139 - Breaking (Project) Management and Decision Routines with Karen Schmidt

The building blocks of facilitation can be considered as quite practical, tangible things: workshops, agendas, exercises, timing, and tools. Underpinning these facilitation essentials, though, are intricate psychological and behavioural phenomena.

This week’s episode is the perfect testament to that truth.

Karen Schmidt – the founder of the international innovation community, ‘Over the Fence’ – joins me in this episode to discuss decision-making.

In many organisations, decision-making can be more of a routine than a process. Stakeholders might be left out, partners might be disenfranchised, and the best decision might not be made. Easing the friction in and reliance on management routines to improve decision-making is Karen’s fascination.

There can’t be many workshops work listeners who don’t feel the same way!

Find out about:

• Exploring the integral role of alignment in any decision-making process
• How to democratise our language and create alignment and unity
• Why established routines can harm decision-making
• How to identify and understand what decision-making ‘role’ we are occupying
• Why it’s healthy to flex decision-making between detail-orientation and bigger picture ideas
• Why decision-making, leadership, and ownership all tie in to the idea of taking and making space

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Questions and Answers

[01:13] When did you start calling yourself a facilitator?

[02:20] What got you into facilitation in the first place?

[04:37] What’s the story behind Over the Fence?

[06:27] What can project managers learn from facilitators?

[08:13] What is the mindset shift between being a project manager and a facilitator?

[10:33] What do you think most people get wrong about the process of managing a project?

[12:41] When you talk about breaking management routines, what do you mean?

[14:55] What makes it so hard for project managers to empathise with and speak the language of their teams?

[16:03] An example of catching unclear language and adapting a workshop accordingly.

[21:58] What makes a workshop fail?

[26:34] Who needs to be in the small group that makes a decision?

[29:21] Why do humans find it so difficult to make decisions?

[31:50] The three leadership roles, as illustrated in Over the Fence’s Decisions Hats card set.

[37:19] Exploring the Decision Canvas.

[44:17] Is there an organisational equivalent of ‘subsidiarity’?

[45:59] Announcing the free of charge card games – and the conditions for using them!

[48:15] Is there anything else you wanted to share that we haven’t discussed yet?

Links

Over the Fence’s Creative Commons tools

Over the Fence’s Books

Decision Hats introductory video 

Over the Fence’s Manifesto

Connect to Karen:

On LinkedIn
 

Any thoughts? Share them with us!

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👉 What happens when being “professional” gets in the way of being human? My new podcast Unprofessionalism explores the rules we’re taught to follow at work, and what happens when we break them. Listen here: https://unprofessionalism.buzzsprout.com/  👈