Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
[ Music ]
[ Silence ]
>> Susan Keller-Mathers: [Background laughter] Okay,
welcome to "ICSC Tool Time," and we have a wonderful panel today.
We have Russ back here -- Russ Shown [phonetic], from Chicago.
We have Roger Firestien, from Williamsville [laughter].
We have Mike Fox from Military Road,
and I'm Susan Keller-Mathers, and this is CRS670 class,
and some of our alumni, so welcome to all
of our discussion members today.
We're going to go through quite a few tools today
and just talk about, what are some tips, best practices,
how do you use it effectively.
And also, we're going to look at some of the applications.
>> Ross Shown: The tool we want to focus on now is highlighting.
And highlighting is a convergent tool.
It's a three-step process that really helps folks --
individuals or groups -- narrow from a diverged set of options.
So, after a group or an individual has diverged,
to help them converge, you can use highlighting.
And the first step in highlighting is hits.
The second step is cluster.
And then, the third step is to restate that cluster.
And so, hits are, basically, what are the options
that are either on target, intriguing, energizing.
And you have individuals physically represent,
usually with a sticky dot of a color different from the Post-it
and physically put that sticker or dot on the Post-it.
So, you would have a visual,
in terms of which options are sparkling.
Once you have the hits, you then move those options
to a separate flip chart, or a separate sheet of paper,
or a separate blackboard, and you would cluster the ones
that are closely related together.
Okay. Once you've had them clustered,
you would actually physically mark those off with a circle
or a square, with a marker.
And if there is an outlying option
that doesn't really closely relate, you can leave
that as a separate cluster of one.
And then, the third step is to restate that cluster.
Basically, trying to get, what does the essence
of this cluster represent?
Now, if you're highlighting after you've generated ideas,
you're going to restate -- you're restatement,
we'd encourage you to use some verb with the noun or action.
So, if, for example, you were coming up,
what might be all the ways we could raise money or fundraise,
and you had a cluster around doing a bake sale,
instead of restating it as just, "bake sale," we would say,
"set up a bake sale," or...
[ Silence ]
>> We lost him.
>> Susan Keller-Mathers: Okay.
>> Ross Shown: ...bake sales on a monthly basis,
so you want some sort of action.
>> Roger Firestien: Just a little hiccup.
>> Ross Shown: Now, you can also highlighting
in different parts of the process.
So, for example, you can also highlighting
when you're converging on problem statements.
And so, you would hit the problem statements,
you'd cluster, and then your restatement,
instead of starting with a verb...
>> Susan Keller-Mathers: [Chuckles].
>> Roger Firestien: Oops.
>> Susan Keller-Mathers: So, restate...
>> Ross Shown: ...how to, how might, and what ways might.
Great convergent tool.
Should be in every facilitator's toolbox.
Now, back to you [laughter].
That's highlighting in a nutshell.
>> Roger Firestien: Well said, Russ.
Well said.
>> Mike Fox: One of the things that I like to do, particularly
when I'm working with a single client, that's to keep
from going crazy on this procedure, is, I ask the client,
all those options that were not chosen, didn't get a hit,
out of those, is there any one that belongs in a cluster
that will work to improve what that concept is about?
The next thing that I like to do is to say that some
of these options belong in more than one cluster.
And we could use a lot of Post-it notes,
because I have stock in 3M, and it's part
of my retirement program [laughter].
So, we're going to use a lot of Post-its, and I say,
make a duplicate, and put it in both places.
And then, it's also possible that,
in this highlighting operation, that an option can be both
by itself and in a cluster.
Using the notion of building, or working to improve an idea.
>> Roger Firestien: And the idea behind highlighting,
when Bill Shepherd and Diane Foucar-Szocki
and I developed it back in the early '80s, is,
this is before Post-its, and so...
>> Susan Keller-Mathers: [Gasps].
>> Roger Firestien: Yeah, yeah, and it was --
it was -- it was awful.
>> Susan Keller-Mathers: It was.
>> Roger Firestien: It was awful.
>> Susan Keller-Mathers: The numbering?
>> Ross Shown: Yeah, and so...
>> Mike Fox: Oh, yeah, the crayons?
Oh.
>> Ross Shown: ...what we did was -- oh, it was -- yeah, yeah.
So, and where it came from was, we'd be working
with these clients, and they'd have all these great ideas
[chuckles], and I would facilitate,
and I would be facilitating, and I would say,
"Okay, Val, pick one."
