Deal Facilitator Pillows

'I miss having middle men to cut out.'

"Shall we start with an icebreaker?"

Inclusive speech

'Complete sentences?? Jeez, how verbose can you get?'

'I went into that meeting with a hidden agenda and then forgot where I put it.'

Do you want to win the game or my business?

The Importance of Planning Thoroughly in Advance

'The school. My counselor told me to make the most of it...'

'All those in doubt, raise your eyebrows.'

"This is the communications workshop, right? Let’s get started, I’m prepared!"

"This isn't the big city anymore, Jim. I'm the facilitator now."

"You are aware that we try to make money here, yes?"

'I thought people were quite receptive to the change seminar.'

The first week of the brainstorming session went slowly.

'Come on, Walter, you're wasting out time! Stop using complete sentences!'

"He'll never win this negotiation. He's saddled with numbers...but we have anecdotes."

"You're wondering why I've called you here."

"Does it ever cross your mind that we make a lot of money because no one else wants to do what we do?"

'Now think, Harris, what did you do different on that day?'

'First, the Rules of Engagement for this meeting ...'

How to engage an audience

Overdraft limit.

'In conclusion; our major contract expires tomorrow, we have no idea what we want, and no knowledge of the market, It is time to pass this across to the Procurement Team...'

'I'm feeling a sense of conclusion here, so let's draw things to a close.'

'He has a very open mind. Everything goes in one ear and out the other.'

'It must be a risky proposal... legal is running it by their lawyers.'

Start the session by doing something unusual.

'This training session is all about challenging assumptions. For example you see someone looking depressed, dishevelled, unkempt it's easy to jump to conclusions. But they may not be a social worker, they may be a client!'

As the Chief Corporate Adrenal Gland of the company, Fred's recommendations were rarely a surprise.

The meeting will start a little late, intelligence is lost in the building somewhere.

"We can't even agree what to argue about any more!"

"What happened to the good old days when people just breached contracts?'

The facilitator from hell.

'And now, Gentlemen, that we have our thinking caps on, let us continue.'

'Ladies and gentlemen, today we're going to get down to nuts and bolts.'