Challenging Meetings  +   Expert Facilitation   =   Productive Results

Expert meeting facilitation serves participants by achieving results in the allotted time, ensuring reasonable voices are heard, and affording the opportunity for effective decisions to be made. By having crucial meetings facilitated by an experienced moderator with no political stake in the outcome, the meeting's results do not wind up serving personal agendas. A skilled moderator removes the meeting venue from becoming a stage for personal grand-standing. A practiced facilitator aids a group in effectively framing situations in terms of reasonable options and ensures that any decisions are made explicit to all participants. An independent moderator can move a group back and forth between the long-term and the short-term viewpoints and reveal both the benefits and risks of each.

Most groups can benefit greatly by having their critical meetings, such as product lifecycle discussions, build-vs-buy decisions, and strategic offsite conversations, facilitated by an independent moderator. Having someone to pay careful attention to the meeting process affords all participants the opportunity to focus on the meeting content -- the topics, the discussions, and the decisions. Time is better spent, work gets done faster, outcomes are of higher quality, and frustration is diminished.

Meeting facilitation is a subtle art that improves only through relentless practice. We've all spent far too much time in meetings that went nowhere, that avoided the tough topics, or failed to yield informed decisions. Having the conversational flow of an important meeting adeptly guided via a targeted agenda, with appropriate visual aids, and attention to the group dynamics leads to a situation where the meeting time can become a valuable group process. We all know the alternative -- most of us live with it every day.

Jamie Dinkelacker has decades of experience working with technology-based distributed teams. He's held managerial positions with companies ranging from venture funded startups such as Netscape to global Fortune corporations like HP and Apple. Jamie is an expert meeting facilitator, and in addition to moderating countless meetings, he has conducted hundreds of focus groups, and taught graduate school seminars for over ten years.

Expert Meeting Facilitation

Activities

> An extended conversation with the manager and senior staff to discuss the upcoming meeting and establish a practical agenda for the time allotted
> A series of conversations with select personnel about the topic at hand, and the overall value of related meetings to date

Work Product

> A written agenda
> Personal facilitation of the meeting according to the agenda with ample use of visual aids including notes
> A written reflection on the meeting that draws out salient themes
> An in-person debrief and Q&A with appropriate managers regarding the outcomes of the facilitated meeting

Details

> Duration: Contingent upon timing of meeting and complexity of preparation time; often requires a two week advanced notice. Tuesdays are not presently available.
> Fees: Contingent upon the schedule of the engagement -- typically in the range of $1,500 - $3,000
> Location: Silicon Valley, Monterey Bay, and the Greater San Fransciso Bay area

Start Now! Practice Being "Better Together"

If you're a manager and would like a personal conversation with Jamie Dinkelacker about meeting facilitation, please call 650-941-2648 in Los Altos.