Facilitation and workshops for banks
For one day, the third party in the room.
Whoever makes the decisions cannot facilitate at the same time. I take over the day – so that your people can speak and you can listen.
Why facilitation should not come from inside the organisation
Anyone who leads an off-site and makes the decisions at the same time is a party to it. Everyone in the room knows this, and everyone takes it into account. The objection that matters then does not come – or only in the car park afterwards.
Then there is the craft itself: facilitating means listening, structuring, asking follow-up questions and keeping the thread. That cannot be done while representing your own position. Whoever tries both does both by halves. That is why organisations that care about the outcome have the workshop facilitated – by someone who has nothing to gain and nothing to lose in the room.
The day belongs to your people. My job is to make sure that by the evening there is something in place that still holds four weeks later.
Four occasions I am brought in for
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Strategy off-site for the management board or supervisory board
A day on which the direction is set – and on which everyone involved should have their say, including those who usually stay silent. I guide the day, keep time and make sure that at the end there are decisions rather than moods.
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Target-state workshop
Before a programme starts, it must be clear where it is heading. A target state that the leadership team has formulated together carries the programme through the uncomfortable weeks later on. One that someone wrote alone does not.
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Clarification between two divisions
When front office and back office, head office and branches, or IT and business units work past each other, another email does not help. What helps is a day on which both sides hear the same thing – facilitated by someone who belongs to neither side.
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Reset of a stalled initiative
The project is running, but nothing is getting through. Instead of updating the plan yet again: stop for a day, name honestly what is not working, and move on with a short, workable list.
What such a day looks like when things get serious:
What is in place by the evening
A workshop from which people take away nothing but a good feeling was an expensive day. I deliver these three things, and you may measure me against them.
A record of results
Within the same week, in the language of your organisation. What was discussed, what was decided – and what was explicitly left open.
Actions with names and dates
Prioritised, not just collected. Every action has a person and a date. Anything that gets neither does not go on the list.
An honest assessment
What struck me during the day – including what nobody in the room said out loud. On request for you only, not for the group.
How a day comes about
01
Preliminary call, thirty minutes
You describe the situation and what the day should achieve. I tell you whether a facilitated day is the right means for it – and if not, what is.
02
Preparation
Objective, participants and agenda are put in writing and approved by you. If necessary, I speak with individual participants beforehand – that saves the first hour on the day itself.
03
The day
At your premises or off-site. I guide the agenda, keep time, bring the quiet ones into the conversation and take notes. You are a participant, not host and facilitator at once.
04
Follow-up
The record and the list of actions go to you, not to the distribution list – you decide what is passed on and how.
And afterwards?
Some organisations need nothing more after the day. They have what they wanted and implement it with their own people. Others bring me in for the implementation. Both are fine.
The order matters to me: the facilitated day is not a disguised sales pitch, but a service that stands on its own. If more comes of it, it is because you want it – not because the day was designed that way.
It is charged at a fixed price, not by the hour: €6,900 net for the first day with up to eight participants, €3,500 for each immediately following day, €200 per participant above eight per day; from seventeen participants, a second facilitator is added by separate proposal. Included are the preliminary conversation, concept, facilitation, the record of decisions and travel time within Austria, Germany and Switzerland; travel expenses at cost. If an engagement follows within three months, I credit the first day in full. Errors and omissions excepted; subject to change. Only the written proposal is binding. All fees and terms →
Still undecided whether you need someone from outside at all?
Talks and keynotes
Less often requested, but possible: a forty-minute talk at a leadership conference or an association event – on transformation, sales steering or decision-making behaviour in boards and committees.
No slide marathon, but examples from real mandates and a self-assessment that participants can apply in their own organisation afterwards. We clarify beforehand what fits in terms of content – an off-the-shelf talk does nothing for your audience.
For the planning season in the fourth quarter there is a dedicated format: the outside view for your strategy off-site – two to three hours with a working session, built into your own off-site.
Your next step
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First, assess the situation
Five specialist self-assessments – four minutes each, no registration. A sound basis for the workshop you are planning.
To the self-assessments -
What it can lead to
Three service areas: interim management, transformation & change, sparring & advisory – if the day turns into a mandate.
To the services -
Where the experience comes from
Completed mandates in banking and financial services – with documented metrics.
To the success stories
A thirty-minute preliminary call.
Tell me what the day should achieve. I will tell you whether a facilitated workshop is the right means – and if not, which one is.