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Internal Consulting Skills

Day 1

Ken Whitters: 0438 215 263, [email protected]

ABN 53 108 006 186

Commercial-in-confidence

mailto:[email protected]

Internal Consulting Skills: Intellectual Property Notice

No part of this document may be reproduced by any processes or means (electronic, mechanical, micro-copying, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), nor may any other exclusive right be exercised, without the permission of Strategic Leadership PTY LTD apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968.

All information included in this document, unless otherwise stated, remains the intellectual property of Strategic Leadership PTY LTD.

Internal Consulting skills: Course objectives

• Develop and maintain productive working relationships with stakeholders and clients

• Explain the consulting process and the various modes of consultancy services

• Apply skills and techniques to influence and manage challenging situations

• Demonstrate the skills and attitudes to work effectively as change managers

• Initiate and secure commitment to a change process

• Effectively communicate recommendations to achieve client commitment

• Apply appropriate consulting tools to achieve successful outcomes

(Workbook page 8)

Strategic Leadership Pty Ltd

Affiliations

Overview Founded: 2004

Mission: Enabling individuals and organisations to realise their potential

Vision: Strategic Leadership has the reputation for being one of the most effective and reliable providers of leadership development services in the Asia Pacific region

Values: Endeavour, Service, Passion, Proficiency, Partnering

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Ken Whitters

Career Experience

Private Sector:

Public Sector:

Private Sector:

Public Sector:

Ken Whitters

Consulting Experience

Not-for-Profit Sector:

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Ken Whitters

Accreditations include…

SkillscopeBenchmarks360˚ Surveys

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Course overview and introductions

Getting the most out of the course

An introduction to Internal consulting

Building strong professional relationships

Initiating a consulting assignment

Exploring the need

Clarifying the assignment

Gathering the facts

Reflection

Internal Consulting Skills: Course Overview

Day 1 sessions

Day one reflection

Analysing options

Identifying solutions

Understanding yourself and others

Working with your clients and stakeholders

Delivering recommendations

Concluding the assignment

Course reflection

Day 2 sessions

Participant Introductions

Find someone you don’t know well and in two minutes find out their:

• Professional focus

• Main objective for this program, and why

• Achievement they are most proud of (professional or personal)

Swap over and repeat

Present each other to the main group

Note: This is an early opportunity to practise a number of internal consulting skills: E.g. Building relationships, active listening, conveying a message, presenting

~

Internal Consulting skills: Core skills

Top ten skills for 2020

1. Complex problem solving2. Critical thinking3. Creativity4. People management5. Coordinating with others6. Emotional intelligence7. Judgement and decision making8. Service orientation9. Negotiation10. Cognitive flexibility

Source: World Economic Forum






Exploring the need


Gathering the facts

Reflection

Internal Consulting Skills: Day 1 sessions

Getting the most out of the course: Defining success for you

For a moment, imagine we’ve already finished the course and it was a great success…

What happened that made the course successful?

Getting the most out of the course: Your folder

Your folder includes four major items:

1. The Internal Consulting Method diagram, which outlines the structure of this course

2. Slides for day 1, so you can follow along and make notes

3. Slides for day 2, so you can follow along and make notes

4. Course Workbook, that provides further information on the topics we cover

Note: Throughout the two days, we will cover many approaches/frameworks. Some of these will be more relevant to your particular work situation than others. Simply use the ones that resonate with you the most.

Ch

alle

nge

Lev

el

Skill Level

Low

HighLow

High

Anxiety

Boredom

Our potential

bestFlow state

Getting the most out of the course: Flow theory

1. If I fail at something significant, I tend to feel a failure.

2. When my work gets very difficult, I tend to enjoy it a lot less.

3. I feel smart when I don’t make any mistakes.

4. I feel smart when something is easy for me but other people can’t do it.

5. I feel smart when I finish something first and it’s perfect.

6. The results I achieve validate who I am.

7. I feel smart when I work on something a long time and I start to figure it out.

8. I feel smart when I tackle something really hard and succeed.

9. When facing difficulties while doing something important, I value the experience.

10. When my work becomes very challenging, I become more determined to succeed.

11. I get more enjoyment from tasks that are hard than from tasks I’ve already mastered.

12. I value what I am doing even if the outcome is not as good as I had hoped.

A short quiz: Answer the following according to your normal thought processes

Yes / No

Yes / No

Yes / No

Yes / No

Yes / No

Yes / No

Yes / No

Yes / No

Yes / No

Yes / No

Yes / No

Yes / No

Ref: “Mindset” Carol Dweck

Getting the most out of the course: Growth vs fixed mindsets

Mindset: “A person’s way of thinking and their opinions’ (Cambridge) (Workbook page 9)

