


The Secret of Facilitation: Facilitating For the Future Session 1
This two-hour online training is about how facilitation is often the secret ingredient to creating a radically better future.
How to get everyone participating (while undermining default power dynamics)
How to create spaces for vulnerability and honesty (while working with social/emotional risk)
How to navigate personal topics and challenging conversations without overwhelming people
And so much more. Facilitation is the key to helping people go to places they didn’t know they could reach (individually and as a collective) and we can create powerful pathways forward when we know what tools are available for us to use.
This session is for leaders, educators, facilitators, and coaches who want to create that can move important work forward.
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This session is part of a series called Facilitating for the Future! To purchase all 3 sessions and receive a $100 discount on your registration - purchase FFF here!
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Commentary from a previous participant: "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 of Facilitation is an online workshop where we are focused on 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, to engage, or to learn (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.
Whether you’re working with a group of 15 leaders or a session of 300 at a conference, this session will help resource you to have a greater impact for those groups and move your important work in the world forward.
Want to stay in the know - join our Email List!
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 roots 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. It is a real “show” over “tell” type session where you’ll get to experience our recommendations of how to facilitate first hand. 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?
People who want to be able to lead groups towards important and necessary social change work. Whether you’re a teacher working with students to teach critical thinking through examination of important topics, a facilitator/trainer who hosts workshops and conversations, a leader who wants to be able to host better collaborative and conversation meetings about hard topics, this session is for all of you.
It’s for those of us who do (and want to) hold the space for change making.
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.
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 what amount of scholarship you need. We offer up to full-scholarships for people in particular fields of work!
GRITTY DETAILS
No refunds after August 15.
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.
