Consultancy on Large Group Facilitation and Large Group Events

Why large group facilitation?

Employee and stakeholderparticipation is in the core of change management, strategy processes, and many other organizational development processes. With large-group facilitation, large groups of up to 2,000 people can be utilised as valuable knowledge resources, involved in strategy or change processes, and encouraged to take joint action. With the involvement of the relevant stakeholder groups

1. strategies are designed,
2. action plans forged,
3. Implementation plans developed,
4. Future visions elaborated,
5. Processes and interfaces defined,
6. Teams developed,
7. Projects set up, followed up or evaluated
8. and the quality of cooperation in general improved step by step.

Large group events are therefore an indispensable element of organizational development and discursive consulting processes. As experienced large group facilitators, we work with different large group methods and advise you on which format achieves which effects and best fits your goals.

As far as complex challenges are concerned, we also design fitting formats around your individual requirements and integrate proven elements from effective processes to achieve targeted sustainable development.

In this article, we describe a selection of proven large group processes that will have a profound impact on your organization, highlight differences and similarities as well as proven attitudes, and provide you with some “hands-on” tips.

At first, we describe some of the the well-known formats, further down in the text we describe also some “custom-made designs”. that we have already successfully executet for some of our customers.

Customer testimonials about working with us

Future Search – Future Conference

• Leads heterogeneous groups in a proven sequence of individual steps to develop action plans, strategies, and a stable common foundation for future collaboration
• Creates an awareness of the common ground, takes a look at the challenges of the future (analysis of business environment) and develops a platform of shared values and action planning
• Proven in strategy development, development of visions and future plans, as well as in team development.

Our experience

We have already successfully used the format developed by Sandra Janoff and Marvin Weisboard in a successfully used, e.g. in strategy development, citizen participation or in extremely complex situations where hardly anyone believed in the possibility of finding common ground together. However, the format is quite time-consuming and requires 16 time hours to complete, spread over two, ideally three days.

World Café

• Bring groups of all sizes together to discuss selected questions of interest
• Uses people’s inclination to hold intensive discussions “in a café atmosphere”, but reliably provides excellent results
• Inexpensive, time-saving and efficient method, also for limited time budgets
• Suitable for developing action plans and strategies
• Ensures that many people produce useful results relating to specific questions within a very short time
• Generates resonance and gives feedback on keynote lectures or decisions taken by management

Our experience

We have already facilitated more than 100 World Café events. The method really works very well in all contexts, cultures and hierarchical levels. However, the questions do have to be well phrased and to the point We will gladly assist you with developing the relevant questions.

Open Space

• The participants gather under a common heading / motto
• The participants themselves raise the issues that are of most concern regarding the common topic
• In small groups the issues are dealt with and further topics are identified, which are adressed within the framework of the Open Space. The results of the group work are then fed back to the plenum.
• As a result of the discussions, projects are identified and an action plan is created.
• Ensures that the really important issues are dealt with and allows participants to take ownership of those issues
• Utilizes the potential of the entire “system”
• Suitable for dealing with many detailed questions, leaves participants space for topics that are of real concern to them, delivers tangible results andjoint action planning

Our experience

We have already held Open Space events with 870 participants. Larger numbers of participants are also possible. However, in addition to methodological competence, you need an experienced team and logistical reliability concerning planning and implementation. Ask us about our proven concept in a free initial consultation.

Real Time Strategic Change (RTSC)

• Particularly suitable for refining strategies and implementation plans and putting them into practice
• Whenever rough concepts are already available and employees or middle management are to be involved in the implementation
• Participants often work in their “own groups” (i.e. with colleagues with a similar function) to “break down” the rough concepts to fit their own area of responsibility
• Very flexible and effective format: RTSC consists of a comprehensive “method tool kit”. Depending on the objective, different building blocks can be combined in such a way that the goals of the large-group conference are achieved. Depending on the objectives, the different building blocks can be combined to achieve the goals of the large group conference.

Our experience

The flexibility of the method is its great strength: We apply the building blocks from the RTSC “method case” in the most diverse contexts and can also be used beyond classic RTSC conferences. The original format provides for conference lengths of 2 days. We have also implemented shorter strategy and change large groups very successfully in the RTSC format.

Large group format for strategy development – only 1 day!

When developing strategies, it can be useful to involve many stakeholder groups and knowledge holders in the strategy process. To this end, we have developed a format in which organizations and companies, within just one workshop day , can

1. formulatestrategic cornerstones
2. Foundinitiatives for implementation
3. and be able to make initial appointments for implementation.

–> You can read the details in our article“Strategy Development in Large Groups.”

Preparation of large group moderations

All large group methods should be preceded by a detailed preparation process. This ensures that the event can deal with the topics that are really important to the participants.

Representatives of all key stakeholder groups should be involved in the preparatory process. Only in this way can the concerns that seem relevant to the stakeholder groups be taken into account in the “headline” and in the pre-event communication. A successful preparation process significantly increases the likelihood that the outcome quality of the event will meet (or usually exceed) expectations.

Our experience

In a 2.5-hour preparatory workshop, we work with you and representatives of the key stakeholder groups to develop a common understanding of the content of the planned large group event. This already creates

• in advance motivation
• for actionable results during the event
• and for increased speed of implementation thereafter.

Basic principles of large group moderation

Basic steps

For all their differences, the large group methods described above also have much in common. Thus, all formats go through the following four basic steps:

Basic attitudes

• Facilitation is responsible for the overall process, not the outcome.
  However, through thorough preparation with clients, we ensure that the result does not fall short of expectations (but usually exceeds them).
• The method is only a means to an end.
  There are working, proven formats – but we adapt them if we believe it makes the goal even more achievable.
• Unpredictable things always happen – it all depends on how you deal with them.
  Practice makes perfect: Routine and experience in dealing with large numbers of participants and the dynamics in complex initial situations can only be acquired in practice. In us you will find an experienced sparring partner.

Implementation tips

1. Control only what you can.
   Thorough preparation is the “A&O”. We help you with this.
2. For the rest – provide a reliable framework!
   The different perspectives of the stakeholders should be incorporated into the preparation process in advance. This way you protect yourself and the participants from unpleasant “surprises” on site. Depending on the number of participants, an experienced team of helpers is needed on site. On request we offer all services of a “full service agency” including production office.
3. Brief all parties involved in detail.
   Whether it’s the board, technology, participant management – there are many “sources of error” lurking. We know (and avoid) them all.

Combination of multiple format elements (video)

Is it possible to combine or customize the formats?
Yes, that is quite possible.

Here you can see an example of such a “self-creation”: In this video we describe such a format.

In this example, we worked on the topic of culture change as part of a large group event with 230 executives in Switzerland. We reassembled the specially designed format from elements of the World Café, Open Space and RTSC and a creation of our own.

–> Our offer in large group moderation

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More about large group formats and events

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