The Improvisational Facilitator Teleclass

Are you afraid of encountering the unexpected in groups?

Do you encounter any of these problems when working with groups?

1. Do you take your work with groups way too seriously? So seriously that sometimes you get uptight and afraid about what might happen. In this class, you’ll learn and practice tools that will help you relax and have a lot more fun with your groups.

2. Are you afraid of encountering the unexpected? Learn simple strategies that will help you to be more open and flexible to the specific and dynamic needs of your groups.

3. Are you bothered when participants try to take the group off on a tangent? Be able to connect whatever people share to the group purpose or theme.

4. Do you have a tough time being “present” with your groups, trying to juggle all that needs to be done? Learn and practice strategies that will let you take a breath and get comfortable being “in the moment” with your groups..

5. Do you ever fear that you’ll “lose your place” in your workshop? In this class, you’ll learn exactly what to do in that circumstance.

6. Is “speaker’s block” a problem? You’ll learn a tool so that you never have speaker’s block again.

7. Do you sometimes question your creative abilities? Discover reservoirs of creativity within you that you didn’t know existed.

8. Do you often feel like you’re doing this group leadership thing all alone? Come collaborate and learn from a community of your peers, all passionate about empowering groups.If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then read on. You’ll find help overcoming these issues and more in this dynamic 5-day teleclass.

I’ve been a group facilitator for over 30 years. Sue’s techniques were new to me, not just in theory, but in very practical application that will be huge assets to my repertoire. Though I usually find audio classes and teleconferences in general to be challenging as I rely on body language and visual cues to follow conversation. During this teleclass however, I was able to transcend these barriers through the skilful facilitation demonstrated. The time allocated to this teleclass flew by each day, leaving me to look forward to the next. As a staff educator in a large psychiatric hospital, my facilitation activities range from working with small teams on development to teaching mandatory education to large groups. The techniques in this class, especially in overcoming roadblocks, will be invaluable.Thank you so much! — Linda Bruce, –Staff Education Coordinator–

What is the Improvisational Facilitator Teleclass About?

The inner attitudes of facilitators, trainers, and leaders is the key to their success with groups. However, very few trainings address the development of those inner qualities that can make a good leader great. That’s why I’m thrilled to be offering this class where we’ll present powerful, practical improv techniques that are actually inner attitudes and practices that you can use to immediately enhance your facilitation, training, and group leadership skills.

This dynamic teleclass, led by master trainer, Sue Walden, is for anyone who facilitates, manages, teaches, mediates, coaches, counsels, directs any group. This highly interactive course provides an experiential approach using very novel exercises to help you build the skills to create an environment for participation; one that encourages openness and risk-taking for you and groups.

Course Outline

Module 1: Being present to your natural creativity Overview

• Introducing the Parking Lot
• Awareness experience
• What is your default facilitation skill set?
• Improv Core Skills that support facilitation
• Exploring 1st Core Skill: Present Time
• The “Voice Mirror,” a simple and powerful listening tool
• Facilitation Applications

Module 2: Building the “muscle” that encourages participation

• Check in on practice assignment
• Explore 2nd Core Skill: Openness
• Experiencing the look and feel of openness
• Building the openness “muscle”
• The “Yes and…” approach
• Facilitation Applications

Module 3: Making flexibility a way of being

• Check in about practice assignment
• Explore 3rd Core Skill: Flexibility
• Combining Being Present and Open to become more flexible
• Identify unexpected challenges in facilitating
• Building the options and possibilities “muscle”
• Facilitation Applications

Module 4: Witnessing the magic

• Check in about practice assignment
• Introduce “The Observer”
• Apply Core Skills to self
• Getting present with self
• Quiet the inner critic
• Think on your feet
• Be aware of your language
• Facilitation Applications

Module 5: Further applications and applied Improv

• Check in about practice assignment
• Explore other applications of Improv Core Skills
• Emptying the Parking Lot
• Q & A with the Applied Improv Process

I experienced for the first time in your class how well a “virtual breakout” group could work. As a result of this experience, I re-designed a 3-hour training with several breakout components into a virtual classroom, and it has been a HUGE success. In fact, it is much more successful than the classroom training, because we really needed to mix up the participants from different countries to generate the right kind of discussion in the breakouts, and this was very hard to do at any given location. So thanks for showing the way! –Lynn, Knowledge Management & Organizational Learning Process Advisor for Fortune 100 global corporation–

What Does the Training Include? 

1. Learning/Resource Workbook to help you drill down deep and master the art of improv for use in facilitation, training, leadership, and group work

2. MP3 audio recording of this 6 hour training

3. One-hour MP3 audio teleclass, The Art of Improv in Facilitation, featuring Izzy Gesell, who discusses the use of humor and improvisational theater techniques as facilitation tools

4. Articles and resources around using Improv in leadership and facilitation:

• Collection of humor and improv resources.
• The Six Paradoxes of Improv. Six paradoxes that will help free you to be a better facilitator and trainer.
• Leadership Through Improv. Article on how Improv techniques can be applied to leadership.

I’ve been to lots of teleclasses but have never done offline partner exercises like this and they worked great, they really heightened the learning. The resource book was excellent as well. The sessions were very complimentary to the skills that I have gained over a number of years. As well as practical exercises the trainers provided useful insight to support their theory. It was enlightening to hear everybody participate and be engaged in the subject. An excellent class that I highly recommend. –Chris Whitehead ,Managing Director of Facilitating Change–

I really enjoyed the Improv class. Great material, excellent delivery including the opportunities to try it out” in partner settings. –Sandy Brown, Facilitator, Intel Corporation–

A week after the course I have found myself talking about and actually using the techniques taught! The experiential based learning really worked for me and I learnt whilst having fun – always a good way to retain new learnings. The course has provided me with a toolkit of great techniques to improve my own facilitation, as well as some enjoyable exercises to use with delegates. I have nothing but praise for both Sue and Steve, who walked their talk with their own facilitation skills – they simply flowed through the course with grace and intelligence. The content, the materials and the facilitators is 5 star stuff and I highly recommend it to any facilitator. –Amanda Alexander, Coach and Founder of CoachingMums.com–