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Facilitation

How often have you been involved with full-day off-site meetings that have really just been jabberfests with more questions than answers, no true team unity and no actionable outcomes achieved?

Penny Burke The Essence philosophy of facilitation is that everyone should participate – however, we also believe that a certain amount of pressure is important to make sure clients get the best possible outcome. Not threatening or invasive pressure – but pressure that keeps the focus on outcomes that are actually able to be implemented by the group. After all, more often than not group members are the ones charged with the responsibility of organisational change or implementation of the outcome of these very workshops.

Effective facilitation is an acquired skill, and Penny Burke has spent many years honing processes and techniques to get results. Penny has developed a style of thinking she calls Forced Focus, to use intelligent and robust research design, to bring a team along, and to deliver solutions that are strategically sound, action oriented and outcome specific. Her second book in the Forced Focus series of books, Forced Focus, The essence of facilitation from confusion to clarity, is due in November 2007 and in it, Penny shares some of the secrets of facilitation that applies forced focus thinking to ensure usable and actionable outcomes.

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"We have found Penny to be an outstanding communicator, especially when facilitating marketing and brand planning discussions. Penny has a rare gift of being able to draw contributions from all team members and then harnessing that input towards outcomes that give everyone a sense of ownership. Having experienced this with Penny on a number of occasions now, we have no hesitation in recommending her for such projects with any of our clients in the future."

Rod Buchecker, Group Account Director, Clemenger BBDO Adelaide

Penny facilitates a large number of workshops and strategy meetings for a range of clients, and uses Forced Focus in getting agreement and forward direction from disparate members of a team. Her experience ranges from small groups of clients working on a project together (Royal Australian Institute of Architects, Victoria Racing Club, Sancella, Parks Victoria, Uniting Church in Australia) to broader groups of people who may not know each other yet require strong team buy-in (Customs Integrated Cargo Systems, Melbourne CityMission).

"I have had the good fortune to benefit from Penny's vast experience and skill now for 12 years. Penny's strong strategic mind enables her to effectively tackle the job at hand from both a theoretical and practical perspective. Having worked across many industries Penny is able to draw on a broad range of learnings to bring a fresh perspective to her client’s projects. In addition to her strategic mind, broad industry experience, theoretic knowledge and pragmatism, Penny has unrivalled focus which coupled with effective planning and organisation skills makes her highly efficient. It is this efficiency and focus that makes the difference in the planning, and facilitation of clients strategic workshops."

Katrina Jack, Marketing Manager, Sancella

If you think some clarity around your facilitation would be good but you’re not sure what type of help would be best, then complete the Essence on-line questionnaire to help isolate your key questions and concerns.

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