Structured Thought Processes - "Process Skills" | Gary Rush Facilitation
As an IAF CPF Assessor, I've noticed that a weakness Facilitators have in common is poor process skills. They all deal well with people issues, but they all struggle defining a clear, thought-process for the group to follow. I’m talking about processes that help structure the thinking of a group so that they can make effective decisions to ensure well thought-out solutions.
How often have you been in a meeting where people work together well, but can't get from point A to point B when making decisions? It isn’t because they can’t decide. It’s because something is missing – a structured thought process. For example, a group is in a meeting developing criteria to choose between vendors for a project, but they disagree about the criteria. Why? There are two (2) major reasons why groups disagree about criteria:
1) They don’t have an overarching goal to guide the criteria.
2) They disagree about “subjective” criteria (e.g., vendor viability).
A well-structured thought process solves both problems.
Process Skills are Misunderstood
People make the mistake of thinking that process relates to business procedures. Process is a way of organizing thoughts, ensuring that the needed structure is there for decision-making, problem solving, etc. Too often, groups jump ahead to solutions without defining the problem, so they struggle because they don’t share a common goal. These are process issues.
Process Skills are Crucial
Process Skills are just as important as People Skills. Without process skills, Facilitators cannot guide groups – groups will struggle and break down making win-win difficult at best.
People Need Balanced Holistic Learning
In my Facilitator training, I devote 50% of class time to People Kills and 50% to Process Skills, providing balanced Holistic Learning. People need to know "how to" form teams (people skills) and they need to know "how to" guide teams to a well thought-out solution (process skills).
Process Skills provide deliberate, structured thought processes to build something of value. 