“If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” Not every group needs the same approach! A great facilitator needs a variety of approaches so that they can flex to meet the needs of each unique group, and have options if a group isn’t responding or even rebelling against the planned process.
ToP methods are some of the best methods because they have been created by many minds over a number of years using both academic and experiential research to discover how human beings think and solve problems effectively. If you look closely, however, you will find ORID underneath all methods (ToP or not) that work with how people think clearly and solve problems.
All ToP methods are designed to build on diverse group wisdom and come up with consensus. Underneath these methods are the values of listening to the wisdom behind all perspectives and building final results on the wisdom of the group.
Here are some ToP methods beyond the foundational Focused Conversation and Consensus Workshop methods that are accessible through our books or training courses:
• Frameworking – to determine who needs to be involved at what level (Advanced Tools Course)
• Journey Wall (also known as Historical Scan or Wall of Wonder) — constructing a common story of the past (3-day Transformational Strategy course) A story of its use and the steps
• Organizational Journey Map—for analyzing the culture of an organization, the present and hopes for the future (Organizational Transformation course)
• Discerning Trends – understanding emerging future –two tools, the Social Process Triangles, and the Wave Process as well as the Organizational Transformation course
• Mission and Values Workshops – focusing the organization’s purpose (Organizational Transformation course, and the book Transformational Strategy by Bill Staples
• Vision, Obstacles (root cause or contradictions), Strategies – transformational strategic thinking (Transformational Strategy course , also Organizational Transformation Course)
• Image Change – understanding underlying images that create behaviours and changing those (Organizational Transformation and Art and Science of Participation
• Action Planning – several adaptations for simple projects to multi-year strategy implementation and Transformational Strategy course
• Model Building and Merging – to create all kinds of models (Advanced Tools Course)
• Project Charter, Tracking, Coordination – for various stages of projects (Advanced Tools Course)
Underneath these methods are the values of listening to the wisdom behind all perspectives and building final results on the wisdom of the group.
These methods work with other approaches, such as graphic recording and facilitation, which engage visual intelligence. Or for example, we used plotting trends on the Social Process Triangles as the first stage of a scenario planning process for a client.
