Hire a Facilitator
Expert facilitation for workshops, strategy days and team sessions of any size, anywhere in Australia.
For organisations that need an independent, experienced professional to lead their sessions with structure, energy and focus.
Trusted by government departments, universities
and leading Australian organisations
TRUSTED BY ORGANISATIONS INCLUDING
Run Your Workshop Seamlessly by Hiring a Facilitator
WHAT GREAT FACILITATION DELIVERS
- Run a workshop that stays focused, on time and on purpose
- Create a safe space where every voice is heard and valued
- Get genuine buy-in and alignment from your whole group
- Walk away with clear actions, decisions and next steps
- Take the pressure off and enjoy the day yourself
WHY CHOOSE MELBOURNE LEADERSHIP GROUP?
Expert facilitation trusted by leading Australian organisations
Facilitators with over 20 years of real-world experience
Face-to-face, online or hybrid anywhere in Australia
Focused on driving real outcomes, not just filling time
Any session type: workshops, strategy days and conferences
Trusted by government, universities and top organisations
PROFESSIONAL FACILITATION FOR ALL WORKSHOPS
We can facilitate any type of workshop
- Team planning or team development days
- Strategic planning sessions
- Stakeholder or community consultation sessions
- Workshops and meetings
- Showcases and rollouts of the same content to multiple teams
- Conferences
- Graphic scribing – also known as visual facilitation
WORKSHOP FACILITATION WITHOUT THE FUSS
Running better quality workshops with less work for you
Clients bring us in as external facilitators because we make workshops more effective and easier for everyone involved.
We help companies to:
- Create a safe, open environment where people feel comfortable contributing
- Let everyone (including you) fully participate instead of having to manage the room
- Stay independent, with no bias or internal agenda, so conversations stay honest and productive
TYPE OF WORKSHOPS WE CAN FACILITATE
Hire an expert facilitator to design and lead engaging workshops that drive participation, alignment, and real outcomes for your team.
From traditional workshops to online workshops and even corporate retreat workshops, we have your facilitation requirements covered.
Face to face
Classic workshop with all participants attending in real life, in the same room
Online
Virtual workshop with all participants dialling in using Zoom or MS Teams
Hybrid
Some people in the same room, others dialling in remotely
WHY USE AN EXTERNAL FACILITATOR?
Discover the benefits of hiring a facilitator
Been put in charge of a workshop but don’t want to facilitate it yourself? We can help.
Our expert team of facilitators have worked with everything from large government departments, small charity groups, big corporate teams, and even cross-industry gatherings with many different players.
The big difference in working with us? It’s two things: firstly, solid preparation, and secondly, making it engaging. We believe in preparing all the details thoroughly beforehand so that everything runs smoothly on the day.
We don’t do dull and boring. If you’re going to bring your team together, make it engaging!
MEET OUR EXPERT FACILITATORS
Warm, engaging and experienced facilitators
Our facilitators run sessions as small as four or five members of a leadership team, right through the events with hundreds of people joining online.
HAMISH PARK
Hamish Park is an executive adviser, leadership coach, trainer, facilitator and board director, with over 20 years’ of facilitation experience.
LOUISE HILL
Louise Hill has extensive executive leadership experience, and a special interest in leadership team facilitation and group dynamics.
ANGELA RUTTER
Angela Rutter is a leadership facilitation specialist, with a passion for values-led engagement, civic leadership and social change.
WHO DO WE WORK WITH
We work with leaders across the public, private and for-purpose sectors
We work with medium to large size organisations spanning many sectors. Whilst we are based in Melbourne, we do work with national organisations and clients with operations across multiple state boundaries. In the last three years, we delivered work in Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney, Adelaide and regional Victoria.
We are proud that many of our executive clients vote with their feet – and have us back to coach, train and facilitate across multiple projects
FAQs
Should I hire a facilitator for a strategy workshop?
If the outcome of the workshop matters, yes. When the people in the room are also expected to lead the discussion, manage the politics, watch the clock, and still reach a genuine conclusion, those two roles work against each other. An external facilitator has no stake in the outcome and no position to protect – which means they can focus entirely on the quality of the conversation, keep the group honest, and ensure the session produces decisions rather than discussion. For strategy work in particular, the cost of a poor outcome far exceeds the cost of a skilled facilitator.
What does a facilitator actually do in a workshop?
More than most people expect. Before the workshop, a good facilitator works with the client to design session objectives and an agenda that will actually produce the outcomes needed, not just fill the time. During the session, they manage the group dynamic, draw out the voices that aren’t being heard, challenge thinking that is going unchallenged, and keep the conversation moving toward a conclusion. After the session, they ensure that what was agreed is captured clearly and that the group leaves with shared understanding rather than individual interpretations of what happened. The facilitator is not simply a note-taker or a timekeeper – they are the person most responsible for whether the day delivers.
How do you make leadership workshops deliver real outcomes?
