Learning through role playing is key to success of Facilitative Leadership program

Managing employees in the 21^st century is more than just planning work and delegating it to them. Today’s managers must network, coach, partner and inspire individuals to work toward intangible goals such as learning new skills, continuous improvement and achieving excellence. Schulich ExecEds’ recent two-day workshop Facilitative Leadership gave this latest group of leaders a complete foundation in approaches that help employees invest their energy towards the goals and success of an organization.

Mark Norman is a perennially popular Schulich ExecEd facilitator who earns rave reviews for his insightful teaching and classes that emphasize applying learned techniques in a group setting. For this program, a key component is role-playing in scenarios that illustrate, in a real-life setting, the importance of looking at the leadership role in a broader way. His participants responded in post-program surveys with comments that confirmed this as one of Schulich ExecEd’s most popular leadership short programs.

“[Mark] shared many stories to make the point. Role-playing was great!” said one participant, while another chimed in with, “the role-play session with Mark was very effective in highlighting my areas for improvement.”

Mark’s experience in leadership from is own career shows in the response from others: “appreciated the real-life examples and the exercises that followed. Very hands-on and great takeaways.” “Excellent instructor that provide real-life examples that I could relate to. Very engaging and ensured class participation.”

As one of Schulich ExecEd’s most experience facilitators, Norman has refined the learning material in his program to maximum effect. “Great balance of reading, participating/sharing of materials and learning opportunities,” said one participant, who also enjoyed “meeting other participants” … and the “great mix of organizations represented.” The “facilitation was tremendous,” said another.

Another feature of Schulich ExecEd programs that sometimes goes unnoticed are the little “added extras” that ensure each participant’s time in the program is both instructive and memorable. One recent participant noted, “I loved the professor follow-up via email.” And, the program and catering staff earned kudos as well from a participant with special personal requirements during the session: “Thank you for the kosher food and prayer space!”

For more information or to register in a future session of Facilitative Leadership, visit the program web page.