Insights from a panel of moderators

Secrets of our success

At the annual conference of the Qualitative Research Consultants Association in San Diego in October, a group of seasoned moderators was asked to write comments on a variety of topics related to moderating. While every panelist did not comment on every topic area, the total of all the comments on all the topics totaled 42 pages! At the conference, additional questions were posed for a lively interactive session.

Below is an excerpt from Section A of the document on leading groups effectively. Panelists’ initials are shown in parentheses following their comments. Panel chair: Naomi Henderson (NH); panelists: Barbara Rosenthal (BR), Lynn Greenburg (LG), Suzette de Vogelaere (SDV), Chris Payne (CP), Pat Sabena (PS), Jean Bystedt (JB), Judith Langer (JL).

These comments are just a sample of the wealth of information from a panel of moderating pros. I was thrilled to be part of such a creative group.

--Naomi R. Henderson

Leading groups effectively

1. What are your tips for making every group a great group?

• Do everything I can to ensure my comfort: room temperature, room set-up, no distracting noises, good chair, no sun glare. (LG)
• Generate and transmit energy. Tell them with humor that this may be the most exciting evening, etc., of their lives. They know it’s not true but optimism infects and raises the group’s consciousness and rarely actually affects the genuineness of the responses. Recently an upscale woman said “I’ve been to these before but this was different. You did not BS us.” She was educated but emphatic! (CP)
• Listen carefully to what consumers are and ARE NOT saying with regard to addressing the relevant issues. (LG)
• I get twitchy about the term “great group.” A great group to me is one in which you get rich information because respondents feel secure enough to spill their guts. I do not necessarily define a great group as dynamic, fast-paced, lively, funny...entertaining to the client. It can be, but not necessarily. A great group can look dull, quiet, maybe even plodding. I believe that excellent listening and observation of the respondents (verbal, non-verbal, and non-vocal communication), skilled probing, a keen understanding of the subject matter, issues, objectives of the study, knowledge of and facility with group dynamics (norms, roles, interaction, leadership functions and styles) interpersonal communication skills, and sensitivity to people, are what moderators do to make a great group. Also, flexibility, maturity, and a sense of humor. These are not necessarily “tips,” they are core knowledge and skills. (BR)
• Being prepared, energized and totally present, with warmth, humor, eye contact, sincerity and totally focused attention. (PS)
• I believe that moderators should develop their own style, based on their personality and skill, and then flex their communication style to that of respondents. For example, I don’t have the personality to badger respondents, but other moderators may do that successfully. Knowledge of, and facility with, Myers-Briggs and NLP [neuro-linguistic programming] help a moderator to flex communication. (BR)
• Not every group is going to be a great group. Live with it. Things happen; handle them professionally. (BR)
• If I respect the respondents, the group is a “great group,” because they will be the way they are and then my only job is to listen to what they have to tell me and the clients in the areas of perception, opinions, beliefs and attitudes. (NH)
• NBF – be nice but firm. (JL)
• Have passion and joy for moderating. (BR)
• Make sure everyone participates and control unruly respondents (kick out if necessary). (LG)
• When I practice UPR [unconditional positive regard] the group tends to share more than top-of-mind answers. When I’m “congruent” - what I say and what I do are consistent - they tend to talk more freely and provide more details. (NH)

2. What are some easy techniques that help you quickly build rapport?

• I don’t think anything we do is easy. :-) (BR)
• One I learned from Naomi Henderson years ago: asking benign but surprising questions in the introductions, namely: first name, age, and the town where each respondent was born, giving myself as the first example. (PS)
• I use my killer smile and my friendly, winning personality. (BR)
• Welcome respondents as they are walking into the room with small talk, i.e., the weather, weekend activities. Avoid controversial issues, i.e., politics. (LG)
• HUMOR. I used to tell respondents that what they say is private to the study and I do not turn the tapes over to the Special Prosecutor, but that is getting old. (BR)
• Learn and remember names. Throw away the name cards in front of respondents if you dare. The use of a name flatters and confirms you are listening to them and they are not fodder. Get the name wrong, make mistakes and they will laugh with you. (CP)
• Have kids wave at the people behind the mirror and make faces. Tell adults that is what kids do, and invariably they do it, too. (BR)
• I am in the room when they come in. I start talking with them individually immediately. I don’t wait till they are assembled and then make an entrance. (BR)
• Making a 10-second eye contact “bond” with respondents early in the introductions, coupled with a short response to their self intros (e.g., respondent says: “I have three kids, all girls.” My response: “Do any of them have nicknames?”). (NH)
• I have teens introduce each other to the group with first name, age, school, and one surprising fact. If a group of any age looks mad or dead before I get started, I have them introduce each other, too. (PS)
• Have respondents use colored markers with fruit aromas to create their own place cards with the name they want to be called during the group. (BR)

