We bring curiosity as well as experience.
Strategy
We are skilled and experienced in developing strategy, plans and action for large and small organizations. We specialize in creative approaches that engage participants as well as harness the knowledge in the room. Using a range of innovative technologies ensures all voices are heard and sense making and clarity are supported. With over 20 years of experience working on complex topics with many unknowns, your team, or multistakeholder group, collaboratively, we find alignment, a path forward or a suite of options to get you ahead. These processes can be messy and our role is to help you hold the space along this path.
Whether your challenge is large or small, online or in-person, you have one day or months to prepare, we are equipped and experienced to design a unique process to meets your needs.
Client FEEDBACK on strategy
Building Networks
Michelle was responsible for building a network of research institutions in South Asia under an ADB supported project, and building their capacity to have influence with their work and ideas in urban sustainability. This included skill development in strategic communications, engagement and relationship building. This happened at the municipal as well as regional scale via networking, training and other forums to connect, learn and share together. Michelle supported the teams from India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka as a mentor, capacity builder, and trainer to keep people connected and to learn from each other on their efforts and contributions to evidence-based policy making and in support of ADB’s agenda to promote innovation. Michelle is very skilled in her field.
Vivian Castro-Wooldridge
Senior Urban Development Specialist, Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Expert Advice and Support
Michelle has provided expert advice and support to assist the Columbia Basin Trust (CBT) to be a leader on challenging and innovative projects/processes for more than a dozen years. In the early 2000’s when climate change was starting to be understood by governments and the scientific community Michelle designed multi-year strategic initiatives with more than twenty local governments and communities to help these communities understand what climate change is, how it may impact local communities and what type of actions these communities should consider to be more resilient or adapt to a range of future climate scenarios. Related to international water policy, Michelle helped develop cutting edge processes to help develop the capacity of community leaders, elected officials and staff to both understand the range of issues they were facing, how these impacted their various areas of authority and what tangible actions they could take.
Michelle has worked collaboratively with CBT and others and is willing and generous in sharing her skills. She has been supportive of CBT staff and the many partners our organization works with. She demonstrated great skill and knowledge in working with a variety of partners groups (including NGO’s, local governments, provincial governments, first nations and federal governments). She creatively designed and facilitated hundreds of meetings to strategize, learn together and engage people on tough topics. Additional highlights include facilitating the kick off meeting of government, utilities and First Nations where they agreed (for the first time ever) to work on reintroducing salmon to the Columbia River, assisting CBT staff to design a new organizational department for the Trust, and assessing long standing initiatives for learning and their evolution. She brings a broad wealth of skills and experience adding value to any team. Michelle is especially skilled helping to think through very complex multi layered issues and lay out very practical and useful frameworks for addressing this complexity. If you need help solving interesting complex problems Michelle Laurie is the person for your job!
Kindy Gosal
Executive Director, Special Initiatives, Columbia Basin Trust
Diverse Skills
Michelle worked in the Global Forest Conservation Programme of IUCN for four years (2003-2007). Her diverse skills were proven with the variety of assignments she undertook from designing the first system to encourage the flow of knowledge across IUCN’s forest portfolio, proposal writing, strategic communications, policy assessment and project management. Her knowledge of community building, networks and ability to see the bigger picture were instrumental for facilitating lessons learning and scaling up innovation across our programme. Michelle is an energetic problem-solver, professional, self-motivated and excels under pressure. I would not hesitate to recommend Michelle as a leader and team player to anyone working in the field of environment and development.
Stephen Kelleher
Former Deputy Director – Forest Conservation Programme, IUCN-International Union for the Conservation of Nature
Quick and in-tune with the group
Michelle’s quick mind, attunement to the emotional needs of our diverse group, and personal alignment with the values underlying our interest in starting Community Health Centres, all shone through. I’d not hesitate to engage her to facilitate another planning session.
