experience in process

Group Facilitation In Action

These case study summaries are provided as informational only. Actual results depend on many factors. Contact us for more information. To protect confidentiality, names in some summaries have been changed or removed.

• Residents in West Hollywood Object to House of Blues Opening: Facilitated Dialogues Help
  When the House of Blues decided to replace a quiet restaurant with a new blues club, the neighborhood reacted strongly. After a series of facilitated dialogues between House of Blues representatives and concerned residents, several steps were agreed upon and undertaken by the night club to address the neighborhood’s concerns, including: construction of a retaining wall to block the sound; private valet parking to keep cars from parking in the neighborhood; trash pickup times altered so as not to disturb residents at odd hours; and, hours of operation were shortened without substantially affecting club revenues. Additionally, to address any future concerns, monthly dinner meetings were established to discuss and work through them – resulting in no additional facilitated meetings needed.




• Urban Mayor Uses Facilitator to Help Get Large Stores to Come In to Low Income Neighborhood A common dilemma in low income neighborhoods is the very difficult challenge of luring large supermarkets, superstores, restaurant franchises and other businesses to open there. Low income communities not only need the lower prices offered by larger chains, they also urgently need the jobs that would develop locally because of their openings. A large urban city Mayor engaged facilitators to organize and conduct monthly meetings to gather the community’s viewpoints and assist the Mayor’s office in creating a plan that resulted in major commercial chains opening in the neighborhood.




• Nonprofit Develops Their Strategic Marketing Plan with Aid from a Facilitator With a sizable government contract running out, a large Southern California nonprofit organization enlisted Sharp Resolution facilitators to conduct strategic planning for new marketing opportunities. Over two days, the facilitation team helped key leaders in the nonprofit and selected subcontractors in a step-by-step process to: identity their primary strengths; brainstorm multiple business options their individual and collective talent could offer their markets; select the preferred options; organize the company staff and independent contractors to develop the selections; and begin the chosen specific marketing plan process.




• Residents, Environmental Groups and Businesses Use Facilitation to Resolve Objections to New Quarry Following several years of unsuccessful legal and regulatory challenges, one of the country’s largest highway builders, Granite Construction Company, commenced construction of a quarry at Rosemary’s Mountain in Fallbrook, California to mine aggregate for road and bridge construction. At this initial construction stage, Sharp Resolutions was engaged to facilitate a series of dialogues between Fallbrook community residents, environmental organizations, local businesses and others with Granite Construction Company representatives. The focus of these dialogues was to address a wide variety of issues raised by these groups and the community regarding: air quality health concerns from dust created by the blasting and crushing of rock; traffic congestion issues related to the required widening of highway SR-76; water pollution questions; concerns about noise levels during blasting; and, others. In monthly meetings, Sharp Resolutions expert facilitators guided these concerned residents, community groups, environmentalists, business representatives and Granite Construction through a series of public forum dialogues to assist them in identifying and organizing the primary issues and then mediating consensus solutions to the address them – particularly those relating to pressing concerns about air quality health and highway widening construction. This consensus building process began in 2008 and is still underway; minutes of all dialogues and meetings, air quality monitoring reports and other information relating the quarry’s activities can be viewed in more detail at www.rosemarysquarry.com.




• Community Development Organization Resolves Internal Conflict at Director Level A San Diego community development organization brought in Sharp Resolutions conflict resolution specialists to assist them with a very challenging and common problem in group settings: internal decision-making difficulties involving department directors and the executive director due to some personal friction and disparate viewpoints on how best to accomplish the corporation’s goals. To assist them in dealing with this problem, Sharp Resolutions created and implemented a process specifically designed to fit their unique needs that included three phases: first, by working out personal issues in a series of mediations between the conflicting individuals; second, by facilitating a consensus building process that helped the directors reconfirm their organization’s mission, identify their primary objectives and brainstorm specific solutions acceptable to all; and, third, by training the directors in conflict resolution and consensus building skills to help them to prevent and resolve future issues.




• Dangerous Thoroughfare In Neighborhood Is Improved After Facilitated Dialogues with City Council After the killing of numerous neighborhood pets and the threatening the lives and safety of their children, a Southern California neighborhood had had enough. Following a series of complaints, City Council officials set up facilitated dialogues with the neighborhood to discuss the situation resulting in the installation of speed bumps to dramatically decrease the speed of the cars travelling through this route.




• Law School Enlists Facilitator to Resolve Conflicts Within Education Program Contract
  A California law school that administered due process proceedings on behalf of the state of California for over 20 years found itself in the middle of disagreements among disputants about its hearing process. After trying to resolve the issues directly with less than fully effective results, the school engaged a facilitator to conduct several meetings with the highly contentious stakeholders. After working through the strongly felt perspectives, the facilitator helped the disputants create a plan to modify the hearings to address the concerns, needs and interests of all.




• High School Uses Mediation to Resolve Sensitive Staffing Issue A prominent, nationally-recognized private high school engaged Sharp Resolutions to assist them with very thorny and delicate conflicts that arose as the result of hiring a new teacher the year before to head up one of their departments (in one of the subjects taught there). During this first year, numerous conflicts arose on a personal and professional level between teachers of this department and the new head. After initial consultations with the principal, the department head and the affected teachers, Sharp Resolutions designed a two-step process to deal specifically with their needs: first, by conducting private, one-on-one mediations with each of the teachers and the department director; and, second, by conducting a full department consensus building process. After addressing and mediating the personal conflicts, the full group, in a series of meetings facilitated by Sharp Resolutions experts, reached consensus on their shared educational mission and goals, created specific approaches to meet their objectives and developed mechanisms for dealing with future conflicts within the department.




• Facilitated Dialogues Between Neighbors and Homeless Shelter Ease Tension Neighbors in a Southern California community were up in arms over the opening of a St. Joseph Homeless Shelter. They were very concerned that the existence of the shelter would diminish their home values and that homeless people would be sleeping, throwing trash and urinating in their yards. Employees of the shelter were very worried about violence against the homeless. After several facilitated dialogues, tension was eased through airing of everyone’s concerns and agreements were reached regarding timing of food distribution, the entrance and exit points of the shelter and a newsletter to update the neighborhood on the programs provided to the homeless.




• Neighbors’ Anxieties Over Nearby AIDS Hospice Allayed with Facilitated Meetings Residents were alarmed and very worried about the conversion of a home in their neighborhood to serve as a hospice for AIDS patients. They were very concerned about the risk to their children of exposure to the HIV virus and gay men, parking congestion and the very look of the house as a reflection of their neighborhood. Through a series of facilitated meetings, the health and exposure anxieties were allayed, the parking concerns were resolved and the upkeep of the hospice assured. These meetings also created a much greater sense of understanding and empathy between the neighbors, hospice staff and AIDS patients.




• Concensus Building Gets Leaders of Autism Now to Lobbying Plan A group of about 100 leaders of Autism Now, the national source resource and informational center for autism spectrum disorders and other developmental disabilities, engaged a facilitator to conduct a consensus building process to create a plan for lobbying in California for research and service funds. Through a series of small and large group facilitated sessions, the group – with very diverse interests, needs and goals – coalesced around a lobbying plan for the coming year.

For more information about our large group facilitation, please click on one of the following: nonprofit organization, government agency, school, business or community group.