5toFold – Collaborative Decision-Making Workshop

The Challenge

The Hidden Cost of Poor Decision-Making Processes

Every day, organizations make decisions that fail to engage their people's wisdom, leading to weak implementation, hidden resistance, and missed opportunities for breakthrough solutions.

Compliance Without Commitment

Traditional voting creates winners and losers, leaving up to 49% of voices overshadowed and generating compliance rather than genuine engagement for implementation.

Implementation Failures

Decisions made without deep stakeholder input lack the robust foundation needed for success, leading to costly failures and organizational turmoil.

Silenced Wisdom

When processes don't create space for diverse perspectives, critical insights that could prevent future problems remain unspoken.

Eroded Trust

Top-down decisions on matters deeply affecting staff create disengagement, loss of trust, and cultures where people feel unheard and disconnected from purpose.

The Solution

5toFold Creates Collaborative, Purpose-Centered Decision-Making

5toFold is a proven facilitation methodology that honors every voice, gauges both agreement and commitment to implementation, and creates the conditions for decisions with strong chances of success through collective wisdom.

Six Levels of Engagement – Unlike Any Voting Method You Know

Unlike simple yes/no voting, 5toFold offers six finger-vote options that capture both the level of agreement AND the level of commitment each person has for implementation.

✋

5 – Lead

Strong support & willing to lead implementation

🖐️

4 – Support

Strong support for this proposal

🤟

3 – Solid

Solid support, will implement

✌️

2 – Concerns

Support with reservations

☝️

1 – Major Concerns

Major concerns, but no block

✊

Fold – Block

An act of courage that protects the organization

What You Will Learn

Your Complete Learning Journey

This comprehensive module takes you through 6 phases of learning based on the Evolutionary Spiral. Each phase builds upon the previous to ensure deep understanding and prepare you for practical application.

Discernment: Understanding Collaborative Decision-Making

Establish your baseline knowledge, explore the origin story of 5toFold — from elementary school circles to a powerful organizational tool gifted to the Genuine Contact community — and reflect on what you expect from decision-making processes.

Readiness: Setting Up for Success

Learn what you need to ensure sufficient readiness in yourself, the sponsor, and the organization. Develop a personal readiness checklist and understand when to use — and when not to use — 5toFold.

Engagement: Bringing People into the Process

Explore how 5toFold increases engagement through meaningful participation. Master the seven steps of the decision-making meeting and learn all four roles: Facilitator, Proposal Sponsor, Meeting Host, and Participants.

Construction: Planning Your 5toFold Process

Integrate all previous learning to construct a complete roadmap for a 5toFold process. Design the planning meeting, decision-making meeting, and post-meeting work using the Medicine Wheel Tool as a guide.

Implementation: Supporting Successful Outcomes

Examine the importance of planning for different results from the beginning. Learn to facilitate effective debrief meetings and support sponsors and groups after decisions are made.

Monitoring & Adjustment: Sustaining Learning and Improvement

Learn to monitor both the implementation of decisions and the decision-making process itself. Develop reflection practices that harvest learning and access ongoing mentoring circles for continued growth.

Your Facilitators

Learn From Experienced Practitioners

This workshop is facilitated by certified Genuine Contact trainers with deep experience applying 5toFold in diverse organizational contexts.

Eiwor Backelund Jacobsson

Genuine Contact Trainer

Eiwor has worked the Genuine Contact Way for more than 25 years as a consultant and leader. Experienced in its core processes, including 5toFold decision-making, she uses this impactful method with care to support informed, sustainable organizational decisions. Eiwor co-authored this learning module to share her experience and support other users.

Eiwor is based in Färgelanda, Sweden.

Anders Johansson

Genuine Contact Trainer

Anders has worked with the Genuine Contact Way and 5toFold for close to 20 years, both in his own practice and as a trainer. He is a co-author of the course and a certified Genuine Contact Trainer. For Anders, the strength of 5toFold lies in the fact that decisions are well-grounded by the time they are made. The process ensures that everyone involved has worked through the proposal along the way to the decision. He sees this as the key difference from majority voting, which easily creates losers who, consciously or unconsciously, will work against the decision.

Anders is based in Bengtsfors, Sweden.

Rachel Bolton

Director, Genuine Contact Organization

Rachel Bolton has been a Genuine Contact Trainer since 2002 – present from the beginning of the Genuine Contact Way – and has worked with 5toFold since it first arrived in the community in 2006. She is Director of the Genuine Contact Organization.

For Rachel, good collaborative decision-making is personal. She has navigated high-stakes decisions in family court and in the medical system as a parent – sitting on all sides of the decision-making table along the way. Those experiences taught her the difference between processes that create genuine conditions for good decisions and those that only look like they do. That difference is what she brings to every 5toFold training.

Rachel is based in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.

Your Investment

Your Investment in Decision-Making That Works

Join leaders, facilitators, and consultants from around the world in this comprehensive workshop.

Early Bird: Save €100 before 9 September

€497

Early bird rate · Regular price €597

2 half-days intensive learning experience
Comprehensive 6-phase curriculum
All workshop materials & 5toFold process guides
Personal implementation roadmaps & planning tools
Expert feedback and mentoring
Ongoing mentoring circle access
Certificate of completion
Networking with global professionals
1-year complementary Genuine Contact Organization membership*

Payment plans available · Inquire for details
*First-time GC learning module participants only

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Who should attend this workshop?

Leaders, facilitators, consultants, and organizational development specialists in purpose-centered organizations who want to learn a collaborative decision-making method that integrates with existing ways of working. Perfect for those committed to participatory processes, building cultures of leadership, and making decisions that honor collective wisdom while ensuring successful implementation.

Do I need prior experience with 5toFold or Genuine Contact?

No prior experience is required. The workshop begins with foundational concepts and progresses through advanced facilitation. Familiarity with participatory meeting facilitation and commitment to collaborative organizational values is beneficial.

What makes 5toFold different from consensus or majority voting?

5toFold moves beyond the pressure for compliance that consensus creates and the winner/loser dynamics of majority voting. With six finger-vote options, it captures both level of agreement AND commitment to implementation, creates space for authentic expression, and honors even one person's wisdom to prevent organizational harm through the Fold option.

Will I be able to facilitate 5toFold immediately after the workshop?

Yes. You'll leave with complete roadmaps, planning tools, understanding of the facilitator role, and ongoing mentoring support. The 6-phase approach ensures you understand not just the mechanics but the deeper principles that make 5toFold effective. You'll be prepared to facilitate decision-making meetings and guide organizations through the full three-phase process.

What ongoing support is provided?

You'll have access to regular mentoring circles facilitated by Genuine Contact trainers where you can discuss your experiences facilitating 5toFold. You also receive a 1-year complementary membership to the Genuine Contact Organization where you'll find ongoing consultation opportunities and a global network of practitioners.

When should organizations use 5toFold versus other methods?

5toFold works best when: there's a topic of great concern; the organization wants structures that empower people's leadership; participants are open to outcome; stakeholders can be meaningfully involved; and it's beneficial to know where energy exists for implementation. It's not appropriate when leaders are unsure about enacting results, when those responsible for implementation can't participate, or when critical information must be withheld from decision-makers.

What if I cannot attend? Will the workshop be offered again?

We offer this module periodically. Other GC Trainers may also offer this module online or in-person globally. You can request this module be delivered via 1:1 or small-group mentoring for you or a group of your chosen participants, like a leadership team or organizational board. Contact us for details.

Learn to Facilitate Collaborative Decision-Making That Honors Every Voice and Strengthens Implementation