Applying a recovery focus to meetings |
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Thursday, 01 December 2011 |
Christine Partridge is an IAF Certified Professional Facilitator at the Kinharvie Institute. She has a keen interest in leadership and the creative process, in particular how individuals, groups and organisations enable and hinder their potential. In a specially commissioned article for SRN, she takes a look at how applying a recovery focus to meetings can make them more effective, lively and satisfying.
 Meetings are a fact of life and a key means of making decisions, developing policy, problem solving, planning and generally making things happen (or not as the case may be). Consider for a moment the idea of taking the principles of recovery and applying them to meetings. To have, as a bottom line, meetings that were full, satisfying and where everyone contributed. How often is this case? One of the things I frequently hear in my work as a facilitator is that meetings are a waste of time. There is often a real feeling that nothing will change, this is how meetings will always be and they are something to be endured.
But what if you, as a meeting participant, took some of the principles and elements of recovery and applied them to meetings – what might this mean?
 The goal of recovery can be stated as enabling people to live full, satisfying and contributing lives (Bradstreet, 2004). A number of key elements promote recovery including hope and the idea that things can and do change. Also important is the opportunity to be actively involved in choices and decisions and to take personal responsibility as well as the recognition that everyone is an expert by experience with something to contribute.
 Thus meeting underpinned by a recovery focus would be meetings where:
- The focus is on possibility and what can be changed.
- The purpose of the meeting will be clearly stated and owned by everybody. Participants will know why they are there and what the expected outcomes of the meeting are.
- Everyone is seen as an expert in their own lived experience and hearing everyone’s unique perspective will led to a more realistic and complex view than anyone had at the start.
- Everyone takes personal responsibility for their involvement in the meeting.
- It is understood that everyone is doing the best they can and to work with people with the way they are rather than trying to ‘diagnose’ them.
- Everyone is involved in decisions that impact on them.
 How often have you experienced the above at meetings? It is easy to complain about bad meetings and to be the passive participant.
But what if you were to grasp the nettle and bring a recovery focus to the next meeting you attended? What might you do differently?
At this point I would like to introduce the idea of being a facilitative participant. Facilitation in essence means to make easier, to help forward. As facilitators we offer structures and processes to support high quality discussions and decisions but we also talk about taking a facilitative approach (using the skills and techniques of facilitation as a meeting leader) and being a facilitative participant. To be a facilitative participant means taking greater responsibility for ensuring that meetings are more effective, satisfying, hopeful and life giving. It is about taking responsibility for your own level and quality of participation in a meeting rather than being passive and letting the meeting happen to you.
Being a facilitative participant is one way of bringing into any meeting a recovery focus. So rather than wishing meetings are different, grasp the nettle and be a facilitative participant with a recovery focus by:
- Being the best of participants – a meeting is a real opportunity for you to maximise your influence and impact as a meeting member. Don’t play small or minimise your role as a participant. The question to hold in mind as a participant is – ‘what is my best contribution to this meeting?’
- Preparing for the meeting – as participants it is as important to prepare for the meeting as it is for the meeting leader. This is not just about reading any papers or background materials. It also means reflecting on what is your preferred outcome for this meeting. Rather than think ‘what can I get from this meeting’, think what would be the best outcome for this meeting both for you but also others.
- Being aware of how you are going into the meeting - are you coming with the recovery attitude of hope and a belief in the possibility that this will be an effective and productive meeting? Or more from the mindset that ‘this is a meeting to be got through?’ Taking a recovery stance means going to the meeting with a positive, hope-based mindset and an attitude of how can I best contribute at this meeting so as to ensure it achieves its purpose.
- Being curious – particularly when you are experiencing difference. Rather than seeing disagreement as a problem to be solved see it as the current reality (it is just information) to be lived with. As a facilitative participant you need to be curious and seek to understand in the belief that in the tension of the difference there is potentially a better way forward. Being curious is about taking an attitude of appreciative inquiry, remembering that each person’s lived experience is valid however different they are.
- Being the change you want to see in the meeting – so for example, if you wished people would build on others ideas or contribute more, rather than wishing others were different, focus on how you are contributing – are you building on others ideas? Can you contribute more?
- Being intentional and purposeful – be clear about what and how you want to influence. What is the purpose of your intervention? How can you best support the meeting to make the quality decision it needs to make? If you are silent – does this support the meeting outcomes or hinder them?
- Asking effective questions – if you are unclear or don’t understand something – ask. Remaining silent and trying to figure it out is not helpful to you or the group.
- Listening actively and with compassion – there are great pressure in this world and it is important to understand this and recognise that antagonistic or cynical behaviours can be the result of high stress levels.
 In summary, being a facilitative participant is all about taking personal responsibility for the effectiveness of meetings you participate in rather than giving all the responsibility to the meeting chair or leader. If you want meetings to be different, you need to be different in meetings. Combine this with a recovery focus and you are much more likely to have effective, lively and satisfying meetings.
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This part sticks in my mind also, if only we were all this understanding of otheres! This is something I stress to every member of any group I run! thanks