Andrew Earnshaw
Executive Director, Prima Health Co-operative
Effective meetings
Client FEEDBACK on effective meetings
Impressive Facilitation Techniques
With her knowledge, enthusiasm, and impressive facilitation techniques, Michelle literally revolutionized our recent scientific conference on glaciology. By setting aside time for discussion and reflection, and avoiding the powerpoint marathons that plague so many other conferences, our symposium was about more than just knowledge dissemination. It was about knowledge synthesis, and building a scientific community. Despite our initial reluctance, the Open Spaces session that Michelle organized was a huge success and I am a convert – these should be a regular feature at high-level scientific conferences to get people talking!
I have had nothing but positive comments from the conference attendees, some of whom said it was the best conference they ever attended. And I have nothing but a glowing recommendation for Michelle Laurie, who guided us skillfully through the entire conference planning, hosting, and facilitation process.
Joseph Shea
Glacier Hydrologist, ICIMOD
Collective Wisdom of People
Michelle is an amazing force in harnessing the collective wisdom of people, online and face to face. I have been a participant at events she facilitated, and a customer when she designed and facilitated for me. I especially appreciate her ability to anticipate how individual activities will unfold. Frequently, her design work involved being a sounding board for me where further distilling and sharpening of objectives for an event were needed. As a facilitator, she makes everyone feel heard and her competence allows me to focus on the learning process rather than worry about details. Working with Michelle produces excellent outcomes and outputs.
Stephan Gruber
Professor, Carleton University
Instrumental Support
On behalf of Engineers Canada we are pulling together a session for the World Engineering Congress in Geneva Switzerland which will be held in 2011 September. The theme for our session is Climate Proofing Civil Infrastructure and builds on the work that has been ongoing within Engineer’s Canada for the past five years originating from the Public Infrastructure Engineering Vulnerability Committee.
The World’s Engineering Convention attracts engineers from around the world. Our session at this conference is meant to raise the profile of risk assessment, as well as adaptation and mitigation strategies for civil infrastructure.
Michelle has been instrumental in helping our steering committee pull this session together. She has helped us in liaison with the organizing committee from the conference, has researched a potential list of speakers, has contacted and gained commitments from all speakers and in general has helped gather together an entire program for our session including keynote speakers and panelists well ahead of the conference timelines.
Her skills are perfectly suited to the role of secretariat and she has consistently exceeded the needs of our steering committee. She has very strong skills in problem solving and has a focus on action and results. She brings an efficient set of facilitation skills to our team and a full range of leading ideas to add interest to our session. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Michelle Laurie for a similar role. I am looking forward to the opportunity to working with Michelle again in the future.
Paul Fesko
Former Manager of Strategic Services, City of Calgary and World Engineering Convention 2011 Session Chair
Outstanding Job
Michelle took on the task of facilitating our first ever online national, multi-stakeholder annual meeting on northern transportation adaptation, which was usually an in-person event.
Michelle ensured she understood our needs. She was flexible about our evolving agenda and developed creative ways of keeping everyone engaged over three+ days of meetings. With participants from six provinces and three territories, there were plenty of opportunities for technological and other glitches, but she and her team were well prepared and had contingencies in place, which meant that 30 presentations and breakout sessions went smoothly (and kept to time!) The positive feedback from participants reinforced that Michelle did an outstanding job.
Thanks again for making our meeting such a success!
Maxine Bilodeau
Transport Canada
Key Architect
I recently participated in a multi-stakeholder dialogue where Michelle was the key architect. The structure of the panel, breakout groups and question sessions provided a great platform for raising awareness and highlighting some noticeable challenges in messaging to the general public. It was very well done.
Thompson Hickey
General Manager, Teck Trail Operations
Amazing ‘hybrid’ facilitation
Michelle’s meeting facilitation in the hybrid environment was super! Over the last couple of years I have participated in many virtual meetings, and inevitably there are glitches (especially when things get complicated with break out rooms etc). Michelle did an amazing job facilitating the meeting, and ensuring that those of us that were virtual were included and engaged. I highly recommend Michelle!
Tara Kennedy
Senior Risk Assessor and Toxicologist, SNC-Lavalin
Quick and in-tune with the group
Andrew Earnshaw
Executive Director, Prima Health Co-operative
Engagement
Understanding the community you are working with is important to ensuring relevant and appropriate design. Engagement is key to building support, sharing ideas and influencing change. People often have different ways of seeing problems as well as solutions. This is important as complex challenges require diverse perspectives and a range of partners to address them.
