Seminars
Training of Facilitators: The Artistry of Personal Leadership
March 6 - 12, 2017
Whidbey Island, WA, USA
Are you . . .
Ready to facilitate Personal Leadership?
Wondering how best to design or sequence the training?
Ready for tips and techniques?
If so, this Training of Facilitators seminar is what you need.
Personal Leadership can appear deceptively easy to facilitate. After all, it seems like such a simple method.
Yet anyone with a PL practice understands the profound nuances of the PL methodology. And anyone facilitating a PL learning event soon discovers its depth and complexity.
The seminar will strengthen your capacity to . . .
- Integrate PL into your content design and
- Facilitate those PL components in a way that is relevant and valuable for your participants.
And if you can’t make it to this event, keep your eye on our Training of Facilitators seminars page for announcements about future seminars, or sign up now to receive email updates about upcoming events.
The Training of Facilitators seminar uses a blended learning design with four parts. The purpose of blended learning is to maximize learning outcomes by combining in-person seminars with virtual work done independently, with partners, and as a whole group.
- Pre-work:
- Sent to registered participants by February 6, 2017
- Face-to-face session:
- March 6 - 11, 2017
- Whidbey Institute, Whidbey Island, Washington, U.S.A.
- We begin with dinner at 6pm on March 6, and complete after dinner at 8pm on March 11
- Individual assignments and partner sessions:
- Timing to be determined by participants
- Virtual plenary sessions:
- March 22, 2017
- April 26, 2017
- Specific times to be determined once we know participants’ time zones
- Online, using Adobe Connect Pro Meeting—no software is needed, only a strong broadband connection, a headset with microphone, and a computer camera
Register today, and contact us if you have any questions.
The Training of Facilitators (ToF) seminar will help you
- Examine the dynamics of designing and facilitating Personal Leadership
- Whatever your context—higher education, business, public and non-governmental organizations, social services agencies . . .
- Whatever your content—studying abroad, executive and leadership development, teambuilding, conflict management, equity and inclusion . . .
- Create a learning community with others also learning to design with and to facilitate PL.
- Deepen your PL practice, and use it to strengthen your facilitation competence.
The seminar is structured as follows.
- Pre-work, which will include reading and reflection, to be completed by each participant before the face-to-face session. The pre-work will be sent to registered participants by February 6, 2017.
- A five-day in-person session tailored to the experience level and developmental needs of participants. This session will take place on Whidbey Island, Washington, from March 6 to 11, 2017.
- Individual and partner work to be completed by each participant after the face-to-face session.
- This work consists of designing, developing, and delivering a PL learning event for clients, colleagues, family members, or friends.
- It doesn’t matter for whom you design the learning event. The point is to start experiencing the process of designing with and facilitating PL.
- Most of you will work individually; some of you may partner with other ToF participants from your organization.
- The ToF schedule is designed so that you facilitate for your chosen audience between the two virtual plenary sessions that follow the in-person component.
- Two two-hour virtual plenary sessions with all participants.
- The first session is to help you answer any final design or facilitation questions prior to delivering your event.
- The second session is to debrief your delivery, and highlight key learnings for you to build on.
Seminar learning objectives will be tailored to the learning agendas you and the other participants bring. In general, we expect you will increase your ability to
- Communicate how a PL practice can help someone translate their knowledge and commitment into behavioral competence.
- Select which of PL’s core components will best serve your design objectives for any given learning event.
- Consider such issues as briefing and debriefing, sequencing, participant variables, short- and long-form options for various PL processes, and other factors influencing PL design and facilitation.
- Adapt PL training for your particular audience, including by being able to do the following:
- Adjust terminology for your professional context.
- Design activities that illustrate PL’s principles and practices in ways appropriate to your clients or industry.
- Assess when and how to introduce to your particular audience the theoretical foundations of the PL methodology.
- Respond to the kinds of questions participants frequently ask about practicing PL, and help make meaning especially from particularly challenging questions.
