Leading with Care Facilitator Guide
Six live virtual sessions that extend the Leading with Care course through discussion, scenario practice, reflection, and application.
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How to Use This Guide
This guide is the live-session companion to the Leading with Care course and learner binder. It does not reproduce the online course. Instead, it gives facilitators the purpose, concepts, suggested language, timing, activity structures, and materials needed to help participants turn course ideas into everyday care-centered leadership practice.
Program through-line
Program at a Glance
| Session | Module(s) covered | Major activities |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Orientation + Mindset, Assumptions, and Creating Emotional Safety Getting started with the course, then slowing down the space between what we observe and how we respond |
| How the Course Works · Digital Binder Orientation · Opening the Course Work: Mindset Is an Active Filter · Activity 1: Observation or Story? · Activity 2: Emotional Safety Check · Activity 3: Pause & Check Practice |
| 2. Understanding Trauma-Informed Practice What can I do to make the next few minutes more manageable while staying within my role? |
| Reconnect: What Stayed With You? · What Do You Actually Know? · Make the Next Few Minutes Manageable · Choice or Disguised Demand? · Practice the Response · Where Does My Role End? · Digital Binder: Strengthen Your Response |
| 3. Bias and Cultural Responsiveness How did I arrive at this judgment—and what assumptions are built into the experience I am creating? |
| Reconnect: What Are You Seeing Differently? · Which Tool First? · Scenario: Who Looks Ready to Lead? · Peer Perspective Check · Scenario: Speak Up in the Moment · Design Studio · Digital Binder: Two Commitments |
| 4. Equity vs. Equality: Supporting Access and Participation Keep the standard. Question the method. |
| Opening Discussion: Fair Means the Same? · Which Fairness Question Are We Asking? · Keep It, Change It, or Check First? · Scenario Lab: The Community Kitchen Skills Check · Scenario Lab: Feedback That Counts · Equity Case Clinic · Digital Binder: Strengthen Your Equity Decision |
| 5. Inquiry, Curiosity, and Navigating Lived Truth + Applying the Care-Centered Lens What do I know, what still needs understanding, and which tool will help me respond well? |
| Warm-Up: What Kind of Information Is This? · Scenario: The Missed Check-In · Listening Triads · Validate or Over-Confirm? · Capstone Scenario: The Community Expo · Debrief: Choose Your Tools · Digital Binder: Strengthen the Plan |
| 6. Final Knowledge Check + Post-Course Wrap-Up Assess application, reflect on growth, strengthen transfer to practice, gather course feedback, and close the learning experience |
| Welcome + Final Session Orientation · Final Knowledge Check · Where Did You Pause? · Return to Your Starting Point · Refine Your 30-Day Practice Commitment · Post-Course Survey · What Are You Taking With You? |
Each session is 90 minutes and virtual. Participants complete the matching lessons and Digital Binder activities before each session.
How Each Session Page Is Organized
1. Session Overview
Module(s) covered, session purpose, learning objectives, key course concepts, and toolkit resources used.
2. Before the Session
Learner pre-work, what learners were asked to bring, facilitator preparation, materials/technology, and breakout room setup.
3. 90-Minute Run of Show
A timed agenda with the activity, purpose, method, and facilitator notes for each segment.
4. Facilitation Guide
For every major activity: purpose, set-up, facilitator language, instructions, debrief questions, listen for, watch for, and the Digital Binder connection.
5. Close
Reflection, what to carry forward, and the next module/pre-work.
Open items
Anything still to be confirmed is highlighted like this: [TBD].
Facilitation Principles
Facilitate application, not a second lecture
Assume learners have encountered the concepts in the eLearning. Use live time to retrieve, discuss, test, practice, and apply.
Ask before telling
Use questions to surface learners’ reasoning. When correcting a misconception, connect the correction to a concrete example.
Model what you teach
Every session is a chance to demonstrate predictability, clarity, choice, and repair. Preview the agenda, offer more than one way to participate, and name it when you adjust.
Protect psychological safety without removing productive challenge
Allow learners to pass on personal sharing. Challenge ideas and behaviors rather than identities or character.
Keep examples close to their world
Scenarios in this guide offer a youth version (school, programs, clubs, volunteering) and a workplace version. Choose the one that fits your group, or offer both.
Debrief every activity
The learning often happens after the practice. Use the debrief sequence: What happened? What did you notice? Why did it matter? Which tool or principle shows up? What would you try next time?
Use Zoom intentionally
Change the participation mode every 10–20 minutes: voice, chat, poll, annotation, breakout, fishbowl, individual reflection.
The Debrief Sequence
- 1
What happened?
Describe the events without judgment.
- 2
What did you notice?
Specific words, actions, reactions.
- 3
Why did it matter?
Impact on people and results.
- 4
Which tool or principle shows up?
Name the care-centered practice in action.
- 5
What would you try next time?
One concrete adjustment.
Virtual Delivery Notes
- Keep cameras optional unless program policy states otherwise; invite participation through voice, chat, reactions, polls, annotation, and breakout rooms.
- Put breakout instructions on screen and paste them into chat before opening rooms. Every activity in this guide includes ready-to-paste text.
- For triads, assign roles explicitly: Leader / Participant / Observer. Rotate roles when time allows.
- Fishbowls work well virtually: spotlight volunteers in the main room while observers use a simple lens in chat or on paper.
- Use a visible timer and broadcast a 2-minute warning to breakout rooms.
- Never require learners to disclose personal experiences. Scenarios can always be discussed hypothetically, and examples participants bring should be de-identified.
- Keep a quiet breakout room available so participants can step away without explaining.
Using the Learner Binder in Sessions
- Share the binder link in chat at the start of every session.
- Learners’ Reflections are private and saved in their own browser. Invite sharing, never require it.
- Each lesson’s ‘Bring to Live Practice’ activity tells learners what to prepare for the next session; the Live Practice Prep page collects them.
- Remind learners to download a backup from Back Up & Restore after each session, and to export My Toolkit or the whole binder as a PDF at the end.