Author: Michael Wilkinson

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Knowing What to Record – Because Minutes are Not Minute

A-person-inputing-records

How perfect is your memory? When you leave a group meeting, do you walk away remembering everything discussed and decided? If not, keep that pen and pad with you. And, if you’re the one facilitating meetings, it’s especially important for you to record the results of the meeting to keep the group’s commitment and follow-through. Meeting notes are more important than you think, and in fact, looking beyond just meeting minutes, facilitators need to be responsible for the meeting documentation. The documentation from a facilitated session serves as the official record of the results of the meeting. So, how do you know what to record?

At Leadership Strategies, we believe that it is the responsibility of the facilitator to ensure that participants agree with the documentation of the session before the session ends. We accomplish this by getting agreement from the participants that the information recorded by the facilitator during the session represents the official record of the session. In this way, the participants tend to pay closer attention to ensuring that all key information gets recorded during the session. After the session, the facilitator has the notes transcribed, edited and distributed to all participants.

What should be documented in a session? We believe that it is important to document four items in particular:

1. Decisions made during the session

As described in “The Secrets of Starting” chapter in my book, The Secrets of Facilitation, it is important to have a parking board for documenting decisions that are made during the session. Anytime the group reaches a decision, the facilitator should note to the group that a decision has been made and record the decision on the decisions list.

2. Actions assigned during the session

Likewise, anytime the group identifies an action that needs to be taken after the session, the facilitator should note to the group that an action has been identified and record the action on the actions list. Near the end of the session, the facilitator should ask the group to identify the person who should be responsible for making sure each action occurs and the date by when the action is needed.

3. Outstanding issues as a result of the session

In addition to decisions and actions, the facilitator must also be alert to identify times when participants are discussing issues that are outside the scope of the meeting or the current discussion. The facilitator should point out to the group that the issue is something that may be important to discuss but is off focus from the current topic. The facilitator should get agreement from the participant(s) to record the issue on the issues list and then redirect the conversation back to the topic at hand. When the facilitator reviews the issues list at the end of the session, all issues will either be resolved or moved to the action list. Technically, therefore, there will be no outstanding issues to document in the session notes.

4. Relevant analysis and comments made during the session

As the participants progress through the agenda, the facilitator will record comments that are made that pertain to the topic under discussion. Note that with facilitated sessions, the goal is for the group to have ownership of the decisions, issues, actions and analysis. Therefore, it is important NOT to identify in the documentation who made a specific comment.

The final documentation will also include notes added by the facilitator to add clarity or build context for the reader. Consider putting notes added by the facilitator in italics to differentiate these notes from information provided by the participants. So, fellow facilitators, what else do you think is important to record?

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Certified Master Facilitator Michael Wilkinson is the CEO and Managing Director of Leadership Strategies, Inc., The Facilitation Company and author of the new The Secrets of Facilitation 2nd Edition, The Secrets to Masterful Meetings, and The Executive Guide to Facilitating Strategy. Leadership Strategies is a global leader in facilitation services, providing companies with dynamic professional facilitators who lead executive teams and task forces in areas like strategic planning, issue resolution, process improvement and others. The company is also a leading provider of facilitation training in the United States.

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Group Warm-Ups: Ways to Avoid the Demoralizing Silence

Male-speaker-talking-to-an-audience-in-a-meeting

In a meeting or facilitated session, it is typical for participants to be initially reserved and very willing to allow others to speak first. As a result, it is not unusual for the first question that the facilitator asks to be met with complete and utter silence! This can be demoralizing for a facilitator, especially when it occurs at the beginning of a session – that time when you are hoping for high energy and great interaction. A great technique for maintaining focus within a group – in addition to the checkpoint you read about in my earlier blog – is warming up the group.

The Secret to Warming Up a Group

Ask two questions that require a non-verbal response.

To avoid getting silence when asking your first question, warm-up the group by first asking at least two questions that require a non-verbal response.

The key to the warm-up technique is to ask at least two questions that require a non-verbal response. Since the pre-questions you ask should lead up to your primary question, you should plan these pre-questions carefully.

Sample: Warming Up a Group

In this sample, the facilitator’s primary question is: “What are the benefits of planning?” Note the questions the facilitator asks and the actions the facilitator takes before asking the primary question.

Facilitator How many people here have been involved with a project that wasn’t well planned from the beginning?
(Raise your own hand.)

Facilitator It was somewhat difficult, wasn’t it?
(Nod your head.)

