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Why Have a Technology-Enabled Meeting?
 | When people get together for discussion, a decision, or to develop a
proposal, the effort can be productive, innovative, and fun!
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| In an environment of collaborative teamwork, you can
still get decisions expeditiously. |
When Pat Esslinger facilitates your meeting ...
| Your participants generate a lot of ideas in a short time.
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| They stick to the agenda and follow ground rules
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| Their comments are anonymous--which encourages them to be frank and to
participate fully.
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| They quickly reach consensus--real agreement rather than railroading and
surrender-- and the degree of consensus is measured.
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| They produce results--a written record and report |
How does this work?
Each participant in the room is provided a laptop computer
on a
self-contained portable network. One-at-a-time oral comments and
facilitators’ flip charts are largely replaced by simultaneous keyed-in comments
and electronic big screen displays. As directed by the facilitator, the
software:
| organizes the discussion
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| refines, categorizes, and consolidates items quickly and easily
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| provides structure for evaluating ideas systematically, allowing participants
to weight or rate a list of alternatives against a list of criteria and/or to
allocate resources among the alternatives
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| instantly analyzes the evaluations statistically and displays the results
graphically
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| creates a real-time permanent record of all input. |
The software that does all this is
GroupSystems. With a facilitator’s
guidance, this software is very easy to use--even for participants who are not
particularly tech savvy.
A few reasons why you should have used Pat's groupware for your last meeting
| People were reluctant to be identified with their comments.
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| "Groupthink" prevailed.
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| Creativity was stifled because a few participants dominated the discussion.
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| The best ideas came after the meeting from somebody who didn't speak up in
the meeting. |
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