Leadership is multifaceted and the lines often blur between roles, responsibilities, and core competencies. It’s a dynamic blend of vision, communication, and influence. Similar to the word strategy, it’s used more frequently than it is understood. But what if we were to reimagine leadership? In a recent conversation between Brene Brown and Adam Grant, the definition of facilitation became the focus of such a reimagination when Adam asked Brene: if the word ‘leadership’ didn’t exist, what would it be replaced with?

“Facilitation” – Brene Brown

Facilitation isn’t merely an add-on to a leader’s repertoire. It forms the foundation of effective leadership, enabling us to guide teams and entire organizations toward their goals while optimizing the meeting process for the most productive outcomes and fostering a culture of collaboration. Do you know anyone who hasn’t endured a meeting or training session that seemed to last forever with little to no substantial outcomes? It’s a common scenario, a clear indication that skilled facilitation is not an exclusive need of formal leaders. Rather, it is a critical competency that can empower anyone at all levels of an organization (and not just within formal leadership roles). 

The 5 Qualities of Faciliation

In this blog post, we’ll venture into every aspect of facilitation, focusing on five foundational qualities that embody the facilitation mindset – Purposed, Inclusive, Crafted, Clear, and Adaptive. Together, they embody the essence of effective facilitation, providing a roadmap to navigate the often complex terrain of leadership in today’s fast-paced world. As we delve into these qualities, we’ll shed light on the importance of the role of facilitator and how anybody, regardless of title, can step into this role. Keep in mind that these aren’t merely theoretical constructs. They are tangible skills that, when put into practice, can serve as the keys to unlocking transformative change and lasting impact within your teams and organizations.

For those eager to take a deep dive and master these skills, as well as the facilitator role, our Facilitation Certification Program is the ideal launchpad, providing comprehensive guidance and robust support as you embark on this journey of growth. We love training facilitators, and it’s evident in the care and depth we’ve put into this collaborative learning process. 

Purposed: The Guiding Star of Facilitation

Any worthwhile experience begins with purpose. Why are you bringing people together in the first place? It’s the reason behind gathering a team, the goal you hope to achieve. More than just a motivational mantra, purpose serves as an anchor for decision-making and strategy development. Who should be involved? What activities should we engage in? How do we adapt when things don’t go according to plan? All these questions more easily find their answers in the clear light of purpose.

Purpose is often the missing link in many organizational gatherings and business discussions. Without it, teams might find themselves adrift, lacking direction and focus. This makes it all the more crucial for leaders and facilitators to clarify the purpose of their gatherings.

Leadership within an organization can sometimes feel like navigating a ship through foggy waters, particularly when the senior leadership hasn’t clearly articulated the organization’s overarching ‘why’. However, this isn’t an excuse to abandon the quest for purpose. As skilled facilitators, it is our responsibility to create clarity, to guide teams toward common ground and a shared understanding of why they are doing what they’re doing.

In fact, by showing up in our role as leaders and facilitating through our role as leaders, we gradually shift cultures across an organization. This nudging can eventually guide the organization back to a place where its purpose is much clearer.

Voltage Control’s purpose is to develop leaders through a method-agnostic approach to learning and mastering facilitation skills. We anchor in this purpose often to ensure we are staying true to the belief that this approach will create optimal outcomes and best support leaders in their dynamic growth. In fact, if you let go of method-centric facilitation perspectives, it is easier to anchor to your purpose.

Not only does clarifying the purpose give meaning to our work, but it also sets the stage for the other qualities of facilitation to come into play. Purpose also demands a degree of transparency, allowing leaders to acknowledge biases and use them constructively.

While conventional facilitation wisdom advises us to remain unbiased, leaders often need to bring their own perspectives to the table. The key lies in transparency and conscious decision-making. There will be times when leaders should listen, be curious, and abstain from asserting their bias. Conversely, there will be times when leaders’ unique perspectives are needed to guide the team forward. Leaders must be present to purpose in order to attune to how their bias is helping or hindering the progress of the group.

Finally, clarifying the purpose can be a powerful tool for preparation and aligning expectations. When attendees understand the purpose of a meeting or gathering, they can better prepare and engage meaningfully.

Being ‘purposed’ in facilitation allows for insightful preparation, alignment of expectations, and transparency, creating a more cohesive and effective gathering.

Inclusive: The Heart of Facilitation

A common misconception is that being inclusive means involving everyone all the time. However, as Art of Gathering author  Priya Parker brings into focus, optimal inclusion sometimes requires deliberate exclusion. This doesn’t mean permanently sidelining certain individuals but rather knowing when and where their involvement is most beneficial.

Having a clear purpose allows us to be intentional about who should be part of a gathering and at what stage. It’s not about creating a permanent state of exclusivity but recognizing that not every conversation requires every person. Not never, just not right now. Understanding this allows leaders to strategically gather parts of the team, depending on the purpose and desired outcomes of the facilitated moments.

Additionally, inclusivity goes beyond the mere presence of individuals. It’s also about creating a psychologically safe environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas. This nurturing of psychological safety becomes easier when the right people, connected to and committed to the purpose, are involved. It fosters a sense of vulnerability and nudges people to contribute more freely.

Another key factor in inclusivity is patience. Good facilitators should allow participants to express their thoughts and opinions freely, knowing when to let the conversation flow and when to intervene or redirect. The facilitator’s patience often correlates with the depth and quality of the participants’ input. For example, working with an interpreter invites a slower pace, allowing more time for consideration and deepened understanding.

This patience also nurtures an internal focus in facilitators. Instead of focusing only on external progression, excellent facilitators embrace pauses and allow for thoughtful consideration. This fosters better understanding and reduces confusion among the participants. A facilitator who talks incessantly or aimlessly just to fill the silence is usually not deeply anchored in purpose and inclusivity.

Being inclusive in facilitation requires leveraging our purpose to be deliberate about who to involve, creating a psychologically safe environment, and exercising patience to allow for meaningful engagement for all in the room.

Crafted: Designing With Care

A crafted approach requires understanding that everything we do in our professional lives – from our work to our collaborations to our culture – is designed in some way. As such, leaders need to see themselves as the designers of the experiences their teams and coworkers engage in.

Being ‘crafted’ in facilitation is about caring. It shows that you care enough about your purpose and the outcomes you want to achieve that you deliberately design the space and process in which these outcomes can be realized within established time limits. Sadly, we often come across instances where there isn’t enough deliberation or care, sometimes due to the demands and pressures of the organization.

When we talk about care, we must also consider intention. Are we taking the time to be purposeful, to have intent, to be planful? This reflects in the way we craft our facilitated spaces.

A crucial concept we teach in our facilitation certification, from Gamestorming, is the idea of creating temporary worlds. These temporary spaces allow people to have impactful experiences, meet their desired outcomes, and realize their potential for change and growth. And if these temporary worlds are that impactful, then participants want them to become part of their day-to-day worlds.

The crafting process involves considering many elements, from the overall design of the meeting or workshop to the pacing and cadence. Effective meetings are seen as learning experiences, not just as items on an agenda. Furthermore, the design should not be confined to a single approach or methodology. As facilitators, we should remain method agnostic to best serve our participants’ needs and circumstances.

This process also requires careful attention to the amount of work and dialogue expected from the participants. What is reasonable, and what is exhausting? How many activities are too many? These considerations are vital for crafting effective experiences.

A well-crafted facilitation process is akin to a well-designed product. It emphasizes simplicity and focuses on what’s essential rather than overloading with unnecessary features. Such simplicity can be a powerful design technique, provided we understand our purpose, know our audience, and keep them at the forefront of our design decisions.

Being crafted in facilitation involves careful design, clear intention, and an understanding of the people and purpose at hand.

Clear: Concise and Transparent Communication

The notion of being clear aligns with our earlier discussions on creating space and patiently pausing  ensure understanding. After all, all meetings, brainstorming sessions, workshops, and learning experiences need clarity in instruction, setup, and an invitation to achieve optimal outcomes.

The responsibility for clarity lies with us as leaders and facilitators. One simple language shift we recommend is moving from asking, “Did you understand that?” to “Is there anything I might further clarify or better explain?” This subtle shift places the responsibility of understanding back on the facilitator rather than the participants, where it should be.

It’s also beneficial to avoid yes/no questions as they often close off opportunities for further clarity. By framing questions more openly, we can better coalesce toward a shared understanding.

Clarity is also connected to design. It’s about being concise and distilling information down to its essentials. Anything that does not directly serve the purpose can act as a block, preventing participants or team members from understanding the direction and how they can contribute to reaching the goal.

Keeping a ‘clarity journal’ can be a powerful tool for self-improvement. Make a note of instances where your instructions were met with confusion, then reflect on what may have caused the ambiguity. This reflection can help you craft clearer prompts and instructions.

Fostering clarity in a facilitated session involves clear and concise language, real nouns and verbs, and questioning the necessity of every other piece of information. Asking for feedback can further improve clarity, helping identify areas of potential confusion or misunderstanding.

Clarity is not only about our ground rules and prompts but also about the understanding shared in the room. Internal and external facilitators alike must be attuned to situations where participants might not be on the same wavelength, using different metaphors or similar words with different meanings. By pointing these out and helping disambiguate, we enable the group to reach alignment.

Facilitators are witnesses, connected to the group’s purpose and helping the group help itself to become clearer. Clear and concise communication is essential for a facilitator to guide decisions and convey information to the group effectively. This not only involves conveying information but also helping the group understand what they are there to accomplish and how they are expected to participate.

Facilitating with clarity demands intentional communication, distilling information to essentials, actively resolving misunderstandings, and continuous self-reflection. As facilitators, we provide a clear path for understanding and participation, paving the way for effective collaboration and ensuring all voices are valued in the shared pursuit.

Adaptive: Dancing with Change in Facilitation

Having a plan is crucial; however, sticking rigidly to that plan despite shifting dynamics is a recipe for disaster. Being adaptive, serves as a balancing act between having a strategy and knowing when to pivot in service of the purpose. After all, the magic of facilitation often unfolds in its adaptability to what’s happening in the room.

It’s less about discarding the other qualities we’ve discussed and more about holding them with an open hand, ready to modify our approach in line with the changing needs of the group. We shouldn’t see this adaptability as abandoning our carefully laid plans. Instead, we are staying present, attuned to the dynamics of the room, and ready to pivot our approach to serve our purpose effectively.

Leaders should be adept at reading the room, picking up on non-verbal cues, gauging the energy and engagement of the participants. This is a skill, foundational as it may seem, that can be cultivated over a career, enriching your practice and enhancing your adaptive capacity.

Active listening skills are key to facilitating from an adaptive perspective. Active listeners use questions to gain deeper insights into what’s transpiring within the group, empowering everyone to make decisions that best serve the purpose. In moments of conflict, which can emerge as a testament to inclusivity and diversity of perspectives and a safe space, being adaptive equips us with the ability to mediate and guide the group toward resolution and progress.

The adaptive nature of facilitation is also evident in the fine balance it requires; not only does it involve allowing the group adequate time to move at their own pace, but it also entails knowing when to steer them toward the main objective. This interplay between flexibility and firmness, as well as effective time management, may seem like an art, but it’s actually a craft that can be mastered with experience and conscious practice.

Remember, being adaptive doesn’t mean we throw the other four qualities to the wind. In fact, our ability to be adaptive is a testament to how well we’ve anchored in our purpose, fostered inclusivity, crafted our process, and ensured clarity,. Being adaptive allows us to respond dynamically to the realities of the room, enhancing our ability to guide the group toward the shared goal.

The dance of facilitation is one of conscious movement between structure and flexibility, control and release, all the while keeping our gaze fixed on the guiding star of purpose. Embrace this dance, cultivate your adaptive nature, and witness your growth as a transformative leader and facilitator.

Embracing the Qualities: The Path Towards Effective Facilitation

I urge you to actively practice and nurture these qualities. Embrace the challenges and opportunities they present. Seek feedback, learn from your experiences, and continuously strive to learn new facilitation techniques and enhance your facilitation skills. Consider joining a community of practice like our Facilitation Lab as a stepping stone on this journey of growth and improvement.

The journey may be challenging, but the rewards are immense. By cultivating these qualities, you’ll not only become a more experienced facilitator but also a stronger leader, capable of inspiring, guiding, and empowering your team toward achieving common goals.

The path to effective facilitation awaits. Embrace the journey.

The post What are Facilitation Skills and Why are They Important? appeared first on Voltage Control.

Are you interested in facilitating a design thinking session at your workplace or for another organization? Have you learned about design thinking and want to get started or deepen your skills? If you are a newbie to design thinking facilitation, this is the guide for you. We’ve highlighted the basics you need to know to lead a design thinking or innovation workshop. Facilitation skills are essential to navigating complex business problems, and a skilled facilitator can supercharge the team’s performance. We encourage you to attend our Facilitation Lab, a weekly virtual meetup to support effective implementation.

Read this design thinking facilitator guide, and you’ll have solid tools to be successful from start to finish.

What is Design Thinking?

To start, let’s define some key terms. First, design thinking. Design thinking is a process used for creative problem-solving; a methodology that puts the end-user or customer at the center of decision-making. Design thinking is also characterized by an emphasis on prototyping and testing ideas and working in a highly collaborative manner with a cross-disciplinary team. Design thinking isn’t a passing business trend. It’s a powerful and widely-implemented approach to strategic work adopted by both startups and major corporations to tackle business challenges. Here are a few of our favorite design thinking books we recommend adding to your library for an in depth background.

What is a Design Thinking Facilitator?

A design thinking facilitator leads collaborative working sessions that utilize design thinking practices to reinvigorate creative growth. The gatherings include brainstorms, innovation workshops, executive summits, design springs, multi-day workshops, and long-term projects.

A design thinking facilitator is a coach to innovative, productive group think and work.

Design thinking facilitators help teams focus on the customer throughout the process and uncover new insights and ideas typically aren’t revealed during business as usual (ex. the boss has an epiphany in the shower and tells the team to execute). In a nutshell, a design thinking facilitator is a conduit to innovative productive group discovery and creation. Facilitation skills are key to maximizing these outcomes.

Want to learn the basics of how to facilitate a design thinking workshop? Read our 7-step guide below, then consider our Workshop Design Course to help you get started.

