Facilitate. Work Illustrations

These are just a few examples of the different types of workshops we facilitate.

To see more examples, click Innov8 and Transform.

Illustration 1 – Foster Collaboration

This client, the Head of Finance in a Government department, headed a group of Finance Managers who worked in different departments but had many shared goals. His predicament was that the team members had not been working together effectively. There had been continual change over the past two years, people tackling new roles due to an organisational restructuring and they had been introducing a new system to reengineer organisational processes. There were interpersonal conflicts and people were tired and frustrated with change.

The client wanted to hold a workshop to analyse the group’s working style, discuss the issues, identify the causes and develop an action plan to resolve them. Considering the background issues he described, we considered that this approach might lead to a negative outcome and demotivate people more.

As an alternative, Yes! And… suggested using a Solutions Focus Approach. In Solutions Focus, we build constructive dialogue, identify what people want, create a shared future, assess what is working, elicit the resources people have and finally, create a set of small steps to move them forward. This we did and the meeting achieved the desired outcome. As one delegate said:

“This was amazingly motivational, a really good way to adjust to a more positive way of thinking.”

 

Illustration 2 – Share Knowledge

A client in the agricultural business asked Yes! And… to facilitate a workshop for the pan European marketing teams. They had grown through European acquisition and inherited a number of different brands, often for similar products. They needed a workshop to discuss a new brand strategy.

To educate everyone on the similarities and dissimilarities of the brands, as well as understand the pros and cons, they planned to have presentations on the branding in each country. As the time available was very short and the presentations would be after lunch (ideal for napping), we suggested mapping the brands.

We asked the country managers to bring along slides, adverts and / or marketing materials with pictures of the brands and an assessment of the pros and cons. We built a framework for a giant map and gave each country team two sheets to map on. The teams developed their maps using the pictures and we connected all the maps to build a brand map of Europe.

Next, each team gave a brief presentation about their products using the map. The exercise was very valuable in highlighting the disparity in the branding across countries and in building the knowledge of the teams, providing core information for later strategy discussions.

Illustration 3 – Redesign a Tiring Agenda

Our client, the Executive Vice President of Marketing for a major international payment company, asked us to facilitate a two-day meeting they had designed to educate their international marketing teams on products and country plans. The planned agenda consisted of thirteen presentations and they required a facilitator to maintain energy. With our experience, we knew it would be difficult to maintain interest and energy with such a passive agenda. Instead, we designed the event to be fully participative and included one presentation for variety. We facilitated the meeting and the client and participants were delighted with the design, the energy and the outcome of the meeting.

 

Illustration 4 – Train People to Facilitate a Large Scale Meeting

A global healthcare company asked Yes! And… to train eight of their staff to facilitate a multinational business planning meeting for 150 people. We created the planning meeting with the client and designed and facilitated a day to teach them to facilitate it. Both events were very successful and the client was pleased with the level of input, support and enthusiasm that Yes! And… had provided.

“We wanted to run a business planning workshop in a different way than the usual format, however, implementing creative approaches to a large multinational audience was a daunting prospect. With the help and support of Yes! And… it proved to be a resounding success.

The facilitator training day they ran was fun, challenging and rewarding, leaving the team confident and well prepared for the larger workshop event.

 Yes! And… provided input to the business planning workshop with creative ideas and offered great support before, during and after the event. Their enthusiastic and helpful approach was instrumental in ensuring that the event which could have been a challenge was a complete success.”

European Clinical Education Manager

Illustration 5 – Train Relationship Managers to Facilitate Customer Review Meetings

This team was developing a new online service for a major bank. Following a successful induction workshop and other events we ran for the Relationship Managers, the bank asked us to help them design a customer review workshop for users of the site and to train the RMs how to facilitate it. We designed a simple one hour agenda for them and facilitated a one day workshop to:

-                Ensure RMs are clear on on the purpose of the focus groups and what the bank expected to get out of them

-                Establish a framework for setting up and running successful focus groups  i.e. the housekeeping and organisational issues, start to finish

-                Identify and be comfortable with best practice for facilitation of focus groups i.e. get the best out of the group, involve everyone, achieve objectives

We ran this day the week before the RMs began and they went on to run over 28 user group workshops with 8 – 10 people in each.

“My workshops were very successful and I was confident in running them. Holding the training just before the reviews helped me to apply what I learned very easily.”

Relationship Manager

If you have a complex or challenging meeting to facilitate, ask for our Facilitate – Initial Questionnaire to help you to think through your meeting.

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