How To Facilitate Agile Meetings And User Story Workshops

Run Live or Virtual Group Discussions and JAD Sessions to Elicit and Analyze Requirements, User Stories, and Features

What you'll learn
Develop well-formulated objectives and agendas to flush out optimal approaches, ideal participants, and preferred tools for productive workshops and meetings.
Create a toolkit of techniques and soft skills that foster collaborative and engaging environments for planning, preparing, and performing effective meetings.
Leverage modern brain science studies to help people discover and document features, functions, and requirements for future digital solutions.
Select the best type of collaborative get-together for achieving the defined objectives based on the organization's culture, technology, and leadership style.
Prepare participants for cooperation and collaboration in facilitated User Story Workshops, 3-Amigos Conversations, and 1-on-1 requirements interviews.
Applying conflict resolution strategies to mitigate the threat to successful collaboration
Understand how the conscious and nonconscious mind play a significant role in collaborative conversations
Create a toolkit of specific techniques that will keep your Collaborative Conversation on-track and engaging
Apply several listening techniques which are the key ingredient to productive collaborations
Find solutions for addressing common challenges associated with virtual meetings
Derive the necessary deliverables or outcomes of the collaborative conversations from the meeting objective
Requirements
No technical know-how required. Ideal students desire to improve the quality and productivity of meetings, conversations, and workshops that decide how to leverage automation and information for competitive advantage,
Description
There are meetings and then there are meetings. Meetings that matter, that make a difference, where people connect and make things happen, productive meetings people enjoy. Those meetings start with a facilitator who understands how to shape the environment and get people engaged.Effective Communication Skills are Essential Facilitation ToolsYou should always be looking for ways to make meetings more productive AND more enjoyable - if they're an inconvenience that just holds you back from doing productive work, your company is an endangered species. Make sure your workshops, conversations, and meetings are something everyone feels excited and invested in.Collaboration is the beating heart of a healthy company. Facilitated discussions are opportunities for communicating and collaborating. Collaboration is the essence of productive teams and without effective facilitation, there can be no collaboration. Having a facilitator on hand should not be your fallback plan. From regular participatory feedback to Agile 3 amigo conversations, effective facilitation can bring out creativity and improve the outcomes.Collaboration Improves Personal and Professional SatisfactionStudies show that individuals who collaborate are more satisfied with their work, deliver better results, and are more creative. Sounds like a win-win, so what is collaboration and how can you improve your facilitation skills to make it happen?According to Albert Einstein, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them”. We offer guidelines for planning, preparing, conducting, leading, and participating in collaborative meetings and workshops.Other courses on meeting facilitation focus exclusively on building facilitation and leadership skills. That is no longer enough. Modern software development is a collaborative effort between the business and IT communities. You need to also work on your ability to foster and maintain collaboration to allow all parties to succeed.This course is based on a combined 70+ years of facilitating productive workshops and meetings. We present how we foster collaboration between the meeting leader and all participants that makes meetings more productive and satisfying.–––––Collaboration and Teamwork are Highly Regarded CompetenciesCompanies today understand how collaboration unlocks the potential of their employees and adds value to their customers. 69% of top employers list effective communication as a required skill. In the world of digital transformation, communication between the business and those who develop and deliver the digital solutions drives collaboration. That is the heart and soul of modern organizations in the 21st century.