Prosocial Advanced Facilitator Training #25 2022

Cohort 1 Tuesday 9-11am Australian Eastern Time (also suitable for Americas) Cohort 2 Wed 12pm-2pm US Eastern Time. (Also suitable for Europe) Cohort 3 Thurs 9-11am UK Time. (Also suitable for Australasia)
Session 1 Sep 27 Sep 28 Sep 29
Session 2 Oct 11 Oct 12 Oct 13
Session 3 Oct 25 Oct 26 Oct 27
Session 4 (All day) Nov 8 (9am-4pm) Nov 9 (10am-5pm) Nov 10 (9am-4pm)
Session 5 Nov 22 Nov 23 Nov 24
Session 6 Dec 6 22 Dec 7 Dec 8
Session 7 (All day) Dec 20 (9am-4pm) Dec 21 (10am-5pm) Dec 22 (9am-4pm)
Session 8 Jan 24 Jan 25 Jan 26
Session 9 (2023) Feb 7 Feb 8 Feb 9
Session 10 (All day) Feb 21 (9am-4pm) Feb 22 (10am-5pm) Feb 23 (9am-4pm)
Session 11 Mar 7 Mar 8 Mar 10
Session 12 Mar 21 Mar 22 Mar 23
Sign Up
Hands in shape of globe

Join us for the Prosocial Advanced Facilitator Training. At the end of this 6 month course, you will be able to:

  • Shift People from Me to We

    Use a simple but highly effective set of inner and outer development tools to shift the cultures of groups and networks from "me" to "we".

  • Help Groups and Networks Be More Productive and Enjoyable

    Help groups become more purposeful, equitable, inclusive, accountable and harmonious, even if they have experienced conflict or disengagement

  • Run Learning Journeys and Action Labs

    Join with others from your cohort and create your own learning journeys and action labs. We will help you get a global audience for your event.

  • Demonstrate Change

    Assess change using scientifically validated measurement tools and support a global network of 'communities as field sites'.

Course Information

In this highly interactive course, you will be supported in your learning in four main ways:

  • Weekly consultation sessions where you can engage with new techniques being demonstrated, and share your challenges and insights with others with loads of experience bringing about change in groups and organisations.

  • Regular team meetings with others doing the course working in a similar sector and/or region and supported by a personal coach dedicated to working with your team.

  • An online discussion forum where you can share resources, ask questions and explore the Prosocial framework in more depth with your facilitator and colleagues on the course.

  • Access to an online learning management system that contains videos, readings, exercises and a sequence of practical and engaging assignments to support you in your learning.

Instructor(s)

Paul Atkins

I am a social psychologist, facilitator, researcher and author. My passion in life is creating more harmonious, cooperative, meaningful relationships. I co-founded Prosocial World with David Sloan Wilson and was lead author of the book articulating the Prosocial method. The last 10 years have been the greatest privilege of my life to get to meet and be influenced by the wonderful Prosocial World community. These days I am noticing I spend more time asking myself 'what does the system need here and how can I help?'. This is profoundly satisfying for me. We, humans, were designed to ask that question much more than our individualistic societies invite us too! I look forward to meeting you properly.

Mila Aliana

Mila is a senior consultant with a wealth of commercial acumen and expertise in diverse industries, sectors and cultures. She navigates within diverse ecosystems of multiple actors, co-experimenting social innovations and transformational experiential initiatives, essentially to co-experiment together on remembering ‘We as Nature’ and our original instructions as Guardians of Life.

PhD

Robert Styles

I initially trained in music then, in a later chapter of my life, went on to become an academic doing applied research in the field of Contextual Behavioural Science through the Australian National University. Over the last couple of decades, this stream of activity has had me working with communities, organisations, and governments across the Australian, Pacific, African, Asian, European, and American regions. Presently, I am working with Prosocial World, an organisation that has developed the first change method based on evolutionary science that enhances cooperation and collaboration for groups of all types and sizes that is effective at a global scale. When engaged, for me, this means co-designing behavioural and evolutionary approaches to realising environmental and socio-cultural resilience and wellbeing for those I am working with.

