Question Circles

I got a lot out of all the sessions I attended at the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) conference, but this session is the one I have continued to think deeply about. The one that continues to intrigue me. There were a number of factors that intertwined to make it successful.

The method

Lisa Heft facilitated a plenary session at the conference on Facilitative Leadership. The attendees of the conference gathered together in one room in small groups at round tables. Lisa has the presence of an experienced facilitator, you can tell within moments that you can trust her to lead you into a process.

Lisa selected a dialogue technique originated by Leilani Rashida Henry, based on inquiry circles, that she describes as a Question Circle. The process starts with an open ended question, passing from person to person. No discussion, just deep listening. Each person ends with another question, which isn’t necessarily to be answered, but adds to the fuel of the dialogue process.

The design of the panel

Not only were the panel members very accomplished at what they did, their areas of expertise were widely divergent from each other. They were each leaders in very different contexts. This provided a foundation of rich input to start the process on stage, before each audience table group began the same process. The panel were seated in comfortable chairs with a low table in front of them on the stage. It created an accessible feel, like they were ready for a conversation.

The dialogue that developed about Facilitative Leadership

Each panel member started with reflecting on what facilitative leadership means to them. The ending question was what they were left wondering after sharing. This is an excerpt of their individual bios and some of what I heard from them.

Lisa Heft specializes in interactive, participant-driven processes for engaging dialogue, reflection, learning and interchange.

• Believe in the wisdom of the group
• Create nutrient rich environments
• Assist the emergent leaders
• Use mistakes for reflection and learning
• Don’t be afraid of the unknown, or if you are stay in the moment and walk forward into the unknown
• Gather collective wisdom, together we can figure it out
• Is it nature or nuture? Are people just like this, or can they learn to be facilitative leaders?

Deborah Dunagan is the Global Leader, IBM Intellectual Property Services, Corporate Technology and Intellectual Property.

• How can you reconcile with employee expectations?
• Starts with inquiry, who are you and what do you want?
• Many people prefer fear and control, they are motivated by it
• Facilitative leadership can be threatening to people who want to be controlled and stay where they are
• How do we enable people to not identify with their pain and instead enable expression?

Eriel Tchekwie Deranger belongs to the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation of Northern Alberta, Canada. She is the National Aboriginal Youth Engagement Coordinator for TalkingITGlobal.

• People don’t want to listen to high risk youth, they can’t get beyond their image of homeless, gangs and drugs
• Youth have a lot to say if only someone will listen
• Encourage people to take the responsibility to use their voice
• How do we take the risk to listen to those we don’t think will listen?

Phil Sharpe is currently SVP Sports Technology and Operations for Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.

• Expect something new, but not something specific
• Look for people who can achieve goals, but don’t often get to pick
• What do I do with people who are aggressive? Develop them or let them go?
• It seems to be command & control versus free-market
• Are there folks who don’t respond to facilitative leadership, and what do you do with them?

Dr. Meenaskshi Chakraverti is Senior Associate and Deputy Director, International Science Programs at the Public Conversations Project.

• What is the language around how people speak about their realities?
• Does your question make sense in the particular environment?
• Can I understand what an appropriate question is?
• Realms of possibility are very different when you grow up in scarcity leading to differences in discourse
• Do we see the world differently?

The panelists told stories, here I just list what I concluded from their stories. Not the same richness, but I hope I’ve been able to at least share enough to demonstrate the range of input that emerged from their reflections.

Martha McGinnis graphic recorded the session. Perhaps a bit more of the flavor of the panel shows here?

Passing the process to the audience

After Dr. Chakravati’s gave her perspectives, the process moved to the individual tables in the audience. The sharing at the tables was just as rich. I won’t share the details of what I heard since I do not have permission to do so. The sharing was deep. People had been moved by the process to reflect on many aspects of their own lives.

I particularly noticed how people who had been in circumstances where they were not asked their opinions really struggled with how to regain their voices. Coming from organizations or being in roles where silence is the norm is contrary to the values we discussed in facilitative leadership. Listening to the sharing strengthened my resolve to continue working to offer voice to all through the work I do.

Ending with a question

Lisa brought the conversation back to the big group, and debriefed the process by asking for reflections. There were a number of people who spoke about struggling with the desire to offer solutions. There aren’t many places where we are offered the opportunity to just listen to the questions and then make a choice about answering or just letting them be.

Each of us was then offered the opportunity to write questions we were left with on index cards. We left these on the tables, and they were collected. The questions were sent to another session, which I will write about later.

How does this apply to VisualsSpeak?

VisualsSpeak facilitates significant conversations and begins with a framing question, similar to the question circle. We ask people to select photographs in response to the question, then ask them to tell the story of the photos. It offers people voice, gives everyone a chance to be heard. I’m thinking I can apply the question circle idea to the VisualsSpeak sessions by adding a request to end individual sharing with the question one is left with.

I’m intrigued by how stating what people knew and what they didn’t shifted the quality of the conversation. There is something about sharing your clarity and your confusion in sequence that created a richer medium for reflection.

I’m thinking adding questions to the individual sharing will be particularly helpful when doing group images. I’ve found it works better to start with individual sharing before trying to work together, to make sure every voice is heard first. This process would be a way to generate even more material to work with.