[Trigger ②] YouTube Interview

There were two major triggers for my interest in TV Asahi announcer Naoyuki Hiraishi, and the first one is as I wrote previously.

The other one is a YouTube interview. Having been greatly shocked by Sunday LIVE and the emergency response to the earthquake and tsunami I happened to see on it, I quickly arrived at information about 'AbemaPrime' and 'Super Facilitation Skills,' but I didn't know how to watch AbemaPrime and I don't have the book on hand right now.

So, when I searched for Hiraishi-san on YouTube, many interview videos and past episodes of AbemaPrime came up.

I don't know why it was recommended, but the interview displayed at the top was this one. It's 52 minutes long, but I watched it all at once and was struck like a bolt of lightning⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️😱😱😱😱😱

Published March 4, 2022

・Opening
・Thoughts on the 3rd printing decision and winning the Business Book Grand Prix
・Readership
・In what situations do you want this book to be useful?
・What is good facilitation?
・Thinking about facilitation
・What triggered you to start facilitating?
・Can facilitation be learned after the fact?
・The importance of preparation
・Minimum preparation required
・How to acquire summarization skills
・Stories of facilitation failures
・The importance of connecting to the next step
・How to face participants and yourself
・Psychological safety
・What you want to convey through this book

The chapters follow this flow, but what was it about the discussions happening in AbemaPrime that shocked me so much, even though I didn't know what AbemaPrime was?

It is a wonderful piece due to the synergy with the questions and elicitation skills of the interviewer, Professor Hayashi from Globis Management School (who is also in charge of the Facilitation & Negotiation course), but when I unravel the reasons why I was shocked, there were two axes.

◾︎Self-derived (scrolling recommended)

・Having experienced a position of managing people at a single store for a certain period when I was young

・Having explored how to interact with people at work (superiors, subordinates, part-timers, temporary staff)

・Thinking I was good at communication, but feeling that there was a different form aligned with the goals of team improvement and work results than what I knew

・Having developed a pattern of my own while repeating successes and failures and thinking through things as I gained experience

・Transferring from the store to headquarters and participating in meetings more often

・The pain, dissatisfaction, sense of stagnation, low productivity, and sycophancy I felt in meetings

・The thought that things would be better if done this way, and the wall of reality

・Things I was questioning

・Things I wanted to know

・Things I felt were valuable

・But things that had been flowing away because I didn't have time

・Starting to wonder if it was okay to keep repeating the same things as before

・Being somewhat tired from work and home life, and so on

◾︎Hiraishi-san derived

・The concept of facilitation

・It was the answer to my own questions

・Skills honed and derived through experience

・The importance placed not just on skills, but on connecting people and the richness of the content

・A message saying, I want you to use these as skills separate from me

・The way they talk about their work with sparkling eyes and vitality

・The passion and sincerity toward their work

・The attitude toward facing work

・Words that have a core

・Messages, expressions, and gestures that make you look forward

Honestly, this brought me to tears; I felt I had met the person I was meant to meet, and I sensed within myself that this was not just a fleeting consumption.

I usually find it hard to feel value in things unless they are within a very narrow range—like whether something is fact or opinion (Hiroyuki? 😇), or if the structure is neatly organized—and even when I do feel value, my emotions are rarely moved. Yet, I was moved from the bottom of my heart, felt empathy and resonance, and was grateful for Mr. Hiraishi's existence.

Even though they were a stranger until just a moment ago ←

These are the two major foundational experiences that sparked my interest in Mr. Hiraishi.

There are many other treasure-trove interviews with content that is too dense. While each is universal, the parts that are dug deep into differ depending on the interviewer. For example, even when talking about the same 'summarization,' different metaphorical expressions appear, which increases the resolution of the topic. I never get tired of listening; in fact, I discover new important points every time, so I would like to add more as I go.

This is where the main topic begins!! The preamble was long!

I will list my personal highlights from the video I introduced this time. I really want you to watch the original video. Is this more of a transcript than highlights?

