Facilitation

An accredited facilitator, Michelle is adept at helping groups and teams develop deep connections and mutual respect.  This newly established collaborative state leads to a shared understanding, enabling people to discuss critical matters constructively, make important decisions and form a healthy, thriving work environment.

There is no ‘cookie-cutter’ approach when it comes to Michelle’s facilitation; she deliberately tailors her style to suit the organisation’s and participants’ needs.  Yet, the overall goal always remains unchanged – working with you to ensure your desired outcomes are secured, delivering value every step of the way.

Successfully steering groups through a tried and tested process, her unique approach delivers greater team engagement, enhanced capability, elevated decision outcomes and strategic alignment.

The process

To secure the best outcome in your facilitated process – be it a team day, strategic workshop, senior leader offsite or stakeholder consultation – it is wise to engage Michelle from the start. This way, you can rest easy knowing that all the necessary information is gathered, the process is constructed, and you are well on your way to a successful session.

Areas of focus:

• Strategy design and execution alignment
• Team building and effectiveness
• Stakeholder engagement
• Collaborative decision making

How this works

As every organisation and desired outcome differs, Michelle tailors her approach to each situation. Typically, the process will begin with an initial consultation to establish your desired goals from the session. Working closely with you and your representatives, she will design a custom-fit approach and process that caters to your objectives, organisational culture, participant expectations and circumstances.

Every step of the way, Michelle will ensure that the approach selected is appropriate and that the facilitation is on track to meeting your goals. During the workshop, you can be assured that Michelle will respond to any changing needs or circumstances. She can recognise and respond – in the moment – to any issues as they arise from participants.  Michelle knows how to create a safe space where all attendees feel comfortable participating fully, so ideas are raised, and progress is assured.

Post the workshop, Michelle will spend time with you debriefing on the session to highlight the next steps and key learnings.

Who this is for

This approach is for leaders and organisations who want to:

• Build more productive, engaged and strategically aligned teams
• Secure agreement with diverse stakeholder groups
• Design and deliver participatory decision-making processes
• Develop a new strategy or refine an approach whilst gaining stakeholder buy-in and commitment
• Uplift team collaboration, leadership and decision-making capacity

What you can expect from Michelle

• A tailored approach that is fit for purpose and accounts for your organisation’s needs and unique circumstances
• Support and guidance throughout the facilitation engagement
• A customised and artfully designed facilitation approach that ensures the delivery of agreed outcomes
• Highly skilled, focused, inclusive and engaging facilitation style

Why work with Michelle?

An accredited facilitator, Michelle possesses the skills and techniques necessary to ensure that your desired outcomes are delivered. Exuding energy and commitment, Michelle is dedicated to bringing teams and diverse stakeholders together, helping them to secure a common purpose and to progress their goals. She believes wholeheartedly in the value that clear and well-designed facilitation plays in shaping the team and organisational outcomes.

Testimonials

Michelle works with a range of organisations globally to help them achieve lasting change. Read some of their reviews below, written in their own words…

“Having known Michelle for many years, I was excited to have the opportunity to have Michelle facilitate a session with the VACC policy team. From the outset, she was easy to work with and spent time understanding my objectives and the current team dynamics, to design a fit-for-purpose session plan. The pre-session planning was instrumental to its success.

On the day, Michelle was exceptionally well prepared, responsive and adaptive.

Michelle has an amazing ability to very quickly, create a safe and connected environment – essential for a workshop of this nature. I was thrilled with the outcomes of the day and I know the team genuinely valued the session based on feedback.

Michelle is a consummate professional with a deep understanding of organisation and team performance. This sets her apart from others in her field.

If you are looking for an experienced facilitator, I would highly recommend Michelle.”

Dr Imogen Reid, Lead, Strategy and Policy, VACC

“Having engaged Michelle a number of times, we are very impressed with her ability to facilitate groups of all sizes with natural ease. Michelle has worked with our Senior Leadership Team and also with our wider team of over 80 staff members, on both occasions Michelle provided extremely valuable sessions. Her ability to draw out key outputs and actions from these sessions that then flow through to results is second to none. Her collaborative approach to these sessions sees Michelle really get to know the team and our needs. She facilitates interactive, open and meaningful sessions that we would highly recommend to any sized team.”

Chris Walsh, Chief Information Officer, John Holland

I worked with Michelle when she was the lead facilitator at a multi-day event that I managed. I was impressed with her professionalism, ability to connect with the audience and hold the room, and to set the right tone for the days. She is a delight to work with – responsive and adaptive. I would highly recommend her.

Kym Rowles, VAN Community Manager, Macquarie Group

“When Director of Change Management and Culture at the Australian Digital Health Agency I engaged Michelle to help transition the Agency for continued success using Culture and Collaboration as the fundamental drivers. Michelle was able to support the agency over this 12 month journey. She was a key facilitator for many of our senior leadership forums and helped to shape and deliver core leadership outcomes. As part of this work, she was also asked to leverage her extensive expertise and experience to provide executive’s discrete opportunities to broaden their capabilities via one on one executive coaching arrangements. Michelle is delightful to work with. She’s highly organised, practical in delivery and insightful in how she pulls key elements together, and able to build strong rapport, trust and relationships with leaders. I’d highly recommend her.”

