Top Ten Reasons to use an external facilitator

Executives often wonder if they can both orchestrate and participate in a workshop. As senior executives and facilitators, our experience tells us that this is almost impossible to achieve. Here is our top ten reasons to use an external facilitator

1. Time is money. Preparation is key to successful workshops, and we save you time by doing most of it for you. It takes at least a full day to prepare for a single-day workshop, and busy executives often do not have the capacity to commit this sort of time.

2. Effective schedule. Expert facilitators have deep experience constructing schedules to enable the workshop and meeting to flow so that every meeting builds on the last to make sure you are achieving your objectives.

3. Expert Strategy Planning. Our facilitators are experts in strategy and planning disciplines. We will bring new thinking and best-practice strategy frameworks to help guide conversations at your workshop.

4. Outside Perspective. An external workshop facilitator brings an outside independent perspective which allows them to mediate conflicting viewpoints among workshop attendees therefore keeping the meeting on track.

5. Attention to detail. We pay attention to the small details that often get overlooked. We can coordinate materials and discussion templates to create more engaging and effective group sessions.

6. Total participation. People find it almost impossible to guide a workshop, record key points and make a meaningful contribution. Hiring an external facilitator for meetings and workshops means you can fully participate in discussions rather than focus on the process and documenting discussions.

7. Impartiality. Managing meeting dynamics can be difficult, especially when you know the people in the room. Keeping a meeting on track and managing conflict is core to producing useful outcomes, and so our facilitators are trained to ensure that everyone has a say, and no single view-point dominates the discussion.

8. Strategic Plan. We ensure you get value from your meetings and workshops by providing you with a one page plan that states the vital goals identified and ownership of that goal.

9. Time Optimisation. External facilitation optimises the use of your team's valuable time. Spending a day out of the office for senior team members is costly. We ensure you will get the best out of your team and ensure we harness the skills and expertise in the room

10. Added Value. A well run, well facilitated workshop will have side-benefits far greater than meeting and exceeding workshop outcomes.