3rd Party Facilitation Services

Third party meeting facilitation can add significant value to an organization by providing a non-threatening method of keeping agendas and action items on track while adding an alternate perspective.

Our facilitation solutions fall into three general categories (1) Annual Performance Program, (2) Weekly Phone Counseling, (3) Specific Purpose Meetings.

Effective Meetings - Process Overview

• Background & Context: There is no way to facilitate an effective meeting without having a solid understanding of the organization. As with other services this background information is provided through the RCCA.
• Objectives & Challenges: The next step is to clearly define the outcomes desired. These outcomes should be focused and measurable. Along with this we will work to define the key challenges that will be faced in meeting these objectives. This stage will deliver a clear, written plan which everyone can agree to.
• Agenda & Content: We will develop the meeting agenda, content and activities that will lead the participants through the process to achieve the objectives outlined. The agenda and content will be reviewed with you beforehand and the challenges will be reviewed to make sure that the objectives are achieved.
• Meeting Facilitation: As a third party facilitator we will lead the meeting participants through the agenda, content and activities toward the objectives dealing with the challenges along the way.
• Notes & Action Items: The output of the meeting will likely fall into two categories. One will be group consensus around a specific, written goal, strategy, mission statement, vision, etc. The second will be a detailed list of action items outlining who is responsible and when it is due. This list developed as a group around a commonly agreed upon objective is a very powerful way to move the organization forward.
• Follow-Up: Depending on the meeting this can be done in a variety of ways including phone, e-mail, follow-up meetings or a custom client intranet site.  The method used will depend on the needs of your organization. The important thing is not the follow-up method used but just simply following up.

Annual Performance Program

This is the most effective way to get and keep your organization running smoothly. It is a key part of the CCD Program but can be used as a stand-alone program based on the RCCA and the establishment of 10-12 key objectives you would like your organization to meet over the next year.

We will work with you to clearly define these objectives and then prioritize them so that they can be focused on effectively with only 1 or 2 brought up per meeting. A framework for 6-12 meetings will be developed depending on the objectives and challenges. Along with these meetings a follow-up process will be developed the fits the needs of each organization and the way they prefer to work.

If an organization is growing and has never had the need for regular structured meetings before this can be a very effective way to get the organization on track. After a year or so our involvement can be tapered off using the Weekly Phone Counseling which will help utilize internal resources to keep your organization moving forward.

Weekly Phone Counseling

Organizations rarely lack enough good ideas to keep them moving forward. A growing organization usually lacks focus because the owners and senior managers are running so quickly to keep the business moving forward that people get mixed signals, they feel like goals and ideas are changing weekly and they don't always understand what they are being asked to do.

The key to controlling growth so that it is done profitably while maintaining a good culture is to align people's interests around some common goals and then work systematically towards achieving them one step at a time.

While this sounds simple in theory; in reality it is very difficult because the owner and senior managers usually have minds that are racing at 100 mph. They are thinking about where the business needs to be in 10 years and all the steps in between; all at once. They may have a touch of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) which I personally don't believe they should label as a disorder but in any case executive minds tend to wander rapidly around industries, past, present, future and twenty other things all at once.

We have designed this solution to help you harness your ideas and communicate them effectively to your organization. This will improve your ability to follow-up and will help keep your organization focused while giving you an outlet to brainstorm. We setup a scheduled phone conversation on a weekly or bi-weekly basis where we can brainstorm with you on ideas, discuss problems and challenges going on in your business, discuss what is reasonable to achieve and how that breaks down into the following week, month and quarter.

We then help you focus on those key things and setup the meetings and communication systems within your organization. Every call will follow-up on how things went since the last conversation, what can be done the following period to improve those results and then an open period of general discussion.

Specific Purpose Meetings

There are many possibilities for specific purpose meetings. These each have a specific objective and follow the same basic process. Some ideas for specific purpose meetings are outlined below:

• Processes Improvement: Work together as a team to streamline a process within your organization or even a multi-organization process like purchasing, design or billing.
• Project Management Planning: Get your whole project team together for a series of workshops to develop a project planning outline that can be followed for every project to improve quality, lower costs and minimize problems.
• Strategic & Business Planning: Help align your whole team and generate a written plan document that everyone buys into..
• Marketing: What opportunities are you missing in the market place? How will you take advantage of these in the future? These are questions that are always on your mind but getting everyone focused in the same direction is crucial for success.
• Measurements: They say that what gets measured gets managed. This is very true and the really great part is that most people actually want to have these measurements in place. Getting everyone together and looking at the key 3-4 measurements for each area of your company that can help drive performance can have fantastic effects on productivity and morale.

Client Intranet

Staying on track with the various programs, projects and other action items you are undertaking to get your company on a profitable growth curve is a difficult task. Depending on needs we will setup a client intranet site for your company to consolidate all the information and automatically notify key personnel of completed, pending, and missed action items. Click on the picture below for a larger sample.