- Explain Personal Leadership’s guiding tenets, and answer questions about them.
- Use your own stories and examples to illustrate the principles and practices of PL and the Critical Moment Dialogue.
- Assess yourself using the ToF Developmental Benchmarks, and create a personalized plan for ongoing development as a facilitator of Personal Leadership.
Join us for this unique, powerful, and joyous experience.
Register today, and contact us if you have any questions.
PLSeminars and the Intercultural Communication Institute are affiliated as Program Partners.
The seminar leaders are Barbara Schaetti, Ph.D. and Gordon Watanabe, Ed.D.
As two of the three Founders of Personal Leadership, they have designed and facilitated PL seminars for more than twenty years. They have a profound capacity to translate theory into practice, and emergent design into a very satisfying experience for participants.
The seminar is designed for . . .
- Experienced designers and facilitators, even if they are new to Personal Leadership itself.
- Anyone who currently facilitates learning events that incorporate the PL methodology, or who intends to do so in the future, and who wishes to maximize the effectiveness of their work.
- Past participants in the ToF training who are continuing to develop their skills.
- Those who wish to enroll in the PLSeminars Facilitator Program, for which this seminar is a necessary step.
- Participants in and graduates of the PLSeminars Facilitator Program.
The pre-requisites for attending the seminar are . . .
- The completion of a PL Foundations seminar or its equivalent
OR
- The completion of a self-study program of the Personal Leadership method supported by a PLSeminars-approved coach.
See what others have said about the value of attending a PL seminar.
Register today, and contact us if you have any questions.
NOTE: All totals are in US dollars.
The cost for attending the seminar is as follows:
| Category | Details | Total |
| Extra-early bird | Before September 1, 2016 | $ 1,550 |
| Early bird | After September 1, and before December 15, 2016 | $ 1,750 |
| Standard | After December 15, 2016, and before February 24, 2017 | $ 2,500 |
| Returning | For past ToF participants | $ 1,500 |
| Student and low income | Students must be enrolled | $ 1,300 |
| PLSeminars Facilitators | Associate and Senior | $ 1,000 |
These fees include breakfast, some lunches and dinners, but not accommodations. To learn more, see the sections on Accommodations and Meals, below.
The cancellation policy is as follows:
| Deadline for cancellation | Amount of refund |
| Before November 1, 2016 | Full refund, less $150 administration fee |
| After November 1, 2016 | 50% refund |
| After January 1, 2017 | No refund |
Register today, and contact us if you have any questions.
Our in-person sessions at the Whidbey Institute will be held in Thomas Berry Hall. The Hall and all the accommodations listed below are nestled in the heartland of the beautiful 100-acre Chinook lands, a wonderful place of forests, meadows and wetlands.
The Institute has reserved its accommodations for our use. Its website includes details of each building, and the rooms available.
- The Farmhouse is a fully renovated and historic building across the lawn from our meeting space in Thomas Berry Hall. The Farmhouse includes:
- A fully equipped kitchen on the ground floor
- Comfortable living and dining space on the ground floor, with a wood fireplace
- Seven bedrooms upstairs
- Two full bathrooms upstairs, one with a bathtub and one with a shower
- One restroom downstairs
- Granny’s woodland home was moved to the site years ago as a gift from a neighbor. You can walk through the woods or take a brief drive to get to Thomas Berry Hall. Granny’s includes:
- A fully equipped kitchen and dining area upstairs
- Comfortable common space with a wood-burning stove upstairs
- Five bedrooms, some upstairs and some on the ground floor
- A bathroom on each of the two floors, with a tub-shower combo upstairs, and a shower downstairs
- Cabins that offer a secluded and tranquil space for your time at the Institute. The cabins are charming, nestled into the woods. They do not have indoor plumbing.
- All cabins use the communal shower-house and restrooms that are a short distance away.
- Participants staying in the cabins are welcome to use the Farmhouse kitchen.
