WHY YOU NEED AN OUTSIDE STRATEGIC PLANNING FACILITATOR

Are you on the board of an organization planning your next strategy planning session? Are you the CEO or Executive Director getting ready to do strategic planning with your board? If the answer is yes to either, there are a number of reasons why you should use a Strategic Planning Facilitator for your next strategic planning meeting.

Here are six reasons why using a Strategic Planning Facilitator, like True Compass Strategies, is right for your organization:

1. Facilitators provide you the chance to participate and contribute to the session
Facilitators provide you the chance to participate instead of lead. If you want to lead the session yourself, you cannot successful participate as well. It's very difficult and almost impossible to fully participate if you are also the one facilitating the session.

2. Facilitators have a specialized and developed process
This is exactly what facilitators do: they facilitate strategy meetings! Facilitators have a reasoned and thought out process to maximize the time and impact. They’re able to ask the right questions that produce the best results. You could do it yourself if you want to, but do you really want to take risks when you're betting on your organization's future?

3. Facilitators ask the right questions to get to the heart of the issues
Facilitators are neutral (as they should be) and are able to ask the tough questions for you without having any expectations or common misconceptions of what it means. Sometimes, sure, you might even think they are asking dumb questions, but these questions get to the heart of what matters most to your organization. Since they come from the outside, they can ask the right questions, at the right time, and in the right way to get the golden nuggets that are crucial for the long-term success of your organization.

4. Facilitators are neutral to the decisions
You need somebody who can lead you through the process who is equally neutral, someone who can help you get to the right place. No matter what you do, your choices do not impact the facilitators. This means that they can approach a session with no bias, because at the end of the day, you and your team have to live with the decisions made.

5. Facilitators show the importance of the planning process
Facilitators show that you're truly committed to the strategy and strategy development. If you have strategic planning offsite and you bring somebody from the outside to do it, it shows that you have made a commitment to the process, not just a financial commitment, but an emotional commitment to make sure that the strategy session provides the most impact for your organization.

6. Facilitators allow you to get more done
It's not just about getting the contributions or about creating the structure and the place for it. Facilitators act as the catalysts that kick you in the butt to move things forward and get those change initiatives happening. They help you move your organization forward faster, instead of living with some decisions that never get made or some legacy conversations that can't ever seem to get resolved.
 

Learn more about the approach True Compass Strategies uses to strategic planning. If this looks like a good fit for your organization, contact Jason Rae at jason@true-compass.com to learn more.