GENERAL
Q: What is a facilitator?
A facilitator is a person who helps a group of people to work together better, understand their common objectives, and plan how to achieve these objectives, during meetings or discussions. In doing so, the facilitator remains "neutral", meaning they do not take a particular position in the discussion.
The facilitator’s job is to support everyone to do their best thinking. They create an environment where everyone is encouraged to participate, understand one another’s point of view and share responsibility. In doing so, a group facilitator helps members look for elegant solutions and build sustainable agreements.
Q: What is the difference between a consultant and a facilitator?
A consultant has the knowledge and expertise on a specific topical area. They're often hired outside of an organization's payroll to complete something specific. This could be because you are looking for specific talent not currently found within your organization or you seek a subject matter expert for a short-term project. A facilitator on the other hand, has a depth and breadth of expertise in process. The organization may have an understanding of the subject matter and what their needs are, but they require outside assistance helping them think through their strategy to make the best decisions and define the best goals for their organization. In short, you hire a facilitators like Mosaic Engagement when you believe your team knows what to do, and you're ready to bring in a "guide on the side" to help guarantee action.
Corporate values & culture audit
Q: What are organizational values and why are they important?
Organization values are the core of who you are and how you operate. It's the backbone of all your decision-making. Your values ensure you and your employees' actions follow this simple and direct concept: "operate under these core ethics and principles no matter what".
Core values give an organization character and culture, and need to be authentically practiced by everyone in your organization. Values are not defined solely by boardroom executives, but need to be woven into the very fibre of the organization. Always keep in mind that a company itself doesn’t ‘create’ values, its people do. While much can go into building and developing values for an organization, it often it ends there. Once those values are created, the work to align behaviours with those values begins, and Mosaic Engagement is here to help your business define a clear plan to make sure that happens.
Q: Why is it a good idea to work with a facilitator when defining my organizational values?
Perhaps you don't know where to start. Maybe you start, but management can't agree or is struggling to engage in healthy conflict to collaborate on next steps and an implementation strategy. It's also possible that your management team doesn't have a representative who specializes in value creation and strategic planning, making it difficult to know if your decisions are going to drive your desired outcome. That's where a facilitator comes in. A facilitator recognizes that each team is unique, and that their involvement in the process is essential. They will guide the conversation in the right direction to develop clear values, goals and action items while allowing the team to collaborate and buy into key concepts along the way. They will ensure that next steps are clear and follow-up sessions will ensure the team has delivered on the right action items successfully, and that they've achieved their organizational goals.
Q: What happens during a Culture & Values Audit?
1. Gather input from the team about where things are at currently and what improvements could be made
2. Hear suggestions for solutions from those who actually do the work
3. Work with the team to identify recommendations to put a plan into action
strategic & Action Plan Development
Q: What is a strategic plan and why is it important for my business to have one?
A strategic plan defines who you are as a business and lists concrete actions to achieve clear goals and meet key objectives. When the unexpected occurs, a strategic plan helps your business survive and find new opportunities while staying true to your values and mission.
Having a solid plan can pay off for you and your business in increased revenue, employee satisfaction, goals being identified, tracked and achieved, less employee-turnover...the list goes on! There's only upside for you and your business. A strategic plan helps your organization establish goals and objectives while making key decisions regarding how you will achieve them. It doesn't have to be stuffy; strategic plan development can be a fun exercise for your team and gets them involved in the process of outlining the path from current state to desired status you want to achieve! If they help build the road, they'll be more likely to walk down it together.
Q: What is the first step in strategic plan development?
The first step is define your business vision, mission and values. If your team is starting here, feel free to contact us to discuss how Mosaic can assist with this. Not sure where you are at with this step? Visit my website blog for a quick checklist to find out where you are on the road to defining yours. It's critical to understand who you are and want to be for your customers and clients before you begin to carve out where you are going.
Q: Why is it beneficial to have a Facilitator present for my team's strategic planning?
Have you ever noticed your team getting stuck in what felt like a productive discussion, that perhaps veered off at some point, and by the end, didn't seem to conclude in an effective and organized way? Did your team come to any consensus? Were their any clear decisions or action steps defined before you moved on? Having a facilitator present during this important time for your business can help guide and organize discussions, and assist your team in conceptualizing your goals to develop and effective strategy. Key word: effective. So you can improve operations and performance and grow your organization on every level.
Q: What does the process look like when working with Mosaic Engagement on strategic development?
The big pieces of a strategic plan include the vision, mission and values, strategic pillars, successes, major areas, and action plans. While those are generally the same for many organizations, the content details are completely reflective of the organization who is creating the plan. At Mosaic, we pride ourselves on adapting delivery to best suit the team that we are working with.
Q: How often should my team review our strategic plan objectives?
Typically, strategic plans are in place for a 3-5 year cycle, depending what is right and makes sense for your organization. In some unfortunate cases, a strategic plan is developed to only sit on the shelf...this signals that maybe the right people weren't the ones involved in the creation of the plan, maybe the plan didn't involve representation from each area of the organization, or maybe the organization outgrew the plan. Any or all of these things may result it a plan that gets dusty on a shelf rather than revisited and lived. If this sounds familiar, that's okay! As they say, the best time to start was yesterday and the second best time is today. There is no wrong time to create, refresh or update an organizations strategic plan.
