Creativity, consensus building and exploring new ways of working
Facilitation, Training and Consultancy
I am a professional facilitator, trainer and consultant dedicated to helping organisations, educational institutions, government bodies, community groups and individuals to deliver high quality projects, events, workshops and meetings.
Creativity, consensus building and exploring new ways of working are at the heart of my work. I believe these elements are central to helping great ideas grow and flourish.
My goal is to support the development of sustainable, thriving and successful partnerships, institutions and communities.
I work across the UK and internationally both face to face and online.
What I offer
As a professional facilitator, trainer and consultant, I can support you and your group, team, organisation in several ways. Each client and organisation is unique, having its own history and culture. From the very start of our relationship, I will work closely with you to establish the outcomes you want. My aim is to provide support, guidance and if necessary, challenge issues so that the outcomes are workable and sustainable.
Facilitation
As an experienced and licensed independent facilitator, I am regularly brought in to facilitate workshops and events where the issues are complex, where there may be differing or conflicting views, challenging team dynamics, where consensus is required on critical decisions or simply where there is a wish for the voices in the group to be heard. My presence allows the chair, leader or organiser the welcome freedom take a step back from leading and to both observe and fully contribute to discussions. I am comfortable facilitating online , hybrid and face to face sessions both large and small.
Facilitation can seem a bit of a mystery, sometimes even a bit intimidating! I help create a safe space, creating trust, allowing all voices to be heard that can reveal the elephant in the room and help the group see the issue, scenario or problem with a fresh perspective.
Together we can clearly identify the issue and move towards action.
Types of workshops I offer
I am commonly called to facilitate workshops, events and conferences including:
- Team building days
- Strategic Planning sessions
- Stakeholder engagement events
- Public consultation events
- Visioning sessions
- Action planning
- Service user consultations and focus groups
- Meetings of all types
My toolbox
As a facilitator I ensure that the methodologies I use are appropriate for your group and will result in clear and successful outcomes. These include:
- ICA:UK’s ToP Focused Conversation and Consensus Workshops,
- Visioning
- 3 Horizons Thinking
- World Cafe
- Open Space Technology/Unconference
- Liberating Structure tools
- ……….
Externally facilitated sessions can help:
- Move people forward
- Get action not just words
- Improve engagement
- Increase group energy
- Develop group understanding and skills
- Have quicker and more focused meetings and events
- Experience different tools to aid discussion and thinking
- Allow you to be part of the meeting rather than the chair or organiser
What do Facilitators actually do?
“Megan, a really excellent job of facilitating what could have been a rather challenging session. Such rich conversations which helped us to come up with what is now a workable plan, awesome!”
“…… lovely, positive verbal and written feedback from attendees at yesterdays hybrid event, including saying how well organised it was. And it really, really was! Thank you SO VERY much for all your help and support yesterday. The overarching call from the attendees was to have more events to get the fusion community together.”
“Thank you for assisting us in this process. We really appreciated your input and help in guiding us through the day and the challenges you gave us in helping understand where we are and where we need to be.”
Training
I have been a trainer for over 30 years both independently and within a number of organisations.
A qualified teacher, my approach is flexible and participative, tailored to meet the unique needs of each organisation whilst ensuring top quality delivery.
Online versus face to face – having delivered numerous training courses in person, over the past few years I have moved much of my training online making use of many excellent online tools such as Mural, Miro, Padlet and Mentimeter.
Training courses include the following, but I am happy to tailor to the specific needs of your group. All are available face to face or online.
- Facilitation skills – in-person or online
- Decision making tools
- Five simple facilitation tools to enhance your meetings
- Training the online trainer
- Facilitating Virtual Events
- Open Space Technology
- Group facilitation skills – including ©ICA:UK’s ToP Focused Conversation and Consensus Workshop methods
- Introduction to the merger process
- Bespoke options available
Courses can be of variable length with additional on-line support
New training offerings
I have 6 new courses and workshops that can be delivered as-is or tailored to your needs.
Learn more and download the flyers below.
Introduction to online facilitation
A half- or full-day course to help people new to facilitation to build their skills.
Preparing to facilitate a session
A two hour workshop on what to consider before you actually get in the room.
Facilitation - the Focused Conversation Method
1 or 2 day workshop that teaches the ToP Focused Conversation method, a powerful structured facilitation process helping a group journey through a conversation together.
Introduction to Peer Mentoring
A four hour introduction to Peer Mentoring to enable teams to effectively work together
Better Online Meetings
Learn how to make online meetings and events more effective, engaging and productive
Facilitating a Consensus Workshop
Learn how to faciltate the ToP Consensus Workshop and help groups achieve consensus in this one/two day course.
