Designing the Conversation: Techniques for Successful Facilitation

Designing the Conversation: Techniques for Successful Facilitation

by Russ Unger, Brad Nunnally, Dan Willis
Released February 2013
Publisher(s): New Riders
ISBN: 9780133155945

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Book description

Facilitation skills are the foundation of every successful design practice, yet training on this core competency has been largely unavailable—until now. Designing the Conversation: Techniques for Successful Facilitation is a complete guide to developing the facilitation skills you need to communicate effectively and design fully engaging experiences. Learn to take control as Russ Unger, Brad Nunnally, and Dan Willis show you how to use your skills as a facilitator to deftly extract information from different types of people in various scenarios and address any problems and needs that arise along the way.

With this book, you will learn how to:

  • Bring together different cross-functional project teams, stakeholders, and clients while balancing their needs, goals, and requirements with those of users

  • Prepare for activities through agenda setting, planning for different types of personalities, and identifying the method of practicing that works best for you

  • Perform group facilitation in workshops, brainstorming sessions, and focus groups

  • Manage individual facilitation activities through interviews, usability testing, sales calls, and mentoring

  • Conduct one-to-many facilitation activities such as presentations, virtual seminars, and lectures

  • Understand how to manage Q & A from audiences of all sizes

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    Table of contents

    1. Title Page
    2. Copyright Page
    3. Praise for Designing the Conversation
    4. Acknowledgments
      1. Russ Unger
      2. Dan Willis
      3. Brad Nunnally
    5. Contents
    6. Introduction
      1. Why we wrote this book
      2. Who should read this book
      3. How to use this book
    7. Section 1. Facilitation Preparation
      1. Chapter 1. Preparation
        1. It’s all part of the plan
        2. So what?
      2. Chapter 2. Define the Whys
        1. Unleash your inner child
        2. Unearth the underlying why
        3. When to ask why
        4. Why does why matter?
      3. Chapter 3. Set the Agenda
        1. Let’s talk about agendas, baby
        2. Crafting the agenda
        3. Templates
        4. A final note on agendas
      4. Chapter 4. Preparing for Personalities
        1. Creating a happy place
        2. Unpredictably human
        3. Reading body language
        4. Putting baby in the corner!
        5. Preparing for patterns
        6. The danger zone
        7. Finding your star players
      5. Chapter 5. Managing the Environment
        1. All the stuff that’s yours
        2. All the stuff that’s theirs
        3. No tools, no problem
      6. Chapter 6. Practicing
        1. Lots and lots of practice
        2. How should you practice?
    8. Section 2. Group Facilitation
      1. Chapter 7. Workshops
        1. Taxonomy of workshops
        2. Defining the purpose
        3. Setting expectations
        4. Wrap it up
      2. Chapter 8. Brainstorming
        1. The value of brainstorming
        2. How to run a successful brainstorm
        3. What makes a good brainstorm facilitator?
        4. What brainstorming does
      3. Chapter 9. Focus Groups
        1. The focus group
        2. Focus groups: How will I know?
      4. Chapter 10. Participatory Design
        1. What is participatory design?
        2. Participatory design awareness
        3. The power of many
    9. Section 3. One-on-One Facilitation
      1. Chapter 11. Interviews
        1. Types of interviews
        2. Prepare for your interviews
        3. Conducting your interviews
        4. Final thoughts on interviews
      2. Chapter 12. Usability Testing
        1. Types of usability testing
        2. Test planning
        3. Proctoring the usability test
        4. Additional resources
      3. Chapter 13. Sales Calls
        1. Redefining the sales call
        2. Redefining the salesperson
        3. What people buy
      4. Chapter 14. Mentoring
        1. Three types of mentoring
        2. What kind of mentor are you?
        3. What it takes to be a good mentor
        4. How to design successful mentoring conversations
        5. Supporting mentees
        6. Taking action
        7. The value of mentoring
    10. Section 4. One-on-Many Facilitation
      1. Chapter 15. Conference Presentations
        1. Entrance: Stage right
        2. Panels
        3. Exit: Stage left
      2. Chapter 16. Virtual Seminars
        1. The trouble with virtual seminars
        2. Solutions
        3. The future
      3. Chapter 17. Lectures
        1. How we think
        2. How we learn
        3. Successful lectures
        4. Why teach?
    11. Section 5. Post-Facilitation
      1. Chapter 18. Managing Q&A
        1. Simple rules to dating my Q&A
        2. Post Q&A
      2. Chapter 19. Measuring Success
        1. Once upon a time
        2. Successful outcomes
        3. Happily ever after
      3. Chapter 20. Horror Stories
        1. Horror stories from the field
        2. The exception, not the rule
    12. Index
    13. Ad Page

    Product information

    • Title: Designing the Conversation: Techniques for Successful Facilitation
    • Author(s): Russ Unger, Brad Nunnally, Dan Willis
    • Release date: February 2013
    • Publisher(s): New Riders
    • ISBN: 9780133155945