A good conversation is inclusive of multiple perspectives and ideas. But how can we encourage active engagement and inclusive participation when we meet online? In this workshop, you will learn multiple tools on how to provide opportunities for participants to engage in a meaningful and impactful conversation.

Learn to:

• Facilitate an engaging and participatory conversation on a virtual platform.
• Guide participants through the natural human understanding process across the domains of information retrieval, emotional reflection, personal and group meaning, and decision making.

Description

We often do a good job collecting data, but stumble when it comes to translating data into information that makes sense and then wisdom that provides meaning. This session will guide you through a sensemaking process that reduces the overwhelm of data analysis by better understanding the difference between quantitative (number-based) and qualitative (story-based) data. We will teach you to collect data, interpret key information and synthesize meaning to determine what should be shared with a group to help make good decisions.

Learn to:

• Facilitate a cooperative, group study session to digest data.
• Break large chunks of complicated data into smaller pieces to create clarity.
• Decipher patterns and trends in data to make better decisions.
• Lead a conversation that considers critical insights regarding future planning.

Experience methods to facilitate the co-creation of innovative and collective solutions virtually using Zoom and Mural. Many individuals and groups can easily generate ideas yet get stuck when it is time to categorize, prioritize, and implement. Join us to develop and refine your skills to guide groups beyond common sticking points to bring action to their goals and objectives.

Learn to:

• Engage groups in “out-of-the box” thinking.
• Converge diverse ideas through consensus-based agreement and resolve.
• Guide the development of strategies to enact mission and vision.
• Support collaboration and inclusive participation using Mural (a virtual white board) and Zoom (a video-conferencing application).

Develop facilitation and planning skills that enable trust, motivation, and accountability among team members. It is difficult to transform a culture of micromanagement without new tools to guide the change to empowerment and collaboration. Spend less time in meetings (and meetings after meetings), move to action faster, keep your project on task, and keep your team focused and inspired.

Learn to:

• Identify cultures of micromanagement with lack of trust among group members.
• Implement tools to transition into collaboration and accountability.
• Establish a process that increases efficiencies in project management.

Establish clarity and definition around a current problem with an effective tool that leads to informed decision making. With this method, you can quickly brainstorm solutions to solve the problem with resolution among your organizational team or community group quickly and effectively. Move beyond complacency into accountability and contribution.

Learn to:

• Facilitate collective ‘readiness’ among a group to tackle a problem instead of talk about it.
• Navigate groups around typical roadblocks to action and build synergetic momentum to accomplish the goal.
• Continue group engagement through completion to celebrate the success.

Build the skills necessary to host World Café methodology. This process is inclusive and engaging but requires a unique ‘with-it-ness’ from facilitators to manage the collective energy, sensitive timing, and shared understanding of this process. With honor and respect, harvest the wisdom of participants regarding any topic.

Learn to:

• Engage large groups of individuals with greatly differing perspectives.
• Ensure you make virtual spaces respectful and inclusive of all voices.
• Collect group responses with accuracy, decreasing personal bias.
• Implement a framework to host reflective conversations and inspire new learning.

Learn to implement a tool to collectively define a current reality and better inform new change efforts. When you need to make an important strategic decision or resolve conflict, use this process to inspire new ideas as well as honor past efforts and accomplishments in your organization or community. Take valuable time to reflect on the opportunities and challenges to ensure new sustainable solutions.

Learn to:

• Onboard new employees and to facilitate succession planning with our assessment tool.
• Honor and celebrate the past and develop awareness of the present with our reflection tool.
• Build synergy for future goals with an ideation and decision-making tool.

Learn to host a virtual “Town Hall” where all voices come together. Use this tool to gather input and feedback as valid data from diverse stakeholders to make well informed decisions or create shared awareness around a specific topic. This process invites constituents to safely share their valuable stories and wisdom.

Learn to:

• Use pre-designed questions focused on a certain topic or initiative to build a focused conversation model.
• Create conditions to hear and understand diverse perspectives on a virtual platform.
• Gather diverse feedback rather than impose personal opinions and project personal bias for informed decision making.

Too often, meetings are boring and painful. Facilitating sessions online adds an extra layer of complexity in management, engagement, and outcomes for many people. In this workshop, we teach methods to convene engaging virtual meetings, implement unique features of Zoom, and prevent common pitfalls of virtual meetings.

Learn to:

• Use virtual engagement tools seamlessly while facilitating.
• Transpose in-person sessions to online experiences.
• Conduct effective and meaningful meetings hybrid or virtually.
• Maximize efficiency, engagement, and fun with online meeting platforms.