“Megan was a very knowledgeable trainer and her calming presence and clear explanations made the material so much easier to understand and digest”
“A supremely useful training session”
Thanks so much for your generosity and amazing modelling of how to be a great online facilitator!
“I have found the course really helpful for planning our sessions carefully to support various conversations with our members”
“This week I took a course studying methods of facilitation and it was brilliant. It was amazing to be able to learn and practice a variety of different techniques and to gain confidence in faciliation ahead of my upcoming PhD workshops.
Thank you for leading such great sessions and to all of the other participants for making it such an enjoyable week..”
“Delighted to have taken part in FACILITATION training. Thank you for sharing your knowledge on the consensus workshop method and allowing all us eager participants to have real practice sessions.”
“To co-trainers Megan Evans and Dawn Williams, excellently done to both of you. I never came out of days-long intense training – wanting more. Thank you!“
Upcoming events, training and workshops
ToP (ICA:UK) Group Facilitation Methods training 2025 Online and in-person courses available
Learn two extremely powerful techniques for structuring effective conversations and building group consensus in this very popular and globally acclaimed course. Gain skills in facilitating and leading participative and engaging meetings, events and workshops.
Designed for those new to facilitation and for those more experienced facilitators who wish to learn new group working techniques.
Online and in-person options available, range of dates
Please contact me to arrange an in-house or partnership course for your organisation, team or group or if you would like to express your interest in attending the public Group Facilitation Methods training course. Dates to be confirmed.
Consulting and mentoring
I offer a range of consultancy and mentoring support within the field of stakeholder participation and organisational development including:
- Mentoring of key staff, volunteers and board members
- Coaching of organisational facilitators
- Change management
- Focus groups
- Short term project management
- Stakeholder engagement
- Other organisational support
“Megan helped me so much to help me take a step back, reassess work priorities and clarify the organisations goals to help me take forward the organisations vision of the future. She helped me to take time out to reflect on the situation with her thoughtful and calm approach, thank you Megan” Mentee
“I had the pleasure of being mentored by Megan, I was at a career crossroads and really couldn’t see the wood for the trees. With her empathetic nature and understand manner, she successfully coached me through some tough sessions of realisation. Megan was able to identify and highlight qualities which I didn’t know I had and working on these gave me the confidence I needed to move on.” Coachee
Megan Evans
I am a facilitator, trainer, coach and consultant with over 30 years’ experience of helping charities, groups, teams, organisations and networks improve their group working, delivery and organisational performance. I use solutions focused approaches to bring people together, drawing on their skills, knowledge and enthusiasm to help move groups forward and bring about lasting change.
I’m passionate about helping organisations succeed, becoming more efficient and sustainable, making a make a real difference to their clients and communities. My passion and commitment comes from my beginnings working as a community worker then teacher with many amazing and diverse communities in Scotland, Wales, the UK and internationally. Later on in my career I worked strategically with public and voluntary sector umbrella organisations to help embed lasting change.
I became a freelance consultant in 2014 and am a member of the International Association of Facilitators and a member of Consultants for Good I am a licensed trainer for ICA:UK delivering their internationally renowned ToP Group Facilitation Methods course to participants across the globe. I am a certified virtual facilitator and mentor. and host regular Meeting Innovators and IAF Meetups bringing together meeting organisers, workshop planners and facilitators both face to face and virtually to share knowledge, skills and good practice.
You might like to know my passions are nature and the natural environment, I love baking bread, watching Roller Derby and visiting the wilds of Scotland. Previous enjoyable experiences include working as a zookeeper, researching wildlife in Nepal and volunteering at international youth camps where most recently I was part of the central food logistics team catering for literally thousands of young (and hungry) people!
For further information on my career and qualifications please visit me on LinkedIn.
A network of experts
If your project needs expertise or additional resources, I can draw on a number of skilled associates, each of whom have a range of specialisms that add and complement my own skill set.
Who I help
Recently I have worked with a number of agencies looking at consulting on and improving understanding of the impact of climate change plus supporting NGO’s to focus on increasing member participation in the new online environment.
Below are some of the clients I’ve worked with in the past:
Would you like to know more?
Let’s set up a free, no obligation consultation and find out if I can help you.
Contact me at 07921 586796 or megan-evans@live.co.uk, or use the contact form below to send me a message via my website.
Or use the Calendar to book a FREE 30 min meeting online to discuss your needs in more detail
Please connect with me on LinkedIn.