The Power of Questions

Facilitating Cross-Functional Collaboration

Exercise (3 min.)

Tell a partner about a time when your team talked at cross

purposes. What helpful action could you have taken?

Facilitation

Why, What, How?

(Real Fast!)

Do We Even Know It’s an Animal?

Onspoken assumptions and multiple perspectives mean

conversations must be carefully managed, i.e. facilitated

A Perspective on Facilitation

”If we make

interventions they

have to be

helpful” Edgar Schein

The aim is to help people succesfully coordinate their actions

and change unproductive patterns of communication

In Agile, Everyone’s a Facilitator

Self-organization also means assuming collective responsibility

for the quality of the communication and collaboration

Keep it, and

yourself,

real

Any action

is an

intervention

Accept your

ignorance

Focus on being

helpful to the

whole team

Forgive, and

learn from,

mistakes

Share

ownership

of the

problem

Go with the

flow Goal:

Perpetual

reciprocal

helping

3 Quick Facilitation Tips

Assessment Opening/

ideation Exploration

Manage the Conversation

”Con-

tract”

Decision/

selection

”Decision free zone”

Plan-

ning

”Timeouts”: Frequent checks that we are aligned and making progress

Conversation about substance

Conversation about conversation

”Criticism free zone”

Mix It Up

(Post-Its Are Not for Everyone!)

Embrace diversity in preferences for the form of the

collaboration, and experiment with what works for your team

Genererende spørgsmål

Ask Helpful Questions

Clarifying (linear) intent

Constructing (circular) intent

Future orientation Past orientation

What is the problem?

What should we do first?

What do other people think about this?

What options can we explore?

Detective Captain

Anthropologist Future

researcher

Exercise (3 min.)

Tell a partner about a (type of) question or activity you think will

be helpful to your team, and that you would like to try out.

References

• Ravn, Ib & Kjær, Anne Lise (2006): “Jeg opdagede, at formen

kan have indflydelse på, om en tværfaglig dialog kan lykkes”.

Kognition & Pædagogik, nr. 59, marts, pp. 46-55.

• Tomm, K. (1988): “Interventive interviewing: Part III. Intending

to ask lineal, circular, reflexive and strategic questions?”

Family Process, 27, 1–15.

• Schein, Edgar (2009): “Helping: How to Offer, Give, and

Receive Help”. Berret-Koehler.

Thanks!

http://www.linkedin.com/in/ulrikgade