When tech gets in the way of the process...back off!
In a recent focus group meeting I was helping to facilitate I was once again reminded of the importance of realizing when you're trying to force something that is getting in the way of the primary objective. Our negotiated contract with the client was to use the focus group to help construct a logic model that the agency could begin to use to focus themselves.
What rapidly became apparent was that there was little understanding or appetite in the group for building a logic model and the meeting had to shift to a new process--fast. The beauty was that the client loved it and the participants never noticed. Though they were initially sold on the the "logic model", the resulting process was organic and brought the group to a place beyond what people were expecting. We can build the logic model in the background based on the information we got, but we couldn't have gotten the level of information we needed had we tried to pound through the logic model as a group.
I'm as guilty as anyone for finding new technologies that have so much potential yet may not be the right thing at the right time. Forcing implementation under these circumstances is painful and frustrating for everyone. I find that, if I stay open from the start to the possibility that, no matter how cool the technology, if things start feeling "forced" I know it's time to back off. Just bust out the sticky notes, markers, white pads and start kickin' it old school until things are back on track.