Facilitated
Workshops
Professionally designed & facilitated to put your business on a path to real success in our rapidly changing world
Facilitation has been called the key to unlocking the gold mine of knowledge and wisdom that is buried in the hearts and minds of your people.
A well-designed and professionally facilitated workshop will benefit your organization in many ways – from improving teamwork and aligning team members, to building consensus around the path forward and how to position your organization for greater success.
Our Defining Workshops™ tackle some of the most important issues confronting business leaders. Each Defining Workshop™ includes any necessary pre-work such as an online survey or personal (key informant) interviews, one or more facilitated sessions, and a summary of decisions made.
Find out more by clicking on any of the following:
Delivered in person or virtually anywhere in the world!
Defining a Vision for Your Business or Major Initiative
Vision Statements serve as a guiding beacon, inspiring people and focusing an organization or a major initiative on a desired future. They encapsulate aspirations and fundamental objectives, setting a clear and motivating path into the future.
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A well-crafted Vision Statement transcends mere words, becoming the heartbeat of an organization’s culture and influencing every decision, strategy, and interaction. It aligns teams, empowers leadership, and shapes the way an organization presents itself to the world. When deeply integrated into an organization’s fabric, a Vision Statement becomes a powerful tool for cohesion, direction, and inspiration.
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However, shaping this pivotal statement isn’t always straightforward. It requires introspection, collaboration, and a deep understanding of the organization's core identity and aspirations. Our workshop is expertly designed to guide teams through this process. Through interactive sessions, reflective exercises, and collaborative activities, participants will craft a Vision Statement that resonates with both internal stakeholders and the wider world.
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This workshop is essential for any organization aiming to crystallize its direction, unite its team under a common banner, and project a compelling vision that attracts talent, drives productivity, and solidifies its brand identity. Join us to define the future of your organization with clarity and inspiration.
Defining Your Organization’s Purpose
A well-articulated Purpose acts as a north star, guiding decision-making, inspiring employees, and connecting with customers on a deeper level. It gives voice to the ways in which an organization impacts the lives of the stakeholders who are important to its success.
The Defining Your Organization’s Purpose package includes:
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one-on-one interviews prior to the workshop with a selection of participants to get,
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acquainted with the organization and its brand story, find out how the organization,
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is positioned, and explore what it is good at,
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a briefing note consisting of an agenda, interview highlights, and reading materials,
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a one-day facilitated workshop for up to 12 participants, and
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a summary of decisions made and next steps.
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In the workshop, facilitated conversations are built around such questions as:
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When you first joined the organization what about it resonated with you?•
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What specific needs does our organization address?
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How do we differentiate ourselves from the competition?
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In what ways are we making a difference?
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What do we want to be known for?
In breakout groups and plenary sessions, participants will take a deep dive into these and other questions, formulate explicit answers to, “Why do we exist?” and “How are people better off because we do?”, and develop one or more Purpose statements to test and validate. In addition, participants will have an opportunity to consider guidelines and action plans for:
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implementing the Purpose throughout the organization, and
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communicating it both internally and externally.
Summing up…
A clear, authentic, and lived Purpose helps to align and motivate employees, foster customer loyalty, drive innovation, and contribute to the organization's long-term success and positive impact on society.
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Defining Your Organization’s Purpose is about much more than creating a feel-good statement. It's about setting a foundational direction that will play an essential role in guiding the organization's culture, strategy, and operations for years to come.
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For more information or to book your Defining Workshop, contact Chris Ward, Principal, at: Chris@StrategicDirections.ca or +1 (416) 433-1153.
Defining Your Strategic Priorities
As noted business executive and professor of strategy Willie Petersen has stated, “Strategy is the necessary response to the inescapable reality of limited resources.”
With this in mind, the task of your leadership team is to identify a limited number of priorities on which to focus your limited resources.
