As a musician, I have music continuously playing in the background. 
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If it’s not ambient instrumental music while I’m writing or working, it’s a song (earworm) that won’t leave my brain until I play it nice and loud for everyone else to hear.

When I was writing and performing music, I would wake with a melody in my head and it would stay there until I recorded it as a voice memo. Sometimes an entire song, including the lyrics, would come to me fully formed. All I had to do was write it down.

But, not everyone appreciates, hears, or feels the language of music the same way I do. Those who read and write musical notation hear it much the same way they would hear words. And working to music (even in the background) for them is no different than trying to have a conversation while someone else is talking.

Many times in my life, I’ve acted as if something is true for me, then it must be true for everyone. It has gotten me into trouble every time. This example is no different. 
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I used to assume that since I enjoyed working with music in the background, everyone must feel the same. I assumed that music with words would be too distracting, but that classical or new age music would help to increase focus and productivity. I assumed that just the right volume or intensity was the “correct” sweet spot for working.
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I’ve come to find out that because of neurodivergence, different learning styles, past trauma, or individual taste, music is not the salve for everyone that it is for me. 
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Unless you plan to use music in a very intentional manner (i.e. “We will now silently sort the stickies from our team in Russia while I play two minutes of Rachmaninoff's Second Concerto”), ask your participants if they would prefer music while they ideate, write, or post up – or whether they prefer silence.

Organizations can also create through visual communication and the use of symbol, pictograph, sigil, mural and cave painting. They may use whatever tools they have on hand: ink, stone, textile, television, or Instagram. 
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The visual medium might allow us to do many things – solemnly reflect and contemplate in a hushed “gallery” setting, gain mutual understanding of the game plan devised on the locker room whiteboard, rally beneath the flag or behind the crested shield of our warring tribe, or identify teams by the marks and colors they wear.

The practices of graphic recording and graphic facilitation allow us to use the blank walls of our workspace as a canvas – providing visual feedback in real-time as we brainstorm, collaborate, make decisions, tell stories, or develop strategies.

In Matthew Fox’s Creation Spirituality model, the via negativa is directly followed by the via creativa. It would stand to reason that an organization experiencing an intense period of grieving or “storming” (think industry disruption, bankruptcy, merger/acquisition, global pandemic, etc.) would eventually find itself on the path of birthing and creativity. Together, this group would begin the work of synthesis, recovery, language- and process-building, and begin to create something new. This collaborative work would take them to a new level of meaning-making that transcends and includes its previous iterations (values, culture, systems). 
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When groups of people make meaning together, they are opening themselves to one another in brave and important ways. They are sharing the white hot spark that flickers inside each of them. They are pointing the mirror of the self at one another in an effort to be seen as a reflection of the whole. 

When groups embark on this creative path together, we can see how that spark is amplified into an all-consuming flame – a vision or mission that ignites the group with a positive, healthy obsession and provides a new Guiding Star to which they can navigate. 

It’s been three years and one pandemic in the making. I am so proud to finally announce the release of this fully-illustrated, definitive resource on how to facilitate groups and design collaboration. 

It presents a holistic view of facilitation – based on Integral Theory – and includes an array of contributions from expert voices, including co-author Geoffrey Nelson, David Sibbet, Lauren Green, Brian Tarallo, Jim Kalbach, Mark Tippin, Natalie Nixon, akasha, and Michelle Royal. 

If you (or your team) want to get better at guiding conversations, making decisions, surfacing opportunities, or driving outcomes, you must grab a copy today. They even come in hardcover! 

Inside you'll find:

• A timeline of facilitation from the talking stick to Dungeons and Dragons
• Methods for unlocking empathy and growth mindset
• Tips for public speaking and active listening
• A master list of practical facilitation questions
• The key elements of storytelling and graphic design
• A section on virtual facilitation tools like MURAL
• A treasury of scripts, templates, and checklists 
• Self-assessment tools to help guide your development

“Whether you're a seasoned veteran or brand new to facilitating meetings and group processes, Facilitation is required reading. Everything in it is essential to the design and delivery of facilitation. And yet somehow in all 272 pages, nothing is superfluous. I tried to highlight everything that every facilitator should know; it would have been faster to have dipped the entire book in yellow ink.”