*I am watching a 2022 interview in 2023. These are statements from that time and my impressions.

(Repost)

1. About the Facilitator/Program

・People tend to focus on the content of the discussion, but there are 'ways and etiquette of discussion', which are necessary skills for any place where three or more people gather, not just in business
・It's fine for a leader to do it, or not; if there is a mood maker, you can leave it to them
・The leader should declare who is in charge of what and what the roles are so that everyone understands
・It is important to make people think, 'I want to come back to this place again', not just for the program
・Nothing significant is born when only similar people gather. Including diverse values by gathering heterogeneous people is also one of the program's concepts

2. Ensuring Psychological Safety

・Declare in advance that you will ask for their opinion later
・Lower the hurdle by saying questions are also welcome
・Introduce third-party opinions to make it easier to speak
・While letting them say what they want, pick up on the positive

3. Trigger

・Besides studio work, I had many interviews. Managing press conferences and government communications is also crucial. Poor management can sometimes damage a company's image, and that comes down to how things are perceived.
・I am not naturally a manager of people, so because it's me, I am able to put into practice on the show the things I thought, this situation isn't being managed well or this would work better if done this way.

4. Preparation is 90% ※Most important part

・Your own confidence during the actual event. If you ask, can you say you will do it with responsibility? The answer is nothing but preparation.
・Once the event starts, discard everything and focus on listening. Even subconsciously, assume you understand that person to this extent. Preparation to discard everything and listen desperately during the event.
・Proceeding exactly as prepared is just a predictable routine. It is wrong to just check off items from top to bottom as you prepared them. Accept what the other person wants to say and good things will be born from the chemical reaction.
・If you prepare thoroughly, it will be conveyed to the other party
・Theme and person, preparation for both sides is important. To get back on track when things drift, you need to grasp the points of discussion. If you do that without enough preparation, the axis might be off. After obtaining a lot of information and deciding that, while there are many things, this is definitely the essence that needs to be known, before the event, repeatedly drill the points of discussion into yourself.
・Preparation is working backward from the time available until the event. When there is information from 1 to 10, I might go for the conclusion first and acquire 10, 1, 3, and 7. If they have books, I look at their representative work, latest work, and works that had pros and cons. If it's YouTube, I start from the ones with the most views. Efficiency increases by clearing items with high priority and making choices.
・I make a list of questions and throw out the first one, but after that, I react to what they return. I can understand what their interests are today. In that sense, a facilitator is passive. Preparation is to commit to that.

5. Listening skills / Summarizing

・Aim for the center pin without missing the core. It's useless to hit the gutter or just the pins on the edge. But sometimes you keep throwing there just because it feels interesting. What the other person wants to say, and what we really want to hear, this alignment is what is important.
・In reporting, I trained extensively to summarize extremely important information from a large amount of data into about one minute. A general tip for summarizing is keywords. Listen with the feeling of not missing keywords, or creating them if they don't exist. If you couldn't pick up all the positive points, dig deeper with follow-up questions.
・I want to develop this in a positive direction is an important thought. That attitude is conveyed to the other party. Even if they act cold, I show full goodwill from my side. That comes before technique. When saying That's exactly right, you must truly mean it. Otherwise, it won't resonate and it is rude to the other person
.

6. Failure stories

・When I try to lean toward the weaker side to help, I sometimes get told in the comments that I'm wrong and shouldn't lean that way. I think about the whole picture to ensure there are no losers, and even if I discard what I've prepared to listen to the other person and proceed according to my own beliefs, there are times when I wonder if I might have been wrong.
・There are times when I have to say that although I studied as hard as I could within the allotted time,it was clearly insufficient or off the mark. Sometimes I intervene where I don't need to and get told I'm being a nuisance. These things can happen. To ensure this doesn't happen to you, pleaseprepare as much as you can.
・If it's off the mark based on the viewers rather than just self-satisfaction, I correct the course. It's not simply aboutleaning toward the majority, but rather questioning if that is truly okay—that is something I am very conscious of in my own way.

