A request and resource for clients who engage external facilitators!
By the time I get calls and requests from organisations to help design or facilitate their conference/ consultation/ stakeholder dialogue/ roundtable, the duration is decided (which may or not be right for the expected outcomes), the venue is decided (which may or may not be supportive of engagement), the initial agenda and participant list (which may or may be aligned with who really needs to be in the room) also possibly drafted. They want me to help them make the gathering engaging and innovative. While this is a great shift in how gatherings are happening - it makes it hard as a lot of HOW questions are already answered before going deeper into the WHY. In the initial discovery calls I have with clients, I often find that the team members themselves are not aligned about what is the core need, the core purpose, the gathering values and the expected outcomes - it is also often not clear what is expected to happen after the conference. The focus naturally is totally on what can ...