Saskatoon Facilitator
Facilitated planning, leadership and team sessions for Saskatoon organizations, from research institutes to resource head offices.
We create sessions that are greater than the sum of their parts, guided by award-winning facilitators.
- 110,000+people facilitated globally
- Award-winningfacilitators
- Saskatoon and regionin 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
Saskatoon
Facilitation for Saskatoon teams
Positive Impact facilitates strategic planning, leadership development, team retreats, and change management for organizations in Saskatoon. This is a research and resources city, with potash and mining head offices alongside one of the more significant agricultural science clusters anywhere, and that produces rooms full of people trained to be careful with conclusions.
We won’t tell you we have an office on 2nd Avenue, because we don’t. What we bring is the facilitation craft: someone neutral who owns the process so your people can own the content. If your footprint is the whole province, our Saskatchewan page covers that, and we have a separate page for Regina.
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
Research-led organizations plan on long horizons and short funding cycles at the same time. We facilitate the process so a five or ten year direction still produces something the group commits to this quarter.
Learn moreCommunication Training & COMS
Our own communication styles framework, giving teams a common language for how they each work. Useful where scientists, engineers and commercial colleagues have to agree, and each has been trained to signal confidence differently.
Learn moreTeam Development & Team Building
Retreats, offsites and tailored sessions that build the trust and psychological safety strong teams depend on. There are venues within half an hour of the city that get a group out of the building without losing half a day.
Culture & Engagement
From vision and values work to culture shifts, we help turn shared purpose into commitments people live by, including in organizations that have grown from a research group into something that now needs management.
Leadership Development & Executive Coaching
Hands-on coaching and development for managers and executives, very often principal investigators, engineers or geologists now leading the people doing the work they used to do themselves.
Corporate Training
Participant-led training designed around your people, with tools that stay useful long after the session ends. Delivered in Saskatoon, or split across Saskatoon and Regina when your team genuinely sits in both.
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 often means helping a rigorous group make a decision the evidence cannot fully settle, without anyone feeling they abandoned their standards to do it. Facilitator-guided, participant-led, and explicit about which questions the data can answer and which it cannot.
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 what your team believes it needs to know before it can decide.
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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 someone say the evidence is thinner than the deck suggests, early enough for it to matter.
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
These aren’t all Saskatchewan 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 province
Where sessions happen, and what usually fits
Most Saskatoon work sits inside the city, and the research, resource and commercial parts of it keep noticeably different rhythms.
| Region | Organizations based there | Format that usually fits |
|---|---|---|
| Downtown and the riverbank | Mining and potash head offices, engineering and professional services, financial services, associations | In person, full day or multi-day. The deepest pool of meeting space in the city and walkable for most downtown teams. |
| The university and Innovation Place | Agricultural and plant science, synchrotron and vaccine research, food security institutes, post-secondary, spin-out companies | In person, and worth choosing when researchers are in the group. Being close to the lab is the difference between attending and half-attending. |
| The north end and the airport corridor | Distribution and logistics, manufacturing and fabrication, mining supply and services, trades employers | In person. Easier parking than downtown and a shorter run for shift-based teams. |
| Warman, Martensville and the surrounding region | Municipal bodies, health and education, agriculture, small and mid-size employers | In person, twenty to thirty minutes out, and often a friendlier drive for a regional group than asking everyone into the city. |
| Elsewhere in the province | Provincial ministries and Crown corporations, agriculture, energy, forestry, regional health and education | Regina is about two and a half hours south, so the two pair well on one trip. See our Saskatchewan page for province-wide work. |
A local detail that matters
In a research town, the hardest part is deciding before the evidence is complete
Saskatoon runs on research to an unusual degree. Plant science, food security, vaccine development, the synchrotron, the mining and potash technical base, and the engineering firms around all of it. That produces leadership teams holding a great many people who were trained, correctly, that stating a conclusion before the evidence supports it is a professional failing.
That instinct is right in a lab and awkward in a strategy session, because strategic decisions get made under uncertainty that will not resolve in time. So the room asks for more analysis. The analysis arrives, narrows the question without settling it, and the group asks for more. Everyone is behaving responsibly and the organization has not chosen anything in eighteen months.
