Need Advice?
Not sure what you need to move your organization or project forward. No problem. A quick talk via phone, Zoom or coffee will go a long way to helping you decide.
Need to know what people are thinking to inform your group's plan? Try Listening Sessions
- Listening sessions are similar to focus groups. They facilitated sessions aimed at gathering data and themes to inform your group’s work.
Working by myself or with my facilitator partners we are using listening sessions to assist with:
- Community Needs Assessments for Public Health Departments
- School Districts
- Website Development
- Strategic Planning
- Action Planning
Listening Sessions are done online, In-person, or both
Types of Listening Sessions
All services begin with a consultation. We work with your group to determine the number, size, and make up of your group. We then work together to determine which or a combination of multiple listening sessions are right for your planning goals.
The WAVE – environmental scan. The approach provides an interactive and brief way to get a group focused on the realities of the external environment surrounding community health. The wave is used as a metaphor because its structure is like the changing forces surrounding a community’s health. What is out on the Horizon, but not yet making waves? What is Emerging or beginning to take shape? What is Established and riding the crest of the wave? (We do these things well) What is (or should be) Disappearing or beginning to ebb? (has served as well, but it no longer needed)
The second part of this session would include the Iceberg Principle. The Iceberg Model is a tool used to apply to systems or problems that allows communities to shift their perspective and see beyond the immediate events that everyone notices. It helps to uncover root causes of why those events happen. That’s possible by looking at deeper levels of abstraction within the system that are not immediately obvious. The theory suggests that aggregated data can hide information that is important for the proper evaluation of a situation.
A World Café Conversation is a creative process for leading collaborative dialogue, sharing knowledge, and creating possibilities for action in groups of all sizes.
The environment is set up like a café, with tables for four, tablecloths covered by paper tablecloths, flowers, some colored pens and, if possible, candles, quiet music, and refreshments. People sit four to a table and have a series of conversational rounds lasting from 20 to 45 minutes about one or more questions that are personally meaningful to them. A “harvest” happens following each round to identify common themes and are visually presented showing what beneficial actions are needed.
Empathy Interviews are one-on-one interviews conducted virtually. Participants are asked a series of pre-designed questions in a safe, anonymous manner. Interview responses are themed and provided to the organization to inform the rest of the process.
The ToP Consensus Workshop Method is a way to create a consensus in a short period of time by using an integrated, collective thinking process. Groups feel that their ideas, insights, perspectives, and wisdom are honored. Information is collected and themed in a useful way.
Let's start planning your next meeting!
Why Work With A Facilitator
People who participate in facilitated inclusive meetings:
- Feel repected
- Grow as individuals
- Communicate better
- Leave meetings with a greater understanding
- Develop more solutions and offer more recommendations
- Are more innovative
- Are flexible during the implementation process
- Are better at risk management
- Are positive role models
- Have increased ownership
Case Studies
I worked with an established nonprofit creating its first strategic plan. This group discovered its need to create succession plans, identified a desire to expand its programming, and determined how to select board members.
All strategic plans begin with a consultation. The plan includes an environmental scan to determine where the group has been, where it is and where it would like to be. I help the group create a vision of its 3- 5 year vision and help them uncover the barriers blocking them from realizing its vision. Strategic directions are created. Strategic plans finish with a 1 year plan and a 90 day launch plan. Strategic plans can be modified to fit a groups unique needs.
In any organization its easy to get disconnected. A disconnected group has trouble working together. Groups also feel like they are continually being asked to produce and never recognized for their successes. The Wave and Celebrate meeting helps bring the group together to recognize each other and celebrate the work that has been done. This is a momentum builder for any organization. An organization experiencing silos appreciates this meeting as it brings everyone to the table around a positive goal.
A group came to me and said its meeting were all over the place. No one was agreeing on the end goal, new meetings were scheduled to hash out old meetings. This group faced a morale killer and a efficiency barricade.
This group was advised to seek ToP Facilitation Methods course. This course teaches the basics of collaborative meetings, teachings how to bring everyone to agreement, and seeks closure for every meeting.
After implementing these practices in their everyday meetings, meeting time lessened, people left the meeting in agreement, and with a clear purpose.
This is the class I started with that made me want to utilize and teach these methods.
Where do some of the best ideas come from. Sitting around a table having a cocktail or coffee with people who have a shared interest.
That’s what is created in a World Cafe meeting.
Working with a metro school system we conducted a world cafe meeting replicating the feeling of a neighborhood coffee shop. Questions were structured. Themes emerged.
The metro school system used these theme to evaluate its plans. To make sure it was working towards the same goals as the conversations people were having in the community.
The focus conversation method asks your group what to identify the rational aim of the meeting. What is the result. Also asks your group to identify how you group wants the members to feel when they leave the meeting. From there questions are created following a proven method called the, “ORID.” These questions asked in a specific way generate results.
Recently I sat in on a church committee meeting and did an ORID on the fly. The zoned in the on the meetings purpose. Questions were asked. Everyone group member provided feedback and a conclusion was made. I can create focused questions for your group or teach you how to make them yourself.
Action planning is a personal favorite. Having been a key member in many fundraisers, initiatives, and projects a great action plan keeps the project moving and keeps a group motivated.
I worked with a statewide nonprofit to plan a fundraiser. Before the group jumped into task mode. I helped them create a vision for a perfect event, helped them identify the key features of their event. We also studied our resources and pitfalls so that we could accommodate the vision. Only then did we get into the task work. Knowing where you are going and knowing what you’re group is capable are big keys to action planning.
To agree or not to agree. If the groups walks out of a meeting without agreeing what was the point of the meeting. To be clear agreeing isn’t throwing your own ideas out the window. Agreeing is working through all those issues to come to a consensus on what you can agree to live with. Consensus workshops help you theme your thoughts, have a great conversation, and work together to come to consensus. Recently I had a creative group trying to planning which ideas would get their focus. After a consensus workshop they came to an agreement on the themes of their projects and easily identified which projects would receive focus first.