LEARNING & EXPERIENCE DESIGN

Facilitating and guiding retreats & events

Retreats and internal team events are an opportunity for you to reflect on your work, connect with your colleagues, share knowledge, gain new insights, and come up with ways to move forward. Our support contributes to making these events a meaningful and insightful time together, ranging from short learning sessions to regular strategy meetings or day-long offsite retreats.

Contact us

Who is it for?

Teams, departments and organisations who are planning an internal event (strategy meeting, retreat, learning week, etc.) and seek support with preparation and facilitation

What’s included?

  • Clarification of needs and intention setting
  • Support with conceptualisation and design 
  • Facilitation or moderation

Duration

  • Depending on the length and complexity of your event or program, preparation usually starts 1-3 months in advance. 
  • Our support also includes a joint debrief 1-2 weeks after the event or program ends, to support learning and your capacity building. 

Expected Outcome

Bringing our expertise and energy to your team event can enable you to:

  • Approach your topics and questions with a tailored and guided approach
  • Strengthen trust and psychological safety 
  • Deepen relationships and create empathy 
  • Make deliberate time and space to reflect on and change your usual working rhythm 
  • Develop and share new ideas 
  • Agree on next steps and potential changes for implementation 

Purpose & values in teams

Gain clarity about your team’s purpose & values and how they can support your daily and strategic work.

Trust & team psychological safety

Explore conditions & practices to increase the magic ingredient for effective teamwork: trust.

Giving & receiving feedback

Learn communication practices and approaches for more mindful and effective feedback conversations.

Empowering team decision-making

Learn tools & methods to make decision-making more inclusive, efficient & empowering.

Setting boundaries & saying no

Practise setting and respecting boundaries in leadership and teamwork, and learn tools to communicate them.

Leading with purpose & values

Develop clarity about your purpose & values and how they can guide you as a leader.

Building resilience & handling stress

Develop supportive practices for you and your team to deal with stress and navigate challenges.

Leadership in a changing and complex world

Equip yourself for wayfinding in a VUCA world (volatile - uncertain - complex - ambiguous).

Peer learning in organisations & networks

Tap into the wealth of knowledge, lived experiences and diverse perspectives that are present within every group.

The Impact Garden

Discover a regenerative approach to Theories of Change to create new insights and foster a deeper understanding of your project and work.

Rethinking impact measurement

Learn about measurement as an opportunity to foster participation, reveal hidden potential, and to serve people and the planet.

Collaborative Innovation

Explore how corporations, governments, and civil society can co-create ecosystems that foster life-centered innovation.

Working on the Soil: Foundational Topics

Thriving & Growing: Deep-Dive Topics

Effective team communication and meeting culture

Meetings take up a lot of our time and can drain our energy instead of contributing to meaningful collaboration. Together with you, we analyse your current meeting structure and culture to harness the potential of asynchronous and synchronous work.

Giving & receiving feedback

An organism without sensory input is blind to change and adaptation. Constructive and precise feedback is an essential part of team communication. Considering the statement “clear is kind”, we reflect on a variety of feedback situations and processes.

Empowering team decision-making

Clarity on the process of decision-making can boost team collaboration. Collectively we begin to unlearn old patterns of decision-making and create space to set up and practise appropriate new tools and processes.

Purpose & values in teams

Gain clarity about your team’s purpose & values and how they can support your daily and strategic work.

Trust & team psychological safety

Explore conditions & practices to increase the magic ingredient for effective teamwork: trust.

Giving & receiving feedback

Learn communication practices and approaches for more mindful and effective feedback conversations.

Empowering team decision-making

Learn tools & methods to make decision-making more inclusive, efficient & empowering.

Setting boundaries & saying no

Practise setting and respecting boundaries in leadership and teamwork, and learn tools to communicate them.

Leading with purpose & values

Develop clarity about your purpose & values and how they can guide you as a leader.

Building resilience & handling stress

Develop supportive practices for you and your team to deal with stress and navigate challenges.

Leadership in a changing and complex world

Equip yourself for wayfinding in a VUCA world (volatile - uncertain - complex - ambiguous).

Peer learning in organisations & networks

Tap into the wealth of knowledge, lived experiences and diverse perspectives that are present within every group.

The Impact Garden

Discover a regenerative approach to Theories of Change to create new insights and foster a deeper understanding of your project and work.

Rethinking impact measurement

Learn about measurement as an opportunity to foster participation, reveal hidden potential, and to serve people and the planet.

Collaborative Innovation

Explore how corporations, governments, and civil society can co-create ecosystems that foster life-centered innovation.

Find the right kind of support

Get in touch to identify options for how to facilitate your plans and ideas!

Contact us

Our Approach

The time you spend with your own team is extremely valuable. 

