4c Unity

Group Facilitation

Generates extraordinary ideas and excellent results

from your team meetings or offsite, with ease and in record time

I invite you to contact me to discuss your facilitation requirements.

Innovation, Inclusiveness & Trust

In meetings where people truly appreciate each other’s thinking, and therefore truly listen, strategies are better formed, goals are better achieved, budgets are better set, products and services are better delivered. Things like respect, inspiration, innovation, engagement, inclusiveness, trust, are given a real chance.

As a Time To Think Facilitator, I produce this quality of thinking and decision making in your group. I provide the Ten Components of a Thinking Environment together with your team so that everyone in the group can do excellent thinking independently and together.

Together, we create a Thinking Environment where everyone has an equal say, is heard and respected, and feels safe. How would that be?

We do this by applying the following 10 components or behaviors:

These 10 components make people feel more relaxed and confident. They can think more deeply and thus come up with better ideas.

When we give sincere attention with interest, people think better. That means listening without interrupting, without opinion and in silence.
Seeing each other as equal thinkers, regardless of hierarchy. Each is given equal time to think and talk to tap into all the potential present in each. Everyone is asked to speak briefly and concisely.
Be at ease so that others can be at ease too, regardless of haste and urgency. Haste and urgency worsen the quality of thinking.
See and mention what you appreciate in the other person. Appreciation creates well-being for all of us and it fuels positivity and creativity.
Should feelings arise, we make space for them and acknowledge them, in order to be able to think properly again. People think better when feelings are allowed to be. Otherwise it blocks them.
Encouragement. Encourage the other person to go to undiscovered thinking by asking open-ended questions beginning with “how” and “what”.
Just enough information. When everyone has all the information, it makes thinking clearer in service of the topic and everyone’s thinking.
Celebrating differences in a group. Diversity makes everyone’s thinking and outcomes better, more diverse and richer through cross-pollination.
Incisive question is a question that frees the brain from limiting untrue assumptions about the situation, yourself or others. Negative assumptions hold the group back from taking the next step. The incisive question helps you look for creative solutions. It taps into your resourcefulness.
Place. Create an environment, meaning the meeting room or online space, as well as the listener’s body that radiates to the other: “You matter. I sincerely want to know what you are thinking.”.

What does this look like during a meeting, gathering, workshop, offsite or conversation?

Nancy Kline has developed several applications that meet the 10 components and encourage people to deepen their thinking and share their best ideas. The applications are Thinking Pairs, Dialogue, Round, Open Discussion, the Time to Think Council, Presentations and Thinking Partnership. These applications can be used individually or in combination during a meeting and will be facilitated by me.

Thinking Pairs

Two people form a group and take turns thinking deeply and listening intently to the other. Each person chooses their own topic that they want to think about. This can be anything.

Dialogue

Two people form a group together thinking about the same question with short, frequent turns back and forth.

Rounds

Systematic uninterrupted rounds to hear everyone’s opinions and ideas, also of the quiet people.

Open discussion

Everyone can speak, with no particular order. No one “chases” the speaker. No one interrupts the speaker. The speaker keeps his promise to be brief.

Presentations in a Thinking Environment

The presenter authentically connects with the audience and then addresses the question he or she will answer with the presentation. The audience is then asked for their opinion on the same topic/question. So both are listeners and thinkers.

The Thinking Council

If there is a dilemma or problem that needs to be solved, it can be formulated into a question and presented to colleagues. Everyone speaks from their own experience and shares their ideas that come to mind. This gives you access to the wisdom of your colleagues.

Thinking Partnership Session

A sequence of questions that produces the most independent thinking in one person. The thinker chooses the topic he or she wants to think about. This is a one-on-one session with me. I am the listener.

Transforming Meetings

Multiple different applications mentioned above can be used during this meeting. Strategies are better formed, goals are better achieved, budgets are better set, and products and services are better delivered.

How do we determine which application is appropriate?

Depending on the desired outcome you wish to achieve per agenda item or during your meeting, I, as facilitator, suggest the appropriate application. The outcome may be:

do you need a decision?
do you need new ideas?
do you want to discover the implications of a past decision?
do you need everyone to say how they feel?
do you need to hear and consider new information?
do you need to bring each other up to date?
do you need to face something dangerous?
is there a need to connect with each other now?

As a facilitator, I help you set the agenda in advance. We formulate each agenda item into an open-ended question, which prompts the brains of the invitees to think deeply beforehand and during the meeting.

Contact

I invite you to contact me to discuss your facilitation requirements and for me to understand your business context and what you want to accomplish for the day or during the meeting.

Contact Marjoleine

Hofstad 6
5298 AP Liempde
The Netherlands
contact@4cunity.com
+31 (0)6 30209326