As the strategy leader, you have seven activities to which I recommend you pay close attention to build a strong strategy that has full buy-in and commitment. Let’s examine each of these activities.

Getting feedback on a facilitation process is an important part of ongoing learning, development and application for facilitators. However, people are often reluctant to give critical feedback. And, sometimes, when feedback is given, it isn't clear whether the feedback is the view of one individual or the entire team. The rated feedback process is a vehicle to help ensure you get quality comments and that you understand the amount of support for those comments.

A major difference between leading and facilitating is that a leader often tells; a facilitator always asks. In my book, The Secrets of Facilitation, 2nd. ed., I describe how I learned what I call the fundamental secret of facilitation.

Generating ideas and gathering facts are probably the most common functions performed by groups in facilitated sessions. In many sessions, the generating of ideas is crucial to arriving at creative solutions to the issue the team is tackling. We commonly use Brainstorming as the technique for generating ideas.

“I know I should delegate but: “I can do it faster…He won’t be able to get it done on time…she’s bound to make some mistakes.” These are things I’ve been hearing frequently from overworked, stressed out managers. I jokingly mentioned, in a recent presentation, if there was something in the air that’s causing this outbreak …

For any CxO or company seeking to adopt or scale Agile for their software development groups – get ready for some organizational soul searching! The mindset and processes of Agile reflect back your culture, your enacted (not espoused) Theory of Management, and the structural inefficiencies of your org chart…and these are just the beginning! Culture …

Developing strategy takes time and resources. It requires the time and commitment of some of the most highly paid and highly experienced people in your organization. So if your team is not willing to invest the necessary time, I recommend that you don’t do it. Poor planning is often worse than not planning at all. So why do you need a strategy? Why take time for planning? There are many reasons. But Leadership Strategies' Drivers Model focuses on five in particular.

ew facilitators truly understand the power of the pen. When facilitators don't record what participants say or when facilitators record their own words and not the words of the participants, we are abusing the power of the pen. Abuse of the pen can very easily lead to participants dropping out, participants arguing with the facilitator, and participants not buying into the overall result. How does the facilitator prevent abuse of the power of the pen? Here are two ways:

Truly commentary. In a recent comment, I promised that my next blog would focus on talent and performance. Some see talent as something you have or you don’t. I don’t see it quite so black and white. I believe someone can have inherent talent (or a natural ability) and others have to work hard at …

During my career, I have been given a few nuggets of wisdom from people with whom I have made contact. Upon truly understanding their meaning, those words shaped a paradigm shift in my thinking that transformed the way in which I did my work or lived my life. Other pieces of wisdom I heard simply …