If you would like to stay on-site, please specify your lodging preference when you register. All housing will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. We will facilitate roommate matching for those of you choosing shared housing.
To stay on-site:
| Single or shared | Location | Cost |
| Single | Farmhouse | $ 550 |
| Shared | Farmhouse | $ 500 |
| Shared | Granny’s | $ 500 |
| Single | Cabins | $ 450 |
NOTE if you are staying on-site:
- All totals are in US dollars.
- All totals include tax.
- Costs assume your arrival on March 6, and departure on March 12.
- You may book in one night early (arrival only after 6pm) for an additional $75.
To stay off-site, you have many choices. South Whidbey Island is a popular tourist destination. There are many bed-and-breakfasts and hotels to choose from, as well as VRBO and Airbnb locations.
NOTE if you are staying off-site:
- The nearest towns to the Whidbey Institute are Clinton and Langley, and Freeland is also relatively close.
- If you stay off-site, you will definitely need a car. There is also a taxi service available on the Island.
If you have questions or require more information about accommodations, please contact us.
Your registration includes the following communal meals.
| Meal | Monday, March 6 | Tuesday, March 7 | Wednesday, March 8 | Thursday, March 9 | Friday, March 10 | Saturday, March 11 |
| Breakfast | n/a | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lunch | n/a | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Dinner | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Our meals will be prepared by Chef Christyn of the Whidbey Institute.
The meals are typically vegetarian, although there may also be bacon and eggs offered at breakfast, and fish or chicken options offered at dinner. All ingredients will be organic, and locally sourced when possible.
For those meals not included in your registration, participants often go together off-site. All on-site accommodations include access to complete kitchen facilities.
NOTE:
- You will need to have a car or use a taxi to go off-site.
If you have questions or require more information about meals, please contact us.
Whidbey Island is a special place. Wikipedia does the best it can, but a list of facts can’t evoke the grandeur of the cedars, pines and firs; the intimacy of woodland trails; the expansiveness of water, sky and distant mountain ranges; the awe of frog-song in the wetlands, a hummingbird hovering close, or an eagle soaring high.
And the Whidbey Institute is one of Whidbey Island’s special heart centers. The broader community is active with artists, musicians and writers; spiritual and movement practitioners; global and local change agents; environment stewards, and farmers young and old; second- and third-generation family businesses; wineries and wine tasting rooms.
If you have the time to come early or stay late, you will find plenty to delight you.
The Whidbey Institute is located on the south end of Whidbey Island. The nearest towns are Clinton and Langley.
The Institute has very clear information for those travelling to Whidbey Island.
- If you arrive by plane
- See the information on the Institute site about arriving at the nearest airport, Seattle-Tacoma Airport, commonly known as SeaTac. It’s approximately 90 minutes south of Whidbey Island, depending on traffic.
- For those who want to rent a car, all national rental car companies are available at the airport.
- For those who prefer public transportation, the Whidbey SeaTac Shuttle is an excellent alternative. It’s non-stop from the airport to Whidbey, and gets priority access onto the ferry.
NOTE if you use the Shuttle:
- Book in advance and ask to get off at the Langley/Clinton stop.
- Arrange in advance for the local taxi service to pick you up from the Shuttle stop.
- If you arrive by car, whether you bring your own or rent one at the airport
- See the information on the Institute site about the ferry from Mukilteo to Clinton
- Check the information about parking at the Institute.
- NOTE if you travel by car:
- When you register, we will ask you whether you would like to coordinate with other participants to share the costs of a rental car.
- We will also ask if, once you are on the island, you would be willing to carpool with others in your vehicle, for example to evening meals or to off-site accommodations.
- If you are mobility-impaired and need to park at Thomas Berry Hall itself, we will ask you to specify this when you
If you have questions or require more information about travelling to Whidbey, please contact us.
Registration is available now.
If you have questions or need any more information, please contact us.
You may also download this information as a PDF.
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