We therefore ask questions first, listen deeply, and seek to understand your unique context and needs, in order to then jointly set an intention. Following the principle of “form follows function”, we can then bring in our expertise to give shape to your event and bring your purpose to life. 

We do this by:

  • Starting with conversations to clarify your “why” behind the event and your intention. If helpful and desired, we can also apply assessments from our regenerative approach to measurement and evaluation (learn more -> jump).
  • Setting up or fine-tuning existing session plans and agendas, including the overall design, as well as shaping specific components and exercises. 
  • Holding regular sessions with you to finalise the preparation. 
  • Facilitating or moderating the event, or covering other roles needed to create the best possible experience for you. 
  • Closing with a debrief conversation to reflect on lessons learnt and to support your internal capacity building.

The session with the Unity Effect team was a fantastic and engaging experience. Professionalism mixed with authenticity and naturalness of the facilitator, spiced up with a sense of humour, connectivity and fun activities during the session is what you can count on!

Malgorzata Dereniowska

Malgorzata Dereniowska

Gdansk University

Our first digital NachhaltigkeitsCamp Bonn was an experiment for us. Unity Effect was a strong partner during our learning journey. Their mindful approach to groups, the many fresh ideas to work and interact with the participants, and the support during the event, contributed to a successful NachhaltigkeitsCamp. And granted us many happy faces.

Annika Manz & Jana Jagalski 2024

Annika Manz & Jana Jagalski

Project leads, Engagement Global

The Kofi Annan Foundation enjoyed collaborating with Unity Effect for its Kofi Annan Changemakers initiative and greatly benefited from Emily’s facilitation skills and caring attitude. She brought innovative formats while preserving the core spirit of the initiative and was friendly and collaborative throughout the planning and delivery of the programme. On request of the organizing team, Unity Effect also conducted an impact evaluation of the programme, providing valuable information and suggestions that will further support the initiative’s growth and positive impact on its young changemakers.

Linda Peterhans 2022

Linda Peterhans

Kofi Annan Foundation

Pricing

Based on our core principles to empower collaboration and solidarity we aim at a pricing that feels fair and appropriate for both parties. 

Day Rates
EUR
Net
EUR +19% VAT

Day rates apply due to the customised nature of this service.

The exact day rate is determined together with the customer, based on what feels fair and appropriate for both parties. 

Find the right kind of support

Get in touch to identify options for how to facilitate your plans and ideas!

How to facilitate engaging online meetings with Zoom

Read more
As we at Unity Effect have already been running our workshops and programs online for a while, we have put together this practical guide to share some of the simple tips and tools you can use to make your online gatherings more engaging and productive.

Download: Useful Phrases for Moderators and Facilitators

Read more
Moderators and facilitators play a crucial role in the success of online workshops and events. They create the atmosphere, make sure participants feel welcomed, keep the time and the discussions on focus and create clarity for everyone joining. That’s why we have put together this list of go-to phrases for each step of the process. 

The magic of listening: tips for facilitating listening online and offline

Read more
For us at Unity Effect, listening is a core capacity for facilitators and leaders. It supports us to create spaces and cultures of trust and appreciation, to discover new insights and ideas, and to connect with others on a deeper level.

Case Study: Sustainability Barcamp Bonn with Engagement Global

Read more
Our experience of conceptualising and running a digital barcamp for change agents across Germany with the teams from Engagement Global and Bonn.digital.

How to foster connection in your team online

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This year brought us some unimagined challenges. Our workplaces shifted towards online spaces in a glimpse of an eye. How can you bring your team together and create a sense of connection and trust while working online?
Blog

Our Resources

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Category
5 min read

How to facilitate engaging online meetings with Zoom

As we at Unity Effect have already been running our workshops and programs online for a while, we have put together this practical guide to share some of the simple tips and tools you can use to make your online gatherings more engaging and productive.
Category
5 min read

Download: Useful Phrases for Moderators and Facilitators

Moderators and facilitators play a crucial role in the success of online workshops and events. They create the atmosphere, make sure participants feel welcomed, keep the time and the discussions on focus and create clarity for everyone joining. That’s why we have put together this list of go-to phrases for each step of the process. 
Category
5 min read

The magic of listening: tips for facilitating listening online and offline

For us at Unity Effect, listening is a core capacity for facilitators and leaders. It supports us to create spaces and cultures of trust and appreciation, to discover new insights and ideas, and to connect with others on a deeper level.
Category
5 min read

Case Study: Sustainability Barcamp Bonn with Engagement Global

Our experience of conceptualising and running a digital barcamp for change agents across Germany with the teams from Engagement Global and Bonn.digital.
Category
5 min read

How to foster connection in your team online

This year brought us some unimagined challenges. Our workplaces shifted towards online spaces in a glimpse of an eye. How can you bring your team together and create a sense of connection and trust while working online?