Overview
Every business faces inflection points or moments of opportunity that can, if handled effectively, place the organization on a new upward trajectory. However, many companies struggle to either identify these moments or don’t have the foundation in place to handle them effectively.
The Beacon Group has made it our mission to support organizations through these inflection points. We are here as your trusted facilitation consulting partner in planning and designing the right structures to effectively manage the dialogue around some of the biggest organizational challenges.
The Benefits
Involving a third-party in your organization’s most sensitive conversations is difficult – we get it. We seek to earn your trust as a partner and believe our involvement and expertise can bring immeasurable benefits:
Decades of Experience
Over the past quarter century we have seen it all. We have played a key role in facilitating difficult conversations for organizations of all shapes and sizes.
Unbiased Perspective
A pair of fresh eyes can reveal the things buried behind routines and habits. We bring an impartial view of the things that are holding your organization back.
Proven Track Record
Whether strategic planning, conflict resolution, alignment, or full-on crisis management, we have helped dozens of organizations navigate the rough waters.
Trusted Partnership
We take the time to get to know each organization, the individuals within and your specific challenges in order to earn your trust and be an effective partner.
Our Facilitation Services
Progress is about embracing change – but that’s easier said than done. The Beacon Group is here to be your go-to change management consultant. We bring decades of experience facilitating a wide range of discussions, projects, and strategic efforts that can help your organization make the jump from good to great. Our areas of expertise include:
Strategic Planning
Uncertainty and change have become the norm – it is no longer viable to assume that past trends will continue into the future. Predicting the future is a difficult and risky endeavour at the best of times and our changing environment has made it ever more complex for senior leadership teams.
The Beacon Group is among the premier strategic planning consulting firms. We are experts on facilitating conversations at the senior executive level to help leaders explore the important changes and examine their strategic options and alternatives. Our role is to help enhance the quality of the strategic thinking that goes into the planning process. We guide leaders through a proven process to help them uncover new opportunities using a new set of lenses.
Leadership and Organizational Alignment
Ensuring there is complete and deeply embedded alignment on all critical actions, priorities and behaviours is one of the most common differentiators when it comes to organizational high performance.
We have extensive experience bringing together diverse groups of people to help navigate the complexity of their differences in order to arrive at common understanding and agreed upon commitments that stick. Using best practices in negotiation and building common ground, The Beacon Group can help your organization and/or teams achieve collective ownership and accountability.
Project and Budget Prioritization
One of the great leadership capabilities is the ability to make wise choices and smart trade-offs. In order to do so, the decision-making team must be able to see the big picture and understand that there needs to be a precise allocation of resources.
The Beacon Group has a proven track record of helping teams through the crucial conversations and debate where key decisions on priorities take place. Our skill is in presenting a fair, unbiased and objective exchange of views where all parties feel heard and willingly find a way to agree on what is best for the common good and the shared benefits of the team and/or organization.
Leadership Competencies and Core Value Design
The culture of an organization matters, and it is displayed every day through the attitudes, mindsets, beliefs, and behaviour of its people. The DNA of an organization is shaped by the choices that are made and whether the senior leaders shape the culture or just allow it to emerge unguided or undocumented.
We are experts in helping senior leaders understand their current organizational DNA and reframe it in ways which best align with long-term strategic ambitions. Our skill is in codifying the key behaviours which can be observed in the people of the organization through the core values they share and the critical leadership attributes that make the organization successful.
Performance Architecture
We understand that the performance of any organization is best enhanced when senior leaders best understand how:
- Decisions are Made
- Accountability is Anchored
- Knowledge and Information Flows
- The Organizational Structure is Optimized
- People and Talent become Key Strategic Enablers
The Beacon Group works with senior leaders to assess and design new ways to bridge the gaps in these areas and help improve and/or develop an overall framework that allows for regular check-ins and ongoing measurement.
Conflict Resolution
Success in today’s world requires an increase in the diversity of thought and perspectives. This requires organizations to find ways to better include more voices in any conversation. However, an increase in the number of voices will inevitably lead to more conflict – but the assumption that conflict is bad is misguided – quite the contrary in fact.
The Beacon Group knows how to help teams, at all levels, leverage the benefits of conflict and turn it into a useful, productive, and constructive source of energy to drive change, fuel innovation and ensure overall organizational performance is maximized to its fullest potential.
Leadership Training Debrief Sessions
A supplement to our Online Leadership Training Courses, we offer the facilitation of a live online debriefing session to increase knowledge retention, contextualize the material within our current moment and specific organization, and encourage dialogue among participants.
Structured as a facilitated dialogue, The Beacon Group will guide the conversation among the participants on key learnings and themes, common pitfalls, and provide an opportunity for Q&A. Sessions can be done on a per course or per suite basis and generally run an hour in length.
FAQs
Curious about something? You’re not the only one. See what questions we most commonly get asked.
How can an outsider possibly understand our issues?
One does not need to be an expert in any specific or proprietary subject to be an expert in how to manage the dynamics of a group setting. The Beacon Group has dedicated ourselves to becoming experts in human interaction, through this we know how to moderate and facilitate dialogue, debate and discussion amongst groups of people often with starkly different points of view and personalities.
What will the format of these sessions actually look like?
It depends on the subject, the number of participants and the desired outcome. The Beacon Group will help you craft an agenda and format that works best. Generally speaking, these will be open collaborative sessions where views are exchanged, common ground established and where the group will be led to a decision point supported by follow-up actions and commitments.
Are there any tools The Beacon Group will use to help the session?
Yes. To best engage the group, identify the gaps in consensus and allow participants to express themselves honestly and confidentially, we often utilize real-time electronic polling technology. These tools allow us to gauge the group’s level of agreement, commitment and shared understanding, while keeping the dialogue grounded in reality.
Will there be any advance work or preparation required?
Generally speaking, yes (and its is always a good idea!). It can happen in any number of different ways. Sometimes, The Beacon Group will interview the participants individually ahead of time to gather insight and build rapport. Almost always, we recommended pre-reading material etc.
What will happen after the facilitated sessions?
This is what really matters, and it is where the rubber hits the road. Any session such as these would be worthless without a set of actions in place at the end. The Beacon Group helps you arrive at an Action Plan that has real teeth and can be communicated and implemented effectively.