Strategic Planning: Why You Need a Facilitator - McGraw Marketing

Having a facilitator lead your strategic planning sessions provides your business with a great many benefits that result in a stronger action plan that has buy-in and support across the business.

How many meetings have you attended where objectives aren?t clearly stated or agreed, let alone achieved? ?Where all the parties don?t contribute? ?Where the outcome isn?t clearly and efficiently documented?

As a member of the team, it?s very hard to run events. ?Some will challenge your authority. ?Others just won?t accept it. ?And your own close proximity to the subject matter makes it difficult to be objective, to remain open to new ideas and to avoid steering the group.

That?s when independent facilitation may help.

Here are some of the major benefits you enjoy:

• helping develop specific goals and action plans to address issues and items
• creating a safe, non-threatening environment for open discussion
• helping to clearly define the issues and problems without bias
• providing objective third-party leadership
• providing management of the meeting process
• helping participants feel less intimidated
• providing assistance in dealing with rivalries within the group
• making more effective use of the meeting time by keeping the discussion focused on key issues
• helping break down complex issues and problems to aid the group in working together to solve problems
• cultivating a commitment of the group to follow-up on the action plan
• helping to ?visualize? what can be in the future by creating a unified vision
• helping create accountability

The benefits of using an independent facilitator are different for each audience, but it is fundamentally about saving you time, money or hassle. And it?s all about getting a better result that has a higher probability of taking your business to the next level.

Source: http://www.mcgrawmarketing.com/strategic-planning-why-you-need-facilitator/

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