3. How do you get a group back on focus when they have gone off on a tangent?

• I say, “Well that’s for another group, but now we need to focus more specifically on…” (PS)
• Depends on the tangent. If negative, draw a circle on your pad, write in the issue they are concerned about and underline it to show you have taken notice. Then say we have to move on but I’ve got this down. If positive but uninteresting, I tend to bring them back with humor. Or simply state the fact that we have to cover a number of things. (CP)
• I say, “This is interesting, now let’s get back on subject” and I ask the next question. (BR)
• This is a dicey area because some great data has come out of “tangential stories.” However, if the tangent is way off target then my usual technique is to ask: “Can you tell me how what you are saying relates to the question on the table?” If they cannot, then I thank them for their comments and restate the question for the room and ask others to respond. (NH)
• Tell participants they are getting off today’s topics and suggest they continue the conversation on their own after the group is over. (LG)

4. What techniques or interventions are your favorites for getting respondents to offer up more than top-of-mind answers?

• I don’t let respondents get away with anything. I grill them on their vocabulary, ask what they mean by what they are saying. (BR)
• Mindmapping and laddering often help me to go deeper initially. Psychodrawings, perceptual mapping, and collage are techniques I use frequently. Probes such as, “Tell us more about that,” “Go a little deeper on that,” and “Dig down deeper on that” help out later. (PS)
• Play on their sympathy by asking them to help me out to understand what they mean. (BR)
• I sometimes use a technique like “open frame” where I draw a box on the easel and lines radiating out from the box. In the box is a statement or a phrase (e.g., recycling effectively). I ask: “What does this term mean for you?” and either write on the lines or just point to them. Making the abstract more concrete via a visual often helps respondents access deeper levels of information. (NH)
• ASK: “Tell me about the last time you…” (LG)
• Probe, probe, probe with insightful, meaningful, relevant, spontaneous questions. Other effective probing techniques: silence, mirroring, active listening, paraphrasing, rephrasing, sentence completion. (BR)
• My favorite projectives (but not appropriate for all groups): picture sorts, drawings, trees (a form of laddering), music. (BR)
• “What do you imagine the creative/designer was trying to achieve?” “What do you imagine the person who had the idea, invented the product etc. is like?” This works well to tell you about whether they feel the product idea has relevance to their lives. “Draw the kinds of pictures you imagine would be in the TV or magazine advertising for this.” “Imagine you are meeting a friend for a drink or coffee after this group. How would you explain what we have shown you?” (CP)
• Simple projectives (e.g., “What would the people in your zip code think about this new recycling idea?”) is one way to get deeper data, shared pairs is another (work in teams of two for two minutes and create three or more new ways to recycle in your area). Another way is to ask them to act like a board of directors and to come up with 10 solutions in 10 minutes. (NH)

5. How do you manage the backroom when you are the one leading?

• Spend about 10 minutes before the group explaining the value of FGs and FG respondents, objectives of the study, how to observe a group, what they might expect. Explain that we learn a lot from respondents’ negative comments. Then hand out an “observational fact sheet.” (BR)
• Check with the backroom between groups or during a writing exercise to make sure the client is getting what he/she needs. (LG)
• Ask my colleague to take notes but listen for issues. Most of the time I ignore the backroom since my work should be front-focused and they will behave however they wish, no matter what I might desire. The only issue is that sometimes people will worry too much if consumers are critical. I like what you call ethnography, such as in-home focus groups (not in facilities) and in-store interviews where reality bites and you can feel the honesty and most CEOs or senior clients know the score. They can hear criticism of their product and not die. If they cannot, well… (CP)
• I ask the research director to be my conduit for notes from the back room and, if necessary, I go into the back room during a writing exercise. (PS)
• Providing the backroom with worksheets or tasks (e.g., putting Post-its on poster paper with the five key project issues listed one to a page on the backroom walls). I’ve also asked backroom members to listen for specific words or to make tallies of the number of times “X” or “Y” gets mentioned. (NH)
• Ask one client team member to be the client spokesperson and for all comments and/or requests to go through that person and out to the facility or the moderator. (NH)
• It is hard to handle the backroom when I’m not in it - and I know that the process of looking through the mirror is a form of sanctioned voyeurism for some clients. I understand the human nature process of putting someone down to make yourself feel more comfortable and I slip in some kind of comment in the briefing stage along these lines: “I really respect the people who are coming tonight. You couldn’t get me out for two hours and $50 to talk about trash…it should be interesting to hear their comments.” I know it won’t stop the process of putting others down, but I do know that they know I’m not going to join them in that process. (NH)
• Handling the backroom when you are videoconferencing can be a challenge. I recommend having one person in the backroom to handle the folks at home, but that is not always feasible. So you do what you have to do. I get myself back there two or three times during the group, while the group is doing some individual activity, e.g., during a picture sort or writing something. (BR)