COURSE OVERVIEW:

Welcome to the Plan & Manage Facilitated Workshops course. This program equips you with the practical skills, planning frameworks, and facilitation techniques necessary to design, run, and follow up on highly effective facilitated workshops. You will explore what a facilitated workshop is, why it is an essential organisational tool, and the direct and indirect benefits it brings to teams seeking clarity, innovation, collaboration, and alignment. This course also examines the principles and rules that underpin successful facilitation, the facilitator’s style and responsibilities, and the boundaries of what facilitated workshops can and cannot achieve. You will also learn how workshop facilitation differs from chairing a meeting, how to handle non-contributing participants, when and how a facilitator should express opinions, why facilitators must remain unbiased, and why they are responsible for keeping the workshop to time and ensuring effective follow-up.

This course begins by examining the workshop lifecycle, including how to plan a facilitated workshop, how to define the workshop purpose, and how to determine whether participants are being invited for the right reasons. You will explore the importance of conducting appropriate research during planning, how to design the workshop structure, and how much structure is required based on your objectives. This section introduces the typical workshop sequence, the importance of varying workshop activity, and the techniques that help facilitators shift pace, maintain engagement, and encourage productive discussion. You will also explore a wide range of workshop tools and techniques, including introduction techniques, discussion openers, structured discussion tools, brainstorming, idea-whittling techniques, and fuzzy discussion tools used when issues require open interpretation and conceptual exploration. You will learn how to produce an agenda that is clear, purposeful, and aligned with the workshop’s objectives.

The next learning area focuses on managing a facilitated workshop in real time. You will explore the facilitator’s responsibilities on the day of the workshop, including how to guide participants through activities, how to ensure workshop aims are clear, and how to support participants in completing the necessary work. This section also examines the importance of physical set-up, how to introduce the workshop effectively, and how the facilitator demonstrates strong listening and questioning skills to deepen engagement and stimulate constructive contributions. You will learn how to run open-forum discussions, manage individual tasks, coordinate small group work, and maintain control through effective time management. These skills ensure that workshops remain productive, on track, and aligned with agreed outcomes.

The course concludes by examining how to bring facilitated workshops to a successful close, including how to summarise key outputs, confirm decisions, assign responsibilities, and identify follow-up actions. You will explore why facilitators are responsible for post-workshop follow-up and how documenting outcomes supports accountability and momentum. This section reinforces that an effective workshop does not end when participants leave; instead, it is sustained through structured communication, ongoing guidance, and strategic next steps that help embed the workshop’s outcomes into organisational practice.

By the end of this course you will be able to plan, design, manage, and close facilitated workshops with confidence; apply a full suite of facilitation tools and techniques; guide diverse groups toward clear outcomes; and uphold the professional facilitation principles needed to ensure productive, inclusive, and high-value workshop experiences.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

By the end of this course, you will be able to understand:

• What is a facilitated workshop?
• The importance of a facilitated workshop
• The direct and indirect benefits of facilitated workshops
• The simple rules and principles for running facilitated workshops
• The facilitator’s style
• The key aspects of the facilitator’s role
• What a facilitated workshop can do and can’t do?
• Is facilitating a workshop is the same as chairing a meeting?
• How to deal with people who don’t contribute to a workshop?
• Is the facilitator’s opinion important during the workshop?
• Why the facilitator should make sure that the workshop runs to time?
• Why the facilitator is responsible of follow-up after a workshop?
• Why the facilitator should be unbiased?
• How much facilitator should know about the subject area?
• The workshop lifecycle
• How to effectively plan a facilitated workshop?
• How to get a clear purpose of the workshop?
• The good and poor reasons for inviting participants to the workshop
• The importance of doing the right research during planning
• How to design the workshop?
• How structured should the workshop be?
• The typical workshop sequence
• The varying workshop activity and the techniques that can be used to vary the activity in a workshop
• Workshop tools and techniques
• The introduction techniques
• The discussion openers
• The structured discussion tools
• The brainstorming technique
• The techniques for whittling down the ideas
• The fuzzy discussion tools
• How to produce an agenda?
• How to effectively manage a facilitated workshop?
• The facilitator’s responsibility on the day of the workshop
• How the facilitator can guide the participants through the workshop?
• How the facilitator can make sure that the workshop aims are clear, and that the necessary work is done?
• The importance of the physical set-up of the workshop
• How to introduce the workshop to the participants?
• How the facilitator can demonstrate good listening skills?
• The importance of having good questioning skills during the workshop
• How to run open forum discussions?
• How to manage individual tasks?
• How to manage small group tasks?
• How to manage time?
• How to successfully close the workshop?

COURSE DURATION:

The typical duration of this course is approximately 2-3 hours to complete. Your enrolment is Valid for 12 Months. Start anytime and study at your own pace.

ASSESSMENT:

A simple 10-question true or false quiz with Unlimited Submission Attempts.

CERTIFICATION:

Upon course completion, you will receive a customised digital “Certificate of Completion”.