The Facilitative Leader
Transform team meetings into powerful drivers of change
Stop running meetings that drain energy and deliver little results. Learn to facilitate sessions where every voice matters, decisions stick, and your team actually wants to show up.
What It Means to BE a Facilitative Leader
Facilitator Leaders don't just run better meetings; they fundamentally shift how their teams think, collaborate, and act together..
Lead from Beside, Not From the Front
- Trade the need to have all the answers for the courage to ask the right questions
- Your team's thinking gets sharper because you're not rushing to fill the silence
- People leave saying "we", not "you," when describing decisions
Design for Equity, Not Just Efficiency
- Name who hasn't spoken yet—and have strategies ready to invite them in
- Ensure the loudest voice isn't the only voice
- Create pathways for introverts and extroverts alike to contribute meaningfully
Hold Purpose Like a Compass
- Every agenda answers: "Why are we here?" and "What will we accomplish?"
- Pause mid-meeting to ask, "Is this serving our purpose?" without derailing momentum
- Distinguish clearly between dialogue, decision, discussion, and design
Name What You Notice
- Read the room—energy shifts, engagement signals, resistance patterns
- Say "I'm noticing..." without judgement and "I'm wondering..." without an agenda
- Balance following the plan with following the learning
Distribute Leadership, Not Just Tasks
- Rotate facilitation roles—timekeeper, equity observer, note-taker
- Teach your team the moves you use so facilitation becomes collective capacity
- Your team can run powerful sessions even when you're not in the room
Build Accountability That Sticks
- Meetings end with crystal-clear commitments, not vague good intentions
- Close the gap between "we decided" and "we did"
- Follow-through feels natural because it was built into the design from the start
The Shift You'll Make
You solved problems for your team
Your expertise was your authority
Meetings felt like obligations
You create conditions where your team solves problems together
Your facilitation is your leadership
Meetings are engines of collaborative change
Your 4-Week Learning Journey
Research-based strategies for middle-level education leaders
Week 1: Foundation & Design
Shifting Your Stance + Planning with Purpose
- Move from "expert" to "facilitator" mindset (neutrality, listening, trust)
- Anchor every meeting in a clear purpose and outcome
- Design agendas that clarify: Is this meeting for input, decision, or information?
- Master the Seven Norms of Collaboration (Adaptive Schools)
- Use backward planning to create outcome-based agendas
Week 2: Engagement & Voice
Creating Conditions Where Everyone Contributes
- Use structures that make participation accessible to all
- Recognise and respond to different types of silence
- Deploy questioning techniques that invite thinking (not just answers)
- Implement scaffolded participation: write → talk → share
- Master paraphrasing to deepen understanding
Week 3: Facilitation in Action
Managing Energy, Participation & the Unexpected
- Read the room and adjust in real-time
- Balance dominant and quiet voices with grace
- Use structure to stay on track while remaining responsive
- Implement rotating facilitation roles for distributed leadership
- Record and review your facilitation for targeted growth
Week 4: Momentum & Mastery
From Meeting to Action + Your Action Plan for Continued Growth
- Close the gap between meeting decisions and actual follow-through
- Build team accountability without micromanaging
- Create your 90-day action plan for continued growth
- Establish sustainable reflection and growth habits
- Join an ongoing community of practice
What You'll Learn
Designing Meetings That Matter
- Purpose-driven meeting design that ensures every gathering delivers real value (no more "this could have been an email" guilt)
- Proven protocols for different meeting types – whether you're running a PLC, grade-level team, or curriculum planning session, you'll have a tested framework to follow
Getting Everyone Meaningfully Involved
Leading a team where a few people dominate and everyone else checks out? We're changing that..
- Equity structures that draw out even your quietest (or most resistant) team members – not through forced participation, but through smart design
- Real-time facilitation moves to read the room and respond when energy shifts, conflict emerges, or someone's disengaged
Energy & Focus: Keeping Meetings Productive
Tired of meetings that drift, drag, or devolve into complaint sessions?
- Energy management strategies that keep discussions focused, purposeful, and (dare we say it) enjoyable
- Practical techniques to navigate difficult moments without losing control or damaging relationships
The Follow-Through: From Talk to Action
The real challenge isn't the meeting itself – it's what happens after.
- Accountability systems that actually work – close the gap between what you discuss and what gets done
- Strategies to support follow-through without micromanaging or becoming the "rescuer"
What's Included
📚 4 Self-Paced Modules
Weekly lessons (2 hours each) you complete on your schedule with immediate application in your role
🎯 2 Personal Coaching Calls
Troubleshoot your specific challenges and get expert guidance tailored to your context
📹 Record-and-Review Feedback
Submit your actual meeting facilitation and receive personalized, actionable feedback
🎁 Complete Protocol Library
Ready-to-use meeting structures, templates, and tools you can implement immediately
✅ Weekly Reflection Prompts
Deepen your learning with targeted questions that build facilitative habits
🤝 Ongoing Community Access
Join a network of facilitative leaders for continued support and peer learning
Professional Recognition
Certificate of Completion: Graduates of The Facilitative Leader receive a Certificate of Completion documenting 10 contact hours of professional learning in collaborative leadership and facilitation practices.
This course aligns with national standards for educational leadership and teacher professional learning, including:
Graduates are invited to join our ongoing community of practice for continued learning and peer support.
Ready to Transform How Your Team Works Together?
Join education leaders who are shifting from presenters to facilitators, from telling to asking, from isolated expertise to collaborative capacity.
Course opens November 2025 • Start when it works best for you
About Jo Brown
Jo brings over 20 years of experience teaching and leading in international schools. As a former instructional coach, team leader, curriculum leader, and classroom teacher, she's sat in every seat around the meeting table. She knows firsthand the difference between meetings that move work forward and meetings that waste everyone's time.
After years of facilitating PLCs, curriculum meetings, and school-wide professional learning sessions, Jo developed an approach informed by research-based facilitation practices, including Adaptive Schools and Cognitive Coaching. This approach is delivered in practical, immediately applicable ways in real school contexts.
Jo has supported education leaders in transforming their team meetings from obligatory time drains to powerful collaborative change engines. When you work with Jo, you're not getting generic facilitation theory; you're getting strategies tested in the trenches of actual school leadership.