Facilitator You may have had problems such as a lack of understanding of the purpose, people unclear of roles, lack of commitment to action and so on. So there are some real benefits to planning, aren’t there?
(Nod your head.)

Facilitator Let’s name a few. What are the benefits of planning? Who can tell me one?
(Raise your own hand. Call on someone whose hand also goes up.)

The Finer Points of Warming Up a Group

The warm-up technique is effective in getting people responding to you, first non-verbally, then verbally. By twice getting the participants to nod their heads or raise their hands, you have greatly increased the likelihood that, when you ask that first question and raise your hand, one or more people will raise their hands to offer a response.

The timing of your gestures is important in the warm-up. You should raise your hand or nod your head while you are asking the question. This way, the participants will know what action you want them to take before you finish asking the question, and they can begin responding right away.

What are some other techniques you use to keep a group focused in a meeting?

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Certified Master Facilitator Michael Wilkinson is the CEO and Managing Director of Leadership Strategies, Inc., The Facilitation Company and author of the new The Secrets of Facilitation 2nd Edition, The Secrets to Masterful Meetings, and The Executive Guide to Facilitating Strategy. Leadership Strategies is a global leader in facilitation services, providing companies with dynamic professional facilitators who lead executive teams and task forces in areas like strategic planning, issue resolution, process improvement and others. The company is also a leading provider of facilitation training in the United States.

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The 7 Principles of Masterful Planning

A sticker saying plan ahead

The Drivers Model is Leadership Strategies’ methodology for strategic planning and the ultimate tool for masterful planning. The Drivers Model process covers seven key principles for masterfully planning any activity. The seven principles are summarized below. Let’s break down each one.

Seven Principles of Masterful Planning
1. Be clear on purpose.
2. Start with an accurate assessment of today.
3. Create a shared vision of success.
4. Identify your critical successful factors and barriers.
5. Define the drivers: your strategies and priorities.
6. Monitor and report results.
7. Have rewards and consequences to build accountability.

1. Be clear on purpose.

With any activity, start with purpose: Why are we doing this? With the house example, our purpose was to find a house that was more suitable to our needs. Purpose always answers the question why.

2. Start with an accurate assessment of where you are today.

You should always start with an accurate assessment of where you are today. Why is that important? Because you may think that you have overcome certain barriers when you really haven’t.
Perhaps an example will illustrate the importance of starting with an accurate picture of today. Let’s say you wanted to drive from Atlanta, in the southeastern United States, to Los Angeles, on the west coast. You would have to drive west to get there. But what if your perception was that you were in Atlanta but, in reality, you were in Seattle also on the west coast. What happens when you drive west? Let’s just say you might end up a little wet, which probably was not part of your vision. So, you may create a compelling vision of where you want to be. However, if you do not clearly define where you are today, you may end up thinking you are outside certain barriers. As a result, you can end up doing the wrong things and not getting the result you want. Therefore, key point number one is that you must start with an accurate assessment of where you are today.

3. Create a shared vision.

Once you have an accurate picture of today, you then create a shared vision. Not just a vision, but a shared vision. You can probably imagine what would have happened if I and my wife had a different vision of the type of home we wanted.

Yes, we would end up getting the house my wife wanted of course! But can you imagine the conflict and struggle along the way? Because we would want different things and would be pulling in different directions, many of the decisions we needed to make along the way would have resulted in a major fight over whose vision would prevail.

By creating a shared vision up front, we have the “fight” only once. Once the vision was created, we would be able to make decisions together in line with achieving that vision.

In many organizations there are entire departments that have different visions of where the organization needs to be. Imagine the chaos when each department goes off in a different direction. And sometimes those different directions are mutually exclusive – if one is successful, the other has to fail. What a waste – all resulting from lack of a shared vision.

4. Identify your critical success factors and barriers.

With that shared vision defined, principle number four is that you then focus on identifying the major barriers to achieving that vision. You ask yourself, “Why haven’t we achieved our vision already? What’s standing in our way? What’s keeping us where we are today?”

Then, you must understand your critical success factors. What’s critical to getting you where you want to be? What are the key conditions which, if you create them, will drive achievement of the vision?

5. Define your drivers.

After identifying your barriers and critical success factors, principle number five is to define your drivers. What are the key strategies that are going to get you to your vision? Remember that the strategies have to address each of the barriers and critical success factors.

6. Monitor.

With principle six, you monitor your progress to keep on track and stay motivated to achieve your vision.

