The Executive Facilitator Academy

12/01/2020

The Facilitator Academy has gone virtual! The online program includes four 4-hour workshops designed to help you develop and hone your facilitation skills, plus 2 post-workshop check-ins to continue the learning process. The next Academy begins on Feb. 2nd. If you're interested, please email me at [email protected].

11/09/2020

CONGRATULATIONS to this years "Hall of Fame" facilitators! Ruth E. Nicholson and Tony Nash

2020 Hall of Fame Induction 06 November 2020The International Association of Facilitators is pleased to announce the induction of the following people into the IAF Hall of Fame: ● Sharon Almerigi, CPFE ● Jim Campbell ● Maureen Jenkins ● Pamela Lupton-Bowers, CPFM ● Tony Nash, CPFE ● Ruth...

10/19/2020

Learning never stops! I was just introduced to this cool use of the "annotate" feature in Zoom to get people’s gut reaction to a proposal or a question virtually. Thanks Barbara MacKay of North Star Facilitators! There are several different stamp options (check marks, hearts, stars, etc.)! You can also use it to: 1) mark a world map on where you are calling in from or where you were born, 2) to do "dot" voting to select level of agreement or consensus around a statement; or 3) to help a group identify where they want more help or are struggling... to name a few.

03/23/2020

The skill of facilitation is even more critical now that we've moved to the virtual office. Think about how you can engage folks in multiple ways - ask them to think a minute and write something down before responding, use the chat box, go around the "virtual table" asking everyone to weigh in, use virtual whiteboards, take notes online so everyone can see what's being captured while your talking. You can still have those tough, productive conversations - it will just take a little more effort on your part to think about how to keep everyone involved.

12/08/2018

Our 2019 Executive Facilitator Academy will be May 8-10 in Boise, Idaho. If you are interested in learning skills that will help you be a more collaborative, facilitative leader, let me know and I'll put you on the invite list.

10/23/2018

BIG CONGRATS to Cole Pelosi of Metageek - the newest Certified Professional Facilitator (CPF) in Idaho! The certification process with the International Association of Facilitators is a lengthy, rigorous effort requiring written proof of experience, phone interviews with assessors, submission of a workshop design and ultimately traveling to an assessment event to facilitate a workshop with a group of peers and assessors. Way to go, Cole!

11/05/2017

Amanda Cox, one of our 2017 EFA Graduates and Quality/Training Manager at BPA Health, reports seeing engagement in her meetings increase as she has:
-allowed adequate preparation time for herself
-defined and shared the meeting purpose
-had an agenda in question format that she shared days before the meeting

In addition, during the actual meeting "I have found that having activities to address tougher issues have allowed all involved express their ideas. Also, silence is ok. Allow the silence to happen…someone will eventually speak up when the group is asked a question."

Thanks Amanda for sharing those great learnings!

10/27/2017

Congrats to the October graduates of the Exec Facilitator Academy! Attendees from Ontario, North Carolina, Texas, Chicago and Boise joined us in Salt Lake City for a great time of learning and practice. We look forward to hearing your stories as you seek purpose in all you do.

06/30/2017

We’re always thrilled to hear about real life experiences...Cole Pelosi, HR Adminstrator at MetaGeek, attended our June workshop at Boise State. She was able to immediately put her learnings into practice when facilitating the quarterly strategy meeting. MetaGeek’s COO, Brian Tuttle (also an EFA graduate), said she did an amazing job – leading with purpose and getting the desired deliverables. Congratulations, Cole!

Her one question from the experience…what do you do when the decision-making process agreed to during the pre-planning is changed in the moment. For example, the decision-maker says in the moment of decision…I want this to be consensus rather than authoritative? What would you do?

06/12/2017

GREAT NEWS...Mark Woychick, who attended our January EFA in Boise, has applied and been accepted to go through the Certified Professional Facilitator Assessment in Calgary in late June. Way to go, Mark!!!

04/17/2017

We were honored to have folks like Adam Labare in our Houston Executive Facilitator Academy. Adam - can't wait to hear where your journey takes you!

"Over the course of my career, I have attended countless training and coaching opportunities. By far, The Executive Facilitator Academy leads the pack. When I walk in to a career growth opportunity, I typically hope to walk away with several valuable assets. This 3 day session has armed me with a fully loaded arsenal of tools and techniques I plan on leveraging for the rest of my career. I was just blown away."
Adam Labare, Director of Web Services, PCCA