You know, and the -- exactly.
That's -- they'd look, they'd go, "Oh, my God."
And so, that didn't work.
And so, we struggled with it and struggled with it.
And then, what we eventually developed was,
we had a numbering system, and then,
first they did essentially the same thing.
Go through, mark the ideas or the challenge statements
and problem statements that looked good to you.
They'd mark those.
Then, which of these -- which of these numbers go to together,
so they'd put the numbers together.
Then they'd look at those numbers, and then they'd restate
that cluster with the numbers.
And when Post-its came, hallelujah, because [laughter],
this was the best thing to have.
>> Susan Keller-Mathers: Brainstorming and...
>> Roger Firestien: And highlighting.
Oh, yeah.
>> Susan Keller-Mathers:
...highlighting are the ones that...
>> Roger Firestien: Just benefited the most.
>> Susan Keller-Mathers: Huge difference with Post-its.
>> Roger Firestien: Yeah.
Yeah, so -- and it's just --
it was really hard, hard work to do that.
And so, now, as Michael said,
you can move them around, you can add to them.
Oh, that doesn't fit here.
You know, when we did the demonstration earlier, Donna,
you said, "I want to move that here.
I want to move that here."
Well, you couldn't do that [chuckles] before.
You had to, like, add to it and stuff like that.
So, yeah, it was -- it was pretty messy.
Thank goodness for Post-its.
Yeah.
>> Mike Fox: I'll tell you a story.
I was working for a client here locally, an industrial firm,
and we went through the diverge, converge,
all the way through hits, clustering and restatement
and prioritized the ones that they wanted.
And then, I said to -- out of all those options that are left
on the board that were not hit, I said,
"Which ones would your competition like to see?"
And they picked some, and they clustered
and restated them [chuckles].
And then kept them secret, I suspect.
>> Roger Firestien: That's pretty good.
Yeah, yeah.
>> Mike Fox: yeah.
>> Roger Firestien: Great.
>> Mike Fox: That was a complete surprise.
>> Roger Firestien: Isn't that neat?
>> Mike Fox: I wasn't expecting that [chuckles].
>> Roger Firestien: And back to what Sue said earlier.
You know, once you know the technique, you can vary it.
You can play around with it a little bit.
You're playing music.
You're improvising.
Let's see where this goes.
Yeah.
>> Susan Keller-Mathers: As long
as you're not doing it just because you're bored.
>> Roger Firestien: Right.
Right.
>> Susan Keller-Mathers: Do it for the right reason.
Do it because you think it's going to do something
for what the statement is and who the client is or whatever.
Wherever you are in the process.
It seems that if you vary it in that way,
it's going to be more effective.
So, you know, the rule of thumb is, most of the time,
we do these things, we just do it just like they are stated.
>> Roger Firestien: Exactly.
>> Mike Fox: Except at a recent retreat, when we liked all
of our options [laughter], and we didn't do any hits.
We just clustered them.
>> Roger Firestien: But, no, I mean, the thing is...
>> Susan Keller-Mathers: That's true.
>> Roger Firestien: ...and then, what we drill into you guys is,
we've spent a lot of time phrasing these things that way,
getting the wording just right.
>> Mike Fox: Yeah.
>> Roger Firestien: And as you know, the more you facilitate,
the less you have to say.
So, if you see one of us facilitating,
we're not saying much, because we just know the right question
to ask, and zing, there it goes.
And so, but that's taken a lot of time, a lot of practice,
and a lot of really working that out.
So, what I'm in a session, to say, use the phase,
"What ideas do you get for this picture,"
there's a reason for it.
>> Mike Fox: Hmm-mm.
>> Roger Firestien: ...because all the other stuff we tried
didn't work.
>> Susan Keller-Mathers: That's right.
>> Roger Firestien: So...
>> Susan Keller-Mathers: And it's very specific language.
>> Roger Firestien: Yeah.
>> Susan Keller-Mathers: To get what you want, especially --
and you all know this.
When you start working with an untrained group --
you work with a trained group,
you can mess it up all you want...
>> Roger Firestien: Oh, yeah.
>> Susan Keller-Mathers:
...and they do what you want them to do.
First time you work with a...
>> Roger Firestien: Because they know what you want them
to do [chuckles].
>> Susan Keller-Mathers: Right.
Before you even said it, they knew what was happening next.
Sometimes they tell you what's happening next [laughter].
You have to tell them, "Stop facilitating!"
