Facilitating Meetings with Ease

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Facilitating Meetings With Ease –

Toronto: October 21-22, 2015

We’re all spending so much time in meetings and are being asked to achieve crucial goals that meeting process facilitation is fast becoming a core competency for anyone who’s on a team, leads a task force, heads up a committee or manages a department. Whether you’re new to facilitation or have years of experience, this workshop provides a unique opportunity to enhance your mastery of any group situation.

Learn essential skills from certified, veteran trainers who have taught meeting facilitation skills for years. Experience a dynamic and totally interactive learning environment.

The Learning Opportunity:

  • Core values, principles, and behaviors of meeting facilitation
  • Work with powerful process tools and techniques
  • Develop your confidence in handling resistance and dysfunctional behaviors
  • Receive personal feedback and coaching • Practice new tools in a safe learning environment

Who Should Attend:

  • Project managers – earn PDUs!
  • Six Sigma and Lean Professionals
  • Managers of any level who run meetings
  • Internal Consultants
  • Professionals who need to increase buy-in and decrease resistance in group settings
  • Team Leaders
  • Business Analysts Participants earn fourteen Professional Development Units through the Project Management Institute upon course completion.

Facilitation First has been a Registered Education Provider since 2006 and our current Provider rating is 92.39% (average rating for all providers is 85.61%).

Workshop Agenda

Module One – Introduction to Facilitation Roles & Beliefs of a Facilitator Partner Interview: The Five Core Practices Distinguishing Process and Content Leadership Norming Lecturette and Exercise Giving and Receiving Feedback

Module Two – Decision-Making Moving on Up! Exercise The Decision-Making Roadmap Converging and Diverging Tools and Exercises Overview of Consensus-Building Testing for Agreement How Neutral do Facilitators have to be?

Module Three – Meeting Management The Fundamentals of Meeting Management Exit Survey Review and Exercise Case Study: “Meeting in Overtime”

Module Four – Managing Conflict Healthy Debates versus Dysfunctional Arguments Conflict Management Tips The Language of Intervention and Exercises Q&A, Evaluations, Wrap-up

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Facilitating Meetings With Ease

Workshop Outcomes

Module One: Introduction to Facilitation

  • Understanding the importance of ‘facilitation’ as a key leadership core competency within the context of running effective meetings and managing diverse groups
  • Getting clarity as to the role and beliefs of the facilitator in the context of creating powerful meetings
  • Experiencing the power of pairs and how to minimize group resistance through the use of the ‘buy-in frame’
  • Learning the 5 core facilitation practices and how to use these to gain group alignment
  • Understanding the importance of ‘process’ versus ‘content’ as the foundation for understanding dialogue
  • Reviewing how to initiate and maintain a facilitation
  • The importance of defining ‘purpose’ and ‘process’ in creating the meeting context
  • Exploring the use of norms in helping groups understand interpersonal and task related expectations

Module Two: Introduction to Group Decision-Making

  • Experiencing criteria based decision grids – a more sophisticated approach to prioritization versus ‘pros and cons’
  • Understanding the five most used decision-making options: from ‘delegation’ to ‘consensus building’
  • Learning how to choose and facilitate the right decisionmaking option
  • Practice using methods for giving and receiving peer feedback

postitnotesModule Three: Introduction to Meeting Management

  • Learning how to apply the learning immediately to relevant work situations
  • Understanding the parameters of facilitator neutrality
  • Developing knowledge on the nine basic fundamental elements of running effective meetings
  • Practicing how to develop a process design for a ‘planned’ intervention
  • Using exit surveys as a methodology for making group and/or meeting improvements

Module Four: Introduction to Group Conflict Management

  • Distinguishing immediate vs. planned interventions and when either is required
  • Reviewing proactive techniques to handle common types of meeting conflict
  • Practice using the three-step language of intervention model in dealing with common blocks during meetings

For almost 20 years, Facilitation First has been top of mind for those seeking training in process facilitation. Our Facilitating with Ease workshop has been honed by Ingrid Bens, author of the national bestselling books ‘Facilitating with Ease and ‘Facilitation at a Glance!’. With thousands of participants rating the course an average 4.5 out of 5, we provide an experiential workshop process that equips learners with simple yet powerful tools that they can apply in their next meeting. What You’ll Receive You leave our workshop with the tools you need to combat wasted meeting resources.

