In this training, you will learn how to design and facilitate strategic and sensitive conversations. Not a debate or a consultation meeting, but a real dialogue: a conversation where conflicting interests and emotions can coexist — and where there is room for new understanding.
You will practice with formats, psychological techniques, and interventions that you need to open the conversation, carry it, and steer it when it threatens to get stuck.
For who?
For professionals who conduct or facilitate conversations about tough issues, such as:
Policy makers who collaborate with social partners;
Employees of companies who are in dialogue with NGOs, activists, or citizens;
Strategists or politicians who want dialogue instead of escalation in conflict situations;
Project leaders, facilitators, and environmental managers who want to create space for pluralism.
This training is for people who know that a good conversation does not happen by itself, but must be designed and facilitated — with attention to power, emotion, framing, and timing.
What are you learning?
After this training, you will be able to:
Design a dialogue that fits the sensitivity of the topic;
Create space for different perspectives without losing control;
Intervene at the right level: content, process, interaction, or emotion;
Facilitate difficult conversations with influence, without taking sides;
Keep people with conflicting interests or values at the table;
Ensure that conversations do not go off the rails, without it becoming a performance.
Our philosophy
We see dialogue as a form of strategic craftsmanship. Having a conversation beyond persuasion, drawing from insights in negotiation, behavioral psychology, and group dynamics.
A good dialogue is not a casual chat, but a carefully designed meeting. And when it gets uncomfortable — which it often does — you as a facilitator must be able to make the right intervention without taking over.
That requires three things:
Design ability: how do you choose the setting, order, questions, and structure?
Facilitation skills: how do you open the conversation and maintain the boundary?
Personal strength: how do you remain effective yourself when it gets uncomfortable?
Content of the training
Duration: 1 day (09:30 – 16:30)
Location: Bezuidenhoutseweg 1, The Hague
Price: € 1174,- excl. VAT
Includes lunch, work materials, and guidance
Content components:
The anatomy of a good dialogue: space, structure, direction;
Framing and intervention levels (content, process, relationship, emotion);
Conversation structure and formats for difficult topics;
Power, position, and authority in dialogue: how do you take it without forcing?
Facilitating without losing control of the conversation;
Practicing with cases from your own field;
Reflection: your role, your style, your impact
You leave the training with concrete tools and more confidence to initiate and lead conversations.
Available data:
Questions or tailored work?
Would you like to organize this training in-company or first discuss if it fits your work? Please contact us at nstitute@nfluence.nl or call 070 22 11 981.