Facilitation Across Canada
Facilitated planning, leadership and team sessions for organizations with people in more than one province.
We create sessions that are greater than the sum of their parts, guided by award-winning facilitators.
- 110,000+people facilitated globally
- Award-winningfacilitators
- Six time zonesin 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
Canada
Facilitation for organizations that operate in more than one province
Positive Impact facilitates strategic planning, leadership development, team retreats, and change management for organizations across Canada. National work is a different problem from regional work. A Canadian leadership team routinely spans five and a half hours of time difference, two official languages, and provinces whose regulatory and working realities genuinely differ, and a good share of the difficulty in a national session comes from that rather than from the topic.
If your session is for a team in one province, the regional pages linked below go into more detail on each market. This page is for organizations whose footprint is the country: national employers, associations with members in every province, federal bodies, and leadership groups that pull people in from several regions at once. What we bring is the facilitation craft: someone neutral who owns the process so your people can own the content.
What we do
The areas we're called in for most
Every engagement starts with your context. If your challenge isn't listed here, ask us anyway.
Strategic Planning
A national plan has to survive contact with regions operating under different rules and different conditions. We facilitate the process so the people delivering it in each region help shape it, which is usually the difference between a plan that lands and one that gets politely ignored in four provinces at once.
Learn moreCommunication Training & COMS
Our own communication styles framework, giving teams a common language for how they each work. On a national team it stops regional differences in directness being read as personality.
Learn moreTeam Development & Team Building
Retreats, offsites and tailored sessions that build the trust and psychological safety strong teams depend on. For a national group this is often the only time in the year everyone is physically together, which is an argument for protecting the unstructured hours rather than filling them.
Culture & Engagement
From vision and values work to culture shifts, we help turn shared purpose into commitments people live by, in organizations where each region has its own way of doing things and each is fairly sure theirs is the sensible one.
Leadership Development & Executive Coaching
Hands-on coaching and development for managers and executives, often regional leaders newly responsible for a national portfolio and finding the job changed more than the title did.
Corporate Training
Participant-led training designed around your people, with tools that stay useful long after the session ends. Delivered region by region across the country, or once to a group pulled in from all of them.
Every engagement we run is shaped around your team. Share what you're working on and we'll build the right session around it.
Share what you're working onHow We Facilitate
Sessions that turn conversation into a plan your team can actually run with
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.
Here that means designing around the clock as carefully as around the agenda, and being honest about which parts of the day genuinely need everyone together. Facilitator-guided, participant-led, wherever in the country people are sitting.
Get in Touch
Why work with us
Three ways teams here engage a facilitator
Every engagement is customizable, but most start in one of these shapes.
Quarterly or monthly
Ongoing Partnership
A facilitator who gets to know your team over time, so trust deepens and development compounds instead of starting fresh each session. Mostly virtual, anchored by one or two in-person days a year.
Best for: making development a habit rather than a one-off.
Ask about a partnershipMulti-day, immersive
Multi-Day Offsite
Extended session for strategic planning, leadership development or a culture shift. When we're flying east anyway, two days costs far less per day than one.
Best for: bigger decisions that need room to breathe.
Talk about an offsiteHalf-day to full-day
Single Workshop
A focused session built around one goal, whether that's a decision, a kickoff, or a skill like communications or building trust and psychological safety.
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 after we fly home.
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Discovery
A call to understand your context, your goals, and which regions genuinely need to be at the table.
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Design
Customized session design, built around your team, not a template.
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Facilitation
An experienced facilitator in the room or online, and in the room the day before.
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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
Better decisions, made together
Decisions the whole room actually gets behind, instead of quiet disagreement that surfaces later in the parking lot.
Real buy-in
Because people helped shape the outcome, they leave genuinely invested in it, not just told what was decided.
Stronger team connection
The kind of trust and psychological safety that lets high-performing teams work well together, including the folks who only ever 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.
Fresh thinking and better ideas
Space for your team's best thinking to surface, including ideas that might never have come up otherwise.
A record everyone can point at
A written summary of what was decided, who owns it, and by when. Useful when half the group has to brief a site that wasn't in the room.
Client stories
Real teams, real outcomes
A national practice means these engagements come from across the country rather than from one market. 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 country
Where we work, and where to look next
Canada is not one market and a national session is not a bigger version of a regional one. Each region below has its own page with more detail on the sectors and rhythms there.
| Region | What comes up most | Where to look next |
|---|---|---|
| British Columbia | Technology, ports and logistics, forestry and resources, health authorities, provincial government, tourism | British Columbia, with separate pages for Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo and Whistler. |
| Alberta | Energy and energy services, financial and professional services, provincial government, health networks, industrial operations | Alberta, with separate pages for Calgary and Edmonton. |
| Saskatchewan and Manitoba | Crown corporations, potash and mining, agriculture and agri-value, insurance and wealth management, aerospace, health and education | Saskatchewan, Regina and Winnipeg. |
| Ontario | Financial and professional services, technology, advanced manufacturing, federal departments and agencies, health networks, associations | Ontario, with separate pages for Toronto and Ottawa. |
| Atlantic Canada | Ocean technology and offshore energy, defence and shipbuilding, forestry and fisheries, health and post-secondary, provincial government | Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island. |
| Quebec | Head offices, aerospace and manufacturing, technology, public sector and associations | We facilitate in English. A session that genuinely needs to run in French deserves a francophone facilitator, and we will say so on the first call rather than take the booking. |
A local detail that matters
On a national session, the clock is the hardest part of the design
Canada spans five and a half hours from coast to coast, and the half hour is not a rounding error. Newfoundland sits thirty minutes ahead of the Maritimes, and Saskatchewan does not change its clocks at all, so its gap to its neighbours opens and closes twice a year without anything changing there.
