4 Qs - The Action Imperative

Quintessential Thought

We’re concluding our series about facilitation, walking through the four phases of a collaborative conversation.

After settling the Context, Diverging to explore options, and Converging to narrow the possibilities, it’s time to take Action.

After narrowing down the options, it’s time to select the most potent action to take. Often, this is a good time to revisit the goal from the Context phase to test whether the proposed action will make meaningful progress in that direction.

One aspect of the Action phase is clarifying the selected action. At this point, you are facilitating the group having a collective and shared understanding of the steps that will be taken, who will do the work, and when it will happen. We strongly recommend using the Change Hypothesis to encapsulate all the critical elements of the action. If more clarity or creativity is needed, consider briefly revisiting one or more of the earlier phases (Context, Diverge, Converge). 

We wouldn’t be good agilists if we didn’t create an empirical learning loop! 😀 This is the time for the team to plan when and how they will revisit the selected action to identify how effective it was, learn, and plan their next steps using the same 4 phases: Context, Diverge, Converge, and Action.

Quotes

“A group facilitator needs: self-awareness (being with yourself), awareness of others (being with others) and commitment to the group fulfilling its purposes” - Dale Hunter

"An idea without action is merely speculation." - H. Jackson Brown Jr.

"Action is the foundational key to all success." - Pablo Picasso

Quick Step

Use the Change Hypothesis to help a team gain clarity on an action they’re planning to take.

Question

What has been the most effective way you’ve seen a group decide to take action?

Professional Scrum Product Owner, Mar 31 - Apr3

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