You’ve been in traditional group ideas generation sessions, haven’t you? You’re at a table of six or so, cleverly constituted so you don’t have to sit with people you really don’t get on with. You’re given a stimulus question, or a task. And a timeframe. You’re asked to record your collective thoughts on sticky notes, or on butchers’ paper. Someone gives the signal, and you’re off. Either the most assertive person picks up the pen, or nobody does. Either the bossiest person organises the group, or nobody does. When the time has elapsed, you breathe a sight of relief, and hope it’s not you to report back to the large group.
OK, so it’s not always this bad. But it sometimes is. I’ve run thousands of F2F sessions — most of them great — up to the end of 2019. And, almost none in 2020. Why? Because I’m running everything digitally. And, let me tell you, it makes life MUCH better. Firstly, let me paint a picture of the ‘new normal’ and then let me give six reasons why this works so much better.
You log onto a Zoom call 1 minute before it starts. The leader welcomes you and begins by presenting some framing concepts, perhaps using some slides, or a video, or telling a story. The stimulus question is presented, and the group provides comment on it, perhaps modifying it. You are allocated to a Zoom breakout room, and are given a login to a shared canvas, such as Mural. You can now see and hear everyone in your group; you can move around the entire canvas. People start talking, and everyone takes control of Mural and attaches sticky notes. It’s a little chaotic, but it’s fun and energising. You can see what every other group is annotating, simultaneously. At one point, you become fascinated by another group’s notes, so you pop out of your group, and go and listen to them, and offer some views, before returning to your breakout group. At the end of the allocated time, your leader brings you back to a plenary discussion, in which you don’t need to read out your work, because everyone’s already seen it. Instead, you spend time exploring the big ideas, the implications, the challenges.
So here are six reasons why digital works better.
Safety. According to Tim Clark’s recent book, “The Four Stages of Psychological Safety” there are, you guessed it, four levels of psychological safety: (i) being included and accepted; (ii) safe to learn; (iii) safe to contribute and (iv) safe to challenge. In the Mural world, I’ve found that people rapidly jump to ‘safe to contribute’, even extreme introverts. They rapidly type up sticky notes, they don’t have to fight to be heard, and they don’t have to say a word.
Asynchronous work. With a Mural canvas, you can see ALL the questions, not just the one you’re supposed to be working on. So you can jump ahead, or jump back. Indeed, in a session recently, I gave people the Mural login two days BEFORE a workshop. And guess what? When we arrived to start the workshop, half the group had already been on and populated the canvas. Brilliant.
Eavesdropping and piggybacking. In a physical room, the groups near you are a distraction. In the digital room, people in other rooms can’t be heard, but you can see their contribution on Mural. This digital eavesdropping is invaluable, as it enables massive cross-fertilisation of ideas, by piggybacking your sticky notes on top of others’ similar ideas, and the ability to ‘drag’ content around to form themes or patterns.
Ownership. In a physical workshop, the front-of-room facilitator has a lot of control: “He with the pen has the power”. In the digital world, participants take control of the content. It’s not me interpreting it. I can organise it, winnow the chaff, and summarise and synthesise it, but I benefit tremendously from having the client’s language.
Attendance. One of my clients has had bi-weekly ‘town hall meetings’ of all their staff since lockdown. When they ran these physically, they’d put on drinks, and still only 50% of the staff would show up. Now, it’s above 90%. Why? Because the barrier to entry is so low. You don’t need to interrupt something, travel, find the room, and stand around awkwardly waiting to begin.
Participation. In the physical world, the loudest dominate. The articulate take the stage. The extroverts occupy the airtime. In the digital world, that can still happen, but my experience is that a shared canvas is much more democratic because everyone designs. And, even on a Zoom call, it’s easier to identify and call on introverts for verbal comment, invite them to log their thinking on a sticky note, or contribute to a group poll.