by John Carroll

You know your business intimately. You have people around you whom you trust for advice. Every day you are immersed in the details of sales, or product development, or customer service. And that is exactly why you should never try to facilitate your own strategic planning process.

Reasons for retaining a professional facilitator

For effective strategic planning, you need an outside perspective. Someone with no ax to grind, with no huge stake in the outcome of the written plan, gives you a tremendous advantage in the planning process.

If you are considering the idea of handling the planning process internally, answer these two major questions before you proceed. First, who in your organization has the skills to lead and facilitate the planning itself? Second, will that person be able to divorce herself/himself from the content of the planning to focus on the process and what are you sacrificing by not having that person contribute to the plan’s content? I have yet to see an organization that can answer these in such a way as to justify using a facilitator from within its ranks.

What it takes to facilitate effectively

There is a specific facilitation skill set, which is invaluable to the planning process. Here’s what you’re looking for:

1. Effective listening : This is the single most critical and the toughest skill. Most of what your facilitator will be doing throughout the process is listening to the contributions of participants. Since you want the best ideas and concerns of your planning team to surface during the process, you need a facilitator who will hear, restate for clarification and record those contributions. You’re asking for trouble by trying to plan without a good listener in the front of the room. You run the risk of half or more of your planning team disengaging from the process.

2. High control, low domination : The skilled facilitator maintains control of the process even when it appears that any semblance of order has departed. Controlling the overall process without dominating the conversation and stifling contributions is key to the fine art of planning facilitation.

3. The ability not to record faithfully : Not everyone has a valid input, and if you dutifully record them all, the meeting will be tedious and unproductive. A superb facilitator knows how to sift through contributions and help participants restate a thought in clearer, more concise terms.

4. Strong consensus building : Unless you have a one-person planning process, your planning team will disagree on goals, objectives and specific activities to accomplish them. One of the facilitator’s primary roles in the process is to lead the group through disagreement at each step of the process. There will be some sticking points along the way, where simply asking the group for agreement falls short. You must be prepared and able to work through such spots by restating the situation, checking for specific areas of disagreement and what will be required to gain full support by participants.

5. Impartiality without subservience : This goes right along with building consensus. If the facilitator has strong opinions about the issue at hand, he or she must often withhold those in the interest of allowing the group to decide how it will state a goal or quantify a specific business objective. This can be particularly challenging when the facilitator belongs to the organization and has been intimately involved in such issues.

6. Keen sense of timing : This is where your facilitator needs to understand the art of facilitation as well as the science. The time required for discussions around specific issues or parts of the strategic plan can vary widely. In preparation for the planning process, I often advise clients that the process will take a specific number of hours or days overall. I also caution them that it’s nearly impossible to forecast when we’ll complete a specific item on the agenda. One can never tell which part of the process will gain agreement within minutes while another will become the subject of an intense discussion. No two situations are identical.

7. Sensitivity to the planning team’s energy level : Strategic planning requires the best thinking of your best people, i.e., hard work. Your facilitator needs to be tuned into the ebb and flow of energy during the process. The timing of stretch breaks, meals and adjourning for the day or the evening is critical to the resulting plan’s content. You get your best planning from participants, not hostages.

8. Primary focus on process : Since the facilitator is the keeper of the process, the steps of your planning and their importance should be clear to participants. Occasionally, a participant will raise a process question by asking the facilitator to close the discussion and move ahead. In these situations, the facilitator can ask the group for a consensus decision, making sure that the concern at hand is addressed properly. It’s also critical that the facilitator maintains control of the process and moves within the group’s ability to reach consensus.

Choosing the right outside help

Do your homework before you bring in an outside facilitator for your long-range plan. Learn all you can about the person’s experience in your industry, in your size of business and in recent engagements.

In checking references on your facilitator, ask about required pre-work, about the planning sessions themselves and about the finished product of the planning. Inquire about this person’s ongoing involvement in the follow-through on your plan. Even ask about the steps of the process to see if they make sense for your organization.

Be specific with your questions. Did the facilitator keep things moving in the planning or did it bog down repeatedly? Was she/he able to engage everyone and get the best thinking of the participants? Are you still working with this person? Would you hire him/her back to update your plan or help you check progress on the plan?

Once you have these questions answered to your satisfaction, simply check on other facilitation skills as noted above. Positive answers to these questions should result in getting what you need for your planning process.

Where to look

Ask your friends and business associates about any experiences they’ve had in long-range planning. Your own network can often be the best source for referrals of the right person. Be thorough by asking the questions above.

Other sources for planning facilitators include local non-profit organizations that have done planning, local community/technical colleges that often have a facilitator on staff and your local Chamber of Commerce.

Take the time to plan well for your strategic planning process. Finding the right facilitator for your organization can make or break the plan you’re about to create for the future direction of your organization.

John Carroll is President/CEO of Unlimited Performance, a Mt. Pleasant, SC, firm focused on organizational and individual performance improvement. Brian Tracy International, a worldwide network of consultants, has recognized him for sales excellence. Contact him at 1-800-672-4277 toll-free, email at jcarroll@uperform.com, fax at (843) 881-6746.

© 1999 John Carroll All rights reserved.