7. The importance of connecting to what comes next

・I want to increase the number of fans of the program one by one. Being criticized for intentionally taking an opposing stance is within expectations.
・Connecting the dots to form a line. If a conclusion could be reached, it would have been finished long ago. We cover these topics precisely because there is no conclusion. Even if we can't force a conclusion, we care for those who may have been spoken to too harshly and say,please come back again, connecting to the next time.

8. Business scene

・It is important to commit to decision-making. If there are Plan A and Plan B, it would be nice if there were a Plan C in between, but usually, it's either A or B. If everyone doesn't move forward with the decided path, the organization won't function. Rather than feeling like it was decided arbitrarily,the sense of conviction changes when you commit to the decision-making process.
・When you are carrying the weight of an organization, you tend to come on stronger.Connecting peopleis something I am conscious of, and if things get too intense, I step in to act as a cushion. Sometimes people end up being able to contact each other after it's over. Because they don't intend to stay in touch, they badmouth each other's organizations, saying there's no place worse, and go at it hard, but that is rude to begin with.Once a pipeline is established, the way of speaking changes the next time..

9. Passion

・Clashing isn't necessarily a bad thing. If you only say what you've prepared, text would suffice. It's also because it's a program, so a sense of entertainment is important.Is it interesting? Is there passion in the room? Is there a compelling comfort that makes it hard to look away? Is it worth watching?
・The guests have prepared to some extent. But when they are challenged and retort, their true feelings come out. That is what I am watching, and it is television and video after all.

10. Psychological safety and neutrality

・Laying the groundworkis important. It's better to have a relationship between the facilitator and the individual, and I show goodwill myself.
・The facilitator must befair and positive. No right, left, or specific faction. The moment you become a certain faction, there is no psychological safety for the other side, and they feel they can't speak here.
・The facilitator has their own department or background, but are they fair and positive toward everyone? Is that stance visible? You can't be seen through colored glasses.

11. The existence of a facilitator

・Deciding who to entrust as a facilitator is one of the important decisions for an organization.
・First, start by recognizing that the existence of a facilitator is important.
・Going too far into technique is a no-go. To have a deep conversation rather than a superficial one, the facilitator is the one whoquickly leadseveryone there.To avoid ending up with superficial discussions, the facilitator needs to know about the deep aspects..

12. In closing

・I've been making programs for over 20 years, but for a program, the broadcast is the end. However, a book is different. It only gains meaning when it is picked up, delivered, and read. If it's a book I've poured my heart and soul into, rather than mass-producing it, I first want it to reach people.
・A place where people gather is the pinnacle of human relationships.It becomes a more enjoyable and meaningful place.

13. My thoughts 🥲

Just looking back at this is heart-stirring 😂 😂. It is an interview packed with the secrets of a facilitator, consideration for others, and an attitude toward work.

It's so unreserved that I wonder, is it okay to peek this much? Are you revealing the entire content of the book? 🤣 🤣 (Is this a common occurrence in Mr. Hiraishi's interviews? 😇 😇 😇)

I have bolded the parts that were new discoveries, as well as the perspectives and keywords that struck a chord, based on my own judgment and bias.Compared to the current Mr. Hiraishi, the speaking speed and facial expressions have a slightly different atmosphere, but I feel that the content of the interviews, which he has responded to many times while continuing to evolve, is universal.

When I listened again to this interview, which was my first encounter with him and one I've lost count of how many times I've heard it,strangely, there were new discoveries and emotions.I believe the reason I listen repeatedly, even though I know what he says and how he says it, is because of this.

And by the time that happens, I often find that it has strangely sunk in. Understanding does not equal being able to do it, and I definitely cannot say I have completely understood it, but watching Mr. Hiraishi'sBook × Interview × Practicein my head, I have an image ofconnecting the information presented in the formula.

I am still grateful for this YouTube video, which showed me such useful and concrete content, ways of thinking, attitudes toward work, and a lively, positive figure!