Virtual Nine Whys Facilitation Guide

Power Start

Purpose	Clarify what is important in the work.
What is the desired Outcome?	For the group to walk away with understanding and a shared purpose.
What is your intent with this item?	Create a space for the group to gain clarity, ask questions, and challenge each other.
When to use this?	When a group is lacking purpose in their work and when it stands in the way of innovation.
Who should be involved?	A facilitator and the persons involved in the work.
Meeting Questions	Why are we here? & What are we doing? What is the work we're discussing today? What do you do when working on ________? & Why is that important to you? What did you come up with? How do our purposes influence the next steps we take?

Facilitation Guide

Time	Agenda Item	Going For	Process Activity/Instructions	Prep/Materials	Output/Comments
5 mins	Why are we here? & What are we doing?	Reminding everyone why we're here and sharing the direction of the session.	Radiate purpose and agenda	Make sure you've sent out the meeting invite ahead of time with the purpose of the session and the questions for the meeting.
5 mins	What is the work we're discussing today?	Giving context for the discussion	Share the context or have the people involved share about the situation or the work.	Make sure you've outlined some of this in the meeting invite so the group is able to spend some time reflecting on this ahead of time if they'd like.
10 mins	What do you do when working on _____? & Why is that important to you?	Centering the group on the topic you want to gain clarity on and continuing to push the group to go deeper on the purpose of this work until they cannot uncover more.	Send the group to breakout rooms in pairs and have them come up with a list of activities. In the breakout, the pair interviews each other to uncover the scope of the topic using the first question, "what do you do when working on _____?" Then they move on to "why is that important to you?" The interviewer continues to ask "why?" until there are no more answers or time is up. After five mins, the interviewer and interviewee switch roles.		If someone gets stuck, ask "doe a story come to mind?"
5 mins	What did you come up with?	Having the group share insights and continue to build understanding.	Send groups of four (keeping the pairs from the first breakouts together) to breakout rooms. Each pair shares their experiences and insights from the first breakout room with each other.
15 mins	What did you come up with?	Having the group share insights and continue to build understanding.	Everyone comes back to the main session and shares their experiences and insights with the group.
10 mins	How do our purposes influence the next steps we take?	Getting ideas and buy-in from the group on next steps.	Pose the question to the group and document any action items, who is responsible, and when we can check in on them next.

Output from Dojo on 2/23/23

Explain that XYZ happened and give context

Setup Teams Meeting

Send out invite with Purpose

Once the meeting has started:

• Explain Nine Whys
• Be explicit about the first question
• Define the topic with the group
• XYZ happened and now we're explaining it
• Write any insights on a whiteboard
• Questions?

Send everyone to breakout rooms of two people to share insights. Have a whiteboard available to share those insights. While people are in breakout rooms, send messages with helpful tips and reminders on time i.e. switch partners halfway through and 2 minutes before breakout rooms end.

Send everyone to breakout rooms of four to have the partners share with another group what they discussed.

Group Discussion.

Walk away with one purpose.