What are Large Group Interventions?

Anywhere from 25 people upwards can be considered a large group. This is because, when working together they struggle to maintain eye contact across the group and each have a limited amount of time to speak.

The temptation when working with large groups of people is to assume that they cannot function as a whole group unless they are turned into an audience. So large events become characterized by dry ice, presentations, videos and theatre and people loose the chance to truly participate.

Large Group Interventions (LGIs) are a set of methods for working with large numbers of people to do real work like problem solving, strategy creation, organisational diagnosis, planning and implementation. Round tables, circles of chairs, a lot of movement and action and plenty of time to speak, with a variety of ways to record outcomes characterize LGIs and highlight how different they are from traditional conferences.

Large Group Intervention(s) bring together information from all the key players - this may be staff, customers, managers, leaders, partners, competitors - whoever is appropriate to work on the topic or issue that the organisation or community is challenged with. The wide scope for participation has meant that these interventions are also called 'whole system' events. In effect the 'whole system' is in the room, not each and every person, but every different type of perspective.

At VISTA, these days, we tend to think of 50 as a smallish group, and 250 as average. We are not sure what our upper limit of large is but we once worked with 2,200 people in one room. Sometimes we have worked on one off meetings bringing together large numbers of people and sometimes our work is part of a wider programme of interventions.

The Change and Engagement Imperative

We live in turbulent times. Organisations are global and complex; they have multiple levels and teams. In order to survive and thrive they need to move to significantly increase collaboration. Teams need to be created which can pool dispersed resources and ideas, break down barriers, leverage creativity, and foster productive employee interaction.

All this needs to be done faster. Change is accelerating. Product cycles times have reduced and new technologies are being introduced daily. Information needs to be shared quickly and effectively. People need to be able to make sense of that information and use the knowledge they develop quickly and easily.

There has been a shift from thinking about communication as the passing of information to the realisation that intelligent people need to be engaged to build ownership. Organisations need to engage large and diverse groups of people in interactive, meaningful dialogue.

The need to adopt new ways of working is pressing from every side. From Civil Service reform to building a global market there is an imperative to work differently today. Not wait for it to happen in 5 years.

Five Key Benefits of Large Group Interventions

For a number of reasons large group working has provided itself to be a successful way of working:

One: Greater buy-in to the organisation aims

People will support what they have helped create. By involving and engaging staff in understanding the whole picture they develop a stake in the future. They can envision what success would be like and have connected to how it will be better for them. They have seen their ideas used. They have had chance to say clearly what will not work. They leave believing not only is the desirable but it is possible.

The aims are now clearly shared. Many people heard the same messages, together. What is more they heard them direct so they believe them more than if someone else passed them on to them.

The scale of the involvement has accelerated the rate of buy-in and a critical mass of energy for change has been created. Things then happen quickly "imagine having all your staff together or a good diagonal" slice of the organisation - normally it is a case of bringing together small groups of people and "passing on the message" - this can create a Chinese whispers syndrome.

Two: Data can be shared in such a way that everyone who attends leaves with their view of the organisation changed

We all work in little boxes. It can mean we rarely get chance to talk in depth to anyone outside our own teams. We tend to see our view of the organisation and community. We know what issues look like from our part of the business. We can loose the ability to see how things look for other parts.

Once we start to talk and converse with people from the other parts we suddenly start to build a bigger picture - one that is bigger that just us as an individual. This has a strange effect. People modify their demands. They seem less unreasonable. They are ready to make compromises. The 'I' has turned to 'we'.

Three: The opportunity to listen and learn from other people's views and perspectives

One constant message that we get on evaluations forms is that people appreciate and enjoy the chance to talk to each other, and that is real talk about work and the issues that they are facing.

It is sometimes the connections that surprise people - how although they are doing completely different things they are facing the same challenges. These connections can then form the basis for a sense of common purpose and identity.

Equally it can be the differences, the assumptions that people see the world as they do - when in fact it can often be the opposite! Being clear about what the difference are and why they exist can form the basis for real learning and amazing innovation.

By having the "whole system in the room" it means that people from different departments, levels and experiences can have a positive experience of communicating and planning together.

Four: People leave with a sense of shared responsibility to make a success of what they have done

This links back to the early phrase that people support what they help to create. Large Group Interventions do not make people a passive audience. As active participants they are encouraged to take on responsibility for making the sessions work. They participate in all the conversations that happen. They make decisions and public commitments.

All work is designed to start with the individual, move to small groups and then move to the whole room - meaning that people have the chance to think about and talk about what is important to them and then start to discuss and negotiate with other people.

For the first time for many people they see the trade offs that happen. They have been able to talk about their own passions and have combined that with a sense of responsibility for creating the future they want.

Five: New links and networks are created

This is another common comment on our evaluations forms. The events are designed to put people into different mixes. They might start in highly mixed groups of 8 people from every different level and function, they might move to be with people from their own function and they might form other groups with people who have the same passions as them. The work of each phase is designed so that they can form an effective team quickly and share responsibility. The connections they make are real and meaningful, and they last.

What working with Large Groups isn't!

They are not the chance to bring people together and convince them of the right way forward. When working with large numbers of people it very quickly becomes apparent if there is a misfit in the information being used and the desired outcomes. Using large groups is not a way of simply 'indoctrinating' people or giving them the illusion of decision making.

They are not the chance to sit your staff in rows and talk at them for a day/two days and "indoctrinate" them into your way of thinking! This way of working offers a real opportunity to use all the experience and knowledge that your staff have and for your staff to see the issues, problems and opportunities that the business of community is faced with and together plan a way forward.

The First Steps