Over the past few months I’ve been experimenting with how I set vision, goals and roadmap with teams.
My inspiration comes thanks to Sonia Turcotte and Clara Greo and their course on “Power and Privilege”.
Here are seven things that have made my workshops more empowering, inclusive and effective.
I used to procrastinate over planning workshops as I felt I had to do it all myself.
This last-minuteness created stress for my team - especially the introverts.
I now realise that starting early is fundamental to making workshops inclusive.
These days, I create an “agenda” doc and share it in draft. This enables the team to challenge the plan, suggest improvements and prepare themselves.
Planning ahead reduces stress and enables us to begin workshops confident and united.
It also enables me to involve other people.
I used to worry I’d be “burdening” colleagues by involving them in product workshops.
However, doing it all myself disempowered others on my team.
I know now that planning workshops with others allows them to shine.
These days, I team up with at least one person to plan every workshop. Recently, that was my brilliant Delivery Manager on the Verify team.
The process instantly becomes more joyful, creative and effective.
We also offer opportunities to others in the team to plan parts of the workshop.
Recently, we delegated part of the workshop to our Senior Performance Analyst. He invented a “Snakes and Ladders” game to help the team break down an epic.
Later, it gave me great pleasure to see him present the end results to the rest of the programme: proof that people of all disciplines can grow through doing Product Management.
Teams love to experience workshops created by fellow team members - especially developers. So it’s a win-win-win.
Creating workshops from scratch is great fun but incredibly time-consuming. It’s also riskier than picking up something tried and tested.
This is where playbooks come in.
The one I’m most familiar with is Liberating Structures.
I’ve also found the Atlassian playbook useful as a starting point.
And just recently, I purchased Beyond Sticky Notes: Co-design for Real: Mindsets, methods and movements and Design Justice by Sasha Costanza-Chock which I know will be further sources.
Having a diverse group of facilitators livens up a workshop. It also gives team members the chance to practice their facilitation skills.
Be specific about the request, in advance. This will encourage team members with less confidence to volunteer.
E.g. “We need three volunteers tomorrow to host three break-out groups. You’ll explain the activity and keep time. Here’s a link to the exercise. We’ll talk you through it after stand-up.”
When I used to plan and run workshops alone, I would make jokes to liven up the atmosphere. These often fell flat so I gave up and kept things serious. What I didn’t realise was that empowering everyone is what makes playfulness possible.
These days, I make space for playfulness throughout the process.
For example, our Delivery Manager came up with a “Doomsday” prioritisation exercise. We imagined what would happen if the whole team failed to come to work. This was a brilliant way to consider the “cost of not doing” our existing work. The playful way he facilitated the exercise brought out playfulness in the rest of the team. This made it a bonding experience, as well as productive.
In the past, I would find myself alone with a stack of post-its after a workshop, thinking “what now?”
These days, I make sure the team decides what happens next and takes on as much as possible themselves.
The Liberating Structure “What, So what, Now what?” is a great exercise for this.
And if there are specific tasks I might normally do, I consider who else might want to help.
For example, after a session on the team’s “hopes and dreams” for the quarter, our Technical Writer wrote up the findings into a mission statement.
Sometimes, circumstances make it impossible to follow these tips. In these moments, it’s OK to revert to top-down shortcuts. Yes, it’s less effective and it’s sad to see morale decline. But the important thing - I’ve learned - is to notice the degree of empowerment achieved despite the constraints.
So, those are my tips!
When these things come together, it’s delightful how teams blossom into creativity. We typically leave the session on a high, feeling like “everyone had a voice” and impressed with the results. One developer noticed we’d created “the clearest priorities” he’d seen in three years.
Thanks again to Sonia Turcotte, Clara Greo and the designer George Aye for opening my eyes and showing what’s possible.