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ToP® Training · Advanced Course

You built the plan. Now keep it alive.

You built the plan. Now keep it alive. Two days. Dozens of tools. A course for the hardest part of the work — implementation.

TSI is the standalone advanced course on the ToP® training path. It picks up where the plan ends — helping you (and your groups) do the part most training ignores: the actual implementation.

Why This Course

Plans don't fail at the vision stage.

You created an inspiring vision and a great plan. Now how do you actually get it done?

Plans don't fail at the vision stage. They fail in the months and years after the retreat, when pressure builds, priorities shift, people leave, new people arrive mid-stream, and the document that everyone owned starts collecting dust.

Implementation is where strategic work actually lives or dies — and it's almost always solvable with the right tools. This course gives you those tools. Not one approach, but dozens — practical methods to keep plans alive, relevant, and achievable through the natural ups and downs of a plan's life cycle.

The retreat is the easy part. Implementation is where the work happens.
What You'll Leave Able to Do

Concrete skills. Ready Monday morning.

You don't just leave with notes. You leave with specific capabilities you can use in the meetings you're already leading.

Understand and anticipate the ups and downs of implementing strategy.

Be prepared for the pressure, drift, and course-correction moments instead of surprised by them. Implementation has predictable patterns — once you know them, you can work with them instead of against them.

Initiate dynamic plans and bring them to concrete conclusions.

Move from aspiration to completed outcomes. Not just "we made progress" — actual completion, with the group able to see what they accomplished.

Sustain momentum through the long middle of implementation.

The part where plans usually stall. You'll learn specific techniques for keeping energy alive, re-centering attention, and holding the work steady when the initial excitement fades.

Review and reposition projects in process.

Course-correct without starting over. Most plans go sideways at some point — the skill is knowing when to adjust and how to do it without losing what's been built.

Bring new people into the work mid-stream.

Without losing continuity or requiring a reset. Team composition changes. Leadership changes. The work needs to survive those transitions — you'll learn tools that make onboarding mid-stream workable.

Bring closure to plans and celebrate the team's work.

Close strong so the next plan starts from momentum, not exhaustion. Closure is a capability most leaders skip — and skipping it costs the energy that would fuel the next round.

Who This Is For

Built for the people who lead the work.

Consultants and facilitators
Project and change managers
Active citizens and community organizers
Community engagement managers
Planners — strategic, community, organizational
Program managers and coordinators
Coalition conveners and collaborative leaders
Anyone responsible for bringing plans to reality
The Format

Two full days. Peer coaching on real challenges.

TSI has a unique peer-coaching structure — bring your real-life implementation challenges, and the group works through them together. You leave with dozens of tools tested against your actual work, not just theoretical methods.

2 days
Duration
In person
Delivery
Dozens
Of tools
Peer-led
Coaching
What's Included

Everything you need — during the course and after.

Your registration includes three things that stay with you long after the course ends.

The official ToP® Secrets of Implementation step-by-step manual and resource guide

A comprehensive reference you'll use long after the course ends — methods, designs, templates, and examples in one place.

One hour of coaching with one of your course trainers

Scheduled within 90 days of course completion. Bring a real challenge you're working on — a meeting you need to design, a planning session you're leading, a group dynamic you're navigating — and we'll work through it together.

Access to the Great Plains ToP® Community of Practice

Quarterly gatherings of ToP® practitioners across the region. Keep your skills sharp, learn from others, stay connected to the work.

Credentials & Continuing Education

Counts toward the credentials that matter.

Continuing Education Hours
13.5
CHES/MCHES
14.5
AICP
14
PDU
Prerequisites

None. TFM recommended.

TSI stands alone. ToP® Facilitation Methods and ToP® Strategic Planning are recommended but not required — prior facilitation experience helps, but the course is designed to work for practitioners coming in from many backgrounds.

What Participants Say

From people who took this course.

A substantive addition to [Strategic Planning] which provides many ideas and methods to move the group forward into implementation. I loved it.

Jane Stallman
Senior Partner, Center for Strategic Facilitation

I now have a clearer idea of the strategies a facilitator can use beyond the initial planning to help move a group towards the achievement of their goals.

Sacramento TSI Participant
Tiered Pricing

Priced by what your organization can carry.

Four tiers based on organization type and budget. Pick the one that fits honestly — no verification beyond the student discount.

Corporate · Large Nonprofit
$1,250
Organizations with budgets over $5M
Public · Government
$1,050
Public agencies and government staff
Individual · Mid-Sized Nonprofit
$950
Individual professionals or nonprofits $1–5M
Small Nonprofit · Student
$650
Small nonprofits under $1M; student ID required for student rate

Tiered pricing, not sliding scale. If the price is a barrier for your organization, please reach out — there may be other options.

Upcoming Cohorts

When you can take this course.

No public cohorts are scheduled right now. Join the waitlist and you'll be the first to know when the next TSI course opens for registration.

If you'd like to run this course in-house for your team, I also offer that — get in touch to talk about scope, dates, and pricing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Questions people ask before they register.

I haven't taken TFM — can I still take TSI? +
Yes. TSI stands alone. It's the only advanced ToP® course with no prerequisite. That said, TFM is recommended because implementation work gets easier when you're fluent in Focused Conversation and Consensus Workshop. If you come in without that foundation, you'll still get the full benefit of TSI's implementation tools — you just won't have the same depth to draw on when you apply them.
Is TSI part of the CTF credentialing pathway? +
TSI is a valuable elective for CTF candidates but is not one of the two core required courses (TFM and TSP). It strengthens your practice and counts toward the facilitation experience portion of the credential, but TFM and TSP are the direct path to the credential itself.
How is TSI different from project management training? +
Project management focuses on scope, timeline, and tasks — it's a top-down planning discipline. TSI focuses on the group dynamics and participatory practices that keep implementation alive through the messy middle: how to hold the work when energy drops, how to surface resistance before it derails things, how to course-correct with the team instead of over their heads. The two complement each other. If you already have PM training, TSI fills the relational and participatory gap.
Does this qualify for continuing education credits? +
Yes. TSI qualifies for 13.5 hours of CHES/MCHES credit, 14.5 hours of AICP credit, and 14 hours of PDU credit. (ICF does not accredit TSI — if ICF hours are your priority, TFM qualifies for 12.) Documentation is provided at the end of the course.
Who gets the most from TSI? +
People who've led or helped lead a plan that died in implementation. That's most leaders, eventually. TSI is especially valuable for coalition conveners, community change practitioners, consultants who hand off plans to clients, and internal leaders who are responsible for seeing strategic work through.
Is TSI offered virtually or only in person? +
All public TSI cohorts are delivered in person. In-house is available in person or virtually — contact me for scope and pricing.
What if TSI isn't currently scheduled? +
Join the waitlist below and you'll be the first to know when the next cohort opens. For groups of 6+ who are all working on related implementation challenges, in-house TSI is often a better option — and the peer-coaching structure works especially well with a connected team.
I'm a community organizer, not a corporate consultant — is TSI relevant for me? +
Yes. TSI was designed with community change work in mind as much as organizational work. The course is explicitly for "anyone responsible for bringing plans to reality" — which includes coalition conveners, community organizers, and grassroots campaign leaders. Many of the tools came out of community-change contexts originally.

Keep the plan alive long after the retreat ends.

Implementation is where strategic work actually lives or dies. If you've ever watched a great plan fade — or worked hard to keep one alive through the middle — TSI is the course that gives you the tools to do it consistently.