“How can I facilitate a group to develop a longer-term vision for their future, and establish their broad strategies for achieving that vision? How can I ensure a real sense of ownership, so that their plan becomes action?”

This course presents a structured long-range planning process which incorporates the Consensus Workshop method for building consensus, the Focused Conversation method for effective group communication, and elements of the Action Planning method for turning ideas into productive action and concrete accomplishments.

It is offered as both a face-to-face course (2 days) and online (8 x 2.25 hours)

Download course overview (pdf)

Who this course is for

Group Facilitation Methods is a pre-requisite for this course.

The course is suitable for all those who want to be able to involve people more effectively in planning and implementing medium to long-term strategies together, including team leaders and managers within organisations, those working with Boards, management teams, partnerships and external stakeholders, youth and community workers and independent facilitators.

This training not only helps deliver strategic planning outcomes, it helps you do this in a fun, well thought through and natural process that brings people together and naturally builds in buy-in. This course has given me an incredible framework to add to my practice- thank you ICA for the well organised and engaging training
Raymond van der Zalm, Innovation Consultant

“As a new manager, without experience in strategic planning, I found the process bewildering. This course helped make sense of the process, with a clear roadmap and tools to use to run successful strategic planning processes with your teams. I had been searching for help with this and didn’t quite know where to turn. Very happy I came across this course!”
Heba Aly, Director, The New Humanitarian

What you will gain

By the end of the course, you will

  • have enhanced your capacity for creative strategy building by exploring and understanding the four stages and the flow of the Participatory Strategic Planning process, and the four associated types of thinking – visionary, contradictional, strategic and practical
  • be able to identify when and how to use the Participatory Strategic Planning process
  • have consolidated your understanding of the Consensus Workshop and Focused Conversation methods, and gained the confidence to use and adapt them
  • have further developed your links with others to promote future collaboration and support in the use of the methods.

Those with more experience of facilitation, strategic planning or our approach may need no further support to apply the process effectively in their own situations, and for others, the course serves as a powerful, experiential introduction to the process.

Learning style

Whether face-to-face or online, the course presents the process in a practical and participatory way, enabling the group to experience the complete strategic planning process during the course. Each of the four workshops is first demonstrated, using a scenario with which participants can identify without having to role-play.

These demonstrations can also offer a few opportunities for participants to facilitate parts of the sessions themselves, with coaching from the trainers. After each workshop, the process is analysed and discussed. Finally, participants plan how they can apply the process in their own situations.

What do participants say about this course?

“The training gave me the confidence to trust the overall power of groups, and my skills in how to get the best out of them. It is readily accessible, and I have used it extensively since attending the course” Donna Green, Models of Care Co-ordinator, Barnsley Drug & Alcohol Action Team

80% of PSP participants rated this course 8/10 or higher.

Comments from participants’ end-of-course evaluations included:

  • an in-depth look at advanced use of ToP group facilitation methods for strategic planning
  • provides a great tool to enliven your team and involve them in making commitments to deliver benefits for your organisation – I really enjoyed the course
  • an insightful and inspiring course that opens new doors in facilitating groups
  • great fun with lots of practical knowledge, facilitated by skilled and friendly facilitators
  • hard work, but definitely worth it
  • great value and a real learning curve
  • this is the best two days you could spend on learning to plan strategically for maximum impact

Please visit our course calendar to see upcoming dates and locations for this course. Alternatively, contact us for more information about booking this course as an in-house course for your organisation.