Believe that most skills are based on traits that are fixed and cannot be changed

See effort as unnecessary; something to do when you’re not good enough

See feedback as personally threatening to sense of self and gets defensive

View setbacks as discouraging; tends to blame others

As a result, may plateau early and achieve less than their full potential

Feels threatened by the success of others; may undermine others to try to look good

Fixed mindset

Believe that skills can always improve with hard work

See effort as a path to mastery and therefore essential

Embrace challenges and see them as an opportunity to grow

See feedback as useful for learning and improving

As a result, they reach ever-higher levels of potential and performance

Views setbacks as a wake-up call to work harder next time

Growth mindset

Getting the most out of the course: Growth vs fixed mindsets

Ref: “Mindset” Carol Dweck

Mindset: “A person’s way of thinking and their opinions’ (Cambridge)

Workbook page 9

Getting the most out of the course: Learning stages

Conscious Incompetence

Conscious Competence

Unconscious Competence

Unconscious Incompetence

Co

nsc

iou

sne

ss

Competence(Workbook page 11)

Getting the most out of the course: Human capability sets

beliefsattitudes

orientationperspectivesworld views

values

languageconceptstheories

principlesheuristics

experience

ability (core, enabling)practicesroutines

methodsprocesses

techniquesresources

Mindset

Skill set Tool set

Knowledge Set

Internal External

Doing

Thinking

(Workbook page 12)

Managing change: How to turn a tanker

Observe

Gather information

Getting the most out of the course: OODA Loop

Orient

Apply positive mindset and

knowledge set

Decide

Identify preferred action

Act

Implement as per the decision

Personal Awareness

Personal Management

Awareness of Others

Relationship Management

Perceptiveness

Management

Personal Competence

Social Competence

Getting the most out of the course: Emotional Intelligence Framework

People are rich in emotional capital if they are high in self-esteem, self-regulation,

emotional energy, attachment, resilience, agreeableness and optimism.

(Workbook page 12)

Read the case study on pages 14 and 15 of the Course Workbook.

Discuss with your table group:

1. The main issues

2. What you would have done differently if you were:

(1) Jan

(2) The team members

Jot some points down on butchers’ paper and appoint someone to share back to the main group.

Time: 20 mins

An introductory case study

Getting the most out of the course: Knowing yourself

What are your strengths? In particular, what are your natural strengths?

What are your development opportunities?

What is most important to you?

How well do you manage yourself?






Exploring the need


Gathering the facts

Reflection


Strengths Weaknesses

An introduction to internal consulting: Defining a consultant

Strengths Weaknesses

External consultant

Internal consultant

In your syndicate group, develop a brief definition of an internal consultant.

An introduction to internal consulting: Defining an internal consultant

A simplified definition

A trusted internal advisor to clients, recognised for certain expertise.

Critical words

• Trusted: without trust it doesn’t matter how good your advice, it is unlikely to be acted on

• Advisor: the role of an internal consultant is to advise your client, it is up to your client how they act on your advice

• Expertise: there is typically one or more areas of expertise that is recognised by the internal consultant’s clients

An introduction to internal consulting: Defining an internal consultant

(Workbook page 16)

Expertise

An introduction to internal consulting: Expertise vs Process

Process

• Our clients often come to us for our expertise and expect us to immediately solve the problem that they have identified.

• While we have expertise, it is typically our process that enables us to identify the underlying problem(s), develop viable solution(s) and manage change.

• One of the first things we need to do is to educate our clients about our process and why we use it. We inject our expertise as required in support of the process. Our process then continues to build our expertise.

We use our process to identify the solution

We use existing knowledge to identify the solution

vs

Role Description Percentage of your time

Information provider

Provide information to assist client

Problem Solver Solve a problem

Change Agent Lead, or assist in, a change process

Trainer/Educator Support skills development

Specialist Provide specialist input / advice

Project Member Lead or support a project

Analyst Analyse opportunities

Other?

An introduction to internal consulting: Types of IC work

An introduction to internal consulting: The Internal Consulting Framework

Refer to the inside cover hand-out for more information, plus p17 of the Workbook.

