Synodal Facilitation Practices Training

This hands-on training event is designed for lay people and clergy from Catholic parishes, ministries, and non-profits seeking practical ways to integrate synodality into their meetings and processes.

Participants will engage in different facilitation practices that can be used in synodal meetings and processes. This will include "Conversations in the Spirit" (Spiritual Conversation) and several other participatory facilitation techniques. The session is entirely experiential, with no lectures, and encourages reflection and networking around synodal-style meeting facilitation. It is facilitated by Genevieve Jordan Laskey (GJL Strategies) with Adriano Pianesi and hosted by the Paulist Fathers.        

Who Should Attend?

• Lay people and clergy from Catholic parishes, sponsored ministries, and non-profits who are looking for practical ways to integrate synodality into their meetings and processes like committee and/or staff meetings, councils, strategic planning, chapters and assemblies, etc.

Outcomes: 

• Experience five different, specific facilitation structures that can be used to facilitate synodal-style meetings, gatherings, processes. These include "Conversations in the Spirit" and others drawn from Liberating Structures group facilitation methods and other resources
• Network with people from other Catholic parishes, sponsored ministries, and non-profits who are interested in developing their skills synodal style meeting facilitation
• Receive peer coaching (using a specific facilitation structure) on an case or topic you bring related to your own facilitation of synodal meetings

There will be no presentation/lecture. This is a 100% practical, hands-on training session on how to structure meetings to be more synodal using participatory facilitation practices. It will be facilitated through immersion, where the learning will be by doing.

Preparation:

• Read and pray with section 2. Principles of a Synodal Process from Communion, Participation, and Mission Vademecum for the Synod on Synodality. Choose one attitude for participating in the Synodal Process that resonated with you during your time of reflection. List possible, practical ways a meeting can be structured to help foster commitment to that attitude. Bring this thinking with you to the gathering.
• Spend thirty minutes in prayerful reflection in advance and reflect on one situation or case study about how to structure a meeting, gathering, or process to be more synodal. Be ready to share this with other participants at the gathering as part of a small group coaching session.

Registration fee includes:

• Session one: Online, Thursday, June 12, 12-1:30 Eastern 
  Participants meet one another, gain shared context about synodality and facilitation practices, and hear about the two preparation assignments so we can hit the ground running together on June 24
  
• Session two: In-person, full day, Tuesday, June 24, 9am - 5pm Eastern 
  
• Session three: Online, Thursday, July 31, 12-1:30 Eastern
  Participants check in with one another on application of the facilitation practices (which we will do using additional interactive facilitation practices virtually) 
  
  
• Lunch, beverages, and snack
  
• Printed training materials  

Registration fee is $275. Use discount code "EarlyBird" for $75 off registrations by May 15. 
Space is limited to the first thirty registrants. Registration is non-refundable. 

About the facilitators: 
Genevieve Jordan Laskey has a dual background in Catholic pastoral ministry and organization development and leadership. She has nearly twenty years experience facilitating meetings, retreats, processes, and gatherings with parishes, Catholic non-profits, and religious congregations. She has a master’s degree in Theology from the University of Notre Dame and a master’s in Organization Development and Leadership from St. Joseph’s University. She is a parishioner at St. Camillus Catholic Church in Silver Spring, MD.

Adriano Pianesi, originally from Rome, Italy, had his first experience working in groups as a confirmation preparation catechist at his home parish in Rome. He teaches in Johns Hopkins Carey Business School/Johns Hopkins Krieger School of Arts & Sciences. Adriano has an MBA from the University of Milan and is an expert in Adaptive Leadership, a leadership model out of the Harvard Kennedy School. He is a leadership consultant, coach, and facilitator who has led Liberating Structures facilitation training sessions for the last fifteen years. Adriano speaks Spanish, French, and Italian. He is a parishioner at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Alexandria, VA.