The way through is to separate the two kinds of question rather than to push people to be less rigorous. Early in the day we split what the evidence can settle from what it cannot, and get the group to agree that split before anything is decided. The second list is then treated as a judgement call made openly, with the assumptions written down and a date to revisit them. That is a familiar move to a scientist: state the assumption, act on it, check it later. It is a great deal easier to commit to than being asked to simply decide.
Featured Workshops
Each of these runs in person, virtually, or as a hybrid, which matters when part of your team is here and part is at a site or a second office.
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 particularly useful where technical and commercial colleagues have to agree. Each has been trained to signal confidence differently, so a researcher’s careful hedging reads as doubt to a commercial colleague, and a commercial colleague’s confidence reads as overclaiming to a researcher.
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.
Research-led organizations plan on long horizons and short funding cycles at the same time. We facilitate the process so a ten-year direction still produces something the group commits to this quarter, with the assumptions behind it written down rather than assumed.
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 debate evidence readily and avoid debating each other. Rigorous argument about data is not the same as the interpersonal candour a team needs, and the difference shows in what never gets said. 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 Saskatoon 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.
- Wider footprint Facilitation across Saskatchewan Read the guide
- Market page Facilitation in Regina Read the guide
- Strategic planning Why organize a strategic planning session 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
- Afterwards Keeping momentum after the session ends Read the guide
Frequently Asked Questions
Facilitation in Saskatoon
Our team keeps asking for more analysis instead of deciding. Can facilitation help?
Yes, and it’s the most common thing we’re called for here. In a research-led organization people were trained, correctly, that stating a conclusion before the evidence supports it is a professional failing. That instinct is right in a lab and awkward in a strategy session, where the uncertainty won’t resolve in time. Everyone behaves responsibly and nothing gets chosen for eighteen months.
How do you get past that without asking people to lower their standards?
By separating the two kinds of question rather than pushing anyone to be less rigorous. Early in the day we split what the evidence can settle from what it cannot, and get the group to agree that split before anything is decided. The second list is then treated as a judgement call made openly, with the assumptions written down and a date to revisit them. State the assumption, act on it, check it later. That’s a familiar move to a scientist and far easier to commit to than being told to just decide.
Are your facilitators based in Saskatoon?
No. Our facilitators travel here for in-person work, and we’d rather say that plainly than imply a local office we don’t have. It also means we arrive with no history with anyone in the room, which in a professional community this size is often the more useful half of being an outsider.
Should I be on this page or the Saskatchewan one?
If your team sits in Saskatoon, this page. If your footprint is the province, with sites or members spread across it, the Saskatchewan page covers that and the different problems it brings. We also have a separate page for Regina, which is about two and a half hours south and works well as a pair with Saskatoon on a single trip.
Our researchers and our commercial team talk past each other. Is that a facilitation problem?
Usually yes, and it’s a translation problem rather than a values one. Both groups have been trained to signal confidence differently, so careful hedging reads as doubt to a commercial colleague and confident framing reads as overclaiming to a researcher. Neither is what the speaker meant. A shared vocabulary for that makes it checkable instead of assumed.
When should we avoid booking?
Seeding from roughly early May into June and harvest from late August into October, if anyone in your group is connected to agriculture, which in this city includes a good share of the research and commercial community as well as producers. November through March is when most organizations here can genuinely give a full day to something, and because everyone else wants those weeks, booking early matters more than it does elsewhere.
What kinds of organizations do you work with here?
Leadership teams, boards, and departments across private, public, and non-profit organizations. In Saskatoon that tends to mean potash and mining head offices and their supply chain, agricultural research and plant science, food security and vaccine research institutes, post-secondary and health, engineering and professional services, municipal teams, and Indigenous governments and organizations. Group size ranges from an executive team of eight to a leadership summit of sixty.
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. For the judgement calls, the assumptions behind each one are written down alongside a date to revisit them, which is usually what makes the decision hold. Most sessions also produce something structural, such as a plan on a page or an agreed set of priorities.
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 a session in Saskatoon would look like.
Get in Touch