Consider one or two internal consulting examples from your current or previous work to use as case studies during this course. On p18 of the workbook, jot down some brief notes for each situation indicating:

• Context

• Work goal(s)

• Client(s)

• Stakeholders

• Main (2 or 3) capabilities you brought to the work

• Main (2 or 3) challenges related to the work

Using your notes, articulate your case study/case studies as succinctly as possible to your table group.

Then, as a table group, summarise on butchers’ paper the main challenges raised and present these to the broader group.

An introduction to internal consulting: Share your own case study

(Workbook page 18)Time: Personal notes: 10 mins

Table Group share: 15 mins







Exploring the need


Gathering the facts

Reflection

These three core influence drivers largely drive your success as an internal consultant

Building strong professional relationships: Core influence drivers

© Flow Group

(Workbook page 19)

T = trustworthiness

C = credibility

R = reliability

I = intimacy (strength of relationship)

SO = self-orientation

T = C + R + I

SO

(David Maisters)

Building strong professional relationships: The trust equation

Specialist

Generalist

Building strong professional relationships: Your credibility

Exercise

Thinking about your own experience, write down the areas where you are a:

1. Generalist

2. Specialist

Building strong professional relationships: Your credibility

(Workbook page 21)

Case study 1

Due to your reputation and expertise, you’ve been asked to help plan and implement a major change initiative within the ATO.

The details are yet to be announced. All you’ve been told at this stage is that it’s expected to go ahead, and it’s going to be big.

You’ve been seconded to a multi-disciplinary taskforce that will lead the initiative, along with representatives from various corporate and program areas. The first team meeting has been organised to help you get to know each other before the announcement.

It’s important that as early as possible you build trust and credibility with this new group of people and demonstrate the potential value you could offer to any project initiative. For the purpose of this exercise, the people at your table are the members of the team you are joining. After taking 5 minutes to prepare, introduce yourself to the other members and, in particular, present yourself in a way that builds trust and credibility.

After everyone has done this, share with each other what you liked in what you heard and also provide additional thoughts about how they might have presented themselves with even greater effect.


Time: 20 mins

Building strong professional relationships: The components of value

What’s the nature of the value you are adding in your consulting work?

Are there components of value derived through business factors such as cost reduction, revenue creation or productivity efficiencies?

Are there components which would be viewed by some (e.g. employees or customers) as “valuable” yet not so readily aligned with conventional business perspectives of value-add? (e.g. comfort, ease-of-use)

Create value

Building strong professional relationships: Value for who?

Capture value

For who?

• Citizens?

• Businesses?

• Government?

• ATO?

• Your team?

• Your client?

Building strong professional relationships: Value—needs vs wants

Needs

WantsLow

High

Low

High

Uninteresting necessityPeople will get it in the most convenient, low cost, low effort way.

RedundantPeople don’t want or need it. Not seen to add any value.

IdealPeople will value it for meeting both their needs and interests.

Desired People want it, but may not have a legitimate business case to pursue it. Nevertheless, they may go out of their way to access it.

(Workbook page 21)

Building strong professional relationships: Stacking value

The more value you can combine, or stack together, the more appealing. This is because each item added increases the perception of the total value.

How to apply the three core-influence drivers

Trust Identify audience

Establish relationships

Become an advisor

Credibility Build brand awareness

Develop touchpoints

Create associations

Value Understand needs

DifferentiateConvey

solutions


© Flow Group

(Workbook page 22)

Case study 2

The change initiative you’ll be working on has been announced; it’s an APS-wide recruitment freeze, which will apply to all of ATO. Two teams have been assembled; one will consider the longer term HR requirements for ATO and the other, your team, will consider interim strategies for managing operational imperatives over a minimum 3 month period.

You’ve been asked to introduce your team to the ATO executive. It’s important that you highlight the strengths of your team and build a sense of confidence that you can handle the task. Of course, if there are any areas that need strengthening from a skills/experience perspective, you might need to note that but be careful how you convey such a requirement.

Your first task is to prepare some dot points on how each of you could effectively contribute to this work. This will likely require some re-focusing of the strengths you considered in the last exercise. Jot down up to five relevant strengths/capabilities for yourself and present these to your table group.

Then, as a group, develop five to seven dot points that highlight the strength of your team. Finally, prepare a narrative around these dot points and elect a member of your team to present your narrative to the ATO executive.

Building strong professional relationships: Positioning yourself

Time: 20 mins

Understanding what is really important to people

People have a consistent set of underlying values. However, individuals often favour certain values over others in particular circumstances. What do you value most?

