California Facilitator
Facilitated planning, leadership and team sessions for organizations from the Bay Area to the border.
We create sessions that are greater than the sum of their parts, guided by award-winning facilitators.
- 110,000+people facilitated globally
- Award-winningfacilitators
- Bay Area to San Diegoin person, virtual or hybrid
We design sessions that leave teams with shared clarity, specific commitments, and the momentum to follow through.
Trusted by teams across the public, private and non-profit sectors
California
Facilitation for teams spread the length of California
Positive Impact Professional Development facilitates strategic planning, leadership development, team retreats, and change management for organizations across California. The practical fact that shapes almost every engagement here is distance: a group drawn from San Diego, the Bay Area and Sacramento is a set of flights rather than a set of drives, so the day everyone is finally in one room has to earn what it cost to assemble.
We're a Canadian company and we cross the border for in-person work, which we'd rather say plainly than imply an office we don't have. What we bring is the facilitation craft: someone neutral who owns the process so your people can own the content. You know your organization and your regions better than any visiting facilitator will, and our job is to build the room where that knowledge gets used.
What we do
The areas California teams call us in for
Every engagement starts with your context. If your challenge isn't listed here, ask us anyway.
Strategic Planning
Planning for an organization with sites hundreds of miles apart means the plan gets written in one region and delivered in four. We facilitate the process so the people doing the delivering help shape it, which is usually what decides whether it survives contact with the year.
Learn moreCommunication Training & COMS
Our own communication styles framework, giving teams a common language for how they each work. It does its best work where most of the year's communication happens in writing and on video, and tone is being guessed at rather than heard.
Learn moreTeam Development & Team Building
Retreats, offsites and tailored sessions that build the trust and psychological safety strong teams depend on. When a group only convenes once or twice a year, what happens on those days carries the rest of it.
Culture & Engagement
From vision and values work to culture shifts, we help turn shared purpose into commitments people live by, including in organizations where one region's way of working has quietly become the whole company's default.
Leadership Development & Executive Coaching
Hands-on coaching and development for managers and executives, aimed at building clarity and confidence in how they lead. Often people leading teams they see in person a handful of times a year.
Corporate Training
Participant-led training designed around your people, with tools that stay useful long after the session ends. Delivered to one site, or run as a series of shorter virtual sessions when gathering everyone would cost more than the training.
Every engagement we run is shaped around your team. Tell us where your people are and what you need decided, and we'll build the right session around it.
Share what you're working onHow We Facilitate
Sessions built around the decision, not around filling the day
There's no prepared script. We guide the process, your team brings the expertise, and together we build toward a plan your people helped shape and will actually use.
In California that usually means being ruthless about the agenda, because in-person time here is genuinely scarce and the instinct is always to cram it. Facilitator-guided, participant-led, and designed so the expensive day carries the conversations that actually need everyone's face in the room.
Get in Touch
Why work with us
Three ways California teams engage a facilitator
Every engagement is customizable, but most start in one of these shapes.
Quarterly or monthly
Ongoing Partnership
Quarterly or monthly sessions with the same lead facilitator, mostly virtual, anchored by the one or two in-person days a year you already hold. Context carries between them instead of being rebuilt each time.
Best for: teams that gather rarely and need the year to still add up.
Ask about a partnershipMulti-day, immersive
Multi-Day Offsite
Extended session for strategic planning, leadership development or a culture shift. When you've paid to fly everyone in, two days costs far less per day than one and gives the difficult conversation somewhere to go.
Best for: the decisions that genuinely need everyone in one room.
Talk about an offsiteHalf-day to full-day
Single Workshop
A focused half or full day built around one question the group needs to settle, or one skill such as communications or building trust. Often the better choice virtually, and always the cheaper one.
Best for: teams that know exactly what they need to work through.
Ask about a workshop
How we facilitate
A clear path from first call to follow-through
Each engagement follows a similar path, and includes the same care, from your first call to the work that carries on long after everyone has flown home.
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Discovery
A call to understand your context, your goals, and which regions need a seat at the table.
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Design
A session designed around what has to be decided, not around the hours available.
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Facilitation
One lead facilitator holding the process, in the room or on screen.
