Workshop facilitation

Could your business benefit from new ideas on improving profitability and service?  Are you planning a company wide initiative that needs commitment from all parts of the business?

The knowledge and skills of the people working for a business are perhaps its most valuable resource. So it makes sound business sense to ensure that everyone shares their expertise and contributes towards the common goal.

At Zurich Strategic Risk we can run various types of workshop that will help your organisation to harness the skills of its people, build consensus and break down the barriers that all too often exist between different parts of a large business.

Our workshops are particularly useful for strategy development, business process improvement, risk analysis and change management.

The value of independent expertise

As independent expert facilitators, we’re free to ask the controversial questions that can challenge assumptions and promote a fresh approach. We actively seek to resolve issues rather than glossing over them in order to tick boxes. We believe that an organisation can only make progress on an issue by reaching a true consensus. As facilitators
it is our responsibility to ensure that all participants actively and wholeheartedly support the results and decisions reached.

Our thoroughness and in-depth understanding of each workshop’s processes mean we can keep the whole event focused on its objectives and work with delegates to produce the best possible results for the organisation.

Different workshops for different needs

We can apply our facilitation skills to many different types of workshop.  Here are three types that we frequently run for our customers.

Strategic planning

Strategic planning workshops help board directors make informed decisions about future business strategies.

With our help participants take an in-depth look at the threats and opportunities presented by the business’s current position and the future trends that are likely to affect their market. Developing a better understanding of the choices presented by future uncertainties can be achieved using a variety of tools including scenario planning.

Strategic planning workshops often incorporate or closely follow on from a Total Risk Profiling workshop (see below).

Total Risk Profiling

We can organise and facilitate Total Risk Profiling workshops that combine our expertise with the knowledge and understanding of risk that already exists within your business. By working through a carefully designed process, your chosen team will describe what they think the risks are. Then we’ll help them to assess the impact and likelihood of these risks, before prioritising those which exceed the level of risk the organisation is comfortable with. Finally the teams are encouraged to develop action plans that improve those prioritised risks.

This approach delivers well-defined processes that help you to understand and manage risk in your business. It also improves the expertise and skills of people in your business who manage risk.

WorkOut

Through WorkOut people from all levels of an organisation work together with an expert facilitator to come up with ideas to reduce costs, increase profitability and improve service. In short, to take unnecessary work out of your business processes. Each WorkOut focuses on a particular issue, and the people who form the WorkOut team will
ideally be those who are highly familiar with that issue through their everyday jobs.

The strengths of WorkOut are the buy-in it achieves, its focus on fast change and the involvement of management in the final rapid decision taking.

The benefits of workshop facilitation

Our workshop facilitation skills can help you to:

• build consensus within your organisation
• break down departmental silos
• harness the knowledge and skills of the people in your organisation
• manage change effectively
• develop new business strategies and improve existing processes.
• develop and implement action plans that create quick, effective change.

Why choose Zurich Strategic Risk?

• We get to the heart of issues, confronting them and developing agreed solutions that work
• We understand that management team members need time to appreciate each other’s perspectives and reach consensus before ownership of problems and solutions can be truly achieved
• Our consultants have deep and wide experience of facilitating workshops to solve complex and controversial issues in large organisations
• We’re happy to share our experience and transfer expertise to our customers through training and coaching.