INTRODUCING

In Good Company

A smart new approach to corporate and organizational training that equips individuals and organizations with the tools to connect, communicate, and engage in complex conversations.

Our scalable and customized training programs are designed to help corporate and non-profit organizations empower their teams with skills needed to engage employees, stakeholders, and communities in more meaningful conversations. Through interactive workshops and facilitated discussions, we’ll provide professional development opportunities that cultivate open dialogue, foster trust, and build connection.

Clear and productive communication underpins the work of every organization. These are skills that need to be built and practiced as environments, expectations and goals change.

In Good Company understands the needs of today’s leaders. Intergenerational, inclusive, and community-driven workplaces require innovative approaches to support and cultivate their people and potential. 

We offer active and dynamic sessions that help teams explore diverse viewpoints, reflect on their own perspectives individually and collectively, and gain comfort with difficult conversations. We’ll equip your group with practical tools that strengthen communication and collaboration.

Let us help you build a workplace culture rooted in transparency, cooperation, and the power of every voice.

Our professional development training programs help participants:

  • Engage in thoughtful dialogue and genuine listening

  • Sit comfortably with disagreement

  • Develop self-reflection to enhance self-awareness and growth

  • Clarify personal values to guide decision-making

  • Deepen empathy and understanding

  • Build confidence and energy for connection

...and much more.

What we offer:

  • Have a conference or workshop coming up that needs to get off to a great start?
    In Good Company can enliven an upcoming event with an energizing one hour training session that focuses on the fundamental skills of everyday interactions like curiosity, compromise, or disagreement.

  • Have a specific challenge you want to address, like how to productively say no or hear divergent perspectives more effectively?
    We can use our practiced methodologies and extensive experience working with people from all walks of life to build a bespoke half-day program that tackles your needs.

  • Interested in gathering insight from your team to help inform a project or policy?
    We can run a one or two day workshop to bring people together, tap into collective intelligence, and give your teams the opportunity to meaningfully contribute. Through this session you will be able to create policies and plans that support your values, ideals and operations while demonstrating to your employees that they are a vital and valued part of the organization and your culture.

Get in touch to explore the right training program for you! Email us at learning@masslbp.com.

Developed in Denmark, the Democracy Fitness Program offers a fun, dynamic way to grow and strengthen fundamental social capabilities - the tools of “everyday democracy”.

In a supportive, guided environment participants practice essential skills like active listening, productive disagreement, and empathy-building. Through training these critical skills, participants reinvigorate their social energy. They build the confidence to engage in constructive and generative conversations, learn more about themselves, and explore diverse perspectives with curiosity.

How does it work?

A certified trainer will lead the group through engaging, carefully crafted activities to strengthen a “democracy muscle” - all in 30 minutes or so.

Each of the ten muscles is developed differently, but the process will always include an initial step to get into the right frame of mind, activating exercises, and a guided reflection on the experience, allowing each participant to evaluate the strength of their own muscle and explore ways to apply it in their daily lives.

Following a training session, individuals have reported feeling more connected, open minded, and refreshed. They have an improved capacity to listen, to be more courageous, and to be an active participant in their communities.

Our team is exclusively trained to deliver this program in Canada. Get in touch for a personalized program tailored to your needs by emailing learning@masslbp.com.

JOIN OUR ANNUAL WEB COURSE | DATES TO BE ANNOUNCED IN JUNE 2025

Working with the public

WWtP is an online course for public sector and non-profit professionals. We’ve packed five 90-minute sessions with some of our best tools for rethinking how you can work more effectively with the public and stakeholders. Drawing on a decade of experience leading hundreds of collaborative, participatory and deliberative projects, we share our approach to working effectively with the public while breaking down why public processes sometimes go awry.

You should take this course if:

  • You are responsible for leading or overseeing public consultations.

  • You oversee or develop policy and want to learn how to integrate public consultation into the policy-making cycle.

  • You are already familiar with general approaches to public consultation and want a deeper understanding.

  • You want to learn new tools and skills that can to help your organization raise its game.

  • You are looking for energy, community and inspiration.

You can expect to learn:

  • How to work from first principles and clarify your purpose.

  • How to align your work with the policy cycle — and when to move it upstream.

  • How to match ‘formats’ with function.

  • How to spot trouble before consultations go off-the-rails.

  • New ways of thinking about the public as a resource.

If you take this course, you will:

  • Have an energizing and dynamic experience.

  • Gain new insights that change how you think about the public.

  • Start using our tools in your work right away whether online or offline.

  • Make new friends and colleagues.

How the course works:

The course is taught over Zoom to up to 12 participants. You will get the most out of this if you bring a specific project, challenge or idea into the course. Maybe there’s a public process you’re in the midst of designing or a way of thinking or working that you’re trying to change. The course is designed to help you learn from your situation, challenge or case study. Between sessions, you will have short exercises to complete that you will share with other participants, both providing and receiving feedback.

The course instructors are also available to you during specific office hours to discuss the course content as well as your work.

The course sequence:

  1. Attend the Tuesday session. Each session features a thirty minute presentation followed by a lively discussion.

  2. Write a brief response to the prompt at the end of every session. Tag your study team so they can review what you’ve posted and comment on your ideas.

  3. Consider the feedback you receive. Reflect and write a short response so that you can keep track of what you’re learning.

What people are saying about the course

“Thank you for a wonderful course. I will be using what I have learned in my daily work and personal life.”

“This wise course should be required learning for all professionals who are involved with public consultation, democratic renewal, or policy development. Packed full of insight, principles, processes, and techniques, this course is an elegantly guided tour of all the essential elements for creating pro-social publics.”

“Great learning and sharing opportunity! Laurie and Peter are excellent guides for those who want to learn how to best work with the public and get all stakeholders on board in a transformative way.”

“‘Working with the public’ lays out a detailed roadmap towards more purposeful and constructive public engagement. It could also be described as a crash course in finding your democratic muscle and learning how to use it.”

“As an architect, planner, and educator, I found this course to be incredibly helpful in furthering my knowledge and practice of engagement. I found it really interesting to connect with other people in the course from other parts of the world. Engagement is a critical component of city-building and learning from Peter MacLeod and Laurie Drake was enjoyable and so informative. I highly recommend this course!”

“Whether you have been working with the public for years or have just started out, this course is exactly what you need!”