Meeting Facilitation Training Organizational Communications

Training - Facilitated Learning Workshops

We refer to our training programs as facilitated learning workshops. That’s because we design sessions that actively engage people in learning new content and immediately applying it to real-life situations. Whether our programs are delivered onsite, virtually—or both—we build in opportunities for lively conversations and interactive exercises so people can test concepts, apply new skills and test knowledge instantly. (We model best meeting practices by making plenty of helpful reference material available other ways, so people can spend valuable class time interacting with others.)

Here are some of the most popular training workshops we facilitate. We also help clients create their own memorable, stimulating and engaging virtual classroom sessions, whether they have an existing classroom session they want to transform, or they need a whole new course.

Contact us today to learn more about our facilitated learning workshops, to schedule a session, or to find out how we can help you create an engaging and memorable virtual learning session.

 

Essential Skills for Leading High-Performance Virtual Teams and Exceptional Virtual Meetings

Purpose:

Learn and practice skills, tips and tools to master the virtual workplace

Intended results:

  • Team leaders can influence without authority, motivate and galvanize a virtual team for top performance
  • Blend asynchronous and synchronous communication tools to get the most out of any virtual team
  • Design and facilitate virtual  meetings that are well-run, focused, and completely engaging
  • Build trust, cultivate relationships across your team
  • Navigate cross-cultural and generational differences in the absence of visual cues
  • Apply new tips and tools for addressing commonly-recurring challenges
  • …And much more!

Structure:

We work with clients to:

  • Customize course content, including case studies and scenarios
  • Devise a series of highly-interactive activities that reflect the needs and culture of each client
  • Prepare participants for a successful learning experience

This workshop is delivered on a client’s site for up to 20 participants. Participants with some experience leading virtual teams or virtual meetings are likely to benefit most. All workshop participants will also attend a one-hour virtual classroom session in advance, designed to show how to keep virtual participants engaged..

Getting Started:

Please contact us to explore how Essential Skills for Leading High-Performing Virtual Teams and Exceptional Virtual Meetings might benefit your organization. Click here for more details.

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From Good to Great – Facilitation Skills Training

Purpose:

Learn what it takes to plan and run exceptional facilitated face-to-face and virtual meetings

Intended results:

  • Participants and meeting sponsors are ready to contribute
  • Roles and objectives are clear
  • Agendas are structured to enable groups to make the most out of real-time interaction, whether face-to-face, virtual or both
  • Ideas flow freely, conversations stay on track
  • Next steps, actions and follow-up activities are clear
  • Participants feel they achieved their objectives 

Structure:

We work with clients to:

  • Customize case studies and exercises
  • Place the appropriate emphasis on certain content areas
  • Determine the best venue for delivering the course

This workshop is available for both onsite and virtual delivery. The workshop works best with no more than 15 participants. Participants with some facilitation experience will gain the most benefits. The participant reference guide, available for both versions of the course, includes dozens of tips, tools and templates.

Getting Started:

Please contact us to see if Good to Great is right for your organization. Meanwhile, we invite you to read our related information sheet for more details if you're interested in an onsite workshop. If you're more interested in a virtual delivery, see our four-part module snapshot.

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Transforming Technical Professionals into Great Meeting Leaders

Purpose:

Provide project managers and technical staff with practical tools, tips and experiential learning activities to develop competency and confidence in leading important client meetings

Intended results:

  • Position technical staff as business consultants and trusted advisors
  • Increase the billable time and hourly rate of technical consultants
  • Strengthen teamwork among technical consultants, salespeople and client team members

Structure:

We work with clients to:

  • Assess each participants's unique needs
  • Create a tailormade scenario for each participant based on an actual client engagement
  • Develop an interactive day-long training session tuned to each participant
  • Provide coaching and guidance to enable participants to apply what they’ve learned with confidence

Each workshop is delivered at the client’s site. Workshops are customized based on client’s business model, skill level of consultants, roles, client types and nature of services. Each participant receives a workbook with tools, templates and actual examples. Please see our information sheet for more details.

