Skill-Building Workshops for Individuals and Organizations
Our skill-building workshops help participants build their toolkit around key organizational development areas, including growing leadership skills, developing generative conflict practices, and making collaborative decisions.
We offer both public workshop offerings for individuals and tailored trainings for your organization.
Public Workshops for Individuals
We developed our latest Lunch & Lead workshop series to meet our current moment with three, 90-minute topical sessions packed full of tangible tools and practices that movement, nonprofit, and philanthropic leaders at all levels can immediately put into action. Our public workshops are participatory and engaging, and focus on equipping participants with effective, research-based tools to navigate workplace challenges around leadership, decision-making, and navigating conflict. Sign up today!
Lunch & Lead Series
CONFLICT
How to Disagree Well in the Workplace
Friday, October 9th, 10:30am-12:00pm PDT / 11:30am-1:00pm MDT / 12:30-2:00pm CDT / 1:30-3:00pm EDT / 7:30-9:00am HST
The strain of compounding crises are being felt inside of our nonprofit and philanthropic organizations, manifesting as rising tension, conflict, and fracture within teams and between colleagues. Equip yourself with tools and techniques to turn the next moment of tension within your organization into generative conflict rather than toxicity.
LEADERSHIP
Grounded Leadership Practices for Leaders at All Levels
Thursday, October 29th, 10:30am-12:00pm PDT / 11:30am-1:00pm MDT / 12:30-2:00pm CDT / 1:30-3:00pm EDT / 7:30-9:00am HST
Current conditions demand strong organizational leaders in our nonprofit and philanthropic groups, but leadership skills in these sectors are often critically underdeveloped and over-critiqued. Expand your leadership toolkit by examining your relationship to power and learning ways to nurture the leadership of yourself and others!
DECISION-MAKING
Foundational Approaches for Collaborative Decision-Making
Thursday, November 5th, 11:30am-1:00pm PST / 12:30-2:00pm MST / 1:30-3:00pm CST / 2:30-4:00pm EST / 9:30-11:00am HST
The decisions we make within our nonprofit and philanthropic organizations are more critical than ever. By prioritizing collaboration and clarity in decision-making, we can build our teams’ confidence in the outcome and investment in putting these crucial decisions into action. Learn three different models for making collaborative decisions that tap group wisdom, prioritize clarity, and build collective investment in implementation.
What our participants are saying
94%
of public workshop participants found our workshops very or extremely engaging
100%
of public workshop participants felt more ready to address challenges in their work with the tools we shared
Workshops for Organizations
Guiding Threads Collective facilitates tailored workshops for organizations that are looking to skill-up their team around key organizational topics. If you’re interested in bringing our workshops to your organization, please reach out to schedule time to talk about your group’s context and needs!
Our workshops are interactive, playful, and engaging sessions that pair innovative frameworks with opportunities for practice so participants can put their learnings into immediate action. Workshops are 2 or 3 hour and virtual over zoom or in-person. Our workshops highlight both interpersonal and team-wide tools to drive effective learning and culture change.
We offer three workshop series: the Skill-Building Series, the Leadership Series, and the Grassroots Series.
Skill-Building Series
DECISION-MAKING
Sharing Power to Build Trust: New Ways to Make Decisions as a Team
By being transparent and intentional about how decision-making power operates in a group, we can avoid potential conflict, miscommunication, and distrust that gets in the way of our collaboration. This workshop explores how different decision-making structures and practices can be used to build trust, create clarity, and share power across teams and organizations.
CONFLICT
From Conflict to Clarity: Navigating Tension in Teams with Grace and Strategy
This workshop equips teams with the skills to turn the next moment of tension into generative conflict rather than toxicity. Through self-reflection and practice with research-based tools, participants will learn how to assess the heat and scope of conflict as it emerges, and apply techniques to effectively communicate and navigate through tension and disagreement.
FEEDBACK
Building a Feedback-Friendly Organization
Being able to give and receive feedback is key to harnessing collective wisdom, cultivating leadership inside of your organization, and sharpening the strategy and tactics that are vital to your success. This workshop outlines the ingredients of a feedback-friendly culture and supports participants in developing tangible skills to implement feedback structures and practices.
FACILITATION
Facilitation Tools for Effective Meetings
Meetings are where we brainstorm, vision, and make decisions together, and a thoughtful agenda and intentional facilitation skills can unlock the full wisdom and potential of a group. This workshop outlines common pitfalls of meeting facilitation, shares frameworks for designing engaging conversations, and offers tools to support group participation and generative discussion.
Leadership Series
LEADERSHIP
Grounded Leadership: A Workshop for Organizational Leaders at All Levels
This workshop supports mission-driven organizational leaders at all levels to lead - a critically underdeveloped, highly-critiqued, and much needed skill in our movement organizations. Participants will reflect on their own relationship to power, chart where they can boldly advance their work, and identify where and how to cultivate the leadership of others. This session offers tangible leadership tools to apply to both day-to-day responsibilities and long-term strategic decisions.
MANAGEMENT
Empowered Management: Building Vibrant Organizations from the Middle
This workshop empowers middle managers to tap into their skills, values, and influence to create more equitable and thriving workplaces. Through reflection prompts, management frameworks, and tangible tools, this workshop will equip middle managers to strengthen workplace culture and build effective, collaborative relationships with both executive leadership and staff.
Grassroots Series
MUTUAL AID
Getting Unstuck: Tools to Strengthen Our Mutual Aid Groups
Mutual aid organizing is more crucial than ever, but the pressure of responding to mounting crises can strain our relationships, group formations, and collaboration. In this workshop, we’ll offer tools for communication, group structure, and decision-making to address common challenges in mutual aid organizing. Participants will explore how building values-aligned practices and structures can create meaningful participation, shared leadership and accountability, and effective action.
CAMPAIGN DESIGN
Power Mapping for Sharper Campaigns
This workshop introduces power mapping, a key tool to building shared analysis of a campaign landscape to better inform your organizing strategy. Together, participants will brainstorm and categorize potential stakeholders, assess and refine strategies, and tailor outreach techniques to strengthen your campaign and increase your impact.
Interested in bringing one of our workshops to your organization?
We’re happy to tailor our curriculum to your group’s specific needs and context.