A New Chapter in Collaboration

As Miro unveils its next chapter in collaborative AI at Canvas 2025, we’re reflecting on a journey that began not with code, but with a question:

In an era when most AI tools promised to make individuals faster, we wondered how AI could make teams better. After years of running facilitation workshops around the world, one truth was clear: most innovation problems aren’t about ideas—they’re about alignment. People don’t struggle to think creatively; they struggle to think together.

That’s the problem we set out to solve. And that’s where this story begins.

The Vision Before the Tools

Back at SXSW 2025, we invited a room full of innovators, facilitators, and technologists to imagine a new kind of collaboration—one where artificial intelligence wasn’t a tool outside the circle but a teammate inside it.

Our session, AI Teammates: Facilitating Human Connection in the AI Era, wasn’t about automation or productivity hacks. It was about relationship. We staged a live experiment: participants interacted with fictional “AI teammates”—each with a personality and role to play in the group dynamic.

• There was The Challenger, who surfaced hard truths.
• The Synthesizer, who connected patterns across ideas.
• The Optimist, who expanded possibility.
• And The Historian, who anchored choices in precedent.

These personas weren’t chatbots. They were conversation archetypes designed to stretch how people think together.

As the session unfolded, something remarkable happened. The room came alive—not because of any output the “AI” produced, but because people started thinking differently about how they thought together.

When the exercise ended, one participant said, “I’ve never seen AI make a conversation feel more human.”

That comment stuck with us. It wasn’t about speed; it was about sensemaking. And yet, at the time, there was no product to make this vision tangible. It was still a simulation—a facilitation experiment about what could be.

The Moment Miro Made It Real

Fast-forward to the summer of 2025. When Miro invited us into the early beta of AI Flows and Sidekicks, we instantly recognized it as the missing bridge between concept and capability.

Here, finally, was the interface we had imagined at SXSW:
AI that could listen, synthesize, and act alongside humans, right inside the collaborative canvas.

We began experimenting in August, building facilitation patterns and testing how Miro’s new AI could support real-time group work. What we discovered was transformative.

AI Flows acted as intelligent pipelines—automating the translation of inputs (research, briefs, notes) into structured, visual outputs like user journeys, prototypes, or summaries.

AI Sidekicks took it a step further. They gave form to something we’d imagined months earlier at SXSW: AI as a teammate, not a tool. With Miro’s Sidekick framework, we could finally bring our original AI Teammate personas—The Challenger, The Synthesizer, The Optimist, The Historian—directly into the canvas as participants that offer voices often missing in the room. Whether surfacing dissent, expanding optimism, or connecting overlooked patterns, these AI teammates help facilitators create richer, more balanced conversations. What had been a facilitation exercise in Austin became an intelligent, inclusive system teams can now use in real sessions.

It was the perfect realization of our SXSW philosophy:

We brought our original AI Teammate personas—The Challenger, Synthesizer, Historian, and Optimist—into Miro as Sidekicks. We even added new ones:

• The Sketcher, who makes structure visible.
• The Co-Facilitator, who guides process and inclusion.

Each Sidekick embodied a mindset we teach in facilitation—listening deeply, synthesizing meaning, and supporting clarity.

For the first time, AI could actively participate in a team’s thinking process rather than merely executing after the fact.

Behind the Scenes: Building the Bridge

Our collaboration with Miro’s product and partner teams felt like a masterclass in co-creation. We shared prototypes, tested facilitation flows, and offered feedback on how facilitators actually use AI in live settings.

Our earliest conversations centered on one key distinction:

That question shaped our approach to every prototype.

We realized that the future of collaboration isn’t about speeding up work—it’s about amplifying shared understanding. AI should help teams see patterns sooner, articulate assumptions faster, and move forward together more confidently.

It’s not automation for automation’s sake. It’s augmentation for alignment.

Instant Prototyping: From Insight to Alignment in Minutes

To prove this approach, we built Instant Prototyping—a Miro AI Flow designed to help teams move from an opportunity to a prototype in minutes.

Instant Prototyping turns messy beginnings into momentum.
You paste your opportunity brief, add any research, and click “Run.” Within moments, the Flow generates:

1. Research Insights — a synthesized view connecting what you know.
2. User Flow — a map of how someone might engage with your solution.
3. Screen Requirements — what each step needs to deliver.
4. Prototype — a visual concept you can immediately react to.
   

The process feels facilitative: review, adjust, and re-run. Each iteration invites reflection and sharper focus. When the AI gets it wrong, that’s useful—it reveals assumptions, gaps, and preferences faster than traditional review cycles ever could.

“When the AI is wrong, it’s useful—it surfaces gaps and preferences fast, accelerating alignment.”

This pattern—speed plus direction—has become the backbone of how we help teams build clarity in real time.

