THE ART OF PARTICIPATORY FACILITATION
How to Design and Lead Effective Meetings, Conversations, and Planning Sessions
using ICA Technologies of Participation® (ToP) methods
Cosponored by East End House, Gammy Bird Consulting and NEN
June 22 & 23, 2010
9am-5pm each day
MIT Campus-Student Center, West Lounge
84 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA
PURPOSEHow to Design and Lead Effective Meetings, Conversations, and Planning Sessions
using ICA Technologies of Participation® (ToP) methods
Cosponored by East End House, Gammy Bird Consulting and NEN
June 22 & 23, 2010
9am-5pm each day
MIT Campus-Student Center, West Lounge
84 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA
Employees, colleagues and partners expect to have real opportunities to participate in planning and decision-making. We have drawn on years of experience with participatory methods to help you develop critical skills to meet the challenges of genuine participation.
Do these complaints sound familiar?
» "Our meetings sometimes last for hours, without results."
» "One person dominates our meetings; I wish everybody would speak up."
» "We can't seem to sort out our priorities; we head off in all directions at once."
» "We make decisions, but then revisit them again and again."
» "I have a complicated planning event and I don't know how to approach it."
» "Consensus?! I don't know where to begin."
TARGET AUDIENCE
Anyone who leads, facilitates or manages a team or group, supervises staff, holds regular conversations, and/or is responsible for designing meetings and events that could benefit from more active, meaningful participation — and more fun!
OVERVIEW OF COURSE
This time-tested training is an explosive introduction to facilitation! Our three unique facilitation methods, core approaches of the Technology of Participation (ToP), help you:
- Include everyone's contribution
- Use the diversity in a group an asset
- Help groups deal with many ideas
- Reveal deeper patterns of thinking
- Build healthy consensus
- Turn polarization into cooperation
- Enable group innovation
- Help groups improve productivity
- Spark effective implementation
- Foster a "Culture of Participation"
COMMENTS FROM RECENT PARTICIPANTS
» "This course gave me the practical tools to facilitate a small conversation or a high stakes group planning process."
» "I feel like I have just been let in on a big secret. You pulled the curtain back and showed us how facilitation methods really work."
» "Very good experience. Fantastic facilitators. Engaging work and very clearly useful information as opposed to other only somewhat helpful workshops I've attended."
» "It gave me a useful way to approach problems, to get the most out of meetings and to efficiently plan work and projects. And, it was a lot of fun ... more fun than expected."
MORE DETAIL ON EACH OF THE THREE APPROACHES
Focused Conversation Method
Learn a structured process to conduct purposeful, productive meetings and facilitate a meaningful exchange of ideas. Discover ways to involve every member in thinking through difficult issues and heighten your effectiveness in facilitating virtually every form of group communication. The Focused Conversation increases your ability to:
- Conduct purposeful conversations
- Surface new ideas and solutions
- Quickly capture a group's best thinking
- Ask questions that stimulate candid feedback and discussion
Energize problem solving with a process to build active participation and teamwork. Productively channel diverse ideas into consensus decisions everyone can own and support. Learn tools to help groups reach new levels of creativity and cooperation, while tapping into both rational and intuitive thought processes. The Consensus Workshop increases your ability to:
- Integrate diverse ideas
- Generate practical and creative solutions
- Develop group consensus
Master a powerful implementation planning process to help a group rapidly pull together an effective plan, organize needed resources and mobilize individuals' energy into action. Action Planning increases your ability to:
- Visualize a successful result
- Create a practical plan
- Maximize group commitment and involvement
Cambridge, MA (TBA)
FEES
The fee for this two-day workshop is $645 per person. The fee is $595 per person if you register by June 1. If you are from a Cambridge-based nonprofit or human service organization and interested in receiving a partial or full scholarship to this training, please contact at michael@eastendhouse.org or by phone at (617) 876-4444. If you are a NEN Partner, feel free to apply your free webinar/training credits to this training, a savings of up to $180! The fee includes a 76-page workbook plus a continental breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snacks each day. Cancellation refunds may be received up to 10 days prior to each course, less $75 processing fee. Substitutions may be sent. (If you are an NEN Partner and wish to register at the discounted price, contact Cindy Carraway-Wilson by email or phone her at (207) 319-6009 before continuing.)
REGISTRATION
Register now to hold a spot. If you wish to register and pay by mail, click here or by clicking the button at the bottom of this page. If you would like to register and pay online, click here. This course is limited to 24 participants. You may pay by check or credit card. For more information about the course, call Nancy Jackson at (978) 779-5472 or email: nanjackson@gammybird.com.
TRAINERS
The trainers are professional facilitators with years of experience to share. You can look to them for a wide range of valuable applications, and for advice on specific facilitation issues that you face. These courses represent an opportunity to learn new facilitation "magic" from two of ICA-USA's preeminent facilitators.
Nancy Jackson, MSW, CF, is president of Gammy Bird Consulting and is a Certified Facilitator and Qualified National Mentor Trainer for the Institute of Cultural Affairs in ToP© facilitation methods. She has extensive experience in non-profit capacity-building and regularly facilitates executive transitions, and planning and team building processes with a broad array of youth agencies, non-profit Boards of Directors, coalitions/networks, schools, community groups, and corporations both nationally and internationally. 
Melanie Goodman, MA, is the executive director of NEN, and has been in the field of human services since 1979. She is certified in mediation, trustee leadership development, and as a facilitator/trainer for the Institute for Cultural Affairs. In addition to being an experienced organizational planner and grant writer, Melanie provides ongoing consultation to both public and private agencies. Areas of expertise include: strategic planning; group facilitation; board development, fund development; federal grant writing; transitional living programs and community collaboration.
ABOUT THE COURSE CREATORS: INSTITUTE OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS (ICA)
This foundational course in group facilitation methods was developed by the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA), combining the collective wisdom of numerous individuals working around the world since 1972. ICA is a private, not-for-profit social change organization. Its primary objective is to promote positive change in communities, organizations and individual lives. Over the years, the ICA has demonstrated that a program's effectiveness increases when the people it affects are part of the development and implementation process. The ICA acts as a catalyst in areas such as education, leadership training, organizational transformation, democracy building, job training, neighborhood improvement, and in fostering the art of facilitating diverse groups.
