Meeting Facilitation
Why do organizations seek outside facilitation? There are a myriad of responses to this question ranging from resolving issues, solving problems, developing strategy, and applying learnings. WJM’s Results Oriented Meeting Facilitation is a highly structured process in which the facilitator guides the participants through a series of predefined steps to arrive at a result that is created, understood, and accepted by all participants. Results Oriented Meeting Facilitation has become increasingly important to assist groups to align, reach consensus, and move forward.
WJM’s Results Oriented Meeting Facilitation approach focuses on managing the agenda as well as creating the strategy to implement objectives. Our approach is focused and creates fast and lasting results. WJM’s trained meeting facilitators can assist your team/organization on such diverse topics as value proposition, impact, vision and mission, solving problems, debriefing major projects, changing leadership, change in scope of business, change in pricing, and strategic planning, among other issues.
An effective meeting is one where the facilitator guides discussion by asking the “right” questions, defines expected roles/accountability of the participants and ends with commitments that are acted upon once the meeting adjourns. WJM’s Results Oriented Meeting Facilitation is more than just note taking. Our trained facilitators assist team members, as well as senior leaders, to share information and discuss and solve ongoing business challenges.
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In this step, WJM meets with the client to establish meeting expectations, define desired outcomes, determine accountabilities, and set the stage for post-meeting action planning. Specifically, we will gain an understanding of the team’s working norms, roles of key participants, organizational culture, business issues, proposed outcomes, logistics and appropriate pacing. Expectations will be set with the participants prior to the meeting to enable active participation. Materials to be shared in advance of meeting will be reviewed, and may include surveys, questionnaires, and/or relevant pre-readings. Often, WJM recommends meeting with or interviewing key stakeholders on an individual basis prior to the session to determine team perspectives, key points to cover during the meeting and current realities. This insight can be useful in igniting powerful discussion right at the start of the meeting. |
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The key to effective meeting facilitation is to inform, excite, empower and involve participants; establish the course and avoid detours; gather information; manage group dynamics; stay focused and well paced; and provide feedback. The job of the facilitator is to support and challenge the participants to do their best thinking and inject, when appropriate, knowledge from the field or industry. WJM’s facilitators are trained to ask questions, not give solutions. During the meeting, issues will be explored, solutions developed, value proposed, accountabilities determined, and roles clarified. WJM will assist participants to collaboratively develop a plan to implement solutions generated at the meeting. At the end of the meeting, WJM will provide a summary of key results to share with all participants. If so desired, WJM can facilitate a feedback session of the results. |
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WJM will work with the group to determine how the team will track progress, determine key milestones, recognize achievements, and hold one another accountable. We will also ask participants to complete a meeting evaluation form to determine meeting effectiveness. |
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WJM will debrief senior management of meeting outcomes and develop a game plan to leverage the momentum gained from the meeting. We can also provide 1:1 coaching with leaders to sustain success. |