Proof of Concept: Breakout Buddy

The first major product we built using Instant Prototyping was Breakout Buddy, a revolutionary Zoom facilitation app that gives hosts unprecedented control over breakout sessions.

In just a few weeks, we went from a blank canvas to a working prototype. Using AI Flows, we synthesized user research, mapped facilitator pain points, and visualized solutions—all inside Miro.

Each iteration made the design clearer. By the end of the first session, we weren’t debating what to build—we were deciding how to make it real.*

That clarity paid off. Breakout Buddy is now in review at Zoom’s marketplace, a tangible example of how facilitation-guided AI can accelerate both design and decision-making.

Instant Prototyping didn’t just make us faster; it made us truer to our facilitation roots—inviting multiple perspectives, clarifying intent, and turning conversation into shared artifacts.

Field Testing with Real Clients

Following the success of Breakout Buddy, we began testing Instant Prototyping and AI Flows with select clients in diverse industries.

• Financial Futures Planning App: A fintech startup used our Flow to translate complex customer research into clear decision journeys. Within a day, they had multiple prototype directions visualized—something that previously took weeks of back-and-forth between product and design teams.
• Local Home Services Platform: A startup supporting plumbers, electricians, and home service professionals used Instant Prototyping to map their booking experience. The team went from vague strategy discussions to a concrete, visual service flow in a single session.

These pilots validated what we believed all along:

Each engagement reaffirmed that the goal isn’t to replace human thinking—it’s to surface it faster, make it visible, and align around it collaboratively.

AI Teaming: A New Paradigm

At Voltage Control, we call this shift AI Teaming.

It’s the practice of designing relationships between humans and AI systems that are purposeful, participatory, and aligned with facilitation principles.

Most organizations treat AI as a personal productivity tool. But true transformation happens when AI becomes part of the collective intelligence of the group.

Facilitation provides the ethical and practical structure for that shift. It defines:

• How we listen to AI (and each other).
• When to pause automation for reflection.
• How to ensure every voice—including digital ones—is used responsibly.

AI Teaming is not about doing the same things faster. It’s about working differently:
more conscious, inclusive, and experimental.

“Facilitation has always been about helping groups find clarity together. Now AI can help us see that clarity forming in real time.”

AI Teaming, Not AI Tooling

There’s a quiet but crucial distinction shaping the future of work: AI tooling is about personal productivity. AI teaming is about collective intelligence.

Most organizations still think of AI as something individuals use to move faster — a personal assistant, a summarizer, a generator. Helpful, yes. But when every person uses their own AI tool in isolation, the result isn’t alignment; it’s fragmentation. Ten people might leave a meeting with ten versions of truth.

That’s why facilitation matters.

AI Teaming is built on three principles we’ve practiced for years in facilitation:

1. Inclusion: Everyone — human or machine — has a voice, but not every voice should dominate. The facilitator’s role is to balance inputs and create psychological safety for contribution.
2. Transparency: The group should always see how conclusions are reached. Hidden algorithms are the enemy of trust. That’s why we design Miro Sidekicks to work in the open — you see every prompt, every output, every change.
3. Purpose: AI should never be busywork. It exists to clarify, not to clutter. When used well, AI helps teams focus on why they’re doing something, not just how fast they can do it.

In practice, this means running meetings where AI participates visibly and democratically:

• The Synthesizer summarizes insights, and the group edits or corrects it together.
• The Challenger surfaces risk, and participants discuss trade-offs transparently.
• The Optimist explores new possibilities, and the team refines them collectively.
• The Historian recalls precedent, and the group draws lessons from what’s come before.
• The Sketcher maps structure, and the team spots patterns, gaps, and next steps.
• The Co-Facilitator proposes next moves, and the team stays aligned and engaged.

When AI joins the conversation like this, facilitation becomes the safeguard that keeps collaboration human.

We’ve seen how powerful this is in action. In workshops where we introduced Sidekicks as participants, teams reported higher engagement and greater confidence in their decisions. It’s not just that the AI saved time; it changed the tone of dialogue.

Participants started talking to each other more — not less — because they had a shared reference point to react to. That’s the paradox of AI Teaming: the more intelligence you add, the more human the process becomes.

“The future of collaboration isn’t human versus AI. It’s human with AI — guided by facilitation.”

Miro Transformation: Turning Capability into Culture

Technology adoption often fails because teams layer new tools on top of old habits.
Our Miro Transformation programs exist to prevent that.

We guide organizations through a facilitation-first approach to integrating Miro’s new AI capabilities responsibly.

• Step 1: Assess How Teams Work
  We observe how information flows, how decisions are made, and where collaboration breaks down.
• Step 2: Introduce AI Intentionally
  We co-design flows and Sidekicks that enhance—not replace—human judgment. This means creating ethical automations that preserve context, learning, and inclusivity.
• Step 3: Measure Real Value
  We focus on results that matter: shorter meetings, higher engagement, faster synthesis, and clearer outcomes.

