Facilitation Services
Facilitation Done Right
As trusted advisors, we offer honest, thought, and experienced advice. Whenever you have a major strategic or operational need that has to get done right, we’re ready to support you.
There are two main reasons clients call on Rhapsody most when it comes to our facilitation services.
First is to help support their most important decision-making processes. Our team has deep experience guiding powerful conversations in a focused, unbiased, and action-oriented manner.
The second area in which we provide facilitation services is to help drive the Strategic Planning process for our clients. The trajectory you set as a team will shape your activities and outcomes for years ahead. We work closely with you to ensure you have the right people involved, you have the information you need, and the process you embark on will yield powerful results.
Better Results Faster
There are some parts of every business that benefit from external support. Areas where we need an external perspective—unbiased professionals who can help navigate the pitfalls and enable your organization to succeed … faster.
World-Class Facilitation
The quality of your most important conversations can mean the difference between your organization’s success and failure.
Pulling together a group and trying to facilitate a high-stakes session while also participating in the conversation is difficult at best—and destructive at worst.
You’re simply not going to get the outcomes you are looking for and deserve. Here’s why.
Sometimes, we’re too invovled and invested. And no matter how hard you try, it’s impossible to completely detach yourself from the issues. It’s not a failing or a weakness. It’s simply human nature. If you’re part of the organization, you’ve got skin in the game and that’s going to affect how you facilitate the conversation.
You need someone with an outside perspective. It takes a professional with deliberate facilitation techniques and proven models to help you get the most out of the time you’ve set aside and to help you get the results you’re after.
It takes someone whose only agenda is facilitating the conversation, keeping it on track, and getting the best possible outcome.
You Can’t Facilitate Yourself
Don’t worry it’s not you. No one can facilitate themselves. But lots of organizations try.
There are questions you just can’t ask yourself—questions you wouldn’t think to ask—that absolutely need to be asked. You need someone else to ask them.
There are other reasons as well. Watch the video to find out more.
Facilitation Experience You Can Trust
A recent survey of 1,600 people asking what frustrated them most about meetings had responses that included lack of organization, no clear purpose or objective, getting off track, overly redundant messages and having no specific action items or walk-away points.
Our facilitators have the training and experience to design and conduct dynamic and effective meetings and sessions. We know how to provide a process and environment that engages participants while keeping teams focused.
We’ve facilitated for a wide range of organizations including:
Not-For-Profits & Associations
- Barrhaven BIA
- Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police
- Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs
- Canadian Energy Pipeline Association
- Canadian Volunteer Fire Services Association
- Citizens for Public Justice
- Downtown Rideau BIA
- Heart of Orléans BIA
- Institute of Internal Auditors Canada
- National Dental Assisting Examination Board
- OnTrace Agrifood
- University of Ottawa Alumni Association
- Waterloo UpTown BIA
- West Ottawa Board of Trade
Public Sector
- Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
- Canadian International Development Agency
- City of Calgary Fire Department
- City of Kingston
- City of Ottawa
- City of Toronto
- Defence Research & Development Canada
- Department of National Defence
- Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre
- Health Canada
- Industry Canada
- Operation Intersect
- Privy Council Office
- Province of New Brunswick
- Province of Saskatchewan
- Public Safety Canada
- RCMP
- Surrey Fire Service
- Toronto Police Services
- WSIB
Companies
- Bell Canada
- BMO Financial Group
- Bruce Power
- Microsoft Canada
- Nexen Inc
- Ontario Power Generation
- Oriana Financial
- RBC
- Rogers Communications
- Siemens Canada
- Telus Communications
International
- African Union
- APEC
- Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited
- Department of Homeland Security
- G8
- OECD
- U.S. National Infrastructure Advisory Council to the President of the United States
STRATEGIC PLANNING
The major problem organizations face with strategic planning is that they THINK they’re talking about strategic planning, but they’re not.
Usually, they’re talking mainly about tactics. There’s a difference, and it’s significant. Instead of having conversations about the direction and future of their organization, they get bogged down in the here-and-now.
Executing tactics are important, but tactics should be determined by your strategy, not the other way around.
Developing a strategic plan might seem like an overwhelming process. It’s often criticized as taking too much time, while delivering too little action. But it’s usually described that way by people who are doing it wrong. If you’re planning a new business, or striving to take an existing business to the next level, the right strategy is critical to your success.
The right strategy can help a struggling organization get back on track. It can help a good organization blaze a new path to growth and expansion. But the greatest value of a strategic plan comes from the kind of clarity that leads to focused action.
Creating powerful strategies
You may have a passionate team, but without a clear plan you’re left with methodless enthusiasm — lots of action but no clear direction.
We can help you design an action plan to get you there.
A powerful strategy isn’t necessarily a complex strategy. Strategy shouldn’t be a measured by how complex it is, but by its clarity and effectiveness. Effectiveness is measured by how well you can execute a strategic plan, because the more complex the strategy, the more complex its execution.
The true test of strategy is execution.
~Trefor Munn-Venn
Your strategy shouldn’t be a secret. Strategy doesn’t live solely with your executive team. It lives with every person in your organization. When you’re getting bogged down in the day-to-day, here-and-now world we all live in, knowing the strategy and having it as a decision-making guide helps keep your entire team on track.
Most organizations don’t know where to start. They don’t know how to facilitate the discussion, what to prioritize, and how to take the next steps.
That’s OK.
We’ve helped organizations large and small, across North America and around the world. We have the tools and methodology, and a team that is trained and experienced in using them. We know the process to help you design a strategy that can transform your organization.
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