Online Facilitation
Nancy White
Full Circle Associates
http://www.fullcirc.com
Copyright 2002-2004 Full Circle Associates
Keys to Interaction
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Balance Control <--> Emergence
Transparent facilitation
Surface values & agreements
Identity and voice
Reciprocity
Power of questions (125:6)
Why Participate?
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To get something
To be heard
To connect
We were told to...
What Influences Participation?
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Culture
Learning styles/communication styles
Politics (organizational or whatever!)
WIFM (What’s In it For Me)
Expectations
Time
Communication Styles
• Think about your F2F communications…
• How does body language translate online?
Tone?
• How does our written style reflect our
spoken style?
• Context and communication richness
• What is your style?
Dynamics of Participation
• Experts and Early Adopters
• Naïve Users
• Light Users
-- or -• Active
• Lurkers
Manifestation of Participation
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Logging on
Posting
“Backchannel” communications
Reading (lurking)
Peripheral
Entry & Engagement
Sociability, Relationship and
Trust
• Formal and informal sharing of self
• Testing with small steps
• Trust - fast trust, slow trust, and trusty
trust
• Factors influencing s/r/t
Social Capital
Social capital consists of stock of active
connections among people: the trust, mutual
understanding and the shared values and
behaviors that bind the members of human
networks and communities and make
cooperative action possible. (p.4)
-- Cohen & Prusak: In Good Company: How Social Capital
Makes Organizations Work
Power
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Influenced by offline power relationships
Effect of frequency and access
Effect of writing skills
Effect of reading skills
Effect of bandwidth/access
Intercultural Issues
• Consider race, gender, age, origin,
profession, sexual orientation, etc. as our
range of individual differences and
similarities
• Actively explore how our differences
manifest (or don’t manifest!) and matter
online
• Build on the strength of diversity
Line of Sight
“One general approach is to design online
environments that, by making users and
their activities visible to one another, can
enable a variety of social phenomena that
support social and work-oriented
interactions.”
- Erickson and Kellog
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
Power of Conversation
• Yearning for the “pub” or coffee shop
• The impact of social conversation
(unstructured and without explicit focus)
• Scientific discussion (topically organized,
well structured around core data and
hypothesis)
• Ad hoc and structured both have a place
Collaboration
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Whole greater than the parts
Derived from purpose and outcomes
Principles determine behaviors
Based on honest assessments
Ownership and commitment
Inclusive
Martin Leith
http://www.martinleith.com/lgi/chapter.html
Inquiry
• Define the problem
• Develop and evaluation solution
alternatives
• Come to some resolution
• Develop a plan of action
• Reflect on the process
Norms, Agreements
& Accountability
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What is the minimum needed?
How explicit do they need to be?
How do we make them visible?
How do we keep them “alive?”
What shared values provide underpinning?
Beliefs and Goals
• Scientific inquiry is distinguished by the
commitment to:
– work towards a common understanding that is
satisfactory to all
– frame questions and propositions in ways that
enable evidence to be brought to bear,
– expand the body of collective valid
propositions, and
– allow any belief to be subjected to criticism.
Bereiter (1992)
Communication Agreements
• Flex with personal and cultural style
• Language
• Style
Information Sharing Practices
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Fire hose to droplet
Push AND Pull
Frequency
Type
Identification
Participation Agreements
Task
• who
• what
• by when
• why
• tracking
Process
• login frequency
• communication style
• response times
• when “away”
• buddies
• meeting procedures
Decision Making Processes
• Decision making boundaries
• Who
• How
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consensus
voting
default
mediation
Conflict
The Trickster of Conflict
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Ask before advocating
Surface and examine assumptions
Inquire, don’t interrogate
Understand negotiation-specific
expectations
www.ivysea.com and James K.
Sebenius
Harvesting, Weaving, Summaries
• Capture group-created knowledge (before it
is buried)
• Summarize to test for understanding and
convergence
• Summarize to help new folks “get up to
speed”
Evaluation
• What to measure?
• What does it mean?
• How do we use evaluation for
incremental improvement?
• Action learning