When you’re gathering a group of people to think through a problem, here are some best practices:
Cultivate Diverging Thinking, then Converge
First Idea ≠ Best Idea. If your party is too quick to jump on an solution to a given problem, you may rabbit hole through the details and miss simpler or more effective inputs.
Anonymized Inputs
Psychological Safety is necessary for potentially dissenting views to be presented, and you can’t expect it to happen immediately. You can work around this by having people write their ideas on notecards for the leader to read out loud.
Really Define the Problem
A Problem Well-Stated is Half-Solved. Talk with the group early about the nature of the issues at hand. Don’t immediately jump into “solutioning” the problem until you’re confident you’ve got a shared Mental Model and understanding of the goals of the group.
Use Scheduled Breaks
If you’re going to be stuck in together for a long time, let people know when they can expect to get a break. Encourage breaks together, if possible.
Set Up Human Synchrony
One shortcut to Psychological Safety and group bonding (which is both “nice” to have for the participants and good to have for better results) is to figure out a way to achieve synchrony. This could simply come from walking during the breaks. You could do the whole “stretch break” thing.
Use Shared Artifacts
Do:
- Use large, tangible artifacts to draw graphics, place sticky notes.
- Use the space. Allow your spatial reasoning and gestures to carry some of the cognitive load.
Don't:
- Print off multiple copies of the system diagram
- Let everyone work on their own computer