of the innovation business case
Summary of the opportunity
Customer need
- Why do customers need this right now?
Competitor review
- What are competitors doing?
Market attractiveness
- Where’s the gap in the market?
- How attractive is the market?
Strategic fit
- How does this fit with your wider business and strategic goals?
Definition of success
- What’s your definition of success?
Key risks and mitigations
Non-tangible costs and benefits
Impact on the value chain or the wider business
- Will you need to bring in people from other departments or teams?
Proposed implementation approach
Key assumptions
- What assumptions are you making? Why?
Financials
- Three financial scenarios, for cost savings and /or revenue growth from the innovation: best case, most likely & worst case.
Cashflow implications
- NPV & payback period
Opportunity costs
- What are the other things that you could be doing instead of this particular innovation? Why are you recommending that this innovation takes priority right now?
Conclusion
Recommendations
Next steps

What are some of the challenges of writing an innovation business case?

The most common challenges that I see people struggling with when aiming to build an innovation business case are:

They have no clear definition of success, so find it difficult to build an argument as to why their innovation is investable. Identifying the purpose and target outcome right from the start is essential.

They have inaccurate or incomplete information. If this applies to you, focus on what you really need to know to make a decision, and leave the rest. Do your best to find the information you need, and demonstrate best endeavours in your business case write-up. Remember, though, that we rarely have a perfect set of data to base our decisions on, so you’ll have to step back and evaluate your innovation in the round. Also bear in mind that the past definitely doesn’t always project as a straight line into the future, so allow for that too.

Forecasting how the innovation will perform, for example sales forecasts, timings, costings. Do your research and idea testing, and be prepared to make some judgment calls. An assumption is something that you assume to be true for the purposes of developing your business case for innovation. Write down your assumptions, as you can go back, test and learn from these later. It’s also good professional practise to do so because it helps others to follow your rationale and consider those assumptions.

Risk aversion / gung-ho thinking. Everyone’s appetite for risk is different, it’s a very personal thing. Equally, some people are much more optimistic or pessimistic than others about potential likely outcomes. Try to be as objective as you can, and let the work you’ve done in gathering the numbers, facts, customer responses and so on build the story for your innovation business case. Avoid letting your emotions or personal agenda influence you too much.

Mini video lecture – Creating a Business Case for Innovation

Multiple stakeholders with different interests and views. It can be challenging to navigate a range of perspectives and agendas, but if you think positively about it and actively listen to your key stakeholders, you can use diversity to actually strengthen your innovation business case. Other people will spot things you’ve missed, and make suggestions that you might not have thought of. It can feel like herding cats, sometimes, but as long as you use your leadership skills and remain true to your purpose, leveraging multiple viewpoints is a healthy thing to do.

Time (aka procrastination). Sometimes we are genuinely super busy, but if the innovation is important to you then do create the time to do a great job of your innovation business case. I often see people putting off getting started with it because the innovation business case is so important to them! They want to do a great job, but perfectionism and self-imposed pressure prevent them from getting started. Use the heading prompts I’ve given you above to get going. They’ll help you as you won’t be starting with the dreaded blank sheet of paper!

How to reduce uncertainty?

Innovation comes with inherent risk. Make sure you try to identify and discuss the unknowns clearly in your business case. Whatever you do, don’t just brush them aside. Make sure you address them head on. This will actually give your innovation business case far more credibility than if you just pretend that all these risks don’t exist.

Next, make sure to gain as much clarity as you can on the things that you can. Focus on the issues that make a material difference. You don’t have to go down every rabbit hole to find every little bit of information.

Zoom in on finding out the things that really matter. What are the levers? What are the inputs and the outputs, and the costs and the revenues that are going to make a material difference?

Consider using the bullet proofing technique and work on those risks that are the most probable, and that could cause the biggest problems if they were to occur.

Bullet-proofing template

Think about those and then work out a strategy for dealing with those risks.

Cost checklist

To accompany your written innovation business case, create a spreadsheet that shows the timing and amounts for all the cost efficiencies (savings) and revenue. Here’s a checklist of items for you to consider.

Each item of capital expenditure needed
Employee costs
Ongoing operational costs
Legal, admin, accountancy, insurance, intellectual property protection
Projected sales from the innovation; and / or projected cost efficiencies / savings from the innovation. Show when they will start, and how they will build.

If you don’t know where to start with projected sales, I suggest you have a think about what your sales per week or month could be. What would be a realistic sales volume for you?

And again, remember to use the worst case, most likely case, and the best case scenarios. This is also called sensitivity analysis. When you do this, you can plan for each scenario from a financial or reputational perspective, and then plan for what you might put in place to gear up for each different scenario.

Evaluating your innovation business case

Next, it’s really important that you take a break from your business case for a while and focus on something else.

Then, come back and ask yourself…

Do the potential benefits truly justify the efforts, risk and investment?
When is this investment likely to pay back?
How will this investment impact our cash flow?

You’ll find my guide Do your reports make your business ideas shine? super helpful, too.

Lastly, you should have everything in front of you then that you need to make a decision, but make sure you adapt this to your needs.

You can find more information on this subject, as well as other innovation related topics on my website at www.bigbangpartnership.co.uk/resources.

The post How to Write a Business Case for Your Innovation appeared first on The Big Bang Partnership.