Building strong professional relationships: Fundamental values

Freedom

Connection

Contribution

Accomplishment

Certainty

Control

Status

Growth

© Flow Group

(Workbook page 25)

Identifying other peoples’ values

• Observe the decisions they make, and the actions they take

• Observe how they structure their day

• Observe how they respond in different situations, or with different people

• Ask them why the do certain things (in an inquisitive/supportive way)

• Ask them what’s important to them

• Ask others what they think is important to them


Exercise

1. Consider the priority you place on each value in your professional life. Take particular note of your top three values.

2. Identify a client, stakeholder, or colleague who you find challenging to work with.

• What do you think their top three values are likely to be regarding their work with you?

• How does this compare to your values?

• In your interactions, are you using tactics and language that align with their values or your own?


Some people are more extroverted than others. Where are you on these scales?

More tuned in to what’s happening (events, people, etc.) around you

More tuned in to what’s happening within you (your thoughts, feelings and reflections)

Friendly, verbally skilled and easy to get to know

Often quiet, reserved and hard to get to know

A person who is energised by meeting and talking with new people

A person who has to make an effort to meet and talk with new people

A person who speaks out easily and often at meetings, willing to share what you think and feel

A person who holds back at meetings and often has trouble getting involved, tending to wait until asked what you think and feel

Building strong professional relationships: Personal preferences

(Workbook page 26)

Some people prefer facts, details and practical application while others are more creative and future-focused. What about you?

A person who notices and retains facts and details

A person who sees patterns and possibilities, often missing details (”the forest rather than the trees”)

Practical and realistic Imaginative and inventive

A person who likes to live in the present, dealing with the reality of the here-and-now

A person who likes to focus on the future, imagining what could be rather than dwelling on the here-and-now

More comfortable with routine More comfortable with complexity


Some people prefer logical analysis rather than emotional connection. What about you?

A person who decides things using logic and rational thought processes

A person who decides things using your personal values as a central guide

Good at analysing a situationGood at understanding people and their viewpoint

A person who focuses on facts and principles

A person who focuses on the values of people and organisations

A person who concentrates on people’s thoughts rather than their feelings, rarely taking your emotions or those of others into account

A person who concentrates on people’s feelings rather than their thoughts, regularly taking your emotions and those of others into account


Some people prefer to live in a more planned and structured way than others. Where are you on these scales?

A person who likes to make plans and follow them

A person who adapts well to changing situations and likes to respond resourcefully

A person who likes to get things settled and finished

A person who prefers to leave things open, being curious and flexible

A person who likes environments with structure and clear limits

A person who dislikes rules and limits, preferring freedom to explore

A person who handles deadlines and time limits well

A person who tends to think there is plenty of time for everything


All of this enables you to better appreciate how you and others prefer to:

• interact

• focus on the detail of now versus the possibilities of tomorrow

• approach building a relationship

• plan and keep to a schedule

• make decisions

• deal with change

It enables you to better manage one-on-one interactions, meetings and presentations.

That is, it gives you insights into how you can better manage yourself, your clients and your internal consulting assignments.


Exercise

Review pages 26-28 of the Workbook

What is your potential personality type?


What are the implications for:- working with others?- seeing opportunities?- making decisions?- being open to change?- being on time?- etc?

Exercise

At your table, explore if most of you are:

(1) more likely to display extroverted or introverted tendencies

(2) more inclined to focus on the facts, figures and present details of a situation, or more interested in where everything is going and how things could be make better

(3) more likely to adopt an analytical position around what’s required in a task, or more likely to focus on building and maintaining good relationships

(4) more likely to plan out a task and ensure it’s completed with time to spare or more likely to take on multiple tasks and trust your ability to bring it all in on time (even though it might be at the last minute)

Building strong professional relationships: Personal preferences and team effects

If you were a team working on a client assignment, what might be the implications of this? Consider the risks and opportunities.

How could you ensure you get the best out of your team?

Potential Team Type (which letters are more dominant in your team?):

Time: 20 mins

Based on Pat Lencioni’s work

Building strong professional relationships: Building effective relationships

Regularly assess progress towards goals (task & relationship)

Build in shared accountability

Cultivate real commitment

Foster frank and honest conversations

Aim to establish a high level of trust

Building effective relationships is like building a pyramid.

Each level needs to be in place before the next can be achieved.

(Workbook page 29)

Question: How do we achieve this with our clients?