The practical effect is that there is no good time for a national meeting, only less bad ones. A 9:00 start in Toronto is 6:00 on the west coast, which is not a working hour for most people. Move it to accommodate Vancouver and you are asking St. John's to stay past five. Whoever the default suits will not notice, and whoever it does not will notice every time.
So we design around it rather than defaulting. One clock pinned in every invitation and repeated in the agenda and the follow-up, always naming the zone. Sessions built as shorter blocks across two or three days rather than one long day that is brutal at one end of the country. And where a series is running, we rotate which region gets the awkward hour instead of letting the same people absorb it every time. That last one costs nothing and gets noticed.
Featured Workshops
Each of these runs in person, virtually, or as a hybrid, which is what makes them practical at national scale.
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's especially useful on national teams, where regional differences in how directly people speak get attributed to personality rather than to region. A shared vocabulary makes that checkable instead of assumed.
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.
A national plan has to survive contact with regions operating under different rules and conditions. We facilitate the process so the people delivering it in each region help shape it, rather than reading about it afterwards and quietly deciding how much of it applies to them.
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.
National leadership teams tend to be strong on results and thin on the trust underneath, because trust is built in unscheduled minutes and a calendar of video calls removes those entirely. 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 national work 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.
Looking for a specific market
Where to look next
Two market pages and four guides that answer the questions most teams have before a first session.
- Region Facilitation across British Columbia Read the guide
- Region Facilitation across Alberta Read the guide
- Region Facilitation across Ontario Read the guide
- Hybrid sessions Making mixed in-person and remote sessions work Read the guide
- Getting ready How to prepare your team for a facilitated session Read the guide
- Honest advice When not to hire a facilitator, and what to do instead Read the guide
Frequently Asked Questions
Facilitation across Canada
How do you schedule a session when the team spans five time zones?
By choosing deliberately rather than defaulting, because there is no good time for a national meeting, only less bad ones. A 9:00 start in Toronto is 6:00 on the west coast, which is not a working hour. Move it for Vancouver and you are asking St. John's to stay past five. We pin one clock in every invitation and name the zone, run shorter blocks across two or three days rather than one long day, and where a series is running we rotate which region gets the awkward hour.
Should we be on this page or a regional one?
If your team sits in one province, go to that region's page, since each covers the sectors and rhythms of that market in more detail. This page is for organizations whose footprint is the country: national employers, associations with members in every province, federal bodies, and leadership groups drawn from several regions at once.
Can you facilitate in French?
No, we facilitate in English, and we would rather say so plainly than let you discover it later. If your session genuinely needs to run in French it deserves a francophone facilitator, and we will help you look for one rather than take the booking. For bilingual rather than francophone rooms there is a workable middle ground, including materials prepared in both languages and small-group work in whichever language people think fastest in.
Do you bring the whole group together or run sessions regionally?
Depends on what the work needs, and we will give you an honest read. A national in-person gathering is expensive in travel and in people's time, so it should be reserved for the conversations that genuinely require a room: planning, culture work, and anything where trust is the constraint. Regional sessions plus structured virtual sessions cover most of the rest at a fraction of the cost, and often reach more of your people.
What kinds of organizations do you work with nationally?
Leadership teams, boards, and departments across private, public, and non-profit organizations. Nationally that tends to mean multi-province employers, associations with a country-wide membership, federal departments and agencies, health and post-secondary networks, and the Canadian arms of international companies. Group size ranges from an executive team of eight to a leadership summit of sixty.
How does travel affect what a session costs?
Travel is quoted as a separate line item, so you can see exactly what it adds. For national work the bigger cost is usually yours rather than ours: bringing your own people in from several provinces often costs more than the facilitation does, which is why we ask early whether the in-person day is earning that spend. Virtual sessions carry no travel cost at all.
How far ahead should we book?
Longer than for a regional session, because you are coordinating other people's travel as well as ours. Eight to twelve weeks is comfortable for a national in-person gathering. That covers a proper discovery call, a session design built around your goals rather than a template, and pre-work such as an anonymous survey or interviews across regions. Virtual sessions can move considerably faster.
What does our team actually walk away with?
A written summary with the decisions made, the commitments people made out loud, and who owns what by when. Most sessions also produce something structural, such as a plan on a page, a set of priorities the group agreed to, or shared language for how the team communicates. For national work we pay particular attention to whether the output makes sense to someone in a region who was not in the room.
Let's talk about your team
Tell us what you're working through and where in the province your people are, and we'll tell you honestly whether facilitation is the right tool and what the session should look like.
Get in Touch
