Facilitating an Effective Strategic Planning Process

Regardless of goals, there’s one thing that can be said about every strategic planning process: The stakes are high. So you need to get equipped with a complete and agile toolbox of facilitation techniques and skills. How can you get the right people—and get them to actively contribute? How can you prevent assertive personalities from taking the session off-track? How can you make sure your goals are effectively defined and that you have all the right elements in place?

This course combines effective facilitation with strategic planning. It’s carefully crafted into three segments covering early discussions and agreements, strategic planning facilitation and implementation. You’ll leave with hands-on experience and a comprehensive strategic planning toolbox that effectively prepares you to launch into any strategic planning facilitation.

Pre-Work: The pre-work content and activities are provided as a foundation for all participants to ensure the use of consistent terminology in the program, and as a facilitation and strategic planning refresher. The pre-work serves as a review of core skills to establish a common departure point and will only be reviewed at an intermediate level in the course.

• Gain a clear understanding of your role in the facilitation process
• Adopt a set of proven and commonly used tools
• Know which discussions and decisions should occur prior to your strategic planning session
• Ensure up-front clarity and agreement regarding expected results
• Decide the best strategic planning approach/process to use and customize it
• Determine clear processes, logistics and considerations throughout the entire process
• Build in metrics and schedule meetings to assess milestones and measure progress towards goals
• Get buy-in early and throughout the process to optimize success

• Establishing agreements, consistent definitions and success metrics
• Setting parameters for team selection and role assignments
• Understanding and choosing an appropriate strategic planning model, frame of reference, and related decisions • Agreeing on logistics, scheduling needs and considerations
• Knowing the key components of the strategic planning process
• Translating the strategic planning process into tactical action and communication plans
• Enabling innovative thinking in managers and leaders
• Using simulation to demonstrate your understanding of new practices and tools
• Delivering organizational results through an effectively facilitated strategic planning session
• Establishing next steps and moving toward the execution phase
• Conducting regular review sessions to check progress towards milestones
• Establishing processes to align the organization, communicate the plan, and get organizational buy-in

Learning Objectives

• Understand the Early and Necessary Discussions and Agreements Required to Successfully Facilitate Strategic Planning Sessions
• Leverage the Format of a Classic Strategic Planning Approach, to Learn a Set of Proven and Commonly Used Tools to Successfully Move the Strategic Planning Process to Tactical Action and Communication Plans
• Establish Processes to Move into the Execution Phase, Conduct Regular Review Sessions, Align the Organization, Communicate the Plan, and Get Organizational Buy-In

Before–Early Discussions and Agreements

• Understand Your Organization’s past Strategic Planning Experiences and Your Culture for Change, Including How Organizational Success Is Defined
• Develop a Consistent Understanding of Definitions and Terminology
• Establish Team Selection Criteria and Role Assignments
• Understand and Choose an Appropriate Strategic Planning Model, Frame of Reference, and Other Related Decisions
• Determine Performance Measures to Assess Milestones and Progress Towards Goals
• Ensure Up-Front Clarity and Agreement as to What Results Are Expected of the Process
• Agree on Logistics and Scheduling Needs and Considerations

During–Strategic Planning Facilitation

• Deepen Your Understanding of the Key Components of the Strategic Planning Process
• Learn a Set of Proven and Commonly Used Tools to Successfully Move the Strategic Planning Process to Tactical Action and Communication Plans
• Learn Practices and Tools to Enable Creativity and Innovative Thinking in Managers and Leaders
• Through Simulation, Demonstrate Your Understanding of These New Practices and Tools
• Learn How to Drive Organizational Results through an Effectively Facilitated Strategic Planning Session

After–Strategic Planning Implementation

• Establish the Next Steps in Moving toward the Execution Phase
• Conduct Regular Review Sessions to Check Progress Towards Milestones
• Establish Processes to Align the Organization, Communicate the Plan, and Get Organizational Buy-In

Download Extended Seminar Outline PDF