Make the most of your breakouts

Part-way through the February Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator, I was prompted to create a new slide on the topic of breakouts. We agreed that it would be helpful to add it to every training or workshop deck – hidden by default and kept in reserve, it would be there as a reminder to the host, and available as a resource if needed. Its four key points (which I’ll expand on) are easy enough to remember, and they apply both to remote and in-person events:

Don’t let tools get in the way of a good conversation
Don’t wait to get started
Don’t let yourself get stuck too long in one role
Help each other enjoy a productive conversation

It will seem in what follows that I am writing to breakout participants, but of course the message is to hosts too. There were some wry smiles and chuckles as we discussed it!

1. Don’t let tools get in the way of a good conversation

Disguised perhaps as a warm-up exercise, a fact of life now is the necessary chore of familiarising ourselves with the event’s Miro or Mural board and learning where its most important tools are hidden. But this tip is even more basic than that. Quoting from my new slide:

Put the sticky notes aside until you are ready

At a training event held abroad shortly before the pandemic, the first exercise was getting underway. On each table was a supply of pens and paper (and little else). I watched first with satisfaction as the conversations on each table began, then in dismay as one participant dug out their personal supply of sticky notes and handed them around the table. That group fell silent, the conversation killed.

Sticky notes are great and so are Miro and Mural, but in their place. None of them is capable of capturing a conversation that never happened. Don’t let them get in the way.

2. Don’t wait to get started

You might remember this from 15-minute FOTO:

If a minute passes without progress, something is wrong
– a meta conversation or some other distraction

Often the hardest thing is to get started. Time spent clarifying instructions or objectives might seem time well spent, but often the best way to get started is simply to get started. Don’t confuse the conversation that needs to happen with a conversation about the conversation, and certainly don’t let the latter displace the former.

If you are genuinely stuck or confused don’t hesitate to ask the host for help, but better still, deal with it before the breakout starts. If you’re unsure about something, likely others are too. Don’t carry that uncertainty into the breakout!

3. Don’t let yourself get stuck too long in one role

From the Lite edition of 15-minute FOTO, but it applies to most breakouts:

Anyone can ask, anyone can answer (including answering your own question), and listening is good too

In the worst car crash of a breakout I have ever been embarrassed (as the host) to witness, one participant lined up the other participants on the other side of the table and proceeded to interrogate them. That’s an extreme example, but when we get stuck in one mode for too long, we make ourselves unable to contribute in other ways. Leave yourself open to describing what you are thinking or feeling, to being respectfully curious, to serving the group as observer, scribe, or encourager – but none of those to the exclusion of the others. The more freely you and others can move between those roles, the richer the conversation.

4. Help each other enjoy a productive conversation

• Curious, descriptive, inclusive, safe, generative
• Ready to share key points, captured as appropriate

This final point brings together the three “Don’ts” into something more positive. A productive conversation is one that is actually happening, actually underway, everyone able to contribute in multiple ways. Part of “productive” is also to be able to relate key points back afterwards, but let’s keep that in perspective. Speaking to myself here (I still get this wrong), clarity from the host is especially helpful where the guidance is not what participants might be expecting. Especially in those more tentative early exercises, enjoy it. One way or another, the threads that matter will be picked up again.

Related updates:

Watch this space for a new version of 15-minute FOTO, its Classic and Lite editions (rotating roles and “anyone can ask, anyone can answer”, respectively) integrated into one deck, plus other enhancements
The next Leading with Outcomes Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator will be in May. See the upcoming events below, also the Store page for subscription options and discounts

Upcoming events

Recent changes:

Leading in a Transforming Organisation (London) is brought forward a week to 25-27 June
Due to a venue clash, Leading in Transforming Organisation (Southampton) pushed back a couple of weeks to October 22-24
Webinars and experience/practise sessions are taking a break now until the autumn

May

14 May to 22 February, online, Tuesday & Wednesday afternoons (UK time):
Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F)*

June

4-6 June, Berlin, Germany
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (Berlin)*
25-27 June, London, UK:
Leading in a Transforming Organisation*

October

22-24 October, Southampton, UK:
Leading in a Transforming Organisation*

*For TTT/F and Leading in a Transforming Organisation, ping me for coupon codes if any of the following apply:

Employees in public sector, education, and non-profit organisations get 40% off, as do authorised trainers and facilitators
There are subscription-specific discounts for Agendashift Academy subscribers
Members of the old partner programme get 30% off
Past participants of Leading in a Transforming Organisation can re-attend with 60% off (75% if you work for a public sector, education, or non-profit organisation)
Past TTT/F participants can re-attend online for free

Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy
“Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation”

Leading with Outcomes is our modular curriculum in leadership and organisation development. Each module is available as self-paced online training or as private, instructor-led training (online or in-person). Certificates of completion or participation according to format. Its modules in the recommended order:

Individual subscriptions from ~~£24.50~~ £18.40 per month after a 7-day free trial, with discounts available for employees and employers in the government, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors. For bulk subscriptions, ask for our Agendashift for Business brochure.

To deliver Leading with Outcomes training or workshops yourself, see our Authorised Trainer and Authorised Facilitator programmes. Our next TTT/F training takes place in May (online).

At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.