7. Have rewards and consequences to build accountability.

Finally, be sure to have rewards and consequences to build accountability. Even with a monitoring process, if there is no form accountability people quickly learn that it is not essential to perform.

Learn more on strategic planning and the Drivers Model with this helpful tool: A Quick How-To on Strategic Planning

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Certified Master Facilitator Michael Wilkinson is the CEO and Managing Director of Leadership Strategies, Inc., The Facilitation Company and author of the new The Secrets of Facilitation 2nd Edition, The Secrets to Masterful Meetings, and The Executive Guide to Facilitating Strategy. Leadership Strategies is a global leader in facilitation services, providing companies with dynamic professional facilitators who lead executive teams and task forces in areas like strategic planning, issue resolution, process improvement and others. The company is also a leading provider of facilitation training in the United States.

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Why is a checkpoint necessary?

airport-security-officer-using-hand-held-metal-detector-check-commuter

Ever feel a meeting start to drift? Not sure if your participants retained what was being said? Or, have you ever been unsure of how to (gracefully) transition to the next agenda topic?

That’s where checkpoints come in handy…

Use a checkpoint at the beginning of a new agenda item or facilitated process to review, preview and big view.

  • Review – Review quickly what has been done to date.
  • Preview – Describe briefly what the group is about to do.
  • Big View – Explain how the previewed agenda item fits into the overall objective of the session.
Sample Agenda

Purpose: Define the changes necessary to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the hiring process.

Agenda:

A. Getting Started

B. How does the hiring process work today?

C. What are the problems and root causes?

D. What are the potential improvements?

E. Prioritize the improvements

F. Develop an implementation plan

G. Review and close

Take a look at the agenda above. Suppose we were about to start the second agenda item, “How does the hiring process work today?” We might have a checkpoint such as the following.

Sample Checkpoint: We have just completed the getting started segment (review). Our next step is to identify how the hiring process works today (preview). This is important because if we can identify all the steps in the process, we can then examine where in the process the problems are occurring and then identify ways to make it a much better process (big view). The way we are going to do this is…

So… Why is a checkpoint necessary? The checkpoint serves to ensure that all participants are aware that a transition is taking place, and helps them understand how the process they are about to undertake relates to has been done and the overall session purpose.

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Certified Master Facilitator Michael Wilkinson is the CEO and Managing Director of Leadership Strategies, Inc., The Facilitation Company and author of the new The Secrets of Facilitation 2nd Edition, The Secrets to Masterful Meetings, and The Executive Guide to Facilitating Strategy. Leadership Strategies is a global leader in facilitation services, providing companies with dynamic professional facilitators who lead executive teams and task forces in areas like strategic planning, issue resolution, process improvement and others. The company is also a leading provider of facilitation training in the United States.

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4 key strategy questions the Drivers Model answers

Drivers model strategy for businesses

As you take on strategy development, a critical step is to ensure that you and your team have a common understanding of the language of strategy and a solid process to carry you through strategy development.

It is important to put the language and process in place early to avoid the confusion, debates and the wasted time that comes from a lack of agreed upon approach and definitions.

The Drivers Model is the tool I have been using for over two decades to provide a robust yet simple method for taking an organization through strategic planning, project planning, program planning and numerous other planning activities.

The Drivers Model is fully scalable and applies to Fortune 500 companies, non-profit organizations and government agencies, as well as an entire enterprise, a business unit, a field office, an individual department, or a work team.

Let’s start with the four key strategy questions the Drivers Model answers.

Question 1: Where are we today?

The Drivers Model focuses on four core strategic questions starting with, “Where are we today?” Start by looking at the current situation’s strengths and weaknesses.

Question 2: Where do we want to be?

After understanding where you are, the next step is to understand where you want to be. In this step, you create your vision of the future.

Question 3: How do we get there?

Once you have created your vision, you are ready to turn to defining your drivers – the actions you will undertake to drive your success. Your drivers have to do two important things. First, the reason you are where you are is because there are certain barriers standing between you and your vision.

Your drivers must break through those barriers. Second, along with overcoming barriers, the drivers must also address the critical success factors (CSFs). The Drivers Model defines CSFs are those key conditions that must be created to achieve the vision.

Question 4: How will we monitor our progress?

Monitoring is critical to ensure that you stay on track. Monitoring also allows you to make adjustments along the way as you learn new information, encounter new barriers or identify other critical success factors. But perhaps most importantly, monitoring keeps you motivated.

Typically, it takes considerable effort to move from where you are today to where you want to be. The monitoring process helps keep your vision in front of you and can give you the continual motivation needed to implement the drivers.

