Welcome to Episode 44 of the Enterprise Excellence Podcast. I am so pleased to have Dr Morgan Jones on the show to discuss an essential skill in leading an excellence journey within an organisation. The skill of facilitation. Morgan Jones is a Business Transformation expert who has focused his career on studying and helping organisations achieve sustainable results. Morgan is the author of Sponsor Success, 4+1 and the new book Mastering Facilitation, A Guide for Assisting Teams and Achieving Great Outcomes.

Proudly brought to you in association with S A Partners, a world-leading business transformation consultancy.

What does great look like for a facilitator?

1. You're pretty drained because you put a lot of energy and passion into it.
2. You feel energised. 
3. You think that you've helped.
4. People are animated and active.
5. There are too many actions that will need prioritising.

What does great look like for the team? 

1. They often don't realise they've been subject to really rigorous and robust techniques and processes. 
2. They think, why didn't we decide this earlier? 
3. When they don't realise they've gone through a formal facilitation process. 
4. They come up with ideas and contribute to the session. 
5. They own the outcome. 

What is your two-minute tip on facilitation and excellence?

The first tip is to start with the end in mind. And don't try to be perfect. The most important thing is, we're all humans. And you may ask a question and offer a guide, and it may not work. 

Your role is not to lead them. It's yours to facilitate and guide them. They choose the direction because you've already clearly defined what the purpose is. Start with the end in mind; what is the goal? And what does good look like? Maybe people have taken away actions, or they've got some ideas that they can apply back to their own teams. Essentially, don't try to be perfect or be the expert in the subject matter. So let's elevate yourself as a facilitator. Some audiences are complicated, and that's okay. Don't beat yourself up!

Quotes

02:49min In the forces, you're forever developing your people to be able to step up into your role because you can be as an officer or noncommissioned officer, or, you know, have stripes in the rank wise. If somebody was injured, I could get injured. I need somebody who could step in and still continue the mission. So you're always it wasn't about you, leading from the front all the time, you were forever developing a number of people step up in your role at any moment in time. So it was so you can protect. The other part that was really fascinating about the Navy was, you had a very crystal clear purpose. Serve and protect; that is what we were there for. It wasn't being elaborate, you know, a 20-word expression from some consulting firm. It's you just; you were there to serve and protect. And that was it. So you can relate everything you did to is it helping me serve and protect. And it's quite a simple, empowering purpose.

Links

Brad is proud to support many Australian businesses. You can find him on LinkedIn here. If you'd like to speak to him about how he can help your business, call him on 0402 448 445 or email [email protected]. Our website is www.bradjeavons.com.

Morgan Jones: LinkedIn

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