Watering Holes

Watering Holes, if used appropriately, can be a powerful tool for building and testing ideas so they provide value for customers/clients.

But, like any powerful tool, if used inappropriately Watering Holes won’t do what they are designed to do, (and also run the risk of giving a useful technique bad press.)

So, to ensure that people who take part in Watering Holes are not wasting their time and resources, here is a reminder of the rules. None of the rules are optional. All of them need to be adhered to, for the process to truly build ideas of value for customers/clients.

A Watering Hole is: a place where people come together to build and test ideas within a formal structure.

When to use Watering Holes

To develop new ideas or business opportunities or to test an elevator pitch

To gather a range of perspectives from across teams (and if appropriate from partner organisations) for new or big initiatives

To explore ideas that might have the potential to be truly innovative – the ones that might break the mould.

How do Watering Holes improve an idea?

By having common objective criteria (NABC) which are applied to ideas/projects

By avoiding purely subjective criteria

By bringing together people with different skills and experiences, from across teams, to collaborate in the development of ideas.

The etiquette of a Watering Hole enforces constructive feedback

The Rules –not optional!

Presenting the idea at a Watering Hole

The framework for the presentation should embrace need, approach, benefits and competition.

You must have the following:

· A champion who owns the idea.

· A facilitator who runs the Watering Hole session

· A number (8 –12) of people who are chosen to bring a range of skills and experience to help build or test the idea.

Champion - The person who presents the idea to the group

· Must be passionate about the idea on a personal level

· Must be clear enough about the potential for the idea to make it useful to conduct the Watering Hole

· Must have plenty of back up from development team and its research resource

· Must be open minded, and able to cope with criticism and debate – understanding that ideas are brought to Watering Holes partly in order to find flaws in them and improve on weaknesses.

Facilitator - The person who runs the session

· Must be trained and skilled in running Watering Holes and knows the rules

· Able to facilitate – inject energy and purpose into the session, and not defer to rank

· Must command respect of senior people although does not need to be a senior member of staff

· Must possess firm but polite technique for enforcing protocols – especially keeping people to time!

· Must be able to ‘gently’ push the participants beyond initial thoughts

· Must be able to summarize the meeting and articulate the core issues that need to be addressed as a result of the Watering Hole

A Diverse Group of People to Discuss and Help Build the Idea

· Invite between 8 –12 people

· Make sure that you have included people with a wide range of experience, knowledge and skills

· Widen the group by including people outside your particular area or team

· Remember – A Watering Hole is an opportunity for people across teams to come together and build on an idea!

How does a Watering Hole work?

People who come to a Watering Hole are not invited as ‘Judges’ but as supporters and builders.

The facilitator introduces the champion, purpose and format.

There are different kinds of Watering Holes. Some are to gather a range of views on an early idea. These are usually looser than the more formal Watering Holes which are for testing ideas which have had considerable work done on them.

The facilitator will always split people into 2 groups, designating them as either green or red hats.

The champion presents their idea. Their presentation should be constructed in such a way that it addresses the key criteria (NABC). The pitch should take between 2- 5 minutes depending on its level of development. The less developed, the shorter should be the presentation.

Green Hats listen out for the positive aspects of the idea and identifies the specifics of what works and why.

Red Hats look at the shortcomings of the idea (what doesn’t work for them as far as delivering on the need, approach, benefits and competition) and suggest how it could work. The goal is to generate constructive ideas which could make it better – it is not to trash it.

The facilitator will then get the two groups to ‘swap’ hats, and encourage further considerations

At the end of the session, the champion should be offered an opportunity to respond.

The facilitator will summarize and articulate the core issues that need to be addressed as a result of the meeting. A plan of action should be decided. This might be to have a further Watering Hole to improve the idea even further.

Remember Watering Holes are an iterative improvement process. It is likely that ideas will need to be put through several Watering Holes over a period of weeks or months – with, of course, lots of development on the idea in between.