Facilitation Approach

Facilitation, from the Latin, means, "to make less difficult." Facilitation simplifies the process of gathering complex information from many sources and developing consensus around critical decisions. It is an approach whereby key decision-makers and contributors are assembled to participate in, rationalize, and remove roadblocks to change. It breaks down traditional organizational boundaries, encouraging the involvement of people, and leveraging their collective intelligence for peak performance.

Faster, Better Results
SeeChange employs our Facilitation Approach on wide-ranging client engagements to get optimal results fast. Our trained and experienced facilitators use this approach on virtually all our client projects because:

• Information lies within people in the organization, and it is our job to draw it out so you can leverage it toward improvement.
• Involving people improves buy-in to change and improvement, leading to higher employee morale, and eventually staff retention and growth.
• It makes for faster and better results.

Facilitation contrasts with the traditional, serial information gathering approach. Not only does this traditional process take longer and require multiple iterations, it does not allow for teambuilding in the process. Most importantly, the serial approach results in solutions and decisions that do not address interactions among functions, nor the potential for improving those interactions.

Focus on Business Needs
SeeChange emphasizes the need for customized sessions with structured agendas designed to fit your unique organizational situation. We team with you to thoroughly plan the sessions to ensure they are productive and meaningful.

Key features of the SeeChange Facilitation Approach are:

• Leadership of sessions by experienced facilitators that apply proven approaches of active listening, group focusing and tracking, open items listings and reviewing, and consensus-building
• Use of a proactive scribe that applies structured methods for documenting session output so that it is ready and usable at the end of the session
• Application of process analysis expertise to help the group pinpoint needs and focus on improvement
• Use of highly structured agendas that are developed jointly with your organization and align with project goals and objectives
• Results-orientation that ensures a complete plan is in place and decisions are implementable

Critical Techniques and Experience
With many combined years of certified facilitation experience, SeeChange consultants possess the expertise necessary for successful and highly productive working sessions. Some of the critical techniques we employ include:

• Focusing on the process of decision making, so your team can focus on the substantive content
• Preparing thoroughly and using time and space intentionally
• Evoking participation and creativity, and affirming the group’s knowledge
• Reading the underlying dynamics of the group and releasing blocks to the process
• Assuming shared responsibility for the group’s journey, while maintaining objectivity
• Demonstrating professionalism, self-confidence, and authenticity, and maintaining personal integrity