(WSQ) Facilitative Leadership: Techniques to Engage, Empower and Influence Teams

This is a 1-day foundation-to-intermediate level course, designed for emerging and existing managers who want to lead with greater impact in today’s fast-changing and collaborative work environments. 

The course focuses on developing facilitation practices  that help leaders engage teams meaningfully, encourage idea sharing, and co-create solutions.

Participants will learn how to ask purposeful questions, surface unspoken perspectives, foster inclusive dialogue, and guide teams through sense-making and decision-making processes.

These leadership practices are critical for enabling psychological safety, navigating complexity, and building team commitment—skills highly valued across industries. Whether you’re stepping into leadership or seeking to strengthen your influence, this course equips you with facilitation habits that support better conversations, clearer insights, and more empowered teams, enabling you to lead easily in a positive and empowered high-performance team culture.

After this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Facilitation of brainstorming discussions to generate and refine work-related ideas
• Selection and application of questioning techniques to drive insight and engagement
• Integration of differing views for consensus building
• Use of metaphors, analogies, and reframing to shift perspectives
• Evaluation and prioritisation of ideas using visual tools
• Encouragement of psychological safety and team responsiveness
• Identification of hidden assumptions and mental models in team dialogue
• Structured decision-making and synthesis for team action

Outline

Module 1: Foundations of Facilitative Leadership

Leading Through Influence, Not Authority

• What is facilitative leadership?
• Traditional leadership vs facilitative leadership
• The manager as facilitator, coach, and sense-maker
• Psychological safety and inclusive participation
• Understanding group dynamics and engagement barriers

Module 2: The Art of Asking Better Questions

Questioning Techniques to Unlock Better Thinking

• Open vs closed questioning
• Powerful facilitative questions
• Socratic questioning techniques
• Probing for assumptions and hidden perspectives
• Encouraging quieter voices to contribute

Module 3: Facilitating Brainstorming & Collective Sense-Making

Helping Teams Think Better Together

• Principles of effective brainstorming
• Divergent vs convergent thinking
• Structured brainstorming methods
• Surfacing mental models and assumptions
• Reframing problems through metaphors and analogies

Module 4: Consensus Building, Decision-Making & Team Commitment

Moving Conversations into Action

• Integrating differing viewpoints
• Consensus-building techniques
• Prioritisation frameworks and visual tools
• Facilitating constructive disagreement
• Guiding teams toward clarity and action

Module 5: Action Planning & Facilitative Leadership Toolkit

Applying Learning Back at Work

• Common facilitation pitfalls
• Building facilitative habits
• Creating psychologically safe teams
• Practical facilitation toolkit for managers

	Individual/Non-SME, PR, and SC aged 21-39 years		MCES, SC aged 40 and above		SME-sponsored (ETSS) SC/PR, any age
	Up to 50% baseline subsidy		Up to 70% subsidy
	Without GST (S$)	With GST (S$)*	Without GST (S$)	With GST (S$)*	Without GST (S$)	With GST (S$)*
Original Fee	410.00	446.90	410.00	446.90	410.00	446.90
After Subsidy	205.00	241.90	123.00	159.90	123.00	159.90
	90% SFEC disbursement amount (if eligible)
90% Payout	–	–	–	–	110.70	–
Actual Cost	–	–	–	–	12.30	49.20
* 9% GST is based on full course fee

Grants (if applicable)

Individuals

• SkillsFuture Credit (SFC): Please refer to the following guides on how to claim your SkillsFuture Credit.
  Mobile  |  PC
• WSS Funding: Singapore Citizen aged 30 and above, earning $2,500 or less per month are eligible for Training Commitment Award (TCA) of up to $1,000 for courses attained during eligibility period. Click here to find out your eligibility.
• MCES Funding: Singapore Citizen aged 40 and above.
• Post-Secondary Education Account (PSEA): For individuals below 31 years old. Please click here for how to claim your PSEA funds. For the step-by-step guide on submitting PSEA Withdrawal Form, click here.

Organisations

• Enhanced Training Subsidy for Small Medium Enterprises (ETSS): If your business meets SME criteria, you are eligible to enjoy up to 70% in Enhanced Training Support for SMEs (ETSS) for any SC or PR employee that you sponsor for training, on top of baseline subsidies.
• Absentee Payroll: You can now easily apply for absentee payroll through the Enterprise Job Skills (EPJS) Portal. Sponsoring employers of Singapore Citizens aged 30 and above, earning $2,500 or less per month, are eligible for AP at up to 95% of trainee’s basic hourly salary, capped at $13 per hour. Click here for more information.
• SkillsFuture Enterprise Credit (SFEC): Eligible companies can benefit from an additional 90% funding support from their out-of-pocket training expenses. Find out if your company is eligible here.

For more information on all training subsidies for employers: Funding information

For more information on self-sponsored training: Funding information

Mr Edwin Liok is a seasoned tech leader and learning facilitator with over two decades of expertise in AI, data analytics, and digital transformation. His extensive background includes leading large-scale digitalization initiatives for government agencies, MNCs, and SMEs, where he notably developed sector-wide roadmaps and empowered over 70,000 businesses to adopt digital solutions. As an adjunct faculty member at a leading training provider, Edwin bridges the gap between deep industry knowledge and practical application. He is dedicated to helping learners translate emerging technologies into actionable business outcomes through high-impact, results-oriented training.

Beyond his strategic leadership, Edwin is a recognized innovator in education and analytics. He co-conceptualized a Data Science Specialization in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University and has successfully rolled out shared analytics platforms for major industry players in the retail and healthcare sectors. His work has earned prestigious accolades, including the Oracle BI / EPM Innovation Award for his contributions to healthcare intelligence. This blend of strategic vision and hands-on technical proficiency ensures that his training sessions are grounded in real-world success and measurable ROI.