The Secret to Participation (Is Facilitation): How to get everyone involved and make meetings meaningful
This two-hour online training is about how to meaningfully increase engagement in your meetings, trainings, or workshops.
This is for leaders, educators, facilitators, and coaches who want to create sessions where everyone can contribute, be heard, and feel part of the experience.
September 6th from 11am-1pm ET
$199 (financial support & group discounts available)
Registration includes: recording, private podcast, and copious follow-up resources
Join the 3-part series and save $100
"Honestly, this was one of the best online trainings I have taken. Superb job!"
WHAT THIS WORKSHOP IS ABOUT
When we gather people together, whether it’s a meeting with our colleagues, leading leadership training, or in a classroom/educational setting, we want people to be actively involved in the process. We want them to participate and share their thoughts, ideas, and questions.
Getting people to participate can be a challenge because:
There is social risk when we share an idea, question, or comment especially in front of colleagues and peers
You may be challenging a norm of sit-and-get meetings/workshops where participation isn’t expected
Different personality types and processing styles means finding ways to both share the mic and take the mic
There are so many distractions that we’re going up against (both in-person and online) it can feel impossible to hold people’s attention (you read this whole list!? Amazing!)
And the truth of it is that most of us have never been taught how to get people to participate.
The Secret To Participation is an online workshop where we are focused on tricks, tips, and technologies of participation that will make all the difference in the spaces you lead.
THIS SESSION WILL HELP YOU UNDERSTAND
How to mitigate social risk and create psychological safety that guarantees participation
How to prepare your group to participate (even before they walk in the room/Zoom)
The three keys to participation and how to use them to unlock group potential
You'll leave knowing specific methods for the most common participation roadblocks: dealing with dominant participants, over-talkers, and no one sharing in the large group.
Creating gatherings where everyone is participating, energized, and actively engaged might seem like witchcraft, but it’s actually an entirely learnable set of concrete skills and frameworks that when linked together create a profound effect.
It’s possible to lead full-day Zoom workshops that leave people saying, “Wow! I cannot believe I’m looking forward to another one of these tomorrow!”
It’s possible for rooms of 300 people to be in deep conversations with each other.
It’s possible to disrupt power dynamics that allow people to dominate conversations in order to hear from everyone in the room.
And this workshop will teach you how!
WHO’S LEADING THE SESSION
Meg Bolger! An expert facilitator, social justice educator, and participatory educator.
Meg has been facilitating for over a decade and is currently the head of Facilitator Cards and POP Facilitation. Meg co-founded numerous projects and businesses including The Safe Zone Project, FacilitatingXYZ, Unlocking the Magic of Facilitation, and Facilitator Cards and spent much of the last decade training trainers from around the country (and world) on the art of facilitation.
Meg’s foundations in facilitation came from her work in social justice education and gender and sexuality workshops. She believes that facilitation is one of the key skills of educators, leaders, organizers, and facilitators who are trying to bring about meaningful change in the world. Her work in social justice spaces also gave her years of navigating hot topics, challenging conversations, and loaded disagreements in group settings.
Meg is passionate about the subtleties of what helps groups work, learn, collaborate, and connect with each other. She loves to break down the art of facilitation into skills that people can use to help humans collaborate, communicate, and connect better together.
Meg believes that as leaders, educators, trainers, and facilitators, we can make our spaces places that people feel good and want to be in. Her mission is to share everything she knows about facilitation to support everyone who is doing meaningful change work in the world.
WHAT WILL IT BE LIKE?
This workshop is a highly participatory session. We will teach you the secrets to participation while you experience them firsthand.
Other than a mid-point break you’ll be actively engaging and participating throughout the entire workshop.
We’ll use a variety of methods including journaling, pair shares, live-polling, chat, fishbowls, small group work, large-group discussions, and more.
This session is limited to 100 participants. We cap at 100 so that we can still do pair-breakout rooms (Zoom limits to 50 breakout rooms) and have lots of meaningful small-group conversations.
The workshop will start right at the hour and we will close the door to the workshop after 10 minutes to ensure that the group has a cohesive learning experience.
WHO’S IT FOR?
Facilitators – If you want to get better at increasing the amount, quality, and variety of participation you get in your sessions, this is for you. No matter what type of facilitation you do!
Coaches – If you lead group sessions where you want to ensure folks are learning from each other and not just from you, this is for you!
Trainers & Consultants – Even if only part of your job involves participatory education or leading meetings, if you are in charge of spaces where quality participation is vital, this is for you!
Educators & Teachers – If you want your students to be able to learn from each other and be more responsive to questions and invitations for participation, this is for you!
Leaders & Managers – If you want to lead collaborative engaging meetings where people are involved, sharing, and invested (and don’t leave thinking, “Wow this could have been an email.”) this is for you!
WHEN YOU SIGN UP YOU’LL RECEIVE
After signing up for The Secret to Participation you’ll receive an email with a link to add it to your calendar and details reminding you about what you can expect in the session.
(Lesson 1 of the secret to participation – tell people what to expect in terms of participation!)
EXPECTATIONS OF THE SESSION
Be ready to participate! This session is participatory! We will use a variety of methods including the chat, live polling, breakout rooms, journaling, and large group conversation.
Participation in this event does not require your camera to be on (but we love it if you want to!). However, it does require participation in small group and pair breakout room conversations - so it’s not a good session to multitask during!
No late arrivals. Because this is a participatory session that builds on itself quickly, doors will close after 10 minutes and those who have not joined yet will not be allowed in.
The session will be recorded and shared. The recording will be focused in the main room, no breakout conversations will be recorded.
After the session you will also receive access to a resource hub that will contain:
A recording of the event that you can access anytime, carefully chaptered to help you jump to key parts
A curated resource of additional material to explore the key concepts and topics (for all types of learners—podcasts, articles, videos, and more!)
A follow-up Q&A video to get to questions we didn’t address during the session (also available to listen to as a private podcast)
You will receive all of these resources regardless if you attend the live session, so if you can’t make the time but want all the things, sign up!
WHAT DOES IT COST?
The cost of The Secret of Participation is $199.
If you’d like help articulating to your boss how this series will help you with your work -- click here to download our pricing and informational PDF to share!
This session is the first in our 3-part series — register for the whole series and save $100!
INDIVIDUAL ACCESS DISCOUNTS
If you cannot afford the price of the training, we do not want that to be a barrier to accessing the material.
Discounts are available to those who need financial assistance in order to join the training.
TO PAY A DISCOUNTED RATE
Drop us an email (hello@facilitator.cards) and let us know whether you need a 50%, 75% or full scholarship.
GRITTY DETAILS
No refunds after September 1st.
Each registration is for one person only, if there are multiple people at your organization who would like to attend please contact us for group rates, special discounts, or exceptions.
You will receive the follow-up resources, recording, etc. regardless of whether you attend the training and are welcome to sign up specifically for the recording and resources.
STILL NOT SURE IF IT’S FOR YOU?
Feeling a bit wishy-washy? Sign up for our email list to be in touch!
FAQ
Can I come late?
Not really. We close the doors after 10 minutes (so in that sense you can be up to 10 minutes late!) to ensure that the group has a cohesive learning experience.
We get it, life happens, which is why we make each session available via recording as quickly as possible for those who have unexpected delays/hindrances day of.
Where can I learn more about the other workshops in the series?
Read more about Holding Space
Read more about Emergent Facilitation
