Why we do what we do

Caption: Our purpose is to help people achieve amazing things in groups. Background: Blue sky with an eagle high above flying with outspread wings

 

The world needs great facilitators for a more just and sustainable world

We help you build collaborative cultures where people can thrive.  We provide exceptional facilitation services, practical workplace training and specialist courses addressing collaborative management, group facilitation and the broad arena of helping people work well together.

We are a values-based organisation helping you harness the wisdom of groups, sensitively navigate transformation and work through interpersonal challenges. Our work is founded on principles of self-awareness and compassion, designed to give individuals and groups skills to achieve their goals. We use simple processes that are unique, highly accessible and thoroughly road tested. We’ve been tailoring them to help our clients since 1984.

As part of our growth, in January 2019 we became the Groupwork Centre. We continue to work closely with Commonground Training Resources and our focus remains helping people work well together.

Tall forest trees with an owl looking at you while siOur vision is a just and sustainable world on a background image of tall forest trees with an owl looking at you

 

Our story began back in 1984…

Originally working in the community sector, our founders asked themselves: What is our best contribution towards a just and sustainable world?

The answer was: Go behind the scenes and help groups work well together.

So in 1984, we started Commonground Training Resources with two key aims:

  • To provide support for organisations to work well together to maximise their impact
  • To create a retreat venue in the bush for community-based groups to get away for training and support

Caption: Our Why: Because groups have the capacity to transform the world. Background: Blue sky with white clouds

We identified three key areas:

  1. Facilitating for others
  2. Collaborative management/leadership
  3. Collaborative workplace training

This focus is based on our belief in the transformational capacity of groupwork – when people can work well together in groups, it is good for the individual, the group and the broader community

Today, decades later, we are still helping people and groups work well together, based on principles of self-awareness and compassion, to give you skills to achieve your goals.

For the story about our benchmarking facilitation qualification, please see How our Advanced Groupwork Facilitation Course came to be

Read about our Co-founder Glen Ochre’s life story:

The journey of the Groupwork Centre and Commonground 

Our vision, purpose and why propel our work in the world

 

If you’re curious to learn more about how the craft of facilitation came to be recognised in Australia, see see our post: History of facilitation in Australia