To choose an offsite facilitator, ask every candidate the same seven questions and compare the answers. Three are about the preparation, two are about the room, one is about what exists afterward, and one is about the seats they have held.
Who is the best offsite facilitator? Nobody honest will give you one name. The right strategic planning facilitator for a team that needs to settle next year's plan is the wrong one for a team that needs to repair trust, and a leadership retreat facilitator is a different hire again. The published hiring guides agree on that much. So this is not a list. It is seven tests you can run in one call, built on the jobs a leadership offsite needs done, and written to be useful whichever facilitator you pick.
The lens is my own. I am Ken Gavranovic. I facilitate executive offsites and planning sessions, and I have held the seats these rooms report to, as founder and CEO through a Nasdaq IPO and as a senior executive at New Relic and Cox Automotive.
It is written for the CEO or COO who owns the day, and for the chief of staff or executive assistant building the shortlist. If you need a venue, a team-building program or a keynote, that is a different search.
The short version
- Most of the result is decided before the day, by the preparation.
- Agreement in the room is not commitment. Ask how the facilitator tells the two apart.
- Bring the same seven facilitator questions to every candidate and listen for specifics.
- Ask what exists when the day ends and who checks progress after.
- Your own part matters as much as the facilitator's.
What you are hiring
Start by naming the problem the day has to solve. A professional facilitator owns the process so the leaders can own the content. Four different jobs get sold under the name: running a strategy or planning session, helping a leadership team work as a team, holding a conflict the team cannot hold alone, and coaching leaders while they do real work together. Decide which one you need before you call anyone, because a facilitator who is excellent at one can be the wrong hire for another.
Facilitators also differ in how much they bring to the content. Some hold the process and offer no opinion. Some will challenge the plan. Some will tell you what they would do. None of these is wrong. What matters is that you know which one you are buying, and that they tell you which one they are doing in the room.
Should the CEO run it, or bring in an outside facilitator?
The CEO rarely runs it well. Every decision on the list involves the CEO, and the CEO is the person the room watches most closely. People read the leader's reactions and adjust what they say. You cannot referee an argument you are part of, and the argument is why you are meeting. Someone else on the team can run a simple session. When the stakes are real, bring in an external facilitator, someone with nothing riding on the answer.
What sponsors most often get wrong
Reading agreement as commitment
A nod costs nothing in the room. Agreement sounds like "that makes sense." Commitment sounds like "I will do this by this date, and you can hold me to it." Many offsites reach the first and report it as the second.
Scoping only the day
The result is largely decided by whether the plans, and what each leader needs from the others, are ready before anyone sits down. A day without preparation can cost more than the fee you saved.
Filling the day with presentations
If every hour is a presentation, there is no time left to resolve anything. Every item you add comes out of something else. The close is where owners and dates get named, so it needs protecting.
Giving targets only to the revenue teams
Every team in the room needs a number. Each one has dependencies, and a strategy that needs coordination, buy-in and investment from the others.
One number shows why the space between teams deserves the time. In a study of nearly 8,000 managers in more than 250 companies, 9% said they can rely on colleagues in other functions all the time, and managers said they are three times more likely to miss commitments for lack of support from other units than because of their own teams.1
Seven tests: the questions to ask a facilitator on one call
Test one: will they talk to every leader before the day, and what happens to what they hear?
The job: finding out what the team disagrees about before the room opens, so the day starts there. Ask: who will you talk to beforehand, for how long, and what do I get to hear? Listen for: a private conversation with each leader, themes reported without names, and that arrangement agreed with you before the first call. In a small team a specific issue can point at one person, so ask how they handle a theme that would identify someone, and what they do with things you tell them that the team has not heard. A weak answer: "We send a short survey," or "Just tell me what you want covered."
Test two: will they work inside your plan and your vocabulary?
The job: getting your plan decided, not teaching a method. Ask: here is the template and the planning rhythm we already use. What would you change, and why? Listen for: someone who asks to see what you have and changes only what gets in the way. A weak answer: a fixed program with a workbook for everyone.
Test three: how do dependencies between teams surface before the day?
The job: a plan rarely fails inside a team. It fails between teams. Ask: how will each leader know what the others need from them before we meet? Listen for: each leader writes down what they need, from whom and by when, and talks to that person first, so no one hears about a dependency for the first time in the meeting. They show leaders what a too-general ask looks like next to a specific one, ask what each plan needs in coordination, buy-in and investment, and read both sides' plans for asks the other side does not show. A weak answer: "We will do a cross-functional exercise that afternoon."
Test four: can they get the real answer in the room?
The job: telling a yes that is real from a yes that is polite, and getting people to speak when the CEO is present. Ask: what do you do when a leader agrees and you can tell they do not mean it? What do you do when the room goes quiet after I speak? Listen for: a method. Agreeing beforehand when the CEO speaks and when the CEO holds back. Going around the room. Treating "not yet" as an acceptable answer, with the gap and what would close it written down. And a clear view that not every decision needs consensus: sometimes the CEO decides after hearing everyone. A weak answer: "I create a safe space," or "People come around by the end."
Test five: what will they tell you that you do not want to hear?
The job: an outside facilitator can push harder than someone inside, and that includes pushing you. Ask: here is my draft agenda. What would you change? What do you do when the conversation goes down a side road? How do I tell you to ease off? Listen for: something specific they would change in your plan, a way to stop a tangent without losing the point, and a way for you to adjust how hard they push. They confirm agenda changes with everyone who owns the agenda in the same conversation. The first call is a preview: if they will not question your agenda now, they will not question your team later. A weak answer: "Your agenda looks great."
Test six: what exists at the end of the day, and who checks progress after?