Step 1: Get Focused

Your first task as a design thinking facilitator is to clarify and define what you need to accomplish through your workshop or meeting. You want to determine the focus based on team needs or challenges. Record the primary goal and high-level questions to answer, and make sure participants are aligned on defined objectives.

Pro-tip: Before planning the workshop, consider 30-60-minute conversations with each stakeholder before the design thinking session to make sure objectives are clear.

Step 2: Make the Guest List

Now that you’ve defined objectives, you and the key stakeholder(s) need to determine fitting participants. Who’s taking part in the workshop? Your client will likely have a strong hand in building the guest list. As the design thinking facilitator, it’s crucial that you advise here.

Too many people leads to chaos. Too few people means too few ideas.

Diversity in skillset, expertise, attitude, tenure, etc. is essential to an informed perspective. The more points-of-view that are represented, the more applicable your solutions. In terms of number of participants, somewhere between 7 to 15 is ideal. Too many people leads to chaos. Too few people means too few ideas.

Step 3: Make Your Agenda

With the objective and participants determined, the next step of facilitating a design thinking workshop is the agenda. A wise way to plan your agenda is to start at the end: With what tools do you need to leave the design thinking session? Are you prioritizing alignment? A system or process in place? A collection of novel ideas? Are you looking for a prioritized roadmap or a paper prototype of a new experience? When you clearly define your goals, you can plan the design thinking activities to build toward the conclusion.

The individual activities you will implement varies greatly based on the challenge. Need inspiration to kick off your Design Thinking activities? There are many free resources to help guide you and your team on your journey. . We’ve also outlined exercises for virtual workshops here.) No matter your timeline, prioritize time for introductions, icebreakers, and short breaks to check inboxes.

Pro tip: Be generous when time-boxing your design thinking activities. Everything will take longer than you think. A good rule of thumb is to double the time you imagine an individual activity will take.

Step 4: Get Your Space

Next up: Where are you going to host your design thinking workshop? While it might sound like a minor detail, the space affects the day’s success.

Start our Design Thinking Foundations course today!

Learn and practice Design Thinking to help your team solve problems and seize opportunities.

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We recommend getting participants out of their workspace(s) to inspire fresh thinking and distance from day-to-day work. Whether you need to offer a hybrid option, have the budget for an offsite space, or need to use the office, consider the following to enhance the experience:

• Look for good natural light and character. (A windowless hotel conference room is not ideal.)
• Provide comfortable seating for all. (Simple, but we’ve seen it happen.)
• Guarantee wall space or boards for pinning materials and capturing ideas.
• Don’t forget AV needs: a projector for presenting, a screen if someone needs to collaborate remotely, etc.

Want more information on choosing a space? Check out 7 Things to Consider When Choosing a Workshop Venue here.

Step 5: Gather Supplies

With space, participants, and a solid agenda, you now need supplies to execute your workshop. Your exact supplies will be driven by your activities, agenda, and chosen space. Here are some basics to get you started:

• Plain 8.5×11 paper
• Large easel-style Post-its
• Small Post-its notes
• Pens
• Black Sharpies
• A Time Timer
• An HDMI cable

If you want to dive deeper into the specific supplies that are recommended for a design sprint (which are helpful for any workshop), read here.

Pro-Tip: If possible, bring a filling breakfast and lunch so you don’t have to leave to eat. Also, healthy snacks, water, and coffee will keep people engaged as the day goes on.

Step 6: Be the Leader

It’s the big day! It’s time for you to lead the group through the agenda and activities you worked so hard on. The more you facilitate, the more skilled you become. 

Make sure to be yourself and keep the following things in mind as you lead the team in design thinking:

• You’re the boss: People are looking for you to guide them. You’re prepared and are the expert. Establish your authority early and feel confident making decisions and telling the group when it’s time to move forward in the agenda.
• Establish rules: Let the group know the rules of the day. Encourage people to stay off their phones and to fully participate in the session. Let them know that there are designated breaks.

Give everyone a voice: As the facilitator, you are responsible for making sure everyone is heard. If you notice someone being quiet, pull them into the conversation. You designed the guest list with their contribution in mind.

Step 7: Wrap It Up & Play It Back

After the workshop has come to a close, recognize your role as a design thinking facilitator to equip the group with tools for long-term success. Consider these in the days afterward::

• Photograph and document: Make sure you photograph important output from the meeting: Post-its, diagrams, or worksheets that may have been created.
• Synthesize the learnings: Take time to reflect on the session and the ideas that came of it. Create a MURAL board or a short presentation to share with participants and their teammates.

Get the group back together: Schedule time to share back your learnings with the participants and make plans together for how to implement thinking and learnings into daily work.

Looking to become a Design Thinking Facilitator?

What’s the importance of bringing in a professional to lead the session? A design thinking facilitator positively disrupts the team dynamic. Read up on why professional facilitation can make a difference.

We hope you’re excited to become a Design Thinking facilitator. Voltage Control has expert design-thinking facilitators who run innovation workshops and design sprints. Our innovation training for teams and design thinking facilitator training will maximize your facilitation skills. Our Facilitation Certification programs will guide you through key facilitation skills and provide you with ample opportunities to practice. We also invite you to explore our workshop design course to learn the foundational learning science and experience design principles you can apply to maximize engagement and effectiveness as a facilitator.

The post Design Thinking Facilitator Guide: A Crash Course in the Basics appeared first on Voltage Control.

Are you a leader, consultant, or trainer looking to improve your facilitation skills and create meaningful change? Our Facilitation Certification Program is designed to provide you with the practical tools and techniques to excel in your career, starting with our Portfolio Starter Template. In this post, we’ll explain how this template sets the stage for your journey in our comprehensive, portfolio-based certification program.

Starting Your Facilitation Portfolio

The Portfolio Starter Template is designed to help you reflect on your facilitation goals and expertise. It consists of four prompts that guide you through essential questions related to your facilitation purpose, strengths, growth areas, and certification objectives.

By completing this template, you’ll be able to:

• Clearly define your facilitation purpose and narrative, setting the foundation for your professional growth
• Identify your strengths and areas for improvement, allowing you to focus on what matters most during the certification process
• Align your expectations with the program’s outcomes, ensuring a transformative learning experience
• Immediately apply to our Facilitation Certification Program

Our Facilitation Certification Program

Our Facilitation Certification Program is an immersive, portfolio-based learning experience that takes you beyond theoretical knowledge. Through hands-on practice, you’ll master the art of effective communication and group dynamics, while building a robust portfolio that showcases your skills.

The program covers:

• Proven techniques to navigate challenging situations and reach consensus
• Best practices for engaging diverse audiences and fostering collaboration
• Strategies for designing and leading effective meetings, workshops, and events

Upon completing the program, you’ll receive a certification and a professional portfolio that demonstrates your ability to facilitate meaningful change.

Launching Your Growth Journey with the Portfolio Starter

The Portfolio Starter Template is your first step in improving your facilitation. By submitting your completed template, you’ll be able to immediately apply to our Facilitation Certification Program and embark on a journey of personal and professional growth.

As you progress through the program, you’ll revisit and refine your initial reflections, creating a dynamic portfolio that evolves with your learning. Your completed portfolio will serve as tangible evidence of your expertise, setting you apart in your company, with clients, or in the job market and provide a competitive edge.

Take the First Step to Improving Your Facilitation

Are you ready to transform your ability to engage, inspire, and drive change? Start by completing our Portfolio Starter Template and applying to our Facilitation Certification Program. This unique, portfolio-based approach will help you further unlock your potential as a leader across your work.

Don’t wait – take the first step today and embark on a journey that will reshape your career and impact.

The post Kickstart Your Journey to Better Facilitation appeared first on Voltage Control.

Last week’s facilitation lab session aimed to explore the potential and challenges of integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the field of facilitation. Participants expressed a range of perspectives and emotions, from eagerness to fear and anxiety, but curiosity remained a common thread. This blog post serves as a synthesis and summary of the session for those who missed it and a source of reflective insights for those who attended.

After they joined, participants were asked to rate their confidence in using AI in facilitation thus far. Participants at the Facilitation Lab had varying confidence levels regarding using AI in facilitation. Some were curious to see where the technology would lead, while others had already experimented with a few tools, such as ChatGPT, Bard, Claude, and Dal-E. A few participants had experience building AI models for businesses and using AI for fine art creation.

Some expressed skepticism about AI’s potential, questioning its reliability and usefulness. Some participants were in the middle of their AI journey, excited to learn more, and eager to build workflows for applications like social media content generation.

Others mentioned using AI for tasks like writing acceptable use policies, experimenting with ChatGPT in facilitation and consulting, and overcoming writer’s block while creating content. Some participants were researching and testing AI applications but faced limitations in how they could implement AI at work.

Overall, the group’s confidence in using AI in facilitation ranged from beginners to experienced users, showcasing the diverse spectrum of engagement with AI in the facilitation community.

Breakout Groups

Following this exercise, they were divided into small groups of three to share their previous experiences with AI and discuss their thoughts on its application. After the group discussions, participants reconvened to share their experiences and insights with the larger group.

Some participants noted that AI could generate a “general consensus” of public knowledge, while others remained skeptical about its benefits. A few participants mentioned using AI as a drafting tool and found it helpful, although not always perfect. Some expressed concerns about the ethical implications of AI and the potential for rapid misinformation cultivation.

Examples of AI tools mentioned included Fireflies.ai for video meeting transcription and summary analytics, Otter.ai for transcription, and ChatGPT for research and content development. Participants highlighted the importance of writing effective prompts for AI and leading with curiosity versus dishing out commands. 

Overall, the discussions in the Facilitation Lab revealed a diverse range of opinions and experiences with AI, from those who found it useful in various applications to those who were more cautious or skeptical about its potential impact on facilitation and other fields.

AI Tools and Techniques in Facilitation

During the session, participants explored various AI tools and techniques that could be integrated into the facilitation process. These innovative tools promise to streamline and augment the facilitation experience in different ways:

1. ChatGPT for brainstorming, content creation, and summarization: ChatGPT can generate ideas, help draft content, and even summarize lengthy discussions. These capabilities can save time and enable facilitators to focus on higher-level tasks.
2. DALLE-2 for visual facilitation and generating images: DALLE-2 can generate images from text descriptions, enabling facilitators to create compelling visual aids without needing to be expert artists themselves.
3. Miro AI for automated sorting and grouping of content: Miro AI can automatically analyze, sort, and group content, making it easier for facilitators to synthesize information and identify patterns.
4. AI presentation builders for creating engaging presentations: AI-driven presentation builders can help facilitators design visually appealing and dynamic presentations that keep their audience engaged and focused.

After a general discussion, participants were asked to spend time silently generating ideas for 3 different use cases following the structural elements of Magical Meetings: Before the Meeting, During the Meeting, and After the Meeting. After solo generating, we again discussed as a group. Here’s what we learned: 

Before the meeting

How AI can assist facilitators in designing more effective and interactive sessions, easing the workload and allowing them to focus on the human aspect of facilitation.

1. Streamline preparation by generating agendas, email drafts, and meeting outlines.
2. Brainstorm activity ideas, challenge statements, and interview questions to drive the session.
3. Create emotive visuals and engaging Miro boards for better participant experience.
4. Synthesize research and help customize content for specific audiences or cultures.
5. Generate discussion questions and refining language to improve clarity and engagement.

During the meeting

Applications showcase the potential of AI in supporting facilitators during meetings, enabling more effective communication, collaboration, and creative problem-solving.

1. Provide real-time translation and language support, facilitating communication among diverse attendees and summarizing meeting content for better tracking.
2. Instantly synthesize diverse perspectives, fostering richer discussions, and assisting in brainstorming, idea generation, and collaborative decision-making.
3. Monitor participant engagement, offering icebreakers or interventions based on detected emotions, and suggesting breaks as needed.
4. Streamline group organization, forming teams based on shared interests or random allocation for effective collaboration.
5. Enhance meeting visuals with tools like DALL-E, creating images or metaphors to effectively illustrate concepts.

After the meeting

Techniques for keeping participants engaging, looping in others,  sharing insights, testing ideas, and storytelling once the meeting has concluded. 

1. Develop prototypes and generate ad campaigns with landing pages for Design Thinking feedback and quick A/B testing.
2. Create 3D models for integration into Unity or VR environments.
3. Evaluate meeting effectiveness, identifying areas for improvement and generating summary reports of outcomes.
4. Recommend next steps or action items in alignment with meeting objectives and results.
5. Automatically schedule follow-up meetings, taking into account participant availability.

As exciting as these AI tools may be, attendees also recognized the importance of maintaining a human touch and being mindful of ethical considerations.

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The Human Factor in Facilitation

Ravit Yanay, one of the participants, eloquently expressed her concerns about the human factor in facilitation. She emphasized that the process of sorting through ideas and building consensus is essential for fostering cohesion, understanding, and empathy among participants. Ravit’s thoughts highlighted the need for facilitators to strike a balance between embracing AI tools and preserving the valuable human aspects of facilitation:

“My biggest issue is that as facilitators, we’re going to have to be smarter in what parts of the session we want to speed up with AI and in what areas we have added human value that requires the work to be done by the people in the room because it does something to their thinking.”

The Ethics and Concerns of AI in Facilitation

Attendees expressed diverse perspectives regarding AI. Some expressed concerns about losing the depth of thought and insight, a rise in laziness, loss of craft, and even theft or ownership of art and creative output. These concerns sparked important discussions about the ethical implications of integrating AI into the facilitation process.

To address these concerns, it is crucial for facilitators to carefully consider how and when to incorporate AI tools into their practice, always prioritizing the well-being and development of the people they serve.

Our conclusion as a group was that facilitation will become more critical as AI becomes more sophisticated. We’ll be required to help everyone navigate what it means to be human in this new era. It’ll be a time of renewed humanity that takes curiosity and patience. 

The Future of Facilitation and AI

As AI continues to evolve and develop, facilitators need to stay informed about the latest advancements and be prepared to adapt their methods accordingly. By staying up-to-date and open to change, facilitators can ensure they are providing the best possible support for their clients while maintaining the human connection that is so vital to the facilitation process.

One way to stay ahead in the field is to invest in professional development, such as our facilitation certification program. This comprehensive course covers not only the traditional facilitation techniques but also addresses the emerging role of AI in the industry. By participating in this program, facilitators can deepen their understanding of AI, explore its potential applications, and learn how to maintain ethical considerations in their practice.

