With a skilled facilitator leading the way, workshops can create experiences that inspire creativity, build consensus, and foster innovation.

What can your team achieve with new light on a situation?

Working in the business, not on it, is an ever-present issue for business leaders. Dealing with the day-to-day reduces your ability to step back and see the woods for the trees. And when issues are left for too long, they become harder to fix.

One of the key benefits of taking your leadership team or any key people out of the work environment to look ahead is the reduction of distractions. You, as a leader, can hand over the reins to a third party with no baggage, bias or emotional connection to your current status or future desires.

In my experience of facilitating workshops for growing businesses, they often know most of the answers to their challenges or opportunities but lack the clarity to get them on paper, aligned and an actionable plan created. That’s where I come in.

My most important role is to uncover the known, the unknown and the unsaid and guide you towards actionable outcomes.

The role of a workshop facilitator.

A workshop facilitator is crucial in guiding groups towards achieving their objectives. The facilitator’s primary responsibility is to create a safe and inclusive environment that encourages participation and collaboration among participants.

They are responsible for setting the tone for the workshop, ensuring that everyone feels heard and respected, and keeping the group focused on the task at hand. A skilled facilitator deeply understands group dynamics and can anticipate and address any issues that may arise during the workshop. By effectively managing group interactions, a facilitator can help the group to achieve its goals efficiently and effectively.

In addition to managing group dynamics, a workshop facilitator is responsible for designing and implementing the workshop agenda. This includes setting goals and objectives, developing content, and creating activities to engage participants and help them achieve the desired outcomes.

A great facilitator is flexible and can adapt the agenda to respond to changing circumstances or unexpected challenges. They are also adept at time management, ensuring that the workshop stays on schedule and that all objectives are achieved within the allotted time frame.

Finally, a workshop facilitator must also possess strong communication skills. They must communicate effectively with participants, ensuring everyone understands the workshop objectives and their role in achieving them.

They must also be able to communicate complex concepts and ideas in a way that is accessible and easy to understand. A skilled facilitator is also an active listener, able to tune into the group’s needs and concerns and respond in a way that builds trust and fosters collaboration.

By possessing strong communication skills, a workshop facilitator can help to create a positive and productive workshop experience for all participants.

There are five critical skills that I bring as your workshop facilitator:

Genuine capability to see the bigger picture

• Ability to activate the quiet voices in the room

• Focus on game-changing strategies, not BAU

• Translate talk into action

• Use multiple industry experiences to innovate

The role of a workshop facilitator.

A workshop facilitator is crucial in guiding groups towards achieving their objectives. The facilitator’s primary responsibility is to create a safe and inclusive environment that encourages participation and collaboration among participants.

They are responsible for setting the tone for the workshop, ensuring that everyone feels heard and respected, and keeping the group focused on the task at hand. A skilled facilitator deeply understands group dynamics and can anticipate and address any issues that may arise during the workshop. By effectively managing group interactions, a facilitator can help the group to achieve its goals efficiently and effectively.

In addition to managing group dynamics, a workshop facilitator is responsible for designing and implementing the workshop agenda. This includes setting goals and objectives, developing content, and creating activities to engage participants and help them achieve the desired outcomes.

A great facilitator is flexible and can adapt the agenda to respond to changing circumstances or unexpected challenges. They are also adept at time management, ensuring that the workshop stays on schedule and that all objectives are achieved within the allotted time frame.

Finally, a workshop facilitator must also possess strong communication skills. They must communicate effectively with participants, ensuring everyone understands the workshop objectives and their role in achieving them.

They must also be able to communicate complex concepts and ideas in a way that is accessible and easy to understand. A skilled facilitator is also an active listener, able to tune into the group’s needs and concerns and respond in a way that builds trust and fosters collaboration.

By possessing strong communication skills, a workshop facilitator can help to create a positive and productive workshop experience for all participants.

There are five critical skills that I bring as your workshop facilitator:

Genuine capability to see the bigger picture

• Ability to activate the quiet voices in the room

• Focus on game-changing strategies, not BAU

• Translate talk into action

• Use multiple industry experiences to innovate

Recent workshops delivered…

In the past several years, I have worked across various industries going through massive change, staff shortages, logistics, culture, long-term planning and brand strategy, all of which were left until they became critical.

Imagine what could be achieved in a day or even half a day with the right planning, focus and goals and how that can drive your business forward at a rate of knots.

The most recent workshops I have facilitated include the following:

Senior Leadership Team Burnout.

This full-day workshop was focused on bringing a senior leadership team of a $1b company together to regroup, focus on well-being and look at where they could focus on key strategic objectives to continue growing without sacrificing their health.

Planning For Exit.

Working with a small, privately owned market leader and their senior team to explore growth strategies for the next three years. Key areas included increased optimisation through technology, development of key roles and core market growth.

Bring Departments Together.

A series of four workshops over two days was developed to bring together four brands, 50 people and senior management to understand and define the challenges and future needs of the team in this rapidly growing insurance company.

Creating Resilience In Leadership.

Over 12 months, through a series of workshops and coaching, we supported a growing business in developing its leadership skills to align with the strategic direction of the business and the development of two key concepts – ownership and communication.

Getting Clear On Deeper Growth.

Not all goals are about growth externally, Ie revenue. Some are doing what you are doing well, even better. A recent workshop for a leading PR firm was focused on looking at their people and their current clients and maximising what they had moving into 2024. The key outcomes were focused on using their expertise at scale, time management, client engagement and developing young talent in the business.

Why work with me?

Whenever I facilitate a workshop the first question I ask is - ‘Do you feel too busy to be here?’ and the answer is always yes.

But very quickly, there is an understanding that stepping out of your business is critical to reduce the noise and edit out the activities that are not supporting growth and progress.

My role as your facilitator is to poke and prod to ensure we are working on the right problems and opportunities, and to show you a path towards a solution.

Not only am I helping you in the session, but I am working with you to reframe what progress looks like and how you can take back control of what you want from your business.

The biggest obstacle many businesses face is their struggle to justify the time away from the business. But my question is, how much are you losing but grinding out business as usual and not focusing on the bigger picture?

*All workshops are done with the strictest confidence in place. No critical data will be shared outside of our relationship.