Group Facilitation for Social Impact Professionals

Learn to lead groups to shared results

This course is for you if:

  • you work for an organisation that makes or supports positive social change on a local, regional or global level
  • you have at least five years of working experience in the sector
  • your role requires you to prepare and facilitate group gatherings

How do I get the best out of myself and the group process?

Why people participate in this training course:

 

"I want to get more confident as a facilitator in front of various groups and in different environments. In a style that suits my personality."


“I am not in a formal position of authority. Still, I need to be able to work and collaborate with people from various backgrounds to deliver concrete solutions.”


"I'm in the middle of a big change. How do I ensure that the meetings with the stakeholders and partners lead to real results?"

 

“I wonder how I can guide the gatherings in the international consortium I am a part of in such a way that everyone feels part of the process.”

 

"As a project manager, I struggle with the dynamics in the team. It often feels like flogging a dead horse and I am not sure how to engage everyone fully.”

The trainers about facilitation in the world of social impact

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About the course

  • We will spend three days together in this learning journey over a period of two months
  • The course will take place in The Hague, the Netherlands
  • It includes a personal intake conversation and coaching to address your specific learning needs.
  • The course offers a lot of room to cover a wide range of themes and learning resources.
  • Enough space to practice safely during the course and discuss and learn with the group and trainers to enhance the learning experience.
  • Between eight and twelve participants.
  • Two very experienced trainers
  • Learning materials: Workbook, the book The World of Visual Facilitation, articles on group facilitation and a set of professional Neuland NoOne markers.

Do you want to check whether this course suits your needs?

After the course, you will...

Be more self-confident in front of the group

As a facilitator or process supervisor, you will be more aware of your own facilitation style. You will notice that you dare to be authentic as you guide dynamic groups.

Have a toolkit of new working methods

So many situations, so many techniques. You will know which format or activity suits which situation best and how to facilitate it.

Be able to design group processes like a pro

Before you start guiding a group, you have to prepare quite a bit. You will know exactly what to do and how to design the most suitable session.

Course topics

Meeting design

How do you design a meeting that balances achieving outcomes and flexibility to respond to situations? You will be immersed in many different working methods, including starting gatherings, brainstorming, choosing ideas, and closing gatherings.

(Visual) facilitation techniques

Of course, we will also use visual methods for presenting, brainstorming and live drawing. These are based on The World of Visual Facilitation and inspired by the visual training of Jeroen.

Group dynamics

You will learn to recognize and redirect dynamic patterns and intricacies of group processes. You will be able to stand authentically and confidently in front of the group.

Practice facilitation

Of course, you will also practice facilitation yourself and receive feedback on this in a safe environment. You will get to know your own talents and pitfalls and how to improve on these.

Your own practical case

You learn best based on your own reality. We invite you to design a group process that is relevant to you during the course and to choose the working methods you think are most suitable. Between the training days you will get to practice in your own work environment.

Personal coaching

The trainers are available exclusively for you for two hours to coach you personally. We can assist you with your specific questions, encourage you to think along with the design of a meeting that you will facilitate or help you reflect on experiences of a recent 'facilitation job'. The faster and better you reflect, the higher the chance your learnings will stick.

Impressions

The trainers

Kelly Indira Buis


“I am independent facilitator, project and programme manager, and advisor on adaptation processes in the social impact field. Adapting our work to a constantly changing world is a challenge we all face. From the design, approach, tools and methods we use, to the people involved in the process. That realization proved the inspiration for The Adaptation Company, through which I have the pleasure to work with individuals, teams and organizations all over the world on their adaptation processes.

As a facilitator I love bringing practitioners together for interactive and participatory in-person or online sessions so they can tackle the issues they face by making use of the collective knowledge of the group.”

Kelly Indira Buis

Kelly Indira Buis

Jeroen Blijsie

“I really love working with groups to help being a better team, work on complex issues or strategy. From small to large groups, I use all my experience to get where the team wants to be. In the past twenty years I have published two books on process facilitation, contributed to some more books and produced many blogs and vlogs.

 

A picture is worth a thousand words. Yes, that is so true. A visual metaphor can even say more than many pictures. That is why I specialized in visual facilitation by drawing live in the meeting room. So with visual facilitation techniques, I can get people even more creative to in their quest to finding solutions and ideas.”

Jeroen Blijsie

Our publications on facilitation of groups processes

We love sharing our experiences in all kinds of publications. So here are our most esssential books, articles and posts.

In collaboration with The Adaptation Company