People document, not you, and not for you – but for who then?

When you facilitate a process, your client might want to have it documented. It can be for strategic or political reasons, or because what you are facilitating simply needs “proof of action” for the client (money well spent).

As a part of my service, I offer a photo-protocol, which is a document with photos of the final conclusions from the group’s working throughout the day.

Letting participants document their work throughout the event is a further part of making the process transparent and creating collective wisdom and knowhow.
(Note: A detailed description will follow later)

Whatever the topic is, and how many participants there are, it is their job to make decisions during the process, and to filter their reflections and insights into key points, initiatives and action plans. Down to the basics they decide, write/draw and filter, and do so in a way that is shareable with others.

I structure the photo-protocol so all it needs is short process descriptions for each part – often copied directly from the slides – and then photos of the flipcharts, cards, post-its etc. If a client wants a more detailed magazine or report as documentation, I either sub-contract that service or supervise the client into doing that by means of own resources.

Remember that if you can gather 50-100-500 or more employees for an event, you probably also have some sort of communication or marketing resources with competent people who can collect and interpret the intellectual outcome of the event.

In such situations, I let go. I don’t want to have any influence on the interpretation of the event, other than to invite them to think about:

In 6 to 12 months from publishing this material:

  • What will who say or do as an indication that it has been worth spending the resources on producing this material?
  • What else?

Here you can download a very rough example on a photo-protocol with my comments on it. Just to give you an idea.

Let me see that thing!