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Materials
Materials and tools your team can keep using afterward.
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Follow-up
A summary with commitments and clear next steps.
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Support
Optional support to help momentum carry past the session.
Why facilitation?
How a team works together shapes everything it creates.
$100 Million
is the yearly cost for big companies for staff being in pointless meetings.
65%
of senior managers say that meetings keep them from completing their own work.
58%
of Americans would rather go to a doctor's appointment than attend a work meeting.
75%
of decision-makers feel that collaboration needs to be improved in their companies.
Forrester Research, 2021
Outcomes
What your team walks away with
Fewer topics, actually settled
A day that closes with decisions made rather than ten subjects aired and none resolved, which is the usual outcome when a scarce day gets over-filled.
Real buy-in
Because people helped shape the outcome, they leave invested in it rather than briefed on it.
Connection that survives the distance
The trust and psychological safety that lets a group work well together for the many months of the year they will only see each other on a screen.
Action that sticks
Clear commitments and ownership that carry into Monday morning, not just good intentions on the day.
Every region heard, not just the biggest one
Structured input so the parts of the organization with the fewest people in the room still shape the outcome.
A record everyone can point at
A written summary of what was decided, who owns it, and by when. Particularly useful when most of the people affected were never in the room at all.
Client stories
Real teams, real outcomes
These aren't all California engagements, and we won't pretend otherwise. They're the kinds of sessions we run and the outcomes teams point to afterward.
What our clients say
It was a pleasure to work with Will and Positive Impact. I was both inspired and empowered to co-deliver a meaningful offsite. Their positive incite into leadership performance and emotional resilience gave me clear direction and tactical tools I could apply to my workplace right away. I thoroughly look forward to working with Will again.
- Haley Daniels
Olympian and Motivational Speaker
Thanks for your incredible support, kindness, professionalism, and realness.
It was my sincere pleasure and privilege to work with you on our event.
You are a unique and special human, and I’m grateful that our paths crossed on this project, and look forward to the next time.
- Shauna Grinke, MBA, CPHR
Vice President - People and CultureThe workshop was an incredibly valuable experience for our team — the facilitator created an open, engaging environment that encouraged honest discussion and collaboration. The content was thoughtfully tailored to our team’s specific goals, making the session both relevant and actionable. We’re excited to continue partnering with Positive Impact to build on the great momentum sparked in this session.
- Shannon Charbonneau
Account Director
Treetop Marketing and Promotion Inc.
I’m leaving our session with a sense of optimism that I haven’t had in a while. It was time extremely well spent! I am sure that we all feel much closer and more connected.
- Participant
MDA Geointelligence Engineering Leadership SummitThe environment that was created made me feel comfortable to participate and collaborate with my colleagues. It was very well organized. I liked the outcome of the brainstorm sessions and warmup activities.
- ParticipantThe level of engagement and pace of the training was excellent. Like the fact that this workshop was trainer-guided, but participants lead!
- ParticipantFantastic facilitating most importantly Will understood when to let us talk and when to corral us back on track. Excellent value this afternoon.
- Engagement Workshop Participant
100% Satisfaction Guarantee.
We stand behind the quality of our work with complete confidence. If you're not fully satisfied with the results, we'll make it right.
Your trust matters more to us, and our guarantee acknowledges our belief that you deserve to feel confident in every investment you make with us. That's a standard we hold ourselves to, every time.
Ready to talk about your team?
Get in TouchAround the state
Where sessions happen, and what usually fits
California is long enough that the regions run on different economies and different rhythms. Where you gather is worth deciding on purpose rather than defaulting to wherever head office happens to sit.
