Co-creating the Future: Working with Groups to Assess, Plan, and Innovate

<p> Evolving conditions require organizations to change. Organizational leaders must engage with stakeholders to co-create their shared future; in many cases, this involves working with groups of people. This presentation shares five techniques for facilitating effective group sessions: <ol> <li> Establish and uphold rules of engagement. </li> <li> Ask specific, deliberate questions. </li> <li> Use constraints to unleash creativity. </li> <li> Use concrete resources to stimulate thinking. </li> <li> Sequence activities to achieve desired outcomes. </li> </ol> Techniques are based on personal experience and literature published in fields such as marketing research, design thinking, and organization development. The examples in the presentation come from a library setting, but the techniques are readily applicable to other contexts.</p>