• Use the Facilitator Guide, slides and other supporting materials to create an engaging, constructive learning experience for your participants
• Learn how to articulate Strengths concepts and use personal examples to enhance and enrich important content
• Use accelerated learning techniques to anchor key concepts and create a more meaningful experience for participants
• Practice delivering different segments of the Simply Strengths Program and receive comprehensive feedback from your peers and facilitator on your delivery
• Discuss implementation and sustainability strategies

Our CT program is designed to ensure that you have an engaging, high-quality experience while learning how to deliver the Simply Strengths Total Immersion Workshop. The CT begins with instruction on how to use the Facilitator Guide, key content points to anchor for every segment of the program, and detailed information on what you can expect participants to be feeling and challenges they may encounter at different points of the process. Then the majority of the CT program is highly interactive and involves participants teaching back the content to the other participants and TMBC facilitator. Limited to 6 people per session, this hands-on training will provide you with all the one-to-one feedback and resources you need to deliver this program in a powerful way.

Experienced trainers and HR professionals focused on facilitating leadership training and development programs.

Attendance Prerequisites

• The CT is designed to be delivered by an experienced facilitator. Helping people to identify and build on their Strengths is a simple, incremental, long-term process. This process includes support for learning before, during and after the Simply Strengths Workshop. You should have solid training experience, large group presentation and facilitation skills, knowledge of instructional design, skill in getting senior management support, coaching skills, and an ability to support learning outside the classroom.
• You must participate in the 2-day Simply Strengths Workshop prior to attending the Certified Trainer Program.

Quality content and quality delivery are important to the Marcus Buckingham Company. We therefore take your participation in the CT very seriously. You will be rated on your level of participation in the training, the extent of your preparation, the feedback you give and distinctions you make, your ability to hear feedback and incorporate it into your delivery, and--most importantly--your understanding of the content.

We are fully committed to ensuring your success, and will provide you with as much support and guidance as possible to make you successful. This training pre-supposes that you have facilitation experience and the necessary skills to deliver the program effectively.

In order to complete your certification, you must:

1. Successfully complete the 3-day Certified Trainer Session
2. Deliver three Simply Strengths workshops within six months of participating in the CT session
3. Provide TMBC participant survey results for each of the three aforementioned workshops and score an average of at least 4/5 on the surveys

Ongoing Certification

Once you have successfully delivered three workshops, you will receive your Certified Trainer certificate. To remain current, your certification must be renewed annually by fulfilling the following requirements:

• Attending a minimum of one best practice call (call schedule is on the CT website)
• Attending any content update calls (schedule will be provided in advance of calls and all calls will be recorded)
• If applicable, renew your contract to enable you to continue to deliver the Simply Strengths Program

Benefits

• Access to the Simply Strengths CT website, updated with additional tools every quarter
• Ongoing e-mail access to a TMBC content matter expert to answer any questions
• Quarterly Webinars with a TMBC facilitator

Private Certified Trainer Sessions

Often clients decide to certify a number of trainers to deploy the Simply Strengths Program throughout the organization. In this instance, we recommend a private Certified Trainer session in which a TMBC Master Certified Facilitator will deliver the CT at your company location.

Benefits:

• Flexibility — you can determine the dates on which you would like the Certified Trainer session to occur
• Convenience — the session is delivered on site at your company location or a venue near your headquarters
• Customization — prior to the session, a TMBC Master Facilitator will meet virtually with key stakeholders /L&D specialists to learn information that will be valuable to weave throughout the Certified Trainer program and make it more relevant for participants (e.g., aligning goals of the program with values/goals of the organization, impact-mapping, company-specific examples)
• Implementation — as part of an on-site CT, the TMBC Master Certified Facilitator will lead the discussion of creating a company-specific rollout strategy for the SS program

Public Certified Trainer Sessions

Twice a year, TMBC holds a CT session at the company headquarters in Los Angeles, California. In these public CT sessions, you will have the opportunity to meet people from different businesses who, like you, are committed to creating Strengths-based organizations.

Benefits:

• Ideal for independent consultants who want to bring this content to their clients
• Opportunity to brainstorm Strengths best practices with people from different backgrounds and industries

If you are planning a large-scale rollout within your organization, additional consulting services are available. Building an effective Strengths-based strategy for your organization requires diligent focus. Our consultants have a wealth of knowledge and expertise in how to sustain the momentum of Strengths programs and create organizational change.

Q: I really want to deliver the Simply Strengths Program within my organization – but I don’t have any facilitation experience. Can I still attend?

We strongly recommend that you have facilitation experience. The content in the Simply Strengths program is simple to understand, but not easy to deliver. It takes a skilled facilitator to convey key concepts and to coach people through the six-step process. Although the CT will give you feedback on your facilitation skills, it is more targeted toward building content knowledge, coaching participants through key processes, and articulating core Strengths concepts. If you haven’t got a solid foundation in facilitation, you will struggle to effectively deliver the Simply Strengths Program. We do offer a two-day Presentation Skills Class for people who have an interest in becoming an effective facilitator, and would recommend inexperienced individuals attend this course before attempting certification.

Q: What’s the best way to determine how many trainers I should train to deliver this program? I don’t want to put too many trainers through certification, but I want to make sure I have enough people to deliver it to my group. What advice would you give me?

The number of people that you should certify will depend on the number of people you plan to train in the next 2–3 years. What is most important is that anyone you train has the opportunity to deliver the program (a) as quickly as possible after certification and (b) as frequently as possible so that they can get really good at content delivery. In order to obtain full certification, trainers must deliver 3 programs within 6 months of certification. We recommend that facilitators deliver at least six workshops per year. Clients can also choose to certify two facilitators and have them co-facilitate workshops. Once program numbers increase, this ensures that enough people are available to deliver the program. The TMBC will help you work through the logistics of program delivery and, depending on your intentions for this program, we can make specific recommendations on the best way to proceed.

Q: I want to attend the CT, but I can’t make both days of the Simply Strengths Program. I’ve read Go Put Your Strengths to Work and watched Trombone Player Wanted, so I feel really comfortable with the content. Can I attend the session anyway?

It is important that you experience the program in its entirety before you learn how to deliver it. Regardless of your familiarity with our core content, the two-day workshop provides a different experience, with numerous interactive activities to anchor core concepts. As such, we do require full participation in both days of the Simply Strengths Program before you attend the CT session.

Q: How much time do I need to invest to become certified in the first instance?

In order to become certified, you will need to:

• Complete the necessary pre-work for both the Simply Strengths Program and Certified Trainer Session (approximately 4 hours)
• Attend the Simply Strengths Program and Certified Trainer Live Sessions (5 days)
• Deliver 3 Simply Strengths Programs within 6 months of completing the CT session (6 days)

Q: I want to learn how to train the Simply Strengths Program in a one-day format. Do you have a Certified Trainer to teach the one-day program?

No. The only CT we offer is for the full two-day program. We do provide participants with a schedule and outline for how to deliver the program in a one-day format, but for learning purposes we teach people the full program so they have the opportunity to really digest our core content. We recommend that people deliver the program in a two-day format before they attempt delivering it in a condensed one-day version. Materials/Licenses for the 1-day program are made available to people who complete the CT.

Q: Once I become certified to deliver Simply Strengths, what are the ongoing costs for delivering this program?

Once you become certified, the only additional cost associated with rolling this program out within your organization/to your clients is as follows:

a) Participant License Fees. For every participant you train, you will be required to pay a $250 materials/license fee. There are price breaks available for bulk materials/license purchases.