The Success Factors: A Client-Facilitator Relationship that Works by Barb Sweazey, CPF

Did you ever experience one of those Client/Facilitator relationships that just seemed to work perfectly? What made it so successful? Or, are you still searching for ways to create collaborative Client/Facilitator relationships? In this online webinar adapted from the workshop she presented at last year's IAF North American Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia,, Barb Sweazey will share the factors she has discovered that lead to a successful, collaborative working relationship. Hear about her facilitation experiences and add your voice to create a checklist that will help you build your own positive customer/facilitator success stories. In addition to her own "Top Five" list of success factors from the facilitator's perspective, Barb will also present a "Top Five" list of success factors based on her clients' perspectives.

Barb Sweazey is Manager of the Training and Facilitation Practice at Stratos Inc., one of Canada's leading sustainability management consultancies. As a Certified Professional Facilitator, Barb likes to work closely with clients to understand the specific needs and challenges of their organizations in order to design and facilitate a successful thinking framework and process. Barb’s work in group process facilitation extends back many years, and includes experiences such as community group discussions, cross-Canada multi-stakeholder dialogues on sensitive sustainability-related topics, focus groups for interdepartmental government meetings, multiple perspective industry dialogues, non-government organizations planning sessions and corporate retreats. She moves easily from team building activities to strategic planning and visioning exercises as well as to group information gathering and discussions, problem-solving, and decision-making. Her flexible facilitation style and adaptable meeting management approaches build on the expertise and motivation that participants bring to sessions in order to design and facilitate successful thinking frameworks, processes, and outcomes. Barb has provided consulting services to government, private sector companies, and NGOs for more than 18 years, and she is also an accomplished project manager who has worked directly as a federal Regulatory Affairs manager for Environment Canada.