The facilitation lab session on AI in facilitation was a thought-provoking and insightful experience for all who attended. It revealed the potential of AI tools to enhance the facilitation process while also emphasizing the importance of preserving the human touch and addressing ethical concerns. As we look to the future, it is crucial for facilitators to be proactive in understanding and integrating AI technologies into their practice, ensuring they continue to provide the best support possible for their clients.

If you’re not sure where to start, here are some commitments our attendees made:

1. Explore using AI for “before meeting” activities such as generating ideas, refining language, and creating agendas
2. Look into using SpeakerCoach and ChatGPT for facilitation and workshop design
3. Collaborate with other facilitators and learn from their experiences with AI
4. Experiment with prototyping using AI tools and practices
5. Learn more about using AI for interactive learning design and content creation
6. Put time on the calendar to explore more AI tools
7. Find others who see the potential for AI in facilitation and collaborate with them
8. Participate in an AI hackathon

If you’re interested in expanding your facilitation skills and exploring the intersection of AI and facilitation, consider joining our facilitation community or applying for our facilitation certification. This 12-week program will provide you with the knowledge and tools necessary to excel in the ever-evolving world of facilitation. By investing in your professional development, you’ll be well-prepared to navigate the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in the rapidly advancing field of facilitation.

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If you’re keen on exploring professional growth opportunities and considering asking your boss for professional facilitation development, there are a few steps to consider. Firstly, ensure that you’ve done your research and clearly understand facilitation development and how it can positively impact your work. Schedule a meeting with your boss to discuss your aspirations and express your eagerness to pursue facilitation development. It’s vital to be specific about what you hope to gain and how it can benefit you and the company. Remember, your boss is there to support you, so be open to feedback and suggestions and be flexible about the timing and format of the development. Don’t forget to follow up after the meeting to demonstrate your ongoing interest and commitment to your professional growth.

Research for Professional Facilitation Development

If you’re considering asking your boss to cover the cost of professional facilitation development, and the Facilitation Certification program at Voltage Control seems like a good fit, it’s essential to do your homework beforehand. We have all made the mistake of jumping the gun and asking for financial support before gathering all the relevant details about the program and your company’s policy on employee training expenses. Needless to say, requests without research didn’t go over well.

To avoid making that mistake, take the time to research our Facilitation Certification program and learn how it could benefit your role and the company as a whole. Additionally, make sure you’re familiar with your employer’s policy on training expenses. By doing so, you’ll increase your chances of getting the certification costs covered and demonstrate your commitment to your professional facilitation growth and the company’s success.

Know the Program

Prior to speaking with your boss, it is important to know what our Facilitation Certification is all about! Our certification program is packed full of valuable information, and we’ve done some of the homework on some of the basics for you so you can walk into your conversation with 100% confidence!  

Q: What does it cost?

A: $5000

Q: How long is the program?

A: Three months 

Q: What are the time requirements (daily, weekly, or monthly)? 

A: Live sessions are on Fridays from 9 am-12 pm, and prep work averages 3-5 hours a week.

Q: Can you describe the course? 

A: This is a comprehensive program that guides students through key facilitation foundation skills aligned with the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) competencies and provides you with ample opportunities to practice. There is feedback from a supportive cohort of facilitation colleagues.

Q: What will be the learning outcomes?

A: Students walk away with these skills by the end of the Voltage Control facilitation certification program:

• Identify a spectrum of impactful facilitation methods and approaches
• Select the best facilitation methods for your facilitation context
• Implement the right facilitation methods to meet optimal facilitation outcomes
• Reflect on areas of personal facilitator strength and growth
• Cultivate a valuable professional facilitator identity

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Our immersive certification programs give executives, team leads, chiefs of staff, product managers, trainers, and other leaders the facilitation skills and confidence to lead for now and what’s next. Download this brochure to get an indepth view of how the program including samples of portfolios from our alumni. Reach out if you'd like to talk one on one about the program.

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Additionally, be prepared to articulate how the certification program will enrich your professional trajectory and benefit your organization in the future. Since your boss may need to justify the return on investment of your ongoing education, it is advisable to have as much data as possible at your fingertips. Knowing the numbers will help justify not only your development but the company’s development as well. It is a fact that organizations tend to waste money on unproductive meeting time. In a report by Otter.ai and Dr. Steven G. Rogelberg, the study found that a company with 5,000 employees spends approximately $320 million yearly on meetings. However, if one-third of the hours spent in these meetings are unproductive, the company is essentially squandering $101 million every year that could be utilized for more fruitful endeavors. Our professional facilitation certification will give you the tools and knowledge to weed out unnecessary meetings and boost productivity in the meetings that your company is holding.

Know the Policies

If you’re looking to grow in your career, it’s important to know if your employer supports your professional development. Have you checked your company’s policy on employee development yet? You can start by checking your employee handbook or company website, but it’s possible the information is hard to find.

In case there isn’t a written policy, don’t worry! You can ask around and chat with your coworkers. Do you know anyone who has taken professional development courses before? If not, maybe someone can share their experience with getting company support for such programs. This way, you can make informed decisions about your career growth opportunities at your workplace.

Know the Answer

Inevitably, your boss will have some questions for you. Be prepared and know the answers ahead of time! Walking into a conversation you initiate totally prepared will not only impress your boss, it will greatly increase your chances of success requesting professional development support. Here is a list of potential questions you may be asked, and we have helped you by preparing answers for you to expand upon!  

How much is the program, and do they offer scholarships or financial aid?

One of the biggest mistakes you can make when applying for a program is not having all the important details and figures. It’s important to know how much the program costs, whether there’s a payment plan available and if financial aid is an option. By doing your research, you’ll show that you’re serious about this opportunity and that you care about the company’s interests.

If your company can’t cover the full cost of the program, don’t worry. Just take some time to think about how much you’re comfortable paying out of your own pocket. This will help guide your conversation and make things easier for everyone involved.

The program costs $5000, and Voltage Control does offer a Diversity Scholarship. A key part of Voltage Controls’ mission is to support diverse facilitators from different methodologies, backgrounds, races, genders, sexual orientations, cultures, and ages. (If you are a part of, or serve, a traditionally underrepresented group and feel that this scholarship would allow you to amplify this mission.)

What will you learn?

It’s totally understandable that answering some questions can be tricky, even if the question is simple. It can be especially daunting when you are put on the spot. To help you get the most out of the facilitation certification, it’s important to pinpoint the top three takeaways or skills you hope to gain. Think about why you’re excited to learn these skills and how they relate to your personal and professional goals. By doing this, you’ll be able to demonstrate that you’ve done your research and carefully considered the value of the program. 

• I will be able to identify a spectrum of impactful facilitation methods and approaches.
• I will be able to select the best facilitation methods for any facilitation context.
• I will be able to implement the right facilitation methods to meet optimal facilitation outcomes.

What is in it for the company?

If your company is willing to invest in your professional facilitation development, it’s a great opportunity to showcase how it can benefit both you and the company. Your manager might ask, “What’s in it for us?” and know the answer may be the difference between being approved or denied.

You can explain how the skills and knowledge you gain from the training can be applied to your job and contribute to achieving specific company goals. Think about the immediate benefits that your company can expect from your training. For instance, by becoming a certified facilitator, you can discuss how it can help you motivate employees, manage performance, optimize resource outsourcing, and more.

Facilitation is rooted in co-creation, and team members are invited to participate in decision-making. In facilitative leadership, leaders act as a guide to help other team members navigate workplace challenges, including stepping into future tech and carrying out a shared vision and purpose. Becoming a certified facilitator will help the entire team reach its full potential by ensuring everyone is heard and, in turn, unleashing everyone on the team. 

How will you maintain your performance at work?

Managers want to make sure you can still be your productive self while you pursue professional facilitation development. It’s totally understandable. To help them feel confident in your ability to balance your workload and your studies, it’s a good idea to give them a clear idea of the time you’ll need to commit to your program and how you plan to manage it. Sharing these details will put their minds at ease and show them that you’ve got this handled!

With a time commitment of 3-5 hours of outside-of-class work, and 3 hours of dedicated class time every Friday, I am confident that my work will not be negatively affected. 

How can we measure the Return on Investment? 

If you’re talking to your manager about investing in your professional facilitation development, it’s important to keep in mind that they’re responsible for the financial success of the company. So, it’s a good idea to do a little research and find out how the facilitation certification program can benefit the company’s bottom line. Look for any data or statistics that show a positive return on investment or even just information about the general topic of the program.

Another way to show that the program is worth the investment is to explain how it can help you and your team be more efficient. For example, will it help you produce higher quality work or complete projects more quickly? Or will it teach you cost-saving strategies that can benefit the whole team? This kind of information can be really helpful in persuading your manager to support your professional development.

Facilitation Certification will help our team by allowing others to contribute to, critique, and improve shared initiatives. By harnessing group energy as an innovative strategy, facilitators work to promote equality and diversity in the workplace, leading to a more positive and innovative future. Learning the art of facilitation gives both leaders and team members the necessary skills to make real change. While leaders are often the go-to change-makers in an organization, all stakeholders should have the knowledge to innovate, problem-solve, and iterate independently. Becoming a certified facilitator will help the entire organization become lean, productive, and innovative.

Is there a group option for this program?

You can definitely share what you’ve learned with your team, and it might be worth suggesting that they also take advantage of this opportunity. If your boss is curious about the program, you could inquire whether it’s feasible for the team to participate together. Many programs offer group enrollment discounts. It could be a great way for everyone to grow and learn together.

Yes! There are group options. With a private Certification Program, Voltage Control starts by working with us to understand your current organizational design and leadership needs. They will help us discover specific target stakeholders, custom learning objectives, and growth opportunities. Using these insights, they design a custom learning program that combines elements of the facilitation certification, master certification, and unique learning modules as needed.

Time to Take Action! 

Great job on doing your research and getting ready for potential questions! Now, it’s time to take the next step and talk with your employer about paying for your professional development. Starting with an email is a fantastic way to begin the discussion. It’s low-pressure and allows you to review and refine your request before sending it. Of course, eventually, you’ll want to chat in person, but let’s take it one step at a time…

Here is an example of what you can say in the initiation email: 

Before hitting “send” on your email, take a moment to ensure you’ve included specific information about how the facilitation certification program can benefit your company. And don’t forget to proofread! Your message should be clear, positive, and gracious. Once you’ve checked those boxes, go ahead and hit that “send” button with confidence. 

Congrats! You’re one step closer to advancing your career through professional development and maximizing your potential. For more information about our facilitation programs here at Voltage Control, please reach out! We would love to help you along your unique journey!

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You may be able to get the cost of Facilitation Certification covered by your company's professional development reimbursement policy, and, even if your company doesn't have a formal policy, they may still approve partial or complete reimbursement. We created this template to help you prepare and submit your request.

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The post Get your boss to cover Professional Facilitation Development. appeared first on Voltage Control.

Control the Room 2023 was a remarkable occasion that presented many valuable opportunities for connecting with others. Beginning with the annual facilitator summit on February 7th, the event featured a week-long series of virtual speakers. This year’s summit was centered around the theme of IMPACT, prompting us to consider the ways in which we impact our clients, our professions, and one another. Overall, it was an unforgettable experience.

This year’s event saw the return of our virtual space, which was once again seamlessly integrated with our live space. Our Vice President of Programs, Shannon Varcoe, and Mark Tippin, the Director of Strategic Next Practices at MURAL, were the perfect hosts for the occasion. As a longtime Voltage Control collaborator, participant, and friend, Mark brought a wealth of experience and expertise to the event. Together, Shannon and Mark formed the dynamic “Zoom Crew,” guiding our live audience through reflections after every three speakers. This allowed for a deeper connection between the audience and the speakers, which made for a more engaging and interactive experience for all involved.

Throughout the event, both the virtual and live audience were engaged with a variety of prompts and activities. These included sharing impactful resources with each other, connecting our unique superpowers, and even sharing our set-up selfies. The result was an atmosphere that was both collaborative and inclusive, with participants feeling a sense of belonging and connection to each other. For those who missed the event, the full MURAL is available to view online.

Read on for the recordings of each reflections section, and the full transcript accompanies each.

Reflections Round 1

Transcript:

