SIN 874-2 Facilitation Services

Collaboration and partnership development is key to the effective use of limited resources. As government agencies undergo reorganization, reinvention and program integration, it is vital that agency management, organization and business structures be positioned to collaborate effectively with other departments, agencies, organizations and businesses. EDTEC recognizes that the effectiveness of working groups tasked with achieving organizational improvements is predicated on the availability of open dialogue and discussion.

EDTEC provides the following facilitation and decision support services that promote effective partnership development and collaborative efforts:

Teambuilding Skills Development

• EDTEC offers teambuilding skill development at the inter-agency, senior management, departmental and program level through training and small group activities. All training is grounded in an activity-based learning style where individuals learn leadership and team skills through role-playing, collaborative problem solving and visioning activities. The teambuilding experience is based on effectively communicating the social science, experiential and emotional aspects of group dynamics while remaining focused on developing skills needed by each individual to successfully create a productive team.
  
  
• EDTEC trainers and facilitators are highly skilled professionals with extensive experience in organizational development, creating positive learning experiences, and creating group environments that foster individual creativity and risk-taking.

Dispute Resolution Services

• EDTEC offers facilitated dispute resolution and conflict management training and technical assistance services to resolve situations that have an adverse impact on organizational performance. Training and facilitation services are focused on identifying and defining differences of opinion and resolving issues of personal, departmental and/or organizational conflict in a professional manner through trust building activities and open discussion.

Facilitated Focus and Group Discussions

• EDTEC recognizes that open input and discussion of ideas is crucial to creative development, problem-solving, or decision-making processes. Consequently, EDTEC services include constructing representative small groups for participation in informal discussions, facilitating focus group discussions without leading or influencing content and reporting group outcomes. EDTEC often uses the focus group methodology as a predecessor to survey design or large group discussions and forums.
  
  
• EDTEC specializes in bringing together large groups of diverse individuals for facilitated discussion and learning experiences. Our expertise in large group meetings includes conference planning, design and organization; logistics; selection and engagement of speakers; promotion, outreach and enrollment; pre-registration, conference presentation, staffing, and design of participants' evaluation surveys, etc. The firm’s experience includes single and multi-day events for twenty to several hundred participants. Clients for EDTEC conference services include the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; and the Housing Authorities of the cities of Chicago, Los Angeles, and New Orleans, among many others.

Effective Partnership Development

• In order to remain competitive, public sector organizations must optimize their resources without sacrificing the quality of the services they provide to their clients. Many times resources can be stretched and quality of services and products improved by collaborative partnerships between organizations that share a mission and vision. EDTEC has more than 15 years of experience in helping organizations find appropriate partners and build long-lasting and productive relationships based on common goals and organizational cultures.
• EDTEC offers the following training and technical assistance services to assist clients in developing effective partnerships:

• Leadership development
• Teambuilding skill development
• Creating shared vision, goals, and outcomes
• Defining roles and responsibilities
• Organizational Accountability
• Negotiating resource commitments
• Developing performance-based agreements

Support Services

• Based upon the information gathered from facilitated activities, EDTEC assists working groups and clients to evaluate discussion results and plan future actions designed to achieve organizational goals. This assistance may include developing a strategic plan, conducting visioning activities, facilitating discussions that enhance communication, creating a team-based approach to management, enhancing organizational partnering abilities, etc.

• EDTEC can record discussion content and provide transcripts of large or small focus groups, briefings and discussions. Further, EDTEC's services include preparing draft and final reports for dissemination to participants, management or third parties, as appropriate.