{"id":5967,"date":"2011-02-18T14:35:24","date_gmt":"2011-02-18T21:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=5967"},"modified":"2011-02-18T14:35:24","modified_gmt":"2011-02-18T21:35:24","slug":"project-management-unplugged-facilitation-vs-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=5967","title":{"rendered":"Project Management Unplugged: Facilitation vs. Control"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Back in the frenetic 90s, when I\u2019d been a Program Manager for about 5 years, I decided to return to my Marketing roots for a change of pace, and took a Product Manager job at a large networking company.\u00a0 I was leading a number of cross-business unit initiatives, with the attendant large cross-functional meetings, and I sailed in with my program management skills in my back pocket and started making things happen.\u00a0 Several months into the mission, my boss called me into his office and said, \u201cThere\u2019s something we need to talk about.\u201d\u00a0 Uh-oh.\u00a0 I have an advanced case of principal\u2019s office syndrome, so I just knew I was in for it.\u00a0 I sifted through all the things I\u2019d done since I arrived, and, wow, it seemed like things were going really well.\u00a0 But there he was, looking all serious and stern; it couldn\u2019t be good.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cI have a problem with the way you run meetings.\u201d\u00a0 Huh?\u00a0 Running meetings is something I do really well.\u00a0 So now I\u2019m confused.\u00a0 \u201cYou tend to facilitate them,\u201d he continued.\u00a0 \u201cRiiiight,\u201d I said slowly, \u201cand the problem is?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI want you to control the meetings,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am controlling the meetings,\u201d I replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, you don\u2019t understand.\u00a0 I want you to be in control.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I heard you, but I AM in control.\u00a0 I\u2019m setting up an environment that will produce the best result, and maintaining momentum toward a decision that everyone can buy into.\u201d<\/p>\n

His jaw became rigid, and I swear he clenched his teeth.\u00a0 \u201cThis company is a hockey game. \u00a0I want you to be diving for the puck and coming up with it in your hand, even if you have to take it away from your teammates to do it.\u00a0 I\u2026want\u2026you\u2026to\u2026be\u2026in\u2026control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Needless to say, this was not a match made in boss-subordinate heaven.\u00a0 But it\u2019s a conversation I\u2019ve never forgotten, as it illustrates perfectly the misconceptions about the role of facilitation and what constitutes control.\u00a0 For us program managers, it speaks to the heart of the challenge we face every day\u2026how to get people to do what serves the business, even when they really don\u2019t want to do it.<\/p>\n

The American corporation is based on a military model.\u00a0 The many layers of authority, from Private to multi-star General, mirror the corporate ladder.\u00a0 And in the military, the most common way of making things happen is through command and control, involving the \u201cexercise of authority and direction by a properly designated commanding officer.\u201d\u00a0 Command and control has been the most common corporate process for decision making and organizational structure since long before IBM made counting machines, and there are certainly times when its tenets have served the business well.\u00a0 But more often than not, it has created a culture where people are not only afraid to think for themselves, to challenge authority, or to speak their vision for the company\u2019s success, they have actually forgotten that it might be a good idea to try.<\/p>\n

Imagine the army saying, \u201cHEY! What we really need is someone who has no rank, no authority, and no subordinates to help us keep the troops motivated and in fine fighting fettle.\u201d\u00a0 Can you just see it?\u00a0 Nah, me neither.\u00a0 But in many organizations, that\u2019s exactly what happens when a company creates and fills the position of a Program Manager.\u00a0 We are given an enormous responsibility, with not much to back it up except our good looks and winning smile \u2026 AND \u2026 our ability to facilitate successful results, whether it be with meetings or development projects, or conflict resolution.<\/p>\n

Facilitation is a relatively new corporate skill, only coming to prominence in the 1980s.\u00a0 In its most basic form, it focuses on designing and running effective and impartial meetings, but it has moved far beyond that into all the elements required to actively align a group or an organization to achieve a common goal.\u00a0 From the outside looking in, a skilled facilitator may not appear to be doing all that much.\u00a0 The subtleties of shaping a discussion might be as simple as asking a question at the right time, or raising a different point of view.\u00a0 There is a LOT of listening going on.\u00a0 You need to pay close attention not only to the content of the conversation, but the relationships between the team members and the context out of which their contributions rise.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s critical to keep the discussion away from rabbit holes and pipe dreams and personal agendas. Sometimes we may believe we know the result we should arrive at, but more often we need to keep an open mind and foster the collective wisdom of the team to arrive at the best possible outcome.<\/p>\n

Facilitation is both an art and a skill; some facilitators are born, some are made. But sometimes just our presence in the room reminds people to stay on mission, and keep their eye on the prize.\u00a0 I can\u2019t tell you how many times I\u2019ve been thanked for helping to achieve a result, and I can honestly tell you that all I did was listen while they figured it out.\u00a0 But because I was the impartial witness, the person whose role was clearly understood to be functional-agenda free, they held themselves accountable, and reached across functional lines to collaborate on the solution.<\/p>\n

The truth? Control is pretty much an illusion.\u00a0 And in a time like ours, where change is so relentless and so rapid, control is a joke.\u00a0 The only thing any of us has control over is how well we manage a life of unremitting volatility.\u00a0 But in a time like ours, program managers can make an enormous contribution by facilitating the day-to-day process of getting things done in such a way that agility and flexibility are built into the system.\u00a0 My old boss was right in a wrong sort of way.\u00a0 Life is<\/em> a hockey game.\u00a0 You are bobbing and weaving on skinny blades over a slippery surface, trying not to fall down or run into anyone, while you try to get your stick on a small round disk and send it into a net guarded by a big guy with lots of padding and a hundred arms.\u00a0 It\u2019s fluid, and uncertain, and your best strategy for success is not to grab the puck and hold on for dear life, but to work with your team to create the kind of collaborative environment that sends that puck into the net every time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in the frenetic 90s, when I\u2019d been a Program Manager for about 5 years, I decided to return to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1510,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1510"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5967\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}