CEO AND MANAGEMENT TEAM CONCEPT

FACILITATION EXPERTISE

FACILITATION DEFINITION

The Facilitation is a reasoned and intentional intervention, on the part of the facilitator,
 into the ongoing events and dynamics of a group with the purpose of helping that group attain its stated end more effectively.
Facilitation is a means of getting the best out of a team and favors appropriation which guarantees the durability of the added value generated.

MANAGEMENT TEAMS FACILITATION

The facilitator is not a consultant, coach or mentor, but all of these at once.
It is someone thoroughly familiar with every level of an organization’s management, skilled in the use of an array of management tools in order to bring out the best in every member of the team.
The facilitator runs strategic sessions and supports the Management Committee, with particular emphasis on re-initiating or refocusing the debate. His or her task is to moderate discussions, encouraging those who remain silent to speak, especially in the context of a multicultural Management Committee, or, conversely, reining in the most expressive and imposing operating rules on the team. 
Being "external" to the team gives the facilitator greater impact than if the President/CEO were required to intervene directly with the team.
The facilitator also performs a role of confidant or messenger, managing conflicts and power issues, especially within the Management Committees of leading companies.

THE WILL-TO-GO of MANAGEMENT TEAMS

A sled dog will only run if he wants to, if his motivation is intact: this quality in a dog is known as the ‘will to go’. The dog is part of the team and knows it and, for the musher, when the dogs are at the peak of their mental strength and ‘will to go’, that’s when he knows he has a dream team.

The same is true of the CEO and the Management Team.

Management teams need to be the driving force in focusing energies on the objectives set by the CEO. It is vital to sustain their motivation and commitment, to give them a very real sense of their responsibilities, get them buying into the challenges and vision of their CEO, who will in turn be spurred on to success in his leadership role by a sense of confidence in their support.

One of the main roles of a facilitator within the Management Team is to develop the WILL-TO-GO of each member of the Management/Executive Committee, with the aim of promoting appropriation of decisions and developing team spirit to arrive at the most effective management team possible.

How does the facilitator develop the “Will to Go”?

That will can be blocked by constraints such as ego, power issues, individual behaviors, things left unsaid, lack of recognition, non-alignment of individual objectives with those of colleagues/peers, career development, personality (including cultural aspects, nationality but also management style).
The facilitator intervenes to build and develop the team dynamic, the feeling of being part of a team. Above all, the facilitator’s task is to adhere to one constant thread: the resolution of a particular problem within the business. This problem must concern everyone involved, so that they will be fired by a real desire to fix it, to work on it concretely and pragmatically.

The facilitator is skilled in the methodologies of
COLLABORATIVE EXCELLENCE.
He is external to the business:
this is the crucial point!

Only someone external to the business, unaffected by issues of conflict or of direct powers, will be in a position to redirect discussions back to areas of key issues or to calm tensions.