Group Facilitation

Our experienced Facilitators will make it easier and more effective for your management group to unlock their combined knowledge, experience, perspectives and opinions, when focusing on a specific issue, task or project that ultimately impacts business performance.

  Group / Board Facilitation sessions are usually focused on one or more of the following:

  1. Addressing complex business issues
  2. Developing or implementing strategy
  3. Improving business performance
  4. Building a shared understanding
  5. Building consensus for a specific strategy, decision or courses of action
  6. Enhancing group or team effectiveness  

You will find our facilitated sessions are engaging, more productive and more rewarding and enjoyable for the participants.  They also build a shared understanding, consensus and unity within the group. In essence, it helps to get the best from a group and ultimately to achieve the best outcome for the organisation.

Our skilled facilitators will guide your group through a structured but flexible process that has been developed specifically to meet your purpose and objectives. The facilitator uses their experience and a range of techniques to make the most of the knowledge, experience, perspectives and opinions of all members of the group.  At appropriate times, the facilitator may also ask probing questions, based on their own experience, to provide clarity and confirm understanding.

Based on the specific objectives set, our facilitators can intervene to assist the group in:

  • Diagnosing and understanding complex problems
  • Identifying and evaluating options
  • Supporting the group in making informed decisions
  • Gaining consensus and agreement within the group
  • Ensuring all group members contribute and feel they have contributed
  • Openly and constrictively sharing ideas, perspectives and opinions
  • Clarifying and understanding key information
  • Building more effective team dynamics

Please call or email us to find out how we can help you.

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Frequently Asked Questions about Group / Board Facilitation

A facilitator can help your group work well together, share and develop thoughts and ideas, align thinking and gain consensus and bring out the best solutions to your business problems. Group facilitation is popular across the UK, particularly in London, because it encourages groups to bring out key issues and work together to fix them. A facilitator can break through an issue that a group has, alter group dynamics and improve working relationships. So, if you have a group or team that you need to get the best from, or if you’re implementing change, a group facilitator will be a great help for you.
We recommend a program of facilitation to meet the needs of your business and the group that you’d like us to work with. This could begin with a one-off session, or it could be a programme of ongoing sessions. Most people choose to work with us on a long-term basis.
You can ask for recommendations from work colleagues and business connections, or even friends and family. Searching online can also be helpful as you can look for good reviews on Google or Linkedin. A good group facilitation company will have a website showing the services they offer and will be open about the work they have done in the past.
Group facilitation is an unregulated industry, so there are no set qualifications. However, a good facilitator will have extensive business experience and may well be a coach or mentor too. Alan Aldridge is one of Catalyst’s top facilitators. He has been a management consultant for a decade and has worked with businesses to help them grow for twenty years.
You can approach a facilitator or company providing facilitation with a list of questions that will check how well suited they are to your business. A good company will have experience facilitating groups with similar issues to yours. Feel free to ask for referees and to speak to past customers about their experiences. Make sure you meet the facilitator in person whilst you are deciding who to work with and ensure there is a good chemistry.
Our facilitators will help your group or team to find answers to difficult questions, find solutions to issues, and find new ways of working. As a result, you can expect to increase sales, improve customer service and boost productivity. All of Catalyst’s clients report an improvement in their business performance as a result of our services.
An independent facilitator might be able to charge lower rates, but you might not achieve the results you are looking for from an individual. Facilitation is unregulated, so the quality of the service can vary across the industry. If you work with a facilitation company in the UK who you can trust, you can be assured that your facilitator is vetted, has suitable training and experience, and will therefore provide you with the very best service.
Facilitation tends to be charged per session or for a programme of sessions. At Catalyst we will work with you to create a facilitation package that suits you.
Most businesses come to us for facilitation support because they have a certain issue that they haven’t been able to solve internally. If this is the case, then our support will unlock potential by helping your group to solve the problem, which will provide immediate business benefits. If you want to calculate the potential return on your investment, you can add up the savings that would apply if you successfully addressed and resolved the issue and deduct from this the cost of the facilitation itself.

To have a chat about how group facilitation can help you and your business, get in touch. Find out more about our group facilitation services.