Douglas:
Reflections will be coming up periodically through the day with Shannon Varcoe, the VP of Facilitation
Programming here at Voltage Control. Awesome, Shannon, and a long-term friend, Mark Tippin. He was
actually a guest at year number one of Control the Room and has been with us ever since. I think he has
not missed a summit since.
Back by popular demand, we’re doing Reflections with Mark and Shannon’s going to be helping. We’ll be
doing that in a Zoom. We’ve got the QR code up there. Sorry, we’re going to be doing that with the
Zoom folks in a Mural. If you want to follow along on a laptop or a device, you can. That’s the QR code,
but we’re also going to have the Zoom folks up on the screen. You’re going to be able to hear them.
Anyone that wants to talk with folks in the Zoom, I’ll be passing this microphone around. If you want
them to be able to see you, there’s a camera right there by that TV. You can walk up to it and actually
have an experience with them. With no further ado, we’re going to switch over to the Zoom. Mark and
Shannon, let’s take it over.
Mark Tippin:
Hey, great to see everyone. Oh, that was probably very loud. We’re joining you from either edge of the
United States right now. I’m in Portland, Oregon, and Shannon is …
Shannon Varcoe:
Here in North Carolina. So excited to be on all ends of the country with everyone today. It’s great.
Mark Tippin:
We’ve had an incredible lively discussion online, and we have some plug and play ways to bring focus to
this moment after the three speakers. This one, the theme that seemed to emerge for us is around self-
impact. It’s a great place to start. Everyone’s been asking us to be curious about ourselves, to
understand the voices in our head, and how since we can observe them, we’re not actually the voices in
our head.
I would invite you, there in the room, if you have a device, come and check out the Mural because it is
chock-a-block with books and recommendations and observations and insights, and it’s an asset that
you can take with you.
I wanted to say, Shannon, what was one of the things that really stood out for you from our three
speakers?
Shannon Varcoe:
I think just this theme around, as you said, thinking about impact and the impact that things we choose
to do have on ourselves, I thought was a really interesting thread. I think about impact that our actions
have on others or the external has on ourselves, but I think there is a really interesting thought going for
me about, it’s actually also the impact that my own thoughts, my own actions have on myself. That was
definitely something that really stood out for me around the impact we can have on ourselves, just as
much as we can have on other people. How about for you, Mark?
Mark Tippin:
There was one quote that was shared in Zoom chat and it says that you don’t know what your
authenticity would do for someone else. Even in the process of getting clear with yourself and trying to
do the work of being authentic and getting from a two to a three, or getting from an eight to a nine, that
work and that journey in your personal life, you never know the impact that that conversation or that
struggle you’re having is going to benefit other people.
Shannon Varcoe:
It’s so true. I think Renita mentioned Lizzo, and there was a lot of love for Lizzo in the Zoom chat and in
Mural. I think about that. Even just what you’re saying is that Lizzo, we use her as such an icon for the
impact that she’s had on body positivity in the world and on so many women, but also I can imagine that
didn’t just come easily for her. The impacts that her own authenticity for herself and the thoughts that
she has and the way that she presents herself into the world allowed her to be able to impact everyone
in this large way. I love that.
Mark Tippin:
Absolutely. I’d love to see a show of hands in the room, because I’m not currently screen sharing, but for
those of you that don’t have a device in front of you, if you’d like, I can share the Mural just so you get a
visual sense. Show of hands, would that be of interest? All right, Douglas.
Here, allow me to. You tell me if you are able to see. Everyone in the room, okay, cool. I just wanted to
give a shout-out. I don’t know if this is 100% from the folks online, but this is what I’ve learned over the
years, Douglas. This is an artifact I come back to, year after year, and reference. I’d encourage people, if
you are taking sketch notes, upload those things into the Mural. Feel free at any time to come in and
add your own observations.
People are sharing things, like when we were talking about time management, Pomodoro technique and
timers, and books, and we’re playing along online as well. That’s a reminder, for those of you, that our
speakers are going to be taking the stage this afternoon. You have a vibrant community of 130 plus folks
here as well that are having a whole parallel, amazing conversation online, and we are just here to try
and bridge that gap.
Also, just wanted to offer the opportunity, if there’s someone on the Zoom side, if you had something
you wanted to share, feel free to unmute and share. If there’s anyone in the room that wanted to ask a
question to the virtual community, feel free.
Douglas:
Any questions or any reflections on the talks that anyone wants to share? I saw Kaleb’s hand first.
Mark Tippin:
Awesome.
Kaleb:
I just wanted to say the comment about… You said it. Self-care is being selfish. I had a family member
recently pass away, and she didn’t do enough self-care because she felt like it was selfish, and it’s just
really powerful. So, be selfish. I’m selfish as hell. Be selfish.
Mark Tippin:
Do we have anyone else in the ground?

Jay:
Yeah, zoom crew. Boom, go. I’ll say that, you guys rock. I got to get on Zoom the last couple of years,
though I’m now in person, but one of the things that we’ve been talking about… We went to dinner last
night and we talked about identity. That was the thing that we talked about and how people define us
by the things we do. I had an opportunity to have the universe intervene with me and a wise person in
her seventies. PhD from education who used to be a principal told me, “Sometimes we get so locked in
human doing instead of human being.” As facilitators, we’re always doing, doing, doing, and sometimes
we miss the things beside us, because we’re going so fast and getting things done as opposed to being
with the people and around the things. We miss the peripherals and we miss opportunities, so that’s
something to just throw out there.
Mark Tippin:
I have to ask, was that my friend Jay? Certainly sounded like him.
Douglas:
Yes. Disembodied Jay for all the Zoom people.
Mark Tippin:
Fantastic. Last call for anyone on the Zoom crew that has a question or observation to share. Remember
to unmute.
Shamay:
Hi.
Mark Tippin:
Hi.
Shamay:
My name is Shamay Lucas and I just wanted to say thank you to Miss Renita for seeing me. Something
small about a shared or lived experience can go a long way, so that humidity with these edges, yes. Then
I wanted to thank Matthew, wherever he is right now, for wearing his pronouns, they as well. Small
things go a long way in your different experiences. Thanks.
Shannon Varcoe:
Fantastic.
Mark Tippin:
Thank you, yeah. How are we doing on time, Douglas? I don’t want to overstep.
Douglas:
We got 10 minutes, if you want to fill it. We could also go to break if you want to, so you got 10 minutes
should you choose to use it.
Mark Tippin:
I was going to say I would love to huddle with the Zoom crew online and figure out how to prepare for
the next wave of speakers, but if anyone there in the ground has any questions, feel free to hop in
Zoom, in the chat. Other than that, we can give some time back, I think.
Douglas:
All right, great. We’ll be back from break and I guess we’ll now be… What’s the official time? We’ll be
back from break at 10:40 Central.
Mark Tippin:
Sounds good, thank you.
Shannon Varcoe:
I’m going to mute the room.
Mark Tippin:
Thank you.
Shannon Varcoe:
We’re good. Okay.
Mark Tippin:
Awesome.
Shannon Varcoe:
Awesome. Zoom crew, hello.
Trish:
Hello.
Shannon Varcoe:
Everyone, thanks for jumping in. I know the beginning was we didn’t get a chance to huddle up right at
the start, so just so glad that everyone is here. Thank you for joining us and hopping into the chat and
into the Mural and all of these things. We’re just so glad everyone is here and hope you enjoyed the first
segment of speakers.
Mark Tippin:
I’d love to hear any and all feedback so far, especially anything that we might need to communicate and
bridge to our friends that are co-located there on the ground in Texas. Can you hear the speakers okay?
I saw a comment about trying to share the slides as well. I know they’re trying to do some camera
switching, Shannon.
Shannon Varcoe:
I know there’s a couple questions about trying to get slides shared, but it’s sort of like either it stays on
slides the whole time and we never see the speaker or we can do the shifting. I think we’re going to try
and do the shift and then hoping to just grab screenshots of slides where we can and just drop them into
the Mural so that you can see them in there, I hope, but everything’s …
Trish:
I have some thoughts and questions about that. Is it possible to just ask the speakers who are coming up
… Hey, it’s okay if your slides change, but can you just share them in Mural or in a Google Doc or
something like that. We don’t have to wait until the presentation to see the slides, but if they really feel
like they want to wait, then maybe you can immediately be sharing them on the fly as opposed to
waiting until afterwards when we’re not connecting with them as much. That’s one thought. Should I
pause and listen because I have a totally separate thought.
Mark Tippin:
Oh, no, I just wanted to acknowledge and thank you because you’re reminding me last year we actually
had them in advance and I had a separate Mural with all of the slides dumped out, and then I pasted
them as the speakers were going.
Trish:
Cool.
Mark Tippin:
So you, you’ve reminded me of lost knowledge from last year.
Shannon Varcoe:
I can see if I can see if that’s still a possibility. We could try to make that happen over this break.
Trish:
I know sometimes speakers want to keep changing their slides or feel self-conscious about that, so
whatever you can do, it would be helpful. I want to be empathetic to how it feels to be up there.
Mark Tippin:
Absolutely, thank you. We’re on that. Trish, what’s your other contribution?
Trish:
One of the great things about attending in person is those relationships that we build over lunch, et
cetera. Last year I attended and I felt like we hadn’t figured out the whole hybrid thing yet because a lot
of us were online last year. Now the group is smaller. I would love to have little breakouts or ways to get
to know the people here. Tim, Jeff, Mike, Jose, I see your names, Jonathan, Andrea, Nancy, and then I
see some initials, Matt, G P G P B.
I don’t know who any of those people are, but if we could just create some norms that work for this
group, maybe sharing LinkedIn profiles or having some quick little sub breakout groups, where we can
start to meet some people. Or having a space in the Mural where we can create your own little profile
where you put a happy face and I’m into innovation or I’m into fostering diverse conversations or
whatever someone’s into that we can be attracted to each other and find each other in the same way. In a different way, actually, maybe even in a better way than we would in person because we have the
luxury as virtual attenders to maybe be able to multitask a little bit.
Mark Tippin:
That’s right.
Trish:
Let’s use that to our grand advantage and discover each other.
Mark Tippin:
Again, thank you, Trish. I will point out that on the Mural, there’s an area almost all the way to the right
that says let’s make an impact together. I see people are already throwing in links to their social profiles
and things there. You’ve also made me think there, we might be able to open up breakout rooms
randomly if that’s something maybe in the chat, if we could see. Yes, if that’s something you’d be open
to do, just let us know. We could create an arbitrary number of breakout rooms and then leave them
open and bring everyone back to plenary before the session starts.
Trish:
I like that.
Shannon Varcoe:
I’ll jump in there too, Trish love the ideas. I think to your point, it’s also just we have this opportunity
that is different and so where we can maximize that, I just love that concept. I think, so lunch is actually
a spot where there’s not any programming for us virtually. I think that would be an awesome time for us
to do some breakouts. We can have those lunch tables going within Zoom. We’ll use that time.
The other thing I wanted to mention just kind of as a high level thing is that feel free, jump in, jump out.
We disabled the waiting room so you won’t get caught into a waiting room if you need to leave or come
back. I think for lunch, if we can have people who are on and want to be a part of breakout rooms and
then if you’re not, maybe bounce for a bit and then come back for the next speakers and we can do
some of those breakout times over the lunch break.
Trish:
I have a thought. I’m sorry to keep throwing stuff out, but to make your life simpler, if it’s possible to
give people the freedom to go in … Set up a bunch of breakout rooms and let people freely go into
whichever ones they want, but in the Mural, maybe create a series of boxes with just numbers for the
breakout rooms and if people have a topic they want to put into a box, then you can see. Maybe we can
put names and say, “Hey, I’m going to go into that breakout with Broom with you over lunch.” Just a
thought. I’ve been thinking a lot about this, by the way, as you can tell. I’m looking to create
communities doing this kind of online connecting and networking. I haven’t figured it out, but I’m just
throwing out some possibilities to put a little lubricant in the muffin pan there.
Shannon Varcoe:
Thank you for sharing your ideas. We are all about experimenting and trying new things and giving
things a go.

Eric:
Can I point out something here?
Shamir:
I had one more.
Shannon Varcoe:
Hang on, sorry, we’ve got too many people talking at once. I think, Shamir, you had your hand up. So I’m
going to go to you next and then Eric, you’ll go after him.
Shamir:
Thank you Eric for that. Yeah, I just wanted to mention I had an idea around the presentation slides
because being able to see it clearly is quite helpful. I think what’s happening is because it’s sending
through the video, what happens is Zoom normally reduces the quality of video. But when we share
screen, it makes sure that the quality is clear. If you could share the video that’s coming in from the
stream from Texas over the shared screen, they have an advanced feature that’s content from second
camera, it normally sends it much better quality from there.
I don’t know if it’s possible with the tech team, if you could have a word with them to do that, then
probably the slides should be, my assumption is that it should be clear. Maybe that will work. Just
wanted to throw that out there in case it’s possible.
Shannon Varcoe:
That’s helpful. I’ll pass that note along. I’ve got a text start going with the people on the AB side, so I will
shoot that over.
Shamir:
Thank you.
Shannon Varcoe:
Thank you.
Mark Tippin:
Cool. On the board Shannon and I are putting together, you’ll see some hexagonal shapes. I’m going to
give them numbers and we’ll set this space up and feel free to … I’ll drop numbers in each one. Not sure
how many breakout rooms we’ll have. We have 130 people. I thought I’ll air on the side of more than
less, but feel free to drop a suggested topic maybe on a note in the middle of one of the rooms. I’ll drop
some numbers in here. I have some handy dandy numbers I can use.
Shannon Varcoe:
Lindsey, go for it.
Lindsey:
Hello, I just wanted to thank y’all for opening this up and welcoming feedback. This has been great so far
and I wanted to give a little bit of feedback about that. It was kind of frustrating that one of the in-

person activities was designed without offering the Zoom people access to the phone number. If it was
meant as a demonstration of what inaccessibility feels like, then I understand that. I just wish the
speaker had explained that afterwards, but if it wasn’t intentional, then I just wanted to reach out and
ask that It would be great to keep Zoom access in mind going forward for any other activities. Thank y’all
again. I really appreciate it.
Shannon Varcoe:
Lindsay, thanks for sharing that. I think it’s a great point, and we’re definitely trying to find those ways to
bridge the gaps between in-person and remote, so definitely appreciate that thought. I think it’s
important for our speakers to be able to think about both too. So yeah, thank you.
Eric:
I could throw out sort of another thing. I found it a little disconcerting. I couldn’t hear the clapping when
the speaker was done. That’s kind of a little weirdness.
Shannon Varcoe:
I sent that note over actually to the team. We were like is it happening? You can see it, but you can’t
hear it. I don’t know if we can try and get them to hold the mic up just so we can at least hear little or
we have to, maybe I’ll do a virtual clap track.
Mark Tippin:
Hit the right one here.
Shannon Varcoe:
Got to get that, because I agree with this a little bit. Are they there? Is it happening?
Mark Tippin:
Thank you Eric for that.
Okay, cool. I see a topic being suggested already, so that’s great. I think one of the observations is we’ve
been in a pandemic and remote so long. I think as Douglas said, at the top, it feels good. It feels like
we’re back, but part of moving forward is not actually going back to the ways we used to forget
everyone that wasn’t located in the room and those centers of power and influence that we broke free
of and got into this new space of collaboration. That would be an interesting topic actually to go into
some is how do we actually pull the whole conversation forward, taking what we learned as opposed to
suddenly just getting back into old habits?
Shannon Varcoe:
Yeah, so agree with that. I so agree with that. Couldn’t agree with you more.
Mark Tippin:
I know. Folks in the Zoom crew may not know, but Shannon could be there in person and she willingly
volunteered to hold down the fort virtually and stay here and not be part of that community because
this community is as important. I certainly appreciate that.