The job: turning the day into something the company can run on. Ask: show me an example of what a team received after one of your sessions. What happens thirty and ninety days later? How do you find out whether last year's agreement was real? Listen for: decisions written as decisions, each open item with one owner, a next step and a date, and a named person inside your company who owns the regular check. Progress that is reported to someone holds better than progress that is kept private.2 A weak answer: "You will get a summary and a lot of energy."
Test seven: have they held a seat like the ones in your room, or only run the room?
The job: hearing what the room is really negotiating, which is easier for someone who has carried a number and answered to a CEO or a board. Ask: which of the seats in my room have you held, and what did you get wrong in it? Tell me about a session that did not work. Listen for: a specific account, including a failure and what changed in how they work. A weak answer: a list of well-known clients, or "I have facilitated hundreds of sessions."
Then give your finalists the same real situation and compare the agendas they propose. Hire the one whose agenda starts with decisions, not topics.
Red flags
- No conversations with your leaders before the day.
- More talk about their framework than about what you will decide.
- A promise that everyone will feel safe or aligned by the end.
- No example of a session that went wrong.
- The engagement ends when the room empties.
- They agree with everything you say on the first call.
What it costs, and what the fee should cover
In the United States, the one practitioner survey that publishes numbers puts a one-day facilitated session at about $4,000 on average, including preparation and follow-up, and a two-day executive session with an experienced independent facilitator typically lands between $5,000 and $25,000. The spread is the preparation and the follow-through. Ask what is in the fee: the conversations beforehand, the days, and what happens after. My guide to what facilitators cost has the detail and the sources.
Your part
No facilitator can do your half. Before you sign, ask yourself whether you are willing to hear the answer if you do not like it. Your reaction to the first hard thing said in the room teaches everyone what is safe to say next. Give the number and the reason first. Then, when leaders present their plans, react later than you usually do. Hold people to what they committed after the day is over: if a CEO lets someone commit and not deliver, a meeting cannot fix that. The chasing is not yours alone, though. The commitments were made in front of peers, so the regular check belongs to the team.
Three things are worth deciding early. Who drives the slides, so the facilitator can capture what is agreed. Who chases a plan that arrives late. And how far a "what is in it for me" conversation may go in the room, because a facilitator can raise that question and only you can answer it.
How I answer the seven
Before the day: I talk with every person who will be in the room, one on one and in confidence, for up to an hour each. What reaches the room is the pattern, without names. Your plan: I start from what you already have: your plans, your template and last year's materials. Where the decisions are not yet clear, we agree a one-page list of them first. Dependencies: each leader writes down what they need, from whom and by when, and what others need from them, and talks to the person on the other side before the room opens. The real answer: each leader ends the day saying, in front of their peers, whether they are a go. What you may not want to hear: I am not a neutral moderator. My habit is to ask the question and hold back the answer. When I do weigh in, it is labeled as opinion, so the decision stays yours. After: the decision log goes to every attendee within two business days, followed by a 30-day follow-through with its shape agreed up front: at minimum a follow-up session about a month later, and a named owner inside your company for the regular check. The seat: founder and CEO through a Nasdaq IPO, senior executive at New Relic and Cox Automotive, and COO in a venture-backed turnaround.
How I run these sessions is on the facilitation page. If you want to put the seven to me, the first conversation is forty-five minutes on video, with no pitch. Tell me what the day has to decide and who will be in the room.
Questions people ask before hiring a facilitator
What questions should I ask a facilitator before hiring them?
Ask about the preparation: who they will talk to before the day, whether they will work inside your plan, and how dependencies between teams get raised beforehand. Then ask about the room and after: how they tell real agreement from polite agreement, what they would change in your agenda, what you receive afterward, and which of the seats in your room they have held.
What does an offsite facilitator do?
An executive offsite facilitator designs and runs the session so the leadership team does its best thinking and leaves with decisions that have owners and dates. They hold the process, and the team holds the decisions.
What makes a good facilitator?
The published lists of the qualities of a good facilitator agree on the basics: they listen, give the conversation structure, question without steering, and hold the room to the clock. Those are hard to judge from a list, which is why the seven tests ask for specifics.
Who should be in the room?
The CEO and the leaders who own the decisions the day has to make. Bring a board member or an advisor in for one block if a decision needs them. Every extra seat makes it harder to say the true thing.
What are the four types of facilitators?
People split facilitators two ways. One is by how much they bring to the content: a pure process facilitator, one who challenges the plan, and one who advises. The other is by the job: strategy and planning sessions, team effectiveness, conflict, and coaching a team while it works. Match the type to the problem you have.
Facilitator vs moderator: what is the difference?
A moderator keeps time and makes sure each person gets a turn. A facilitator designs the session, prepares the people in it, and gets the team to a decision.
Do we need a facilitator or a team coach?
A facilitator is for a decision or a plan that has to be settled in a day or two. A team coach is for a pattern that keeps coming back, worked on over months. My guide to executive team coaching covers the second.
How much do facilitators charge?
The surveyed United States average is about $4,000 for a one-day session including preparation and follow-up. A two-day executive session with an experienced independent facilitator typically runs $5,000 to $25,000.
How far ahead should we book?
I recommend three to six weeks ahead for a virtual session, and six to eight for a one- or two-day room in person, because the time goes to the conversations before the day. It can be done in less, with the preparation compressed.
Where the numbers come from
- Sull, Homkes and Sull, "Why Strategy Execution Unravels, and What to Do About It," Harvard Business Review, March 2015
- Harkin and colleagues, "Does Monitoring Goal Progress Promote Goal Attainment? A Meta-Analysis of the Experimental Evidence," Psychological Bulletin, 2016 (138 studies; most studied personal goals, so it is an analogy here)