03/18/2022
As the head of research and measurement for Crescenzo Communications, I’ve led hundreds (maybe thousands?) of employee focus groups, both virtual and in real life.
And while every group has its own personality and culture, they all have one thing in common: If you are not careful, they can go awry in a hurry. Namely, two things can happen:
1. Nobody talks in the beginning. They are nervous, or scared, or shy, or introverted, or angry, or suspicious. All kinds of reasons not to speak up!
2. One or two people won't stop talking. That’s as bad as nobody talking.
So I have developed a simple little trick that I use to start all my focus groups. I ask each person to take about 3-5 minutes to write down three words or phrases that come to mind when I say a specific topic. Some examples:
“In three words or phrases how would you describe how this company communicates to you?”
“What are your top three concerns and what are your top three positives you see with the recent merger?"
"What are three things you specifically do that directly contribute to the company mission?"
I then ask each participant to share what they wrote. This serves three purposes:
1. It draws out the wallflowers and gets them talking.
2. It keeps the talkers in check, because it gives you a reason to cut them off in order to get to everyone. (Gold!)
3. It gets people talking to each other. Invariably, people will start to weigh in on what other people said, and you can immediately start picking up trends.
Give it a try and let me know what you think! In the meantime, check out our new workshop on April 28th.
In three packed hours we focus on communication research strategies that work: from focus groups and executive interviews, to content analysis, and surveys.
Early Bird and discounted rates for groups of three or more as well as non-profits and government communicators are available! http://ow.ly/5CK850ImU5b
