Better Meetings for Everyone™
Volume 13, Issue 2
Publisher Jana M. Kemp
Newsletter_contents
- What is Facilitation?
- Seen Elsewhere: Book Review of “The Next Level”
- Meeting Quotes
- Tools & Tips
- Meetings@Work
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What is Facilitation anyway?
By Jana M. Kemp
Facilitation is not training. Please repeat “Training is not facilitating.” Here’s the difference.
Training suggests that the person delivering the training is a subject-matter expert capable of teaching, leading individual and group learning exercises, and capable of fielding questions related to the content of the course.
Facilitation requires a knowledge of and capability for implementing individual and group process-skills, agenda-setting skills, conflict-management and resolution, political savvy, and people-reading skills that can move a group through an agenda in a timely manner to accomplish the coverage of topics and the reaching of agreement that leads to follow-through on the part of meeting attendees.
Good trainers don’t necessarily make good facilitators, just as good musicians don’t necessarily make good conductors. Conversely great facilitators don’t necessarily make great trainers, just as great conductors don’t necessarily make great musicians. Know the difference in training and facilitation skill-sets so that you can hire the skills you really want and need.
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Become a Confident Executive
By Jana M. Kemp
(This book review first appeared in the June 11, 2006 Idaho Press Tribune Sunday Business Section.)
Taking on a new position requires letting go of some ways of doing things and picking up some new approaches according to The Next Level author Scott Eblin. Author Eblin’s credentials include working inside Fortune 500 companies and in his own small business in which he coaches executives for success.
It is from this experience that the premise of the book comes: what helped you be successful in your previous job may not help you as you take on new leadership roles. For instance, learning to silence an inner critic that causes your confidence to wane is important. As is “developing a routine of visualizing desired outcomes and how you need to show up to get them.”
Chapter two starts with a great line: “Insecure people make lousy leaders.” Throughout The Next Level, approaches for becoming a secure, confident and effective leader are presented. The Next Level offers good, solid information and approaches in a readable format. Eblin has organized the “pick-up, let-go” chapters into three parts: The Foundations of Personal Presence, The Foundations of Team Presence, and The Foundations of Organizational Presence. Each chapter includes case examples and ends with a “ten tips” section.
Part one, chapter four ends with this tip: “Remember that presence begets presence.” In other words, the way in which you show up is the way in which others are most likely to interact with you. Said another way, from another source: “Arrive like you mean it.” And then, keep showing up intentionally, and with increased skills and approaches so that you can be as effective as possible.
My favorite chapters are Chapter 7: Pick Up Accountability for Many Results in section two and Chapter 10: Pick Up A Big-Footprint View of Your Role in section three. In each chapter I discovered two new approaches for working with others and managing the work of the company.
Appendix B offers a “Situations Solution Guide” that presents typical job promotion challenges and guides readers back to the chapter in which the challenge was addressed. Eblin also encourages everyone to have an ESP, or Executive Success Plan™ which he offers steps for creating in Appendix A. Whether you are a new leader or a seasoned executive, this book is worth reading.
Action Item: Keep refining your skills: read The Next Level (Davies-Black, 2006) by Scott Eblin or something tied to your field and profession. And as author Eblin says, help others get successfully to their personal next levels too.
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“These days it seems like both parties are wrong and nobody is right.”
– Anonymous political convention attendee wanting people to remember the purpose and focus of meetings and of government.
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TRANSLATIONS and Television Too! – Polish, Dutch and Turkish
NO! How One Simple Word Can Transform Your Life by Jana Kemp is available in English and has been translated into Polish (2005) and Dutch (2006) AND Turkish (2006). Making decisions is a daily activity. When we waffle in indecision, people start to see us as yes-people or as ineffective. So, learn to be a MASTER of NO!
Television Too: Author Jana Kemp has appeared on This Week in Sun Valley (Channel 13) with Sarah Curtis five times to spread the word about becoming a Master of NO.
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www.JanaKemp.com
Looking for a meeting facilitator, a conference speaker or a workshop presenter on the subjects of meetings, time management or decision-making? Then, visit www.JanaKemp.com for information on these services and on learning tools such as the DiSC® Behavioral Profile, time management, and managing stress.