FAQ
Questions worth asking first.
What the room does, what it does not, and who needs to be in it.
Before you book
“How do we know we even need this?”
Three tests. First, three or more people have to live with the outcome, so the decision is genuinely shared rather than one person’s to make. Second, the issue is stuck rather than merely unscheduled, meaning you have tried and it keeps coming back rather than simply never reaching an agenda. Third, the team’s buy-in matters as much as the answer itself, because a correct decision nobody owns will not survive contact with the quarter. If you cannot say yes to all three, you probably do not need a facilitated room, and I would rather tell you that now than take the booking.
“How is this different from hiring a consultant?”
A consultant is the right hire when you do not believe the group knows what to do. They bring outside expertise, do the analysis, and hand you a recommendation. A facilitator is the right hire when the knowledge is already in the room and cannot get out, usually because of how the group talks to each other rather than what they know. If you need a market you have never operated in sized, or a technical assessment nobody on your team can make, hire the consultant. If your people have been circling the same decision for four months and each of them can tell you privately what they think, hire me.
“What am I actually paying for in a one-day fee?”
The day is the smallest part of it. Before we meet I interview each participant privately, then design the session around the list they actually gave me rather than a standard agenda. After the day you get a written record of what was decided, by whom, and by when, within 48 hours, and a follow-up call at day 30 to see what held and what did not. The fee covers all of that, which is why it is not priced like a day.
“What does a session not do?”
Four things, plainly. It does not fix a broken culture, because a day cannot repair what took years to build. It does not resolve a personnel problem, which is a management task and belongs in a different room. It does not substitute for a strategy leadership has not yet formed, because a group cannot choose between options when nobody has decided what the company is for. And it does not make the decision for anyone; I hold the process, and your people hold the outcome.
The room
“Who has to be in the room?”
The person who can actually decide, present for the whole session and not for the last hour. That is not always the most senior person; sometimes it is the budget holder, sometimes the functional owner, and it is worth being honest with yourselves about who it really is. If nobody in the room can commit the organization to an outcome, the day produces recommendations rather than decisions, which is what you already have. When that comes up in planning, I move the session to a date when the decider can be there.
“How many people?”
Six to twelve is the working range for decision-making. Under six and you thin the perspectives, so the room starts agreeing early and mistakes that agreement for a decision. Over twelve and the arithmetic of airtime turns the room into an audience, where most people watch a few people decide, and that needs a different design rather than a bigger version of this one. If your group is twenty, tell me and we will talk about what shape actually fits.
“Who should not be in the room?”
Anyone attending for hierarchy rather than need. That usually means observers, note-takers, and the person sent to keep an eye on how it goes. Their presence is not neutral: people say less when they can feel someone recording their positions for use elsewhere. The test I use is two questions, and both have to pass. Is this person needed to reach the outcome, and can they contribute to reaching it.
“What do you need from us beforehand?”
Three things. A private conversation with each participant, usually 30 to 45 minutes, which is where I learn what people will not say in front of each other. The stalled list itself, in whatever rough form it exists. And the sponsor’s honest account of what is really going on, including the parts that are awkward to write down. A team that will not do the interviews will not get the outcome, because the design comes out of them and there is nothing else to build the day on.
“What about the person who dominates every meeting?”
I handle that structurally rather than socially, because asking someone to talk less rarely works and costs them dignity. Everyone writes before anyone talks, so the room has the quiet person’s thinking on record before the confident voice sets the frame. Turns are taken in order. Choices get made by voting rather than by volume. The loudest voice stops being the deciding one because of how the room is built, not because I managed anybody.
“What about the person who says nothing?”
The same structure does most of this work. Written-first means their contribution lands at full weight without them having to win airtime for it. Pairs before the whole room lets them test a thought at low cost. And if someone is still holding back, I will usually find them at the break and ask something aimed at their expertise, where they are on solid ground, rather than putting them on the spot in front of everyone.
“Two of our executives fundamentally disagree and neither will move.”