These critical questions provide the foundation of the Drivers Model and guide a group during the strategic planning process. In my book The Executive Guide to Facilitating Strategy, I apply these questions using an example of my wife and me seeking to buy a house. How would you answer these questions if you were considering buying a house?

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Certified Master Facilitator Michael Wilkinson is the CEO and Managing Director of Leadership Strategies, Inc., The Facilitation Company and author of the new The Secrets of Facilitation 2nd Edition, The Secrets to Masterful Meetings, and The Executive Guide to Facilitating Strategy. Leadership Strategies is a global leader in facilitation services, providing companies with dynamic professional facilitators who lead executive teams and task forces in areas like strategic planning, issue resolution, process improvement and others. The company is also a leading provider of facilitation training in the United States.

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“Let’s set some ground rules.”

Three-female-managers-setting-up-rules-for-effective-management.

“Let’s set some ground rules.”

How often have you heard this at the start of meetings? Hopefully often! When starting a facilitated session or meeting, the establishment and adoption of ground rules is key.

Ground rules, or group norms, are used to set an agreed-upon level of behavior that will guide how the participants will interact with one another. While some teams may have worked together for some time and have established their own functional, unspoken ground rules, we have found that most groups benefits from a deliberate process of identifying in bounds and out of bounds behavior. Overtime, ground rules can help a group become self-correcting. They will begin correcting themselves based on the norms that they have established and reinforced.

Secret #15 – The Secret to Using Ground Rules

You start the list; let them finish it.

Use ground rules to establish an agreed upon baseline for interaction, to help a group a group be self-correcting and to take an issue of the table. To increase buy-in to the ground rules, you should start the list; but let them finish it.
Sample Ground Rule List

  1. Everyone speaks
  2. One conversation
  3. Use the parking boards
  4. Take a stand!
  5. Soft on people, hard on ideas
  6. No beeps, buzzes or ringy-dingies
  7. Recharge: __________________
  8. My role / your role
  9. Start and end on time

10.

11.

Smart Facilitators start each session or meeting by suggesting a set of ground rules, explaining each one carefully. They then ask the participants for additions, given their knowledge of the group. They then formally engage the group in a process to adopt the ground rules (as amended). This three-step process has several advantages.

  • Beginning with a starting point minimizes the time in the ground rules development process;
  • Asking for additions “because they know each other better” empowers the group; and
  • Requesting adoption of the ground rules builds implicit consent to follow them.

What are some of your ground rules?

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For more resources, see the Library topic Facilitation.

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Certified Master Facilitator Michael Wilkinson is the CEO and Managing Director of Leadership Strategies, Inc., The Facilitation Company and author of the new The Secrets of Facilitation 2nd Edition, The Secrets to Masterful Meetings, and The Executive Guide to Facilitating Strategy. Leadership Strategies is a global leader in facilitation services, providing companies with dynamic professional facilitators who lead executive teams and task forces in areas like strategic planning, issue resolution, process improvement and others. The company is also a leading provider of facilitation training in the United States. | www.leadstrat.com

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The Secret to a Strong Opening

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How you start a facilitated session is critical to the overall success of the session. Conventional wisdom states that a good meeting should start with the agenda. The reason typically given is that the agenda answers the question, “What are we going to do.” However, Smart Facilitators know that participants in a facilitated session need answers to several questions before the agenda is discussed.

  • Why are we having this session?
  • What do we need to have accomplished when we are done?
  • What is our role in the decision-making?
  • Why should I invest the time?

Smart Facilitators answer these questions, and more, in the first fifteen minutes of a facilitated session.

From my book, The Secrets of Facilitation 2nd Edition:

Secret #13 – The Secret to a Strong Opening

Inform, excite, empower and involve in the first 15 minutes.

In the first fifteen minutes of a facilitated meeting, you must inform, excite, empower and involve the participants to get them focused and engaged from the beginning of the session.

The opening sets the tone, pace and expectation for the rest of the day. Your opening words should cover four key points: inform, excite, empower and involve (IEEI).

  • Inform the participants about the overall purpose of the meeting through the session objective.
  • Excite them about the process by giving them a clear vision of the overall result to be achieved and the benefits to them.
  • Empower them by discussing the important role they play in the process, the reason they were selected or the authority that has been given to them.
  • Involve them as early as possible by identifying their personal objectives, the issues that must be covered, the challenges that must be overcome or some other topic that contributes to the overall goal of the session.

