Death by PowerPoint

Last updated:31 March 2010

Jessica Crowe
Executive Director
Centre for Public Scrutiny

Most of us have probably been to events where we have suffered ‘death by PowerPoint’ or have felt frustrated that we have questions or ideas we want to share but we haven’t had the opportunity to voice them. The Scrutiny Café is a way to overcome these traditional problems in holding a different kind of event that seeks to put attendees in the driving seat to shape the programme and discussion. It can be a great way to inject some life into your work-planning process and re-energise members, officers and partners alike about the potential contributions scrutiny can make to their work for the year ahead.

How does the Scrutiny Café work?

Based on a model used widely in business and the public sector called the World Café, delegates sit in a café style atmosphere around tables with coffee and tea supplied. A very brief presentation can be used to kick the session off setting the scene and explaining how the Scrutiny Café will work.

Before the event, you will need to have developed some key questions for attendees to answer – forming the ‘courses’ or menu choices that they will work through on the day. Scrutiny Cafés can be used for events of a dozen up to several hundred and can take a day or just an evening, depending on how many ‘courses’ you have to get through.

Each table needs to have a host who remains at the table whilst the rest of the delegates move to a new table after 15 minutes or so of conversation. People move around as they want, ensuring that they mix with a range of other delegates and share their thoughts widely. The table host helps to provide some continuity and structure to the conversations, advising the next set of delegates of what their predecessors had come up with.

Delegates are encouraged to work informally and creatively, writing notes and even drawing pictures on the paper tablecloths to leave a record of their discussions for the next group.

By allowing attendees to determine, to some extent, the direction of their own discussion the Scrutiny Café is an ideal way to hold a brainstorming session with a wide range of partners to help develop overview and scrutiny’s work programme for the coming year. It also provides plenty of informal networking opportunities to build or strengthen relationships.

During the first part of the Scrutiny Café delegates will consider the questions posed on the Scrutiny Café menu and share their ideas and then after a break the discussion will be drawn to a close and delegates will get a chance to assess the fruits of the first session’s work. Ideas will be presented and debated collectively. Because this learning technique is based on delegates being relaxed in an informal setting, and because they have been sharing and building upon each other’s ideas during the day, there will be less of the awkward ‘what was your idea?’ questions and certainly no need for ‘death by feedback’ at the end of the day.

By noting down ideas during the first session there will be visual evidence of the thoughts generated.

Viewing this collectively can be an impressive and inspiring way of getting to grips with new thoughts and suggestions.

How have Scrutiny Cafés been used elsewhere?

CfPS has run a Scrutiny Café session at its annual conference for the past few of years.  They have consistently been one of the most popular sessions amongst conference delegates, because of the opportunities they offer to hear and learn from others. CfPS has also used the Scrutiny Café technique in a range of other pieces of work, for example working with members and officers from the Cornwall councils in the run up to the move to unitary status to ask them how scrutiny in the new Cornwall Council could be different. A sample of the menu used in the Cornwall Scrutiny Café can be found here.

Although there can be scepticism at the start, particularly from those who are less comfortable with non-traditional meeting formats, with a bit of good humour, people are usually won over by the end of the session, realising that they can actually get a great deal out of working in this more informal and free-flowing way.

Top three tips for a successful Scrutiny Café:

• Agree on a few clear and simple questions in advance – go for open questions that encourage people to share experiences and ideas and don’t be too prescriptive.
• Put some thought into the venue – creating a relaxed and ‘café-style’ atmosphere is an important part of the technique. Maybe some music to welcome delegates to the Café, some flowers and gingham table cloths (under the paper ones for writing on), either plenty of natural light, or lighting that makes the room seem cosy and welcoming – all these can contribute to the idea that this is a different sort of event, and needn’t be too expensive.
• Ensure follow-up. As with all such events, the Scrutiny Café will not in itself lead to change – the ideas generated must be collated, followed-up and turned into actions, or the energy created by working in this different way will be lost.

Good luck, and if you try a Scrutiny Café, please let CfPS know how it worked for you as we will be putting together some guidance and an event on scrutiny work programming later in the year.

CfPS will be running its own scrutiny café at the Member Development Day at CfPS 2010 on 1 July.  Click here for more information on the programme.

31 March 2010