Facilitate Better with Jeffrey Cufaude: Recent Episodes
Jeffrey Cufaude
Let me help you Facilitate Better. Each episode helps expand your competence and confidence to design and facilitate better meetings or workshops as we explore key facilitation principles, practices, tools, techniques, and resources.
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Reading time: approximately three minutes
“An experience occurs when a company intentionally uses services as the stage, and goods as props, to engage individual customers in a way that creates a memorable event” (Pine II and Gilmore, The Experience Economy).
Consumer research consistently confirms that many people increasingly value experiences over individual products. While now a widely accepted principle, B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore popularized it more than a decade ago—first in a Harvard Business Review article—and then in their book entitled The Experience Economy.
They succinctly summarized how value to the end user (and the investment they will make to receive it) can evolve from commodities to experiences:
Commodities (cake from scratch)
Goods (cake mix)
Services (cake from bakery)
Experiences (birthday party at restaurant)
We live in a world where a great deal of content has been commoditized and is often undervalued. So how might individuals and organizations design experiences—in particular, workshops, conferences, and virtual offerings—that deliver more value to learners and participants? How might organizational leaders design meetings and retreats to be more meaningful and accelerate better discussions, decisions, and results?
For advice on doing so, I often draw ideas and insights from Designing Experiences by J. Robert Rossman and Mathew D. Duerden (2019). The book is a concise and comprehensive “how to” guide on experience design and value creation, one whose principles and practices can be adapted and applied to the design of almost any experience.
In my 7-minute audio and video review, I highlight:
a bit more about what is meant by experience design and why it matters
an overview of the content and key concepts from Designing Experiences
The video format of this review contains slides with a few key quotes ansd other highlights references in the audio file at the top of this post. Here is an eight-page PDF with the key quotes/notes I made from my own read of Designing Experiences.
You can find lengthy highlights from the authors themselves here. For two additional perspectives on the book and its value, I concur with the opinions expressed in this short review and highlights, as well as this brief summary and critique from strategy + business.
Bottom line?
Already well-versed in experience design, journey and user maps, and design thinking overall? This book probably builds on/complements what you already know, adding a few interesting ideas, tools, and perspectives. For everyone else, it likely can serve as both a good gateway/introduction to designing more valuable experiences and an excellent resource publication for future reference.
© Facilitate Better and Jeffrey Cufaude, 2021. All rights reserved.
To license this content for your site or electronic or print communications, email info@facilitatebetter.com or complete this form.
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Humble Inquiry is both art and attitude and this book is a must-read for facilitators, leaders, or anyone seeking to improve relationships in our increasingly diverse, uncertain, and interdependent world.
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A meeting agenda or workshop outline is a game plan for intended results. Anticipate and plan for likely tweaks and potential audibles. Then prepare your content, logistics, and support materials like slides and learning worksheets so making real-time adjustments is stress-free for you and seamless for participants.
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Approximate reading time: two minutes
Gamestorming is one of my “go to” resources when I’m looking for an exercise, tool, or activity to help better engage participants in a meeting or a workshop.
Don’t let the word game give you pause. It just allows the authors to use gamestorming as a play on the word brainstorming.
In my 6-minute review, I highlight:
how the content is organized
what the tools in the book can help accomplish
four tools from the book
reasons why you should buy the book
The video format of this review contains slides illustrating these highlights. The four excerpted tools from the book will make more sense with the video’s visuals as opposed to just hearing them described in the audio review.
To further sample the content in the book visit its website where you will find dozens of the book’s tools. I find it easier to have the book on hand when I am designing a meeting or workshop, but you certainly could get by only using the website if finances are tight. The book retails online for $25.
© Facilitate Better and Jeffrey Cufaude, 2021. All rights reserved.
To license this content for your site or electronic or print communications, email info@facilitatebetter.com or complete this form.
P.S. In the recorded review, I believe I erroneously suggest the book’s website is gogamestorming.com because the Twitter handle for the book is @gogamestorm. The website is actually just gamestorming.com.
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Approximate reading time: two minutes
While a bit trite and overused, breath of fresh air is an apt description of the excellent content in Priya Parker’s The Art of Gathering. This book immediately causes you to rethink how you host, design, and facilitate gatherings and stays with you longer after your first (of what likely will be many) reading.
In my 10-minute review, I highlight some of my key takeaways from the book, as well as how to enact them, including:
Clarifying your event’s purpose and using it as a bouncer for all your decisions
The power in asking guests to contribute ahead of time
The importance of protecting, equalizing, and connecting guests
Designing for desired connections
Causing good controversy
The video format of this review contains slides illustrating these takeaways.
To further sample Parker’s thinking, several TED Talks videos are available.
© Facilitate Better and Jeffrey Cufaude, 2021. All rights reserved.
To license this content for your site or electronic or print communications, email info@facilitatebetter.com or complete this form.
Subscribe at facilitatebetter.substack.com
Listen now | A 5-minute review of my favorite resource on facilitating better discussions and decisions. Available in audio only or in video.
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Truly one of my favorite books of all time, I reread Facilitation by Trevor Bentley at least annually. The book’s unique format toggles between narrative from an actual facilitation training the author leads and his reflections on it.
My 5-minute review highlights a few key takeaways that resonate with me deeply, as well as why its unique structure is so provocative and powerful.
Watch the video to see the table of contents, a few quotes, and two key models from the book that I find particularly useful.
Used copies of the book can usually be found at Amazon, ebay, or other online sources. Amazon prices vary widely based on number of copies available, but the average price I’ve paid has been $15-$20 plus shipping. You’ll see the book with two different xovers, but the content is the same.
Some local and university libraries carry the book.
New copies can be purchased directly from the author and will be shipped from Australia. With the exchange rate a new copy typically costs around $32 plus shipping.
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Looking for a book on the fundamentals of workshop design and facilitation? The Workshop Survival Guide may be the resource you seek.
In this first post of my Facilitate Better Resource Review series, I highlight why I recommend this book to new or intermediate workshop designers and facilitators, as well as why those with more experience should still read it.
A presentation video offering some slides to accompany the audio narrative included here can be found at my YouTube channel.
P.S. Apologies as the episode is six-minutes long, not five as I state in the recording.
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