For the past 15 years we have been involved in various strategy and marketing workshops – both as the facilitating consultant, and as a corporate management.

Techniques and tools have evolved over this period – from flip charts and white boards, to Post-it Notes, and more recently to software-enhanced methods. Sadly, not all consultants use the tools that can make this a highly effective process.

We have standardised on using MindManager as our facilitation tool. We’ve successfully used it in pressure workshops – gathering:

• User requirements for new customer datamart projects
• Strategic Issues for general business planning
• Project time line issues that need to be coordinated, and
• Marketing Issues that are impacting the results of the business.

for both corporate, government, and small business clients.

Do yourself a favour and check this product out. Within a few weeks, you will wonder how you got by without it. Click here to drill through to the Mindjet site.

Each and every time that we use this tool and workshop method, people compliment us on the process:

• People stay engaged – its a very visual process,
• All can see what is being written down, and how it fits into the bigger picture,
• Project-related tasks can be exported to MsProject for further enhancement,
• Lists can be created, added to, and moved around – not possible on flip charts, and
• A major plus – at the end of the workshop, all participants can be immediately provided with a PDF document of the workshop.

Some even go out and buy the product immediately after the workshop.

Workshops can be set up to run for a few hours, a few hours over several days, and full time for a weekend – it all depends on the end results required, and the type of project being tackled.

Fortunately the tools support portability – we bring our business skills, laptop and projector – all you need to do is provide a room with a screen / wall, and a team of fired-up participants.

Cost depends on the degree of involvement:

• Pure facilitation will be determined primarily on the workshop time, whereas
• Strategy facilitation will require an additional allocation for background interviews and desk research.