This document provides 15 tips for facilitators and researchers. Some of the key tips include: using frameworks like Johari's window for self-reflection; focusing on facilitation skills rather than knowing all the answers; making empathy a priority when working with clients, coworkers, and materials; practicing visual modeling of ideas; and experimenting with new methodologies to advance one's work. The document emphasizes the importance of continuous learning and finding ways to "cross-pollinate" knowledge across different domains.

1. 15

2. Why us

3. 1. Know thyself - use Johari’s window
open self Blind spot
hidden self unknown self

4. Think about it...
↓ your blind spot: solicit feedback
↓ your unknown self: self-reflection
↓ your hidden self: self-disclosure

5. 2. It’s OK to
not know. Yet.

8. Think about it...
Focus on facilitation, not knowing.
Brush up on your facilitation skills with The Art of
Facilitation by Dale Hunter and try a new
technique from Gamestorming

9. 3. Be like Studs

10. He would purposefully make a mistake
right away to reduce the power distance.
“It can help to be inept.”

11. Resources
Listen to his interviews on www.studsterkel.org
Play lower status: read Chapter 3, “Status” from
Impro, by Keith Johnstone

12. 4. Empathy is not
(just) a buzzword

13. “Empathy need not be limited to users.
It can apply to our clients. It can apply to our co-
workers. It can apply to the materials we use to
design and make with. In fact, it can even apply to
our so-called selves.”
--Seung Chan Lim

14. Think about it...
Co-creation
● With your team
● With your participants
Read
● “What Is Empathy” by Seung Chang Lim
● Gang Leader For a Day, Sudhir Venkatesh

15. 5. Use frameworks

16. P A T T E R N S

17. AEIOU
(e-lab made this one)

18. A E I O U

19. GOATEE
(Beth made this one...you can make one,
too)

20. A
E
I
O
U
Data Filter with a See
Create
framework patterns
story

21. Your challenge
Read more about analytic frameworks.
Try one.

22. 6. Make models, make friends

24. Ptolemy’s story (and model)

25. Copernicus’ story (and model)

27. Thank you, Hugh Dubberly

28. Try this...
1. Read Hugh Dubberly (dubberly.com)
Especially his article, “Models of Models” (it is life
changing)
2. Practice visual modeling

29. 7. Channel Safire

30. If you reread your work, you can find on
rereading a great deal of repetition can be
avoided by rereading and editing.

31. Who needs rhetorical questions?

32. Be sure your writing is:
Useful
Usable
Desirable
Keep it simple and clear like Safire.

33. Think about it...
● The Grammar Girl podcast
● How Not to Write: William Safire
● 25 Things Writers Should Stop Doing: a blog post
by Chuck Wendig
● How to Write with Substance: a blog post by
Gregory Ciotti

34. 8. Know who
should care
and what to
do about it

35. Core/
Project team
Enduring
understanding
Stakeholders/
Related teams
Important to know
Interested
people
Worth being
familiar with
Everyone else

36. Think about it...
Map your org/teams to this model

37. 9. Practice
sherpa synthesis

38. Think about
After each session:
1 - What new things did we notice
2 - Any patterns or familiarity
3 - Improvements in the process

39. Scope it,
do it!

40. 10. Mine your mind

41. cake Swiss cottage

42. cheese

43. right cat carbon

44. copy

45. See problems at night.
Solve in the morning
after sleeping.
See problems in the
morning.
Solve in the same
morning.
See problems in the
morning.
Solve later that evening.
See problems in the
evening.
Solve in the same
evening.
Best for easy problems:

46. See problems at night.
Solve in the morning
after sleeping.
See problems in the
morning.
Solve in the same
morning.
See problems in the
morning.
Solve later that evening.
See problems in the
evening.
Solve in the same
evening.
Best for hard problems:

47. Think about it...
Design your work process to maximize
subconscious contributions

48. 11. Plan backwards

49. Ruthless
Pruner!

50. Think about it...
Borrow from the curriculum development theory
called Backward Design and plan your projects
from end to start
End goal/result > Timeline > Approach/Methods > Begin!

51. 12. While you’re at it...

52. You don’t have to be
on the big strategic project.
Do strategic work
on every project.

53. Think about it...
Make your research activities more “nutritionally
dense”:
● Add 3 discovery questions in all your research
studies to create a longitudinal set of data.

54. Think about it...
Make your research activities more “nutritionally
dense”:
● Add 3 discovery questions in all your research
studies to create a longitudinal set of data.
● Use your screener to do longitudinal research
- so even the people you don’t get to talk to,
contribute to your knowledge base.

55. 13. Experiment

57. Methods are not precious.

58. One Mashup Experiment:
Remote interview -- the
participant sees this screen
Camera pointed at the table
Me, live sketching!
Participants love to see their
thoughts being live sketched.

59. Think about it...
Break the rules on a methodology to see what
happens.
Test drive a new idea/technique/tool with one
person in one study.

60. 14. Cross pollinate

62. Think about it...
Make a “cross-pollination” plan around
domains you’re not familiar with.
Read Creativity: The Psychology of Discovery
and Invention by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

63. 15. Teach to learn

64. Cannot do ZPD Can do
Get through the Zone of Proximal Development
via social interaction.
Vygotsky:

65. Think about it...
Coordinate a teaching swap:
- 30 minute how-to session
- something you’re not good at yet but want
to be better at.

66. now what?

67. More couch time.

68. Thank you.

69. Give us feedback
about the session!
Give feedback on the conference.