Case Study - Facilitating a new sustainable business network
Bringing people together for the first time, to explore a topic that has proven to be a mire for many, and to emerge with an enthusiastic team can prove difficult – and is a wonderful experience when it goes right. Sussex Wildlife Trust and Business Link Sussex share a dream with Coaching Professionals around bringing together ‘players not spectators’ who want to discover a way of creating business success that is good for people and the planet. Here Tony Whitbread, Chief Executive of Sussex Wildlife Trust, shares his observations of the event Coaching Professionals was delighted to play a leading role in creating and delivering.
“I think good facilitation can be excellent in the way it can deliver and help discussions move forward. Mediocre facilitation can actually be very counter-productive. The ones that have worked best have been the ones where there has been good preparation beforehand, with getting up to speed with the issues that need to be facilitated.
What happened on the day with Neil was an example of how it should be done – it was great. We had lots of preparation because it was new stuff we were messing around with. There’s a danger with a small group that if you get one or two dominant people and one or two people that are particularly quiet it can be a challenge to make it all work. We didn’t have any of those problems. What worked well was that the engagement of people and the level of engagement. Everyone said something. Everyone said quite a lot actually. Nobody had trouble saying things. Everyone was put at their ease early on and we quickly got into a decent discussion. The planning also ensured the event attracted the right people. Everyone had the right mindset.
What told me that the event was a success was that at the end people were crying out for more.
This group facilitation with Neil will work for anyone who needs to engage people at high strategic level and sort out ways forward. Management can be about doing things right, leadership is about doing the right thing. Finding out ‘what doing the right thing’ is, is often more open ended and difficult to organise. These sort of strategic discussions, around “What are we going to do?” “How are we going to progress?” especially when you are talking long term –are difficult to structure.
This event was extremely exciting and showed what is possible. I would specifically recommend it for forward thinking people who want to create an event that really engages in a way business can understand.”
Tony Whitbread – Chief Executive – Sussex Wildlife Trust
If you would like your team event, facilitated event or seminar to be fun, creative, productive and effective, please call Neil on 01737 243589.