The following guidelines will help you choose a strategy session leader:
It is very important for the candidate to have basic methods of moderation and facilitation, to have a document confirming advanced training in this area, preferably in Western programs. Those who have studied with foreign specialists have a good idea of how seriously they take the session, pay attention to all the details and can serve as an example (this is not the “move approximately here” method used by us).
The ability to present information, formulate key questions, and follow an algorithm in a way that seems natural to participants – all of this has a direct impact on the outcome of a strategic session.
A good facilitator should be overseas chinese in usa data prepared to talk about his or her experience in conducting meetings and provide relevant materials (although the topic of the session may differ). The main things to pay attention to are the correct sequence of stages, successful presentation of information, and adherence to the set goal.
If you have several candidates, compare the sessions they conducted, evaluate the methodology used and the level of responsibility, and then it will be easier for you to decide. Try to get acquainted with the opinion of the companies for which these meetings were organized.
It is useful for the leader of a strategic session to understand the company's specifics and the meaning of key terms. Otherwise, a funny situation may arise, for example, during a session in a company providing communications services, the leader understands the phrase "subscriber migration" (implying the transfer of subscriber data between systems) as the movement of real people in space, and bases all his questions on this assumption.
There are discussions on this subject: it is claimed that the moderator is not obliged to know all the nuances of the business and understand the wording of the topic. Indeed, on the one hand, for a specialist who has the right methods, there is no need for this. But at the same time, experience shows that the moderator's poor understanding of the subject of discussion can form an insufficiently serious attitude towards the session among the participants (they will start laughing or even consider it all a formality).
Tips for Choosing a Strategy Session Facilitator
If you are preparing a large-scale strategic session with multiple moderators, you need to make sure that the candidate has previously worked on drafting and implementing scenarios in a team (to avoid a situation where the results of one working group do not agree with the conclusions of another team).
It is worth paying attention directly to the personality of the leader. He must be able to build partnerships with the participants of the session, inspire trust and at the same time keep the process under control. People should have the illusion that they themselves do all the work, without any influence from the leader. In this case, the likelihood of further implementation of the decisions made by the participants increases. A bright and eccentric leader, who are often attracted to trainings, may not be the best solution. He can be memorable, but the peculiarity of a strategic session is the need to focus on the problem. It is extremely important not to forget about this.
If you want to check whether a potential presenter is really capable of putting the problem first, not himself, pay attention to how he behaves during the conversation. Tell him about a difficult situation and watch how he reacts to your words. Perhaps he will start praising himself, listing his merits - this is quite natural for those whose work is connected with managing large teams. But maybe the interlocutor will help you understand the problem, suggest an idea on how to cope with it.
It doesn't matter whether you are looking for a well-known company or an enthusiast who will find the right people himself. The main role here is played by the personal qualities of the expert, and not the scale of the organization.