A request and resource for clients who engage external facilitators!

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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 happen only on the day (s) of the conference.

I find this a real loss of opportunity - to design a gathering with real intentions that align various stakeholders real needs, to bring the right people in the room, to facilitate real conversations around topics that matter, to plan for a collective harvest that inspires forward action, to have a plan for sustained engagement in the days/ months to come.......

So teams, as soon as you have the idea to host an external gathering, I invite you to first spend time internally on the WHY so you can arrive at a set of aligned needs of all stakeholders that can help you craft a thoughtful and actionable purpose and outcomes. Speaking to a representative section of your intended participants is also a great way to validate/ challenge your own thinking. ONLY then please decide the venue, duration, participants and agenda that can really help activate the WHY. 

Your money, time and energy will be much better spent!

Sharing a list of my go to questions for such a discovery process:)

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