UCLA SMP EdNews, August 2006

by Lisa Manning, SMP Director of Events & Marketing

In our last issue, we focused on simple strategies to guide you in conducting an effective meeting. This month’s issue looks at some of the roadblocks that can hinder a meeting’s progress and what you can do to move beyond these barriers.

Building Consensus
During the most well-planned and organized meeting, facilitators might encounter a situation where they must engage the group in consensus-building activities to move the agenda forward, resolve a difficult issue, establish next action steps, or reach agreement with maximum buy-in among all stakeholders.

Do not allow your inner voice to convince you that these situations are roadblocks to progress. Instead, welcome them as opportunities to further build community and get to the “heart of the matter.”

Before you begin, remember that consensus-building activities are not necessarily useful in every situation. Some decisions can be delegated to an ad hoc committee or even a few individuals, rather than grappled with by the whole group. But for those hotly contested issues where everyone needs to have an opportunity to participate in the decision-making process, consensus-building activities are essential.

Consensus does not involve asking the group to vote on the resolution of an issue. Avoid this formal procedure during your meetings. In Leadership for Tomorrow’s Schools, author Jerry Patterson states that “[v]oting promotes a win-lose mentality that leads people to use whatever strategies are necessary to secure votes, thus taking us back to the power and control model for organizational decision making. If we are serious about opening up the organization, we need to realize that voting takes us in the opposite direction because it too often closes the organization to authentic participation, diversity, conflict, reflection and mistakes.” (Patterson, 1993)

Consensus does not ask groups to compromise on an issue or decision. Compromise implies that we must give up something we believe in order to receive something in return. That further alienates members of the group and forces coalitions. When they consent, groups can agree to "live with the decision" but not be 100 percent "on board." Patterson continues:

“Ideally, the spirit of consensus means that we reach a collective decision, one that everyone supports after openly and extensively considering the many diverse facets of the topic being discussed. It does not mean that we find the lowest common denominator of the group’s ideas, agreeing to the little piece of common ground found among the many, varied perspectives of individuals. Consensus means seeking higher ground, creating a new solution that incorporates and at the same time goes beyond individual perspectives. Consensus decisions clearly illustrate that all of us are smarter than any one of us.” (Patterson, 1993).

When facilitating meetings for client schools, UCLA SMP uses two consensus-building activities from Leadership For Tomorrow’s Schools (Patterson, 1993) to guide the group through a difficult decision. These activities allow the group to take everyone’s concerns into consideration while attempting to find the most universal decision possible. The first activity, Nominal Group Process, asks each person to spend about ten minutes writing ideas and responses to a written statement of the problem to be addressed. The second activity, Brainstorming and Sorting, has participants separating ideas into three categories for further action.

Building consensus does take practice and patience. Avoid falling back into old habits of decision-making by voting or compromise. Although these strategies appear to be straightforward and uncomplicated, they can complicate the process by taking away the group’s ownership over a decision.

As the facilitator, you set the tone for the outcomes of the meeting. Patterson gives us some helpful guidelines to support facilitation efforts:

Guideline 1: Honor the right of each colleague to speak without interruption in an environment of trust and open communication.

Guideline 2:  Move to the point of tension and begin problem solving in a non- threatening way.

Guideline 3: Focus on best-case outcomes and press for creative solutions to achieve these outcomes.

Guideline 4: Use a variety of problem-solving tools to move the group toward consensus.

Handling Disruptive Behavior
A second roadblock to effective meetings can be disruptive behavior on the part of your meeting attendees. Thomas Kayser, author of Mining Group Gold: How to Cash In On the Collaborative Brain Power of a Group, writes:

“Disruptive behaviors take many forms: rambling, arguing, dominating, gate-closing, side conversations, etc. These dysfunctional behaviors may occur because preparation for the group session has been inadequate. Clarification of the purpose and outcomes, along with a close rein on the agenda, can help keep the group focused on tasks and can reduce disruptive behaviors.” (Kayser, 1995)

Kayser tells us that when this happens, the following strategies can be used to guide you in bringing the disruptive behavior to an end:

Publicly identify the behavior without attacking the individual. Sometimes the instigator is not aware that he or she has created a problem. By keeping the intervention focused on the behavior and not the person, the potential for an "emotional explosion" and "defensiveness" is reduced. Oftentimes, the individual wants to be listened to and valued, even though others in the group may perceive the behavior as disruptive.

