Kirsten Clacey - The Remote Facilitators Pocket Guide

Praise for The Remote Facilitators Pocket Guide

We are all woefully unprepared for the evolution of effective spaces into the distributed environment. This book teaches us what to do so that we need not be.

Aveshan Govender, Engineering Manager, Spotify

This is inclusive design at its finest: an invitation to go beyond our ordinary context and be involved in the discovery along the way. I have an increasing demand for distributed facilitation, and this approach is the best Ive ever experienced.

Cara Turner, CEO, Project codeX

This groundbreaking book is for people who want remote connections to be at least as productive, vibrant, and alive as the very best gatherings with everyone in the same room. Its delightfully refreshing for experts and also offers a fresh, safe, inspiring start point for anyone new to facilitation of any kind.

Steve Holyer, Agile Coach and Facilitator, CoachingCocktails.com

Remote meetings cant be considered cutting edge anymoreyet we are surprisingly bad at them. Kirsten and Jay-Allen understand how people behave in meetings and how you can encourage them to have positive behaviors that lead to vastly more effective meetings. Their art is a mix of psychology, empathy, and practical techniques.

Ted Pietrzak, Vice President, Application Modernization, The Charles Schwab Corporation

Jay-Allen and Kirsten provide loads of practical ideas to experiment with to make your meetings more productive, equal, and fun. If you care about your teams, your effectiveness, and your general well-being at remote work, this book is for you!

Louise Perold, Quality Manager

The Remote Facilitators Pocket Guide

Copyright 2020 by Kirsten Clacey and Jay-Allen Morris

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, rcording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

Ordering information for print editions

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First Edition
Paperback print edition ISBN 978-1-5230-8910-9
PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-5230-8911-6
IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-5230-8912-3
Digital audio ISBN 978-1-5230-8913-0

2020-1

Book producer: Westchester Publishing Company. Cover design and illustration: Yvonne Chan. Interior illustrations: Kirsten Clacey

To our teams who experimented with us, and Nelson and Wesley who supported us throughout.

I spent years honing my facilitation skills. I learned how people process information. I learned how to create an environment that enables groups to share information, discuss, think, and decide together. I then introduced a process for helping groups do just that, detailed in Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great (2006). That book describes how teams can reflect, learn, and improvewhen they are together.

However, remote meetings are a different animal. Over the years, Ive adapted practices and come up with workarounds for remote meetings. Still, remote meetings often dont have the oomph of in-person interactions.

As a participant, Ive spent countless hours in remote meetings. While I am certain it hasnt actually been an eternity, sometimes it feels that way. Faced with low participation, isolation, and lack of feedback, sometimes I check out. Im not alone. People often take refuge in online solitaire, checking email, Twitter, Slack, or doing real work. Even when the tools allow for visual communication and screen sharing, the default is camera offwhich makes it easier to disengage and hide out. It doesnt feel like robust collaboration, no matter how much the participants and leaders wish it were so. Perhaps youve had this experience, too.

It doesnt have to be this way.

I had the pleasure to meet Jay-Allen and Kirsten at the Regional Scrum Gathering in Durban, South Africa in 2018. Their topic, Hacking Remote Facilitation, intrigued me. I figured that while I knew some things, it couldnt hurt to see what other people were doing. I might pick up a tip or two.

Their session provided the best advice on the mechanics of remote facilitation Ive seen. Anywhere.

Their lovely new book describes in detail how to make remote meetings more participative, engaging, and useful. It also makes clear that their ideas go deeper than mere mechanics.

Jay-Allen and Kirsten developed their methods based on a true appreciation for creating space for people to collaborate. Their values and experience show up in the six principles outlined in the book. The methods that implement each principle derive from the science of how our brains function. Throughout the book, an understanding of what people need to collaborate effectively shines though.

Jay-Allen and Kirsten dont just tell you what to do. They explain why the methods work. After studying this book, you will have a starting set of methods. Youll also gain the knowledge to adapt, modify, and create your own methods to fit your context.

Collaboration is the heart of creative work. But collaborative work isnt always easy. Collaborative work requires hearing and harmonizing different viewpoints, harnessing constructive conflict, and reaching decisions that a group will own. Groups struggle through, sometimes with damaged relationships to uncertain results, even when they are face-to-face. Remoteness exacerbates the issue.

This costs organizations in wasted time and wasted money. Worse, the failure to overcome the challenge of remote collaboration drains engagement. People check out during meetings, and often stay checked out. People who might come up with creative solutions and market-changing innovation never feel the spark.

Collaboration and creativity across distance isnt out of reach. Remote meetings can be engaging and productive. This book will show you how.