Exploring the need


Gathering the facts

Reflection


“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four

hours sharpening the axe”

Imagine your client is the Treasurer or ATO Commissioner, and that you will be working with them directly as an advisor.

Would this change the way you would interact with them at each meeting compared to a client in another business area?

List the things you would do to prepare for these meetings:

Treasurer/Commissioner Client (at the same level as you)

Initiating a consulting assignment: Preparing for meetings

(Workbook page 30)

Infl

ue

nce

InterestLow

High

Low

High

Monitor• Understand and meet their needs• Aim to increase their interest to

help them become advocates

Low priority• Inform via general

communications• Aim to increase their interest

where convenient

High priority• Consult and engage regularly• Involve them in relevant decisions

Maintain• Involve them where useful, and

keep them informed• Aim to have them as advocates

Initiating a consulting assignment: Stakeholder map

Initiating a consulting assignment: Stakeholder analysis matrix

Area Contact Relevance Influence Focus Contribution Blockers Engagement

Person, phone, email, website

How does the work affect them (low, medium, high)?

Low, medium, high

What is important to them?

How could they contribute?

How could they block the work?

Approach to engage with them

(Workbook page 31)

People require different levels of contact, and prefer different communication channels. Keep in mind how busy someone is, how high a priority this is, what level of risk they may perceive.

Then agree how you will keep them updated, with clear milestones for when to be in touch.

Person Project Frequency Channels

Building strong professional relationships: Maintaining contact

Note: This could be combined with the previous stakeholder map







Exploring the need


Gathering the facts

Reflection

Exploring the need

Exploring the need: Types of problems

Simple: Characterised by stability and clear cause-and-effect relationships.

Complicated: Characterised by a large number of variables and multiple right answers with clear cause-and-effect

Complex: Characterised by constant flux and unpredictability

Chaotic: The relationship between cause and effect are too difficult to determine

"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear,

simple, and wrong." – H.L. Mencken

Challenge to

Manage

Challenge to UnderstandL

L

H

H

Exploring the need: When traditional approaches don’t work

Concept credit: Triz problem solving method

Problem Solution

Concrete

Abstract

Simple and complicated

Complex and chaotic

Exploring the need: Diagnostic interviews

Generally, medical doctors are well trusted consultants.

With little prompting we typically accept a doctor’s advice based on our very limited interaction with them. Part of this is due to their trusted position in our society, part is due to the way they diagnose issues.

Imagine as an internal consultant that you are a doctor. What questions would you ask when diagnosing your patient’s (client’s) issues?

What do we want to find out to be able to diagnose accurately?

(Workbook page 32)

Exploring the need: What do you recommend?

(Workbook page 32)

Exploring the need: Your case studies

Exercise

Earlier on, we asked you to share a case study with your table group.

As a table group, select one of your case studies and write down the questions you would need to ask to make a thorough diagnosis of the problem(s).

Time: 15 mins







Exploring the need


Gathering the facts

Reflection

Clarifying the work before it begins helps develop shared understanding and commitment.

It also helps mitigate a variety of risks or issues that may otherwise occur:

• Differing expectations

• Confusion regarding roles

• Micro-management of work

• Perceptions of uncertainty and risk

• Insufficient resources or priority

Clarifying the assignment: Risk management

(Workbook page 34)

If issues do occur, having written agreement on the approach can help focus the conversation on how the process can be adjusted, rather than on who is at fault.

Getting written agreement usually helps build your clients’ confidence in your approach.

Clarifying the assignment: Clarifying roles and responsibilities

Agreeing a timeline upfront and revisiting and recirculating as phases/milestones are achieved, or when changes are necessary, is useful to ensure people:

• understand the process

• are aware of progress

• feel included and updated

Clarifying the assignment: Timelines

Week Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13

Start date 01-Jul 08-Jul 15-Jul 22-Jul 29-Jul 05-Aug 12-Aug 19-Aug 26-Aug 02-Sep 09-Sep 16-Sep 23-Sep

PhasePhase 1Identify

Phase 2Analyse

Phase 3Plan

Phase 4Implement

Phase 5Refine

Phase 6Close

We are here

(Workbook page 35)

Specific: Describe exactly what needs to happen

Measurable: Quantify it

Achievable: Ensure you have, or can build, the capability required to achieve the goal

Relevant: Ensure that achievement of the goal will help demonstrate success

Timebound: Specify how long it will take to achieve the goal

Clarifying the assignment: SMART measures

(Workbook page 39)

Clarifying the assignment: Example project plan

HR policies and guidelines

We are helping XX develop better-practice HR Policies and guidelines.

