Facilitation Lab Podcast
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"Delight is actually a combination of multiple emotions; it is joy coupled with surprise. So, I've really been thinking about how I can bring in more of that delight with very small tweaks to our everyday rituals at my company."- JJ Rogers In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson speaks with JJ Rogers, Director of Product Design at Watermark and a facilitation expert. They discuss JJ's facilitation journey, from his early career to his current role, emphasizing the importance of engaging activities and setting clear expectations. JJ shares his strategies for combating disengagement, particularly in virtual meetings, by creating novel experiences and incorporating user feedback. They also touch on the scaled agile framework and the significance of preparation in facilitation. The episode concludes with JJ's focus on bringing joy into everyday meetings and his successful mentorship program at UXPA.
"I am a poor participant when I am poorly led, but when I'm well led through a process, I'm really willing to play along."- Rebecca Sutherns In this podcast episode of the Facilitation Lab, host Douglas Ferguson talks with Dr. Rebecca Southern about her journey in facilitation and the nuances of group work. Dr. Southern, with 27 years of experience and authorship of three books, including "Elastic Stretch Without Snapping or Snapping Back," shares her early discomfort with group work and how it influenced her interest in facilitation. She discusses the importance of well-structured and skillfully facilitated group processes and the potential of collaborative activities. The conversation touches on the challenges of group dynamics at various stages of life and the benefits of providing structure to group interactions to enhance efficiency and reduce awkwardness.
"We need facilitators to create that room. There are very few and the scientists who are quite enthusiastic as well as the decision leaders, what they know right now is PowerPoint one PowerPoint after another. And which is quite boring but they don't know what to do, how different, what other ways can we do it, can we pass on this information? Any sector that you talk about within Africa, they will need that, they will need facilitators because of the growth trajectory that we are looking at and the change that we need to bring about."- Eddie Jjemba In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Eddie Jumper from the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Center. Eddie discusses his work in making African cities resilient to climate change and his journey into environmental education. He shares his experiences in facilitation, including the importance of adapting to diverse cultures and contexts. Eddie also talks about the financial barriers to facilitation training in Africa and how the Red Cross is addressing this issue. The conversation also covers the use of games in facilitation, the process of designing meeting agendas, and the future of facilitation in the context of climate change.
“I think that is my superpower. I do connect. I believe that no one can be successful without the other. We need each other to thrive and we have to realize that we are strong in certain areas and others are strong in other areas. And together, when we do connect, we can do really incredible stuff. So I like connecting people, where people are talking to me and in my mind, I'm already thinking who am I going to introduce this person to so he or she can make his dream a reality. And that sort of kicks in automatically.” - Ma Roselle Junio In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson talks with Roselle, Global Head of Quality Training and Optimization for Concur Expense Audit and Capture Services at SAP. They discuss the importance of facilitation in the workplace, with Roselle sharing her journey and experiences in leading diverse teams. She emphasizes the value of connecting people, understanding multicultural dynamics, and having a growth mindset. Roselle also shares her approach to meetings and the importance of debriefing. She expresses her passion for creating safe, inclusive spaces and her plans to build a facilitation community within her team.
"It was a humbling experience because I was the one leading those unproductive meetings or leading the teams astray and just talking about the work and really not having any action items or decisive plan of action afterwards. It was both a humbling experience but also really exciting because I felt like it was that itch that was finally scratched for me. You see it in action and you realize, yep, that's what I'm looking for. That's really cool, I like that.” - Dom Michalec In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson talks with Dom Michalec, a product coach at Pathfinder Product. Dom shares his journey into facilitation, emphasizing the importance of effective collaboration within teams. He discusses his experiences implementing liberating structures from the book "Liberating Structures" into his meetings, leading to improved idea generation and decision-making. Dom also highlights the importance of refining facilitation skills and behaviors, not just acquiring tools. The conversation further explores Dom's work at Pathfinder Product, the challenges of designing effective one-hour workshops, and the concept of coaching up. The episode concludes with a discussion on the importance of facilitation as a leadership skill and the need for continuous learning in the field.
