Collaborative Problem-Solving
At the end of each session, participants were asked to describe what lesson from the program had the greatest impact on them. What resonated for them the most? Here is a representative sample of comments:
- Love the metaphoric connection between the Six Houses and the stages of collaboration. These are all steps we should follow, yet often neglect to the detriment of our outcomes.
- Having a clear focus. Specifically sharing assumptions and perspectives, especially when setting objectives and a game plan. It's important to create a setting in which team members feel comfortable to ask questions and state their opinions.
- Learned to not speed past the Possibilities and Exploration stages, which I tend to do. I like how you demonstrated the need to wisely slow down the process to speed up success!
- One of the many lessons I took away is to establish a "devil's advocate" on a team to ask the "what ifs." It's an awesome technique to “pressure test” accepted solutions and avoid falling victim to conformity before implementing them.
- It was great to see the collaborative process divided into easy steps to follow, and how to prevent a breakdown.
- Your principle about ensuring that all team members are at the same stage of collaboration at the same time is the "Aha Moment" for sure! This is crucial at each step along the way.
- How to better plan a meeting in the future with the “Six Houses,” along with the purpose of each house and how they all connect in the end.
- What questions to ask and how to establish goals along the way. This is a valuable framework for working with others.
- The “3 Key Principles” you covered at the end tied together the whole process for me.
- The biggest takeaway is how to establish a collective focus throughout the “neighborhood of houses.” Without real clarity on the focus, things get lost in translation quickly.
- Love the Triangulation Approach for finding the "sweet spot" among the top chosen priorities in the House of Exploration.
- This framework, or parts of it, can be applied to simple daily collaborations and long open-ended projects as well. I can’t wait to bring these concepts to my team.
- Key takeaway from today's session: Always review or follow up before moving on to the next stage of collaboration. This enables us as a group to be on the same page.
- The House of Reflection. We really need to take the time to review lessons learned so we can ensure we don't have the same mistakes repeated! This is often neglected, yet very helpful.
- Learning how to look at a situation from more angles. Also, how to construct a solid plan at the beginning and build on it with cohesion from others was fantastic. Thank you!
- One of my biggest takeaways is that all 6 Houses are equally important and help to structure a meeting that has a measurable goal, a specific timeline, and an overall solution.
- I got a lot from the “Pencil in Every Desk” activity. It showed the value of creating a situation where all team members can feel comfortable to contribute ideas.
- Learning this collaborative process will be huge in my career as a Project Manager. I will be able to work better not only with my team/peers, but also with the teams that our projects are for.