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This Issue's Special: 30-40% Off June L.A. Effective Facilitator
Register for the June 20-22 Effective Facilitator class in Los Angeles and receive a 30% discount for 1 person. Register 3 or more people and receive 40% off! Hurry while seats last!
You must mention the May/June Newsletter in order to receive the discount. For questions, call Jamie Kaye at 800.824.2850 x 27.
Upcoming Classes
The
Effective Facilitator
4-Day
May 23-26 Atlanta
Jun 27-30 Atlanta
Jul 25-28 Atlanta
Aug 15-18 DC
Streamlined 3-Day
Jun 6-8 Chicago
Jun 20-22 L.A.
Jul 11-13 Dallas
NEW! Aug 2-4 Denver
Accelerated 2-Day
Jun 16-17 Seattle
Facilitator Certification
Dec 15-16 Atlanta
Advanced Facilitation
Sep 8-9 Atlanta
Facilitating IT Sessions
Sep 30 Atlanta
The Effective Consultant
May 16-18 Chicago
Jun 13-15 Dallas
Aug 8-10 Atlanta
The Effective Communicator
Jul 1 Atlanta
Strategic Planning
Aug 11-12 Atlanta
From Management to Leadership
Oct 17-19 Atlanta
See the entire Public Class Schedule
Click here
to register online now for a public class or call us at 1.800.824.2850 about a private on-site class!
Leadership Strategies is a national leader in meeting facilitation, facilitator training, consulting skills, leadership skills and soft skills training for information technology professionals.
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Greetings!
Certification is a hot topic in the facilitation world. Today, anyone with a flipchart and a marker can hang a shingle with the "facilitator" title. While there are many good facilitators in the world, unfortunately there are also many who don't understand the basic concepts of engagement and consensus building and who are ill-equipped to deal with diverse styles or dysfunctional behavior. The result is often poor facilitation that leaves in its wake a sea of unhappy clients dissatisfied with facilitation as a vehicle for success.
Wouldn't it be great to have a method that prospective clients could use to help identify facilitators with the skills to meet their needs? Leadership Strategies is a proud sponsor of the Certified Master Facilitation program run by the National Institute for Facilitation (www.NIFac.org). NIFac, in a pilot program with the International Association of Facilitators (www.iaf-world.org), has raised the bar on facilitation excellence. With the help of 450 facilitators and clients, they have identified 30 sub- competencies necessary for achieving outstanding facilitated sessions. NIFac offers a master certification program, for facilitators who have led 30 or more sessions, and a less daunting video assessment program that rates your skills against the sub-competencies.
Please join us and others in these pioneering efforts to establish a higher standard for facilitation. As a facilitator, get certified or have your skills rated. And if you are a client, ask prospective facilitators about their certification. These actions will go far in building a culture for excellence in the facilitation industry.
To learn more about certification, and to advance your skills further, attend the North American Global Conference of the International Association of Facilitators, held this year in Tampa, Florida June 9- 11. When top facilitators from around the globe come together, it is a fantastic place to be!
Michael Wilkinson
Managing Director, LSI
Best Practice Tip for this Issue: Session Feedback
Feedback is a critical part of the continuous improvement cycle. Encourage specific comments, both positive and negative. Specificity tells you what you should continue to do and what you should consider changing. Comments like "Great Session" are encouraging, but don't help you to improve. Evaluations can be done individually on a feedback form or in a group setting. Consider using a round robin approach where all participants are asked to state one thing they liked about the session as well as one thing that should have been handled differently.
To learn more about feedback ideas, register for The Effective Facilitator course! For more details, call (800) 824- 2850.
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| For Facilitators: Tapping Meeting Potential | | A central tenet of sociology is that "the whole is more than the sum of its parts." When a group of people meet, something far greater is possible than simply summarizing the ideas and opinions around the table. Yet, creating a meeting that leverages individual skills and knowledge can be...
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| For Leaders: Putting Off Procrastination?
| | "Procrastinators are people with a wait problem -- they're always putting off until tomorrow what they could/should be doing today." I'm sure that you don't procrastinate, do you? Someone once referred to procrastination as "the nature of the animal," as if it were a genetic trait in all of us. I'm not so sure. . . I've found it has more do to with upbringing, emotions and enthusiasm than our genes...
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| For Consultants and IT Professionals: Selecting Your Team | | | So, you've been named to head up the task force to fix the organization's hiring process. You may be internal to the organization or an external consultant called in to lead the effort. You've met with the sponsor and have identified the project's purpose and product. You have developed the work process, the timeline and the budget. It's now time to select your four team members. But there are issues...
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For Strategic Planners: Action Planning | | | As a result of a strategic planning activity, an organization will likely have 6-12 significant strategic priorities or initiatives identified that combine to move the organization in a specific strategic direction.
For each of these priority initiatives, we recommend developing detailed action plans to ensure that each of the initiatives are brought to completion. A comprehensive action plan details...
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| Client Success Story: Andy Weavill on "The Secrets of Facilitation" | | | I am a freelance management and training consultant. I am constantly looking to improve my skills and this year, amongst other things, I have challenged myself to improve my facilitation skills. My search for self-improvement began by doing a literature search on the web and also I began to check out what training was available. In that search I came across your company's web site and liked the look of it etc. In particular, Michael's book - The Secrets of Facilitation caught my eye. I read the very favourable reviews and decided it was just what I was looking for - a S.M.A.R.T. guide. I also figured that as I was unable to come to the States to be trained by your company, this would be the next best thing...
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| The PDI Difference | | | PDI stands for Practical/Dynamic/Interactive. It's what sets Leadership Strategies above the rest. The PDI Difference can be seen in every aspect of what we do.
Practical Methods that Produce Results: We use proven methods and techniques in both our training classes and our facilitated sessions. Each and every session is carefully planned and executed with precision to ensure consistent results that apply to real-life situations - and produce measurable results.
Dynamic Energy that Keeps You Engaged: Our facilitators operate on "Level 3" energy so participants are engaged from beginning to end. No doodling in our sessions! We also use a wide variety of techniques to keep the interest high and be sure everyone contributes their best ideas.
Interactive - Proven Methods for Successful Integration and Application: In our facilitated sessions, our trained facilitators set people up in teams to enhance collaboration and ideas that work from every angle. In our training sessions, it's "practice, practice, practice" so participants learn by doing it themselves, by critiquing others in the class, and receiving immediate feedback from the instructor.
Learn more about The PDI Difference
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| Spotlight: National Facilitator Database | | | Are you looking for a facilitator for an upcoming session, and don't have a clue where to start? Or, maybe you're a facilitator with great skills and experience looking for clients. In either case, we can help. The National Facilitator Database does both. For details, click here.
NFDB.com is managed by Leadership Strategies. If you have any questions or would like to speak with one of our Client Relationship Managers, you can call 800-824-2850. Or, click here to email your questions.
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| Would you like to get published? | | | Do you have proven strategies on Facilitation, Leadership, IT/Consulting or Strategic Planning that you would like to share in an upcoming newsletter issue? We'd love to hear from you. Each article should be 750-1,000 words. Include your contact information and a 30- to 60-word byline. Click here to email your articles to us.
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