Facilitation Fundamentals

301: Facilitation Fundamentals

Why take this training?

Many agencies now recognize the need to develop in-house facilitators to deal with many of their collaborative projects and environmental disputes. Becoming an effective facilitator requires experience with environmental conflict situations, skill in organizing, and artful management of group dynamics. This course is ideal for those responsible for planning projects, convening meetings, and managing logistics.

This intensive workshop develops the basics of facilitation, a core skill for natural resource managers responsible for teams. In this workshop learners experience the facilitation role through realistic role-playing exercises involving governmental and non-governmental stakeholders. This exercise creates an interactive forum for developing and applying basic facilitation skills in intra-agency and interagency as well as other group settings.

What will you learn?

This intermediate-level workshop will help participants:

Develop appreciation for the complexity of the facilitation role
Recognize the concepts and phases underlying the facilitation process
Demonstrate ability to manage key interpersonal dynamics that occur in groups
Distinguish between facilitation and project management
Distinguish between the project management and meeting management
Develop and apply skills in meeting planning and management

Pre-requisites

101: Introduction to Managing Environmental Conflict (recommended, but not required)
110: Negotiating Environmental Solutions (recommended, but not required)

Speaker and Presenter Information

Joan Calcagno joined the Institute's staff in September 1999 as the manager of the Roster of ECR Practitioners, which included assisting people seeking to engage a neutral dispute resolution professional by providing referrals and advice regarding the process of selecting an appropriate neutral. She also participated as part of the Native Dispute Resolution Network team. Currently, Joan�s ECR project development and management work focuses on collaborative problem-solving and dispute resolution processes involving transportation planning and project development, as well as transportation agency/tribal consultation issues and agreements. Projects span specific conflict resolution cases, inter-agency and multi-stakeholder workshops, and collaboration skill-building. Joan provides mediation and facilitation services as needed on a variety of projects. Joan is part of the Institute�s training team and is the lead trainer for Introduction to Managing ECR and co-leads other Institute trainings. Before joining the U.S. Institute's staff, Joan was a professional mediator and trainer. She served on the board of directors of the Arizona Dispute Resolution Association, chaired its membership committee, and served on the credentialing committee. She was also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in mediation and public policy conflict resolution at the University of Arizona and its law school, Settlement Judge Pro Tem, arbitrator, and administrative law judge and co-hosted a local call-in radio program "What's Your Problem?: Creative Conflict Resolution." She practiced law for eleven years before beginning her mediation/ADR career. Joan has a broad range of other work and life experience, including retail business and community organizing as a VISTA volunteer.

Expected Number of Attendees

Relevant Government Agencies

Air Force, Army, Navy & Marine Corps, DOD & Military, Dept of Agriculture, Dept of Commerce, Dept of Energy, Dept of Homeland Security, Dept of Housing & Urban Development, Dept of the Interior, Dept of Transportation, Dept of Veterans Affairs, EPA, State Government, County Government, City Government, Municipal Government, FEMA, Coast Guard, Environmental organization facilitation group ECR