Course ID: I2AFACIL

Tap the Wisdom of the Group: Facilitation Techniques for Getting from Insights to Action with Ease

The way in which we work together to achieve our outcomes has drastically changed over the last two decades as the pace of change drives the way we communicate and the goals we pursue. Today, “teams” are often made up of people who may never have met each other and don’t share the same geography. Their structures are dynamic and roles are blended. Although necessary, flexibility brings with it complexity. Collaboration now includes lateral networking, which means working with people resources that are not “your people,” and who you have no direct authority over to achieve your goals. The market dynamics are changing as rapidly and fluidly as the people dynamics. Overnight the competitive landscape can change, goals can be re-written and strategies are required to be just as nimble. It is an exciting time in our history and the intensity of the era requires steady hands at the helm. This is where mastery of facilitation skills plays its role.

Fac-il-i-tate comes from the Latin word “facilis” which means to make easy. A skilled facilitator knows exactly how to make the journey from “here to there” an easy one for its participants; one that is characterized by confidence in the destination, well defined and flexible process for supporting the journey, dialogue skills to support individual and group contributions along the way, and documentation techniques to pull the “bits of brilliance” through to final outcomes.

This course utilizes the i2a® Strategic Thinking System in a full day experiential training designed to improve your mastery of process design and group dynamics.

THE FIVE-PHASE PROCESS OF SIGHT, INSIGHT, CREATE, COMMUNICATE AND INSPIRE ARE DESIGNED TO GO BEYOND THE TRADITIONAL STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS TO:
* Focus on the rigor of the process and the caliber of the conversation
* Draw on verbal and visual techniques to engage and inspire
* Use large format templates to guide the process and create the forum for people to “share the air” creating engagement and participation
* Develop engaging communication tools by virtue of the process
* Teach strategic thinking skills beyond the subject matter
* Get groups to develop and agree upon workable, realistic plans or solutions to issues. Gain the tools and techniques to: create a vision that motivates people to action, engage groups in developing solutions and generate ownership that leads to results.

Learning Objectives

Understand the difference between facilitating, training and coaching.
Use “MBSN” or “Management by Sticky Note”
Upon completion of this course participants will be able to:
Practice defining and differentiating between purpose and outcome statements
Implement “best practice” methods for process design custom tailored to specific styles (and sizes) of meetings
Implement “best practice” methods for capturing information during meetings
Utilize facilitation techniques for difficult situations and less than productive participants
Actively practice facilitating small groups and creating powerful questions
Ask powerful questions that generate meaningful and candid responses
Manage disagreement
Build consensus
Generate ownership

Major Topics

Organizational Leadership:
Understand the distinction between strategic planning and strategic thinking and learn a practical methodology for developing their skills as strategic thinkers within their organizations, personal leadership challenge, and their career
Gain an understanding of the current business environment, as well as key insights into the implications of current state: what is happening? What is important and why? Who needs to know?
Development of leadership and communication skills that will enable them to expand their perspective (critical and creative thinking) and improve the way they present ideas and information to others
Learn Network Leadership, how to build consensus, mobilize consent and inspire others to action
Personal Leadership
Create a personal action plan for dealing with their specific “leadership challenge” and their next steps in their leadership journey
Community Leadership
Create greater potential to be active and effective professionals within their firms/companies
Build new relationships with participants and leaders of the Profession in the workshop
Tools:
Participants will receive the Business Learning Institute’s newest visual tool: the I2A Strategic Thinking System – an “insights to action” toolkit that includes a conceptual architecture, graphic templates and a facilitator’s guide to help leaders think through leadership challenges, mine the data for insights and design action plans to address them (this will all be covered during the program so participants are familiar with the tool when they leave)
Participants will receive a workbook to use during the session to capture insights and work on action plans
Participants will receive a report that captures their group work as a post-event tool

Who Should Attend

Emerging leaders needing to lead a task force, establish a strategic direction, run better meetings, improve a business process, establish performance objectives, and/ or work through conflict

Fields of Study

Communications and Marketing

Prerequisites

Management experience

Provider

Business Learning Institute

CPE Credits

8.0

Level

Intermediate

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