TVW Design Gym: Sponsor Sessions (Part 1)
Introduction
As Solution Designers and Facilitators, we are tasked to transform workshops into dynamic, engaging sessions that go beyond routine meetings.
Curating such design work in complex adaptive systems requires helping leaders engage with the design process. How might we better understand, empathize with, and coordinate different personalities and leadership styles effectively?
The Visionary Leader: Focuses on big-picture goals and long-term vision. May need assistance translating grand visions into concrete, actionable plans during the workshop planning phase.
The Collaborative Leader: Prioritises team collaboration and consensus. Strives for inclusivity in the planning process, but may need strategies to manage potential conflicts and ensure decisions are made efficiently.
The Analytical Leader: Emphasises data, facts, and thorough analysis. Tends to scrutinize details during the planning process, ensuring a robust and well-thought-out approach. However, they may struggle with rapid ideation.
Sponsor Sessions
Peter opened the session by asking the group what big questions they brought regarding sponsor teams. Here are some of the responses:
How do I help with long-term accountability after the event?
How do I become smarter at understanding and teaching strategic objectives vs. tactical to-do lists?
How do I help sponsors to think differently?
How do I help my sponsors in the private and public overlap sector shift into a new era?
What happens if you inherit the client?
How do you help with cross-functional work and thinking?
How do we position ourselves as different from a front-of-the-room facilitator?
How do you make it safe to have the conversations you want?
The difference between a good sponsor vs. a bad sponsor.
What is the problem? Who is missing from this group?
Rob Evans has a lot of expertise working with sponsors and these are two questions he continues to ask when working with sponsors:
Ask sponsors why am I here?
How can I be curious about what I am about to hear?
As facilitators/co-designers, we are hired into the problem to help a group figure out what to do. The first interaction we have is to figure out who these people are, why we are there, and what is going on. The problem, the territory, the ecosystem, and the marketplace are all unfamiliar variables.
It is a lot of asking ignorant questions that are also essential questions that are difficult for the sponsors to agree on.
The first call with sponsors is extremely important. This is a facilitated process where we try to help them move forward better.
Why is it important?
Peter recently worked on an event where he was not a part of the sponsor session. There were a bunch of structural agenda items that the sponsors were expecting help with.
This was an emergent co-design facilitated process. The question was what do we do here?
Our job as facilitators begins from the first call. Certain tools, methods, and models might be helpful to us and our sponsors to guide them through the process of design.
DICS
Everyone has a different style of working, dealing with stress, and navigating complexity. Above is an HR tool called the DISC Assessment which speaks to the different personalities and styles in the workplace.
DISC is an acronym.
D- Dominant
I- Influencer
S- Support
C- Conscientiousness.
When entering a new space, ask this question: Who is in the room?
This is a great tool especially if you have a team. It helps to understand people's values, what motivates them, and how they communicate.
Agenda
At this point in the discussion, Rhodri Morgan shared a framework that focuses on the core of what sponsors care about, the agenda.
How do we design these sessions? More importantly, how do we design it so we don’t waste time and money?
The main questions in designing are:
Why are we here?
What are the inputs?
What is the research?
What is the purpose?
What are the objectives?
Who are the participants?
The framework that Rhodri shared, he used in the past to help calculate different ingredients that you would typically need to work through with a sponsor design team.
Alignment is key. When working with sponsors, think about what alignment we need to get within the design team regarding the objectives and outcomes.
Start with the most important question: Why are we bringing this group together?
This creates a purpose statement that drives the core contents of the objectives.
It is important to understand who needs to be on the team and ensure that it represents senior stakeholders who can take ownership to ensure the sustainability of the outcomes.
Sponsor design teams are a microcosm.
This is a metaphor that can be used to help sponsor teams figure out who should be on the team and who should be involved in the design work. These teams are a microcosm of the large ecosystem and problem.
Q&A
At the end of the session, Peter opened the room to a Q&A.
This is an emergent process. We need to recognize that there will be processes and a sequence of design sessions that will build on the last ones that need to take place.
How much education do you need to do for the sponsor team? This alluded to sharing basic concepts and building blocks of the work.
Models and patterns help bring a deeper comprehension and understanding of everything.
It depends on who is in these sessions and what their experience with the process is.
Instead of teaching them about the process, get them to engage in it from day one. I start every session with a panel to get them to practice the design process.
Teach the sponsors to trust the process.
How do we talk about events vs. the problem?
Creating the Problem Model is a helpful tool on how to get the problem out of the sponsors.
The Vantage Point Model can be helpful when working with sponsors.
The PEAR Model helps us see what perspective people are coming from. Invite your sponsors to identify the hot topics.
The Creative Process Model helps people orient themselves. It permits people to feel nervous and know that this is okay.