Transformation in Action

• A global innovation team reduced alignment time by 60% by using Sidekicks like The Synthesizer and The Coach during workshops.
• A leadership group adopted AI Flows for decision documentation, cutting weekly update time in half.
• A product team transformed sprint planning from frustration to flow by running Instant Prototyping to visualize priorities on the spot.

Each story reflects the same truth: facilitation is what makes AI collaboration work—ethically, efficiently, and humanely.

Responsible AI: Designing for Trust and Inclusion

As the world rushes toward automation, facilitation is the counterbalance that keeps technology human.

In our AI Strategy Workshops, we help leaders define what responsible AI looks like in their organizations. Together, we explore questions like:

• How do we make AI reasoning transparent to the team?
• When should a facilitator—not an algorithm—make the call?
• How do we ensure that speed doesn’t silence diversity of thought?
  

Responsible AI begins with inclusion and ends with trust. It’s not a checkbox—it’s a culture.

By grounding AI use in shared principles, we ensure it supports the behaviors that make teams thrive: curiosity, dialogue, and accountability.

Product × Practice × Purpose

At Voltage Control, our partnership with Miro rests on a simple but powerful equation:

• Product gives teams intelligent scaffolding for synthesis and action.
• Practice ensures those tools are used with intention and care.
• Purpose keeps it all rooted in why we collaborate in the first place: to connect, create, and contribute meaningfully.

This triad—Product × Practice × Purpose—is the DNA of AI Teaming. It’s how we turn new technology into new ways of working.

Facilitator Reflections

When we facilitate, we tune into the subtle shift—the instant confusion gives way to clarity. You can see the spark. You can feel the room align.

Seeing that same shift occur with AI present on the canvas is extraordinary. It’s not about replacing intuition; it’s about scaling it.

Facilitators now have new instruments to play with—flows that structure conversation, Sidekicks that spark reflection, and automations that handle logistics so humans can focus on what matters most: the quality of connection.

That’s the art and science of facilitation in the AI era.

The Full-Circle Moment

From SXSW to Canvas, we’ve witnessed a transformation that began as a thought experiment and matured into a new practice of working together.

Today, every team can experience it firsthand:

• Run a Miro AI Flow to turn insights into prototypes.
• Invite AI Teammates like The Challenger or Synthesizer to expand group thinking.
• Use Utility Sidekicks to manage the board and free up human attention.

This isn’t a simulation anymore. It’s collaboration—amplified.

“AI teaming was once an idea we simulated.  Now it’s something every team can do—live, visual, and human with Miro.” —Douglas Ferguson, Founder & CEO, Voltage Control

Join the Movement

Explore how facilitation and AI come together to unlock team potential:

• Explore Voltage Control’s Miro AI Collection
• Join the Instant Prototyping Waitlist
• Discover Miro Transformation Programs
  

Because the future of collaboration isn’t about replacing people,  it’s about inviting AI in to help people work better, together.

The post AI Teaming Comes Alive on the Miro Canvas appeared first on Voltage Control.

As the air turns crisp and the nights arrive sooner, the horizon can feel a bit foggy—especially when teams are staring down big bets and competing priorities. October is a season for lanterns, and in our world of collaborative leadership and facilitation, AI Teammates are exactly that. They throw light just far enough down the path to reveal the next steps with confidence. Not because they’re perfect, but because they are tangible. A first draft beats a first debate, every time.

If you’ve felt the growing tension between moving faster and staying customer-rooted, we’ve been there too. That’s why we’ve doubled down on AI Teaming—collaborating with AI in the room so teams can shift from abstract concepts to concrete artifacts in minutes. Ambiguity becomes visible, discussable, and solvable. You see what you want—and just as often, what you don’t. Either way, you move.

This month, we’re excited to showcase how Miro’s new AI features make collaborating with AI not just possible, but exceptionally practical for facilitators and leaders. We’re Platinum Sponsors at the Miro Canvas Conference, partnering to deploy facilitator-focused product innovation tools on top of these new features. These all roll out into the Miroverse soon; for now, there’s a waitlist as Miro completes the feature release process. Consider this your early lantern beam—what’s now possible and how to harness it for your team.

In the Room

Most organizations still treat AI as an individual productivity tool—something to use before the meeting to prep and after the meeting to summarize. That’s helpful, but it also isolates the learning and amplifies misalignment. You wind up with fast individuals heading in slightly different directions, creating more fog for the group. What teams need is shared momentum, not solo velocity. Bringing AI into the meeting—live, visible, and facilitation-ready—changes everything.

