What was the research process we engaged in?

What was the iterative development process we went through?

To understand how we can help people working in organisations navigate complex conversations, we reached out to 14 facilitators in Singapore, with many of them having more than 15 years of experience in facilitation. They range from external and internal facilitators from the people and organisational development (OD) sector, to organisational leaders working in HR and OD.

Then, we interviewed them to get their perspectives on:

  1. What makes organisational conversations so complex?

  2. How do we identify it?

  3. What can we do about it?

We analysed what we found and formed some preliminary insights. 

In the FIRST round of testing, we shared and tested these preliminary insights in 2 focus groups. They were recruited through an open call for facilitators, coaches, consultancy trainers and practitioners with insights to share on “what makes organisational conversations so complex”.

The focus groups helped validate some of the insights and frameworks we used, and helped us further understand what is relevant to facilitators with different years of experience.

These refined insights were then translated into a field-guide, with the aim to help facilitators:

  • diagnose the level of difficulty of their conversation 

  • design a constructive conversational approach for better outcomes

In the SECOND round of testing, we tested the field-guide draft with facilitators and leaders, with experience working in a range of organisations - public or private sector, MNCs or SMEs.

This helped us refine our target audience for the guidebook. We are targeting individuals who often find themselves being internal facilitators due to their job role e.g. being a leader or manager, and may be unaware of the resources they can tap on from the field of facilitation and organisational development to have better conversations and meetings in the workplace. This field-guide is meant to be an introduction for them.

This understanding helped us focus on creating a simpler field-guide, with easy to follow frameworks for those who may be unfamiliar with the concept of facilitating conversations in the workplace.

Our Journey

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