Facilitation Works…
If You Work It!
The Soft Stuff is the Hard Stuff
More of us in technology and other industries need stronger soft skills to drive client and team success.
With our clients…
- Speak their language
- Understand their pain
- Build trust
- Manage expectations
- Think strategically
With our people…
- Inspire commitment
- Equip for success
- Facilitate solutions
- Create buy-in
- Resolve conflict
The Soft Stuff is the Hard Stuff
Our Most Popular Keynotes, Workshops, Webinars, and Training Programs
for Enhancing Soft Skills for Leaders and Technical Experts
From Technical Expert to Trusted Advisor
How do you transform a team of technical experts into trusted advisors? People with strong technical abilities all too often lack the softer people skills to be viewed as true partners and advisors to their clients. How many times have you seen technicians speak techno-babble leaving their audien...
The 8 Core Practices of Facilitative Leaders
Many leaders in the past have viewed their role as setting direction, allocating resources, and driving personnel to achieve the direction. Yet a major shift has been occurring in the workplace. Leaders are recognizing the need to inspire employees rather than command and control them. Employees ...
The 3 Levels of Leadership
What’s the difference between a manager and a leader? Some people use the terms interchangeably, as if they essentially mean the same thing. Others have a sense that there is a difference, but have trouble articulating what the difference is. Likewise, some people believe leaders are born, or t...
The 5 Cs of Trust
As a leader of a team or a department, what do you do when a member of your staff accuses you of not trusting him or her? And what if the staff member is correct? What if you really don’t trust the staff member? Or what if a client, a supplier, or a peer…
...Strategies for Managing Client Relationships
The skill that often separates the top professionals in a client-focused organization from the average ones is their ability to effectively manage – not just maintain – client relationships. Top professionals are adept at probing to identify the real need, setting and managing expecta...
How to Engage Conflict and Why Encourage Disagreement
Imagine: The meeting has been going great. The participants are engaged, and significant progress is being made. Suddenly, a major disagreement erupts. While some are vehement about one position, several people take an opposing stand; and still others believe the entire discussion is a waste of t...
Consensus Building: Techniques for Getting to Yes
Imagine: The meeting has been going great. The participants are engaged, significant progress is being made, and the sponsor is well pleased. You are in facilitator’s heaven! Suddenly, a major disagreement erupts. While some are vehement about one position, several people take an opposing s...
The Secrets of Facilitation
Fasten your seatbelts and get ready for a ride! In this session, the dynamic author of The Secrets of Facilitation will guide you through a preview of this comprehensive methodology for facilitating groups, task forces, strategy teams and other sessions that require groups to come together to ach...
The Seven Separators of Great Facilitation
What is it that separates great facilitators from good ones? Sure, every facilitator needs to know about establishing ground rules, using the appropriate tools and maintaining a safe environment. But are there a set of skills that seem to distinguish the best facilitators from the rest of the pac...
The Secret of the Starting Question
As a facilitator, you know that your participants have the answers. They know the content and they know what will work in their environment. But while the participants have the answers, facilitators must bring the questions. Having the right questions and presenting them in the right way is essen...
Strategic Thinking: The Drivers Model
When leaders have a strategic vision, they can influence the organization to make decisions along the way that bring that vision into reality. However, strategic thinking skills should not be limited to the top people in an organization. Facilitative leaders understand the importance of spreading...
What Every Leader Should Know About Strategic Planning
How do you get a group of diverse leaders focused on developing a clear and inspiring, yet measurable and actionable, strategic direction? All too often strategic plans are lofty, feel-good visions which sit on a shelf and are never implemented. In this workshop, you will learn the secrets to pre...
The Secrets to Facilitating Strategy
How do you facilitate your team through a series of discussions to arrive at a strategic plan that the entire team understands and is committed to? How do you lead them through the creation of their mission statement? How do you guide them in selecting measurable targets? What steps can you take ...
Why Most Strategic Plans Fail and How to Prevent It
Why do so many strategic plans end up on a bookshelf with few, if any, of the key initiatives implemented? In this dynamic, highly interactive session, the Managing Director of the largest facilitation company in the nation outlines for you the Drivers Model, a comprehensive and elegantly simple ...
We Have to STOP Meeting Like This! Strategies for Transforming the Way Your Organization Meets
For many, meetings are viewed as a dreaded evil to be avoided at all costs; for little gets accomplished, much of the discussion is unfocused and unproductive; a lot of time is wasted. And yet, for some managers 50-75% of their workday is spent in meetings. This workshop is designed to significan...
25 Strategies for Maximizing Engagement in Meetings
Most facilitators are armed with the three or four techniques they routinely use to get a group talking. Some like brainstorming, others prefer small group break-out, still others mix it up alternating between open group discussion and structured round-robins. But are there other techniques? And ...
Designing the Best Training in the World
What is the key attribute that separates great training from good training? Is it that the content provides real world applicability? Is it that the training is interactive? Is it that the trainer is engaging? Or is it something else? In this workshop, Michael Wilkinson, the author of The Secrets...
Endorsements
Ann Herrmann-Nehdi
“Michael is not only one of the smartest people I know–he is one of the very best facilitators I have ever seen in action. Michael’s life’s work, the art and science of facilitation, has set a whole new standard for a domain that has traditionally suffered from a lack of definition and disconcerting range of quality. The curriculum, services and training programs he has built with his firm are the best in the industry. Finally, his energy, know-how and generous spirit contribute to the ultimate professionalism he brings to all he does.”
Chief Thought Leader and Chair of the Board
Herrmann International, The HBDI Company
Sinead A. Condon
“If you want to show people what facilitative leadership is all about, this is the company and the person you need to use.”
Global Head of Learning and
Organizational Effectiveness
Guidewire Software
Brian A. Gallagher
“Michael Wilkinson is hands down the most talented and effective facilitator with whom I have ever worked or seen. He combines his proven facilitation techniques and approaches with a keen strategic and business sense to consistently produce performance-based results.”
CEO, United Way Worldwide