Successful organizations bring people together to collaborate and apply their diverse range of skills to achieve the organization's goals. Groups come together outside of the day-to-day work environment to plan strategies, address issues, and define how they will achieve specific outcomes.
Examples of these groups are:
- Leadership teams
- Organizational units and workgroups
- Committees and task forces
- Customer and other stakeholder groups
The Results Group brings over 25 years of experience facilitating meetings. We have designed and facilitated retreats, work team sessions, leadership development conferences, and public participation events. We provide a full range of facilitation services to our clients including team building, graphic recording, strategic thinking and stakeholder workshops.
Our approach to facilitation is unique. It incorporates four elements that are essential to having a successful event - one that not only engages the participants fully and productively, but also has a lasting impact on the organization when the participants go back to their workday environment.
Partnership
Our expert facilitators are more than just moderators or timekeepers. As facilitators we serve as the catalyst that will move the conversation forward to address the issues and achieve the objectives of the event. We approach that role by first developing a trusting partnership with our clients.
Preparation
Good preparation includes setting forth clear objectives and outcomes, developing a draft agenda, and establishing realistic time frames for the discussion. Preparation also includes working with the leader or team that is planning the event to ensure that the right information will be provided to participants, that the discussion is properly framed and guided by "focus questions," and that the agenda will accomplish the desired outcomes. The consultant may hold brief meetings beforehand with some of the participants to ensure that the agenda addresses participants' current level of understanding of the topics to be discussed as well as their concerns and perspectives.
Experience
Like the conductor of a high quality orchestra, skilled facilitators don't participate in or dominate the discussion, but rather guide the meeting in a manner that engages and brings the best out of every participant. In our experience, participants rate their facilitators as excellent when an event has not only achieved the desired objectives, but they also had a good time and felt that their participation made a meaningful contribution to the success of the event.
Follow-up
For the meeting to be truly successful, there must be follow-up to document the key ideas generated in discussion and to ensure that the course of action agreed upon at the meeting will be implemented. The Results Group provides its clients with a timely written summary of the meeting, highlighting key decisions and the follow-up action plans where appropriate. In some cases, we conduct a three or six month follow-up session to assess progress and help the organization make course corrections as implementation proceeds forward.
For more information, see facilitation article titled "Nice to See You! Getting the Best Results from Leadership Retreats and Planning Meetings in the Age of Electronic Communication."