Topics

Some of the topics we will cover together

  • Building psychological flexibility with the ACT Matrix tool
  • Finding shared purpose and identity in groups and networks
  • Strategic Agenda setting to create a shared vision
  • Building a culture that meets everyone's needs equitably
  • Communicating more effectively: listening and giving purposeful information
  • Approaches to deciding together inclusively and efficiently 
  • Helping groups of groups to collaborate more harmoniously
  • Building systems of distributed (polycentric) governance
  • Facilitating your own Prosocial learning journeys with groups you care about
  • Collaborating with one another in your cohort
  • Evaluating and celebrating change

There will be three intensives in the course:

Intensive Workshop 1: Creating connection with ourselves and others: ACT matrix and personal development, creating shared purpose in the group

Intensive Workshop 2: Creating the commons: Convergent facilitation, unpacking clusters of CDPs as they relate to a particular case together

Intensive Workshop 3: Evolving your future: Working on what next, your plans for the future, strategic agenda setting.

Course Assignments

We will design the assignments together at the beginning of the program. If you are attending the course with at least one other person from your group, you can build your assignments around implementing Prosocial in your context. If you do not yet have a group to work on, we will help you pair up with others to work on improving collaboration in a real-world context that interests you. Some of the sorts of things we will help you do include:

  • Running the personal ACT matrix to supercharge your coaching

  • Running a collective ACT matrix with a group to align and integrate values and culture

  • Planning your facilitation strategy and approach

  • Practicing implementing Prosocial in contexts that matter to you

FAQ

  • How much time does the course take?

    While we endeavour to present only that which is most important for understanding and doing Prosocial, this is a professional level training. It involves a time commitment of approximately 3-5 hours per week, more in the weeks when the intensives run. And of course, you can spend much more time on it if you wish to go more deeply and accelerate your skill development. Your learning will be supported by: 1) Online videos, readings and exercises; 2) Fortnightly workshops; 3) personalised coaching, 4) work in peer groups to improve a specific team or organisation, and 5) online discussions.

  • Are the workshops video recorded and do I need to attend every workshop?

    The workshops are recorded but, it is much better if you can attend in person as the workshops are highly experiential. If you cannot make a particular time one week, you are welcome to attend another cohort. There should be at least two workshops during waking hours for most timezones around the world.

  • What pricing options are there?

    We offer a range of payment options to make the course as accessible as possible for everyone. We will also be offering a limited number of scholarships to those in need. Please see more details below.

  • How many people do I need for a bulk discount?

    Our group discounts are: 10% for 2 people enrolling together, 15% for 3-5 people enrolling together and 20% for over 6 people enrolling together. Please send the list of names you would like to enrol to courses@prosocial.world and you will receive a discount code for your group.

  • Can I apply for a scholarship?

    We are able to offer a number of $1,000 scholarships/subsidies towards the course tuition to practitioners who would not be able to participate in this program without financial support. Please see below to apply for a scholarship. We are especially committed to using scholarship funds to create equity of access to this work and inclusivity within our “community of communities.” For this reason, we place special priority on requests from practitioners in the following categories: 1) Practitioners who work as community activists and/or organizers serving marginalized populations and/or underfunded communities. 2) Practitioners from underrepresented backgrounds, including Indigenous practitioners and practitioners of color. 3) Practitioners from countries with low economic purchasing power relative to the US (including Africa and Latin America). If you are in one or more of the above categories and a $1,000 scholarship is not sufficient to make enrolling in this course possible for you, we encourage you to make a request for additional support to courses@prosocial.world explaining your situation. If you are requesting financial support, you will not complete the process of paying your course tuition until your request is approved.

Pricing options

Our aim is to make the course accessible for everyone. We offer split payment schedules and a discounted rate for the unwaged or those from low and middle income countries. We also offer scholarships on application (see the FAQ above).