That is common and it is workable. It surfaces in the pre-interviews, which means I can design the room around the disagreement rather than be surprised by it on the day, and the two of them usually find the shape of it clearer once it is stated properly. Here is the limit. If the disagreement is actually about trust or authority and the decision is only the surface it is being argued through, a facilitated room will not settle it, and no amount of good process will. When I hear that in the interviews I say so before taking the booking.
“Our team is a bit dysfunctional. Will that ruin it?”
Depends which kind. Normal friction, meaning people who argue hard, hold grudges about last quarter, and talk over each other, is workable and honestly quite common in rooms that produce good decisions. A real trust rupture is different: when people believe a colleague is acting in bad faith, no process will get them to commit to a shared outcome. A personnel problem is different again, and it belongs with the manager rather than in a group session. If what you have is the second or third kind, this is the wrong instrument and I will tell you.
“Why does a good session feel messy in the middle?”
Groups do not move cleanly from opening up options to closing on one. There is a stretch in the middle where the easy answers have been taken apart, the real one has not arrived yet, and the room feels unresolved and slightly uncomfortable. That is the work happening, not the day failing. I tell people to expect it, because a group that panics in that stretch will reach for the first available answer just to make the feeling stop.
Booking, and what happens if plans change
“How does payment work?”
Half the fee reserves the date and is earned when paid: the date comes off the calendar and preparation starts. The balance is invoiced after delivery and due in 15 days, by card or bank transfer, W-9 and PO ready. Nonprofit, church, and education rates exist and work the same way.
“What if we need to move the date?”
A booked date moves once, free, with 14 days’ notice; 30 for an offsite, because a venue is committed. A second move, or a shorter-notice one, carries a rebooking fee of a quarter of the fee, and your reservation payment stays applied to the new date. A moved engagement lands within 6 months of the original.
“What if we cancel?”
Thirty or more days out, most of the reservation payment comes back: all but 10% of the full fee, which covers the booking and the preparation already done. Between 14 and 29 days, half comes back. Inside 14 days it is retained, and no balance is ever invoiced for a cancelled engagement. An offsite runs the same shape on a longer clock, at 90 and 60 days, plus any travel or venue amounts already committed, at documented cost.
“What if you’re the one who can’t make it?”
If illness or a family emergency stops me from delivering, rescheduling comes first: the earliest workable dates, with priority over new bookings, at no cost. If nothing within 60 days works, everything you’ve paid comes back in full. There is no substitute facilitator; the engagement is with me or it is refunded.
“Will you sign our NDA?”
Yes, and confidentiality is mutual either way: the matters worked, what was said, who said it, what was decided. Neither side publishes the other’s name, logo, photos, or session content without written consent, each time. No recording without written agreement, and then for internal use only.
“Can we work with you on an ongoing basis?”
Some teams want a standing outside perspective, and that works as occasional engagement rather than a retainer: each session is its own booking at the standard rate, either side can pass on the next one with 30 days’ notice, and nothing renews by itself. The aim is a team that needs the room less over time, not more.
What you leave with
“What do we actually walk out with?”
Every decision made that day leaves the room with one name attached to it. Within 48 hours you get a written record: what was decided, who owns it, and by when. It is short, and it is the kind of document you can forward to someone who was not in the room.
“What is different in the weeks after?”
The clearest sign a session worked is that the same question stops coming back onto the agenda. Because each decision has an owner and a date, the work can move without another meeting called to decide it again. At day 30 we have a follow-up call and look at what held and what did not, and some of it will not have held. Knowing which is which is most of the value of that call.
“What if the answer is already in the room and no one will say it?”
That is the ordinary case. The private interviews beforehand mean I usually arrive knowing what people are unwilling to say in front of each other, and the structure carries the rest: everyone writes before anyone talks, turns go in order, and choices are settled by voting rather than by volume or seniority. The thing that was already true gets said early in the day, and then the room can work with it instead of around it.
“What does a good day feel like?”
It is tiring. There is usually a stretch in the middle where the room feels worse than when it started, because the real disagreement has finally surfaced and nobody is talking around it any longer. The end is quiet rather than celebratory. What people tend to notice on the way home is relief, and the sense of having put down something they had been carrying for a long time.