“Listening in the silence, observing, seeing what's not being said in that silence, that tells a whole story as well.” - Reshma Khan In this podcast episode, Douglas Ferguson interviews Reshma Aziz Khan, the CEO and Founder of Kenzo Consulting Limited. They discuss Reshma's background in the nonprofit sector and her interest in facilitation. Reshma shares a story about her first experience working with a facilitator in Zimbabwe and how it sparked her curiosity and excitement about the power of facilitation. They also discuss Reshma's approach to facilitating workshops and building connections among participants, including the use of Whole Brain Dominance and unconventional seating arrangements. Reshma shares her experience transitioning to becoming a facilitator and the importance of networking. They also talk about the concept of holding silence and the impact of building confidence through practice and continuous learning. The episode concludes with Douglas inviting listeners to leave a review and subscribe to the podcast.
"We live in such a polarized world right now, at least in the US, and I'm not going to get into that, but I think it is important that we be able to hear each other, really hear each other. Not necessarily agree, but how do we start to move a little bit closer to each other? And probably that's going to have to be through complicated, messy conversations and real listening." In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, Douglas welcomes Sandra Molinari, a workplace violence prevention specialist, to discuss her journey in facilitation and the importance of creating inclusive and safe spaces. Sandra shares her experiences working with diverse groups and the need to be mindful of cultural blind spots. They also discuss the significance of understanding participants' emotional states and the planning phase in shaping effective facilitation. Sandra emphasizes the importance of involving participants in the design process and the challenge of balancing structure and responsiveness. They conclude by highlighting the importance of listening, healthy disagreement, and the value of facilitation skills in creating effective and inclusive spaces.
We are excited to announce that Control the Room is now the Facilitation Lab podcast!
"In today's world, compassion and kindness in the business environment is the most valuable thing that you can bring to your business or any working session." - Eli Wood In this podcast episode, Douglas Ferguson and Eli Wood discuss the importance of facilitation in working with interdisciplinary teams and building successful products and business offerings. They emphasize that facilitation is not limited to design sprints but can be applied to any situation where collaboration and decision-making are needed. They also highlight the role of facilitation in product management, as product managers need to navigate diverse requirements and agendas. The conversation also touches on the power of facilitation skills for individuals at all levels and the importance of building relationships and trust. Eli shares a success story where facilitation skills helped overcome challenges in a large-scale project.
In this podcast episode, Douglas welcomes Tim Creasy, the Chief Innovation Officer at Prosci, to discuss the field of change management. Tim shares his origin story and how he became interested in understanding human systems and implementing change at scale. They discuss the intersection of economics and political science, the concept of systems thinking, and the potential impact of generative AI on creativity. They also highlight the importance of understanding both macroeconomics and microeconomics in driving change within organizations. They touch on complexity theory, the shift to a more humanistic approach in business, and the role of connections in combating ambiguity and uncertainty. They discuss the challenges of synthesizing information, the importance of addressing the human side of change, and the role of leaders in creating an environment of psychological safety. They also explore the individual-level implications of change and the concept of skill-oriented organizations. Tim shares his perspective on the future of humanizing change and the importance of balancing productivity and human-centricity in organizations.
“It's to stamp out boring workshops around the world forever because i think if you do have the opportunity to bring teams together or people together that's kind of sacred time so how do you get and this isn't about getting the biggest roi but how do you make it more meaningful and a once in a lifetime opportunity for them? - Leanne Hughes In this episode of the Control Room podcast, Leanne Hughes, author of "The Two-Hour Workshop Blueprint," shares her secrets to designing and delivering workshops that are efficient and effective. Leanne emphasizes the importance of being purposeful and grounded as a facilitator, and discusses the concept of co-creating to achieve real collaboration. She also shares her process for post-workshop reflection and follow-up, and encourages facilitators to let go of control and find balance. Listen in to learn how to create meaningful experiences that leave a lasting impact.
“I wanted to find a different way to think about the future and specifically wanted to understand the decision making process that leaders go through when they're facing extraordinary amounts of uncertainty. Because frankly, a lot of what I saw was just bad behavior. I was really lucky in finding my way to this extraordinary community of learners, of questioners, of facilitators, of designers. It changed my trajectory in many ways to build on what had been a long history in design to now include future thinking as part of that.” - Lisa Solomon In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Lisa Solomon about how she felt disillusioned with how leaders were behaving after the dot com crash and wanted to understand their decision-making process when facing uncertainty and how that shaped her work. Later, Lisa explores how the disruption of AI could change the way we educate and the affect it is having on students, teachers and policy makers. We also discuss the skills that every leader should have to be successful. Listen in to reflect on what can make your meetings more generative and level up your facilitation skills.
