Puzzle Pips Answers
Across #1: What robs a wordsmith of their Sunday joy? (1, 9, 9).
Solution: A completed crossword.
Sunday mornings usually mean tennis for me and an enticing empty crossword for him.
The disappointment was deep when he turned the page to discover this.
Snodger’s crossword, The Age, 29 October, 2023
I bet the puzzles page editor could feel the disappointment rise across Melbourne and beyond. The crossword creator, Snodger, has fans everywhere.
Though sympathetic, the writer in me spotted a (fl)awesome opportunity. What a perfect way to illustrate the downsides of giving a group all the answers, whether you're leading, facilitating or training a group.
But sometimes you can’t help yourself – I know I didn’t when I first started facilitating. I felt like I needed to be across all the content and the process. Sometimes I felt intimidated by a group’s experience, expertise and power, and probably thought that demonstrating my knowledge gave me credibility. It didn’t take me long to learn that this didn’t serve the group, the process or the work before them. That and the challenge of getting across the content of the wide variety of groups I facilitated – from epidemiology to water pricing to responsible management of waste in healthcare, to name just a few.
This is one of the reasons why it’s helpful to have an independent facilitator, someone who does not have a stake in the decision on the table.
If we know the content or topic as well as the group, then it’s tempting to give the group solutions to the questions they are grappling with. You can see it so clearly. ‘Go on, put them out of their misery. Let’s save everyone time and we can finish in time for lunch.’ But that’s misses the point.
While you as the meeting leader might be focused on the outcomes, such as making decisions, coming up with recommendation and solutions to problems, it’s how a group does this that is important.
They need time and thoughtful structure to connect, collaborate, listen, understand different perspectives, change their minds or agree to respectfully differ. As Brandon Klein says, in his excellent book, Facilitating Collaborations:
'...the answers our participants provide are only a fraction as useful as the questions they have to ask themselves to arrive at those answers.’
It’s so tempting to give people solutions to the questions they face. It’s faster, and easier, than facilitating a process that helps them to draw on their collective wisdom. But to borrow from that famous proverb, if you want to go fast, give them the answers. If you want the group to go far, let them work them out together. It’s tricky and takes time, but it’s (fl)awesome.
And what about that offending crossword? My partner cut out the offending crossword and worked his way through the clues as best as he could without the benefit of the crossword to offer letters for answers.
