I love facilitating strategic planning sessions; hence, I feel excited each time I am called to facilitate these sessions for public or private institutions. One such session is the session I facilitated at the first American Spaces Nigeria Summit hosted by the U.S. Mission Nigeria last year with all the State coordinators. My session was designed to address the topic ‘Strategic Thinking for Innovative Service Delivery’. It was a privilege to be selected to do this.
By the way, I am an alumna of the Hubert H. Humphrey exchange program, a Fulbright scholarship awarded by the US government in 2014, and I had the privilege of being a scholar at Cornell University. This experience changed the trajectory of my life remarkably. (story for another day)
Facilitation is a skill; a good facilitator will always guide participants to arrive at solutions through strategic thinking activities. Isn’t it interesting that the answers we seek are usually within us, yet we do not know until someone helps us think? This is why we enroll other good heads into our thinking space.
It’s funny that thinking is a lot of work for some (lol), however, for organizations with a vision and mission, strategic thinking is a must. Occasionally, organizational retreats are essential to evaluate performance, review what has worked well and what hasn’t, and develop new plans. That is why consultants like me are hired to help organizations achieve their short-, medium-, or long-term goals. So, if you need help with designing and facilitating a highly successful organizational retreat this year, let’s connect.
Participants were taken through a very practical session filled with profound reflections on where they were and where they desired to be. We connected the past, present, and future through questioning that facilitated group critical thinking.
I must not forget to tell you that there is an American Corner in almost every State in Nigeria, find one near you. Here, you can get a lot of information about opportunities in the USA and from the US government, including scholarships, international exams, grants, etc.