Shannon Varcoe:
I love, I think it was Erin’s comment, but we want to create the FOMO for people who are in person
here. I experienced that last year. I’m not going to lie to you. I spoke last year and I remember feeling
like there’s this whole world happening on Zoom that I’m not a part of, and I was excited about it. I was
excited to join this year and help make it happen. Rachel.
Rachel:
I just want to say thank you because it was so fun last year and also what you’re doing is exhausting.
Both of you, I really, really appreciate you being able to be on the screen all day to facilitate this space.
Shannon Varcoe:
All good. Also a good thing to note is that important, somebody said too, is that important to take
remote breaks as well? I know we’re going to be joining back for the next speaker at 10:40 Central.
Want to make sure that people take a break, grab some extra coffee, grab a snack, whatever you need
to do to get yourself ready for the next segment. Also too, the day on Zoom is really long, and so we
don’t necessarily expect everyone to join for the entire time. If you are joining, you’re going to get
videos of the speakers and things. Feel free to do what you need to do, take care of yourselves as we
heard from our speaker first, do what you have to do, take care of your day, your energy. If you want to
jump in, jump out, do whatever you need to do. Greg, question?
Greg:
It’s not a question. I just wanted to applaud the Zoom crowd. I’m finding that what is being put on the
Mural board and what’s being put into the chat is actually elevating the content significantly. One of the
side conversations I’ve been having with my team is, wouldn’t it be nice if everybody in the room was on
a tablet or something taking notes on the Mural board like this group is? I think that there’s an awful lot.
I’ve noticed E.J., who is an amazing source, a fount of reference material and rec book recommendations
and insights. I just think there’s so much brain power and lived experience in the room, virtually all of
the rooms that we’re sitting in and the room in Austin. I just wanted to applaud the group and say thank
you for all the content that you’re providing. That’s sort of meta level of value that’s being added. So
thanks for that.
Shannon Varcoe:
Thank you, Greg, appreciate that. It’s so true, right? It’s not just the speakers that are the ones that are
the experts today. It’s also everyone here and everyone has amazing resources and things to share.
We’re glad that we have a space to do that. So, thanks Greg.
Mark Tippin:
Thank you. I couldn’t agree more. I do a lot of this for a living, but I am so humbled every time I show up
in this community. When I was there in person in 2020, I was telling Douglas, I feel light-headed. I feel
like I’m breathing pure oxygen because everyone I talk to is in this zone on this journey. As you said,
there’s so much, not only resource knowledge, but lived experience knowledge that it really is
something. I come into intentionally beginner’s mind and blank slate. It’s the thing that manifests online
in the chat on the Mural board, that’s magical. That’s why I love facilitation. I don’t have to have all the
answers. I just create a space and I’m always blown away.

Shannon Varcoe:
Totally.
Mark Tippin:
I’m guessing now would be a good time. We’ve got about 10 minutes. Now would be a good time for
people to get some fresh oxygen, stretch your legs and refill coffee and or water. I’m going to do that
and I’ll be back in probably about five minutes and we’ll strike up the conversation and get ready for the
next round of lightning.
Shannon Varcoe:
Excellent. Excellent.
Mark Tippin:
All right.
Shannon Varcoe:
Be back in a bit.
Mark Tippin:
Back in a bit.

Reflections Round 2

Transcript:

Douglas:
All right, we’re getting close to lunch. We have a few more reflections here. So we’re going to turn it
over to Mark and Shannon. Mark and Shannon, are you out there?
Mark:
We are indeed.
Shannon:
We are here.
Mark:
So share my screen. Always blown away by the journey that a lightning round can take us on. I just
wanted to share my screen, and again, let people know that this is a resource that’s being built, and it’ll
be available to everyone from here on out.
But I just… There were some interesting points between the three of these that I wanted to stitch
together. And this lens that we were going to use is looking, really, at the conditions for impact. And the
Zoom crew has already been sharing their observations around impact. But just one by one, I wanted to
say that Taylor’s points resonate with me as someone who’s been struggling in design, and product
management, and development for so many years. And how many times have you done a retrospective,
almost robotically, and there’s a sadness there because what you’re doing is acknowledging all the stuff
that didn’t work right? And what potential there is to use the gifts that we have around being present on
the teams where we’re working, to bring that presence to observe what’s happening now and try and
influence what will happen next to improve the ability for those outcomes. I just really wanted to thank
Taylor for that.
Benjamin, I appreciated AI as a topic that I’ve been curious about. And it just seems like in the last year,
it went from an interesting thing, to almost consuming the world faster than software consumed the
world, and these other waves from Alvin Toffler and Future Shock and Third Wave back in the day. It’s
just these waves are now coming so quickly.
I just want to thank Benjamin for highlighting, especially, looking at the conditions for impact there is
understanding where our conversations happen. In his talk, it was observing if AI is seen as a technology,
and it’s thrown into a tech area, that’s not really looking at it for the strategic impact that it has. And I
think that’s a lesson that we certainly resonate with every time we’re trying to lead a powerful
conversation, and we find ourselves not close to any centers of power. Having amazing conversations
with passionate people that are there and willing to have them, but not being seen for the strategic
potential it has, to create the connections and the community and bring the imagination, increase the
imaginal capacity of an organization. So that was something I wanted to thank Benjamin for.
And Yvonne, so many things. I mean, this board is… Our observations around the conditions are littered
with things just at the flurry at the end of your speech. And appreciate, especially, again, hitting on
authenticity, but also vulnerability. And every time I find I’m not being effective in my role is usually
when I’ve put up a wall and I’m not being authentic, I’m not being vulnerable, and I’m not really putting
my energy back on the crowd and focusing out there. There’s something where I’ve pulled it back for
one reason or another. And I think that vulnerability is a quick way to put the energy back in the room
and ease back into that supportive role.
Shannon, I wanted to invite you as well. Some of the things that we’ve seen in the chat, or some of your
own observations.

Shannon:
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, Mark, and appreciate your thoughts on all of those. I think as we were
imagining around conditions for impact, I also think about, especially when you’re talking about the AI
and just that whole presentation and just the impact that the technology has had so quickly. Thinking
about what conditions were in place for so many users to start using AI technology as soon as it was
launched, I think there’s some interesting, I don’t know the exact statistics, but number of users that
were using ChatGPT was just absurd compared to how quickly other users were using other
technologies that have hit the market. And I think about, what conditions were in place for that to have
the impact that it had? And what conditions continue… Do we develop to allow people to use those
technologies in new and different ways? And also, how are we communicating those?
And then I think too, just around this topic with facilitation, just thinking about, what conditions are we
setting for our participants to be able to fully participate and be impacted by the things that they’re
learning, the conversations that they’re having, the people they’re connecting with?
And then on the flip side of that I’ve also been thinking about too, with all of these connections and
things that are happening with participants here in the Zoom Room, but also participants in the room, is
that, what are the conditions for us when we’re a participant? Not just as a facilitator, but what are the
conditions that we allow ourselves to be in to be impacted, to listen, to hear those stories, to get that
information? What conditions are we, in a learning environment, or in a conference, showing up as, that
allow us to show up as great participants?
So we’ve got some really amazing participants in the Zoom Room too, so I want to shout everyone out.
And if there’s other reflections or things that people are thinking about when we think of the conditions
for impact, curious, in the room and also in Zoom, if anyone wants to jump in with your thoughts.
Mark:
Douglas, any questions from there in the room or observations?
Douglas:
Scanning the room for hands. I haven’t seen any yet.
Mark:
What a hungry faces there, staring at you. We stand between them and food.
Douglas:
I kind of have a question both for Ben and Yvonne, just listening to this notion of audience deserve to
feel the facilitation. What’s your facilitation story? And Yvonne talked about… Or I’m sorry, and then
Ben, we’re talking about some of the artificial intelligence to say, “This isn’t how I would’ve done it as a
human,” in terms of what the AI says. And for me, I was thinking instantly, is that not diversity? Is that
something that kind of takes us out of our… And I’d be really interested to sit around a campfire with
Ben and Yvonne and ask the question, “What is AI for diversity? What might AI for diversity mean? And
what might AI do for realtime facilitation story development?” Ben and Yvonne, I’m just going to call an
audible. Let’s meet over here at the camera and do a little quick little roll with that.
Mark:
Rock and roll, Doug. Thank you.

Douglas:
Over here at the camera, if y’all would, yeah. Ben and Yvonne. Yeah, let’s do it. Awesome. So just some
comments on what [inaudible 00:07:31] had to say.
Yvonne:
Okay. Where am I facing?
Douglas:
Camera.
Yvonne:
Camera, okay. Yeah, at the camera. Yeah, that thing. Right. So do you want to answer initially from an AI
perspective, and then I will jump in?
Ben:
Yeah. I think from an AI perspective, I think it’s important to think about what we mean by diversity. Is it
a different kind of cognition that we need to open our minds up to if we’re going to accept it as a
partner in our work? Absolutely. But like any other partnering or human collaboration, you have to
assume that it’s not going to be perfect. It will be biased. It’s incumbent upon us in those partnerships to
be mindful of where that bias might arise and what it might look like.
The other thing I want is with AI, we obviously all believe that encouraging diversity is critical for
ourselves, for our organizations, for our communities. I don’t think we need to go out of our way to
bring in AIs necessarily, but it can challenge us to think in different ways, which is, I think, part of the
value of diversity.
Yvonne:
Thank you. I think that’s absolutely correct. I will also say that I’m glad you brought up bias, because as
human beings, every single one of us alive is biased. Whether that’s based on current, or past lived
experience exposures, or lack thereof, there’s bias in all of us. And those programming AI, those
designing for AI themselves are biased. So I think it’s incredibly important to be responsible to try to
mitigate bias as much as you possibly can. And one way of doing that is to engage in community and to
expose what you’re trying to build to others so that their vantage point is thus included, because they
have a better understanding of the potential pitfalls and harms that can occur if their perspectives aren’t
included. So I think that that’s critically important. Yeah.
Speaker 6:
All right. I’d like to add something as someone who studied AI in college to that perspective about
diverse perspectives, if that’s okay. If we think about where AI comes from, it comes from whatever
learning sets it’s been fed. So while we might in some cases think of the AI as a different perspective, it
could actually help us with diversity in innovation by recognizing that in a lot of cases it’s the common
perspective. So it could help us to question, “Hey, if that’s the common perspective, or that’s what
emerged from the learning set, how might we think about it differently than the AI came up with?”
Yvonne:
Yeah, I think that presents a very interesting dialogue. I think one of the things that myself and my team
are focused on, especially when it comes to AI and the dialogues on it is, what are we doing to ensure
that not only there are multiple perspectives and voices at the table and the design work, but also to
make sure that we’re not upholding continued systems of oppression and marginalization that have
occurred in our society that are kind of like the pillars in many respects of our society. And how can AI
help to overcome those barriers and those challenges, but not feeding into the existing systems,
creating more challenges and barriers that we already have?
Ben:
Yeah, that’s a really great point. I mean, I think, again, back to the initial conversation and my talk,
there’s very real sense that this is dangerous and this is threatening. There’s a very real sense that this
represents an opportunity, and I think that’s what we’re talking about. It’s really both at the same time. I
think our biggest enemy with AI is urgency. I mean, there’s such an urgency to do something impactful,
to do something big to get ChatGPT out there that sometimes we don’t stop and think about, where
might we be making mistakes, or taking advantage of people, or instilling biases. And I think a lot of
times, with our clients, I tell them, “We have to slow down to speed up.” Because if you push a model to
market too quickly and it’s got some problem with it and it hurts somebody, that’s oftentimes
unrecoverable. So yeah.
Yvonne:
Yeah. It’s fiduciary responsibility 101.
Mark:
I wanted to extend an invitation to Taylor. I mean, if he also might have anything to… Or questions for
Taylor as well.
Taylor:
I was getting my product placement out.
Douglas:
There you go.
Mark:
There you go.
Taylor:
So the one thought that I had related here, when it comes to measurement and the things that we’re
trying to turn into metrics that dictate the outcomes that we’re looking for, when we begin to list out
what we want to measure, we have to be really aware of, are those things are on our list because
they’re just assumed to be the things that we should measure? And put another way, is there sort of
inherent bias in the things that we believe we should be measuring as opposed to what truly, A,
equalizes and, B, actually leads to the outcomes that we’re looking for? So as we reflect on the activity
that we did, or if you are going to go back and do it again, maybe with your team, each of the
measurement pieces, each of the metrics that you list, make sure you challenge yourself to say, “Okay, is
this measurement, is the assumption that this measurement is based on an inherently biased
assumption?”
Mark:
Wonderful. Thank you very much, Taylor. Yeah, great talks. Just real quick, I just wanted to draw folks
attention to some activities that you can check out. If you’re doing sketch noting, some people are
already sharing some of their visual sketches. We have a place for you to drop them there. People’s
social media connections, that’s happening, so there’s community and connect.
Shannon:
Hey, Mark.
Mark:
Oh.
Shannon:
You’re not sharing your screen, just real quick.
Mark:
Oh. Oh, yeah. Here, sorry about that. There we go. Just drawing your attention over here on this side, if
you have any sketch notes you want to share, if you want to drop your social media connections in here,
and maybe even flag a note specifically with your name, if there’s someone in particular you want to
connect with. We also have an area here to share your setup selfie. So if you are remote, we’d love to
see your… If you want to share, what are your setups? What do you use? What’s critical? And if you’re
there in the room, what’s your mobile setup for when you go into these spaces and try and capture all
this wonderful knowledge?
I also wanted to do a shout-out that at lunchtime, Zoom Crew is going to be hosting some virtual
breakouts, and the topics have been suggested here. So feel free, once you have your lunch, if there’s
some time left, there will be some breakouts if you want to jump in Zoom, and we’ll get you situated in
one of these impromptu unconference breakout rooms. Okay, that’s it, Douglas. Back to you.