–––––What Do You Get When You Buy This Course?Lifetime access to the course including future updates.30-day Moneyback guarantee backed by Udemy if you are not completely satisfied with the learning experience.Includes 111-page Student Handout in .pdf format for notetaking"Intellimated" video lectures use visual representations to simplify complex concepts and associations.Help from the authors answers open questions and provides additional information.Confidence in your ability to facilitate collaborative meetings that minimize miscommunication that plagues IT initiatives.About the InstructorTeaches 10 Udemy courses for Agile Business Analysis with over 70,000 students enrolled.Champions lean and agile methods to meet communication challenges between business and IT communities.Extensive YouTube Channel with over 100 videos for 18K+ subscribers and 1.8M+ views.Authored 13 Business Analysis books covering tools and techniques for Agile and traditional software requirements.Consultant to a multitude of Fortune 500 companies and governmental agencies.Facilitated 100’s of User Story and Requirements Gathering Workshops for multi-million-dollar projects.35+ years’ experience with instructor-led training for tens of thousands of students around the world.Coach and mentor for aspiring business analysts.Intrigued but not convinced? Check out our FREE previews to make sure my instructor style and delivery work for you.–––––Why Should You Enroll?A lack of effective communication skills can be holding you back in your career development. If you feel uncomfortable speaking in front of a group, register for this course to:learn how to empower collaboration in productive meetingshelp IT deliver what the business community is requestingreduce the amount of time spent in non-productive meetingslead challenging workshops for defining evolving business needsidentify and practice soft skills necessary for effective facilitation and collaboration–––––About the CourseSection I: “Introduction to Facilitated Collaborative Conversations”, presents how collaboration drives modern product development approaches like Lean and Agile. We explain why everyone involved in a gathering needs facilitation skills.Section II: “Communication and Collaboration Are the Cornerstone of Productive Gatherings” introduces 7 variants of meetings, conversations, and workshops with an explanation of the pros and cons of each variant.Section III: “Planning and Preparing Promotes Productive Meetings” provides concrete techniques that set the stage for successful gatherings. It includes how a well-formed objective drives the agenda, attendees, tools, and techniques of a meeting. We guide you from the decision to schedule a meeting all the way to formulating and distributing effective invitations that increase attendance.Section IV: “Great Facilitators Practice Both Soft Skills and Technical Skills” delves into recent studies in brain research that will help you recognize and develop the soft skills that are essential to effective facilitation and collaboration. We also present techniques for developing the social skills that improve your ability to lead or contribute in a group setting.Section V: “Listening and Speaking Are Both Critical for Effectively Communicating in Meetings” focuses on the key soft skill that underpins all human interactions. You will learn techniques for ensuring that your voice is heard in conversations and improve your ability to listen more attentively to other viewpoints.Section VI: “Dealing with Challenges during Conversations and Workshops” acknowledges that facilitated collaboration does not depend on a perfect world to succeed. We present real-world challenges we have faced and present solutions we know work for solving them.Section VII: “Closing a Working Meeting and Final Steps” presents what to do at the end of a facilitated session and what to do after the meeting is over. These actions extend the benefits of collaboration beyond a single workshop, meeting, or conversation by initiating a process of change that can spread throughout your organization.–––––So, What Are You Waiting For?Enroll now to move toward becoming the collaborative communications facilitator in your organization.

