Facilitation

We facilitate purposeful and goal-driven conversations and processes. With respectful and assertive facilitation, individuals within working groups participate with focus and an action-taking orientation.

 

Our customized facilitative processes support effective, efficient, and timely decisions on even the most complex, contentious of matters. We point out that which our clients need to see, explore fears, and keep the discussion on what it is intended to accomplish. We are there to maintain focus and make the best possible use of everyone’s time and energy.

 

We work with clients to improve the quality and outcomes of all of their meetings. Leadership and management groups can spend valuable time and energy in unproductive meetings, discussing topics ad nauseum and avoiding decision-making. The resistance to making decisions may be produced by a fear of the unknown or a sense of not being seen or heard in the process. Prolonged meetings can create time for people to get comfortable with that which they know is going to happen. We are the objective observers who can describe what we see that we believe is getting in the way of progress.

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Consensus Building

As difficult as building consensus can often be, consensus building works. It promotes successful outcomes by getting people onboard and supporting the success of the plan as well as one another’s successes.

 

When the working group has reached consensus, they will generate organizational energy and trust behind an initiative. This kind of “stamp of consensus approval” provides a self-propelling thrust to the plan that will quickly gain momentum. We provide this service because, in many situations, consensus building provides the kind of organizational investment in a shared goal and objective, as it builds an organizational culture of support and shared commitment.

 

Consensus does not necessarily mean that 100% of people are for it. It means that there are enough decision-makers and people who can influence others in the organization—enough of the right people—who have said, “I can get behind this.”

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Mediation & Negotiation

We approach mediation as a problem-solving process in which parties engage with each other to negotiate agreements. When conflict arises, we identify what is getting in the way of progress and we enable groups and individuals to achieve elevated levels of mutual understanding, trust, and cooperation. The parties feel successful and gain insight. They become increasingly conflict intelligent.

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Action Planning  

With our clients, we design processes that generate productive stakeholder dialogue and debate, serving as a foundation to collaboratively develop and implement strategic plans, choices, and road maps into the future. We facilitate conversations to move our clients from talking to taking action based on a shared vision. Your planning leads directly into actions.

 

We also work with our clients to “fine tune” agreed upon plans as they are being carried out. We have found that our clients can work hard to create the best possible plan of action only to find a stumbling block along the way. Incremental fine tuning reduces the number of potential pitfalls and the likelihood for frustration and “finger pointing.”

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Coaching

While there are myriad reasons one seeks out a “coach”. We have always remained open to a potential coaching client determining what coaching means to her or him as we also negotiate that relationship. What is key and at the core of a successful coaching relationship is the flexible nature of it as it is launched with clear client goals and aspirations. In the beginning, we work with our coaching clients to assist them in identifying and clarifying their goals.

 

Most of the time, clients seek coaching because they are experiencing professionally-related difficulties and/or challenges. The circumstances may, at first, seem like the problem may be co-workers or one’s ability to lead others effectively. It could be related to feedback one has received about performance and a very specific need to improve in certain areas.

 

Regardless of the basis for the coaching to begin, coaching clients will almost inevitably become more self-aware, become more aware of their engagement with others, and begin to see their own potential to “take the next step” in their careers and in their lives. As a result, our clients gain an increasing and evolving awareness of their engagement with others. They lead with more transparency and authenticity, while becoming more confident in their capacity for overcoming obstacles and working with others to achieve shared goals.

 

A foundational belief of ours is that the client is capable, resourceful, and has the answers so that he or she can achieve fulfillment and balance in their work and life.

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Organizational Development

Teams and organizations are in an almost constant state of change, whether the change is continuous or episodic, small scale to substantial. We work with our clients to experience change as an objective part of any “living” organization. Becoming an agent of change means one becomes a supporter of change.

 

Not every person is receptive to change, while others will pursue change and even push it and sell it. With push, there is the potential for push-back; with selling, there is the potential for sales resistance. What makes the difference is how change is framed. Asking questions and seeking information is a powerful tool for giving everyone a platform and a voice to speak on that platform. 

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