About Our Approach
The most effective facilitators don't follow a script—they lead from a place of self-awareness, curiosity, and authenticity.
Coaching & Conversation
Rather than teaching a single facilitation method, the Facilitation In Leadership coaching process helps you cultivate a facilitation practice that reflects your strengths, leadership style, and the types of conversations you're called to lead. Through guided reflection, practical application, and real-world problem solving, you'll develop both the confidence and the capabilities to lead meaningful conversations with intention.
Over four 90-minute coaching sessions, we'll explore:
Who are you as a facilitator?
Discover the experiences, strengths, and leadership qualities that shape your unique facilitation style.
Design with intention.
Learn to design meetings, workshops, and conversations that align with your strengths while creating the conditions for meaningful engagement.
Expand your practice.
Build practical tools and approaches that complement your facilitation style—from navigating conflict to encouraging participation and adapting in the moment.
Continue your journey.
Develop a personalized plan for continued learning, practice, and growth as a facilitator and leader.
You'll leave with a facilitation practice that is uniquely your own—grounded in your strengths, supported by practical tools, and ready to grow alongside your leadership.
Michelle Vigen Ralston
Advisor and Coach
Michelle Vigen Ralston is a facilitator, leadership coach, and strategic advisor who helps leaders navigate complexity with confidence, curiosity, and purpose.
For nearly 15 years, she has guided organizations, coalitions, and public agencies through complex decisions, stakeholder engagement, and organizational change. Michelle believes facilitation is one of the most important leadership practices we can develop—and that meaningful change begins with grounded leaders who know how to build trust, navigate difficult conversations, and move people toward shared understanding and action.
Michelle's approach is informed by Adaptive Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, and the practice of courageous, human-centered leadership. She translates these principles into practical skills that help leaders facilitate more effectively, navigate conflict with confidence, and create the conditions for collaboration, learning, and meaningful progress.
Michelle is a recipient of the Archibald Bush Foundation Leadership Fellowship and serves on the Advisory Council of the Rising Sun Center for Opportunity and the Building Electrification Institute. She is a Senior Fellow with the Environmental Leadership Program and has been a frequent speaker on leadership, stakeholder engagement, energy policy, and systems change, including as a lecturer for Columbia University's Earth Institute Sustainability Practicum. She holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs and a B.A. from St. Olaf College.