| Region | Organizations based there | Format that usually fits |
|---|---|---|
| The San Francisco Bay Area | Technology and AI, venture capital and finance, biotechnology, universities and research institutes, professional services | In person. The densest pool of meeting space in the north and the easiest place to assemble a northern group. |
| Los Angeles, Orange County and the South Coast | Entertainment and media, aerospace and defence, logistics and the ports, health systems, apparel, professional services | In person, chosen by traffic rather than by address. Where in the basin you meet decides who arrives on time and who arrives annoyed. |
| San Diego and the border region | Life sciences and biotechnology, defence and the employers around it, telecom, tourism, cross-border manufacturing | In person, and usually its own trip rather than a day bolted onto a Los Angeles visit. |
| Sacramento and the Capital region | State agencies and commissions, health systems, higher education, associations with a statewide membership, policy bodies | In person. Statewide public sector sessions often land here rather than in the Bay Area, and the calendar follows the legislative year. |
| The Central Valley and Central Coast | Agriculture and food processing, wine, logistics and distribution, water districts, health and education, municipal government | In person, scheduled around the growing season. This is the part of the state most often asked to attend a meeting designed somewhere else. |
| Fully virtual or hybrid | Any of the above sessions, delivered on screen | Shorter blocks rather than a full day on camera, with structured turn-taking. For most statewide teams this carries the year between the one or two occasions everyone is genuinely together. |
A local detail that matters
The day everyone flies in is expensive, so it gets over-filled and nothing gets settled
California is longer than most of the countries we work in. A group drawn from San Diego, the Bay Area and Sacramento means airfares in at least two directions, a hotel night for half the room, and a travel day on either side of the session. So teams here gather in person rarely, often once or twice a year, and video carries everything in between.
That scarcity does something predictable to the agenda. When a day costs that much to assemble, the instinct is to fill it. Ten topics go on the list because everyone has flown in and leaving time unused feels wasteful. The day runs well, covers all ten, and settles none of them, because deciding takes considerably longer than discussing and there was never room for both.
We design the other way round. In discovery we ask what has to be true by the end of the day, then cut the agenda until the schedule can genuinely deliver that, with time left over for the disagreement it surfaces. The topics that come off the list aren't dropped, they move to the virtual sessions either side, which is exactly what those are good at. An expensive room should be spent on the conversations that need everyone's face in it.
One more thing worth naming out loud. A statewide group spans a real range of cost and pace: the median wage on the coast runs well above the Central Valley and the far north, and so does the assumed budget behind a casual suggestion. We put that difference on the table early rather than letting it sit underneath the conversation, and we make sure the examples used in a session come from more than one part of the state.
Featured Workshops
Each of these runs in person, virtually, or as a hybrid, and each is designed around your goals rather than delivered off a shelf.
COMS Communication Styles
COMS is our own communication styles assessment, grounded in research and facilitated by our team. It gives your people a shared way to talk about how they each work, so different styles become an advantage instead of a source of friction.
It earns its keep fastest on groups that mostly communicate in writing and on video. Tone is guessed at rather than heard in those channels, and the same two people misread each other for years without either of them ever saying so.
Eight questions, one simple grid, and a reference the whole team can point at months later.
Learn more
Strategic Planning
This is where your team gets a real say in shaping and carrying out the organization's direction, landing on initiatives that actually move forward.
We facilitate the process so the people running operations in Fresno or San Diego shape the plan rather than receive it, which is usually the difference between a plan that lands and one that gets politely ignored.
A strategic plan is a living, breathing document. We stay involved as it plays out over the following months and years.
Learn more
5 Dysfunctions of a Team
This session takes a good team and helps make it excellent. We draw on Patrick Lencioni's well-known framework, approached through an appreciative inquiry lens that starts with what's already working.
It lands well with groups that are mostly remote from each other, where trust has to be built deliberately rather than accumulated by sharing a floor. The five behaviours, trust, conflict, commitment, accountability and results, are all on the table.
Your people walk away with shared language for how they work together, and a plan for moving forward that they built themselves.
Learn more
Our Core Team
Great content is only made better by great facilitators
Will Chambers
Founder & Facilitator
Award-winning facilitator and Founder of Positive Impact, with sessions delivered to tens of thousands of people. Will focuses on strategy, leadership, team dynamics and communication, turning concepts into clear, committed action.
More about Will
Lindsay Davis
Coach & Strategist
Award-winning coach and entrepreneurial guide, with experience spanning rural entrepreneurs in Africa to multimillion-dollar companies. Helps leaders focus on what matters most and build the resilience to anticipate challenges and move through them.
