Starting off with Benefits and Concerns

Benefits and Concerns is a facilitation approach to help a group bring out their thoughts and opinions about the initiative right at the outset. This helps baseline everyone's position and lays the groundwork for finding common grounds among diverse opinions.

If setting up and managing expectations is the corner stone for an effective management approach, then how do we do it when it comes to putting together a project with a diverse group of people, with differing management objectives and get them to agree on something.

In my opinion, the Benefits and Concerns exercise has always laid down the groundwork to alleviate the initial heat and resistance that a diverse and politically charged group can bring to the table. Not only that, it helps you as the leader or the facilitator to take a step back and see where your judgments, opinions, and biases may interfere with the group. If you are about to embark on a new initiative, here are some ideas that you may want to play around with:

Before the kick-off meeting

• Write down what your role is as a part of this initiative? Duh…isn't it obvious…but then again no harm in putting down a few bullets on a piece of paper
• In your view, what does success look like? What will it provide (what is the benefit to the stakeholders)?
• In your view, what will come in the way?

At the kick-off meeting

• Open it up addressing the purpose of the meeting to embark on this new initiative. Most likely everyone would know it, but helps to confirm.
• Explain that you would like to set up the project in a way that provides a win-win for everyone (there will be skeptics). And to make sure that everyone's expectations are met, we need to have everyone understand them. So, here is the process to get that information: We will go around the room and get you to answer the following three questions:
  • What does success look like to you?
  • What are the benefits of this initiative?
  • What concerns do you have? Or what will keep us from getting there? (Here you might want to give an example or two…people need to feel safe to share…say something like: "here is something I can see coming in the way – we might not be able to get everyone to agree on a common approach".
  • Go around the table and get this information from everyone. Take good notes and only talk if you need to clarify something…no opinions from anyone else other than person who is supposed to talk.
• By the end of this exercise, you and others in the group will have a good sense of where the group stands with the initiative. Now you are ready to start discussing the concerns, how they can be alleviated, while building a coalition around the benefits the initiative brings.

Note: this process requires good facilitation skills, so do some reading and practicing before you first foray into this. Also, this by no means is the silver bullet to set up and manage expectations, but a tested tool.