We work with you to ensure the voices of the community are heard and included leading to more sustainable outcomes. When people are empowered to use their voice, and feel that they were heard, they are more likely to accept the result, even when issues are contentious.
Whether you are embarking on a short-term process or a multi-year plan, we are skilled in designing and delivering engagement strategies to bring about positive change in rural and urban environments. We have extensive experience building capacity and mentoring on this topic as well.
Client FEEDBACK on engagement
Successful Engagement Program
Understanding and learning from our community is key to effective planning for the City. Michelle helped us develop a successful engagement program to inform policy on the legalization of cannabis in our community, sustainability planning and land use change. She was successful in ensuring that a diversity of voices were heard through a credible, professional and creative process.
Pam Mierau
Director of Development Services, City of Nelson
An Unbelievable Percentage
I worked with Michelle on a community engagement project. She took the lead, built a steering committee of diverse groups, co-ordinated the entire project while handling tricky relationships with skill and professionalism. The final written feedback questionnaire, designed by Michelle and stickhandled through the steering committee received a 60% response from the community, an unbelievable percentage. I credit Michelle and her work as the major reason that the response was so good. I recommend Michelle for any project to which she commits. I hope to have the pleasure to work with her again.
Richard Johnson
President, Arrow Lakes Environment Stewardship Society
Highly Motivated Professional Facilitator
I have worked with Michelle Laurie on several projects over the past four years and found her to be a highly motivated professional facilitator with an unusual combination of skills. She is a very creative thinker, has excellent organizational skills and is a very effective communicator. She has been particularly successful in motivating communities to the Columbia Basin to take active steps towards mitigating climate change impacts and is one of the leaders in promoting climate change adaptation methods. She is well versed in using innovative teaching and presentation techniques including animation, video production and multi-media tools. She works exceptionally well in multi-stakeholder processes, has considerable international experience and has a very outgoing personality. In other words, she is one of the key people you want to have on your interdisciplinary team.
Hans Schreier
Professor, University of British Columbia
Assessment & Learning
What are we doing well? What do we need to change? What are we learning that can inform how we do things better in the future? Asking important questions and assessing progress is important for accountability as well as ensuring a culture of innovation and leadership.
We work with you to increase your positive impact. This includes designing a monitoring and reflection process for relevance, innovation and continuous improvement. Depending on the situation, it may call for a traditional evaluative approach using critical thinking to pose important questions, use data in meaningful ways, and track logic from theory to outcomes. This may also be more fluid to deal with complex challenges that have more flexible goal posts. In these cases, solutions are emergent, require reflection and adaptation along the way. At times we are monitoring in changing and unpredictable environments. Multiyear projects and programs may have changing participants, leaders and directions. In these cases, there is a need to learn as we are ‘doing’.
Client FEEDBACK on assessment & learning
A Strategic Mindset
Michelle brings skill, a strategic mindset and leadership to the projects she works on. Improving program evaluation and aligning to country strategy, designing stakeholder engagement, and facilitating for improved collaboration between development agencies are some of the highlights from our work together in Kyrgyzstan. I highly recommend Michelle if you are looking to add value to your team.
Dr. Dorjee Kinlay
FAO Country Representative, Kyrgyz Republic (2012-2018)
Co-strategist, Evaluator and Researcher
Michelle has worked with me as a co-strategist, evaluator and researcher on several major projects with international agencies, including an evaluation of a major rural development network (IFAD), a capacity needs assessment for network growth (IFRTD), research into local level knowledge sharing (UNDP) and developing guidelines for Knowledge Partnerships with ADB.
Michelle brings a diverse range of skills and expertise to the field of knowledge management, networks and partnerships, including the ability to work with rural stakeholders, across cultures and languages; and is superb at effective workshop design and delivery to get to desired outcomes efficiently. She is able to research and synthesize large amounts of information into organized documents for decision makers, quickly and reliably. She is straightforward, transparent and accountable in the provision of her consulting services, a quick study in grasping the needs of the client and able to deliver a quality product on time.