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Bridging the Distance, a virtual classroom series

Purpose:

Learn tips, techniques and best practices associated with great collaboration --when working from a distance

Intended results:

  • Leaders of virtual teams distinguish between skills and competencies especially critical for helping groups work from a distance
  • Facilitators plan and run effective same-time, same-place meetings designed to achieve objectives in a compressed period of time
  • Remote team members learn new ways to build and demonstrate trust
  • Global teams navigate through cultural differences and learn how to capitalize on diverse perspectives
  • Team leaders select the best technology and tools for successful collaboration and communication

Structure:

Each virtual workshop provides practical principles, tools, tips and techniques. Simple prework makes the best use of workshop time. Participants share real-life situations, providing an immediate opportunity to apply lessons learned. Attendees participate via through the simultaneous use of audioconferencing and web meeting technology.

Most of our virtual classroom sessions are designed and delivered for a particular client, and we do hold public sessions from time to time. We may also grant educational credits for certain associations and industries. Click here to see a quick map of our Planning and Running Engaging Virtual Meetings workshop series. Click here for a map of our 3-part Virtual Leadership Series. Click here for a more complete description of each series of virtual workshops.

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Collaborating Across Cultures – Experiential Learning Activities

Purpose:

Enable global team members to work together more effectively by acknowledging, understanding and reflecting cultural differences in all manners of collaboration

Intended results:

  • Develop a better understanding of how stereotypes are likely to affect working relationships
  • Learn how different cultures process, receive and convey information differently, as well as the underlying reasons
  • Make well-informed decisions about how global teams can work together most effectively
  • Create agreed-upon norms and operating principles that work for all represented cultures
  • Establish team communication plans that work for all cultures
  • Anticipate how cultural difference are likely to affect teamwork
  • Apply tips, tools and techniques for surfacing and addressing issues related to cultural differences

Structure:

We work with clients to:

  • Assess participants’ needs as well as existing levels of “cultural literacy”
  • Discover issues and challenges best met through a better understanding of cultural differences
  • Develop a customized set of learning activities including creation of experiential learning activities using real-life situations for immediate application
  • Identify important prework that will contribute to learning
  • Ensure that workshop output can be put to immediate use

This one-day workshop covers a variety of topics most likely to affect the success of a multi-cultural team, whether team members are located next door, or half-way around the world. Activities include brief lectures, facilitated large group discussions, case studies, breakout sessions, flipchart exercises, and simulations. Some prereading is required. Click here for the info sheet.

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Creation of Customized Action Learning Workshops

Purpose:

Create unique learning opportunities for client organizations that rely on interactive conversations to develop competencies, skills and confidence needed to show measurable performance in critical business areas

Intended results:

  • Accelerate time to performance improvement
  • Maximize participation by tapping into a variety of methods and channels
  • Participants learn key concepts and develop and practice new competencies using real-life business situations

Structure:

We work with clients to:

  • Clarify business objectives and determine where performance improvements are most critical
  • Link specific competencies, skills and knowledge to desired areas of performance improvement
  • Define target audiences and learning objectives for each
  • Assess needs and determine current proficiencies of each audience
  • Agree on important parameters such as method of delivery, number and type of participants, total duration, prework required, and delivery dates
  • Design a set of experiential learning activities geared toward improving performance in defined areas
  • Create train-the-trainer material and related training
  • Pilot workshops as needed
  • Solicit feedback and revise content prior to rollout
  • Create overall project plan

Please contact us to discuss how we can help you boost performance through memorable, interactive learning experiences. We’d be happy to share how we’ve helped other clients facing similar challenges.

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facilitation skills training, workshop training and design

"We hired Guided Insights to run a customized version of Facilitation: From Good to Great to sharpen meeting planning and facilitation skills across our organization. Nancy delivered what she promised—an action-packed two days with a range of activities to engage everyone.Nancy invested the up-front time to understand our culture and participant needs.She is a true collaborator, communicating frequently to make sure that all details were nailed down. Nancy was a real joy to work with." - Karen Keefe, MathWorks Organization Development Manager

"Thank you so much for leading us through an excellent program.  When I was an employee of an international corporation, I participated in countless virtual meetings, and I always dreaded them.  You stimulated my thinking in unbelievable ways about the possibilities.  Virtual meetings can actually be worthwhile, productive, painless, and even fun!"  - Principal of an international management consultancy

"The webinar on Planning and Running Effective Remote Meetings was great.  I am delighted I signed up for your session.  I work in a remote location from my own headquarters and am already thinking about applications for the lessons I am learning." - Director, United Way in Western U.S.