4 Reasons to Book an External Facilitator for Organization Branstorming

It’s a strategic planning session and everyone’s assembled. The leaders of the organization head to the front of the room. They pose the same questions you’ve heard before, raise the same issues that you’ve been stuck on for years. You reluctantly stand up and get into your groups. You think of what else you could be doing with these two hours and brace yourself to have the same discussion you had at the last planning meeting again. Maybe with a different flavor, but the taste is familiar.

How often have you experienced this type of stagnated brainstorming in organizations? I know I’ve had my fair share. Here are four reasons I think bringing in an external facilitator can be a game changer for organizational brainstorming:

“How often have you experienced stagnated brainstorming in organizations?”

1. Organizations often use the same brainstorming methods over and over again, leaving staff feeling less engaged.

We’ve probably all worked in spaces where the same facilitators go up to the front of the room to share the same powerpoint slides, ask the same questions, and bring out the same large post-it notes and sharpies. It can be hard to step out of what we know. And comforting to stay in the familiar. But it can also be tiring and disengaging.

Finding external facilitators who can bring new creative brainstorming approaches can completely change a group’s dynamic and lead to new outcomes and innovation. With different activities, energy, and a new facilitation style, people engage in new ways that can surprise everyone.

“With different activities, energy, and a new facilitation style, people engage in new ways that can surprise everyone.”

2. Having someone within the organization lead brainstorming can reinforce existing power dynamics, leaving important voices out.

Back to those same facilitators with the same powerpoint slides and post it notes - how often are those people also key leaders in the organizations? 9 times out of 10 they are either the top leadership or supervisors. If there are folks that are shy, introverted, or who don’t feel heard already, this is a setup for more of the same. Saying you’re open to feedback, or giving lip service to “teamwork,” isn’t the same as creating a truly open space where ideas can flow and all voices are valued. Even if leaders are making their truest, best effort to be inclusive, the hierarchical nature of most organizations is still working against them.

Bringing in an external facilitator (preferably someone who doesn’t seem like a carbon copy of existing leadership) can change up those existing power dynamics and make space for new voices to come forward. External facilitators can also notice organizational dynamics that have been taken for granted and intentionally prompt new ways of relating to one another, radically changing the outcome of a brainstorming experience.

“External facilitators can also notice organizational dynamics that have been taken for granted and intentionally prompt new ways of relating to one another, radically changing the outcome of a brainstorming experience.”

3. Staying insular leads to decreased innovation in thinking.

How many times have you had the same type of discussion in the same small groups about the same organizational problems? I know I’ve been there. With the same facilitator, same activities, and same voices in the room, how can we expect new answers to old problems?

Bringing in an external facilitator can challenge old assumptions and bring out new ideas that hadn’t been conceived of previously. Sometimes that external perspective or new question can be all a group needs to spark a new light of ideas, setting off a chain effect toward true change.

“Sometimes that external perspective or new question can be all a group needs to spark a new light of ideas, setting off a chain effect toward true change.”

4. An external facilitator is there with only your brainstorming needs in mind - they aren’t bogged down by everything else going on in your organization that day.

Distracted by the new HR system you’re implementing? By the upcoming job candidate interviews? The tug of war over shared space, or the tense leadership meeting that morning? It’s normal, inevitable even, that an internal brainstorming facilitator will come into the session with layers of distraction from everything else going on that day. And how can that not interfere with the discussion at hand?

External facilitators, on the other hand, enter your organizational space with one goal in mind: providing you with the absolute best brainstorming experience they can. And that singular objective makes a huge difference when navigating the complex dynamics that arise in a problem-solving or idea-creating session.

“External facilitators enter your organizational space with one goal in mind: providing you with the absolute best brainstorming experience they can.”

So next time you’re planning a strategic planning session, a team meeting, or group brainstorming time, why not take a load off your team and let someone else hold space so that you can be present, mindful, and intentional in how you engage with one another? You may just find that problems that seemed insurmountable before, find their way toward new and exciting solutions. Or that people who seemed disengaged in the past suddenly spring forward with new ideas.

Whether it’s my organization consulting services, or another consultant’s, I hope you’ll consider bringing in an external facilitator to your next event and just see how the dynamics shift for the better.