{"id":7427,"date":"2021-02-25T07:19:13","date_gmt":"2021-02-25T12:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/?p=7427"},"modified":"2021-02-06T15:21:57","modified_gmt":"2021-02-06T20:21:57","slug":"the-future-work-environment-digital-facilitation-methods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/the-future-work-environment-digital-facilitation-methods\/","title":{"rendered":"The Future Work Environment: Digital Facilitation Methods"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7432\" src=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Stock-image-1-Digital-Facilitation-Methods-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Stock-image-1-Digital-Facilitation-Methods-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Stock-image-1-Digital-Facilitation-Methods-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Stock-image-1-Digital-Facilitation-Methods-1024x683.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>The global <a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/coronavirus\">COVID-19<\/a> pandemic has forced organizations to rapidly adopt <a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/business-toolkit\/virtual-work\">virtual work<\/a> environments, making it the new norm in the <a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/digital-transformation\">Digital Transformation<\/a> process.\u00a0 Digital Collaboration Platforms have been pivotal in the current scenario and have forever changed the work environment to include <a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/browse\/flevypro\/virtual-work-digital-facilitation-primer-5224\">Virtual Work and Digital Facilitation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Digital Collaboration Platforms provide a combination of activities in one place, making meetings almost trouble-free.\u00a0 These platforms take leverage of tools to help perform activities, such as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Create agendas and conduct pre-engagement communication<\/li>\n<li>Documentation and note-taking<\/li>\n<li>File storage and documents sharing (videos, images)<\/li>\n<li>Administer surveys \/ polls<\/li>\n<li>Chat with facilitator-specific features (anonymize, voting, hide comments)<\/li>\n<li>Conduct assignments and exams<\/li>\n<li>Booking system and timer<\/li>\n<li>Post-engagement discussions and follow-up tasks<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>However, Digital Facilitation has its own set of challenges, principles, and methods that are to be managed for the future work environment to run smoothly.\u00a0 Digital Facilitation Methods vary from simple to very complex and there is an abundance of them.\u00a0 The following 3 methods are quite popular in facilitating asynchronous and synchronous Digital Collaboration:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Double Diamond<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Open Space<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Sociocracy 3.0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/browse\/flevypro\/virtual-work-digital-facilitation-methods-5244\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7430\" src=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Slide-deck-image-Digital-Facilitation-Methods.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1002\" height=\"752\" srcset=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Slide-deck-image-Digital-Facilitation-Methods.png 1002w, https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Slide-deck-image-Digital-Facilitation-Methods-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Slide-deck-image-Digital-Facilitation-Methods-768x576.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1002px) 100vw, 1002px\" \/><\/a>Let us examine the 3 Digital Facilitation Methods moref deeply.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Double Diamond<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>It is a structured method to Digital Facilitation that is useful in problem solving and idea generation.\u00a0 The method tackles challenges in 4 key phases\u2014Discover, Define, Develop, and Deliver.\u00a0 The Double Diamond method employs the divergent thinking first\u2014to open up the participants to share as much as possible without limiting ideas.\u00a0 The method then utilizes convergent thinking to focus on narrowing down the problems, finding potential solutions to the problem, and implementing the most viable solution(s).<\/p>\n<p>Potential solutions and ideas can be prioritized and filtered using Digital Collaboration Platforms\u2019 features, i.e., polls, likes, or assigning scores.\u00a0 All project phases can be documented on the go, in a single Digital Facilitation workspace and the same workspace can be used to continue the delivery phase.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Open Space<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The Open Space Digital Facilitation method is designed for self-organization, inclusivity, and emergent agendas. \u00a0The method focuses on finding important elements through discussions facilitated by Digital Collaboration Platforms in order to improve further. \u00a0The Open Space method is governed by the \u201cLaw of Two Feet,\u201d which states that if at any time you find yourself in a situation where you are neither learning nor contributing, use your two feet and go somewhere else where you can.<\/p>\n<p>In this method, a collaboration session starts without an agenda, but the process is designed to ensure that the issues that are most important to the people involved will surface and become part of the agenda.\u00a0 This is done by inviting participants to propose topics as chat comments utilizing Digital Facilitation Platforms.\u00a0 Other participants \u2018like\u2019 a comment (topic) to show their interest or prioritize by using voting or polling features.\u00a0 The facilitator then organizes the topics by likes or votes and decide how many topics will be covered in a given session.\u00a0 A loose agenda is then created and host of each topic is assigned.\u00a0 Booking feature of the Digital Facilitation Platforms can be utilized for choosing which topic participants will start with.\u00a0 A separate page within a Digital Facilitation Platform workspace can be dedicated to each topic, to document everything and add instructions, videos, or any other files.\u00a0 Video conferencing tool of the Platform can be used side-by-side.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Sociocracy 3.0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>This Digital Facilitation method goes a step further in problem-solving than other approaches.\u00a0 As the name suggest, Sociocracy 3.0 method puts everyone really behind an idea and necessitates consent of all the participants for it to work.<\/p>\n<p>Interested in learning more about Sociocracy 3.0 and the other <a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/browse\/flevypro\/virtual-work-digital-facilitation-methods-5244\">Digital Facilitation Methods and Digital Collaboration<\/a> tools?\u00a0 You\u00a0can download\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/browse\/flevypro\/virtual-work-digital-facilitation-methods-5244\">an editable PowerPoint on <strong>Digital Facilitation Methods<\/strong> here<\/a><u>\u00a0<\/u>on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/browse\">Flevy documents marketplace<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Do You Find Value in This Framework?<\/h2>\n<p>You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/pro\/library\">FlevyPro Library<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/pro\">FlevyPro<\/a>\u00a0is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here\u2019s what some have to say:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cMy FlevyPro subscription provides me with the most popular frameworks and decks in demand in today\u2019s market. They not only augment my existing consulting and coaching offerings and delivery, but also keep me abreast of the latest trends, inspire new products and service offerings for my practice, and educate me in a fraction of the time and money of other solutions. I strongly recommend FlevyPro to any consultant serious about success.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cAs a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power. For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 David Coloma, Consulting Area Manager at Cynertia Consulting<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cFlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight \u2013 it\u2019s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The global COVID-19 pandemic has forced organizations to rapidly adopt virtual work environments, making it the new norm in the Digital Transformation process.\u00a0 Digital Collaboration Platforms have been pivotal in the current scenario and have forever changed the work environment to include Virtual Work and Digital Facilitation. Digital Collaboration Platforms provide a combination of activities&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/the-future-work-environment-digital-facilitation-methods\/\" rel=\"bookmark\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Future Work Environment: Digital Facilitation Methods<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":7432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[84,85],"tags":[2186,2187,2183,2178,2147,2177,917,2182,2179,2185,2180,2184,2181,2176],"class_list":["post-7427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-information-technology","category-organization","tag-consulting-frameworks","tag-consulting-training-guides","tag-convergent-thinking","tag-digital-collaboration-platforms","tag-digital-facilitation","tag-digital-facilitation-methods","tag-digital-transformation","tag-divergent-thinking","tag-double-diamond","tag-law-of-two-feet","tag-open-space","tag-self-organization","tag-sociocracy-3-0","tag-virtual-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7427"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8599,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7427\/revisions\/8599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}