- Brian Tarallo, Lizard Brain, author of Surviving the Horror of Online Meetings: How to Facilitate Good Virtual Meetings & Manage Meeting Monsters  

“Facilitation is packed with essential knowledge and practical tips. This book is the perfect tool for group facilitators looking to feel more confident and capable in today's complex world. It’s an exciting and hopeful guide that delves into the underlying dynamics of group collaboration and places human experience at the center of the process.”

- Rebecca Ejo Colwell, MBA; Founder Ten Directions, Co-Founder Integral Facilitator®

In complex business environments, leadership cannot be off-boarded or outsourced. As leaders and executives, sometimes we blame the bad things happening around us on others, or the market, or circumstance.

Things like ineffective meetings, staff turnover, teams not hitting their goals, people holding back, lack of work/life balance, and not sticking to the strategy. These have nothing to do with other people and everything to do with the way you show up as a leader. 

It’s been said that “people don’t leave bad jobs, they leave bad managers.” The opposite is also true. People don’t follow ideas, they follow other people. Is your mission confusing and convoluted? Are there too many initiatives to remember? Have you made your vision of the future (and their role in it) crystal clear for the team? If not, chances are they will burn out. If they stop believing in your capacity to lead, you will no longer be their leader. No amount of bonuses or self-care days will undo it.

Executives and leaders experiencing complexity and overwhelm can do two things to establish leadership in complex environments: 

1. Simplify business principles and involve your team in the use of visual communication methods and practice. 
2. Align your teams around a cogent and balanced approach to short-term thinking (quick wins) and long-term thinking (innovation).

This alignment will look more like group storytelling than strategy. It will involve all of your people and involve them in visualizing things like retrospectives, journey maps, and cones of plausibility.

Consider how the diversity of voices, perspectives and competencies you convene and empower today will impact, amplify, drive, or disrupt your work in the future. Visionary leaders prepare for this long tail and are able to manage the business along multiple horizons.

The emotional benefits for leaders who can do this include: 

• The confidence of knowing they have involved their team members in the process of "painting done" (being explicitly detailed with their vision or expectations) and have set them up to do the same.

 

• The wisdom and clarity to know the difference between long-term innovation or development projects and short-term projects that will keep the team fired up and inspired.

 

• The strength that comes from a team’s ability to wield the superpower of visual vocabulary in concert – which accelerates the thinking and communication inside your business. 

Some measurable results we have seen in leaders and businesses that can enable this kind of thinking and behavior in those around them include:

• A global A/V integrator narrowing down a list of 13 strategic initiatives and “must-win battles” to three concise and memorable objectives that the entire organization could focus on over the next 90 days.

 

• A Fortune 50 software company providing their sales team with a Deal Journey Map that engaged more stakeholders during discovery, optimized coaching calls, and increased adoption of and adherence to the sales process.

 

• An increase in storytelling and visual thinking skills on an Agile coaching team tasked with training their clients how to build with speed and quality in the face of rapid change.

As mentioned in our book, Visionary Leadership, these types of leaders are able to do three things well:

1. Take ownership of the problem - Take a hard look at your communication, planning, systems, and processes. Does everyone have access to the tools and software they need to become visual thinkers? Have they been provided with the necessary training? Do they celebrate and debrief after a launch or finished project? Does everyone know what success looks like for their role? If not, it’s on you. Own it and start doing better.
2. Break the big thing into smaller things - Imagine you are cleaning out a closet. What are you keeping or tossing? How will you organize the work effort? Use a whiteboard, sticky notes or spreadsheet but start (visually) putting things into smaller and smaller buckets. You can then prioritize and start implementing.
3. Ask for help - Don’t let your need for control keep you from greatness. Don’t work too far outside of your Zone of Genius. Surround yourself with people who are more capable than you are. The art directors (those in black t-shirts and glasses) aren’t the only creatives in your organization. Scrum masters aren’t the only ones who can put stickies on the wall. Innovation teams aren’t the only people who can test and validate business ideas.

Raise more visual leaders. Celebrate them. Watch them shine.