Parent work groups, citizen planning groups, focus groups: Schools and local governments conduct them with mixed results. They can offer powerful insights or validate what you were suspecting. As with most things, there are best practices. Here are seven to make your work groups work well:
Focus groups and work groups can be powerful tools that can be done affordably. A hired facilitator can make your life easier, especially if you’re new, but building internal facilitation skills will help with future groups, informal conversations, staff meetings, and even planning your family vacation.
For more information, consider this book on Amazon. And Cobalt is available to assist you with any of your research data needs.
Cobalt is a national 501c3 nonprofit, non-partisan coalition that helps local governments, schools and membership organizations affordably engage communities through high-quality surveys, dynamic population segmentation, focus groups and work groups that use instant audience feedback technology. Cobalt combines big data with local insights to help you thrive as changes emerge in the economic, demographic and social landscape. Explore how we can help you by calling 877.888.0209, or by emailing [email protected].
- Prepare a discussion guide. Identify the business decisions you will make based on what you learn in the focus group, and then list out open-ended questions that will help you make those decisions. Bad example: do you think a new soccer field is a good idea? Good example: what types of facilities will appeal to the most kids? Follow up: which one do each of you think is best? Make sure the beginning of the discussion guide sets the expectations of the group too, such as one person talking at a time.
- Invite the right people. A common error is putting out a general invitation that says “we’re going to meet to talk about TOPIC X. Please come to the library on November 1 to participate. You will end up with 2 people, and they are the ones who are always cornering you in the milk aisle of the grocery store. Instead, identify the types of people you would like to have attend and develop a list of potential participants based on those criteria. Then send a targeted invitation specifically to those people or call them on the phone. If you have a survey program in place, having a question at the end asking people if they will participate is a tremendous help. Finally, give potential participants plenty of time before the meeting – and NO, ten days is not plenty of time. Invite them four weeks before the meeting so they can get it on their calendar. And tell them there will be food. A $50 gift card to the local grocery store for those who attend can be helpful too.
- Then don’t let them forget. You will want about 15 people to agree to participate, and you should immediately send them an appointment card to put on their fridge along with an email appointment. Then do a reminder mailing that they receive 2 weeks out with details on where, when, and if they need to do anything to prepare. Then call them a week before and leave a message. Then call them two days before and leave a message. It seems like overkill, but trust me, you want to make sure it stays top of mind. If you didn’t schedule the focus group when there is a major conflict or on an especially nice day in early spring, you’ll get 6-12 people who show up. This is a nice sized group for your conversation. Reward them with snacks.
- Manage personalities. If you’ve done a good job with your recruiting, then those 2 people in the milk aisle will not be in your meeting. But there will be similar characters to deal with. Your discussion guide can be very helpful, especially when you set the expectations. Some that are helpful are:
- I have a series of questions, so please understand that I’ll need to cut off conversation on some questions to make sure we cover everything and honor our commitment to get you out of here on time.
- Everyone’s opinions are important because you represent everyone who is not in the room. We want to make sure we capture everyone’s ideas, so please avoid side conversations and talk one at a time.
- We want to hear from everyone equally. If you notice that you are doing a lot of the talking today, then think about how you can share your idea concisely and then let others share their ideas. If you notice that you are not doing much talking, then please push yourself to share more of your ideas and perceptions. As the facilitator, I may call names to help balance the conversation.
- As facilitator, my role is to draw out your thoughts and keep the conversation going along smoothly and on time. I’m here to learn from you, not to answer questions about policy or how decisions are made.
- Manage staff in the room. The last expectation above is linked to how staff behave if they are in the room. The most important (and hardest) part is not answering participant questions or correcting them. Set an expectation for staff in the room to ask a follow up questions or keep lips zipped. Putting staff in a separate room with a video monitor (a Wi-Fi security camera works great) and having them text follow up questions to the facilitator is an excellent approach. Nothing kills a focus group like letting staff slip into a Q and A session. And it’s painfully hard not to set the record straight when a participant says “You guys make terrible spending decisions.” You know that you write RFPs and slog through 50-page proposals, you talk to your peers, you talk to associations, and you make sure there is room in the budget for the expenditure. And that is just to buy ink pens. But your response to the participant should be “That’s an interesting perception. Would you provide an example of where you’ve seen this, and how could we do a better job in the future?” The goal is not to correct one person, but to understand where they are coming from so you can correct the perception strategically to a larger population.
- Probe for more meaning. The best facilitators use the discussion guide as a guide only. They ask follow up questions to make sure staff understand participant perceptions and insights fully. And facilitators actively call on those quiet people who like to slink into the corner, make wonderful observations, but resist sharing them. Here are some helpful examples of probing:
- George, that’s a great observation. Regina, what are your thoughts on this?
- So how could this be communicated more effectively?
- What are some different ways we could do that?
- How would you like to see that done?
- Sally, you mentioned X a few minutes ago, how could that relate to Sam’s comment?
- Create action. After you thank the participants, give them their gift cards and vintage t-shirts you’ve been trying to dump from your storage room, do a quick debrief with staff. What surprised people? Which assumptions were confirmed? What are the opportunities for additional education and outreach? Based on what you heard, what may be the best direction for the decisions you identified in tip 1? Keep notes. Put a star by especially juicy ideas. Then validate with a survey or a second focus group.
Focus groups and work groups can be powerful tools that can be done affordably. A hired facilitator can make your life easier, especially if you’re new, but building internal facilitation skills will help with future groups, informal conversations, staff meetings, and even planning your family vacation.
For more information, consider this book on Amazon. And Cobalt is available to assist you with any of your research data needs.
Cobalt is a national 501c3 nonprofit, non-partisan coalition that helps local governments, schools and membership organizations affordably engage communities through high-quality surveys, dynamic population segmentation, focus groups and work groups that use instant audience feedback technology. Cobalt combines big data with local insights to help you thrive as changes emerge in the economic, demographic and social landscape. Explore how we can help you by calling 877.888.0209, or by emailing [email protected].