Services

Your challenges are different depending on your leadership, your people, your organizational structure, your systems and processes, your culture, your clients, your direction, and the competitive environment you are operating within.

Benefits of Partnering with Ertrachter Group

A climate of openness and inclusion, minimizing personality and departmental differences while encouraging opinions that may differ from leadership

A safe venue to consider environmental changes and how your organization will respond to evolving issues

Desired outcomes that are carefully articulated and clearly defined—so everyone knows how success will be measured

A planning team who is committed to implementing the strategic initiative

Additional insights and new perspectives—to help you be more confident in selecting a course to follow

A detailed roadmap to help track budgets and ensure return on your investment

Facilitation - online and in person

Could your group be more effective at decision-making?

Jana Ertrachter is a renowned expert in group facilitation, from Collective Impact (groups convened around a common purpose, with a proven tool for decision-making) to board and staff retreats to individual problem-solving sessions.

She has guided groups of all sizes and dynamics through positive decision-making processes. After defining expectations, we will help you select the most effective scenario. You’ll see inspired commitment to decisions and action.

When Jana Ertrachter is your facilitator, your meetings will be:

Organized and productive— Proven processes will be used to clarify issues, outline choices and move forward with confidence.
Functional—You’ll get an antidote to internal infighting and poor group dynamics that may have created a dysfunctional atmosphere for group decision-making (whether you are aware of it or not).
On track and realistic dialogue—All participants will feel their voices were heard.
Insightful counsel—The team will be inspired, committed and excited for results.
Confidence—You’ll have meaningful and relevant decisions and actionable plans.

Planning

What are the key strategic issues facing your organization in the next 3 to 5 years? Or do you have an idea for a new program and no idea how to create and develop it?

Strategic planning is a management tool that helps focus energy. The planning process helps ensure people within the organization are working toward the same goals, and allows leadership to adjust direction as the environment changes. Once the strategic foundation is in place, a strong action plan can be developed to help you reach your goals.

In addition to overall strategic planning, Ertrachter Group is also very experienced in marketing, communications and program planning.

Research

Does your research begin with the end in mind?

Ertrachter Group is skilled in helping you find the right insights to inform your thinking about decisions you are facing. Whether it’s town hall meetings, listening sessions, one-on-one interviews, primary or secondary, qualitative or quantitative, you’ll receive a methodical approach to find out what you need to know, within your budget.

Coaching/Consulting

Do your executives have the skills they need to lead your organization in our turbulent world? Are they aware of the challenges involved in managing a knowledge-based enterprise? Are your teams having trouble working together?

When Ertrachter Group is coaching, you’ll receive customized coaching and consulting based on an assessment of your organizational environment. You’ll get specific training that aligns the organization's direction and priorities with the culture.

Sally HazelipHead of School, North Florida School of Special Education

I first met Jana during a strategic planning meeting for the North Florida School of Special Education. I was a board member at the time and later came back as Executive Director. Jana led the school in an incredible strategic planning process over the course of five months to help us decide our direction.

In 2013, the property next door to our facility was gifted to the school. We came back together and Jana led a mini strategic planning process focused on what we wanted to do on the property. It was a much smaller scale, but she gave us permission to dream about the building we wanted and how we could grow moving forward.

Recently, we just finished up our new strategic plan. We’ve grown to another place and we knew our mission statement needed to change considerably. Through this process, Jana has been careful to make everyone feel comfortable and welcome. The way she interacts with people really brings out the very best. It’s not always easy, and we’ve had lots of hard discussions. But Jana was never defensive, she just kept asking really good questions.

Jana has been such an incredible force. She has driven us, and called us to a higher place. There is no judgement—she lays things out on the table and she forces you to ask hard questions and have good conversations. She’s such a good facilitator and brings incredible energy. The board couldn’t speak highly enough about her.

Jana really listens. Out of your answer, she asks another question that makes you think even further and dig a little deeper. She has great chemistry with the group. I can’t say enough about what Jana has meant to our organization over the years.

Sandy ShaughnessyDivision Director, Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs

Our organization engaged Ertrachter Group because we needed a fresh, nimble strategic plan. Our previous plan was coming to an end and didn’t allow for adjustments when necessary.

We embarked on a year-long process to develop our strategic plan. Jana was engaged from the very first phone call and tactfully led us through a highly collaborative process, even when discussions were difficult. Jana led our strategic planning team through a process which ended with a plan that is both relevant and exciting for us and that we are proud to use daily. Through this process that she designed and facilitated, we forged new relationships with many key stakeholders that have become partners in our initiatives and work.

The first thing I liked was Jana's immediate interaction with the lead planning group and key stakeholders. She was aware of the hierarchy, inclusive of key voices and very diplomatic in her approach. Jana is highly collaborative, she engaged the staff and our stakeholders in each part of the process which led to higher engagement with the plan outcomes along the way. Once the work was rolled out to the full group, she was highly collaborative and stayed engaged with staff, who developed great trust for the process.

She is a great facilitator and can guide the conversation in a productive way for higher engagement. We had an inclusive group involved in planning, all the way from the receptionist to high levels of management (Deputy Secretary of State). Recently, Jana came back and participated in a staff retreat, which solidified our staff’s commitment to moving forward with the action plans. We’re collecting success stories every year and developing key metrics to quantifiably measure our success to the original plan.

Jana was 100% knowledgeable on what we needed and how to get us there.

Michael Spigel, PT, MHAPresident & COO, Brooks Rehabilitation

When our organization decided to become more intentional and sophisticated about our strategic planning, we decided to be open-minded and bring in someone from outside the company. We did not want a facilitator who was an industry expert; we consider ourselves experts in our business. What we needed was an excellent facilitator who would posses a variety of other skills: authenticity, a sharp objective thinker who would ask provocative questions while genuinely relating to our type of work and unique culture, and the ability to move forward a team with a mix of legacy and modern thinkers but all of us with tremendous aspirations for our company. After much searching, we chose Jana.

Jana moved our group through a tough remake of our mission and vision and strategic plan that properly reflected our desire to grow and our need to serve the community. The process went so well that less than three years later we brought Jana back to do it again, as well as other times over the years to help us work through complex problems where her skilled abilities far surpassed other options.

What makes Jana so effective that we continue to seek her out and I recommend her to other executive leaders? Jana’s skills lie in her ability to work with diverse groups of executives, creating a difficult to balance atmosphere of structure while allowing boundaries to weave and move in order to not impede creativity. Through subtlety, she would keep our team on track while allowing free flowing debate and exchange.

She was astute at reading nonverbal cues and messages, thereby ensuring all sides are heard and respected. Between meetings, she would seek feedback making adjustments as necessary, showing natural flexibility and self-reflection. In the end, our finished products were exemplary.

For these and other reasons I highly recommend Jana. She has wonderful presence, and I am proud to offer my endorsement.