Project approach

Discovery

24 – 31 March

Policy development

27 March – 13 April

Testing

6 – 20 April

• Develop new policy and

guidelines framework

• Draft policies and

guidelines

• Consult with relevant

policy owners and HR

• Test policies and guidelines

with managers and staff

• Test with the enterprise

bargaining group

• Refine and finalise the

policies

Investigate policy guidelines to determine better-practice:

• Industry research

• Review policies from other APS Agencies

• Internal consultation

(Workbook page 35)

Establishing better-practice

Current landscape

• 10 different EAs all with different supporting policies

• All outdated and don’t align to XX’s current business

• Complex for staff and managers to interpret and apply

A new approach to HR policies

• Principles-based policy to outline XX’s position and empower managers to make informed decisions

• Guidelines to provide more detail as required to support consistent application

• Plain English approach to help ensure all staff understand the documents

• The audience for the documents is staff and managers (not HR)

• Documents are to align with internal HR processes, though staff will still need to seek advice from HR on complex matters

Reporting

• Daily reports will be provided as required

• Verbal and written

Liaison

• Person 1

Input

• Policy owners

• EA Bargaining Team

• HR Directors

• Relevant SES

Approval

• Person 2 and person 3

Governance Contacts

Project Management (process, timeline and deliverables) Person 1: Contact details

Technical Matters (specific clauses and industrial matters)Person 2: Contact details

Operations Management (logistics, meetings and documents)Person 3: Contact details

Oversight and Quality Assurance Person 4: Contact details

Visual timeline

Note this is an example. It would typically be printed A3 from Excel.







Exploring the need


Gathering the facts

Reflection

Gathering the facts

Gathering the facts: Top-down and bottom-up research

Bottom-up

Top-down Recommendations

Data

Insights

Findings

Top-down (inductive reasoning)

• Hypothesis-led

• Built on some existing knowledge

• Typically faster

Bottom-up (deductive reasoning)

• Data-led

• Makes no assumptions

• Is sometimes more thorough

(Workbook page 40)

Gathering the facts: Identify what you need

Start by considering what information you need to support your work. Then consider how you can obtain the information.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of over-researching or ‘analysis paralysis’. Planning your work and revising your plan as you gain more understanding can help you avoid this common pitfall.

Primary research

• Ask - formal (interviews, focus groups, etc.) and informal (leverage your network and speak with other relevant people)

• Observe

• Do yourself (seek out relevant documentation, conduct Internet research, find similar examples of work, check local policies and guidelines etc.)

Secondary research

• Synthesise existing research (case studies, industry standards, etc.)

~

• Are you reinventing the wheel?• Will 80/20 work for you?

Checkpoint

• The art of the survey is knowing what you need and identifying the right questions to get what you need.

• Keep surveys as simple as possible to achieve the desired outcome. This relates to the number of questions and the wording of each question.

• Every question should convey one unique thought, with no ambiguity. If more than one idea is contained in a question, it will promote inconsistent interpretations and answers, and make it difficult to determine which idea gave rise to the answer given.

• The complete set of questions should meet all the objectives of the survey (nothing left out).

• Think about who will design, build and manage the survey (e.g. in-house; outsourced?).

• Ensure you manage confidentiality very well.

Gathering the facts: Surveys

Gathering the facts: Facilitating workshops

Pinpoint facilitation

Pinpoint is a useful model that starts with broad questions, and becomes increasingly specific. It focuses on empowering participants to run the session.

A simple way to apply Pinpoint is to ask a question about a topic and get people to vote on it. For example, “over the next 12 months how challenging will your work be?”

People then place stickers on a single line from “pushing the proverbial up the hill”, through to “a piece of cake.”

The facilitator then asks about groups of dots, what was the reason people voted up here. By asking an easy and broad question first, people typically find it less confronting to express their views.

Table exercise

Develop three Pinpoint style exercises for an internal ATO workshop you are about to run for the ATO recruitment freeze.

Draw these exercises on butcher’s paper to present to the broader group.

Gathering the facts: Facilitating workshops

Time: 15 mins







Exploring the need


Gathering the facts

Reflection

Review of Day 1

Do you have any:

• comments

• ‘aha’ moments you’d like to share

• questions?

www.slpl.com.au

Ken Whitters: 0438 215 263, [email protected]

ABN 53 108 006 186

Commercial-in-confidence

mailto:[email protected]