When our clients bring us in to facilitate workshops with stakeholders, we have an opportunity to help them be more strategic – making better use of the time and expertise which their stakeholders are sharing.

These tools are the building blocks of really strategic, effective engagement which helps our clients make better decisions and deliver better outcomes.

· What’s open to influence? Fixed / negotiable / open pie chart.

· What are the aims of our engagement? Transmit / receive / collaborate triangle.

· Who do we need to engage with and how intensely? Stakeholder mapping and its implications.

Put these together in an engagement action plan and you know whether you want a workshop, what its aims are, and who needs to be in the room. And then the facilitator can really add value!

I ran a workshop sharing these tools at the International Association of Facilitators Europe and Middle East conference in Paris in 2017. The handouts are here.