Supporting a social mobilization effort to strengthen village development groups in Myanmar. Strategic Planning event for the Iraqi Legal Clinic Network Association Participatory Project Management Training Module in Zimbabwe Creating a participatory project planning meeting agenda with Afghan mobilizers. Program evaluation and strategic review, Haiti Newly trained facilitators work with 40 local NGO's to create a vision for the Iraq Access to Justice Project Scenario Planning in Iraq Partnering assessment for UNESCO Biosphere Reserves conservation program, Cat Bah Island, Vietnam Private sector and humanitarian agencies working  in partnership to promote mobile money innovations in London Women's group facilitators in Jalallabad, Afghanistan Participatory strategic planning results in a five year vision and  two year 'strategic directions' for this Phoenix company.


































Six week training of ToP™ Facilitation Methods Trainers, Khujand, Tajikistan Facilitating strategic planning in Indonesia. Coaching mobilizers at a participatory project planning meeting in Afghanistan Innovation marketplace for program design in Palestine World Bank LAC Retreat Training of Trainers of Community Mobilizers A course in participatory event design for an internal co-hort of facilitators promoting more effective meeting culture agency wide. Program evaluation with humanitarian agency in Sri Lanka Community consultations with IDPs in Wasit, Iraq Designing Innovation Events

Facilitation

From implementing strategic planning to leadership coaching, Alisa Oyler provides for-profit and non profit organizations, communities and government agencies with a variety of consulting services to help them improve their performance in addressing the multiple demands and needs of the diverse groups and individuals that they serve.

Alisa Oyler works in partnership with leadership, and constituents in developing and implementing collaborative processes that achieve desired outcomes.

Alisa Oyler creates customized facilitation procedures for each client, according to their needs and circumstances. She is committed to facilitating organizations who are seeking to advance a culture of effective participation. She works with clients to create facilitated events and ongoing series of events that engage the input of a variety of stakeholders, through a menu of ToP and other facilitation methods and approaches. Within individual client relationships there is usually an element of each of the following stages: needs assessment, methods selection and customization, event facilitation (occasionally, training and mentoring of internal facilitators to lead the event), documentation, and follow up.

Though each facilitation service is customized, the following are some broad categories of the types of facilitation service most often requested by clients.

  1. Participatory Strategic Planning  Most commonly Alisa Oyler is called upon to facilitate strategic planning events within associations, agencies or organizations. A uniquely participatory approach uses ToP® methods for long and short–term planning that includes creating a three–to–five–year vision, identifying underlying contradictions that block the vision, defining two–year strategic directions, and developing one–year objectives and a 90–day implementation plan.Alisa also support participatory project assessment and documentation including working with the clients to document the project journey of implementation, identify accomplishments and results, and articulate the lessons learned and next steps.
  2. Partnerships and Collaborations  Collaborative ventures including multi-agency initiatives or cross-functional teams to achieve common objectives often require third party facilitation to engage the members effectively. Alisa has facilitated the launch of grassroots initiatives with a wide diversity of interested parties with activities such as Environmental or Historical Scans, Trends or Gap Analysis to inform Vision Workshops that identify unifying goals and objectives. Role Definition retreats or determining Performance Improvement Goals can support the ongoing momentum of a collaboration. And Alisa can work with your partnership to problem solve plan implementation and engage stakeholders in re-maneuvering.
  3. Designing Participatory Events  Advance preparation and appropriate design are the keys to facilitating any participatory event. Alisa can hold a ‘design’ meeting with clients prior to any facilitation in order to gather the background, identify the objectives and choose the appropriate methods to achieve both the rational and experiential aims of the event. She will work with you, and your core team, to design your upcoming conference, action planning, sharing rally, issue forum, town hall or other community and organizational events. She can help develop a clear focus, and participatory and effective procedures to ensure that people are fully engaged and productive throughout the event. She can also work with you to train the session facilitators from your own team in advance of the event with those tailored facilitation procedures.
  4. Board, Staff and Leadership Retreats  Events Alisa and her regular colleagues are often asked to facilitate include organizational leadership retreats that we recognize represent a significant investment on the part of the organization. There are a variety of methods and approaches for creating the structure and context for a successful retreat. She often works with boards and / or staff to determine mission / vision / values for the organization, create or revisit bylaws, set guidelines and practices based in consensus among relevant parties, engage board / staff / partners in long term strategic planning, revisit and refine existing planning efforts, or create new member engagement strategies. Facilitated retreats emphasize productive time while valuing the team building that can happen within the organization and leadership when participatory methods are used.
  5. Ongoing Stakeholder Engagement / Public Participation.  Though Alisa is most often called upon to facilitate single events  some of the most impactful relationships have come from working with a client or group of clients on an ongoing basis to provide support to long term change initiatives. Many of these are centered around finding ways to meaningfully engage the public in the issues and programs that directly effect them. Large and small group discussion series’ can provide a context for meaningful exchanges of ideas and involve an entire group in thinking through difficult issues and help surface new ideas and solutions. Facilitating ongoing stakeholder engagement through committees, working groups and smaller initiatives can help sustain the momentum of consensus based planning efforts. Continued presence of a third party facilitator can allow for a safe forum for potential conflicts to be addressed constructively. Repeated use of a menu of ToP facilitation methods in meetings and events can help to build up a discipline and culture of participation within an organization, initiative or community, contributing to mutual trust and accountability.

2 Responses to “Facilitation”

  1. Kathy Husser says:

    Hello Alisa,
    The Library is working on our 2016-19 strategic plan and was gathering quotes for consulting fees on the staff survey/feedback pieces of the process.

    My phone number is 602-534-5076

    I look forward to hearing back from you.

    Thank you,
    Kathy

  2. Danielle Ross says:

    Hi! My name is Danielle and I’m the Development and Communications Manager at a nonprofit called Sacred Spaces (jewishsacredspaces.org). We are prepping for a staff retreat in the Hamptons for our team of nine, and we are looking to potentially book a faciliated session(s) on Monday, November 14 or Tuesday, November 15. While we’d like to maximize the opportunity that this in-person time presents for our geographically distributed team to increase our communication, as a small nonprofit we also have a limited budget. I’m hoping you can provide a quote and availability options (even if it’s just a single session etc).
    Thanks!
    Danielle

Leave a Reply to Kathy Husser