How Foursight can help make meetings 60% moreproductive

Imagine the following scenario: there are four people in a car – 2 in front of the car and 2in back. Now imagine that each person in the car has their own steering wheel directly infront of them that controls the direction of the car. While the car is moving, one personstarts turning the wheel one way, another turns it another way, while the other two peopleturn it in a slightly different way. What would happen to the car?If they are lucky, someone would step on the brake and stop the car altogether or else thecar might swerve widely out of control.Now like a car that has 4 drivers, most meetings spin out of control or go nowherebecause many of the participants are trying to steer the meeting in different directions atthe same time. Why? Because often, they have different Foursight preferences.

What is Foursight and how do Foursight preferences impact meetingproductivity?

Foursight is an assessment tool that gives people insight into where they get energizedand where they lose energy when solving problems.There are four main Foursight preferences and if people are unaware of their ownpreferences then it can negatively impact meeting productivity.The four main Foursight preferences are:

•

Clarifiers

– who enjoy gathering data and information and pinpointing the rightchallenge to solve.

•

Ideators

– who enjoy coming up with lots and lots of possible solutions to solve achallenge

•

Developers

– who enjoy refining a few ideas into a practical solution

•

Implementers

– who enjoy jumping into action and want to arrive at a decisionquickly and get it done.What often happens at meetings is some of the clarifiers keep asking for moreinformation, while the ideators are throwing out lots of ideas, the developers are trying tohone an idea, and the implementers just want to move on. In short, people are all going indifferent directions usually at the same time. In fact, by some estimates,

more than 60%of all meetings are considered a total waste of time by meeting attendees

. Byunderstanding Foursight, groups can make their meetings more productive.

How Foursight can make a meeting more productive?

Foursight can make a meeting more productive by providing people with a commonlanguage and approach to solving problems. It makes people aware that there are 4 mainphases to problem-solving: clarifying the problem, generating ideas, developingsolutions, and implementing plans. It also makes individuals aware of their own personalpreferences for each of those 4 preferences. This awareness can help individuals alignwhen it comes to making a meeting work.

How does Foursight help individuals align with each other?

Foursight helps people align by providing them with a snapshot of their personalpreferences for the problem-solving process. So for example, one individual may have alow preference for clarifying and a high preference for implementing while someone elseon the team may have a high preference for clarifying and a low preference forimplementing. If people are not aware of their preferences then conflict could easily arisein a meeting. If, however, people are aware of their own preferences, they can understandwhy they might enjoy a particular phase of the process and resist another part of theprocess. This awareness can help keep meetings on track.

Why Foursight awareness helps meetings get back on track?

Once a group understands Foursight, it becomes easy to have a productive meeting. Thisis because everyone understands that there are 4 phases to solving the problem andpeople are clear about the objective of the meeting. For example a team may hold ameeting to first clarify a situation that has just arisen with a client. So before some peoplelaunch into coming up with ideas, the person running the meeting can say, “First, we justneed to clarify the situation and really understand what the data is and what is the rightproblem to solve is.” Even if someone attending the meeting does not have a preferencefor clarifying, they understand the importance of this phase and can remain engaged. Infact, for groups that really want to make their meetings more productive, they may wantto host a Foursight workshop.

Why hosting a half-day Foursight workshop is a good idea if you wantto dramatically improve your meetings?

The most effective way for groups to learn to leverage Foursight is to take the Foursightprofile on-line and then hold a Foursight workshop. The workshop will be run by aCertified Foursight instructor who will introduce the Foursight process and will walkeveryone through their individual feedback. In addition, during the workshop, the groupwill have the opportunity to hold a “Foursight” meeting where the trainer willdemonstrate how to apply the 4 phase Foursight process on a real issue. This way,participants not only understand their preferences but they experience going through eachof the four phases on a real challenge. Participants leave this workshop with anunderstanding and the ability to use the process to run meetings that stay on track.