NOTE TO FACILITATOR:
WHEN TO USE THIS TOOL:
This tool isn’t need for every Red or Yellow priority or KPI. It was designed for you to use when you are stuck with a Red or Yellow status for 3 or more weeks in a row, and you’re not sure how to make an adjustment. You need a breakthrough.
If you have time, you can do this exercise to dive deep on one stuck Priority or KPI in your weekly meeting. You might need to schedule a separate Weekly Adjustment Meeting to work through this tool. You may not complete the process in one meeting; you might need to set up a Think Rhythm and have a few meetings to work through potential solutions.
You can use this slide deck to facilitate your discussion and record your notes on the Planning Notes tab for the Priority or KPI you’re working on in Rhythm. Or, you can download and work from the paper tool that’s here in Rhythm University (LINK). Record Action Items in Rhythm once you have an adjustment plan.
CREATE SAFE ENVIRONMENT:
Use Positive Language - Communicate Positive Intent
View Stuck Item as an Opportunity vs. a Problem
Discuss Learnings vs. Road Blocks
Affirm the Person who Owns the Goal
Be Open and Curious
Use Appreciative Inquiry
Don’t get emotionally attached to your ideas, pick the one most likely to create a solution
Ask what was happening when things were going well? What were we doing then?
USE EFFECTIVE FACILITATION TOOLS:
Call out the type of discussion we are having: Think, Plan, or Do
Encourage turning ideas and proposals upside down to gain different perspectives. This can lead to unexpected and creative solutions.
Use Red, Yellow, Green facilitation/talking sticks
Green - idea sharing
Yellow - counter proposals to the ideas presented
Red - criticism
Document the Action Plan for Green.
Reinforce who owns leading the team to accomplish the plan.
Download our Facilitation Guide for more help: https://www.rhythmsystems.com/hs-fs/hub/116436/file-310105127-pdf/16_RS_PDFs/Meeting_Facilitator_Guide.pdf
NOTE TO FACILITATOR: This is the model we recommend for having a breakthrough when you are stuck on a Priority or KPI (or another business challenge/opportunity). The next slides walk through each step in the model. Use this to introduce the process with your team so that everyone understands what you’re doing, and use the slides below to walk through each step.
NOTE TO FACILITATOR:
The rest of the slides walk through this problem-solving model step by step. You can use these slides in conjunction with the Breakthrough to Green paper tool available here in Rhythm University: https://www.rhythmuniversity.cloud/do/advanced-meeting-facilitation
NOTE TO FACILITATOR: Use planning notes in Rhythm or the tool in Rhythm University (https://www.rhythmuniversity.cloud/do/advanced-meeting-facilitation) to take notes on your Current State.
NOTE TO FACILITATOR: Use planning notes in Rhythm or the tool in Rhythm University to take notes on your Desired State.
NOTE TO FACILITATOR: Identify at least 3 top potential causes for being stuck.
Potential categories for root causes to explore include these:
Processes?
Strategy?
Budget?
Tools?
People?
Execution?
Knowledge?
Technology?
Record all ideas in Rhythm or on a whiteboard or flipchart. Once you’ve got all ideas recorded, agree on the most likely cause and work on the rest of the model based on this most likely cause. If you need an objective way to agree on the most likely cause of the problem, you can have your team vote for their top 3 and proceed with the cause that gets the most votes.
NOTE TO FACILITATOR: Based on the most likely cause you identified in step 1, what resources do you need to address that problem?
Brainstorm in these key areas, and use these questions to prompt the team’s thinking.
People
Who could help us?
Who has interests or goals that are aligned with ours?
Whose view of this challenge is totally different from ours?
Who else could we brainstorm with?
Budget
Suppose the existence of the entire organization depended on this project. What would we do to get the budget?
No budget? No approval? We just haven’t talked to the right people yet. Who else could we talk with?
What kind of business case do we need to make that would persuade people to give us the budget?
What partnerships could we form to get the budget?
Knowledge
What don’t we know that we need to know?
If we could ask anyone in the world about this, whom would we contact?
What’s the best, richest, most up-to-date source of information on this subject? How do we get to it?
Imagine that these obstacles didn’t exist—how would we proceed?
Technology/Tools
What tools and technology do we need?
What tools and technology do we have access to?
If we had our choice of technology, what would we use?
Who has it? What’s in it for them to provide us the use of it?
Record the top resources that you need to address the problem in Rhythm or on the tool from Rhythm University.
NOTE TO FACILITATOR: These are brainstorming techniques that you can use with your team to identify potential solutions. You may not need a specific tool or method to lead your team in brainstorming, but if you are really stuck, some of these methods might help generate new thinking and lead to breakthroughs.
Read More about these methods:
6 Thinking Hats: http://www.debonogroup.com/six_thinking_hats.php
Third Alternative: http://www.the3rdalternative.com/
Start/Stop/Keep: http://www.rhythmsystems.com/start-stop-keep-tool
Fishbone Diagram: http://asq.org/learn-about-quality/cause-analysis-tools/overview/fishbone.html
20 Ways to… Have the team brainstorm 20 ways to solve the problem.
NOTE TO FACILITATOR: Once you’ve brainstormed several viable potential solutions, help the team choose the one most likely to get the Priority or KPI back to green.
Discuss, debate, and agree on the most likely solution so you can put together an action plan.
Again, if you have a difficult time deciding on the top idea, you can vote or you can use Rhythm to rate top ideas on their impact and your team’s ability to execute them.
Remember that you can test an idea for a short period of time, and if you’re not on track to get the results you want, you can come back to test a different potential solution. Set a time period to determine how long you’ll give the new plan to work before you make another adjustment.
NOTE TO FACILITATOR: Record Action Items in Rhythm for your Action Plan. Be sure to include steps to test your assumptions. Decide how long to test the new action plan to see if it is getting the desired results. If the plan is not working after this set amount of time, you might have to go back to step 3 in the model and look for another root cause for the problem (and work through the model again).