You get access to online customizable templates, a textbook filled with meeting designs and intervention techniques, and the personal feedback and coaching from participants and the trainer. Our certified trainers are ‘facilitators first,’ who bring this real-world experience to the classroom.

 

Register Today!

| http://www.facilitationfirst.com |

call 416-465-9494 or email us at info@facilitationfirst.com

Dates: October 21-22, 2015 Times: 8:30 am – 5:00 pm

Location: The Rostie Group, 20 Bay Street, WaterPark Place, Suite 1100, Toronto, ON

Trainer: Kevin Quinn

Fee: $1,100 + HST ask about our discounts

What Some of our Clients Are Saying…

“Kevin was phenomenal. A true facilitation guru. Felt at ease and learned a lot of practical tools.” Cathy Katrib-Reyes, Project Coordinator, CBC

“This workshop was a carefully perfected blend of content, process and opportunities to practice in a safe and supportive environment that encouraged risk taking and reflection. Top shelf!” Monica Wand, Vice Principal, York Region District School Board

“This training shocked, amazed and inspired me. After just two days, I feel equipped to bring operational improvements to my organization.” Joe Crampton, VP Product, BPS Resolver

About Your Trainer: Kevin Quinn

Meet the meeting doctor. We all know that an innovative facilitation process can make the difference between a dysfunctional work group and a high performing team. Kevin models and teaches leaders how to design and facilitate meetings to get the best results from individuals and groups. Kevin provides expert meeting facilitation, especially as a teacher or troubleshooter of these skills. His expertise includes teaching people on how to deal with difficult stakeholders, how to negotiate to get results and how to use creative problem solving with individuals & teams. He has mentored and taught business and thought leaders in the public and private sector in North America and the UK. Every year he runs an adventure leadership school in Canada’s subarctic, teaching leadership in an environment where the decisions you make are a matter of life and death. Kevin combines academic achievement with practical experience as a project manager and general manager in large public and private organizations. Kevin has helped a wide range of business partners to navigate organizational challenges and improve their business results. He is the instructor of record at the City of Toronto’s leadership development program and the Schulich School of Business Health Administration MBA program. He teaches extensively in the health care, banking and municipal government sectors.

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www.facilitationfirst.com

info@facilitationfirst.com

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Client Testimonial – 1Go Media

1GO Media recently made The Rostie Group their new home. Here is what they have to say in this month’s edition of The Waterfront BIA’s e-Newsletter:

Client Testimonial from 1gomedia

Read the entire August 2014 Ripple e-newsletter here…

Happy Birthday Cynthia!

Happy Birthday Cynthia Rostie

Happy Birthday Cynthia!

The team at The Rostie Group would like to wish Cynthia Rostie a very Happy Birthday. We hope she has a wonderful day and is enjoying her travels. We look forward to celebrating with her upon her return!

Rostie Group Networking Pancake Breakfast

This morning we hosted a Pancake Breakfast in the Rainy Lake Room. It was the perfect start to the day. Thank you to those that could make it. Below are some pictures from this morning. Please stay tuned for more fun events that we will be hosting throughout the summer. Be sure to follow us on Twitter @RostieGroup

 

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Rise N’ Shine – It’s Pancake Time!

The weather is beautiful and we feel that it is time for another networking event. This time we will host a fun breakfast that will allow you to network with our clients. Please be sure to join us for our Pancake Networking Breakfast on June 24, 2014 from 8:00-10:00 AM.

