StrongSuits Certified Facilitator Training (Online, May 2025)

The StrongSuits Certified Facilitator Training is designed to address the most pressing questions in team coaching today:

• How do I build team trust and psychological safety in a fun, accessible way?
• How do I transform the way team members interact with each other?
• How do I nurture empathy, compassion and kindness in my team?
• How do I navigate conflict when it arises?
• How do I support the team in bringing out the best of everyone's strengths?

StrongSuits is a powerful strengths-based approach to building stronger teams which uses playing cards and games to get teams having fun and feeling energised while generating high-impact conversations about how people behave and how they can develop.

StrongSuits is based on 4 major insights from modern psychology:

• People perform at their best when they play to their strengths
• Cognitive Diversity makes teams stronger
• People prefer to interact and communicate in different ways
• Every strength has a shadow side

StrongSuits revolutionises team coaching, one-to-ones and wider performance development across the whole organisation. It is highly accessible and adaptable and can be tailored to suit your team or organisation's needs ranging from a 1-hour slot at a team retrospective or staff conference all the way up to a multi-layered people development programme across the whole organisation.

• Team Coaches, Facilitators, Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters and those in similar roles who want to build stronger teams
• Leaders in HR, Talent, Culture, L&D, OD, DEIB and those in similar roles who want to develop a more engaged, inclusive workforce
• Career and Business Coaches who want to support their clients to play to their strengths and to communicate more effectively
• Entrepreneurs who want to recruit a diverse team of talent as they grow
• Career Changers and Personal Development Enthusiasts who want to play to their strengths and transform their limitations into opportunities for growth
• Universities and Academic Institutions who want to foster greater teamwork on projects and assignments
• Organisational Change Agents who want to understand how each team responds to and contributes to the change
• Inter-personal Mediators who want to facilitate a safe and non-intrusive way of resolving conflicts that is both appreciative and improvement-oriented

The training is spread over 5 half-day sessions, each with a distinct focus:

In Session 1 you will experience the best of the StrongSuits Team Strengths™ workshop. This includes:

• The Big Ideas - StrongSuits is based on the most current insights from modern psychology about what makes teams work and what limits them.
• Your Winning Hand Game - You will identify your own strengths and develop an appreciation of the group's strengths.
• Your Winning Hand Variations - You'll learn additional ways to understand your own and other's strengths.
• Your Opposite Number Game - You'll develop an appreciation of the cognitive diversity in the group and how this contributes to group or team performance.
• Your StrongSuit Game - You'll identify how you and others prefer to interact, how you deal with conflict and how you handle responsibility.

This will allow you to experience the power of StrongSuits as a group or team member. You will experience theory and practice in small chunks, reflect on inspiring stories, work through fun games and exercises and focused group discussions.

In Session 2 we will dive into what limits you and your teams, sometimes referred to as 'shadow work'. This includes:

• Your ShadowSuit Game - You'll identify how your interaction style changes under negative conditions.
• The StrongSuits Team Strengths Map™ - You'll understand how you behave as a team under positive and negative conditions and explore how you can develop.
• Overplayed Strengths - You'll understand how strengths can become limitations when they are overplayed.
• Transforming Overplayed Strengths - You'll learn a simple way of identifying and transforming self-limiting overplayed strengths.
• Transforming Allergies - You'll identify what qualities in others you might be allergic to and a simple yet powerful tool to transform those allergies.

In Session 3 you will have the opportunity to prepare for the facilitation practice day (Day 4). You will have the opportunity to ask the trainer any questions and to set up your virtual environment to facilitate your games.

In Session 4 you will gain hands-on practice by facilitating games yourself and exchanging feedback with each other. The goal is to give you the confidence and provide you with everything you need to get started right away using StrongSuits to build stronger teams and in one-to-one coaching.

In Session 5 you will receive further strengths-based feedback from your peers and have the opportunity to reflect and look forward. This includes:

• At Your Best.. and Even Better If.. - You'll learn a powerful technique to appreciate each other's strengths and to give and receive constructive feedback on areas for growth.
• Your Point of Breakthrough - You'll identify 'the difference that makes the difference' and the change that you're committed to working on.

• Virtual StrongSuits Team Insights™ Foundation cards PDF
• Online templates for two of the most popular virtual collaboration tools, Miro and MURAL
• The StrongSuits Facilitator Manual
• Post-course digital downloads including everything you need to use StrongSuits with individuals and teams
• An official StrongSuits Facilitator certificate in digital format

Ryan is the CEO of StrongSuits and is one of the early pioneers, having learned StrongSuits under the mentorship of its founder and original creator, Dave Corbet.

As a team coach and ways-of-working facilitator in the software industry for over a decade, Ryan has obtained over a dozen coaching and facilitation certifications and has encountered hundreds of tools. It was only when he met Dave on a 5-day trek along the Cape Wrath Trail in the Scottish Highlands in 2015 (there are a lot more synchronicities to this story, but you will have to wait until the training to hear the whole story!) that Ryan discovered to his sheer delight how StrongSuits brings together the best of modern team development under one comprehensive toolset.

Ryan has trained or coached over a thousand managers, coaches and facilitators over more than a decade. Prior to that he was a software developer and senior project manager in multi-national consulting firms. He is the founder of Systemic Agility, an organisation and community dedicated to transforming teams and organisations through systemic coaching and facilitation.

Ryan is a graduate of the Warwick Business School MBA and is an author, co-author and ICAgile-authorised instructor of no less than four industry-leading training courses in Team Agility Coaching, Team Agility Facilitation, Enterprise Agility Foundations and Coaching Enterprise Agility and Transformation.

Early Bird: £550+VAT (until 17 March 2025)

Regular: £725+VAT

Is there a limit to the class size?

Yes. The class size is limited to a maximum of 10 participants.

What are the dates and times?

Dates: 12th-16th May 2025

Time: 8am-11:30am BST / 9am-12:30pm CEST daily

Timezones: UK/EU/Africa/Australasia friendly timing

What Technology is required?

We will use Zoom for video and audio and we will use Miro (easily accessible via any modern web browser) for playing the games and for online collaboration. Please ensure that you have access to Zoom and Miro via a computer with a stable internet connection, a mic, webcam and a quiet place without distractions.

Does this virtual training also prepare me to facilitate StrongSuits in-person?

Yes. All of the games and exercises can be delivered virtually or in-person and you will receive guidance on both modes of delivery.

I attended a StrongSuits Certified Facilitator training in-person and I have the certificate to prove it. Am I eligible for a discount on this virtual training?

Yes, you are eligible for a 50% discount subject to availability. Please contact us to enquire.

Are physical card decks provided?

No. This training does not require physical card decks. If you would like to purchase physical card decks for in-person workshops then you will need to purchase them separately.

Any further questions?

Please email the trainer Ryan Behrman directly at [email protected]

Event Venue

Online