Want A Better Strategy Session? Start With Trust.
In the last 10 years or so, I’ve scribed, designed, and facilitated hundreds of brainstorms and strategy sessions.
The best of them feel something like jazz or improv comedy. Team members riff off each other, unique voices build towards a unified goal, and the whole becomes much greater than the sum of its parts.
The most challenging feel more like a middle school band rehearsing a new piece for the first time. Stuttering. Out of sync. Lacking direction and momentum.
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about why meetings succeed or falter, why some teams brainstorm while others seem to brain drain, and why sometimes even the best prepared facilitators run into a wall of silence.
And while a lot of variables that come into play, one seems to have an outsized impact:
Do people in the room trust each other?
Why Trust Matters
A culture of trust is what allows team members to take risks with each other, share thoughts freely, and accept feedback without closing up. It creates space to try on new perspectives, to have meaningful conversations instead of arguments—and to move on after butting heads, which happens from time to time.
To put it shortly: Trust is what allows your team to work as a team, instead of a collection of individuals.
Without it, it doesn’t really matter how carefully organized your agenda is, how intelligent your team members are, or whether you splurged on the good snacks (you know the ones I’m talking about). Because without a sense of safety in the room, you’ll either be talking past each other or not talking at all.
Trust is what allows your team to work as a team, instead of a collection of individuals.
Trust—or psychological safety—is a delicate thing. It grows slowly, and it has to be nurtured on a daily level in order to truly take root. But while strategic offsites and brainstorms might suffer when trust is lacking, they also offer the perfect space to invest in it together.
Here are a few ways to build trust into your next agenda.
Build A Collaboration Charter
Do you know what your team needs in order to feel safe? Try asking!
Carve out 20 minutes at the head of the day for the team to agree on a few principles for collaboration. Invite folks shares what they need in order to feel safe in a collaborative setting—assuming good intent, listening to understand, critiquing ideas instead of people, etc—and have your scribe create an illustrated summary at the front of the room.
When it’s complete, invite folks to sign it as a display of their commitment to the principles of collaboration that they have built together. The end result of this exercise is a sort of illustrated “north star” of good communication stationed front and center.
I love this exercise because it signals that respect is a priority for the day, and the foundation for every conversation moving forward. Even better, should conversations start to derail, the visual summary can act as a powerful tool to bring things back on track.
2. Prioritize Constructive Feedback
Sometimes fear of negativity can lead to something equally toxic to a culture of trust: pollyannaism. When team members feel pressured into overly optimistic vantage points, or barred from the expression of feelings that are critical or “negative,” it erodes any ability to have honest conversation, a surefire way to damage trust.
The trick, from my perspective, is to proactively create and hold space for thoughts and feedback other than “this is perfect.” Sometimes things don’t go right. Sometimes even the right decisions are emotionally difficult. That’s okay, and it’s unavoidable. Instead of sweeping those feelings under the rug, create space to process them together, and then move on. A collaboration charter like the one described above is a great starting point, because it can create a framework for expressing difficult or challenging emotions in respectful a respectful way.
Create and hold space for thoughts and feedback other than “this is perfect.”
If your team suffers from pollyannaism, try building express moments for feedback and reflection into your agenda. You might invite folks to share feedback through online polls, sticky notes, or other non-verbal modes of communication.
3. Model Active Listening Through Graphic Facilitation
Graphic facilitation does more than record a meeting’s conversation. It’s a versatile tool that models active listening, equalizes voices, and raises the emotional intelligence of the room by reflecting both the content of the conversation, and the tone of it.
By allowing folks to literally see what they are saying, a skilled graphic facilitator will make folks feel that their words are heard, valued, and part of a conversation that matters. The visual notes that grow throughout the day encourage team members to build on one another’s perspectives and to prioritize collaboration over competition.
4. Equalize Voices Through Multimodal Communication
While some team members (hello sales reps!) might have no problem grabbing the mic, others may be a bit more reticent to take the spotlight. But just because someone is quiet doesn’t mean they don’t have something to say. Creating several avenues for communication is a great way for folks whose voices are a little softer to ensure they are still heard.
Invite team members to jot down their ideas, feedback, or questions on sticky notes and to post them on a dedicated wall in the room. Build time into each agenda item to review and address any notes collected there. This is a great way to amplify quieter voices and ensure that everyone feels heard.
5. Build In Time To Reflect
At the end of a long day of conversation, it can be tempting to pack it in and head to happy hour. But building even a brief moment of reflection into the agenda is an important way to process the day and decompress as a team.
A one word close is a popular way to close out a strategy session, offsite, or workshop. But I’ve often found that they don’t really give folks a chance to properly reflect on, and learn from, how the meeting went.
Instead, try this three word close instead:
• What’s clear to you now that wasn’t before?
• What’s foggy that you wish was clearer?
• Who can help you understand it better?
Ready to kick your strategy session up a notch?
Reach out today for a creative consultation to learn how live scribing and graphic facilitation can get your team activated and aligned in your next meeting.