You can consider using the IEEI as an outline for your opening. The IEEI opening is a powerful tool for making sure your participants understand why they are there, what they are trying to achieve, and the benefits to them. It helps get them focused on the session, and committed to the purpose.

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For more resources, see the Library topic Facilitation.

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Certified Master Facilitator Michael Wilkinson is the CEO and Managing Director of Leadership Strategies, Inc., The Facilitation Company and author of the new The Secrets of Facilitation 2nd Edition, The Secrets to Masterful Meetings, and The Executive Guide to Facilitating Strategy. Leadership Strategies is a global leader in facilitation services, providing companies with dynamic professional facilitators who lead executive teams and task forces in areas like strategic planning, issue resolution, process improvement and others. The company is also a leading provider of facilitation training in the United States.

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There’s a difference: mission v. vision

Man in suit holding a placard of business terms

Two critical components of the Drivers Model are the mission and the vision. When it comes to strategy, do you know the difference between the two? (And, yes, there is a difference!)

Mission

How we at Leadership Strategies define “mission”:

Definition Example (Meeting Planners Association)
Mission A statement of the overall purpose of an organization which describes what you do, for whom you do it and the benefit. To provide a forum for furthering the growth and professionalism of the meetings industry.

A mission statement answers three simple questions:

  1. What do you do?
  2. For whom do you do it?
  3. What is the benefit?

The mission statement above illustrates an excellent example of how a mission statement can answer the three questions in a succinct form.

  1. What do they do? Provide a forum.
  2. What’s the benefit? Furthering growth and professionalism.
  3. Who benefits? The meetings industry.

Vision

Now, let’s contrast the difference between a mission statement and a vision statement.

Definition Example (Meeting Planners Association)
Vision A picture of the “preferred future”; a statement that describes how the future will look if the organization fulfills its mission. To be the place where meeting planners meet.

While a mission explains the overall purpose of the organization – what you do, for whom you do it and the benefit – a vision statement gives the picture of the preferred future. A vision statement answers the question, “If the organization fulfills its mission, what will the future look like?” In other words, the vision is a a statement that describes how the future will look if the organization meets its mission.

So, now that you understand the difference between the mission and the vision, you can appreciate why these two terms are not interchangeable.

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Certified Master Facilitator Michael Wilkinson is the CEO and Managing Director of Leadership Strategies, Inc., The Facilitation Company and author of the new The Secrets of Facilitation 2nd Edition, The Secrets to Masterful Meetings, and The Executive Guide to Facilitating Strategy. Leadership Strategies is a global leader in facilitation services, providing companies with dynamic professional facilitators who lead executive teams and task forces in areas like strategic planning, issue resolution, process improvement and others. The company is also a leading provider of facilitation training in the United States.

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Why are we doing this?

coworkers-having-work-meeting

My loyal blog readers have read my post on the 5 Ps of Preparation – Purpose, Product, People, Probable Issues, and Process. While all are important, which “P” is the most essential when preparing for a meeting?

That’s right – Purpose. Otherwise, why would you be having the meeting in the first place if you didn’t know the purpose?

Smart Facilitators know that clarity on purpose is essential for effectiveness. Whenever a group comes together, facilitators are intentional about ensuring they understand purpose and that the purpose is communicated clearly to the participants.

Purpose answers the question: “Why are we doing this? What it is our overall objective?” Whether you are designing a conference, giving a speech or planning a vacation, it is important to have a clearly-stated purpose that is shared by all involved. When purpose is unclear or not shared, it is easy for an activity to go astray.

Applying the Secret of Purpose

How important is purpose? Consider these examples –

  • An organization is considering introducing a new product and it is trying to decide whether to launch the product right away or delay the launch four months until the industry’s annual convention. Which is better?
  • A department head is considering giving the same annual compensation increase to each employee, rather than varying the amounts. The department head believes this will reduce the amount of “water cooler” chatter about raises. Is the same increase a good idea?
  • The family is considering multiple options for vacation, including seven days on a beach, a tour of Italy, visiting Disney World and hiking through the mountains together. Which should the family choose?

In all three cases, the answer lies in the purpose of the activity.

