Getting the most value from your future-focused team discussions

So much has changed over the last six months – so much more than usual. Everyone is facing new challenges, new competitors, decreases or increases in expected revenue and expenses, new areas of focus and heightened risks. For example, where your time and focus might have focused on efficiency and reducing costs, maybe you have identified that you need to look at minimising supplier risk. Perhaps you’ve realised that your team don’t need to be based together in one building all the time and there’s an opportunity to save on real estate and equipment expenses. However, you need to make sure your team will still be able to work together effectively and efficiently. You’re probably getting your management team together more frequently to help work through understanding your current state and getting yourselves set up for the future.

Getting the team together for strategic conversations (including team development, strategic review, planning, problem-solving or other events) involves cost. There’s the cost of actually bringing people together, where there’s transport, accommodation, catering or meeting room hires involved. Then there’s the opportunity cost of bringing everyone together; the value lost from what those individuals have not been able to work on or deliver their business-as-usual activities while participating in the discussion. So you need to get the most out of your time together; sufficient value for the cost expended.

Many leaders and businesses, especially in small businesses, run and chair their strategic discussions in-house or by themselves; facilitators are an additional expense for your already costly event. There are a few reasons why you might be missing out on value by running a planning event yourself. Firstly, when you’re engaged in a discussion, it’s harder to coordinate and think ahead to where it needs to go. It can be hard to challenge ideas and individuals in a productive way when you are intimately involved. Thirdly, you only know what you know. Bringing in fresh eyes and outside expertise can lead you and your team to places and conclusions beyond what you expected.

Facilitation means making something easier or making it happen; that’s exactly what professional facilitators do. So while the additional time and expense of a facilitator for your strategic events might seem like an unnecessary expense, I guarantee you’ll end up with better value for your entire investment.

If you would like to explore how an independent facilitator can help increase the value of the investment your team makes in coming together for planning or problem solving, get in touch. We’ll get a Legion on it!