Facilitation & Retreats

How would you like to attend a planning session where the purpose is clear, the right people are present, and there is a systematic process in place to help the group achieve its goals in a timely and organized manner?

Higher Ground Consulting (HG) offers facilitation services for groups who need a neutral third party to provide a framework for guiding them through their critical meeting. Using a skilled facilitator enables groups to think more clearly and systematically, ensuring that you get your desired outcome(s).

Repetitive and continuous meetings are expensive in the long run. HG facilitation can reduce redundancy by maximizing your chances of getting what you need. Often facilitation prevents wasted energy, resources and time. How do I choose an effective facilitator?

Eight Roles of an Effective Facilitator

1. Guide

The facilitator must know the steps of the process from beginning to end, and must carefully guide the participants through each phase.

From the rousing opening statement to the closing words of cheer, the facilitator must ignite a fire within the group and keep it well lit. The facilitator must establish momentum and keep the pace.

Where other people see differences, the facilitator must find and use similarities to build bridges to consensus.

Throughout the session, the facilitator must watch carefully for potential signs of strain, weariness, aggravation and disempowerment — and respond in advance to avoid dysfunctional behavior.

5. Praiser

At every opportunity, the facilitator should praise the effort put forth, the progress made, and the results achieved. Praise well, praise often, praise specifically.

While it is almost always better to avoid a direct confrontation between participants, should one occur, the facilitator must quickly step in, re-establish order and direct the group toward a constructive resolution.

The facilitator is ultimately responsible for keeping the session on track; this means tactfully cutting-short irrelevant discussions, preventing detours and maintaining a consistent level of progress throughout the session.

At every opportunity, the facilitator must make a conscious effort to hear and understand the content, intent, meaning and feeling of what is said.

  • Develop team mission, vision and values
  • Create a team charter
  • Strategic and operational planning
  • Action planning
  • Work through problem situations
  • Make difficult decisions
  • Critical meetings and Retreats
  • Large events and conferences
  • Team building and performance improvement
  • Issue resolution and alignment
  • Debrief employee survey results
  • Gain employee feedback or buy-in

  • Executive teams
  • Board of Directors
  • Associations
  • Volunteer organizations
  • Project teams
  • Merged or acquired organizations
  • Cross-functional teams
  • Department, unit, division or branch teams

  • Colorado Judicial Branch
  • Hunter Douglas
  • Colorado Department of Transportation
  • The Joint Interagency Oversight Group
  • The Office of Behavioral Health
  • Town of Frederick Mayor and Board of Trustees
  • Colorado Department of Human Services
  • Division of Youth Corrections
  • FireFly Autism
  • Longmont United Hospital Board of Directors

Our Approach

The objective of facilitation is to achieve quality results within a deadline. Our facilitation process offers a flexible, realistic, and clear approach, while recognizing and capitalizing on the differing styles, strengths and opinions of the group.

  • Ensures clarity of task
  • Provides a process and thinking framework appropriate to that task
  • Navigates through tough issues and concerns not being addressed by the group/team
  • Strategically integrates challenges, objectives, and memorable processes that link and align with pre determined outcomes
  • Ensures the outcome of the session is “owned” by the group and can be implemented
  • Enables groups to channel their expertise to achieve the results they seek in the time available
  • Encourages full participation so no one dominates the agenda
  • Provides insights and observations about the team from a skilled and objective point of view
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Contact the Higher Ground Consulting team with your
questions and inquiries.
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