The power of iteration

Doing a recent 2-day engagement with a group, I was struck by the power of repeating a simple process again and again, as an effective learning and expansion method. The group (who were all new to online collaborative work) were in a room together in NYC while I was here in California, talking over a Polycom. We used a very simple input device repeatedly over the course of the day -- a simple brainstorm tool that showed new content arriving automatically, at the top of the list. As the day progressed I added additional features, such as my inputting ideas into an extra column to the right of their list so their refined summary themes showed up as they talked through their collective thinking. Later we used several categories for input, so that if you were simply watching the page the list starting building out in six different categories at the same time. (A complex planning process evolved easily as an extension of their simultaneous talking and writing on the page.)

In a small-group breakout, we had 4 to 5 people work in each one of the categories, refining down a list of issues from 20-30 or so to their top 6 goals. Again, we used the same format, but introduced the concept of moving the items within their category up and down on the list, along with a dotted line; in this way they could easily move their key issues "above the line" while still referring to all the items on their list. By this time, they had seen items move around in previous lists, and were now familiar with how to work these features themselves, and the planning progressed faster, with no drag from trying to figure out the technology, and no need for the whole room to work on each category one-at-a-time.

The two days resulted in the completion of a complex strategy session, through six separate steps, with specific stretch goals set up in six categories, underscored by an overall purpose statement and a set of shared values. We probably doubled our speed of completion of process steps, and we achieved full participation by all members, with a robust diversity of thought, plus we were able to review and understand all the material the group generated across the two days. The technology enabled this, but the strength of the process was the iteration in various levels of complexity of a simple input step which involved everyone, and which taught people new collaborative skills almost as a transparent side-step.

Although I do this all the time, this meeting was one of those "oh yeah!" moments of seeing learning in action, and appreciating the value of simplicity and repetition.