Thriving on Chaos - The Road to Creativity
January 22, 2008 by Steve Rosenbaum
Recently I had an opportunity to lead a number of process improvement sessions. One of the things that’s challenging is that it’s really a divergent/convergent process. By divergent I’m mean that early on the discussion is expansive with a lot of options. Later on as decisions are made the process is convergent leading to closure.
As a facilitator, it’s important to allow the early chaos to happen because that’s part of the creative process. I continuously remind everyone that this is a normal part of the process and everything will come into focus as we go along. A lot of people are uncomfortable with this messy state of affairs and try too soon to organize things or cut off discussion. You just have to push back and tell people to be patient. I use parking lots to help record all those ideas that we won’t be dealing with in order to keep some focus to the discussion.
I also let people know when we are shifting gears and going into the decison making phase. That’s the point were judgements are appropriate and necessary. I find that when I train others on this type of faciliation that they have to see this happen at least once to fully appreciate what really happens.
How often do you go back to the parking lot and address the items listed there?
At the end of each day we do a quick check. At the end of the session we do a quick action plan on what to do with the list which might be just forwading it. There also could be an email follow-up after the session. Kinda depends on what’s on the list and how large it is.
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