No matter what happens, you’ll be ready.
Productive collaboration happens by design.
A Leadership + Design trained Badass Facilitator can be dropped into the messiest conversations, bringing order to chaos and generating new possibilities for groups that are struggling.
April 30-May 2, 2025 // Denver, CO // $2499
If you are already a great facilitator with good training, but are looking for something more;
If you want to open the possibilities of more change;
If you want the teams you work with to dig deeper;
and, if you need to be challenged to grow, this opportunity is for you.
Gathering in Denver, Colorado, we will spend three days going beyond most facilitator training courses. We will dive into experience design, explore the habits and mindsets of transformative facilitators, and grow in our own capacity to help groups without responding from anxiety or the need to control the group. This is a deep opportunity to grow as a facilitator and a leader.
This program is not for everyone. We consider it an advanced level experience, intended for people with facilitation experience and/or experience with other L+D programs, and emphasizing hands-on practice more than theory. We believe in this program so much that we often use it ourselves to improve our own skills as L+D facilitators.
What is Badass Facilitator Training?
This three-day immersive training is designed to be an intense opportunity to learn, practice and hone a more advanced set of facilitation skills in an experiential way. You will be in a small cohort of experienced facilitators who share their lessons and practice new skills collaboratively. For many participants, this peer cohort is one of the best aspects of the program.
Participants will learn and practice three buckets of facilitation skills:
Designing Participant Experiences: A lot of facilitation happens in the pre-planning of sessions, and in this area, participants will learn tools and frameworks used to create expert experience design. Skills and frameworks in this section might include:
An Introduction to Experience Design
Agenda Creation and Session Lab
Frameworks for Creative Work
Understanding Tactile/Sensory Elements of Experience Design
Facilitation Frameworks: Regardless of circumstances, there are a lot of pieces that go into creating a successful meeting, retreat, or longer engagement. Skills and Frameworks in this section might include:
Helping Conversations
Coaching in the moment
Critical Conversations
Humor
Exploratory vs Confirmatory Structures
Deep and Reflective Listening
Productive discomfort vs. unproductive stress
Improvising in service to conflict resolution or creative exploration
Managing People, Conflict, and Resistance: The best laid plans meet people where they are, and in almost every scenario, the plan has to change when it meets people. A badass facilitator knows this, expects this, and is not thrown by this. Skills and tools in this section might include:
Understanding how you show up as a facilitator and when that is and isn’t helpful to the group
Understanding group resistance
Naming and managing group tension, stress, conflict and feelings
Pivoting when the plan is wrong
Dealing with aberrant participant behavior
Managing awkward moments
Balcony and dance floor interventions
Owning mistakes
Staying centered and grounded in the midst of conflict or ambiguity
Recognize and understand the role of the "groan zone"
April 30-May 2, 2025 // Denver, CO // $2499
Is Badass Facilitators For You?
Who Should Attend?
This conference is not for a facilitator just beginning their craft. It is for a seasoned professional looking to level up. With that in mind, it is aimed to serve anyone in the following roles who brings hands-on facilitation experience:
Consultants and Professional Development Practitioners
Senior Leaders
Program Directors
Educators in Leadership Positions
Principals, Asst. Principals, Dept. Chairs
Counselors, Advisors
Deans
Coaches
Travel + Logistics
Location: Denver, Colorado is a beautiful place to reflect, recharge, and build skills before returning to your home institution. With access to hiking trails, outdoor recreation, downtown breweries, and world-class dining, you may wish to come early and stay for the weekend.
Dates and Times: Times below are estimated and adjust somewhat as we get closer to the event.
April 30, 9:00am-4pm (main session), 7-9pm (improv training)
May 1, 9:00am-4pm (main session), optional evening social gathering TBD either in the Santa Fe Arts District or downtown near Union Station.
May 2, 9:00am-12:30pm (main session)
Refund Policy: When requested in writing, L+D will refund registration fees as follows: 75% of registration fee when requested 45 days or more from first day of the seminar; 50% of registration fee when requested 31–44 days from first day of the seminar; no refund within 30 days of the first day of the seminar.
Hotel: You are welcome to stay wherever you like and have no official room block. If you choose to stay downtown near Union Station, you will be able to take light rail easily to our program venue.
Event Venue: Our program will be held at Colorado Academy’s REDI Lab in Denver’s Santa Fe Arts District, easily accessible by light rail (get off at the 10th and Osage stop), Uber, or rental car (there is ample street parking). (Note: this facility is not at their main campus.) 1299 W 10th Avenue, Denver, CO 80204.
Flights: Denver International Airport (DEN) has direct flights nearly everywhere; participants can take comfortable public transportation from the airport to downtown and also to the program venue. A rental car is not necessary. Please book travel that allows them to stay for the entirety of the three day program. We are ending early on Friday to allow for flights home on Friday night.