Introduction to facilitation: Supporting group collaboration and inclusivity

🌍 Learn how to work with groups, support inclusivity, and foster collaboration

Many people work with groups and hold space, in classrooms, communities, teams, working groups, or movements, often without having structured knowledge on how to do so. In your groups, you might recognize this:

• Conversations drift, and loops remain open
• Some dominate the conversations and others stay silent  
• Personal and interpersonal processes show up, and it is difficult to engage with them
• Decision-making feels unclear or exhausting

What is this course about?

This course offers an entry into facilitation and the art of working with groups. It will help you unlock effective, fun, and dynamic collaboration and make your groups more inclusive, creative, connected, and alive. You’ll leave with the skills and mindset to host groups where work flows and transformation can actually happen. By the end of this course, you’ll feel more grounded, more confident, and less alone when working with groups, with a clearer sense of what’s happening in the room and how to respond. Across six live sessions, we’ll explore:

• How individuals and groups actually function (and dysfunction)
• How your own patterns affect the space and how to tap into your personal facilitation style
• How power, roles, and context shape participation
• How to design sessions that support inclusivity and collaboration
• How to intervene when things get a bit messy or unclear

Is this course right for you

You are here because you probably care about inclusion, connection, and effective collaboration, but you are a bit unsure how to make it happen. This course focuses on that and is a practical laboratory for learning how to support groups move towards their purpose. This training is right for you if:

• You occasionally or regularly work with groups
• You care about justice, inclusion, and participation
• You sometimes feel unsure or overwhelmed in group spaces due to the complexity you sense and notice
• You want a solid foundation before moving into higher-stakes facilitation

🧭 Course Overview Structure

The course spans over 6 live sessions, each Tuesday, from 14.00 to 16.30 CET, with a group of 10-15 participants

Session 1: Foundations of Facilitation & Creating Collective Learning Spaces (1st September 16.00-18.30 CET)
Session 2: Understanding Your Facilitation Style & Hosting Yourself (8th September 16.00-18.30 CET)
Session 3: Hosting Others: Understanding personal, social & power Dynamics (15th September 16.00-18.30 CET)
Session 4: Tools to Support effective and positive Group Dynamics (22nd September 16.00-18.30 CET)
Session 5: Designing Inclusive Sessions and Facilitating Group Decision-Making (29th September 16.00-18.30 CET)
Session 6: Practicing decision-making and wrapping up the course (6th October 16.00-18.30 CET)

🎁 Early Action Bonus

First 4 participants to sign up with a regular or supporter price receive an optional invite link for a 1 hour session on the 30th of August 11.00-12.00 CET). In this call, we get to know each other and clarify your learning intention to tailor the journey to your needs better.

What previous participants say about the course

"This course made me finally have proper panoramics on the most important aspects of facilitation and a proper understanding of what these aspects require to be faced with courage and awareness" - Nerè

"This course is a must for anyone who is starting out or wanting to reflect on their current experience of being a facilitator in organising and work setting. I’ve found it so helpful for finding out the different approaches to decision making, and practicing how to facilitate them . Crucial to this is the space made for personal and group reflection and how to go about creating inclusive, safer places, that doesn’t invisibles difference and the power dynamics that underpin this" - Roseanne

💰 Pricing & Accessibility

We believe in accessible and inclusive learning, and in reciprocity with each other. You’re invited to contribute within your capacity, enough to feel invested, but never overstretched. At the same time, we have a desired 

• Solidarity Price: €225 – For those with financial constraints
• Sustainability Price: €350 – Reflects the average contribution per person needed to cover the costs (considering a small group of 10)
• Supporter Price: €475 – Helps make the course accessible to others

🎓 (Partial) scholarships available (pay what you can, short questionnaire required to assess motivation before confirmation).

Refunds: A full refund is available if the cancellation is made 2 weeks before the start date.

The course has a desired financial contribution of €3,500. This amount supports not only the delivery of the sessions, but also the time invested in designing, preparing, and integrating the learning experience. It contributes to the operating cost of the "Common Ground organization", the ongoing development and refinement of the practice, making future iterations possible and supporting the long-term sustainability of this work.

Our ideal group size is 10 participants. However, the final number of participants will depend on whether the desired contribution level is reached. When choosing your contribution tier, we invite you to consider both your own financial reality and the collective sustainability of the course.

For more information about the "contribution within capacity" model, more transparency on the trainers needs, and support in identifying an appropriate tier, please visit this page

👉 Register now to secure your place and to get 

✔️ Six live group sessions (2.5 hours each)
✔️ Access to curated facilitation resources
✔️ Peer learning and hands-on practice each week
✔️ Weekly reflective assignments to deepen your process

Or book a free discovery call if you are unsure if this is something for you: https://calendly.com/marcominoni96/facilitation-chat

🧑‍🏫 Your Host: Marco Minoni

Marco is a facilitator and social activist passionate about building cultures rooted in care, justice, and authentic connection. With experience in grassroots organizing, political education, and experiential facilitation, he creates spaces where people can:

• Practice compassionate and courageous communication
• Explore power and privilege
• Navigate complexity and difference

His work lives at the intersection of inclusion, power-awareness, and embodied facilitation, supporting individuals and groups to show up more fully, and work towards collective liberation. He's a member of the "Common Ground" collective. 

"I can recommend Marco to anyone who wants to challenge themselves becoming a more inclusive, mindful and structured facilitator. His warm and vibrant facilitation style makes following trainings with him a pleasure!" Till

🧠 Common Ground 🕺

Common Ground supports leaders to grow purposeful businesses, networks, and communities.

We design and steward practices that shift power, redistribute resources, and grow cultures of trust, care, and shared responsibility. We're a consulting collective and postgrowth organizing lab, with over a decade of experience with progressive organizational development and commons-based, decentralized, participatory organizing.

📩 Newsletter & email:

More info about the course