Skilled Facilitator Training with Roger Schwarz

Following the huge success of the UK’s first ever Skilled Facilitator Training Workshop, Internationally-renowned expert on facilitation and author of international best seller ‘The Skilled Facilitator’, Roger Schwarz returns to London with his team for a second time to run his Skilled Facilitator Training Intensive Workshop from 13th to 17th of September 2010 .

This is a rare and unique opportunity for leaders, facilitators, coaches, consultants and mediators to learn innovative world-class skills and techniques that will help radically increase productivity and effectiveness of groups, teams and individuals. Practitioners with decades of world-class experience routinely cite this workshop as one of the most valuable in their career. Join Roger and his team on this incredibly powerful workshop.

“No one has done a better job than Roger Schwarz of synthesising the major theoretical underpinnings [of facilitation] and translating them into clear, usable guidelines for practitioners” -Peter M. Senge, author, The Fifth Discipline, on The Skilled Facilitator

“I recommend [the Skilled Facilitator] with enthusiasm to professionals in all fields, consultants, graduate students and thoughtful managers. Schwarz has done an excellent job of integrating social science theories with valuable advice” -Chris Argyris, James Bryant Conant Professor, emeritus, Harvard University

Places are strictly limited to 18 delegates

ONLY 1 PLACE LEFT!

To Secure your place contact Aled Davies

on +44 (0) 7710 442716

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**NEW ** CPD Points

This workshop will attract 34 Law Society  CPD Hours

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A rare opportunity you will not want to miss

In this rare opportunity you will get the chance to spend five days with Roger Schwarz and his colleagues learning the ground-breaking principles, skills and techniques of the Skilled Facilitator Approach as they work with you on your most complex and challenging work situations.

Go beyond theory into intensive, personalised practice in this focused, in-depth session. Roger and three of his colleagues will work with you on your most challenging and complex real work situations. Through this process you will receive some of the most incisive and valuable feedback ever received in your professional career. You will also make sustainable changes that will dramatically increase your effectiveness and quality of your working relationships.

Who Should Attend?
The workshop has been designed for leaders, consultants, facilitators, trainers, coaches, mediators and other professionals responsible for change and addressing conflict.

Workshop Outcomes
At the Skilled Facilitator Workshop, you’ll learn to:

• Reduce unnecessary conflict
• Build credibility and trust by addressing difficult issues with your entire group
• Identify functional and dysfunctional behaviour faster and more accurately
• Intervene in difficult situations
• Help group members increase accountability and commitment
• Help group members become less dependent on you over time
• Help maximise personal and group engagement

You’ll also learn to create these positive outcomes:

• Decisions that get better results
• Decisions that people actively support
• Decisions that save time
• Better relationships – at work and in your personal life
• More personal satisfaction and less stress – for you and your clients
• Learning that allows you and others to adapt and change where others cannot

When you implement your learning from The Skilled Facilitator workshop:

You’ll be more Transparent – When you implement your learning, you’ll share your reasoning and intent underlying your statements, questions and actions, and your actions will match what you say much more closely than they did before. You’ll invite others to do the same. This reduces the need for people to make assumptions about what you say and do, which increases trust. It also helps groups make more informed decisions about how to move forward.

You’ll be more Curious – When you implement your learning, you’ll be more genuinely curious about how others are thinking about issues, especially when others seem to have different or irrational points of view on these issues. You’ll seek to understand others points of view to their satisfaction. You’ll invite others to be more curious as well. This creates learning and trust, and reduces defensiveness, particularly in difficult circumstances.

You’ll have more Compassion – When you implement your learning, you’ll develop a greater concern for the good of others and yourself. You’ll blame and judge less, and seek to appreciate and help more. You’ll invite others to do the same. This allows you to involve and energize others in seeking solutions to existing challenges, which improves their group or organization’s performance.

You’ll be more Accountable – When you implement your learning, you’ll hold yourself and others accountable for their actions. You’ll make commitments to improve your effectiveness, and actively seek feedback as to your progress. You’ll invite others to do the same. You’ll also hold yourself accountable for your thoughts; if they are relevant, you’ll work to share them, even if it’s difficult to do so. This makes it much more likely that you’ll improve your capacity to serve your clients over time.

You’ll be more Committed – When you implement your learning, you’ll be more internally committed to your actions, and seek solutions that leave others feeling the same way. You’ll actively explore your and others’ reservations and concerns on any given issue, and work to avoid manipulation and coercion. This helps you and others achieve lasting results that wouldn’t be possible without the support and creativity of all involved.

Booking Details

£2990 (plus VAT)

(Fee Includes: Continental breakfast, 3-course buffet lunch, teas, coffees and refreshments available all day. Comprehensive Participant Manual, Ground Rules for Effective Groups Article and Ground Rules pocket Card. Participants will also receive a copy of The Skilled Facilitator – A Comprehensive Resource for Consultants, Facilitators, Managers, Trainers and Coaches by Roger Schwarz, as well as dinner on Thursday 16th September with Roger and his colleagues)

Timing – This Workshop will start at 8.30am and finish at 5.30pm

(The venue will be open from 7.30am; delegates wishing to arrive early are welcome to do so. Breakfast will be available, and the venue is fully equipped with workstations and wireless Internet connections)

Click here to see the venue: Wallacespace in Covent Garden

What will be covered over the five days?

Day 1

Introductions, Workshop Overview, and Working Together

The workshop begins with you, your co-participants and instructors introducing yourselves, sharing your expectations for the workshop, reviewing (and modifying if necessary) the fit between your expectations and the workshop design, and reaching agreements on how we will work together in the workshop.

