At Catalyst Ranch, Chicago’s unique meeting venue, we’re always looking for innovative methods to improve the meeting experience. We recently test drove Get Going Meetings, a collaboration process that harnesses the power of technology to collect, organize, and prioritize information and insights from our management team. Everyone contributed anonymously and on their own time, which led to a more productive and efficient meeting when we came together to analyze and discuss our ideas. Mick Blasik of Collaborative Strategies, Inc. is our guest blogger today, and he will explain how Get Going Meetings can help your team with brainstorming, strategic planning, goal-setting, and more!
Ever wonder what it would be like to have up to thirty people talk at once and be able to hear and respond to what everyone is saying? Then be able to take everyone’s thoughts, discuss them openly without fear or bias and arrive at some kind of consensus?
Collaborative Strategies, Inc. offers an innovative collaboration process using technology and methodology called Get Going Meetings to lead your group through exercises that help explore issues and opportunities pertaining to your choice of topics. This collaboration process allows a diverse group to accomplish more in less time by allowing a number of activities that accelerate the brainstorming process including rapid idea generation, categorization, prioritization, action planning, and more! Everyone is anonymous, everyone is able to participate at the same time whether they are in the same room or working online, and all session content is automatically documented!
Participants are guided through a planned session agenda that blends experienced and advanced facilitation with collaborative technology. This powerful combination guides your team in effectively and efficiently identifying a realistic strategic goal to be accomplished within the next 30 to 180 days, rather than focusing on broad-based, often unrealistic, long range 3–5 year goals.
Gather information from individuals using collaborative brainstorming techniques. Collect information such as problems, concerns, requirements, opportunities, solutions, goals, activities, critical success factors, inhibitors, strengths, weaknesses, core competencies, etc. in a fashion where no one feels intimidated.
Here’s a sneak peek! When a participant enters the online session the following appears:
After a participant selects a topic, e.g. Strategic Goals, previous responses are available for review and additional responses can be entered by the participant:
After all ideas have been captured the participants can then prioritize them using several voting techniques: rank order, scale of 1 to X, multiple choice, allocation, or budget method. Here is an example of the scale of 1 to 5 voting method:
At any time during the online session (or typically at the end of the session) a report can be generated.
To learn more about how this online collaborative technology can make a difference with your organization or team, contact our Client Services Team!
Meet Mr. Blasik!
For more than 25 years, W. Mick Blasik has helped hundreds of clients conduct strategic and tactical planning sessions that leverage technology. His skills include experience in both advanced planning methodologies and software collaboration technology achieving maximum results in minimal time. In every client interaction, Mick is respected for being a facilitation innovator, dedicated to helping clients achieve and exceed their goals. He has provided these dynamic processes in several thousand sessions across a broad range of industries and issues with key clients and partners in industry, government and universities. Mick is also the founder and principal of Collaborative Strategies, Inc., a company specializing in innovative on-line collaboration processes and electronic meeting tools. Prior to this, Mick enjoyed a decade at IBM where he held the position of Project Manager for the development of a world-wide collaborative product, now a staple of strategy sessions in many of the Fortune 500 companies. His education includes a Master’s Degree in Finance from Carnegie Mellon University and a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from Binghamton University.