Breakfast Networking Series Promo Flyer

Now Available: A New Home for Your Office Team

Team Room Available Now

Here at the Rostie Group we pride ourselves in being able to provide quality and affordable office and team space for rent.

Move In Today!

An excellent space that can be used for projects, team space for up to 30 employees, or whatever your business need may be.
Features include:
  • Fully furnished and available at any notice.
  • Spectacular city views
  • Situated in the thriving downtown South Core, steps away from Union station and just a stone throws away from the lake.
  • Flexible and customizable office configuration to meet your company’s unique needs
    • Currently configured for 10 stations but large enough for many more options.
  • Excellent as a day office for brainstorming sessions, focus groups, and project work
  • Committed specialist support available from any of our teams (catering, in house IT support etc).
  • Rostie Group meeting rooms, voice over IP, videoconferencing, full service kitchen and business lounge all available at or for preferred rates.

We look forward to offering you a unique office solution that meets your company’s needs.

Feel free to contact us for further information or to book a tour: 416-214-1840 or visit www.RostieGroup.com

The Waterfront BIA Hosts a Wonderful Member’s Appreciation Breakfast

 

The Rostie Group at The Waterfront BIA Appreciation Breakfast

The kind individuals at The Waterfront BIA hosted a delicious member’s appreciation breakfast on board Mariposa Cruises‘ Captain Matthew Flinders this morning. The breakfast was followed by two informative presentations.  Mark Lebovits and Stephanie McIsaac from Environics Analytics revealed detailed statistics of our waterfront service area. We learned a great deal about our waterfront community including including who the community is, average household incomes and detailed expenditures plus other relevant data on overall activity to help us succeed in our businesses. We really appreciated the insight that they were able to provide and it opened our eyes to the possibilities.

The second presentation provided details about the annual 3-day Redpath Waterfront Festival including their new partnership with the Toronto Wine & Spirit Festival and information on their world-class events such as the North American Flyboard Championships and DockDogs World Qualifying Championships. For more information about the Red path Waterfront Festival, you can read our previous blog post about it here.

Several local businesses also provided great prizes for a raffle. The Redpath Waterfront Festival’s intern Shane was the winner of a Rostie Group branded umbrella. With this unpredictable weather, Shane will always be keeping dry.

The Rostie Group is very thankful to have such an active BIA that is constantly thinking of the members and working on improving our area as well as hosting  informative and creative events. If you are a business in the Waterfront Area, you may want to become a member.

 

 

 

Team Space Now Available at The Rostie Group

The Rostie Group is pleased to announce that one of our team rooms has just become available. It has beautiful views and can accommodate up to 30 employees. We look forward to discussing your company’s needs and offering you a suitable office solution.

The Rostie Group Team Room Ad

What type of meeting is it again?

112512_2029_BookReviewT1Understanding the type of meeting that you are planning should help you make it even more effective. The type and purpose of getting this group of participants together will determine the timing, preparation and follow-up expected.

Amanda Schneider says

“Not all meetings should follow the same template. Using a variety of meeting techniques helps people focus, feel productive, and helps teams keep projects on track. Knowing your “meeting type” and following these best practices can keep you from wasting time and depleting your team’s motivation”

Read more of her great article here…

Great meetings result in something tangible.

112512_2029_BookReviewT1Do you know what it takes to have a great meeting? Or, how not to ruin one?

Making sure that you have certain rules when it comes to the preparing for and running a meeting is critical to ensuring that your team emerges from the meeting room on the way to something valuable and tangible.

“No agenda should include the words information, recap, review, or discussion.

Great meetings often have agendas that are no more than one sentence, like “Determine the product launch date” or “Select software developer for database redesign.”

Information? Share it before the meeting. If I need to make a decision during a meeting, shouldn’t I have the information I need to make that decision ahead of time? Send documents, reports, etc., to participants in advance.

Holding a meeting to share information is unproductive and wastes everyone’s time–it’s lazy.”

Read this really great article about having great meetings here…