Reflections Round 3

Transcript:

Douglas:
And that brings us to another Reflections with Mark and Shannon. We can see if we can get Mark and
Shannon back on the screens. Are you all there?
Mark:
We’re here. Oh my gosh. We’re here
Shannon:
We’re here. We are strong. We’re confident.
Mark:
We’re confident. The Zoom crew. We can do anything. I’m going to share the screen, but I’m going to …
Shannon, would you mind kind of kicking us off? You’ve been the inspiration behind this particular focus,
ripples.
Shannon:
For sure. Yeah, thanks Mark. So let me make sure I can see what you’re sharing. I can see it.
Mark:
Oh, yep. And here and share.
Shannon:
I’d say what a kickoff of three speakers to bring us out of lunch. I think in the chat somebody had said
with the box activity, even though we weren’t able to fully participate with boxes on our own heads, we
had some people with the different masks and things in Zoom and trying to create our own version of it.
But it was certainly fun to see a room full of people with boxes on their heads, even from afar. So really
appreciate getting to interact with that and just keeping the energy alive post-lunch sometimes can be
difficult. So just appreciate being able to feel that energy coming from the space in Austin.
But yeah. So we’re going to jump through and talk a bit about this concept of ripple effect. And so this
was something that, as Mark and I are planning some of these debrief sessions, we were just talking
about the different kinds of impact and what can happen when we think of impact, what comes up and
ripple effect was one that came to mind for me is this idea of that kind of classic image of a drop of
water and the ripples that come from the impact of that drop onto the water surrounding it.
And so we wanted to use this as an opportunity to have everyone share what impacts were these last
three speakers on you, what impacts existed for you there, for those in Mural, jump in and just kind of
drop some of those initial impacts in the middle of the circle. And then think about what are the ripple
effects of those impacts on you, on others, and how they often start to relate and kind of build on onto
each other. So we’ll pause there, Mark, happy to have you share some more thoughts too, but give it a
chance for people to drop in. And if those people in the room too have some thoughts and impacts,
we’re happy to add those as stickies into the mural for you, if you aren’t able to join in Mural in person,
but want to think about what are the impacts, immediate impacts of listening to these talks and some of
the takeaways and then how those might turn into the ripples that happen today, tomorrow, next week,
next month from the things that we’re learning and the ways that we’re connecting today.

This transcript was exported on Mar 03, 2023 – view latest version here.

Mark:
Yeah, absolutely. I just wanted to share a little bit about what might be missing there in the room is
some fantastic authentic responses and some of them quite humorous. Like some people saying, “Be
right back, I’m signing up for eHarmony after Corey’s amazing share.” But again, the conversation that’s
blending the real time synthesis has been so impactful. We even had someone holding down the
shouting on our end. Most of us were muted, shouting to our significant others and family in our space.
But we’re following along here. Yeah, I’ll zoom in right here, as people are adding and to see Douglas,
are there any observations from there in the room? Those with just three amazing speakers back to
back.
Douglas:
I’m looking for hands. Kaleem.
Speaker 4:
So the box, Mr. Clark. Yes. Like lean on me, Mr. Clark. Something though for me though about the box,
probably a little bit opposite of what a lot of people were feeling, but for some reason I felt like we were
all the same. I felt like I could do some silly shit and no one would know it’s me. So it was kind of a really
cool superpower. So I don’t know if you want to try to throw some of that in there, but especially I grew
up in Maine for some of you that don’t know, so it’s the whitest state in the country. Sometimes being
the same is super, super helpful. When you’re looking around, we all have boxes on our heads, so it was
really cool. Thank you.
Douglas:
Was there a hand? All right. We got another one.
Mark:
All right.
Speaker 5:
Hi, I’m Liberty. I took notes on Jimbo’s talk because I was so just invigorated by just the demonstration
that you did and the energy that came off of it. So I just thought that you did such an incredible job of
integrating all of the things we’ve heard today and really having that interaction. It’s one of the first
times I’ve seen interaction go so well in a space like this, so I feel really jazzed about how I can
incorporate that. But just connecting the dots that we’ve all been seeing. And then it was built on by
Corey and Matthew, and so thank you for inspiring us. This has been an incredible time and I really
appreciate all the effort that went into that box activity and getting us all to interact, so really appreciate
that.
Douglas:
Awesome.
Shannon:
We’ll open it up to anyone here from Zoom that wants to share impacts or thoughts, feedback,
questions.

Douglas:
I think we got another one in the room here.
Mark:
Okay.
Speaker 6:
For me, when Matthew said to change how we talk to our children about what success means, and
instead of telling them what success means, asking them what it means to them, that hit so hard home
for me. Because I think a lot of us, I know in my group, a lot of us said that we thought success is trying
to make our parents happy and doing what we think our parents want us to do. And so much of our life
is built inauthentically because we’re trying to make other people proud of us and other people happy.
And I think that’s the biggest sin of life, is abandoning our own truth to make others happy. So thank
you, Matthew.
Shannon:
It’s such a great share and I think such a great element to bring up too is the power of changing the way
that we talk to our children about what success is, is about asking. And just thinking about, and again,
back to this ripple effect is like what are the effects that then has on how they imagine success, how
they talk to others about it, right? So they’re just the ripple effects of those things, and they have impact
on us just even reframing those things. But also the impact of changing the way that we do something
can have for a long time, and on people.
Mark:
That resonates so much with the talks that we’ve heard today that are about getting your own kind of
mental house in order, in the way that you deal with a momentary conflict or a big disruption in life. But
that being selfish and taking the time to actually give yourself the space to deal with that, you are also
demonstrating that behavior to everyone around you and making that possible, whether you realize it or
not. And certainly presenting options.
So many things have been said today that hit each of us in different times in different ways, but
something that wasn’t even in our imagination suddenly we’re made present of that, like changing the
way we talk to our kids, something we weren’t really thinking about or thinking about how we got to
this space today and how things are going to go and then suddenly we elevate our consciousness around
these things and realize the impact that we all have throughout a day. Even in moments, you don’t
notice, ways you manifest frustration or not, or deal with adversity in the line at Starbucks or something.
These are all ways in which you’re getting yourself in order and then making other ways of being
possible for other people.
Shannon:
So true. And I think about that, especially as facilitators, how the ripple effects of choices that we make
and how we’re showing up, how we’re caring for ourselves in how we show up in those spaces and
when we’re facilitating, to your point too is. But also it made me think when you’re saying that too, is
how the ways that we talk to our participants or when we choose to add a thought or add a comment
here or there, just how that can also change the way that they’re thinking about something or how they
might move through an activity or move through a learning experience, that even something that seems
maybe small can also sort of have these ongoing effects from them, in good ways and in bad, right? I
think there’s always kind of the positive side of that too.
Mark:
Yeah. Well, once again, we created a space. I think we were trying to be organized coming in and have it
all planned and mapped out, but we created a space and it’s been filled in incredible ways.
Shannon:
Yeah. And it looks like Alexis has her hand up, so I want to give her [inaudible 00:10:17].
Mark:
Oh yeah, please.
Speaker 7:
Yeah. I just wanted to share. Thank you so much. These last three sessions were wonderful. Something
that really stood out to me was the vulnerability that started off with Jimbo’s talk and he said, if I have
to see through to you, I have to let myself out. And even just opening the eye was so powerful, and I
think that that just started to ripple from his talk down to Corey’s talk and then the vulnerability of that
conversation onto kind of this curiosity in the last conversation. I thought just the way that everything
flowed also really hit me, so I thought it was great. Thank you.
Mark:
Yeah, thank you, Alexis.
Speaker 8:
So I was joking with my table and saying that I didn’t know that we were going to have a therapy session
today, but I appreciate the last three speakers because Jimbo, you created a moment where every …
you’re right in front of me, of sameness, so I appreciate that. Corey lived experience through abuse, had
to gather, still trying to gather those experiences and those feelings and what it means. Matthew, we
have a shared experience as well. And one, I realize that I’m down the street from this man. He lives in
Winston-Salem, I live in Greensboro, so thank you for making that connection. And then two, you helped
me realize that my experience similar to yours in elementary school. Woo. Sorry y’all. Is a double edge
sword because without it, I wouldn’t be sitting right here.
Mark:
Thank you.

Reflections Final Round

Transcript:

Shannnon:
Well thank you all again just so much. From the Zoom side of things, we just appreciate everyone for
being here, hanging with us all day long. And I was just amazed. I should just say one quick thing was I
was amazed at the end in mural how quickly people were putting things in. I was about to do something
and add a book to the board and it was already there, and I was just like, “This crew is on it.” It was
amazing. Just so appreciate everyone being here and just diving in and being part of our team today. It’s
been amazing.
Speaker 2:
Can we all come off mute and just give a big woo-hoo?
Shannnon:
Yes. Yes. And also if you want to come off-
Speaker 2:
[inaudible 00:00:37] at each other.
Shannnon:
If you want to come off camera too, I can take a screenshot, get a little picture of us. So if anyone wants
to jump on camera quick.
Speaker 3:
No [inaudible 00:00:52] is needed now.
Mark:
That’d be great. Off camera.
Shannnon:
So if you want to join on camera, even just for a minute, I’ll just quick snag a pick of everybody.
Mark:
For the board.
Shannnon:
Join us, join us. Everyone good?
Mark:
Good.
Speaker 3:
How about we do the proper audio applause?
Speaker 2:

Oh yes, go Shamir. Do it.
Speaker 3:
No more fake applause. Unmuted myself-
Mark:
It’s being recorded. It is being record.
Shannnon:
All right, ready? Everyone smile. Three, two, one. All right, excellent. Okay. I’ll do another one too. We
can make funny faces or whatever.
Mark:
[inaudible 00:01:36] too late.
Shannnon:
Too late. Yeah, with a box on your head.
All right, ready? We’ll do one more. One, two, three. Awesome. All right, thanks everyone.
Mark:
Yeah, thanks. I’ve been with Mural for what, seven years now and this is what good remote
collaboration looks like. I mean this is really one of the best examples I’ve seen of a cohort just jumping
in and making stuff happen.
Speaker 2:
So Mark, are we all… you dub us official Mural designated content curators? We can put that on our
LinkedIn now?
Mark:
You bet. Yeah, reach out to me on LinkedIn and I’ll give you the gold star you can put on. No, but
seriously, this is fantastic and I appreciate it very much.
Shannnon:
Yeah, so fun. Appreciate everyone so much. And I know there’s been a couple questions about feedback,
and so we will definitely be providing a link for some feedback survey stuff. I don’t have it on me right
now but I’m sure you’ll get it by email, so definitely check out your email by the end of this week for that
because we’d love to hear your thoughts, feedback. If you’ve got some top of mind right now, drop
them in the chat. You can even direct message them if you don’t want to post them to everybody, that’s
totally fine too.
But yeah, again, just loved all of the experiments and thoughts and ideas too and just the willingness to
jump in on those. That was, I think, probably one of my favorite parts of working with be today. So
hopefully those will be the things that will kind of be the foundation for how we might plan this next
time, so I really appreciate that. And yes, the mural will be available following… We’ll probably continue
to add some more things to it, so definitely check back and use it as a resource moving forward too.
Cool. All right.
Speaker 5:
Are we doing a Zoom happy hour or was that a joke I saw in the chat?
Shannnon:
Oh I mean, I’m happy to hang. I’m here.
Mark:
I’d love to.
Shannnon:
Brooke’s been up for like 12 hours, but…
Speaker 5:
Well I wanted to respect that. If you’re exhausted, no worries. We can wrap up
Mark:
I’ll abruptly shift from coffee to Jim Beam or something and then catch up with you guys.
Speaker 2:
I put that in there, but it’s like 3:00 PM my time, so all y’all on the East Coast, just enjoy or a nightcap.
Speaker 6:
It’s 11:00 PM here, so onto the nightclub is fine by me.
Mark:
Very good. I am actually going to wind down and make sure I’ve got chat saved and various things end of
day, but please reach out, connect LinkedIn, would love to stay in touch and appreciate this community
very much. Thanks everyone.
Shannnon:
Thank you, Mark.
Speaker 2:
Thank you, Mark.
Mark:
Huge shout out to Shannon. I wouldn’t have been able to do it.
Shannnon:
Teamwork. Teamwork makes the dream every time.

Mark:
That’s right.
Shannnon:
Appreciate it.
Mark:
Take care everyone.
Shannnon:
All right, see you Mark. Bye.
Thanks everyone. Bruno, so good to see you.
Bruno:
Yeah, we’ll see a lot of… Not the last time you’ll see me.
Shannnon:
Yes, for sure.
Arianna:
Bruno and I wondering what we won, Shannon.
Shannnon:
You know, it’s a great question. I [inaudible 00:04:55]
Arianna:
Somewhere at the end sort felt like it was building up to something good.
Shannnon:
Yeah, they’re announcing-
Bruno:
I love the true prize part.
Shannnon:
I honestly don’t know. So we’ll find it out.
Arianna:
I would love to win the AI course if that’s possible.
Shannnon:
I’ll see what I can do. Sounds good. Bruno, how about you, because you won something too, right?

Bruno:
Yeah. Me and Arianna, we are doing everything together. So if you can put this both in the same one, we
are fine with that.
Shannnon:
All right. I’ll see what I can do.
Arianna:
That’s so weird. We’re like voltage controlled twins.
Shannnon:
I love it. That’s awesome. I know, I feel like I do see you guys on a lot of the same things.
Arianna:
I know.
Shannnon:
Except for [inaudible 00:05:32].
Bruno:
You know that we’re even connecting offline without you guys. We’re great behind your backs as well.
Shannnon:
Missing out. Missing out. No, I’m so glad. That’s great.
Arianna:
Thank you, Shannon.
Bruno:
It’s a lot. It was amazing.
Arianna:
[inaudible 00:05:44] Good job. I know how exhausting this is. You just absolutely did such a great job. I
kept saying it, but it’s not enough. You guys-
Shannnon:
I appreciate it. Thank you so much. The part that’s so weird after these virtual things, it’s like you feel so
connected all day and then you close it and you’re like, oh, I’m alone in the room. It’s so weird. But I
appreciate it as much… Just even this couple of people talk, it’s like, oh, there’s real humans over there,
so it’s great.
Arianna:
Hopefully you can sleep for two days.

Shannnon:
Yeah, definitely.
Bruno:
Bye bye.
Shannnon:
All right. Bye everyone. Thank you so much.

Thank You

Big thanks to the community for making each retrospective exciting, engaging, and fun! Thank you to the Voltage Control team for the hard work and dedication, to Mark Tippen for making our retrospectives a unique experience for everyone, AND to Shannon Varcoe for being a master facilitator of fun, creativity, and inspiring memorable conversations.

We hope you all have found value in each retrospective, one of our core values is buliding community, and this event was a shining example of the power of community, networking, and knowledge sharing! We are looking forward to seeing everyone at next year’s event!

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After going remote during COVID-19, many organizations continue to offer remote or hybrid options to workers in higher numbers than ever before. This survey is a snapshot of that work, offering snapshots of the lived experiences of both hybrid and remote workers. Of the 210 individuals we surveyed, most or all identifying as leaders in remote or hybrid workplaces and teams, we share herein the stories from the data that will help readers understand the current trends in remote and hybrid work and, even more importantly, what the future holds for hybrid and remote workers.

