Facilitate a Point of View Exercise

Learn the WHY behind exercises


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In this article, you will learn how to facilitate a LeadFirst Point of View (POV) exercise. These exercises help you to limit the effect of office politics on your decisions and have more effective and efficient meetings. They also help introverts to be heard and real expertise to prevail.

If you haven't already, first Create a Point of View Exercise so you are ready to facilitate.
If you want your participants to come prepared, send them Participate in a Point of View Exercise

Overview of the brainstorming process

Here is an overview of the LeadFirst Point of View process:
  1. Question - Clearly define the problem by formulating a specific question for the group to answer. 
  2. Brainstorm - The group brainstorms ideas - no idea is critiqued or turned down; every idea is captured as close to verbatim as possible.
  3. Vote - With a thorough ideas list, every participant votes on what they believe to be the best ideas.
  4. Understand - With votes in and now visible to the group, each person explains why they voted the way they did.
  5. Re-vote - After each person explains their votes, everyone is given the opportunity to change their mind and re-vote.
  6. Take Action - Now the group has the best ideas identified and a lot of "buy-in" because they took the time to truly collaborate.

The role of the facilitator

You, as the facilitator, have a significant role in making this brainstorming exercise effective.
  • Define the problem - Albert Einstein has famously said: “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.” Ensure your brainstorming question clearly defines the problem the group is trying to solve.
  • Promote open ideation - Walt Disney had three figurative chairs he would "sit in" to develop a project: 1) the Dreamer chair (bold ideas, 2) the Critic chair (evaluates risks and blind spots), and 3) the Realist chair (doable plan to make it happen). You or your group need to sit in all three in order to bring the best projects to life. This brainstorming exercise is an effective way to actually sit in the Dreamer chair without prematurely shooting down potential blockbuster ideas. Your job is to make sure, especially during the initial brainstorming time, that no idea is shot down. Capture it, and move on to the next harebrained idea.
  • Keep the group moving - while you want to provide enough time to get all the ideas on the table and give plenty of time for people to share why they voted the way they did, keep the pace moving. You can tell when the energy in the room is getting drained. Take control of the discussion, and move on to the next step in the process or the next person.
  • Run the software - the better you know how the LeadFirst brainstorming tool works, the more comfortable you will feel guiding the exercise.
  • Set expectations - People have likely never brainstormed like this. It is your job to understand and explain the process. We see groups allow critiques in the brainstorming process or never do a re-vote simply because they weren't explained the process.

Run the brainstorming exercise

QUESTION - verify the group is clear on the question

The brainstorming question is found at the top of the screen. It should be specific enough to get the group clear on the problem they are setting out to solve yet open enough not to suggest specific solutions.
Before you start gathering ideas, make sure the group is clear on the question. Give them time to ask for clarification. For example, regarding the question below, the group might ask :
  • "Will the next marketing campaign be similar to the previous one we ran?"
  • "Are we restricted to cities in the U.S. or can we consider international cities?"
  • "Are we trying to narrow the list to a single city or the 'top 5' cities to consider?"
More than likely, you will only need to clarify your question. But if you need to modify the question, you can go to the screen three-dot menu > and open Settings > modify your question > and Save.

BRAINSTORM - gather ideas from the group

Before beginning the exercise, set expectations with the group on how the brainstorming process will work.
  • Participants are encouraged to freely share ideas as they come to mind
  • At this point in the process, there are no "bad ideas." The goal is to get as many ideas from the group as possible to give the best ideas a chance to surface. So hold your critiques or counter-arguments for now.
  • Set a time limit. Only gather ideas for 5-10 minutes. You want an open rapid-fire of ideas with no debating. 
  • Ideas that appear to be duplicates or very similar can be combined later; do not eliminate them now. You might assume you know what someone means by an idea and only later realize you misunderstood what they meant.
  • Let the group know that you will call on anyone not participating because you want a true sample of ideas from the group. Every team member has a unique perspective on the problem others don't see.
After setting expectations, go to the exercise's Voting tab.
It is important at this point to project your screen so everyone can watch the list develop. When you ask the group to start throwing out ideas, be ready to capture them. 
To capture an idea, click the blue plus > type the idea verbatim > click Save and New to save this idea and add the next.
Important: Try to capture the participant's thoughts as closely to how they expressed them as possible.
When the brainstorming time is up, or the group thinks the list is fairly complete, save the final idea and transition to voting.

