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Veritas Cultures’ Facilitation Certification Offerings
Veritas Culture is the foremost industry expert in facilitating Culture and Diversity-to-Belonging-focused dialogue. They have been by-name requests to facilitate in response to national level incidents such as the George Floyd murder, the Kavanaugh Confirmation, and the Charlottesville Race Riots. Additionally, they have performed over 200 culture and diversity-to-belonging assessments across private sector, non-profit, and government entities.
Veritas has taken their experiences and developed a transformative program that combines facets of traditional facilitation with modern and trauma informed approaches to facilitation.
Additionally, Veritas’ facilitation certification courses have been approved by the International Institute for Facilitation (INIFAC) and International Coaching Federation (ICF). To the former, INIFAC is the oversight body that has approved Veritas to certify Culture Facilitators and Diversity-to-Belonging Facilitators. To the latter, ICF has approved Veritas’ facilitation courses for continuing education credits for ICF certified coaches.
Outside of these credentials and recognitions, instructors for Veritas Cultures’ facilitation certification courses are Certified Master Facilitators, Certified Diversity Executives, former Directors of Inclusion, Former Culture Executives, and former Diversity Executives.
Applicants for the Culture Facilitation Certification or Diversity-to-Belonging Facilitation Certification are not required to take a Veritas Culture training course. By applying for the certification, applicants are agreeing to participate in a two-part exam process.
Part 1 of the exam process is facilitation. More specifically, applicants are required to demonstrate their ability to facilitate Culture or Diversity-to-Belonging-focused dialogue in a realistic setting. Applicants can demonstrate this ability in one of two ways.
- Participate in a Veritas Culture facilitation training course in which all students are required to facilitate on multiple occasions throughout the course.
- Take an extended verbal exam. (See below for more information)
Part 2 of the exam process is a verbal exam that will be administered by Veritas Culture staff. This exam will be inclusive of (10) scenario-based questions that test an applicants’ ability to a) facilitate difficult and nuanced discussions and b) respond to difficult and nuanced situations. Each question is worth up to 17 points. More specifically, Veritas exam proctors will be scoring the applicants responses to each question on a scale of 1-to-17. This means that applicants can get a maximum of 170 points for the verbal exam.
For those who have not participated in a Veritas Culture Facilitation training course, the exam will also include a 10-minute facilitation by the applicant based on a scenario created by the Veritas Culture proctor. This exercise is worth up to 30 points. More specifically, Veritas exam proctors will be scoring the applicants overall facilitation capability on a scale of 1-to-30.
Applicants can receive up to 200 total points and must score at least 170 out of 200 points to be (85%) certified.
Applicants who do not receive the necessary 85% will be required to retest.
The Certification Coaching Session is available to applicants who wish to get coaching from Veritas Culture staff. There are several reasons why someone may choose to opt for the coaching option.
- They have not taken a Veritas Culture course and just want to have a deeper discussion about Culture and Diversity-to-Belonging facilitation.
- They have been a lifelong facilitator and want to better understand techniques and approaches to facilitating on the fly.
- They have taken a Veritas Culture course and want coaching before taking the exam – this to shore up on some areas based on in-class feedback they received.
The Certification Coaching Sessions will be with Veritas Culture facilitation experts who are also trained coaches.
Frequently Asked Questions
The name Veritas (truth) means something to us. We are very forthright with people about their potential and capabilities in the Culture and Diversity-to-Belonging facilitation space.
If you are confident in your ability to facilitate culture and DEI&B related dialogue and you have direct experience doing these within the last 3 years, the course may not be necessary for you. This is especially true if you are comfortable facilitating on the fly. This means facilitating without agenda, without ground rules, and without pre-session planning. If you are not comfortable or experienced with this, we recommend you take a Veritas course first.
The two traditional facilitation types are strategic (think: offsites, visioning, etc.) and team building. Each of these involve lots of pre-session planning, agendas, engagement strategies, and ground rules. These help bound conversations and simplify the process. Culture and Diversity-to-Belonging facilitation do not utilize these techniques and thus traditional facilitators can struggle getting certified in these areas.
Organizations are increasing their demand for facilitators who are certified, this given the increase in sensitivities, divisiveness, and litigation that come into play when tackling culture and DEI&B related matters. They are less likely to take chances on people who identify as skilled facilitators but don’t have the credentials to back it up.
Culture Facilitation Certification tests an individual’s ability to facilitate in broad culture focused settings while Diversity-to-Belonging Facilitation focuses specifically on facilitating diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEI&B) focused settings.