“Well, for me, I like to think of ensemble as a behavior rather than a specific group of people. And to think of ensemble behavior as a situation when I'm looking at the group that I'm with and we are working to make something that's different than what any one of us would make on our own, and that this specific ensemble I'm going to work with to support the thing that we are going to make together that's going to be different from what anyone else is going to make.” - Anne Libera In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Anne Libera about her time teaching comedy and improv at The Second City. She starts with reflections on the relationship between improv and behavior. Later, Anne shares why she created the first Comedy Writing Degree in the U.S. We also discuss the three elements of Comedy: Recognition, Pain, and Distance. Listen for thoughts on how and why we might bring comedy into our lives.
“I mean, frankly, in a lot of ways it's kind of a frightening time. So both of my parents are artists and I've grown up surrounded by musicians and artists of all different kinds, and a lot of them are reaching out to me and asking about with things like Dolly or most people know of Mid-Journey, the website that kind of aggregates a lot of these generated images, what's going to happen to their livelihood? This is a very real question that a lot of people have. My father, who's a jazz musician, played a show recently where the score was composed by an AI, and he's sort of live texting me like, oh, this one was kind of interesting. It sort of had these shortcomings, but it's not bad actually. And I think that the problem we're going to have to figure out in order to understand if we skew exciting and optimistic with this or a little bit fearful and in the extreme, maybe a little dystopian, has to do with what really is the goal of these systems?” - Reed Coke In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Reed Coke about his decades of experience teaching others about AI. He begins with reflections on how he started. Later, Reed explores human learning with machine learning. We also discuss what new roles may emerge for humans. Listen in to reflect on what makes humans inherently unique as humans.
“Design systems are the tool that enable us to step out of being individual makers, crafters on particular interfaces. And it elevates our craft to a point where we're able to spend more time focusing on our users, bringing in our stakeholders, collaborating more and less time just kind of grinding through production. That might be scary to some people, but I genuinely think it'll be a better job in the teams that are already doing it. I'm seeing that as well. It helps us just be a more valuable set of contributors in any organization.” - Nick Hahn In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Nick about his experience working in Design Systems and adopting tech while keeping the people in mind. He begins with reflections on collaboration. Later, Nick explores cultures of innovation and the importance of ‘first draft thinking’. We also discuss feedback loops, governance, and starting small when implementing change. Listen in for example of the value of design system.
I feel like I'm a unicorn at times because I'm able to speak different languages in the way that I can connect with people, right? So I was a solar entrepreneur. The pain points that I would have as a solo entrepreneur and growing and scaling and leading teams of contractors, I've done that, or working at a large global company and running an employee resource group along with doing a ton of sales and operations like tech. I can have those nuanced conversations where people feel seen and valued through our interactions. In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Skye Osunde about her journey helping organizations improve team dynamics. She shares how her experience in Higher Education, travel, and as a young manager influenced her career. Later, Skye explains how her windy career background has helped her communicate confidently with leaders from different industries. We also discuss simple tips for helping companies create space for authentic connection and rapport. Listen in for thoughts on how companies can move beyond performative inclusion efforts.
that ties back to OKRs because it's like what is the one thing that we're going to work on? And that's hard to do, because if you try to focus on 10 things, you're not focusing on anything. But that's what's nice about OKRs and why they can be helpful in meetings or saying no to meetings because well, that's not what my OKR is, that's not what we're focusing on, or we're not hitting this objective because we're failing at these metrics because of these key results one, two, and three. So distilling that down, going into when you're thinking about annual planning, it can be really helpful to, okay, what is our one objective and how are we going to measure it? It can be really helpful to really synthesize and boil down what that problem is and how we're going to measure it going forward In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Adam Luepke about his experience supporting change initiatives at Quantive. He begins with reflections on what helped him discover a passion for solving complex business problems. Later, Adam talks about OKRs and best practices for changing your business. We also discuss what makes a successful Chief Of Staff. Listen in for tips on how to synthesize communication.
