Facilitator Certification Workshop

With Kenneth Cloke and Joan Goldsmith

·        Have you watched conversations, meetings and gatherings devolve into petty, destructive quarrels, each convinced their position is the right one?

·        Would you benefit from having deeper skills in designing, organizing and facilitating dialogues about difficult and hot-button “high risk” issues?

·        Do you want to learn techniques for mediating public policy disputes, facilitating organizational dialogues, meetings, teams, focus groups, strategic planning and organizational retreats?

·        Would you like to acquire solid and proven methods for helping groups build genuine consensus, reduce resistance and overcome impasse?

·        Would you like to find diverse approaches to facilitation that fit your personal style and boost your skills in helping groups experience synergistic, generative conflicts?

·        Are you searching for ways to stand with equanimity in the presence of people who are acting out of anger and fear, and taken strong adversarial positions that have eroded of trust and hope and forward movement?

·        Would you like those you teach or mediate or work with to learn from their differences and conflicts, without triggering defensiveness or hostility?

·        Are you interested in learning to design large and small group processes?

Kenneth Cloke and Joan Goldsmith, based in Santa Monica, California, are offering a Facilitator Certification Training in Salt Lake City.  Ken and Joan are authors of several groundbreaking books and train facilitators and mediators internationally.  They have each facilitated and mediated for over 40 years, honing their skills and learning from each group how to invite deeper conversations, authentic engagement, and creative, paradoxical problem solving. (Their CV’s and a book list are attached.)

Assisting with this course will be Barbara Barnes. Barb grew up in Salt Lake City and lives in Helena, Montana.  She has studied with Ken and Joan over the last several years, and has a successful facilitation and conflict resolution practice with clients from coast to coast.

The Course:

Over two days, participants will have opportunities to identify their strengths and areas for improvement.  They will practice facilitation techniques, role play conflict resolution skills, and learn to become more mindful and successful facilitators and conflict resolution practitioners.  Topics will include:

·      Introduction to facilitation of meetings and focus groups

·      The roles of facilitators in large and small groups

·      An overview and theory of conflict and resolution

·      A detailed analysis of workplace, organizational and public policy disputes

·      Creative techniques for facilitating meetings, dialogues, and dispute resolution conversations

·      Six forms of decision making and techniques for facilitating each

·      Ways to reach genuine consensus, and what to do if you are not successful

·      Overcoming bias, prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination

·      Reducing impasse and resistance

·      Using mindfulness and the energy of the group to deepen conversations

·      Identifying unspoken issues and surfacing them in ways that contribute to the dialogue and to meeting the needs of the group and its members

·      How to shift from monologues and debates to dialogues

·      Designing dialogues for hot topic issues (such as race, abortion, immigration, gun control, climate change, LGBTQ issues, and others)

·      Lessons from real-life facilitations and mediations, and what was learned

·      Ways of strengthening and diversifying leadership within groups

Classes are practical and highly interactive. They will begin at 9:30 am and end at 4:30 pm, and take place at the Junior League 526 E 300 S, Salt Lake City, UT 84102, Salt Lake City.  All participants will receive a Training Manual, handouts, and a Certification from the Center for Dispute Resolution.  A second Advanced Facilitator Training will be offered as a follow-up and an opportunity to deepen skills and connect with colleagues.

The cost for the program will be $500.00 for the entire two days. Contact Barbara Barnes at bbarneshelena@gmail.com to register or to raise any questions you may have. 

Mediators Beyond Borders International will host a talk and book signing by Kenneth Cloke on Politics, Dialogue and the Evolution of Democracy: How to Discuss Race, Abortion, Immigration, Gun Control, Climate Change, Same Sex Marriage and Other Hot Topics at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Haaren Hall Bldg, Room 630, 899 10th Avenue between 58th and 59th streets, New York City.

William Ury and Kenneth Cloke will speak together in the AIM Institute Advanced Track at the Southern California Mediation Association Conference at the LA Hotel in Los Angeles.  For more information, go to the SCMA website. 

A Day of Story-Telling with Ken Cloke and John Sturrock, Scottish Story Telling Centre -- read the press release describing the event here.  Contact Core Solutions in Edinburgh for more information and to register.  Ken Cloke and John Sturrock will also appear before the Scottish Parliament.  Here is the press release.

Ken will deliver the keynote address for this day-long Mediation Symposium revolving around "Mediation in a Changing World - Adding Real Value and Understanding the Impact of Bias."  The Symposium will take place from 9.30 am to 6.30 pm in Ashurst, London.