Use peer pressure to positively influence disruptive members of the group. Negative behaviors will subside if the group takes shared responsibility for successful facilitation of the meeting.

Use nonverbal cues. Eye contact, standing close to the disruptive individual, stopping mid-sentence or even sending a dissatisfied (though gentle) glance will send a nonverbal, but powerful message.

If these strategies don’t bring about the intended result, take the offender aside and discuss the disruptive behavior confidentially. Be sure to focus on the behavior and not the individual. Personal attacks are destructive and defeat the purpose of the conversation. (Kayser, 1995)

If the group has set norms for the meeting, taking a few minutes to stop the meeting and asking the meeting’s attendees to revisit the norms that they created could serve as a gentle reminder to those who are engaging in activities that are disruptive to the group. Running a meeting with group norms in place allows participants to hold each other mutually accountable for agreed upon behaviors and actions.

Guiding a meeting through multiple roadblocks can be daunting for even the most skilled facilitator. However, with these simple strategies in mind, even the most difficult situations can be resolved and positive outcomes achieved.

Below is a list of books that can provide additional strategies for planning and facilitating meetings:

Fisher, Roger and William Ury. Getting to Yes. New York: Penguin, 1981.

Katzenbach, Jon R. and Douglas K. Smith. The Wisdom of Teams. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. 1993.

Kayser, Thomas. Mining Group Gold: How to Cash In On the Collaborative Brain Power of a Group. El Segundo, CA: Serif Publishing, 1995.

Patterson, Jerry. Leadership for Tomorrow’s Schools. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 1993.

In our June issue, we asked our readers to share any tips for planning a successful meeting. Bill Whitaker from United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) wrote in with the following question:

I was wondering if you'd ever seen a survey / questionnaire designed for school personnel to evaluate the overall quality and the effectiveness of their various meetings. Several years ago, the CTA led a Facilitator's workshop, which included a template for a "Meeting Effectiveness Questionnaire", but I've misplaced it and nobody seems to remember it. The data from the survey could be used school-wide to evaluate not just the substance of the meetings but the also the degree of stakeholder participation. It could also help school councils, etc. reconfigure their committee structure.

If you are familiar with this template, or can give Bill some additional guidance, please e-mail your response to the EdNews Editor and we will forward it to him. Responses will be shared in the next issue of EdNews.

For this month's topic:

Do you find consensus-building strategies effective when used during your meetings? Which strategies have been effective for you? Which have not? Are there different tactics that you and your colleagues have used to ensure that decisions get made?

We invite you to share your stories. Please click here to email us your responses to this month's Combined Brainpower. We look forward to sharing your thoughts in future issues of EdNews.

One man may hit the mark, another blunder; but heed not these distinctions. Only from the alliance of the one, working with and through the other, are great things born.
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Interested in grant writing? Check out the Foundation Center website for a short lesson on writing a grant. The lesson guides you from the executive summary all the way to the conclusion. Good luck!

Enrollments are now being accepted for UCLA SMP Instructional Leadership Institutes held during Fall of 2006:

Classroom Walk-Throughs
September 25-27, 2006 (SERESC - Bedford, NH)
October 10-12, 2006 (CES Offices - Trumbull, CT)

Bridges to Understanding: Teaching That Matters for English Learners
September 26-28, 2006 (Embassy Suites - Brea, CA)
November 6-8, 2006 (CES Offices - Trumbull, CT)
December 4-6, 2006 (SERESC - Bedford, NH)

Sign up today! Click on the date and session that you are interested in to download the registration form.

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A nonprofit school reform initiative of the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, the UCLA School Management Program (UCLA SMP) is devoted to the sustainable transformation of public schools into learner-centered organizations where all students can achieve at high levels.

UCLA SMP works with educators, building and district administrators, and community members to improve student achievement by fostering well-managed schools where professional development enhances teacher effectiveness, builds community, and results in personal transformation.

Since the program was launched in 1992, UCLA SMP has worked with over 800 schools in districts throughout California.