Three things. First, the design – the session agenda needs to be built around a specific objective, decision or output, not a general topic. Second, the right people in the room with the authority to make the decisions the workshop is designed to reach. Third, a facilitator skilled enough to navigate the group dynamics that derail most workshops – dominant voices, unspoken tension, or the discussion everyone is avoiding. Workshops that tick all three boxes consistently produce outcomes that stick. Workshops that miss any one of them typically produce just a good conversation or a document nobody reads.
When should you bring in an external facilitator?
Four situations reliably benefit from an external facilitator. When the topic is sensitive or politically charged and an internal facilitator would be perceived as having a stake in the outcome. When the group includes the CEO, who cannot simultaneously lead and participate honestly. When previous attempts to resolve the same issue internally have stalled. And when the output of the session – a strategic decision, a significant commitment, a change in direction – is important enough that you cannot afford to leave it to chance. If any of these apply, an external facilitator is not a luxury.
How much does it cost to hire a facilitator in Melbourne?
Facilitation fees reflect the experience of the facilitator, the complexity of the session content, and the length of the agenda. A half-day leadership workshop requires different preparation and delivery than a two-day board strategy retreat, and fees are structured accordingly.
What the investment buys is not someone managing a whiteboard for a day. It is the design, preparation, skilled delivery, and follow-through that turns a workshop into a genuine turning point for a leadership team – and that outcome is almost always worth more than the fee.
Pricing for your specific requirements is available on request. Contact Hamish Park directly for a straightforward conversation about what your session needs and what it will cost.
What is the difference between a facilitator and a consultant?
A consultant comes with expertise and answers – they assess your situation and tell you what to do. A facilitator comes with process and neutrality – they create the conditions for your group to think more clearly and reach better conclusions together.
The distinction matters because some problems need an expert opinion, and some problems need a better conversation. Strategy, alignment, and team decisions almost always fall into the second category. Bringing a consultant into those situations can shortcut the ownership that comes from a group working through something themselves. Bringing a facilitator ensures that ownership is built into the process from the start.
What makes a good facilitator?
Three things separate a skilled facilitator from someone who simply manages an agenda. First, the ability to read a room – to notice what is being said, what is being avoided, and what the group needs next in order to move forward. Second, the confidence to intervene – to challenge a dominant participant, bring quiet voices into the conversation, or name a tension the group is dancing around. Third, rigorous preparation – a good facilitator has designed the session agenda carefully before anyone walks in the door, so the day has shape and momentum rather than drifting from topic to topic.
What is strategic facilitation?
Strategic facilitation is the design and delivery of high-stakes group conversations – typically involving senior leaders making significant decisions about direction, priorities, or organisational change. It is distinct from general facilitation in two ways: the complexity of the subject matter, and the seniority of the people in the room. A strategic facilitator needs to understand business context well enough to design a session that addresses the real issue rather than the presenting one, and be experienced enough to manage the dynamics of a senior leadership group where authority, ego, and competing agendas are all present. The output of strategic facilitation is not a workshop report – it is a decision, a commitment, or a shift in direction that the group owns and acts on.
Can a facilitator help with team conflict?
Yes. In many cases an external facilitator is the only realistic option. When a team is in conflict, any internal attempt to resolve it is compromised by the fact that the person leading the conversation is also part of the system. An external facilitator has no history with the group, no stake in the outcome, and no relationships to protect, which makes it possible to name what is actually happening rather than manage around it. The facilitator’s role in this context is not to mediate or arbitrate, but to create a structured conversation in which the real issues surface, are heard by everyone, and can be worked through productively. Most team conflicts that have resisted internal resolution move significantly in a single well-facilitated session.
How do I brief a facilitator?
The most useful briefing answers four questions. What is the specific outcome you need from this session – not the topic, but the decision or output you need to leave with? Who will be in the room and what are the relevant dynamics, tensions, or history the facilitator should know about? What has already been tried, and why hasn’t it worked? And what would a successful day look like to you personally? A good facilitator will ask all of these questions anyway, but a client who can answer them clearly from the outset makes the design process faster and the session itself significantly more likely to deliver. The briefing conversation is also a useful test of the facilitator – if they ask sharp questions and push back on vague answers, that is a reliable signal about how they will perform in the room.
How do you facilitate a difficult conversation in a leadership team?
Carefully and with deliberate design. The most common mistake is bringing a leadership team together for a difficult conversation without sufficient structure, assuming that good intentions and a safe environment will be enough. They rarely are. A skilled external facilitator approaches a difficult team conversation by establishing clear ground rules at the outset, ensuring every voice is heard rather than just the loudest, and naming tensions directly rather than allowing them to sit unaddressed beneath the surface.
The facilitator controls the process but not the content. They do not tell the group what to conclude, but they do ensure the conversation goes to the places it needs to go, however uncomfortable, and that it produces a clear outcome.
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Hamish Park
Director
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