Now you’re talking, but…
Are you getting results?
Are your meetings chaotic?
Is the lack of progress frustrating?
Do you wish you had the power to just decide, but you don’t?
Talking can be grueling especially when the purpose is not clear, the discussion wanders aimlessly, a few people dominate the conversation, and nothing significant is accomplished.
The heart of improving group effectiveness is skilled facilitation. CDR facilitators elicit participation, ownership, and creativity that helps people work together to accomplish their goals. We keep a group on its agenda, stimulate discussions, foster the development of agreements worthy of support, and document the process.
And we do much more! Often our most important work happens between meetings. We prepare for successful decision making at every step, sparking smart ideas, dealing with an impasse, managing difficult people problems or responding to cultural differences. People leave energized to implement agreements.
We provide facilitation assistance to a wide range of stakeholders in a variety of settings— from working on peace accords with local government officials and indigenous organizations to helping companies, government, and public interest groups negotiate crucial policy and operational decisions. Our experience in successful consensus building can help you:
- Generate a plan for boosting social and environmental performance in a local community
- Create a public policy for improving environmental impacts
- Develop a strategic direction for an organization
We work hard to grasp your substantive issues, but direct our primary attention to process concerns. You leave feeling satisfied with how the meeting was run, the results you achieved, and the opportunity you had to voice your views and influence the final outcome. We take our guidance from you, since the process and products belong to you.
CDR facilitation services provide:
- Stellar preparation. You can count on us to be persistent in obtaining the information needed to design a meeting that sets you up for success. We consult with you to make sure the meeting has a purpose, and that the right people are invited. We understand what you want to achieve, and the issues you want to address. We make sure these are reflected in a thoughtful meeting agenda that is acceptable to the group.
- Customized process architecture. We work closely with your group to develop discussion formats and group processes to suit the unique characteristics of your group and its situation. We have a responsibility to make sure that our meeting design and structures are sensitive to cultural factors so no one feels excluded.
- Equal access to information. We help you create knowledge and a common database through joint fact finding and the integration of different ways of knowing: scientific, technical, local, traditional, and customary.
- Familiarity with substance, focus on process. We maintain a firm grasp of the technical and scientific issues before the group, but give primary attention to process concerns.
- Intensive work between meetings. We help overcome impasses, assist with clarification or education regarding technical issues, and develop emerging consensus documents.
- Keeping things on track. We handle the special problems that cause meetings to go off course—individuals who dominate discussion, hidden agendas, cultural differences, angry publics.
- A large repertoire of consensus building tools. We help you maintain momentum under the most challenging circumstances.
- Drawing proposals and ideas from the group. Whenever possible, the job of developing good solutions belongs to the group. However, if necessary to move the process forward, CDR facilitators may provide “trial balloons” or “straw person” suggestions for group consideration, based on direction from the group, not on our own opinions.
- Building group capacity. You learn constructive problem solving and conflict resolution techniques and behaviors.
Examples of CDR facilitation services:
- Nebraska Governor’s Water Policy Task Force to develop a statewide water plan
- Mesa de Diálogo in Cajamarca, Peru to implement a mine-community dialogue
- School district dialogue between administrators and staff to improve working relationships following a sexual harassment investigation
- Middle East Desalination Research Center for Israeli, Palestinian, and Jordanian joint project development
