The Power of Virtual Meeting Facilitation for Project Managers with Maria Fafard
What You Will Learn
Upon completion of this training, learners will be able to:
- Design and prepare for effective virtual meetings.
- Facilitate effective virtual meetings by using facilitation skills such as guiding the group to consensus and desired outcomes.
- Demonstrate utilization of the tools, techniques, and mindset of a successful virtual facilitator.
Description
An ability to design and facilitate an effective and engaging project meeting has always been a vital skill for successful project managers. Your ability to facilitate virtual meetings while engaging and motivating your team members and stakeholders is especially important today as we are wrestling with the challenges of our collective new reality amid the pandemic.
Do you spend your days in endless online meetings where the goals are not accomplished and the participants are left disengaged? It doesn't have to be this way! Join us for this highly interactive, in-depth training and learn how to design, prepare for, and facilitate meetings that consistently achieve results, engage and inspire participants virtually, and boost your team’s productivity and collaboration powers. The training dives deep into virtual facilitation competencies and their application in a project management context. You will develop and practice skills such as guiding the group to consensus and target outcomes, learn to use rich virtual engagement tools, and learn about the importance of mindset as you step into the role of a virtual facilitator.
The training relies on the extensive use of hands-on exercises and storytelling; you will have ample opportunity to practice your newly acquired skills via individual and group exercises, simulations, and role-play. Your learning experience is gamified and uses competitions, quizzes, and surveys to maximize interactivity and learning. Upon completion of this training, you will leverage facilitation skills to make a greater impact in your organization and increase productivity, engagement, and communication on your project team. What might be even more exciting is that applying these competencies will help you empower the transformation of teams and organizations.
AGENDA
Day One
- Value of Meeting Facilitation in the Project Management Context
- Facilitation 101: What facilitation is and what it is not; the difference between facilitation and training
- Facilitation in a Virtual Environment
- Core Facilitator Competencies: Create collaborative client relationships; plan appropriate group processes; create and sustain a participatory environment; guide groups to appropriate and useful outcomes; build and maintain professional knowledge; model a positive professional attitude
- Meeting Design Process
- Meeting Design Exercises and Demonstrations
- Facilitation Mindset, Tools, and Techniques
- Facilitation Tools (platforms, collaboration tools, voting tools, flip charts, meeting preparation checklists, meeting agendas, etc.)
- Facilitation Techniques (starting with why, guiding the group to target outcome, managing the energy and the time, ice breakers, brainstorming, consensus building, round robin, etc.)
Day Two
- Meeting Facilitation Process
- Meeting Facilitation Exercises and Demonstrations
- Virtual Tools of the Trade (platforms, collaboration tools, engagement tools)
- Virtual Tools and Techniques (whiteboarding and annotating, breakout rooms, polls)
- Boosting Virtual Engagement
- Group Dynamics
- Managing That One (or Two, or Three!) “Challenging” Participant
- Project Meetings
- Agile Meetings
- Advancing Your Knowledge and Career (certifications, classes, professional organizations)
PDU Allocation Table
| Ways of Working | Power Skills | Business Acumen | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAPM® / PMP® / PgMP® | 0 | 14 | 0 | 14.00 |
| PMI-ACP® / Agile* | 0 | 14 | 0 | 14.00 |
| PMI-SP® | 0 | 14 | 0 | 14.00 |
| PMI-RMP® | 0 | 14 | 0 | 14.00 |
| PfMP® | 0 | 14 | 0 | 14.00 |
| PMI-PBA® | 0 | 14 | 0 | 14.00 |
 |  |  |  |
Instructor(s)
Maria Fafard PMP
Maria Fafard is an executive coach, facilitator and speaker who is passionate about helping leaders, teams and organizations reach their full potential. She is an Associate Certified Coach (ACC), a Certified Professional Facilitator (CPF), and a graduate of a Leadership Coaching program at Georgetown University in Washington DC. Drawing on two decades of experience in Technology, Finance, and Consulting, including Fortune 100 experience, she coaches executives and high potential employees and delivers coaching in cohort-based leadership development programs.
Maria sees coaching as a powerful tool of transformation, and works with leaders to co-create a reality of fulfillment, meaning, and growth for them and the people they lead. Maria specializes in transformational coaching, partnering with clients to discern their core values and reorient their life and career around them; to uncover blind spots; and to find new perspectives. Typical engagements address executive development in the areas of self-awareness, servant leadership, executive presence, mindfulness, articulating an authentic personal brand, building relationships, and accelerating personal growth.
Maria holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Economics and certifications including ICAgile Certified Professional in Agile Coaching and Team Facilitation (ICP-ACC and -ATF), Leadership Circle Profile, Myers-Briggs (MBTI) Steps I and II, Personalysis, CSM, CSPO, CSP, SPM/PO, and PMP®. She is passionate about her work and frequently speaks on topics of coaching, facilitation, thought leadership, and personal branding at conferences and events.