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Successful facilitation is reliant on the right processes – a series of actions and systems that enable us to think, create, and problem-solve more effectively. To achieve this, facilitation must be led by those who understand the importance of process. Master facilitators have honed their skills over years of practice, becoming experts at attuning to the energy, attention, and conflict in a room and guiding it toward the best outcomes. Looking ahead, successful facilitation will also involve mastering the art of collaborating with machines. 

Human-centered leadership teaches us that facilitation doesn’t end in the c-suite. These processes and practices must extend to an organization as a whole, and adapting and extending existing practices to maximize new potential with AI must be woven in by leaders and teams alike.

“The facilitator’s main task is to help the group increase effectiveness by improving its process and structure.”

– Roger Schwarz, author of The Skilled Facilitator.

In this article, we explore facilitation and the power of process in the following topics:

• Defining Leadership
• The Power of Process
• The Everyday Facilitator
• Relationship-Building for Radical Innovation

Defining Leadership

In defining leadership, many organizations consider a top-down approach. Traditional workplaces follow an autocratic or democratic model for leadership. In such organizations, one person is tasked with making decisions, delegating responsibilities, and pushing an organization in the direction of their choosing. Such an environment can create dissension amongst team members as they feel they’re just a cog in the machine. 

Facilitation gives us the opportunity to design leadership in service to others. Leaning into a facilitative approach to leadership creates a more balanced workplace. 

Transformative leadership efforts look to facilitative methods to completely shift the balance of power. This way, influential leaders can engender a sense of passion and desire as the driving motivators for team members. 

Facilitative leadership is a uniquely social endeavor that centers on shaping the hearts and minds of employees:

“Rather than being ‘something that is done to people’, facilitative leadership involves working with and through other people to achieve organizational goals.”

– Jane Humphries, E-learning specialist at the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership at National Louis University

Leaders understand that facilitation is rooted in co-creation, and team members are invited to participate in decision-making. In facilitative leadership, leaders act as a guide to help other team members navigate workplace challenges, including stepping into future tech and carrying out a shared vision and purpose. 

The Power of Process

In the art of facilitation, process is king, and those processes are translatable in the future of work, and collaboration with AI. 

Effective facilitation allows leaders to make otherwise enigmatic processes as concise and clear as possible. In defining leadership in such iterative ways, leaders allow others to contribute to, critique, and improve shared initiatives. By harnessing group energy as an innovative strategy, leaders work to promote equality and diversity in the workplace, leading to a more positive and innovative future. 

In exploring facilitation, leaders learn to declutter processes. Facilitators need to make decisions quickly and create strategies that can be applied time and again. Equipped with the right set of processes, facilitators easily get meetings back on track, spearhead projects with team members, and address others’ concerns and challenges.

Many facilitators champion design thinking as an innovative change management process. This co-creative process places the thoughts, needs, and feelings of all participants at the center of a change. Expert facilitators support design thinking as a creative and holistic approach to defining leadership. 

Consider the following strategies in approaching facilitation through the lens of design thinking:

1. Be transparent

Distributing power through every level of an organization starts with honest transparency. Top-level leadership should practice openness to cultivate a sense of trust among all team members. 

2. Engage all levels

The power of design thinking lies in its ability to engage all members of an organization. As collaboration is a core component in design thinking, leaders and team members should contribute equally to the decision-making process. 

3. Enhance company culture

Organizational culture drives the team dynamic and shapes the tone of your organization’s environment. Enhance your company culture with design thinking: encourage team members to try new ideas, practice iterative innovation, and fail forward. 

4. Define critical processes 

The most effective facilitative processes help guide team members to the next step. For example, design thinking follows five steps: empathizing, defining, ideation, prototyping, and testing. By clarifying each part of this process, leaders empower team members to adopt a design thinking perspective.  

The Everyday Facilitator

In defining leadership skills, it’s easy to consider facilitation a secret weapon. The secret is out: facilitation is for everyone, not just leadership. 

Learning the art of facilitation gives both leaders and team members the necessary skills to make real change. While leaders are often the go-to change-makers in an organization, all stakeholders should have the knowledge to innovate, problem-solve, and iterate independently. 

In defining leadership, we must look beyond a top-down approach. Adopting the concept of the “everyday facilitator” is an essential element in organizational transformation. The reality is that the most powerful leaders empower others to become leaders themselves. 

Facilitative leaders and team members excel in the following:

• Clear communication
• Asking questions
• Unbiased objectivity
• Group decision making
• Establishing focus
• Timekeeping
• Active listening

Through facilitation methods, all team members have the opportunity to understand, implement, and teach effective methods for facilitation. Though maintaining the clearly defined role of ‘leader” is a key part of pushing an organization forward, it’s the responsibility of each leader to equip those they lead with facilitation skills to increase others’ autonomy and capacity for decision-making. 

While there may be one leader in a group, a team trained in the art of facilitation is better equipped to create innovative change. 

The capacity to pose genuinely insightful queries is unique to human beings. Moreover, as we engage in introspection, self-examination, and empathy towards others, we establish a stronger connection with our humanity, which enhances our comprehension of our beliefs, emotions, and principles, as well as our interconnectedness with those in our vicinity. Purposeful questioning fosters a heightened sense of consciousness, empathy, and rapport within our teams, organizations, and even the artificial intelligence that coexists with us.

As change is inevitable, encouraging team members to start defining leadership through the lens of change management is crucial. While the unknown presents many variables, facilitative teams learn to run head-first into creative challenges. Through facilitation, leaders promote a distributed leadership structure that allows for a more fluid approach to change management. By giving team members more agency, leaders automatically encourage an atmosphere of increased collaboration.

Relationship-Building for Radical Innovation

“How exciting as a facilitator to kind of be in those moments where your assumptions are challenged or where all of a sudden you have this whole new metaphor to view something in the world.”

–Elizabeth Weingarten, Head of Behavioral Science Insights at Torch

Human-centered facilitation promotes intentional relationship-building. By validating team members and empathizing with their experiences and emotions, we create an environment of actionable vulnerability. This sense of increased psychological safety is a critical component in driving radical innovation. These tools are an essential component of defining leadership strategies for creative change management. Such training allows leaders to better navigate challenges, design better solutions, and strengthen positive relationships among team members. 

Additionally, to court innovation, we must facilitate rapid ideation. In exploring various facilitation frameworks, leaders learn to create repeatable recipes that allow for accelerated innovation and successful change initiatives.

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If you’re a leader or interested in learning about AI, one of the most critical initiatives to lean into, it’s important to prioritize facilitation in your work and start by familiarizing yourself with the capabilities and nuances of the tools. Begin with tool-specific tutorials to become familiar with the tool’s user interface and functions. Once you’re ready to experiment, take some time to learn how to craft effective questions that produce optimal results. Consider your audience’s context, their knowledge, the purpose of your question, and the ideal format and type of response you’re seeking. Avoid asking questions that could produce unsatisfactory answers. Keep in mind that we’ve spent our lives communicating and asking questions to other humans, so mastering questions for machines will take some time and experimentation.

Defining leadership through facilitative methods is an essential step in shifting toward an innovative future. Consider investing in facilitation training to transform your company culture as you learn more about the power of process. Voltage Control can help you work towards a career in change management through a variety of workshops. 

The post The Power of Process: Defining Leadership Through Facilitation appeared first on Voltage Control.

OpenAI released ChatGTP on Nov 30th, 2022, which has captivated the public due to its applicability to various needs and asks and near-human accuracy at astounding efficiency. AI has traditionally elicited mixed reactions, ranging from excitement and anticipation to fear and hesitation. With the introduction of this revolutionary technology, questions about its implications are beginning to arise. How will this affect knowledge workers? Which career paths are likely to become obsolete? What new knowledge do marketers, creators, programmers, etc. need to acquire to make the most of this changing landscape?

These are valid and important questions to consider, and it is essential that we have open and honest conversations about the potential impacts of AI on the workforce and how its emergence is making us and our co-workers feel. As the workplace continues to evolve and adopt more of these tools, It is critical to explore some common fears people have about AI and discuss ways that individuals and organizations can adapt, maintain the best parts of our humanity, and thrive alongside these technological advancements.

The tools now available to the public are incredibly powerful and are ushering in a momentous time of discovery. The availability of such powerful AI tools has opened up new avenues for discovery and innovation in various fields. GPT-3, Claude,  Sparrow, and the technology they will inspire all have the potential to revolutionize the way we communicate, learn, and interact with information. If we approach this game-changing tech with humanity, curiosity, and excitement, we can easily step into a world where AI is not only a tool but also a collaborator.

A common reaction to experiencing the power of AI is a feeling of cheating or that we are replaceable, this leads to discussion and debate about whether people will lose their jobs. It’s important to remind ourselves that this feeling is not new or unique to AI. Consider innovations like the printing press or the internet. While initially seen as disruptive, more opportunity has always been generated than lost. New roles and markets emerge in times of massive change. 

One unique thing about AI technologies, in particular, is that there are advancing and improving at an astonishing rate. This means that it’s an exciting time to play and watch and learn what can be done with these tool and how they might shape our work in the future. As we learn more and gain clarity and confidence, we are better suited to experiment with new approaches to our work. From there, we can consider how our jobs might shift and take on new requirements and meanings. If the AI can now automate 80% of your work, what can you do with that 80% that is now gifted back to you? Are you able to spend focus on the 20% that really provided the most value? The part that speak to your humaness? 

While many people will shift habits and behaviors, some will shift into complete new roles with new titles that never existed before. We’ve already seen this happen in the AI ecosystem. A role that has specifically caught my attention is the “Prompt Engineer” I fondly like to refer to them as AI Facilitators. If you’ve spent any time with ChatGPT, you’ve learned that getting great results from Chat GPT is similar to getting great results from a room of people you are facilitating. You have to ask GREAT QUESTIONS. 

Software companies seeking to add GPT capabilities into their products are hiring Prompt Engineers to create the best prompts for GTP to tailor the responses for their product use cases. Think of it like constructing the perfect MadLib. Consumers of a product will interact with the product and maybe fill in some data or make some requests in the app. The app will then submit that request and data to GTP by inserting the pieces into this perfectly crafted MadLib that will generate the ideal result for the end user. Prompt Engineers design these prompts and Madlib-like structures to get desired outcomes from the AI model. 

It’s fun to watch the job boards and careers pages for AI consultancies and AI-forward tech companies to see what trends are emerging around new job titles. Reflecting on these observations and considering what that means for overall trends and how those might emerge in your work can lead to valuable insights. Take a look. What ideas surface for you when you consider potential new roles in this emerging landscape? 

If nothing else, remember to be curious! It’s totally normal to feel overwhelmed, confused, scared, frustrated, dubious, and generally concerned. Take time to move past those reactions and cultivate the generative curiosity needed to learn and understand the technology. When we are curious, we see connections that are non-obvious, and when these pathways are illuminated are able to design our future more effortlessly.  

Putting It Into Action

As I mentioned previously, questions have always been paramount in facilitation, which is still true for ChatGTP and other language modules. While these tools are amazing, you won’t get far if you don’t know how to ask good questions or know what questions you should be asking. Questions are uniquely human. No other being discovered has this ability. And, when we engage in self-reflection, introspection, and empathy towards others, we connect more deeply with our humanity—leading to a better understanding of our thoughts, emotions, and values as well as how we are connected to those around us. Thoughtful inquiry cultivates a greater sense of awareness, compassion, and connection within our teams, organizations, and, eventually the AIs alongside us.

Master facilitators have spent years honing their skills and developing their ability to attune to and guide the flow of energy, attention, and conflict in a room. Successful facilitation in the future will also require mastering the art of collaborating with machines. Adapting and extending existing practices to maximize new potential with AI will be the norm. In preparation for this new age of collaboration, we’ve started experimenting by employing proven facilitation techniques while interacting with ChatGPT and other tools. The familiarity of the tools provides some comfort and confidence as we experiment with the unknown. 

Start with classic facilitative questions to help guide ChatGPT toward your outcomes: 

• How might we clarify and align the goals and objectives?
• How might we identify the tone and perspective?
• How might we recognize empathetic requirements that are considerate to our audience?
• How might we brainstorm and generate ideas for prompts and test them?
• How might we evaluate and prioritize prompts with core values in mind?

If you are a leader, facilitation is key to your work, or you are curious to grow into these areas, start by familiarizing yourself with the capabilities and nuances of the tools. You’ll want to start with any tool-specific tutorials to familiarize yourself with the UI and functions of the tool. Once you are on the tool and ready to start experimenting, take a moment to explore and learn how to craft questions that yield the best outcomes. As with any good question, think about the context of your audience, what do they know, the purpose of your question, what’s the format of a really good response, and even the types of answers you’d like to avoid.  Remember that we have spent our entire lives asking, communicating, and presenting questions to other humans, and it will take some time and experimentation to master questions for machines. 

I have been experimenting with ChatGPT and have made some progress on how to get the most interesting results. 

• Always make sure to start with your purpose, and think clearly about why this is important. Find ways to incorporate your why into the questions and prompts you construct for ChatGPT.

• Consider the personality of, or style of, the response that might be most valuable to you. Would you like to have your meeting summarized from the perspective of an investigative journalist, Charles Dickens, or Gandhi Think about the tone, attitude, and mindsets you seek to convey.

• Remember that ChatGPT is there to perform tasks for you. What is the thing you want it to generate? An essay, a poem, a love letter, a summary, a report, or computer code.

• One noteworthy feature of ChatGPT is that it can reference up to approximately 3000 previous words from the conversation. Take advantage of this is beneficial for requesting revisions and getting the tool to generate variations and adaptations until you get results you are happy with. Give it specific instructions on how to improve.

• Include specific qualities or requirements you have for defining a good response. This may not be immediately apparent when you first start, and you’ll need to rely on iterating and refining to get the answer you want. Over time you’ll get a handle on the criteria and instructions that are important to you. Save these for the next time you use ChatGPT. 

We have created a template laying out these steps in further detail so you can play with ideas and help streamline this process.

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Collaborating With AI

Practice, practice, practice! Learn to ask the right questions and become more comfortable collaborating with AI. This is key because, eventually, AI will work with us on our teams. We need to become accustomed to how they operate and how they “think”, as it will be different than collaborating with humans. We have generations of experience collaborating with humans, and now is the time to start building that same experience with machines.

Imagine you are on a team of five, four humans and one AI. 

