How perfect is your memory? When you leave a group meeting, do you walk away remembering everything discussed and decided? If not, keep that pen and pad with you. And, if you're the one facilitating meetings, it's especially important for you to record the results of the meeting to keep the group's commitment and follow-through. Meeting notes are more important than you think, and in fact, looking beyond just meeting minutes, facilitators need to be responsible for the meeting documentation. The documentation from a facilitated session serves as the official record of the results of the meeting. So, how do you know what to record?

In a meeting or facilitated session, it is typical for participants to be initially reserved and very willing to allow others to speak first. As a result, it is not unusual for the first question that the facilitator asks to be met with complete and utter silence! This can be demoralizing for a facilitator, especially when it occurs at the beginning of a session – that time when you are hoping for high energy and great interaction. A great technique for maintaining focus within a group - in addition to the checkpoint you read about in my earlier blog - is warming up the group.

The Drivers Model is Leadership Strategies' methodology for strategic planning and the ultimate tool for masterful planning. The Drivers Model process covers seven key principles for masterfully planning any activity. The seven principles are summarized below. Let’s break down each one.

A Wise Choice: The Foundation for Fundraising A Posting by Gail Meltzer, CFRE From time to time, we are asked about the advisability of creating a separate private foundation to raise funds for an existing nonprofit. I’d like to offer an example of when such a foundation was a good idea and has provided great …

Issues with three more ships raise serious crisis management concerns Just as Carnival escaped its position at the top of the news cycle following the drama surrounding the lengthy Triumph tow, another of its ships, Elation, reported steering issues and was escorted back to a nearby port by tugs. At that point, Carnival execs had …

What is that exactly? Where do trainers come from? Are they born or made, as I like to ask my University students of “speakers.” Trainers are a little different. Trainers are made of parts, like the human body, and have many interacting functions or working parts. Without some parts they die. With others, they thrive. …

In Wally Bock’s Three Start Leadership Blog, I saw this boss’s tip of the Day: Boss’s Tip of the Day: Protect your people So often we forget this. So often we worry too much about our own career and our own protection. We forget that our success is determined by their success. This was a …

Ever feel a meeting start to drift? Not sure if your participants retained what was being said? Or, have you ever been unsure of how to (gracefully) transition to the next agenda topic? That's where checkpoints come in handy... Use a checkpoint at the beginning of a new agenda item or facilitated process to review, preview and big view.

Welcome to this six-part series on the foundations of consulting. If you have not been following along with us, then we encourage you to read parts 1-4, referenced from the bottom of this article. Part 1 establishes the basis for the series by using Peter Block’s definition of a consultant as someone who is trying …

The Drivers Model is the tool I have been using for over two decades to provide a robust yet simple method for taking an organization through strategic planning, project planning, program planning and numerous other planning activities. The Drivers Model is fully scalable and applies to Fortune 500 companies, non-profit organizations and government agencies, as well as an entire enterprise, a business unit, a field office, an individual department, or a work team. Let's start with the four key strategy questions the Drivers Model answers.