How to facilitate a monthly continuous improvement workshop, remotely

The challenge: facilitate a multi-site meeting that is both interactive and effective

Béatrice normally uses a traditional flip chart, writing on an erasable whiteboard and/or using Post-it® notes. A meeting model that rarely finds volunteers in the vital but time-consuming summing up phase, since all the information has to be entered electronically afterwards!

And for Béatrice, other issues arise during this type of meeting, because the participants are spread over two different sites:

• Logistical issue: each site needs a whiteboard and a facilitator;
• Communication issue: information sharing is complicated;
• Participation issue: it is difficult to energize the whole group.

Faced with these problems, Béatrice wanted to find an interactive solution that would be more convenient and effective when facilitating her meetings. This is how she came across Klaxoon and facilitated her first workshop in February 2019, during which she immediately noticed how much easier it was to hold participants’ attention. But that's not all...

The solution: Klaxoon Board, the ideal interactive solution to facilitate a monthly meeting, remotely

Every month, Béatrice brings together 20 team managers, for a 1.5 hour knowledge management workshop. It usually takes place remotely, using Board, Klaxoon's digital whiteboard, which includes an integrated video conferencing tool. Its limitless communication space can be used to share all kinds of information: text, images, videos, documents (PDF, PowerPoint, Excel etc.) or links to web pages. First of all, Béatrice conducts an ideation session with all the participants, followed by an in-depth analysis phase with a few volunteers.

First step: whole group ideation session

As an introduction, Béatrice opens the workshop by discussing and raising awareness about the ongoing topic. Then, she invites each manager to share their thoughts on:

1. What they have learned and/or what has worked well during the past month (in green).
2. What they would like to learn (in blue).
3. What needs to be improved (in red).

Participants share their ideas in the dedicated spaces that Béatrice has created on the Board. The layout instantly takes shape, especially since each topic for discussion is color-coded.

Second step: restricted group analysis

To optimize the time for each participant, only 5 to 6 volunteer managers stay for this second phase of Béatrice’s workshop. This phase initially consists of removing duplicates and splitting ideas into two categories: the good practices, and the actions to be taken to guarantee improvement.

Once this is completed, the team fleshes out each idea generated with the group in one of these categories.

Analysis of good practices

To analyze each suggested good practice, the group attempts to answer several questions. “What are we doing? How do we share it? Who is it for? When might it be useful?”

Analysis of actions to be taken to guarantee improvement

Here, the group discusses the action plan to be implemented, which raises questions about the resources required and the completion deadline. To prioritize the implementation of these actions, Béatrice added a reflection matrix to the Board:

• the x-axis represents time, where actions can be positioned as short-term and long-term;
• the y-axis represents the importance of the action in relation to its potential impact.

With this matrix, the group can visualize the priority actions instantly.

The result: Board, a tool with everyday benefits

With Klaxoon Board, Béatrice found the perfect answer to her search for an interactive tool to facilitate her meetings:

• the hybrid nature of the teams, working on several sites, is no longer a problem;
• the fruits of collective reflection are structured, consolidated and stored, which saves time and improves efficiency;
• participation is naturally boosted.

Given these results, using Board has become a daily reflex for Béatrice. Indeed, she explains that she regularly browses the Templates library to get inspiration from hundreds of ready-to-use methods.

Béatrice thinks Klaxoon is an excellent way of communicating, which is particularly user-friendly. The solution is regularly used with her teams for brainstorming or team building. Other fun activities such as Quiz and Adventure could also be used!