The best participation in strategic decision-making

What to do with all that great information gathered through business intelligence? How can we ensure that the information captured by our information custodian (the watchdog) doesn't end up in the inboxes of business intelligence users? How do we "activate" this information so that it leads to concrete action?

These are questions I ask myself every day in order to better support our customers at Phar. In each of the strategic decision-making meetings I facilitate, I use different facilitation techniques to adapt to my clients' needs.

In this post, I'd like to share with you the power of the liberating structures format for moving key info from intelligence to strategic decision-making. The liberating structures are a framework created by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless, designed to promote powerful ways of stimulating interactions within a team.

There are many techniques, but the one I've decided to introduce is the What, So What, Now What  :)! This is a technique that helps groups reflect on common information to strengthen understanding while avoiding unproductive conflict in retrospectives.

This technique helps to reflect on a shared experience in a way that consolidates understanding and stimulates coordinated action while avoiding unproductive conflict. Each participant will take the floor while sorting out ideas and defining new directions. The step-by-step progression makes the process practical, and the collective flow of this approach eliminates most of the misunderstandings that could fuel disagreements about what needs to be done.

So, here are the steps for using this technique: Note that if the group is 10-12 people or less, debrief with the whole group. Otherwise, split the group into several smaller discussion groups and incorporate a large-group plenary stage at each stage.

Before the meeting: Prior to the meeting, participants received a summary document or there was a wrap-up meeting to familiarize themselves with the key information.

Pre-meeting.

First step: "WHAT?"

• You get participants to work on their own, answering the following questions: what did I notice; what facts or observations struck me?
• Then, in small groups, participants share what they have noted.

Step two: "SO WHAT?"

• Participants work alone on the following questions: why are these facts important, what patterns or conclusions emerge; what assumptions can be made?
• Then, in small groups, participants share what they have noted.

Third step: "NOW WHAT?"

• Participants work alone on the following questions: what now; what actions are in line with what came out of the previous steps?
• Then, in small groups, a sharing of actions and decisions is made.

As you can see, this technique is very simple, and it allows collective intelligence to be included.

In closing, my little piece of advice: allow time for debriefing - don't trivialize it, don't rush it. It's often at this point that the "HA HA moments" and the beautiful sharing take place.