Group Facilitation & Training
High-five breakthroughs | Efficiency | Practical take-aways
Is your group facing a big decision? Are people disengaged? Too much time in meetings without results?
If you think your group can do better, we can help.
Craig has assembled a network of professionals to serve clients online and in-person with a wide variety of meeting facilitation and training services.
Types of Meetings We Facilitate
Big Decisions
WHO: For boards, management teams, and owners who are facing a significant decision; often where there is lack of clarity and/or disagreement about how to proceed.
WHAT: To understand facts and perspectives about the situation, and make a good group decision that everyone understands and supports. Could be a single meeting or multi-meeting process.
WHY FACILITATION: We run the meeting from a neutral perspective, allowing the group leaders to fully participate. We document conclusions and/or agreements from a neutral perspective. We improve the credibility of the process increasing the likelihood of successful implementation.
Annual Meetings and Retreats
WHO: For boards, leadership teams, departments, and entire organizations
WHAT: To reconnect, plan for the future, do creative in-depth thinking, address organizational dynamics, do team building or training, or tackle specific big-picture issues. On site or off. Half-day, full day, or multi-day.
WHY FACILITATION: We help the group find collaborative solutions to specific problems and build unity around a shared vision. We let the group’s leaders participate and connect with their peeps because we handle all the group process stuff.
Strategic Planning
WHO: For boards, senior staff, management teams, owners, and others who set long-term direction. Often led by a steering committee; often designed to consider the perspectives of many stakeholders.
WHAT: To establish or update vision, mission, strategic direction, goals, and strategies – together. From a half-day day session to a multiple-month process.
WHY FACILITATION: We help the group consider all input, stay focused, reach conclusions, and agree on action items, timelines, and specific responsibilities.
Public Input
WHO: For communities, public agencies, or organizations seeking input before making policy or strategic decisions; for organizations testing an idea with potential users.
WHAT: To gather information from people who will be affected by, or who have a unique and valuable perspective on, specific decisions
WHY FACILITATION: We help participants stay on topic and feel heard; our analysis helps you understand key themes.
Conferences
WHO: For anyone who wants an inclusive, cohesive conference with participant interaction and participant-driven conclusions and action steps.
WHAT: We help you design the agenda, facilitate conference committee planning meetings, facilitate specific conference sessions and panels, and manage breakout sessions or table discussions. We also summarize highlights and themes from entire conferences.
WHY FACILITATION: We help keep conference sessions running on schedule, maximize participant engagement, build a common understanding of key takeaways, and free you up to be more present at your event. Our conference summaries (called and Endnote) provide a sense of achievement and unity at the end of a conference. We make sure you end on a high note.
Collaborations and Mergers
WHO: For newly forming coalitions, task forces, or committees; for explorations of mergers or partnerships; for existing coalitions/partnerships in transition
WHAT: To establish or update common purpose, shared values, clear mandates, and operating guidelines; to explore potential collaborations. Single session or multiple sessions.
WHY FACILITATION: We serve the group as whole and help parties stay focused on key tasks.
Conflict Mediation
WHO: For two or more parties in disagreement; for a group with a culture of conflict or a group that has been through a challenging incident.
WHAT: To lay groundwork for strategic or policy decisions that have highly charged opposing interests; to debrief and rebuild after challenges; to arrive at a mediated decision. A single meeting or a series of meetings along with one-on-one work with each party.
WHY FACILITATION: We create a safe space to express perspectives and encourage parties to arrive at mutually satisfactory conclusions.
Community Conversation
WHO: If your organization wants to foster and demonstrate productive conversation among people who see things differently, this could be perfect for you.
WHAT: Typically a 1-2 hour public session where the facilitator encourages stories, questions, and shared understanding. Small group conversation and chit-chat happens too.
WHY: This session SHOWS people that we can be nice to other even when we disagree. It models good communication and high respect. It draws out stories that inspire action. It’s fun and memorable.
Types of Training We Offer
Town, City, and School Board Workshops
- Make space for your board, council, or committee members to talk freely and get to know each other better.
