Turn ‘show n tell’ seminars into ‘see n say’ discussions

‘Show n tell’ sessions let you communicate something new to end-users and stakeholders; but what about reversing the flow to be ‘bottom up’ and running ‘see n say’ sessions?

We’re building a new intranet, and we’re running the project in an Agile fashion – we work in 10 day (two week) ‘sprints’ and then demonstrate the actual systems to stakeholders, end-users and, well, anyone with an interest.

These demos are called ‘show n tell‘ sessions, and it’s usually me showing the new intranet on a big screen, highlighting functionality, explaining benefits and then taking questions.

I wonder if, for new systems, change programmes and other internal comms matters, we could flip ‘show n tells’ into ‘see n say‘ sessions.

Because people are often reticent about voicing their opinions (around here, people fear being wrong so very much that they’d rather share their thoughts with their trusted friends rather than out in the open) so getting feedback from people would need to be facilitated.

I wonder if you could just leave the system available to people, and let them use paper notes, a whiteboard or just brown paper on the wall to scribble their comments, queries and concerns.

Maybe the facilitator could be on hand to answer queries directly and record them.

A ‘see n say’ session might not demonstrate all the features I’d want a person to see, but it would allow the person to explore in their own way, and get hands on experience of the new system, rather than sitting / standing in the audience and being passive.

As is often the case, communications can overly focus on “what I want to tell you” rather than listening to people and learning ‘what they want to know’ and ‘need to do’. Maybe more informal comms could have a focus on enabling easy feedback in a kind of ‘see n say’ format.

[Wedge]

Photo credit: Duncan

If you would like to share or tweet this article, the short URL  is: http://kilobox.net/1542

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Previous Article

We don’t need more corporate communication channels, we need local level conduits

Next Article

Copyright – using other people’s content

Related Posts
Digital Impact Awards
Read more

Enter the Digital Impact Awards

Have your revamped your corporate website? Are you designing an app to link employees together? Will you relaunch your intranet this spring? Get recognised!