Run meetings that actually get things done
A practical, corporate-ready course that teaches professionals how to decide when to meet, run focused and inclusive discussions, navigate difficult dynamics, and close every meeting with clear decisions and committed next steps.
"Meeting facilitation isn't a personality trait — it's a craft, and this course treats it like one."— Shani Roberts
What you'll learn
What you'll be able to do
- Determine confidently whether a meeting is the right format or whether a message, document, or quick check-in will serve the purpose better.
- Build a clear meeting plan including purpose, desired outcome, participant list, agenda, and accessibility considerations.
- Facilitate discussions that open with focus, invite balanced participation, and stay on track through productive questioning and time management.
- Recognize and navigate common meeting challenges — dominant voices, silence, side conversations, off-topic tangents, and stalled decisions — with ready-to-use facilitation language.
- Guide any group to a named, owned decision with assigned owners, concrete deadlines, and documented action items before the meeting ends.
- Apply specific strategies to improve engagement, accountability, and follow-through in remote and hybrid meeting environments.
How it works
A school that adapts to you
This isn't a set of static videos. Every lesson is generated live and tuned to where you actually are.
We learn your level
A quick placement check tailors your starting point so you're never bored or lost.
Lessons adapt as you go
Each lesson is written for your pace and your goal, adjusting as your skills grow.
Your AI coach keeps you moving
Checkpoints, feedback, and gentle nudges turn progress into a real result.
The curriculum
What's inside your school
5 modules · 18 lessons
Decide Whether a Meeting Is Needed
Before opening a calendar invite, learners develop the judgment to evaluate whether a meeting is truly the right format — or whether a message, document, quick check-in, or async update would serve the purpose faster and better. This module establishes the foundational mindset shift: meetings are a tool, not a default. Covers meeting purpose, meeting cost, format alternatives, and a practical decision framework. Includes hybrid, remote, and in-person workplace examples throughout.
- 1.1What Meetings Are Actually ForIncluded
- 1.2Alternatives That Work BetterIncluded
- 1.3The Meeting Decision FrameworkIncluded
Plan Meetings With Purpose
Once the decision to meet is made, the quality of preparation determines the quality of outcomes. This module teaches learners how to define a clear meeting purpose and desired outcome, build a functional agenda, identify the right participants, set expectations in advance, and design meetings that are accessible and inclusive across in-person, remote, and hybrid environments. Introduces the Practical Agenda Template and reinforces the Meeting Purpose and Outcome Planner.
- 2.1Purpose, Outcomes, and the Right ParticipantsIncluded
- 2.2Building a Functional AgendaIncluded
- 2.3Designing for Inclusion, Access, and Hybrid RealitiesIncluded
Facilitate Focused and Inclusive Discussions
Facilitation is not the same as running a meeting — it is the active practice of guiding a group toward its stated purpose while ensuring every voice has a fair opportunity to contribute. This module builds core facilitation skills: opening with clarity and shared context, inviting balanced participation, using productive questions to advance the work, and managing time and discussion focus. Introduces the Facilitation Phrase Bank as a ready-to-use language resource. Includes in-person, remote, and hybrid facilitation techniques throughout.
- 3.1Opening With Focus and Shared ContextIncluded
- 3.2Inviting Balanced ParticipationIncluded
- 3.3Asking Questions That Move the WorkIncluded
- 3.4Managing Time and Keeping Discussion on TrackIncluded
Handle Difficult Meeting Dynamics
Even well-planned meetings with clear agendas encounter dynamics that threaten focus, safety, and outcomes. This module builds the confidence and language to navigate the most common meeting challenges: dominant participants, silence and disengagement, side conversations and virtual distraction, disagreement, stalled decisions, and the delicate work of redirecting a senior stakeholder respectfully. Learners practice with realistic scenarios and leave with specific, ready-to-use language for each situation. Reinforces the Facilitation Phrase Bank.
- 4.1When One Voice Fills the RoomIncluded
- 4.2Silence, Disengagement, and the Quiet RoomIncluded
- 4.3Side Conversations, Distractions, and Virtual DriftIncluded
- 4.4Disagreement, Stalled Decisions, and High-Stakes RedirectsIncluded
End With Decisions and Follow-Through
The final minutes of a meeting are where clarity is either created or lost. This module teaches learners how to guide a group to a named, owned decision; distinguish between decision types; assign owners and deadlines before the meeting ends; document action items in a format that ensures follow-through; and communicate outcomes to stakeholders who weren't in the room. Introduces the Decision and Action Tracker. Closes with My Better Meeting Plan — the capstone application activity that brings every module together.
- 5.1Guiding Groups to DecisionsIncluded
- 5.2Assigning Ownership, Deadlines, and Action ItemsIncluded
- 5.3Documenting and Communicating Follow-UpIncluded
- 5.4My Better Meeting PlanIncluded
Who it's for
Is this you?
Individual Contributors
You organize occasional syncs or project check-ins and want to show up as someone who runs a tight, purposeful meeting — not someone who wastes people's time.
Emerging Leaders
You're stepping into facilitation for the first time and want a repeatable system for planning, running, and closing meetings with confidence.
Project Leads
You're managing cross-functional work across busy stakeholders and need every meeting to end with clear owners, real deadlines, and zero ambiguity about next steps.
People Managers
You run team meetings regularly and want to build a culture where people come prepared, participate fully, and leave accountable.
Hybrid Team Members
You work across time zones and split offices, and you need facilitation strategies built for the messy realities of distributed and hybrid work.
Internal Facilitators
You're asked to facilitate workshops, planning sessions, or high-stakes discussions and want concrete language for navigating difficult group dynamics with professionalism.
Questions
Frequently asked
Your teacher
A note from your teacher
Shani Roberts
If you've ever walked out of a meeting thinking, "That could have been an email" — or worse, sat through an hour of circular discussion only to leave without a single clear decision — you already know the problem this course was built to solve.
Most professionals are never actually taught how to run a meeting. They're handed a calendar invite, a conference room, and the expectation that they'll figure it out. And so they do what they've seen others do — they fill the time, they read from the agenda, they say "let's take that offline," and they hope something useful emerges. Sometimes it does. Often it doesn't. And the cost — in wasted time, unresolved decisions, and disengaged teams — adds up faster than most organizations realize.
I built this course because meeting facilitation is a learnable, teachable skill, and it deserves to be treated like one. Not a soft skill. Not a personality trait. A craft, with frameworks, language, and techniques that anyone can develop with the right guidance and a bit of practice. The five modules in this course cover the full arc of a meeting: deciding whether it's even the right tool for the job, planning it with a clear purpose and the right people, facilitating a discussion that's both focused and genuinely inclusive, navigating the dynamics that derail even well-planned conversations, and closing with decisions that stick and follow-through that actually happens.
What you'll find here isn't theory for its own sake. Every concept is grounded in real workplace situations — the hybrid call where half the team has gone quiet, the colleague who answers every question before others can respond, the decision that's been "almost made" for three meetings running. You'll leave each module with something concrete: a framework to apply, a phrase to use, a plan to refine.
My invitation to you is a simple one: take what's here and use it in your very next meeting. Not eventually. Next time. That's what this course is designed for — and that's exactly what I think you're ready to do.
— Shani Roberts
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- 5 modules, 18 lessons
- AI-adaptive lessons tuned to your level
- Quizzes & checkpoints to lock in progress
- Your own AI learning coach
- Learn on any device, at your pace
- Full access for as long as you're subscribed