More about LindsayMichael Lorsch
Facilitator & Learning Consultant
Brings facilitation and learning design from theatre stages to executive boardrooms, including in-house work with lululemon. Blends mindfulness, relationship systems and human-centred design to keep people at the centre of every session.
More about Michael
Jason Maraschiello
Coach & Facilitator
Certified life and corporate coach, mindfulness and meditation teacher. Uses mindfulness and effective communication to help people set manageable goals, find work-life balance and build the support to follow through.
More about Jason
For work in California we assign one lead facilitator who travels for the session and stays with you through the follow-up, rather than handing you to a different person each time. Beyond the core team, we draw on a wider network of facilitators and subject-matter experts, matched to the goals, sector, and people of each engagement.
Before you book
Worth reading first
Six pieces that answer the questions most teams have before a first session.
- Hybrid sessions Making mixed in-person and remote sessions work Read the guide
- In the room The role of active listening in facilitation Read the guide
- Reading a room The importance of cultural sensitivity in facilitation Read the guide
- Strategic planning Why organize a strategic planning session Read the guide
- Honest advice When not to hire a facilitator, and what to do instead Read the guide
- Measurement How to measure the success of a facilitation session Read the guide
Frequently Asked Questions
Facilitation in California
Are your facilitators based in California?
No. Positive Impact is a Canadian company and our facilitators travel to California for in-person work. We'd rather say that plainly than imply a local office we don't have. What travels well is the facilitation craft itself. What doesn't travel is knowledge of your organization and your regions, which is precisely why our sessions are built to draw that out of the room rather than import it.
Our people are spread across the state. Should we meet in person or virtually?
Virtually for a single working question, in person for the decisions that need everyone's face in the room. The honest test is whether the conversation involves disagreement people are reluctant to voice, because that is the one thing video reliably suppresses. If the day is mostly information and alignment, flying twelve people in to hear it is an expensive way to hold a meeting, and we'll say so.
We only get everyone together once a year. How do we not waste it?
By cutting the agenda rather than filling it. The common failure here is putting ten topics on a day that cost a great deal to assemble, covering all ten, and settling none, because deciding takes longer than discussing. We work backwards from what has to be true by the end of the day and trim until the schedule can genuinely deliver that. The topics that come off move to the virtual sessions either side.
Where in the state do sessions usually happen?
Wherever the largest share of your group already is, unless there's a reason to choose otherwise, and there often is. Holding a statewide session in Sacramento rather than the Bay Area signals something to a public sector group. Holding it in Fresno signals something to a workforce that usually travels to the coast. We'll talk that through on the first call, because the venue is part of the message whether you intend it or not.
How do you handle a group drawn from very different parts of the state?
By naming the difference early instead of letting it sit under the conversation all day. Regions here run on different economies, different costs and different rhythms, and a session designed around one region's assumptions reads as slightly foreign to everyone else. Practically that means structured input so the smallest delegations still shape the outcome, and examples drawn from more than one part of the state.
What kinds of organizations do you work with here?
Leadership teams, boards, and departments across private, public, and non-profit organizations. In California that tends to mean technology and life sciences employers, aerospace and defence, health systems, state agencies and commissions, higher education and research institutes, agriculture and food processing, logistics and the ports, foundations, municipalities, and associations with a statewide membership. Group size ranges from an executive team of eight to a leadership summit of sixty.
Is it cheaper to run this virtually?
Considerably, and sometimes it's also better. Virtual sessions carry no travel or venue cost, and for one clear working question they often produce a tighter result because nobody is trying to justify the airfare by adding topics. Where in-person genuinely matters, travel is quoted as a separate line item so you can see exactly what it adds, and a two-day session costs far less per day than a one-day one once you've already paid to gather everyone.
How far ahead should we book?
Six to eight weeks is comfortable for an in-person session, and more if you're coordinating flights for a statewide group. That window covers a proper discovery call, a session design built around your goals rather than a template, and any pre-work such as an anonymous survey or short interviews. Public sector calendars follow the legislative and budget year, so tell us yours early. Virtual sessions can move considerably faster.
Let's talk about your team
Tell us what you're working through and where your people actually are, and we'll tell you honestly whether facilitation is the right tool, whether the day needs to be in person at all, and what a session in California would look like.
Get in Touch
