Preparation | Room Setup | Facilitation Process | Post-Event Mailout
Preparation
Purchase (or bring) several pads of sticky notes and sharpies (or other highly visible markers). Ensure you have 3-4 flipcharts (or whiteboards or large-format adhesive sheets) available.
Purchase sticky labels, suitable for name tags. These are important as people will need to find each other throughout the event.
Room Setup
Setup the room with 3-4 flipcharts around the room. On the top sheet of each board, write the topic for that area. You may choose any topics you wish, however we recommend the categories from the Domains of Business Agility if you have no specific theme.
- Customer
- Leadership
- Business Operations
- Personal Agility
On the second sheet (underneath the first), draw a line bisecting the sheet (i.e. create two columns). Label the first column Seekers and the second Sharers. Cover that sheet with the first sheet (the topic name) in preparation to begin the event.
Set up the blank name tags on a table at the entrance to the room.
Facilitation Process
When everyone is ready, start by introducing the Seekers and Sharers process. Point to the flipcharts around and explain what each topic is about.
Ask everyone to start by writing down what they are Seeking against one or more topics. These could be questions, challenges, or opportunities. Ensure that everyone writes their name on the card so they can be found later. If someone has the same challenge or question, they can add their name to the card rather than adding a new card.
Once everyone has had the opportunity to write down what they are Seeking, ask people to move around the room and add a note to the board if they believe they have something to share to address that. As before, make sure they write their name against what they can share. Draw lines between the notes to link them together.
Now we start to make this “real.” Allow people to go to the topics that they are most interested in. This is their chance to talk about challenges and to hear from the shares. Allow people to actively move around and join different conversations. You may want to time-box conversations to 5-10 minutes to force people to move.
Facilitators: Your job is to “prime the pump” for sharing stories amongst the participants. When someone shares a challenge, encourage others to share their stories of what they have tried. Encourage stories of failure as much as stories of success.
Post-Event Mailout
Send out photos from the event and a copy of the seekers and shares board(s). Remember to invite them to join the Business Agility Institute.