Course description

Sooner or later, many people at work are asked to "run a session": an away day, a consultation, a problem-solving workshop or a meeting where a group has to decide something. Done well, a facilitated session gets everyone's thinking on the table and ends with decisions people will actually act on. Done badly, it ends with the loudest voices winning and nothing changing. This course shows you how to do it well, from the first conversation with the person who asked to the follow-up weeks later.

It's a full course, not a quick tour. There are 10 sections and 52 written lessons, with methods in numbered steps and example wording you can use straight away. You follow a curriculum team leader at a fictional further education college as she runs six workshops in her first year of facilitating, in the room, online and hybrid, including the mistakes she made along the way. Every section has a worksheet, model answers, a cheat sheet and practical tools.

What you'll learn

• The facilitator's role: process and content, staying neutral, and knowing when a meeting needs a facilitator.
• Design: purpose and outcomes, who to invite, a realistic timed agenda, choosing activities, and an accessible room.
• Openings: the first five minutes, check-ins, working agreements, scope and keeping energy up.
• Involving everyone: good questions, quiet thinking time, balancing voices, listening and capturing the group's work.
• Ideas and decisions: sticky notes, theming, dot voting, finding causes, comparing options and agreeing how decisions are made.
• Difficult moments: disagreement, people who take over, silence, strong feelings and sessions that go off plan.
• Online, hybrid and follow-up: fair sessions on video calls, closing well, feedback, write-ups and following through on actions.

The final project

You'll plan, design, run and review a workshop of your own, using a planning workbook, a design checklist and an on-the-day card. If you don't have a session to run yet, the course gives you a ready-made scenario to plan instead.

Who this course is for

• Team leaders and managers who are asked to run away days, planning sessions and problem-solving meetings.
• Project staff, trainers, teachers and HR people who run workshops and consultations.
• People in charities, community groups and clubs who bring members together to decide things.

How the course works

Read each lesson, then try it with a meeting or workshop of your own, or with the practice pack. The methods work in the room and on any video-call tool, with groups from five people to twenty or more. You keep lifetime access, so you can come back before your next session.

What will I learn?

• Explain what a facilitator does and stay neutral even when you have a stake in the outcome
• Design a workshop with a clear purpose, the right people, a realistic timed agenda and an accessible room
• Open a session well with a check-in, working agreements and clear scope
• Involve everyone with good questions, quiet thinking time and fair turns, and capture the group's work
• Generate ideas, group them into themes and prioritise with dot voting and an impact and effort grid
• Define problems, find causes, compare options and make decisions with a rule agreed in advance
• Handle disagreement, dominant behaviour, silence and strong feelings calmly and safely
• Run fair online and hybrid sessions, then close, evaluate, write up and follow through on actions

Frequently asked questions