The school focuses on professional facilitators, consultants, organisational development advisors, project managers, trainers and managers in the public and private sectors who wish to develop specific skills and competencies in the following areas:

Much of today's work in organisations is done in groups. But the people responsible for leading these groups rarely have developed specific knowledge of the dynamics of working groups or the skills which leading a group requires.

We all have to attend large numbers of meeting in the course of our work, but unfortunately they are often a source of great frustration for the participants and many see them as a considerable waste of time. Managing meetings requires specific competencies which traditional education often fails to provide.

Almost all European programmes, but also national projects and programmes, require that projects be developed through participative approaches. Since these are new to most people, the skills needed to lead participative events have to be developed. The School offers training in widely-used methods for participative planning and project management, including Open Space Technology (OST), the European Awareness Scenario Workshop (EASW), and results-oriented planning (Goal-Oriented Project Planning, GOPP, and Logical Framework Approach, LFA).

Is it possible to develop an approach to meetings and working conferences in a company which are as effective as the widely-appreciated coffee break in a conference? Open Space Technology (OST) offers a tried and proven approach which offers the freedom and focus needed to create commitment in people to bring about lasting changes in their organisation's way of working.

More often than not, project planning has to take account of a wide variety of factors to ensure the success of the proposed initiatives. Project planning tools like PCM (Project Cycle Management), GOPP (Goal-Oriented Project Planning) and LFA (Logical Framework Approach) enable projects and programmes to be developed with a high-quality internal consistency and logic.

Community development has become increasingly important in the past years (e.g. Agenda 21 programmes, social and labour initiatives, urban reconstruction, etc.) Interventions in these kinds of situations require knowledge of techniques for community development and approaches which promote active participation of the people who live and work in a community. Open Space (OST), EASW, Appreciative Inquiry, PLA (Participatory Learning Action) and the tools of the Technology of Participation are methods which offer new approaches to working within communities.

As the pace of live quickens and organisations come under growing pressure, managing change in the places we work becomes an essential strategic issue for companies to survive. Facilitating this change requires us to be able to apply a variety of techniques for participative planning, methods which will reduce the conflict which such situations normally generate and ensure that all the actors are deeply involved in working to change their organisation. Open Space Technology and Appreciative Inquiry are tools which are especially suited in these situations.

Networks (real and virtual) are becoming increasingly important in the world we live and work in. Developing new approaches to collaboration is essential. We have to be able to facilitate dialogues on a wide variety of issues.

A variety of tools, specifically those related to the Project Cycle (PCM, Project Cycle Management) and GOPP (Goal-Oriented Project Planning), enable us to develop and appraise high-quality projects. Such techniques are especially useful in multiparty settings, where they enable facilitators to guide groups in the identification, design, planning and appraisal of a project.

Projects are often developed by one or two partners, right up to the stage of project financing. Other partners, who join later, or who are only involved to a small extent in the planning and design phase, find themselves running to try to catch up with the lead partners. They often only have a broad idea of the project's goals and objectives, and do not share in detail the same ideas about the concrete results and outputs of the project or the way in which the activities are to be distributed among the partners. Based on the Logical Framework Approach, and using the Goal-Oriented Project Planning (GOPP) method, workshops can assist project managers and partners to develop a real, common understanding of the methods, fix goals and targets, and explore potential obstacles to success.

Region of Tuscany, international activities
Province of Cagliari
Women's Network of Tuscany
ECIPAR, Emilia Romagna
ISFOL, Rome
Science City, Naples
IDIS Foundation, Naples
CLEMENTONI SpA
Development Agency of Metropolitan Milan
Orlando Association, Bologna
Avanzi srl, Milan
Consiel EELL, Florence
CISL, Emilia Romagna
FORMEZ
SUDGEST Sassari
HOGESCHOOL UTRECHT, The Netherlands
IFOC, Bari
PCM Group, Bruxelles, Belgium