Vertical Facilitator Learning Journey

Level Two: Deep Dive

Vertical Facilitation is a body of skills, tools, and distinctions by which coaches, leaders, and facilitators can expand the depth of learning they bring to the work they do with teams and groups.

It addresses the question which many coaches and facilitators have--especially those who have been personally moved by deep transformative learning experiences they themselves have had--which is: How can I bring about transformative (vertical) learning experiences for the teams and groups I work with, and the workshops I lead? 

In Level I: Warm-up of The Vertical Facilitator Learning Journey, you are exposed to the big ideas and some of the main distinctions and competencies of vertical facilitation.

In the Deep Dive, you actually grow for yourself a depth of practice and capacity to embody the distinctions and competencies of vertical facilitation.

You will leave the Deep Dive with mastery in the art and practice of facilitating transformative change in the teams and groups you work with.

What You Can Expect from Your Participation in the Deep Dive

  • A deep insight into the nature of vertical learning and human development.

  • An ability to see beyond people’s ‘personalities’ into the deeper meaning-making that governs how they are showing up

  • An ability to ask questions, state observations, and offer feedback in ways that generate “disorienting dilemmas”

  • A capacity to project a space of genuine acceptance and compassion that empowers emotional risk-taking in group settings.

  • A greater awareness of your own meaning-making constitution, and of the inner distortions they most often generate.

  • An ability to witness, understand, and work constructively with group interactions and group dynamics.

  • An ability to leverage conflict as a basis for catalyzing profound insights for individuals and groups.

  • An ability to create workshop and facilitated event designs that are deliberately developmental.

  • A confidence in your ability to catalyze moments of transformative insight in all manner of situations in which you are leaderfully engaged.

What Your Organization Can Expect Out of Your Participation in the Deep Dive

Out of your participation in The Vertical Facilitator Deep Dive, you will help the individuals, teams and groups you work with grow their capacity for wise and effective action in the face of uncertain and complex situations and circumstances—a key advantage for any organization that must operate effectively in today’s inherently complex and unpredictable world.

Toward this end, you will help people, both individually and collectively: 

  • Grow their capacity for greater personal ownership, accountability and responsibility. This translates into greater reliability and alignment with organizational purpose and direction.

  • Develop better thinking and sense-making approaches to the specific kinds of complex problems they face.

  • Increase their capacity for self-awareness and self-management so that they are less reactive and more constructive in their interactions with others, and in their encounters with difficult and challenging situations.

  • Increase individuals’ ability to think outside the box.

  • Grow their capacity to manage their emotional anxiety so that there is less fear and hesitance in their actions and decision-making processes.

  • Better manage the interpersonal conflicts and interrelational dysfunctions that impede their capacity for wise and collective action and collaboration. Effective relating with others is increasingly seen as the major determinative for organizational high performance in today’s complex and ever-changing world.

  • Grow their capacity for clearer and more effective communication and interaction, thus enabling and empowering greater collaboration and collective sensemaking.



Steps in the Unfolding of the Program

SESSION #1

In the first session, we begin by establishing a foundation for us as a cohort. We will also take a deep dive into adult development and the Action Logic framework, and will introduce the Leadership Development Profile, which each participant will work with between this session and the 3-Day Intensive (described below).

YOUR LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROFILE (LDP)

You will complete your personal Leadership Development Profile (LDP), a vertical leadership instrument that will play a significant part in the unfolding of deep developmental self-awareness. The process includes a small group (2-3 person) debrief session with one of the course leaders.

Read more about the LDP  Process.

YOUR COURSE PROJECT

During this 4 week period, you will develop elements of your Vertical Facilitation Design Project, with feedback from your course leaders and from other members of your cohort.


SESSION #2

During this session, you will begin to get your arms around the 13 key practices of Vertical Facilitation. You will participate in a set of activities in which you see these in practice.

You will also explore the implications of your own developmental landscape, and begin to come to grips with your own particular gifts and challenges as they apply to vertical facilitation.

TWO PRACTICUMS

During this 4 week period, we will have two practice sessions during you will get feedback on your project and get practice in key areas of vertical facilitation.

3-DAY VIRTUAL INTENSIVE

During the Intensive we engage in a combination of informational and highly experiential sessions in which you engage with, and practice, all aspects of vertical facilitation, including your most important tool: Your Self. The Intensive is, in many ways, the heart and soul of the program.

During the Intensive, you will also initiate a Vertical Facilitation Design Project, in which you will design (and possibly facilitate) a small workshop or other kind of vertical facilitation intervention over the course of the weeks between the Intensive and the Completion session.

COMPLETION

During this session we will share our deepest learnings, and celebrate both the triumphs and belly flops of our projects. You will also have an opportunity to look at what’s next for you in your vertical facilitation journey.

Finally, we will celebrate our accomplishment—both as individuals and as a cohort!

Details of the Deep Dive

Here are session-by-session details of the course…

Your Course Leaders

Michael Hamman is dedicated to the possibility that the workplace be a site for personal, professional and social transformation. Trained in the 1980s in coaching and large group facilitation, Michael went on to train in systems thinking and methods, group dynamics and facilitation, professional and executive coaching, and in human and organization development. He is a decades-long student of the nature of human transformation, both in himself and in others.

His book, Evolvagility: Growing an Agile Leadership Culture from the Inside Out integrates this rich and varied background and experience, and provides a blueprint for what it means to be an agile leader in today’s complex world. 

Lyssa Adkins is an internationally-recognized thought leader in the Agile community. She is deeply trained and experienced  in human systems coaching and facilitation and she is a frequent keynote speaker. Her content expertise is agile coaching, adult human development, and working with change and complexity.

She is the author of Coaching Agile Teams which is still a Top 10 book a dozen years after publication. Her current focus is improving the performance of top leadership teams through insightful facilitation and organization systems coaching to help leaders take up the individual and collective transformation that is theirs to do

Tuition

Our intention is that anyone who wishes to participate in this course not be constrained financially. If you are unemployed, under-employed, or are constrained by not being able to obtain funding from your employer, you can register through the Supported payment option. Tuition can be paid up-front or in 2 installments (contact Michael Hamman for other payment arrangements).

  • Option 1 (Regular Price) $1,975.00USD

  • Option 2 (Supported) $1,400.00USD

  • Contact Michael for other possible payment arrangements.

What’s included in your tuition:

  • Live virtual sessions (a total of 26 contact hours)

  • Your personal Leadership Development Profile + small group Debrief (with Michael Hamman)

  • Inter-session community activity with comments, feedback, and further instruction from course leaders

  • A powerful and empowering community container that will support your development and learning in this program.

  • A wealth of materials, including recordings and papers.

  • Lifetime access to recordings of all sessions after completion of the program.

  • Life-time access to events and substantive follow-up materials.

Dates for Next Public 2024 Cohort

Session 1.          Thursday October 24, 9am - 12noon US ET / 15-18 CET

Session 2.          Thursday November 7, 9am-12noon US ET / 15-18 CET

Intensive           Tuesday November 19, 9am-2pm US ET / 15:00-20:00 CET

Wednesday November 20, 9am-2pm US ET / 15-20 CET

Thursday November 21, 9am-2pm US ET / 15:00-20:00 CET

Practicum 1      Thursday December 5, 9-11am US ET / 15-17 CET

Practicum 2      Thursday December 19, 9- 11am US ET / 15-17 CET

Completion       Thursday January 9 2025, 9-11:00am US ET / 15-17 CET