What Makes Work Groups Effective

In this section, you’ll learn three criteria for assessing whether a group is effective and learn the elements necessary for developing effective group process, group structure, and maintaining a supportive organizational context. You’ll practice using the group effectiveness model to diagnose strengths and weaknesses of groups you have worked with.

Facilitative Skills in Action

In this section an instructor role plays a facilitator working with a group (role played by a few workshop members) trying to solve a problem. You’ll observe the role play and identify and discuss specific behaviours of the facilitator and the principles underlying them.

What is The Skilled Facilitator Approach: Facilitative Roles and Core Values

Here you’ll explore the key elements of The Skilled Facilitator Approach:

Operating from a set of core values and ground rules;

Thinking and acting systemically;

Increasing group member responsibility and reducing unnecessary dependence; and

Creating conditions for mutual learning

You’ll explore the five core values (transparency, curiosity, accountability, informed choice and compassion) that underlie The Skilled Facilitator Approach. You’ll learn how the roles of facilitator, facilitative leader, facilitative consultant, facilitative coach and facilitative trainer are similar and different, and when it is appropriate to serve each of the roles. Through practice exercises, you’ll learn to identify and deal with situations in which groups ask you to act inconsistently with your role.

Understanding Your Mindset

Mindset is a term that includes the values and beliefs that guide peoples’ behaviour, especially in difficult situations. Through an exercise, we help you see how your mindset may lead you to create the very situations you are trying to avoid–mistrust, defensive behaviour, poor problem solving, and limited group learning. To do this, you’ll write a case study (known as a left-hand column case) of a difficult conversation you’ve had, in which you include the thoughts and feelings you had during the conversation. We’ll analyze your case study prior to the workshop, give you written feedback on it, and you’ll explore it using exercises.

Using Ground Rules to Develop Effective Groups

Here we discuss and practice using the ground rules that stem from the core values and that lead to effective Facilitative Leader behaviour and group behaviour. The ground rules include: state views and ask genuine questions; share all relevant information; use specific examples; explain your reasoning and intent; test assumptions and inferences; and discuss undiscussable issues. Through discussion and exercises using your own left-hand-column cases, you and your co-participants will learn why, when, and how to use each of the ground rules, and how they lead to effective group behaviour.

Self-Critique

At the end of each day we conduct a self-critique to get feedback about the day. We discuss what went well and what to improve.

Day 2

Using Ground Rules to Develop Effective Groups

(continued from day 1).

Analyzing Theory-in-Use

In this section we continue to explore how your mindset affects your facilitative skills. Using a left-hand column case from the class, you’ll identify places in the case where the case writer has acted consistently or inconsistently with the core values and ground rules of the Skilled Facilitator approach, and identify the consequences. At key places in the case, you’ll practice redesigning the case to create more effective behaviour.

Diagnosing Behaviour in Groups

You’ll learn to identify functional and dysfunctional behaviour using the group effectiveness model, core values, and ground rules. You’ll also learn a simple six-step diagnosis-intervention cycle to guide your diagnosis and intervention. By watching a videotape of a group in action, you’ll begin developing your diagnostic skills.

Self-Critique

Day 3

Intervening in Groups

You’ll learn how to intervene in a group to improve its process, including what to say, how to say it, when to say it, who to say it to, and why. You’ll practice designing interventions, and get real-time feedback from us and your co-participants.

Facilitation Practice

In small groups, you’ll spend 1.5 days practicing all of your facilitation skills using realistic role-plays, including ones you have developed. We’ll provide specific feedback after each role play and you and your co-participants will receive an audio recording of your role plays and feedback.

Self-Critique

Day 4

Facilitation Practice

(Continued from day 3).

Self-Critique

Day 5

Contracting with Groups

Here you’ll learn how to develop an agreement with a group about whether and how they will work together. You’ll learn the stages of contracting, including who needs to be involved in each stage, and the decisions that need to be made at each stage. You’ll conduct role plays to practice contracting.

Facilitating in Your Own Organization

You’ll learn strategies and specific techniques to address the special challenges you face when facilitating groups in your own organization, including dealing with power and hierarchies, and reaching an agreement with your boss about how facilitation requests will be handled.

Integrating the Skilled Facilitator Approach with other Approaches

You’ll identify how The Skilled Facilitator Approach reinforces, complements, or conflicts with other management approaches and training programs currently used in your organization. You will also consider what changes, if any, are needed to create more consistency among these management approaches and training programs.

Continuing Your Learning

Becoming a skilled facilitator, facilitative consultant, or facilitative trainer takes more than a week. During this session we discuss ways that you can continue to develop your knowledge and skills when you return to your organization. You’ll develop an individual plan for transferring your skills back to your workplace and for continuing your learning after the workshop. We give you materials and information to support you in introducing this new approach to others.

Workshop Evaluation

Roger Schwarz is an organizational psychologist and president of Roger Schwarz & Associates, a consulting firm that helps people get better business results and build stronger relationships, often in ways they didn’t think possible. Roger teaches, consults, and writes about facilitation, leadership, managing change and conflict, and developing effective work groups. For more than twenty-five years, Schwarz has served as facilitator and consultant to Fortune 500 corporations; federal, state, and local government agencies; and nonprofit organizations. Distinguished consultants, executives, and academics have called his book The Skilled Facilitator: A Comprehensive Resource for Consultants, Facilitators, Managers, Trainers and Coaches (Jossey-Bass, 2002) a standard reference on facilitation. He is also lead author of The Skilled Facilitator Fieldbook: Tips, Tools, and Tested Methods, for Consultants, Facilitators, Managers, Trainers and Coaches (Jossey-Bass, 2005). Formerly an associate professor of public management at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Schwarz left his tenured position in 1996 to found Roger Schwarz & Associates. He earned his Master of Arts degree and doctorate in organizational psychology at the University of Michigan and his master of education degree at Harvard University.

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