- Establish group unity by discussing HOW you do your work together.
- Establish clear guidance for professional staff.
Designed for Town and City Councilors, School Board Members, and other local elected officials, this workshop typically focuses on one or both of the following, your choice: 1. Process-focused. We discuss and establish communication norms, how to handle public input, ideal roles of the board vs. staff, or other efficiencies that are top priority for you. 2. Content-focused. We discuss and establish shared goals for what you want to achieve as a group.
How to Run High Quality Meetings
- Give your people practical tools to dramatically improve meetings.
- Meetings don’t have to be bad, they can be great!
- We demonstrate best-practice meeting facilitation AS we teach meeting facilitation.
Our meeting facilitation training is designed especially for meetings that value inclusion and collaborative decision making. I will explain key ingredients for good facilitation; need-to-haves and good-to-haves. We will discuss online techniques. We will discuss practical tips to make meetings efficient, productive, and even fun. We will share stories and might even play some out to learn from.
How to Handle Conflict
- We don’t have to fear conflict – harness its power for positive change!
- Give your attendees the skills to navigate tough conversations with confidence and grace.
- Create a culture where healthy debate leads to breakthrough solutions.
Come learn some basic theory about conflict prevention, management, and resolution. We discuss root causes and practical tips for handling conflict at each stage. We discuss key conditions for conflict resolution. We discuss the role of a mediator. And we discuss the meaning of consensus, why it gets a bad rap, and how to achieve it efficiently.
How to Get Along when we Disagree
- Turn differences into strengths and foster a culture of respect.
- Equip your team with communication strategies for difficult conversations.
- Learn to build consensus, find common ground, and achieve shared goals despite differing viewpoints.
Come learn tips and tools for navigating this world of growing divides and political unrest. Learn strategies to get along even when you disagree; even when you don’t like what someone believes. Get inspired and gain confidence to forge conversations and partnerships across political divides, religious divides, and other divides.
How to Find Peace
- Give your participants practical tools to find personal peace.
- Show your people that you care about their mental health.
- Help your folks learn day-to-day strategies to detach from conflict, manage workplace tension, and be happy and productive in spite of interpersonal challenges.
It’s a hard world out there. It can be especially hard to get along with others in your group. Yet at the end of the day, how do we get along with ourselves? How in the hell are we supposed to sleep well? In this unique workshop Craig shares his special list of tips and tricks to find personal peace in a world of conflict, whatever world you’re in.
Other
If there is another training topic that would help your group? Write to me and tell me your challenge.
Shopping for a topic? Scroll through our Downloads and see what interests you.
What can we help you with?
Special Facilitation Retreat with Leigh Tillman
This February, join Leigh and a group of peers to explore what facilitation is and deepen your own practice of holding space for groups.
After meetings, participants will come up and say, “Wait, how did we just do that?”…“How did we have those in-depth conversations and end on time?”…“Everyone felt so comfortable together so quickly!”
Sometimes facilitation can seem like the invisible part of the meeting. I absolutely love delving into exploring this “other half” of what is going on when a group gathers and looking at how we can support a group in their intentions and dynamics when they come together in a meeting.
Many of us find ourselves responsible for facilitating groups and meetings in our work and life. These skills show up in work teams, community projects, friend gatherings, family activities…Annnd for many of us this part of our work is woven in with other hats and priorities which can feel complicated.
This retreat is an opportunity to focus on facilitation in its own right. It is an opportunity to focus on how a group of people comes together in an intentional way.
About our Facilitators and Trainers
It helps to have a facilitator or trainer who’s a good fit with your group and with your session objectives. We have a network of professionals with various styles and strengths.
All of our facilitators and trainers have been vetted by Craig and come highly recommended. We each believe in the Good Group Decisions mission and values.
Would you like to become a Good Group Decisions Facilitator or Trainer?
If you are a facilitator or trainer with demonstrated results and aligned values, please reach out and tell me about yourself.