VOTE - the voting process

Before starting the process, explain how the voting works.
  • Every participant gets 100 "points" and votes using a minimum of 20-point increments for no more than 5 total items.
  • Participants can weigh ideas by, for example, putting 40 points on 1 item and 20 points on 3 other items.
  • Your total votes cannot exceed 100 points.
  • Everyone votes individually and gets an equal weighting of their votes
  • Vote on what you see as the most important, and be ready to explain why you voted the way you did.
Every person will need to open the exercise from their own device.
To share the exercise, open the Voting tab > open the screen's three-dot menu > select Share > copy the hyperlink your browser provides > send the link to anyone you would like to participate.

Note: participants must be users in LeadFirst

To vote on ideas,
  1. Use each ideas + and - buttons on the right to add or remove your voting points to/from ideas.
  2. If you are using the standard scale, you have 100 points to vote with.
  3. When finished, click Cast Vote
From the Results tab, you can see who has yet to vote. To keep the list current, refresh the list every so often.

UNDERSTAND - have participants explain their votes

After everyone has cast their votes, ask them all to view your screen as you open the Results tab. Have each participant explain how they voted. Again, brief the group on how the step works.
  • Each person will be given the opportunity to explain the reasoning behind their votes
  • Others can ask clarifying questions but, again, please hold serious critiques and challenges. Allow the voting process to promote the ideas with the most believability and demote the less feasible ideas.
  • As you progress, individuals do not necessarily need to restate their reasoning for a vote if someone already shared a similar explanation. Simply mention that you agree with that person. Although, if you voted for the same idea but for a different reason, do share your reasoning with the group.
  • If ideas are similar, the group can decide to combine ideas. When you do, the voting points for those two ideas are combined.
  • After the group understands each others' votes, there is an opportunity to re-vote
At this point, you want everyone viewing your screen again. Go to the Results tab and, one person at a time, ask them to explain why they voted the way they did. Each participant's initials are at the top of the column. If you need to, you can hover over the initials to see the person's full name.
Combine Ideas - If two ideas convey the same concept, you can combine them so their voting points add together. Open the three-dot menu of the idea you want to combine under another > select the correct idea from the dropdown list > and click Select.

RE-VOTE - everyone reconsiders how they voted

Listening to people explain the rationale behind their votes often changes other peoples' minds. Re-voting completes the brainstorming process and allows the best ideas to win. If you don't revote, your list remains organized by the assumptions brought into the meeting. Re-voting ensures you are getting the best and most current thinking of the group.
Explain to the group why revoting is important. Then direct them to
  1. Go back to the Voting tab
  2. You don't need to start from scratch. The way you previously voted is preserved. Simply remove votes from ideas they no longer think are viable.
  3. Add your remaining voting points to another idea(s)
  4. And click Cast Vote.
Reset Ideas - Need to reset and clear all the votes? Go to the Voting tab > open the three-dot menu in the upper-right > select Clear Votes.

TAKE ACTION - identify the next action steps

After the re-vote, see if there is any further discussion. Has the group reached a consensus? Are there three or four top ideas?

You will likely want to assign someone or a small team to evaluate the next steps. You can turn any idea into a project by opening the three-dot-row menu > Add To > Add To Breakdown or someone's Plan Board.

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Access/Security:

  • Participants and facilitators will initially see a list all the exercises they are a part of.
  • But any user can change the filter to access all existing exercises (except those marked as "Private")
  • Exercises marked as "Private" can only be viewed and accessed by participants and facilitators
  • Only facilitators can change an exercise's settings

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