Note: To attend courses, you must be registered online prior to the course start date. Before you register, please follow your agency's procedures and policies regarding encumbering funds for the course.

Participants in this popular course will learn to plan meetings that engage people in constructive and productive ways. Classes are offered online, and participants will learn from professional facilitators and from each other as they build facilitation skills that support effective in-person and online meetings. Classes will take place over four half-days. Participants will receive a copy of Sam Kaner’s Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making, which is full of key concepts and practical tools to help increase participation in group discussions and decisions. The course is appropriate for any public-sector employee who is called upon to facilitate meetings. Both novice and experienced facilitators will benefit from the course.

You will learn to:

• Decide whether to have a meeting and who needs to be included.
• Design, conduct, and evaluate effective meetings.
• Establish operating agreements for successful meetings, both in person and online.
• Apply group processes and frameworks for managing change and making decisions.
• Organize the flow of topics so that meetings have a beginning, middle, and end.
• Plan pre- and postmeeting practices that increase the likelihood of success for your group.
• Use remote meeting technology to enhance productivity and connections.
• Identify appropriate approaches to difficult situations.
  
• Use basic skills, such as brainstorming, listening, documenting meeting information, and decision-making.
• Identify your own facilitation style and build confidence with leading meetings.
  

Cost: $750 four half-days (includes book and materials)