I love working with church leaders and teams to create solutions and systems to help them gain HOPE, CLARITY, and STRENGTH around their biggest challenges. Today I was helping tackle an issue around providing soul care and coaching for staff and volunteers.
One of my favorite ways to facilitate these conversations is through using a whiteboard (or, like today, an easel pad) and my custom color-coded Post-it Notes.
When you utilize tools like these it increases spacial memory for everyone involved by helping them record and recall the information more quickly and with greater accuracy.
For me, the secret sauce in this entire process has been the small Post-it notes I use to organize and differentiate between the elements of conversation in group meetings.
I want to share my system with you in the hopes that maybe it will help you as you lead your next meeting or planning session.
Orange – Questions
Blue – People
Green – Tools
Purple – Decisions
Yellow – Comments
The first day of this process was filled with lots of Questions. Some of these were questions asked during the process, some are questions that are anticipated from others, and some are questions that will need answers by the time we are done. On the Green notes, some potential Tools were identified that would help guide the process or provide direction along that part of the timeline. I love seeing Purple because that means that some Decisions actually came out of the discussions! The lone Blue note for today is actually a reminder to get some clarity around who may still need to be a part of this process, who are the decision makers, and who might offer more input to help make this process a success. I have the Yellow Comment notes in a stack next to my laptop that I’ll review later tonight.
I hope this can be a helpful tool for you as you love and lead your team to work through big challenges together. If I can be useful to you in any way or answer any questions about this process… let me know,
What is ONE tool you use to facilitate discussions or organize meetings more effectively?
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