Presenting and Facilitation

The ability to succinctly brief others is a highly valued competency in today’s fast-paced workplace. This expertise requires the speaker to clearly understand the issue, structure the briefing in a way that is easy to transmit and deliver the message effectively. Participants will leave this experiential workshop with techniques, strategies, and tips for delivering a structured and influential oral briefing to senior management.

If you’ve ever had occasion to facilitate or lead a meeting, you probably understand how challenging it can be. Not only do you need to stick to the agenda, you need to manage group dynamics, and often, get everyone to agree on a decision. That is no easy task, especially when opinions and personalities conflict. Facilitation is part art and part science, and luckily, it is a skill that can be learned. Leading a group through the facilitation process- rather than controlling the meeting- will result in participants fully supporting and taking ownership of the outcomes. Ensuring that all have been heard and have an opportunity to voice their opinions reduces negative feedback and backlash afterwards. After all, most people will accept not getting their way, but will resent not having their say. Facilitation skills is one of the most important competencies professionals can develop for their career today. Meetings are unavoidable, and if you can manage them effectively and efficiently, you’ll be an asset to any organization. In this dynamic and practical facilitation course, participants will learn how to gather information from a group, clarify and present ideas, remain neutral when appropriate, and gain consensus. They will learn strategies to manage group dynamics, how to deal with a group that is “stuck”, and techniques to keep energy high. Participants will practice their new skills in a safe and supportive environment.

Knowing the material is not enough to make a presentation work. Presenters can lose their audience when they are unsure what to emphasize, struggle to organize the content, rely too heavily on slides, or let nerves affect how they speak and respond. This course gives participants the FRAME approach, a repeatable process for planning, organizing and delivering clear workplace presentations in virtual and in-person settings. Participants learn how to focus the result, shape the message for the audience, create an easy-to-follow route, reduce distractions, and deliver with effective voice, pace, presence and adaptability. Throughout the course, participants apply each stage of FRAME to their own short workplace presentation or a provided scenario. They practise key delivery techniques and test whether their message is clear and usable. Participants leave with a reliable method for future presentations, while their organizations benefit from clearer communication and better use of meeting time.

Presenting a recommendation requires more than sharing information. Decision-makers may question the evidence, challenge assumptions, raise competing priorities or hesitate to commit. Strong ideas can lose momentum when presenters are not ready for that scrutiny. This course gives participants the DRIVE approach for preparing and delivering recommendation-focused presentations. They learn to define the decision, map who can influence it, anticipate priorities and concerns, frame the case around what matters most, stress-test the recommendation, and respond to difficult questions without becoming defensive or losing direction. Throughout the course, they apply each stage to a short workplace recommendation or provided scenario. Participants leave better prepared to present recommendations clearly, respond when questioned, and move toward a decision or next step. Their organizations benefit from stronger proposals, more productive decision-making conversations, and less time lost to unclear asks, unresolved concerns and repeated follow-up.

In today’s workplace, training has taken on a broader role as more employees are now responsible for, or taking on the challenge of, training others within their department or organization. Recognizing that training and education is one of the key components to any organization’s success, whether you are providing new hire orientation, transferring knowledge or skills, or training a group of employees on a specific subject, some basic learning principles will apply. That’s where we come in. By guiding you through the ins and outs, the tips and tricks, and the do’s and don’ts of training others, we will help you to provide an effective and positive learning experience. This one-day course provides an essential tool-kit to help you acquire the underlying skills of an effective trainer. We will help you understand the learning and training fundamentals, and review the tools and techniques in designing and delivering training that will guarantee positive results from your audience. You will also learn how to evaluate your training effectiveness, while receiving practical feedback on how to improve and hone your training skills.

The ability to succinctly brief others in plain language is a highly valued competency in today’s fast-paced workplace. This expertise requires the writer and speaker to clearly understand the issue, structure their message in a way that is easy to comprehend, and deliver it effectively. Participants will learn how to plan and fine-tune effective briefings, and how to deliver them clearly and succinctly. They will also know how to put together and use effective decks that accompany these briefings. Participants will leave this interactive workshop with techniques, strategies, and tips for framing issues, and presenting information in a clear, concise manner. Each participant will receive a detailed workbook that is theirs to keep.

Most people who call themselves trainers today probably didn’t start out to be trainers. They often work in a field where they develop extensive knowledge and then are asked to share what they know. Many trainers have some experience with teaching, writing, or leadership, although they come from nearly every field. As such, people who work as trainers are often put into difficult situations without much understanding of what training is or how to do it well. We know that being a good trainer is the result of developing skills to bring information to an audience. This information will then engage, empower, and encourage continued learning and development. This three-day course will give you the skills that you need so that your students not only learn, but also enjoy the process, retain information shared, and use their new skills back in the workplace. Participants will also have the opportunity to conduct a short group training session that incorporates these training concepts.