Online Facilitation

Nancy White

Full Circle Associates

http://www.fullcirc.com

Copyright 2002-2004 Full Circle Associates

Keys to Interaction

• Balance Control <--> Emergence

• Transparent facilitation

• Surface values & agreements

• Identity and voice

• Reciprocity

• Power of questions (125:6)

Why Participate?

• To get something

• To be heard

• To connect

• We were told to...

What Influences Participation?

• Culture

• Learning styles/communication styles

• Politics (organizational or whatever!)

• WIFM (What’s In it For Me)

• Expectations

• Time

Communication Styles

• Think about your F2F communications…

• How does body language translate online? Tone?

• How does our written style reflect our spoken style?

• Context and communication richness

• What is your style?

Dynamics of Participation

• Experts and Early Adopters

• Naïve Users

• Light Users -- or --

• Active

• Lurkers

Manifestation of Participation

• Logging on

• Posting

• “Backchannel” communications

• Reading (lurking)

• Peripheral

Entry & Engagement

Sociability, Relationship and Trust

• Formal and informal sharing of self

• Testing with small steps

• Trust - fast trust, slow trust, and trusty trust

• Factors influencing s/r/t

Social Capital

Social capital consists of stock of active connections among people: the trust, mutual understanding and the shared values and behaviors that bind the members of human networks and communities and make cooperative action possible. (p.4)-- Cohen & Prusak: In Good Company: How Social Capital

Makes Organizations Work

Power

• Influenced by offline power relationships

• Effect of frequency and access

• Effect of writing skills

• Effect of reading skills

• Effect of bandwidth/access

Intercultural Issues

• Consider race, gender, age, origin, profession, sexual orientation, etc. as our range of individual differences and similarities

• Actively explore how our differences manifest (or don’t manifest!) and matter online

• Build on the strength of diversity

Line of Sight

“One general approach is to design online environments that, by making users and their activities visible to one another, can enable a variety of social phenomena that support social and work-oriented interactions.”

- Erickson and KellogIBM T.J. Watson Research Center

Power of Conversation

• Yearning for the “pub” or coffee shop

• The impact of social conversation (unstructured and without explicit focus)

• Scientific discussion (topically organized, well structured around core data and hypothesis)

• Ad hoc and structured both have a place

Collaboration

• Whole greater than the parts

• Derived from purpose and outcomes

• Principles determine behaviors

• Based on honest assessments

• Ownership and commitment

• InclusiveMartin Leith

http://www.martinleith.com/lgi/chapter.html

Inquiry

• Define the problem

• Develop and evaluation solution alternatives

• Come to some resolution

• Develop a plan of action

• Reflect on the process

Norms, Agreements & Accountability

• What is the minimum needed?

• How explicit do they need to be?

• How do we make them visible?

• How do we keep them “alive?”

• What shared values provide underpinning?

Beliefs and Goals

• Scientific inquiry is distinguished by the commitment to:– work towards a common understanding that is

satisfactory to all– frame questions and propositions in ways that enable

evidence to be brought to bear,– expand the body of collective valid propositions, and– allow any belief to be subjected to criticism.

Bereiter (1992)

Communication Agreements

• Flex with personal and cultural style

• Language

• Style

Information Sharing Practices

• Fire hose to droplet

• Push AND Pull

• Frequency

• Type

• Identification

Participation Agreements

Task• who• what• by when• why• tracking

Process• login frequency• communication style• response times• when “away”• buddies• meeting procedures

Decision Making Processes

• Decision making boundaries

• Who

• How– consensus– voting– default– mediation

Conflict

The Trickster of Conflict

• Ask before advocating• Surface and examine assumptions• Inquire, don’t interrogate• Understand negotiation-specific expectations

www.ivysea.com and James K. Sebenius

Harvesting, Weaving, Summaries

• Capture group-created knowledge (before it is buried)

• Summarize to test for understanding and convergence

• Summarize to help new folks “get up to speed”

Evaluation

• What to measure?

• What does it mean?

• How do we use evaluation for incremental improvement?

• Action learning