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In this workshop, participants will consider various factors that will have a major impact on performance. If necessary, we will undertake research to Whether you believe the greatest gains can be found in client retention, order fulfillment, customer satisfaction, digital transformation, distribution management, leadership, member value, staff engagement, or something else, the goal will be to agree on up to six priorities on which to focus in the months and years ahead.
Defining & Analyzing Your Situation
A solid situation analysis provides the foundation for the development of sound business strategy. The objective is to build a deep understanding of your environment and your own realities.
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As distinct from a standard SWOT analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats – this situation analysis reframes the SWOT to focus more on future issues than on today’s realities.
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In this workshop, your team will address such questions as:
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What compelling opportunities could we pursue?
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What compelling threats are currently or potentially going to pressure us to change what we do and the way we do it?
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What present capabilities and capacity can we leverage, and what might we need to acquire?
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What vulnerabilities could hold us back from being able to take advantage of opportunities or deal with threats?
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The output from this collaborative conversation will be a realistic appraisal of your environment and the identification and prioritization of factors that are likely to affect your success in the years ahead.
Defining Your Core Values & Behaviours
Core Values are beliefs, principles, and behaviours that an organization prizes above all others. They both determine and reflect an organization's culture and the behaviours expected of management and staff.
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When core values are defined in ways that matter to the organization, embraced by all employees, and incorporated into their day-to-day dealings with each other and with external stakeholders, the result is a positive, productive culture in which employees work collaboratively to execute a business strategy and achieve specific objectives.
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Of course, culture is not something tangible you can pick up, examine, and modify. Rather, it’s more of a feeling, an atmosphere… the vibes that are given off by people working in close proximity. That’s why it is so important to identify the core values that are or will have a positive influence on your organization's culture, define them, and work with all employees – from C-level executives to the most recent hires – to inculcate them in the way employees act and treat each other (and your customers) on a day-to-day basis.
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This workshop is a must for any organization looking to build a strong brand, increase productivity, and create a work environment that attracts the most qualified employees, and encourages top performers to stay.
Defining your Value Proposition
Buyers are, by definition, self-centered. What’s in it for me? is their mantra. Answer this question to their satisfaction and there’s a good chance that your organization, product or service will be short listed, or selected. Fail to do so and you can pretty much kiss the business goodbye.
Every successful company makes a promise that resonates with prospects,
differentiates the business and provides would-be buyers with a compelling
reason for trying and buying. Through constant repetition and impeccable delivery, it’s possible to transform the business landscape, in the process creating preference for your products and services and loyal, committed customers
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This workshop brings decision-makers together to collaborate on answering the question, “If I do what you want me to do (call, buy, join, subscribe, and so forth), what’s in it for me?” The goal is to create a value proposition that will resonate, differentiate, motivate, and provide would-be customers with a compelling reason for trying and buying.
Custom workshops tailored to your exact requirements
There is nothing we like more than designing and facilitating a workshop to achieve a your special outcome – an issue you're wrestling with that you'd like your leadership team to spend time on.
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In the last 20 years, we've facilitated hundreds of workshops, each designed to achieve a specific objective.
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In preparation, we take the time to familiarize ourselves with the participants and the issue being discussed. We prepare a briefing package that contains an agenda and brings participants up to speed on different viewpoints. In some cases, this package includes highlights from key informant interviews or an online survey we have conducted.
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By way of example, we have designed and facilitated:
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a meeting of the board of directors of an NGO to discuss and make decisions around six strategic issues to provide coherent guidance to the new CEO in advance of preparing the organization’s strategic plan,
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a meeting of the leadership team of a life insurance company to develop a set of principles to guide the CIO’s management of the company’s digitally-stored data,
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a meeting of the board of directors of a professional association to address an issue that had gone unresolved for over a year, and
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a kick-off meeting of 24 people from three companies involved in a joint venture partnership to bid on an expansion of the GO Rail System. Over two days, participants:
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created a coherent statement of direction,
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articulated a Unique Selling Proposition,
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identified the Key Success Factors that were likely to affect the success of their bid, and
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established a plan of action for the next phase of the bid process.
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