>> Roger Firestien: You all had [inaudible], right [laughter]?
>> [Inaudible] what I was going to say
about highlighting is that,
the first time I facilitated outside the creative bubble,
and everyone -- you just intuitively know, like,
I'm not going to pick everything.
I'm like, "Here's some dots.
Hit them."
And she was, like, bam, bam, and she was going.
And I was, like, "Oh, my God, she's picking every single one,"
and I was, like, do I say, "Stop"?
No. You can't -- you know, and just learning how to finesse
that and making sure the client knows the rules.
>> Roger Firestien: And that's where...
>> Susan Keller-Mathers: That's it.
>> Roger Firestien: ...you have
to be really explicit what ideas, in this case,
are interesting, intriguing, workable,
might solve the problem, is a lead for you.
And -- because they -- some
of them will want to hit them all...
>> Yes.
>> Roger Firestien: ...depending on their particular style.
I mean, you know, Myers-Briggs Ps up there, they're going
to take everything, you know?
>> Right.
>> Susan Keller-Mathers: They're going to take it all.
>> They're all sparkles to me.
>> Roger Firestien: Oh, they're all --
yeah, they're all [laughter] -- and you're, like, going, "Oh,
my God, let me get out of here."
Yeah. I'm going to be here until Thursday, so.
>> Susan Keller-Mathers: Well, you know, and we limit the dots,
too, I mean you can say...
>> Right.
>> Roger Firestien: I usually don't with a client.
>> Susan Keller-Mathers: Yeah, I know you don't.
Yeah. I do.
>> I know you don't, yeah.
>> Roger Firestien: Well, okay [laughter].
[Inaudible].
>> Susan Keller-Mathers: Yes.
How about you, Mike?
>> Roger Firestien: You moderate [laughter].
>> Mike Fox: I'd like to add one of the things that I do.
Highlighting, of course, is a way of working
to improve a notion, and squarely in their context.
And it gives the client a great deal of satisfaction and power.
The notion of using a one-word label is --
might work for a simulation, but it's okay to have one cluster
on a single piece of flip chart paper
and let the client write all they need to write about what
that cluster means to them.
>> Roger Firestien: Yeah.
You don't really want to limit -- I mean, and --
and if you have one word on there,
I'll just -- don't do that.
You know, because it doesn't --
it doesn't do anything for you, you know?
Book. What do you mean, "book"?
>> Susan Keller-Mathers: Right.
>> Roger Firestien: You know?
Write a book, get a book, you know?
>> Susan Keller-Mathers: And they're not going to --
they're not going to remember the essence of it.
>> Roger Firestien: They're not going
to remember it anyway, yeah.
But to your point, as far as limiting dots,
when I have group clients, I do limit dots, okay?
>> Mike Fox: Yeah.
>> Roger Firestien: But individually,
I usually don't, so...
>> Susan Keller-Mathers: That's a good point.
>> Roger Firestien: Yeah.
Yeah, so.
>> Susan Keller-Mathers: All right.
I'll give you that.
>> Roger Firestien: Well, thank you [laughter].
>> Susan Keller-Mathers: Russ.
This is highlighting.
Finish us off.
>> Ross Shown: Well, just another watch-out I've had
with groups is, sometimes they will over-cluster a cluster,
meaning they'll put, like, 15 options in one cluster.
>> Roger Firestien: Yes, Russ, yes.
>> Ross Shown: And some -- and when we see that, oftentimes,
we'll - you know, it's not a hard-and-fast rule,
but if there's more than, let's say, four or five options,
we may really encourage them to separate those clusters and say,
which ones are really closely related?
Because otherwise, they end up restating so general
that it loses the essence.
>> Roger Firestien: Yeah, Russ, just to --
just to really put a -- put a point on that, and you can --
you guys can see that, when you have, like, a half a page full
of stuff, and they call it a cluster.
It's like, man, that's danger zone.
So, like, you know, hey, let's split these.
Why don't you split these up a little bit, you know, and --
and right on the money with that, Russ.
Because there's often so many concepts in there
that it's going to back up to the initial level,
and what have we done?
We've just recreated the next --
the main goal statement again, so.
>> Ross Shown: So, that's highlighting.
>> Mike Fox: Yep.
>> Susan Keller-Mathers: That's highlighting.
Give him a hand [applause].
>> Mike Fox: Okay.
>> Roger Firestien: Nice.
[ Music ]
[ Silence ]