Another Annual Strategy Session. MAKE IT COUNT. HIRE AN OUTSIDE FACILITATOR.

As we finish out the year, most of us are spending at least a few hours in strategic planning sessions. They can be impactful, or they can be something we have to check off our to-do list. If your organization has some things that need to change, annual strategy sessions can be the beginning of launching your company into your best year ever. Spending some money on the correct format for the meeting is worth considering.

Meeting format means that your agenda and engagement, and even location and set-up need to have some thought put into them. For most C-suite leaders, the issues with creating and executing a strategy are that you need to engage in the meeting and plan. If you are also part of running the meeting, you lose out. Even if you try hard not to be, you are also often involved in office politics. You will deal with who gets to speak the most, whose opinion carries the most weight.  According to a study published on NCBI, “Facilitation is an approach that can be used by individual and team change agents to help build capacity and support practice change within organizational contexts.” If something needs to change in your organization, giving the job to an outside facilitator - you may win big.

More importantly, once the meeting is over, you need to implement it. That means accountability to the ideas you flushed out. The right facilitator is fully engaged - they will create a follow-up process to ensure that you get the biggest bang for your time and money.

Here are the top 6 reasons to spend some extra money on a facilitator.

1. Experience a proven process that works. The right facilitator will have a proven planning and execution process that's worked for thousands of other C-suite leaders worldwide.
2. Ensure that 100% of your team is engaged. With an internal facilitator, presenters lose the ability to participate fully in their organizational planning.
3. Receive completely unbiased coaching. The right facilitator has no desire to choose sides or get involved in office politics.
4. Bring in an outside perspective. The right facilitator will ask different and hard questions composed from a broad scope of research.
5. Introduce new concepts. As a result of a professional facilitators' continuous learning, you experience the best strategic planning concepts.
6. Make accountability part of the process. A facilitator should not be just a facilitator. The best will bring in a continued accountability process that includes touch-points and "homework."

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If you're ready to make 2020 different, start with your strategic planning. And do it differently.
If you are ready to hire an outside facilitator - we are still booking for November and December meetings. Email today at doug.hershey@thoughtiq.com.

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