Transitions are scary. Change is scary. So depending on the context, it could be a good thing, it could be a bad thing. And all of that can activate our fear response and our grief response. So there's a lot of neuroscience theory and brain science theory around transitions and change that we can talk about. But I think for me personally, I always feel like I step into the light. I'm very curious. I'm very curious, and I very much try to stay aware of those moments in life that can become lightning rods to go somewhere different. I'm a "yes and" person. So because I'm so curious and I'm really obsessed with continuous learning, if I trust the universe and I trust my intuition, it has led me in places that I have never anticipated In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Maria Giudice about her decades of experience leading design, creative, and business leaders. She begins with reflections on how a Professor reframed her perspective on design and its value to others. Later, Maria shares her thought on transition and how to approach it best. We also discuss one of Maria’s learning experiences leading design initiatives at a large software company in detail. Listen in for tips on how to keep making progress even during failure.
It is looking into the narratives that an organization holds about itself, and that people hold about themselves, and understanding if these narratives are helpful or hindering to the change. And then actually from there trying to understand what would be a better narrative for this organization to hold, and what would it take for us to go onto that journey. In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Nicole Brauckmann about her journey leading Organizational Change initiatives. She begins with reflections on why it’s important client understand what the change process feels like and where they’re going. Later, Nicole dives into the four forces that support change. We also discuss the importance of storytelling and how organizational change starts with the individuals. Listen in for more tips on how to create the conditions for change to emerge.
That is one of the most difficult things, especially in a corporate environment, I think to get people to have that zone of safety. A lot of times when we talk to people within our organization like a Nelnet and we ask them to come up with a brand new idea, we try to protect them as much as possible from having to present their idea until they have some evidence around it. And have them think differently about that early stage so that they can explore and go in a different direction than their original idea. So we have a process we call 1, 2, 3, 4. And it's really an incremental way to take an idea and time box it and move it forward. So the way it works is it's one minute, two hours, three days and four weeks. And so, those are the arbitrary boxes of time. In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Brian Ardinger about his work helping entrepreneurs and organizations innovate. He begins with how and why he decided to dedicate his career to innovation. Later, Brian shares a practical approach to organizational innovation called the 1-2-3-4 method. We also discuss the importance of creating a shared understanding of what innovation means for each of his clients. Listen in for tips on how to instigate innovating both inside and outside the organization
“I think I was lucky to be a teacher of very young children as my first career. They taught me so much about the joy of teaching and learning. Within the first few months of teaching it was clear to me that mutual learning created authenticity and trust. We had wonderful fun together growing with and for each other. Many of my current ways of thinking and acting developed during those few years with these young minds. I left the formal classroom 50 years ago taking with me new ways of working, teaching, and being. Since then, I have founded and been part of teams — The Learning Exchange, M G Taylor Corporation, Tomorrow Makers —developing processes, methods, and content with and for adults that help all of us find our way back to that childlike wonder where I believe our answers to today/s challenges will arise In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Gail Taylor & Matt Taylor about their decades of experience creating environments, tools and processes for facilitating Group Genius with large complex organizations. They begin with how they became facilitators and how they came to the same conclusion from two totally different backgrounds. Later, they explain how working across many industries help them bring competitors together to solve complex problems. We also discuss language and how verbs better describe who we are. Listen in for many more tips from these two of the two giants of facilitation.
I've come to believe that trust is an emergent phenomenon. You do not have to go in trusting the people that you're engaging with. What I do believe you need is a shared question and it acts as a strange attractor. So to get at that, back up a sec and say my entry point for engaging was really a breakthrough kind of insight, which is that all change begins with disruption. And if you think about it, it makes sense because if things are going smoothly, there's no reason for change. And so for me the question became how do you develop a healthy relationship with disruption? And what I have found is that you can create a bubble in disruption, create a space, facilitators, often call it a container that it's a space that holds both compassion and complexity, is the way I think about it. In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Peggy Holman about her work supporting diverse groups to face complex issues. She begins with how and why she made the transition from software systems to people systems. Later, Peggy shares her three keys for creating space that holds both compassion and complexity. We also discuss the importance of setting clear intentions. Listen in for tips on how to create hubs to help navigate complexity.
