The Facilitation School

Mike McRee and Erin Fischer

Why should you (& your team) go?

When we think about facilitation, we know the right facilitator can make all the difference. You know this to be true if you remember the last bad facilitator you had. So, we have created content to help you deliver the best for your audience.

First, as your guides, we have scoured through Mike's Ph.D. research and are sharing the top 12 things participants need from facilitators and the results are fascinating! Erin has been teaching Program Design School for more than 10 years so she is a master at designing curriculum.

Join us if you want to practice your facilitative skills, increase your audience’s evaluations score on your work, learn how to flex your style to meet your audience, figure out how to make your work more interactive using the 70/30 rule, practice your pace and pitch, and learn where facilitators can often go wrong.

Finally, we will teach you how to read your audience when they make a face that stresses you out.

As we share, you never went to camp to watch videos about canoeing, horseback riding, and the ropes course.

Why would your participants come to your course to watch you read the PowerPoints when they could be trying something themselves?

Let us help you get better—fast.

It’s time to attend The Facilitation School if you:

  • Want to get better and improve your facilitation.

  • Struggle with confidence in front of a group.

  • Have a hard time getting folks to participate.

  • Overthink your guide and your PowerPoint but always talk too much.

  • Can’t manage your time – you have too much time left over to fill or you feel like you can’t fit everything in – either way your participants get cheated.

  • Struggle with silence in your programs.

  • Don’t know how to get to your main point or go on too many tangents.

  • Worry about your evaluation scores, but don’t change your style to meet your audience.

  • Don’t know how to make your work memorable or sticky. 

Who has already attended?

  • 306

    Graduates

  • 81

    Institutions/Organizations

“This was a great experience.

It changed how I facilitate.”

Sedric Scott, University of Mississippi

Upcoming programs.

July 17

Fraternity/Sorority Headquarters
Carmel, IN

Email to Learn More

September 30-October 1

ACPA
Virtual

Register Here

October 28-29

Alpha Delta Pi/Phi Mu Sorority Headquarters
Atlanta, GA

Email to Learn More

November 17-18

Indiana University
Bloomington, IN

December 9-10

NACA
Virtual

Coming Soon!

December 16-17

Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH

FAQs

  • 2024

    • October - Our first session!

    • December - SEC & friends FSL Advisors

    • December - Texas Tech University

    2025

    • February - Boise State University

    • March - FEA (Fraternity Executives Association)/ISAE (Indiana Society of Association Executives)

    • June - Kappa Delta

    • June - ACPA (College Student Educators International) - Virtual

    • June - BIG10 FSL Advisors

    • June - Alpha Tau Omega/Delta Tau Delta

    • July - Beta Theta Pi/Delta Gamma/Delta Sigma Pi/Phi Delta Theta/Phi Gamma Delta/Phi Kappa Tau

    • July - Alpha Omicron Pi/Alpha Sigma Tau/Phi Sigma Sigma/Sigma Delta Tau/Sigma Kappa

Get the details.

Need more information or want to make the case to bring Facilitation School to your institution or organization? Get the rationale, outcomes, reasoning, and logic.

Download the proposal.

Don’t just take our word for it.

  • The plethora of knowledge these two individuals have on facilitating is worth every dollar. They are able to connect with all audiences and get across the importance of facilitation.

    June 2025 Participant

  • You’ll get to see strong facilitators put their tips and tricks into practice. Never do they attempt to change your style, or encourage you to emulate theirs, but instead equip you through factual information and practical application.

    June 2025 Participant

  • As someone who wants to continue to build my facilitation skills, Erin and Mike brought a perspective that I had not heard or thought of. They were funny, relatable, personable, intelligent, and overall very entertaining!

    June 2025 Participant

  • I would say that this is a great experience for people who have never lead or facilitated a workshop AND people who have facilitated several times. Mike and Erin have such a wealth of knowledge in this scope and it was so amazing to see them practice what they preach. Thank you both for this experience!!

    June 2025 Participant

  • We all think we are great communicators and know all facilitation techniques until you get into this workshop. The ideas, the confidence, and the knowledge that you gain from a few hours are enough to make a huge impact on our organization and every person that we meet.

    June 2025 Participant

  • I think it is easy to say "oh I'm good at presenting and training folks," but to attend this conference and either learn that the tactics I'm using are scientifically backed or a trick that can elevate my students' experience even a little is extremely worth it. A bonus is all of the group work and conversations -- you get to speak with people outside your network, and that can be huge when trying to find new solutions or ideas.

    June 2025 Participant

  • You should attend because Erin and Mike walk you through how to think about facilitation differently. I took this course as someone afraid of public speaking, and I feel more confident now for future facilitations/presentations.

    June 2025 Participant

  • You will actually get a lot of engagement and learning out of participating in the Facilitation School. Valuable skills that one would not think of or consider unless they participate in this interactive two day program.

    June 2025 Participant

  • Facilitation School gives you the opportunity to think about the way you approach facilitation, learn new strategies and resources....a great way to pause and intentionally reflect on the way you can enhance the programs that you are delivering.

    June 2025 Participant

  • Redefined how I will approach programming and learning. The examples and connections through analogies and metaphors really allowed me to connect topics and thoughts.

    June 2025 Participant

  • Even if you think you’re great at presenting or facilitating others, I guarantee there is a wealth of knowledge to intake from both presenters.

    June 2025 Participant

  • It will change your perspective on how to do the work.

    June 2025 Participant

  • The content is clear, the skills are attainable, and it lends confidence!

    June 2025 Participant

  • This is A MUST HAVE!!!

    June 2025 Participant

  • It’s worth it alone for the resources you get! All of the extras and practice you learn while attending are the best bonus!

    June 2025 Participant

  • This experience opened my mind to different techniques and strategies on how to approach different crowds when facilitating. I would also say that the facilitators make it worth while as various strategies are exhibiting throughout.

    June 2025 Participant

  • There are very few trainings out there that can dive deep into facilitation AND actually know and understand the great work we do.

    June 2025 Participant

  • Exciting and extremely engaging. These skills can be adapted to almost any “people” career and it’s impossible to leave without being excited to lead conversation.

    June 2025 Participant

  • You don’t know you need it until you’re there doing the work.

    July 2025 Participant

  • Facilitation School is by far the best facilitation training I've received. It's engaging and gets to the point without all the annoying fluff. 10/10 would recommend.

    July 2025 Participant

  • You’ll leave equipped with loads of new tips, tools, and strategies.

    July 2025 Participant

  • This program helped me understand how to get the most out of programming and stop putting on boring presentations. It made me more confident in my role.

    July 2026 Participant

  • This is such a great experience for those who are new or experienced professionals! For me, these strategies and experiences translated more than in just the facilitation space. I felt there were ways to connect this in supervision, professional and personal experiences.

    July 2025 Participant

  • It prepares you in every single way possible to be a better presenter and facilitator.

    July 2025 Participant

  • Even as an experienced facilitator (20 years), I still learned some fresh techniques and ideas to improve what I’ve been doing. There aren’t any courses in Higher Education that teach this skill, tools, etc. so I wish I had this decades ago!

    July 2025 Participant

  • You'll get to both witness and practice all of the different facilitation tactics and meet like-minded people who also are hoping to learn!

    July 2025 Participant

  • You should attend to get fresh insights on how to actually engage your crowd which in turn will help you become more passionate about your work as well.

    July 2025 Participant

  • Regardless of career field or expertise, Facilitation School promotes public speaking skills and the ability to connect with people of all backgrounds and interests.

    July 2025 Participant