Oftentimes the level of productivity in a meeting can indicate the health of an entire culture. A bad meeting can very well be a symptom of processes and critical relationships eroding under the pressures of running a successful business. While Soundboard includes meeting analysis, executive team meetings, and company off-sites in our overall process you can also retain a Soundboard facilitator to manage a critical meeting or refresh your organizations standards around collaboration.
Every meeting has its own unique dynamics, driven by the personalities in attendance and the issues at hand. It is difficult to juggle these dynamics while actively participating in the meeting at the same time. Soundboard facilitators can free you to participate more effectively in your own meetings. Our Soundboard Facilitators focus on all aspects of the meeting process so that the sessions are more productive, time-effective and achieve clearly defined goals and expected results.
At Soundboard, we are highly skilled at creating and enforcing ground rules, guiding groups, keeping meetings energized, fostering open collaboration and ensuring everyone’s voice is heard.
Our team manages/facilitates this process in over 150 meetings/sessions per year. We guarantee that our clients leave each session with actionable items to work on and a Soundboard Team member is available to them to follow-up with and/or reach out to at any time.
Our proven three-step process that consists of pre-meeting planning, facilitation of the event, and post-meeting follow-up. From start to finish, this process is designed to:
- Maximize participation without wasting time
- Neutralize negative dynamics
- Transform conflict into creative problem solving
- Utilize the most appropriate decision-making process
- Secure the support of key stakeholders
- Develop a process of post-meeting follow through
Types of Facilitation:
To have a strategic plan that is current and actionable is a critical management tool. Every company has its own unique situation and needs: a small not-for-profit, a growing entrepreneurial driven company and a Fortune 500 company all have different goals and objectives. Our Soundboard certified facilitators work with their clients to understand the different dynamics within their organization. They then provide the client with the tools and techniques needed to get the results they seek in a manner that will work within their culture.
We work with our clients to:
- Clarify the mission, vision, and values of the business
- Understand the current reality of their business
- Define key short- and long-term objectives
- Allocate resources: financial, human capital, etc.
- Build a cohesive team with strengthened accountability
- Establish key metrics to monitor progress
Bringing your “key” managers together on a regular basis can be expensive, but it is critical to the short- and long-term success of any business. We can help you make the most of these meetings by creating environments that are focused, productive, and lead to clear action plans. Whether your management team meets weekly, monthly or less often, a formal process must be put in place to support the success of the meetings.
Our services include:
- Full Facilitation Services: Certified facilitators manage the entire meeting process: agenda creation through post-meeting recaps.
- Facilitation Training: Our facilitators train your managers/leaders to run meetings more effectively and efficiently, themselves.
- Management Meeting Content and Tips: We provide tools that support agenda creation, meeting time allocation, and ground rule enforcement. These tools also show how to best capture meeting minutes and provide guidelines for post-meeting follow up and tracking.
Fulfilling the core mission of your business or organization can be difficult when there are competing/conflicting agendas. The perspectives and desired outcomes can be very different between outside Board members and the operating officers of the organization. Having agreed-upon ground rules, clearly-defined objectives, relevant meeting topics and a plan for follow-through are all critical for meeting success.
We support Boards of Directors and advisory boards by:
- Coaching Executive Directors and Board Leaders in preparation for board meetings
- Co-creating meeting agendas
- Professionally facilitating board meetings
- Managing more difficult and competing board members
- Providing a summary report and post mortem of the meeting, after the meeting