Yeah. And it's crazy because you hear that... Well, we always hear the adages, this generation is soft. I got bullied when I was a kid and it was like, pause for a second. Can we acknowledge that just because it happened to you doesn't mean it was right and that someone else should have a similar experience just because it happened to you? I was in a bad car accident. I don't feel like every driver should have to experience a bad car accident to be considered an efficient driver In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dethra Giles about her decades of experience working in Human Resources with a focus on Diversity and Inclusion. She begins with reflections on how ‘playing teacher’ as a child influenced her career. Later, Dethra explores cultures of connection and how they transcended the transition to virtual workforces. We also discuss how diversity initiatives need to set new leaders up for success. Listen in for tips on how to think about unconscious bias.
Teams might be better able to own things if we adjust the boundaries or might find it really tricky because the cognitive load is too high. So suddenly we're talking about stuff which is not just technology, it's about making a viable organization effectively. We're thinking about viability, the ongoing ownership of different streams of change on an ongoing basis. That's a healthy conversation to have for any organization to be honest In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Matthew Skelton about his journey in organization dynamics. He starts with reflections on people and cohesion. Later, Matthew shares how he applied software principles to teams. We also discuss simple tips for balancing cognitive load when considering the big picture and getting stuff done. Listen in for thoughts on how to be more intentional in doing organizational work.
I think this aspect of psychological safety is probably one of the most interesting that I think about in terms of psychological safety. So first of all, most of us learn management from our managers. We learn what management looks like, we learn what management is through our own managers. And because of the way time and careers work, most of the managers that we have, certainly early in our career, are themselves fairly inexperienced, fairly junior managers. So there's this sort of feedback loop of inexperienced managers teaching inexperienced people how to be inexperienced managers. And so we don't always get exposed to the really, really competent managers and leaders until later on in our career. And that's when we realize, "Oh no, that's not the way we should do things In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Tom Geraghty about his journey helping make the world of work a safer, higher performing, more inclusive and equitable place. He starts with reflections on microaggressions in the workplace. Later, Tom shares why he helps organizations embrace emergence and experimentation. We also discuss simple tips for finding the sweet spot between productivity and exploring. Listen in for thoughts on how and why embracing discomfort and disagreement lead to higher performing teams.
People are so concerned with this innovation piece, this collaboration piece. How are we going to get more products out the door? How are we going to serve more people? How are we going to be CX/UX design premier to make sure we meet people where they're at and our customers are satisfied? But if your workforce can't even speak up, or feel comfortable or don't feel like there's that psychological safety where they can voice concerns or they see a red flag they're able to speak about it, it will affect your bottom line In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Mika Cross about her journey helping both private and public sector transform the workplace. She starts with reflections on how her time in the military helped shape her perspective on workplace transformation. Later, Mika shares why she fell in love with people, process, culture, and performance consulting. We also discuss simple tips for improving psychological safety in large bureaucratic organizations. Listen in for thoughts on how and why companies need to invest in workplace culture.
So we know that, that's how we create our shows at Second City. We have a 12 week process, we develop in front of the audience, and we know the first four weeks there's going to be a lot of seemingly garbage, but we allow that seemingly garbage to surface because there might be a gem actually inside there, especially when sort of looked at a different way In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Kelly Leonard about his three plus decades managing the legendary sketch comedy group The Second City. He begins with reflections on the shared origins of team improvisation and social work. Later, Kelly explores self verification theory and how it can lead to stronger relationships faster. We also discuss group brainstorming and breaking down silos. Listen in for a plan to save the world by improving listening skills.
In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Alla Weinberg about her career as a UX Designer turned Culture Designer and thought leader. She starts with reflections on why she became a Culture Designer. Later, Alla discusses the differences of safety and trust. We also discuss the relationship between psychological safety and the state of the nervous system. Listen in for insights into how to build better relationships and connection at work.
In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Melanie Parish about her long career as a Leadership Coach. She starts with reflections on her approach to coaching which prioritizes experimentation. Later, Melanie talks about radical inclusion and the reframe she uses to help others broaden the range of topics they can discuss. We also discuss the importance of feedback cultures and personal wellness. Listen in for insights into leadership essentials.