Overview

Section 1: INTRODUCTION TO FACILITATED COLLABORATIVE CONVERSATIONS

Lecture 1 Welcome to the Course

Lecture 2 About the instructor

Lecture 3 Team Collaboration Is the Seed that Grows Successful Organizations

Lecture 4 Group Facilitation Skills Foster Collaboration

Lecture 5 Limiting Attendance to Essential Participants Optimizes Meeting Cadence

Lecture 6 All Participants Use Facilitation Skills during Agile Meetings

Section 2: COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION ARE THE CORNERSTONE OF PRODUCTIVE GATHERINGS

Lecture 7 Effective and Successful Business Collaboration for Meetings of Every Size

Lecture 8 Facilitate Workshops, Requirements Interviews and 3-Amigo Conversations

Lecture 9 Story Workshops and 3-Amigo Conversations Need Cross-Functional Collaboration

Lecture 10 Agile Retrospective Meetings Need Larger Audiences

Lecture 11 Virtual Collaboration Is More Challenging

Lecture 12 Scrum and Sprint Planning Meetings Also Need Facilitation

Section 3: PLANNING AND PREPARING PROMOTES PRODUCTIVE MEETINGS

Lecture 13 Collaborative Meetings Improve Your Organization’s Performance

Lecture 14 How to Have Effective Meetings through Facilitation

Lecture 15 Realistic Meeting Objectives Entice the Right Participants

Lecture 16 Participant Selection Is a Prerequisite for Optimal Productivity

Lecture 17 Desired Outcomes and Deliverables Dictate Agenda Format

Lecture 18 Plan Meetings and Workshops to Meet the Objectives

Lecture 19 Virtual Meetings Demand New Tools, Techniques, and Templates

Lecture 20 Tips and Tricks for Creating an Agenda at the Right Level of Detail

Lecture 21 A Team Meeting Agenda Needs to Be Specific

Lecture 22 Best Practices for Virtual Meeting Scheduling

Lecture 23 Well-written Meeting Invitations Increase Attendance

Section 4: GREAT FACILITATORS PRACTICE BOTH SOFT SKILLS AND TECHNICAL SKILLS

Lecture 24 Hard Skills, Soft Skills - What's What and Why?

Lecture 25 Teambuilding Is a Fundamental People Skill for Facilitators

Lecture 26 People Need Help Discovering What They Really Want

Lecture 27 Why You Need a Conscious and a Nonconscious Mind

Lecture 28 Decision-Making Is a Soft Skill Facilitators Need to Develop

Lecture 29 Learning Soft and Hard Skills Requires a Conscious Effort

Lecture 30 Communication is the Ultimate Soft Skill Everyone Needs

Lecture 31 Your Nonconscious Mind Contributes to Teamwork

Lecture 32 Why the Question "Why" Is Provocative for Many People

Lecture 33 Improve Your Professional Soft Skills for Better Business Communication

Section 5: LISTENING AND SPEAKING: BOTH CRITICAL FOR EFFECTIVELY COMMUNICATING IN MEETINGS

Lecture 34 Facilitators Master Verbal and Non-verbal Communications

Lecture 35 Learn the Language of the Participants for Effective Communications

Lecture 36 How You Relay the Message is More Important than What You Say

Lecture 37 Reading Non-Verbal Communication is a Way of Listening

Lecture 38 Comprehensive and Effective Listening is an Active Listening Skill

Lecture 39 Attentive or Informational Listening Identifies Intent and Purpose

Lecture 40 Allowing Silence to Linger Teaches How to Listen Effectively

Lecture 41 Confirmation Bias is a Primary Impediment to Engaged Listening

Lecture 42 How Critical Listening Makes You a Good Listener

Lecture 43 Written Communication Is Asynchronous Collaboration

Section 6: HOW TO RUN PRODUCTIVE MEETINGS, CONVERSATIONS, JAD SESSIONS, AND WORKSHOPS

Lecture 44 To Facilitate a Group Discussion, Start with Small Talk

Lecture 45 Kick Off Your Meetings with a Fun, Fast, Non-Threatening Icebreaker

Lecture 46 4 Techniques that Excel as Team-building Activities

Lecture 47 An Effective Meeting Builds on Good Time Management

Lecture 48 Leverage the Difference between Closed and Open-Ended Questions

Lecture 49 Dealing with Distractions and Difficult People

Lecture 50 Conflict Resolution Strategies for Dealing with Difficult People

Lecture 51 Virtual Team Collaboration and Online Meeting Best Practices

Lecture 52 Taking Notes versus Recording a Team Meeting Pros and Cons

Section 7: CLOSING THE WORKING SESSION AND FOLLOW-UP

Lecture 53 Consider a Post-Mortem or Lessons Learned Meeting

Lecture 54 Distribute the Results of the Get-Together to the Appropriate Audience

Lecture 55 Capitalize on the Meeting Experience After the Fact

Lecture 56 BONUS LECTURE: Special Offers and Other Training Opportunities from BA-EXPERTS

This course is for people who organize, plan, prepare, and conduct or attend business meetings and workshops. Some specific techniques are designed for gathering that discover desired features and functions of proposed digital solutions.