Dialogue Matters’ In-house Training Courses
We have 20 years’ experience in running training courses for organisations across the UK and abroad. Our most popular course is the Good Practice Stakeholder Facilitation training, but we offer a range of other course topics. We’ve visited teams in NGOs, research institutes, councils, consultancies and government departments, and are well-renowned for delivering high quality programmes across many different contexts. You can see more companies we worked with and what people have said about our work here.
We ground our training in our direct experience of designing over 100 engagement processes and conducting over 200 workshops in a wide range of environmental management/decision-making situations. Our approach is rooted in consensus building, appreciative enquiry and Stakeholder Dialogue, but we draw on and integrate this with other approaches and techniques.
Stakeholder Dialogue is seen as a good practice approach to participation because:
- There is a strong emphasis on the importance of designing cohesive participation processes rather than ad hoc events and activities.
- Workshops are seen as just one element with careful preparation and times in-between workshops to gather information, write text, or enable participants to check back with those they represent.
- It is a principled approach with a sound ethical base.
- Stakeholders are valued and respected.
- The approach has its roots in conflict management and consensus building and so helps people to find what they agree about and move forward from there.
Although all our training has Best Practice Participation skills at its core, we offer several courses to suit different situations or organisational needs. See a brief overview of each in the table below.
If none of these seem perfectly suited to your requirements, we can also tailor modules to match your desired content, budget and timeframes. Just contact us with your requirements and any questions you may have.
Courses we currently offer:
Title |
Focus |
Length |
|---|---|---|
| Best Practice Stakeholder Participation with a Focus on the Environment | – Helping you understand the principles and concepts of stakeholder participation – Training you in practical facilitation skills and process design – Helping you explore the benefits and challenges of involving stakeholders |
3 days (4 days when we train in other countries where English is not the first language). |
| Stakeholder Participation – Why Bother? | – The focus of this course is on good practice participation and the benefits and challenges of running effective processes. | 1 day |
| Group Facilitation Skills | – This is to skill people as group facilitators to form a team with us to facilitate workshops within stakeholder processes. | 1-2 days |
| Participatory Knowledge Exchange | – This course is based on our 3 day foundation course but is tailored more to researchers and academics as they work to maximise the reach and impact of their studies. | 3 or 4 days |
| Best Practice Evidence-Based and Participatory Policy Making | – This course incorporates elements of other courses but is focused on the context and phases of policy making; of public policy making and the role of scientific and other forms of evidence. | 1 day or 5 days |
| Writing for all | – This course is about writing in everyday and accessible language – a vital skill for science trained staff who want to communicate with communities and other specialists. | 1 day |
| Communication and Engagement training for Researchers | – This course covers the topics of networking skills, research impact, knowledge transfer and knowledge exchange. We also look and knowledge co-creation and maintaining momentum. | 3-4 days |
We also periodically run residential courses in Kent, where individuals can join us to complete the 3-day Best Practice Participation course.
To discuss either our in-house or residential course, contact us and we will get back to you.