• What does collaboration with AI look like, and how does it feel?
• What questions will the team ask the AI?
• How will we learn to work and collaborate in new ways?
• What does it mean to invite AI in as a team member?
• How might we notice and encourage it to have more ethical and inclusive answers?

Inviting the AI in as a team member means giving it context and teaching it how to work best with us. We can help it learn our culture and values to better align with our mission, vision, and purpose. Building a strategy to incorporate AI as a team member is not unlike working with people in an organization. When a company’s strategy is aligned with its values and purpose, it can create a more meaningful and fulfilling work experience for employees. AI can be an extension of this, reinforcing desired norms and behaviors. Creating a safe environment allowing people to bring their whole selves to work and tap into their innate sense of purpose and connection with others. This can, in turn, help employees lean deeper into their humanity and contribute to a more positive, ethical, and sustainable organizational culture.

Transcending The AI

There are many examples of how technology has allowed us to put aside trivial matters and  elevate as humans. AI is currently simplifying tasks of all kinds by efficiently performing mundane tasks on demand. For example, AI design tools are able to nearly eliminate the creation of UI design, allowing designers to spend their time considering the strategy, conceptual design, how to elevate user experience, and how to address accessibility or other concerns. While the simple example is handy for examples sakes, the potential is much greater than just moving from tactical work to strategic work. As these tools advance and provide deeper functionality for us, we will shift into a higher state of work, finding deeper connections and relating at levels never before experienced in the workplace. 

Humans are exceptionally adaptable organisms, and the AI revolution is a time that calls for us to lean into that ability. As with any change, we must also be considerate of long-term systemic implications and sustainability of our actions and work. As you embark on your journey, consider the ethics of what you or your organization are asking of the AI.  Think about the second and third-order effects of what you are asking. If the AI excels at doing this task, what might result from that and so on and so forth? What are the long-term consequences of that? Finally, consider if we might want to pick a different starting point or provide more conditions to properly guide or constrain the AI. 

I’m excited about what the future holds for us. As we explore these times together, join me as I focus on appreciating and respecting the diversity of experiences and perspectives that make us all unique. As we begin to create our first relationships with AI, remember to reach firmly into the deepest depths of our humanity.

The post Becoming More Human With AI appeared first on Voltage Control.

Artificial Intelligence is rapidly changing the world we live in. From healthcare to finance, from manufacturing to education, AI is transforming the way we work, communicate, and interact with the world. The potential benefits of AI are enormous, but so are the challenges. To ensure that AI is developed and used in a responsible and ethical way, we need to educate ourselves about this transformative technology.

We have partnered with Kungfu.ai to bring you a learning course that will dive deep into understanding AI and leveraging its benefits for your company. Understanding the way this tech can assist your specific business problem starts with the data. Ultimately the data we use to train our AI will determine the quality of your results. AI can solve many unique challenges presented to individual businesses. It also has the potential to take on many menial tasks, allowing us to transcend AI and focus on higher strategy, higher value projects, and elevate our creativity in the workplace.  

What is AI 101 

AI 101 is an educational program designed to help business leaders understand how to integrate artificial intelligence into their organizations effectively. With the rapid development and adoption of AI technology in recent years, there is no better time than now to incorporate it into your business operations. However, for many leaders and their teams, the prospect of integrating AI can be daunting. That’s why the program emphasizes the importance of fully understanding key aspects of AI implementation, such as identifying which opportunities are good opportunities for AI and measuring the return on investment of your AI initiatives.

Integrating AI into your business can offer significant benefits, such as increased efficiency, improved decision-making, and enhanced customer experiences. But to fully realize these benefits, it’s crucial to have a clear understanding of the potential risks and costs associated with implementing AI. By learning how to measure the ROI of your AI initiative before integrating it, you can ensure that the benefits of AI outweigh the costs.

In addition to ROI, AI 101 also covers topics such as identifying which areas of your business could benefit from AI, understanding the different types of AI, and selecting the right AI tools and platforms for your organization. By taking these steps to understand AI implementation fully, you can make informed decisions about incorporating this powerful technology into your business and reap the many benefits it has to offer.

To tackle the challenges facing a business, it is important first to understand what those challenges are and then structure the team in a way that minimizes risk. One challenge that many businesses face today is harnessing the power of artificial intelligence effectively. AI can only be as good as the quality of the data that is inputted into it. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how to ensure the quality of the data used for AI. This course will guide you through the process of fully comprehending why data quality is just as important as data quantity and how to ensure that the data used for AI is accurate, reliable, and appropriate for the intended use. You will learn about different data quality metrics, data cleaning techniques, and best practices for data management. By the end of this course, you will have a deep understanding of data quality’s role in AI and the tools and strategies needed to optimize your data for successful AI implementation.

To effectively communicate and collaborate with an organization, it is crucial to have a proper understanding of the role of a machine learning engineer. Developing this understanding can give you a competitive edge and help you integrate effectively into the team. Machine learning can add significant value to an organization in the long term, but it is important to recognize that success in an experimental context with machine learning problems may not necessarily translate into lasting value. Therefore, it is essential to consider a broader range of factors beyond just technical expertise, such as understanding the business goals and requirements, identifying suitable datasets, developing robust models, and ensuring scalability and maintainability. By keeping these factors in mind, a machine learning engineer can help an organization derive value from machine learning solutions that are not only experimental but also sustainable and impactful in the long term.

Reed Coke, NLP expert, and Principal Machine Learning Engineer

This new course is taught by an expert in Natural Language Processing, Reed Coke. With a solid industry and research background in conversational AI, text mining, and linguistics, Reed is the ideal instructor for this course. Reed is passionate about how language, communication, and education about AI shape our world and brings that enthusiasm to his teaching.

Reed has a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, which has provided him with the technical expertise necessary to excel in the field of AI. He is currently the Principal Machine Learning Engineer for KungFu.ai, a company that specializes in AI solutions for businesses. With his extensive experience in AI project development and implementation, Reed will guide students through each phase of AI 101. This will include helping students determine the right AI project, setting up the necessary tools and infrastructure, mitigating AI risks, and moving forward with AI in a responsible and ethical manner.

Overall, with Reed’s deep knowledge of NLP, passion for AI, and experience in the field, students can expect to gain a comprehensive understanding of AI fundamentals and the practical skills necessary to pursue AI projects of their own.

How Relevant is AI Today?

Artificial intelligence has become increasingly relevant in the business world as companies seek to optimize their operations and gain a competitive edge. ChatGPT, a large language model trained by OpenAI, is particularly important in the era of big data as it enables businesses to process and analyze vast amounts of textual information. However, it is crucial for businesses to understand the capabilities of ChatGPT to leverage its potential effectively. Without proper understanding and management of ChatGPT’s outputs, businesses may receive inaccurate or irrelevant information, leading to poor decision-making and potentially damaging consequences. Therefore, businesses must invest in skilled engineers who can effectively manage and analyze ChatGPT’s outputs to ensure that they are accurate and relevant. By doing so, they can fully utilize the potential of ChatGPT and AI to drive innovation and success in the modern business landscape.

Facilitating with AI

As AI revolutionizes countless roles across industries, skills, and roles will shift in dramatic ways facilitation will not be unscathed. With the emergence of GPT-powered features across almost every application available, there are so many opportunities to experiment. At Voltage Control, we use Notion to collect and organize our processes and documentation. Notion’s AI features have been helpful when documenting processes or agendas. Even the “improve my writing” feature is a really fast way to condense and disambiguate, which is something we should always strive for in our facilitations. The new Bing is also a place to pay attention to. Use it to discover methods and activities. AI-powered searching allows direct access to specific results versus having to read through web pages and documents to find the stuff you are looking for. 

ChatGPT is a fun way to introduce some lateral thinking into your sessions and can be fun for the team if you set up the context and the prompt in a way that invites curiosity and play. Consider when you might have the team pose some questions to ChatGPT and how you might use the answers for provocation and debate. I can imagine a not-to-distant future where we’ll have an AI, perhaps a ChatGPT descendent, that is in the meeting listening, responding, and contributing. How will that shift how you facilitate?  What potential do you see? I’m curious to know. Let’s talk about it!

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Organizational transformation is a uniquely human endeavor. Navigating the journey to change starts with understanding the employee experience and creating space for emotional safety in the workplace.

According to organizational behavior expert Sigal Barsade, emotions are the key to encouraging higher performance and achievement. Her research shows that emotions influence employees’ wellness in addition to driving productivity. Thus, to influence organizational transformation, leaders need to take a closer look at how emotions factor into the employee experience.

In this article, we’ll discuss emotions and their role to change management in the following topics:

• The Employee Experience
• The Transformation Timeline
• Emotions at Work 
• An Engagement of Consciousness

The Employee Experience

Without a keen understanding of the employee experience and your team’s emotional state, sustainable change is more fantasy than reality. In your efforts to initiate organizational transformation, consider first transforming employees’ work experience to promote a sense of emotional well-being. 

In shaping the employee experience, it’s critical to understand employees’ expectations for emotional safety in the workplace. As most employees value their mental health above all else, they expect their working environment to promote trust, purpose, and social cohesion. Moreover, they want to know that leadership recognizes their contributions and that there is room and opportunity for sustainable growth and development. Similarly, team members want their personal sense of purpose to be in alignment with the organization. 

With increased emotional wellness comes higher employee engagement and a more motivated workforce. With a stronger sense of emotional safety in the employee experience, leaders will find that their team is prepared to engage in organizational transformation.

The Transformation Timeline

 “You have to attract people… you can’t bribe or coerce transformation.”

Greg Satell

Once you prioritize the employee experience in your change strategy, you can begin the organizational transformation timeline. Organizational transformation is a process that happens through gradual change, resulting in sustainable behavioral transformation. This type of comprehensive change can only occur through a series of repeatable actions and innovative systems, not one-time initiatives.

Take steps towards sustainable change with the following phases of organizational transformation:

Phase One: Fight Resistance

To sustain organizational transformation, leaders and team members need a solid strategy for managing resistance. Resistance often stems from the discomfort that change brings.

To move beyond this fear, leaders should explain that while transformation involves many unknown factors, the forthcoming change will bring overall positive results. By showing team members how they will benefit from a change, leaders can overcome resistance and encourage their employees to support the initiative. 

• Freezing of Behaviors
  In Lewis’ Change management model, change is broken into three steps: freezing, changing, and refreezing.
  
  In the first phase of organizational transformation, the “unfreezing” process will occur. This involves recognizing one’s need for change and defining new behaviors that replace the former methods and practices. During this very fluid phase, team members and leaders identify and share data that supports a need for change.

Phase Two: Facilitate Adjustment

After strategically managing resistance to change, the next phase in achieving organizational transformation is facilitating the adjustment period. During this phase, team members are no longer actively resisting transformation but still need time to adjust to the changes the new initiative brings. 

In the adjustment period, changes are discussed in detail, and team members are invited to provide criticism and feedback. This phase allows team members to personalize the change as they recognize their individual roles in achieving organizational transformation. In a successful adjustment phase, every team member is aligned with the necessary actions for the next phase: acceptance. 

• Changing

Within the adjustment phase of organizational transformation, team leaders will actively change their old habits. At this time, all stakeholders work to replace undesired behaviors with desired ones. 

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Phase Three: Foster Acceptance

In phase three of the organizational transformation timeline, you’ll lead your team into the acceptance phase with a solid vision and strategy for sustaining the changes over time. 

• Refreezing

In the foster acceptance phase, refreezing occurs when changes are stabilized and become the new normal. As the organizational transformation nears completion, team members are in the best position to cement these changes by ensuring a legacy of growth.  

Phase Four: Ensure Consistency

The fourth phase of organizational transformation establishes consistent and sustainable growth. Consistency is a direct result of repeatable actions from strategic processes, intentional routines, and innovative practices that allow each team member to enact changes that carry into the future continuously. 

Emotions at Work 

A clear strategy for long-term change is only a roadmap to organizational transformation. After setting the stage for change to take place, leaders must engage in the emotional work of transformation.

Change takes emotional labor, requiring an environment that is uniquely attuned to address employees’ emotional needs. In the workplace, emotions can be an accelerator for transformation. To engage emotions in the most effective way, leaders can create conditions that ensure psychological safety.

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Research shows that to solidify organizational transformation, we must mitigate emotional harm and, in doing so, foster emotional commitment from team members. While emotional harm isn’t tangible, it presents itself in certain ways that can create anxiety, fear, and similar negative responses in employees. Essentially, working to facilitate positive experiences alongside potentially negative emotions is the key to harnessing a safe space for transformation. Leaders that are able to manage the effects of stress successfully can transform a high-pressure environment into a space for high performance.

Sonja Kresojevic, the founder of Spinnaker Co. and a proponent of using agile principles for organizational change, firmly believes that true transformation is a product of an empowered organization. According to  Kresojevic, the more we humanize change through emotional labor and healing initiatives, the more we are able to influence others and start shifting organizations in the direction of transformation.

Leaders can promote healing and psychological safety by allowing employees to share their thoughts and criticisms freely and without retribution. With an increase in support and emotional safety, your team will be ripe for organizational transformation.

An Engagement of Consciousness

An organization’s penchant for the unknown is essential in driving organizational transformation. In your efforts to humanize change management, it’s crucial to understand and accept human nature’s role in experiencing change. In understanding our natural inclinations toward risk aversion in the face of change, we can work to replace this avoidance of uncertainty with curiosity, vulnerability, and authenticity in the workplace. This approach to change management will transform the way we work, the risks we take, and our willingness to accept change.

Much of organizational transformation is dependent on accepting uncertainty: that the future is unclear and we don’t have all the answers. The real secret to driving organizational transformation is empowering people to develop and accept new ideas on their own. Managing the uncertainty of organizational transformation takes time, allowing for the unfreezing, changing, and refreezing process to take place as stakeholders consider their options. 

Rob Evans, Master Coach of Collaboration and Transformation Designer, shares that giving people a chance to court the unknown, is essential for change acceptance as it allows new ideas to seep in and take hold.

Practicing patience during the change management process allows for “engagement in the full consciousness,” in which leaders can kickstart the organizational transformation timeline and encourage employees to buy into the change. By pairing deliberate strategy with time for authentic employee engagement, radical transformation is an inevitability. 

Ready to start the journey to organizational transformation? Consider a new approach to the employee experience. Voltage Control can help you and your team define the best path for your organization’s transformation. 

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