  • In the case of the product launch, the answer depends on the purpose of the launch? If the purpose of the launch is to gain exposure for the company as an industry leader, delaying until the convention may be appropriate. But if the purpose of the launch is to increase revenues to the company as quickly as possible, launching immediately may make more sense.
  • For the department head considering giving the same annual compensation increase to each employee, rather than varying the amounts, the question again is, “What is the purpose of compensation increases?” If the purpose is to reward performance, a level increase for everyone might only be appropriate if everyone has performed at the same level. However, if the purpose is to promote teamwork and to reward people based on the performance of the company, a level increase may be appropriate.
  • For the family deciding what to do for vacation, the answer also lies in the question of purpose. Is the purpose of vacations for this family to get rest and relaxation, see sites the family hasn’t seen before, make sure the kids enjoy themselves, work through a challenging experience together, some combination of these, or something all together different? While members of the family may have different views of the purpose of vacation, once the family agrees on a shared purpose, the decision on where to go becomes much simpler.

These examples are intended to show how many decisions, whether professional or personal, should be made based on a clearly identified purpose. When groups remember their purpose when making decisions, the result can be greater consistency, clarity and effectiveness.

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For more resources, see the Library topic Facilitation.

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Michael Wilkinson is the CEO and Managing Director of Leadership Strategies, Inc., The Facilitation Company and author of the brand new The Secrets of Facilitation 2nd Edition, The Secrets to Masterful Meetings, and The Executive Guide to Facilitating Strategy. Leadership Strategies is a global leader in facilitation services, providing companies with dynamic professional facilitators who lead executive teams and task forces in areas like strategic planning, issue resolution, process improvement and others. They are also a leading provider of facilitation training in the United States.

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Don’t know where to start?

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If you don’t know where to begin in a meeting, let this secret be your starting point – Secret #8: The Secret of Standard Agendas. After all, it is the New Year and all about beginnings. Agenda setting will not only steer the course of your meeting – it will provide your beginning.

Using Standard Agendas

You all remember the 5 Ps, right? In a meeting, the agenda, or process, must be designed to achieve the purpose and must take into account the other three Ps – the product, participants and probable issues.

For example, if the team’s purpose in a meeting is to streamline the hiring process, you might use a “process improvement” agenda. If the product you are trying to create is a plan for a program, you might use a “project planning” agenda. If the key to the session is to resolve a particular issue, you might use an “issue resolution” agenda. Each of these agendas is different because the purpose and products are different.

Secret #8 – The Secret of Standard Agendas

Standard agendas create the starting point.

Maintain a set of standard agendas you can use as a starting point for addressing the specific needs of a meeting. The purpose and desired products of the meeting determine which standard agenda is best used as a starting point.

To maximize their effectiveness, Smart Facilitators draw from a set of standard agendas that they can customize for a specific situation. Standard agendas have several advantages:

  • They reduce the amount of time needed to prepare for a session by giving you a starting point.
  • They help ensure that you do not miss a critical step.
  • They provide a level of consistency from one assignment to another and from one facilitator to another.

Below, I’ve identified several standard agenda types commonly used:

Agenda Purpose Key Activities / Products
1
Conference Facilitation		 Have conference attendees understand a topic and identify actions to take collectively and individually to address it Current SituationPast Successes and Challenges

Potential Solutions

Collective/Individual Action

Next Steps
2
Issue
Resolution		 Reach consensus on an approach to address a specific issue Delineation of AlternativesStrengths and Weaknesses

Selection of Alternative
3
Process Improvement		 Define the changes necessary to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of a business process Current ProcessProblems and Root Causes

Improvements

Implementation Plan
4
Project
Planning		 Develop a detailed plan for implementing a project or program Purpose and ObjectivesScope and Deliverables

Approach and Budget

Action List
5
Strategic Planning		 Develop a shared vision and document the steps to achieve that vision Current AssessmentVision and Mission

Guiding Principles

Goals and Objectives

Strategies and Priorities
6
Team
Building		 Improve the ability of a team to work together What makes Teams workOur Team Vision and Barriers

Strategies to achieve our Vision Monitoring and Accountability

For the easy extra step, use our models for these agenda types so that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Our Facilitator Guides can help you: http://www.leadstrat.com/products-and-solutions/facilitator-guides/55-facilitator-guides-electronic-copy

Happy New Year!

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For more resources, see the Library topic Facilitation.

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Michael Wilkinson is the CEO and Managing Director of Leadership Strategies, Inc., The Facilitation Company and author of the brand new The Secrets of Facilitation 2nd Edition, The Secrets to Masterful Meetings, and The Executive Guide to Facilitating Strategy. Leadership Strategies is a global leader in facilitation services, providing companies with dynamic professional facilitators who lead executive teams and task forces in areas like strategic planning, issue resolution, process improvement and others. They are also a leading provider of facilitation training in the United States.