Heather Creech
Former Director of Global Connectivity, International Institute for Sustainable Development
Develop skills and build capacity
Engaging Beyond Words: using visuals for understanding & learning
November 30, 2023, 11-5 EST
Graphic Facilitation Workshop
Contact Michelle for 2024 dates.
Design your own
participant FEEDBACK from past workshops
Relevant and Innovative
I hired Michelle to design and deliver a training on graphic facilitation for First Nations community engagement coordinators who work in rural and remote communities (2018). The training was fantastic focusing on relevant and innovative techniques. She worked well with the culturally diverse group as a highly skilled facilitator as well as sharing these skills with the participants. I recommend the training to others and hope to engage her again with our work in the North.
Patricia Howard
Manager Community Engagement, First Nations Health Authority
Magical Experience
It was a magical experience!! Thank you Michelle for your generous spirit in making this a reality for us in the north.
Tess Healy
Adjunct Professor, University of Northern British Columbia
Innovative
The graphic facilitation workshop experience added a new and innovative method to my professional skill set. After the workshop, I was offered a job with a community design organization because my skills of community engagement are linked with visual interaction. I highly recommend the workshop to others!
Susan DeBlieck
Community Design Lab, Iowa State University & Workshop Participant
Graphic Facilitation
I wanted to send a quick thank you for hosting such a wonderful workshop. I had a fabulous time and learned a lot, even though I already took the workshop 4 years ago I was thrilled to have the opportunity to take again. The content is rich, the hands on application powerful, the people genuine and the instructors first class. Being immersed in this creative process for two whole days is an amazing experience, I would recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about graphic facilitation and how it can help positively transform group process.
Fern Sabo
Community Engagement Consultant
Exceptional Workshop
Thanks so much to both of you! It was an exceptional workshop and we both got a lot out of it on many levels. You packed it full and yet it felt so fun and energizing!
Paula Beltgens
Consultant and Coach
A New and Innovative Method
The graphic facilitation workshop experience added a new and innovative method to my professional skill set. After the workshop, I was offered a job with a community design organization because my skills of community engagement are linked with visual interaction. I highly recommend the workshop to others!
Susan DeBlieck
Community Design Lab, Iowa State University
Careful Preparation
The graphic facilitation workshop that Michelle and Nancy provided for Alberta Agriculture staff in fall 2011 was fantastic! They began by setting the stage through careful preparation with the intention of the participants knowing it would be a safe place to learn, stretch their abilities and try new things. And it worked. Participants found the workshop to be energizing, fun, and interesting, but most of all useful. Everyone walked away with ways they planned to incorporate the concepts into their daily work to better engage co-workers, partners and clients. From using it in everything from agendas, minutes, flipcharts and handouts; to ice breakers, meetings, and team building; to note-taking, brainstorming and other planning processes; the graphic facilitation techniques are here to stay. A huge thank you to Michelle and Nancy for lighting the fire!
Sharon Stollery
Ag Industry Extension Branch, Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development
Highly Recommend
I found Michelle’s graphic facilitation workshop not only applicable to my work but also relevant to most other areas of life. As a research manager, I’ve been less confidant working with my right brain despite knowing how helpful those right-brained tools can be for public engagement. Michelle provided me with strategies, templates, and a graphic toolbox to assist in conveying sometimes complex research foci to broader audiences. I quite highly recommend this workshop to anyone organizing team meetings, engaging with the public, participating in education activities, or even helping your children with their homework. I’ll be taking it again when offered!
Morgan Sternberg
Research Management, Morrow BioScience Ltd.
Training for all skill levels
The ‘Engaging Beyond Words’ training was highly engaging, fun and wonderfully facilitated by Michelle! I have a background in graphic design and Michelle’s training was a great refresh on simple visual techniques to help audiences understand key concepts quickly. It provided practical details on how to expand my visual communication approach. On top of the toolkit offered, during the training we collaborated on real-life engagement challenges that were informative, invaluable and inspiring. I highly recommend this training for all skill levels as there was so much to learn.