Which Process To Explore? Facilitating A Discovery Session

By: Vicki Hesse

Why is it so hard to get work done around here? You might have heard these words at the water cooler recently and now you’re ready to let your colleagues put their money where their mouth is…in a “Discovery Session”.

You’re willing to facilitate a cross-functional session; but you’re not quite ready and these tough questions are keeping you awake at night: When would a meeting like this be useful? What could be gained? How would you prepare? Whom do you invite? How much time to plan? What will be revealed?
Don’t lose any more sleep! This article can assist you in facilitating a productive session. It provides background on “System Mapping” concepts and “how to” tips for facilitation. Your goal is to collaborate with others and create a broad, systemic understanding of how work gets done. Then you can begin to diagnose the root causes and pick the “right” processes to improve.