Whenever big changes occur within your business it is imperative to communicate those changes clearly. A requirements workshop for your employees enables you to establish requirements and come to a consensus as a group. Clear communication is vital to the success of every company, yours is no different. Knowing how to properly facilitate employees and peers is an essential skill in your career.
Stages of Group Development
There are 5 stages of group development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. In the forming stage members look to the leader for guidance. The leader sets the tone, rules, and establishes a safe environment for the group to move on. The second stage is storming this is where conflict normally arise. The next stage, norming, is where community begins to build and everyone shares and provides feedback to one another. The fourth stage is called performing and is not reached by every group but is the most productive stage of the group. Lastly, adjourning involves the disengagement of the group as the goals have been met. For a more detailed breakdown of each stage read 5 Stages of Group Development.
Knowing which stage your group is functioning at is imperative towards how you manage the group. It will determine if you are ready to dive into the hard work of establishing requirements or if you are still in the beginning stages of creating a safe place for everyone to contribute.
Facilitate Decision Making
It is the facilitators responsibility to manage the group discussion. A plan should be in place to prepare for traps along the way and unproductive behavior. Six simple steps make facilitating simpler.
- From the very beginning you must ensure leadership and commitment.
- Frame the problem in a clear concise manner making sure everyone in the group understands.
- Develop ways to evaluate the problem and form creative solutions.
- Collect useful, factual data.
- Evaluate the alternatives and together decide a course of action.
- Develop a follow-up action plan.
Create a Follow-Up Action Plan
The last step is essential in seeing success. You must create a follow-up action plan and follow through with the steps decided on by the group. The groups action plan should have SMART goals, targeted deadlines, and a list of what will be needed to complete each task. Here you will think through real life problems and hash out the potential obstacles forming solutions along the way. It is important to emphasis that this solution is a group consensus and will be supported as such from here on out. The time for questioning the correct course of action passed, now is the time to act.
Though it is a vital skill in any career group management can prove difficult. But like any skill this can be learned through analyst training. A requirements workshop techniques skills training may be just what you are looking for. It is important to hone this career skills as conflict, group discussion, and group projects are inevitable in every profession.
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