Facilitation

Professional Facilitation

How many meetings, strategic planning sessions or work ‘retreats’ have been truly worthwhile and effective?  How many times have you looked at your calendar, seen the critical meeting scheduled, and thought to yourself, “Not another worthless meeting!”

Certainly there is a need for planning sessions and project management teams.  Businesses and organizations couldn’t function without the members of their work groups getting together to brainstorm, discuss, build consensus and plan.  The issue that we hear so often from clients is that these meetings are poorly run, ineffectual, very little is accomplished and there is a general feeling of boredom and resignation.

Our purpose as professional facilitators is to help your organization become betther through more effective communication and teamwork.  Successful meetings and planning sessions is a big part of that mission.

Our Facilitation Services:

Facilitated Session
Objective:  Our ultimate goal is to give you the tools necessary to run your meetings without us by experiencing the way the meetings are facilitated by us.  The main benefit of an outside facilitator is their ability to remain neutral, and to utilize proven techniques for keeping the team on target.

In order to be most effective as a facilitator, we employ a 6-step method:

• Initial Consultation – Clearly define the goals for your meeting.  During the consultation, we will suggest multiple facilitation techniques and help you to select the style that will lead to your desired outcome.

• Proposal – Definition of services will describe each step of the NEXTeams process and the proposed deliverables.  Any pre-work that seems useful will be itemized in this proposal.

• Pre-work – Any prerequisite work should be completed on your end and on our end, in order to ensure that we “hit the ground running” when it comes meeting time.  Pre-work might include interviews, type-indicator surveys, or questionnaire and results tabulation.

• Meeting Facilitation – During the ongoing facilitated sessions we will work closely with your planning team to perfect the process and improve the results.

• Facilitation Report – Within 72 hours of the facilitated session, we will prepare a report that includes a complete synopsis of the meeting.  Action steps, consensus items, and all future issues to be resolved are included in the report, along with general feedback on the participation, any barriers to effective teamwork, and suggestion for process improvement.

• Effectiveness Survey – Within 2 weeks of the facilitated session, we will check in to gauge the effectiveness of our facilitation.  We are looking for ways to improve our service to you, and any feedback is crucial to the success of this process.

Focus Groups
Objective:  Focus Groups are an excellent tool for defining barriers to success, brainstorming a new innovation, getting to the root of low morale, and more.  The Focus Group is compiled of members of multiple teams who come together in a trusting and open session in which they know that their opinions and ideas will be documented and given merit.  The key to the success of the focus group is the feeling of trust that they can be totally honest without negative repercussions.

• First Meeting – we will work with management to select the team that will define the discussion topics and questionnaires for your focus groups.  Together with your team, we will craft a list of open-ended questions for the focus groups.   The goal of the questions is to get and keep things moving – not to prompt the responses that we think the group should be giving (what we think are “the problems”).

• Second Meeting – Focus Group session.  Initially we will build trust between the members of the group through vulnerability-based trust building exercises.  Once the group is ready to work together and open to being honest with one another, we can begin the work of defining the problems and finding solutions to those problems.

• Facilitation Report – given to both the management team and the members of the focus group.  Making sure to keep the staff aware of the important part they play in this process is one of the keys to a successful outcome!

• Effectiveness Survey

360-degree Feedback:
Objective:  To quantify the current level of performance, morale, trust, etc. of the staff, management and upper management, based on feedback and self-evaluation from all groups.  Once this data is compiled, and improvement areas are identified, the management team can work in their focus groups to devise the action steps necessary for improving the low scores.

• First meeting – we will work with the management team to compile the initial questionnaire.  Following the meeting, we will make the questionnaire available online for participants to complete anonymously, but by a deadline.

• Report – when the deadline is reached, all online questionnaires will be tabulated and a report will be compiled.  The report will show areas that require attention, as well as those areas where the organization is doing well.

• Second Meeting – Discuss the 360-degree Feedback Report, devise action steps and strategies for improvement.

• Effectiveness Survey

Quarterly Re-Energizers – on-site or off-site – Adventure Challenge Rotational Team Building Event

Objective:  To revitalize the management and staff of your organization, while providing a place and a time to highlight the successes of individuals, teams, and the department as a whole.  This is not meant to be a venue for airing the team’s “issues” (although some issues may come out in the debriefs) but rather to give people a chance to enjoy problem-solving, communication enhancement and trust building exercises in a fun and relaxed environment.

For More Information Contact Eriq Powers

Eriq Powers
GO-NEXTeams
(240) 603-4150
info@nexteams.com
www.nexteams.com