The Three ‘I’s

I’m not done with talking about discussion. I might never be.

Over the past few weeks, you might have noticed that I’ve been diving into decisions informed by the information, insights and ideas of the groups I facilitate.

And it’s often in that order. Information, insights and ideas.

Information: the ‘what’

Groups I work with both learn and share information, expanding their knowledge about the topic.

This can take longer than you’d expect. New information can be interesting, exciting and daunting. Remember your first day at school, university or a new job?

People need time to ask questions, clarify and test what they’ve learning, from experts and each other.

Some key questions I ask to help guide the discussion at this point are:

What do we know? What are the facts? What has happened? What more do we need to find out?

Insights: the ‘so what’

Once people are comfortable with the information, they’re ready to discuss what this information might mean. For them, their community, the topic.

My go-to question to help people reflect on the information is: what strikes you about xxxxx?

Depending on the topic and the group, I might ask: What resonates with you? What excites you? What puzzles you? What worries you? How does xxx make you feel?

After the personal response, I shift the questions to help the group discuss the implications of the information, and personal responses, for the group, their organisation or community, and the topic they are grappling with.

Ideas: the ‘now what’

Yay! We’ve arrived at the part that most people in the group are keen to get onto.

Sharing and building on each other’s ideas.

Some groups might be coming up with ‘recommendations’, but I love alliteration and ‘the three ‘I’s is easy to remember when I’m facilitating.

The ‘ideas’ stage is when the group figure out what to ‘do’ with their insights, what they promise, what they think the next steps should be.

I’ll ask questions like: What will help us address xxxxx? What can we do about xxxxt? What might need to change here? What difference will x make? What will it take to improve/shift/change xxx? Again, it depends on the group and the topic.

(Fl)awesome funnel

Information + insights = ideas. That’s a perfect structure for workshop discussions.

Then there’s reality.

I call it the (Fl)awesome Funnel.

There is a linear structure of information, insights and ideas.

But it doesn’t often flow that way.

Insights might send people back to interrogate information or look for more. Information will spark an idea – skipping the insights part.

I don’t stifle this thinking in my groups. We don’t lose these ‘fast’ ideas. They are captured or recorded.

But it’s my job to guide the group along the path of a structured discussion of information, insights and ideas, while accepting the (fl)awesome reality that people will jump around.

My approach balances the needs of detail-oriented participants with those eager for solutions.

How was the discussion in your last workshop? Was it a bit of a free-for-all, tightly controlled or (fl)awesome? Did you feel controlled or guided by your facilitator?  

Thanks for reading this far.

Stay (fl)awesome!