Virtual and In-Person Meeting Facilitation

We all know how important strategic planning is for ensuring all resources are aligned towards specific objectives. However, our experience tells us that most plans fall flat, due in part because leaders failed to engage key staff early enough in the process. So while we know that a strategic plan that is collaboratively developed is far more likely to be successfully executed, managing the group dynamics involved can be daunting. Facilitation First has refined a Collaborative Strategic Planning Process over the last twenty-five years resulting in a streamlined, efficient methodology that maximizes team engagement and alignment.

Team Alignment is a step-by-step process for aligning team members on purpose, objectives, roles, and communication both within and outside of the team. It’s also a process that generates invaluable trust and a lot of excitement about working together. Whether a new leader is being integrated into an existing (and perhaps under-producing) team or the team is newly formed, we can work with you to design a session that will accelerate the time needed to get the team achieving results.

You are a member of an Association who provides regulatory input to a government regulator. Or your organization is involved in the development of critical standards. If your Executive and/or Board has concluded that your current regulatory framework or standards are not working well, are outdated and/or require modification, we are here to help. At Facilitation First we have run multiple framework development workshops to assist stakeholders or members develop, refine and/or align on industry standards and regulatory compliance frameworks. Our past clients include those from the Nuclear, Oil and Gas, Sustainable Buildings and Health sectors.

Facilitation First is known for bringing hope to seemingly hopeless situations. If you have an upcoming critical decision-making meeting where you anticipate consensus will be difficult to achieve, we have proven approaches that include building buy-in and alignment before we even step into the meeting room. Our neutral, Master Facilitators can work with Executive team, Board, Committee or Stakeholder Group to achieve consensus in even the most challenging of circumstances.

It’s not atypical for committees to launch in an ad hoc manner, operating without a clear framework that identifies who the members are, their common purpose, what talent each member brings to the table, agreed to meeting and decision-making guidelines, clarity on common and/or personal objectives, etc. This can result in unproductive or dysfunctional committee meetings, impairing the advancement the committee’s mandate leaving members frustrated and disengaged.

Committee Launch^® is an effective process for Chairs or staff to use for facilitating committee members on defining their purpose, objectives, roles, and operating guidelines. It’s a process that generates invaluable trust and jump-starts higher productivity. This process can be used with a newly formed committee, when onboarding new members, or when there’s a change in mandate or assignment of a new project.

People are much more likely to buy into change if they have an opportunity to participate in the process. To effectively manage risk, especially when there is wide diversity of opinion, it is critical to engage key stakeholders at opportune times throughout major projects to ensure you are on track. Our facilitators will engage key stakeholders in the design process to ensure they are on track and begin building buy-in before the meeting begins. We then implement the agreed to process to maximize stakeholder engagement and intelligence.

You are testing out a new product, marketing campaign, process, service, etc. and you need to get input from your target audience to see if this new change is of value. Or perhaps you have assembled a group of experts to advise on key strategies. This may be your first time doing this or you might be looking for a neutral, third party objective review of the targeted audience’s response.

Facilitation First has the right facilitators to help you get the objective perspective you need. We will review your specific needs to determine what consultative feedback you require and develop a meeting design that will maximize your target group’s input and get you the data that you need to make the right decision(s).

There is nothing more frustrating than spending thousands of dollars and valuable time bringing a leadership team together for an off-site meeting and not achieving outcomes. A neutral professional facilitator can be the secret ingredient necessary to work through contentious issues or make hard decisions by challenging biases and assumptions and ensuring all voices are heard. Our highly experienced facilitators are able to help participants excel as a team to focus on the issues, build a common vision and commit to the actions that will bring that vision into reality.

You’ve been tasked to run a large group event and you need someone to help design the format, maximize engagement of all attendees, include and manage speakers, engage some team building, conduct collaborative exercises for brainstorming or feedback purposes, etc. – all within a given timeline, budget and some internal staff support. Your mandate is to create an impactful agenda that has to achieve specific outcomes and you’re realizing you need support to make this happen.

We will help you define and ratify the most important outcomes, and then design and lead a high engagement, impactful event. We can partner with great event planners, entertainment providers and other large event service providers to help achieve magic We can also work with internal teams of volunteers to ensure buy-in and build excitement for the event.

All organizations seek out fun events to build and/or celebrate teamwork. We provide fun, highly interactive events that also drive greater familiarity amongst members and have the opportunity to further build stronger bonds between members. Activities can range from being physically active to seated table work. We are also able to build in reflective work to help teams and/or individual members define areas for improvement based on the teaming experience. Events can last as long as one hour to one day, depending on your needs and desired outcomes.