Wendy Leegel, Director of Change Management and Culture, Australian Digital Health Agency

“Having known Michelle for a number of years, and having seen her present at conferences before, I was very keen to have her work with the GRC Solutions team.  Michelle is a delight to work with – thorough, responsive, clearly a master of her craft and dedicated to ensuring that the session hits the desired objectives.  I am delighted with the outcomes delivered and the team really valued the session.  I would have no hesitation in recommending her”.

Julian Fenwick, Managing Director, GRC Solutions

“The aged care sector is undergoing significant change. To support providers in their adoption of these changes the North Metro Community Care Alliance invited Michelle to run a change management workshop to upskill their understanding and ability to support their organisation through the change. We received fantastic feedback from the attendees. Michelle is clearly an expert in her field and has the amazing ability to connect and engage with the audience. It was a highly successful session and we would definitely use her services again.”

Samantha Sharp, Manager Aged and Community Support – Moreland City Council, and Chair of the North Metro Community Care Alliance

“I first met Michelle when I was working at Coles. Michelle was engaged by Coles to provide leadership development to the HR practitioners at the annual HR conference. I found Michelle to be an incredibly engaging and inspirational speaker and to this day I recall distinctly one element of her training that she delivered at this conference that had a significant impact on me at that time.

With the strategic pillar of building and supporting high performing teams, I thought Michelle would be perfect to work with the Spotlight Retail Group executive team on leadership and self-management. However before she got the opportunity to do this, a greater need arose and that was to provide a two-day workshop to our 130 plus store managers and some of our more senior leaders from our Support Group.

The two days were a resounding success and I personally received a lot of feedback from the store managers about how much they enjoyed Michelle’s facilitation and content. One store manager wrote to me and said “I thought Michelle was fantastic! She made the conference more productive”.

Personally, I find Michelle to be authentic, engaging, inspirational, incredibly intelligent and well-read, with an innate ability to use her knowledge to tell a story, make a point and link it to the learning outcome.

I know this is only the start of our flight path at SRG and I’m confident that Michelle will continue to pilot our plane to support and enable our strategic pillar of building and supporting high performing teams. I can’t recommend her highly enough to anyone who is looking to achieve leadership excellence personally or within their leadership teams.”

Christine Connor, Head of Human Resources, Spotlight Retail Group

“The Regulation team has used Michelle on a number of occasions to facilitate team and strategy planning sessions. She is exceptional at bringing the team together, ensuring the objectives of the session are met, and keeping the discussion on track and the team engaged throughout the process. She is able to work with participants at all organisational levels and is adept at understanding their needs to ensure they are able to contribute their best to the session. She keeps the sessions focused, stimulating and productive. I highly recommend her.”

Renate Vogt, General Manager Regulation, Citipower and Powercor

“We worked with Michelle on our team dynamics and stakeholder engagement.  She brings a unique skillset in balancing individual focus and development while progressing the team as a whole.  I would not hesitate in recommending to use Michelle.”

Carlo Cataldo, Chief Risk Officer, ME Bank

“Michelle’s passion for, and knowledge of, change management and transformation is exceptional and I highly recommend her expertise.”

Donna McAuliffe, Head of Change and Digital Adoption at National Australia Bank

“We engaged Michelle to provide a series of sessions around the country for our Financial Advisors as part of their ongoing professional development.  These sessions focused on equipping advisors with the skills and techniques to best manage their teams and themselves in a complex, ever-changing environment.   Michelle’s session was engaging, thought-provoking and highly practical.  We received fantastic feedback from the participants who walked away feeling inspired and energised to thrive through change!  I’d highly recommend Michelle as a speaker and facilitator.”

Learning Design Manager, Major Financial Services Organisation

“I engaged Michelle to run a series of sessions with my leadership team and broader team to help build the team’s engagement and capability. The sessions were well designed, expertly executed and achieved the desired objectives. I received fantastic feedback from the team, who found the sessions stimulating, thought-provoking and practical. The team walked away with new ideas and learnings and focused to deliver on our strategic outcomes. Michelle was very easy to work with – accommodating, organised and intent on delivering value. I’d highly recommend her as a facilitator and trainer.”

Michael Clark, Executive Director, Technology & Innovation, Fair Work Ombudsman

“I engaged Michelle to run a series of sessions with our frontline and head office staff as part of our capability development programs.  The sessions were designed to provide employees with insights and practical skills to help them create their winning edge and thrive in a changing world.  Michelle was delightful to work with – flexible, responsive and very attuned to our needs.  The sessions were exceptionally well received, with comments such as:

• Best facilitator of the series. Very engaging style
• Sharp and easy to digest

I am looking forward to working with Michelle again.”

Wendy Lightfoot, Capability Consultant, ANZ Institutional

“Her consensus approach to facilitating group decision making was essential to identifying and reaching agreement on group objectives. Her outgoing personality brings energy to her workshops which helped provide momentum to the project. Michelle is effective at engaging with stakeholders in a professional business environment.”

Adam Zaborszczyk, Senior Sustainability Officer, City of Melbourne

“We had recently re-organised bringing together technology and consulting teams that had previously worked fairly autonomously. Michelle Gibbings was engaged to facilitate an offsite with the new team and help us begin aligning around our new strategy/culture and charting the path forward.  She was delightful to work with – flexible, focused and generous with her time.  Running sessions for a diverse audience of 100 people requires expert planning and execution. In addition to the formal objectives, we also wanted each individual to leave with some new tools to help develop their careers.  Michelle bought great energy and insight to the day as our speaker.  The event was a huge success.  I highly recommend Michelle as a speaker and facilitator.”

Steven Willson, Chief Technology Officer, AMP