Learn to create a better world through inspiring, healthy & effective collaborations

We invite you to the first ever ‘Group facilitation skills: putting participatory values into practice’ training in the Netherlands: a world-class, certified course, that has brought thousands of team and organisation leaders, maverick facilitators, and consultants worldwide to build rock-solid foundations for their collaborations to flourish and create more impact from a place of clarity, competence, and courage.

3-day in-person training:
• In-house training on-demand throughout Europe
• Public training Nov 26 - 28, 2024 • Amsterdam, the Netherlands

or

The foundational facilitation training that enables you to make collaborations and groups thrive

In today's collaborative work environments, facilitative skills are indispensable. They form the bedrock of healthy organisations by nurturing team spirit, unlocking collective wisdom, forging solid decision-making that leads to sustainable outcomes, and enabling resilient execution of plans. 

By the end of this course you will be able to understand and skillfully navigate these essential skills:

Tackle challenging group dynamics

Learn how groups work in reality and how to deal with challenging group dynamics such as misunderstandings and difficult communication styles.

Design purposeful meetings

Become competent in designing purposeful meeting agendas; delivering on productive, healthy, and inspiring meetings and conversations that remain open to any insight that emerges.

Master the mechanics of group decision-making

Become skilled in metabolising complex issues into more authentic relations and sustainable agreements that go well beyond ‘business as usual’.

Facilitate as a leader

Become skilled in facilitating groups as a leader by navigating the confusion around power and authority with clarity and going beyond “wearing two hats”.

Engage everyone’s energy

Learn the art of engaging everyone’s energy and participation by validating them and their ideas through active listening. Encourage mutual understanding to co-create solutions.

Find out if this training is right for you

Book a 25-minute discovery call to see how this training might help you and your team

A training backed by three decades of development

This particular training has been developed, tested, and improved for over three decades by San Francisco's renowned consultancy firm, think thank, and provider of world-class training: Community at Work. Founded in 1987, Community at Work has played a remarkable role in supporting businesses and organisations tackle complex problems through participatory approaches to systems change. Their approach includes foundational principles about leadership and collaboration that serve any type of team to collaborate more effectively and solve wicked problems.

This training has been widely available in the North America and has been offered globally, and is now available in the Netherlands and throughout Europe.

Meet a masterpiece on collaboration and facilitation

As part of the training you will receive a copy of the ‘Facilitator’s guide to participatory decision-making’ written by the lead facilitators at Community at Work, which includes all foundational concepts and frameworks that allow you to integrate the training even further.  

The Facilitator’s Guide provides a full set of models and tools to enable an organization to reap the benefits of a well facilitated, participatory decision-making process. 
Pierre Omidyar - Founder, eBay

This book is an outstanding resource for tackling complex community and business challenges. We’ve used it both at the City of Denver and at the State of Colorado. I keep a copy on my desk for easy reference.
Roxane White - Chief of Staff to Governor John Hickenlooper, Colorado

This training is for anyone who works with or in groups

This training is highly experiential and is for anyone who desires to become skillfull and competent in leading and/or facilitating groups with clear direction, including those with solid group experience. This training truly encompasses all foundational principles that allow you to work with any group or situation that requires collaboration and goes far beyond receiving tools and templates, and will even uplift the leadership skills of seasoned facilitators.

—> This training is for anyone in a leadership position, even those who have been leading groups for many years
—> but also forteams that want to become self-facilitative and want to learn how to organize themselves effectively and tackle complex problems.

Find out if this training is right for you

Book a 25-minute discovery call to see how this training might help you and your team

What you will learn during the course

  • On the first day of the training, you will be able to clarify the role of a facilitator, practice with facilitative listening skills, developing the group memory and suspending judgment to develop ideas. As a bonus you will learn how to receive feedback non-defensively and evaluate a meeting.

  • The second day is instrumental: it reveals in details the mechanics of group dynamics. You practice, reflect and receive feedback on your stand-up facilitative skills in normal settings and when facing difficult dynamics. You explore how to manage the group energy.

  • The last day of the training integrates learnings from the previous days by focusing on how a group can reach closure effectively. You also delve into clarifying the objectives of a meeting and designing a realistic agenda that sets the group up for success while keeping flexibility to adapt.

Meet your trainers

Ewen Le Borgne - Lead Facilitator

Connect: LinkedInE-mail

Ewen’s work exists to unlock everyone’s collaboration and process magic to help them achieve better human systems and/or planet. He does this through direct facilitation and coaching/training/co-design and co-facilitation of ambitious people and collectives. Ewen is an associate of the world class facilitation and collaboration reference firm ‘Community At Work’, as well as of ‘Convene’ and the ‘Liberating Structure’ community. He has trained many groups on the critically acclaimed ‘group facilitation skills’ training since 2016. Furthermore he is a key member of the facilitation community 'Never Done Before' where he hosts a resident ‘Friction Lab’ session.

Ewen’s energy, expertise and passion for his craft is matched only by his ambition to inspire everyone everywhere to enjoy the privilege of living a facilitative and relational life that makes a real positive difference in the world.

“Ewen was instrumental in designing and facilitating a very important high-level meeting we organized recently. We would have never achieved what we did without his knowledge of group dynamics, decision-making processes and capacity to design an agenda that fulfils everyone’s objectives.“
-
Ewa Hermanowicz, EuForGen project manager

Louelle Seelmann - Support

Connect: LinkedInE-mail

Louelle is an empathic analyst, strategist, facilitator, and entrepreneur. She advocates for wholehearted leadership, emphasizing responsibility for our collective future while staying true to the heart and soul. Through guidance in personal and professional development, Louelle empowers individuals and groups in creating genuine impact, strengthening collaborative and leadership skills, and aligning them with their unique blueprint and purpose.

With expertise in sustainability sciences, international development, and embodiment, she brings a holistic perspective to every endeavour, considering well-being, project success, and planetary conservation.

"Louelle is an appreciated trainer, human-centered while very able to guard her personal space.  She handles group dynamics supported by her high sensitivity to human behavior and interaction, picking up any signal from delicate tensions to gentle appreciation between people. This enables her to give personal feedback to participants and in direct working relationships: always diplomatically shared and meaningful."
- Paul Schep, Director Global Training Unit - Rainforest Alliance

Come and join us

  • Date & Location

    Nov 26th - 28th 2024
    Amsterdam, The Netherlands
    9.00 - 17:30

    Prices

    € 2000,- Freelancers & NGO employees
    € 2200,- Company employees
    excl. 21% VAT

    Sign-up for next cohort

  • An in-house workshop is an economical way to get more of your colleagues fluent in group facilitation skills, reinforcing opportunities to put these skills in practice and deliver higher value, all on your location, at a more appealing price.

What is included in the training?

  • A depth and breadth of work and life skills that will empower you and those around you for your entire life

  • 1-hour of 1:1 coaching after the training (public training)

  • A copy of "The Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making" written by Community at Work

  • Healthy lunch and tea/coffee throughout the day (public training)

Do you still have questions?

Book a 25-minute discovery call to see how this training might help you and your team