Blog
Partnership alignment: Harness the power of your business partners to get things done
A partnership alignment strategy uses independent facilitators to help organisations shift from managing through operational metrics and service level agreements, to focusing on strategy, commitment and results. It is a way of developing and managing far more effective partnerships, and in turn producing ‘wins’ for each organisation.
5 Zoom tips to master professional workshop facilitation
Our process for virtual delivery includes preparing workshop participants on the content and technical aspects of virtual interaction and the different ways to ensure participants productively contribute to discussions. In this article we share our facilitators’ top tips on how to get the most from the online facilitation tool, Zoom!
Getting maximum impact from your strategy workshops – Download our free guide
Our commitment to deep preparation, expert facilitation and outcomes orientation remains unchanged in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic. That said, we have been turning our minds to key questions our clients are currently grappling with: ‘What does this mean for our strategy? What happens to our strategy offsites and other key workshop dates in the calendar?’
This collection of articles gives you an overview of the way our team of strategy experts approach strategy and strategic discussions.
After the event: How to get full value from your strategy workshop outcomes
Hard though it is, choreographing a great strategy workshop, with meaningful, compelling outcomes is only half the battle. The other half is doing something with them – committing to a series of interrelated next steps and getting them done. While it’s not hard to justify the dollar investment in your strategy workshop, it is important to get full value from the workshop outcomes.
Five ideas for cascading strategy to your staff
Cascading strategy throughout your organisation is a key ingredient in successful strategy execution. Ensuring your organisation’s strategic objectives are clearly reflected in functional, geographic, and business-unit strategies, and explicitly linked to budgetary and performance is critical.
Preparation, content creation, expert facilitation: The facilitation trifecta
Looking for an external facilitator but don’t know where to start? Feeling like the search is just pot luck? In this article we discuss how our expert facilitators can add exceptional value to your event and turn your decision from plain ‘pot luck’ to feeling like you’ve won the trifecta!
Looking for a great workshop venue in Melbourne or regional Victoria?
We know that finding the right venue for your workshop or conference is a critical piece in your event organising puzzle. So to help you in your search we have outlined some of our facilitators’ favourite workshop venues.
3 steps for creating and delivering an engaging presentation
Whether you are presenting to colleagues, a board of directors or to a large audience at a workshop or conference – creating and delivering an engaging presentation is key. Don’t leave it to the last minute, deeply considering the message, your visual story and delivery is key.
Designing your workshop agenda? Have impact and avoid death by presentation
Clients often come to us with a workshop design considered and agenda partially drafted. ‘There are a lot of presenters’ they say sheepishly. The role of the facilitator is not simply to introduce and thank each speaker. Instead, we believe our role as the facilitator is to work closely with you to forensically consider all aspects of the workshop design including narrative and content; session planning and processes; and of course, participant experience.
The value of a robust diagnosis – be better prepared for next year’s strategy discussion
Undertaking robust analyses of what’s happening in the world, the industry, and within organisations, is critical for clients to build an evidence base and a common reference point to draw upon when engaging in strategic thinking and strategic planning. We suggest that clients adopt a diagnostic approach that sorts data into patterns, and replaces the overwhelming complexity of reality with a simple story from which levers for action can be identified.
Where to play and how to win: An approach to strategic thinking discussions
A recent focus in many of our strategy workshops has been to consider two important strategic questions – 1. Where should we compete? 2. How will we win there? This approach to strategic thinking gives rise to interesting, engaging and ultimately useful strategic discussions at the executive team and board level.
Strategy & Planning: Know where to start and where to finish
At Strategic Facilitators we are often asked about our definition of strategy, and in particular about the difference between setting a strategic direction and strategic planning. Watch this short video to learn about our approach.
Preparing for a workshop? A checklist for the organising team
Making sure your workshop or conference venue ticks all your specific requirements is another critical step in the conferencing organising…
Creating your vision
Getting started on vision discussions can be hard. At Strategic Facilitators we use these five techniques to help kick start vision discussions and stimulate new ideas.
How design thinking helps innovation
At Strategic Facilitators we are passionate about helping our clients build a culture of innovation within their organisations, and design thinking is one of the tools we use to help approach strategic problems and innovation from a different perspective.
Embracing strategic thinking as an essential component of your strategy and planning process
At Strategic Facilitators we encourage the Executive Teams and Boards we work with to embrace strategic thinking as an essential component of the strategy and planning process. Our approach is to seed these discussions with targeted strategic questions which we introduce at the beginning of strategy and planning processes.
What does a facilitator do, really?
This charming illustrated video, developed by International Institute for Facilitation and Change (IIFAC), uses simple language and charming illustrations to explain just what we facilitators do!
What to consider before preparing for a workshop or offsite
When preparing for a workshop or offsite, it is important to define what you hope to achieve. Considering these ten questions will enable your team to have a shared understanding of the objectives and assist your team in working towards them.
Are you getting full value from your external facilitator?
Most large Australian organisations invest considerably in hiring external facilitators to help them run their workshops and offsites. But are they getting their money’s worth? So, what SHOULD great facilitators do?
Special report: How Australian organisations can increase the value added by external facilitators
A study conducted by Strategic Facilitators has found that large Australian organisations are failing to get full value from facilitated meetings and workshops. Our research shows that while these organisations understand the value provided by external facilitators, they lose out on much of the potential benefit by using relatively unsophisticated selection and evaluation techniques.
Ten reasons to use an external facilitator
Using an external facilitator is critical to the success of a workshop. Here are our 10 reasons why you should hire an external facilitator.
Ten key factors to running successful strategy workshops
We have facilitated scores of strategy workshops over the past 20 years. Drawing on our facilitators’ experience, we have put together our top ten key factors to running successful strategy workshops.
The serendipities of workshops
At the end of our workshops, we frequently ask participants to share a reflection on the workshop and a parting thought for their colleagues. These comments (‘…that was the best conversation I’ve seen this board have in nine years in my role.’) are indicative of ‘side benefits’ of the workshops we facilitate; but I’m sure you’ll agree they are pretty substantive serendipities.
Workshop facilitation: Get dramatically better outcomes from your next workshop
Do I need a facilitator or can I handle it internally? Executives often wonder if they can both orchestrate and participate in a workshop. As senior executives and facilitators, our experience tells us that this is difficult to achieve. Here we answer questions relating to the facilitation process and how a facilitator can help you get better outcomes from your next workshop or offsite
10 strategic questions you need to ask in a strategy workshop
At Strategic Facilitators, we help our clients build purposive engaging agendas and session plans to ensure workshops have the desired results.
Be amazed by our results!
We look forward to working alongside your team to help your organisation grow and thrive.Get in touch today for a quote.