We’ve been experimenting with that shift for the past year. Some of you joined us at SXSW for our AI Teammates workshop, where we introduced AI personas to enrich team conversations. We imagined what it would look like to treat AI as a dynamic teammate, contributing perspective at just the right moment. Now, with Miro AI Flows and Sidekicks, that vision is ready for prime time. You can strategically place one-click buttons on your board to generate artifacts, synthesize research, or introduce a missing viewpoint—right in front of everyone. No toggling. No mysterious magic. It’s collaborative, transparent, and grounded in your team’s context.

This is a competency-building moment for teams. Instead of optimizing individual AI hacks, codify your best prompts and patterns as Sidekicks embedded in your templates and team spaces. That builds a shared library and spreads capability beyond a few power users. You’ll see your facilitation hygiene get sharper: clearer decision rules, tighter timeboxes, faster cycles of consent-based iteration. And most importantly, you’ll collectively build the muscle of collaborating with AI, not just using it.

Think of it like this: AI Teaming speeds up the “what” and “how,” giving you back time and attention for the “who” and the “why.” In a world filled with AI fog machines, your job as facilitator is to design a container where evidence is visible, decisions are crisp, and the team experiences AI as a lantern—lighting the next few steps together.

Activity of The Month: Instant Prototyping

Our new Instant Prototyping Template is a practical example of an AI-powered flow that transforms research insights and strategic vision into tangible prototypes. In minutes, you’ve created the full stack of artifacts needed to move from hypothesis to something the team can react to.

Then the facilitation begins. We pause for structured reviews and workshopping between each step—not to slow things down, but to build confidence. The first draft is a litmus test. It’s usually wrong in useful ways, surfacing gaps in context or fuzzy assumptions that would have stayed hidden for weeks.

Two practical tips make this flow sing. First, version as you go: duplicate frames before regenerating and version-label them (e.g., Flow v1.2). Second, trace decisions back to evidence. As you review outputs, highlight where a flow step or screen requirement connects to a direct quote, a research insight, or a JTBD. Decision clarity grows when the evidence is visible and near. You move faster because you trust the direction.

Speed matters. But what matters more is direction. Instant prototypes give you both—an initial draft to react to, and a concrete way to align around user-centered evidence. You’ll move from research insights to confident product decisions faster, with less debate and more learning. When the fog is thick, create a draft and let the team see the next step together.

From Draft to Decision 

When drafts are easy to generate, the bottleneck shifts from creation to decision. That’s a good shift—as long as you’re working with clear decision rules. We encourage teams to adopt consent-based iteration in place of endless consensus-seeking. Consent asks, “Is this good enough to try for now?” rather than “Do we all love this?” It privileges learning and movement over perfect alignment – small bets beat big arguments.

Put this into practice with lightweight, recurring moves. After each auto-generated artifact, timebox a three-part review: What’s useful here? What’s missing? What will we try next? Use dot votes to prioritize the top two or three changes and capture them as prompt updates or flow adjustments. Then re-run the relevant step. If a stakeholder says, “This isn’t it,” ask them to point to the evidence and translate their feedback into a prompt tweak or a research addition. 

Facilitators, this is where your craft shines. Name the decision up front. “By the end of this session, we’ll have a directionally correct prototype of onboarding plus a short list of open questions.” Timebox the creation of first drafts via the flow, then spend your energy facilitating the review and remix moments. Keep a visible decision diary on the board to track how evidence drove changes. The more you practice this loop, the more your team’s AI competency grows—and the more everyone experiences AI as a teammate rather than a mystery box.

Case Study: Breakout Buddy

We recently used the Instant Prototyping flow to build something our community has wanted for years—a Zoom app we’re calling Breakout Buddy. Many of you have joined our Facilitation Lab Mates events where we run speed networking and match people with accountability partners. The experience is energizing, but the logistics are painful. Zoom doesn’t design breakouts the way facilitators think. There’s no drag-and-drop. Timers are limited. You select number of rooms instead of people per room. And running patterns like 1-2-4-All requires manual, error-prone steps. We had a hunch that a facilitator-first tool could change the experience.

To build it, we gathered research from community listening sessions and Huddles, collected wish lists and gripes, and wrote an Opportunity Brief that detailed use cases like speed networking, group merge and split, and easy time extensions. We dropped all of that into the board and clicked once. The first pass got plenty wrong—exactly what we needed. It misinterpreted “preformatted” in a way that wasn’t helpful and didn’t yet account for saving and recalling group configurations. Those misses illuminated what we hadn’t explicitly included. We added precise requirements, traced the needs to specific quotes, and reran the flow. Within a few hours, we had a prototype that captured the core facilitator workflows, ready for a designer to polish.

Here’s what’s inside Breakout Buddy. You can rapidly set the number of people per room, merge or split groups to run patterns like 1-2-4-All, extend time with a single click, and mark participants who shouldn’t be assigned (think observers or folks with connectivity constraints). It remembers those choices so your cognitive load drops each round. The goal is simple—free you from tedium so you can focus on relationships, process, and purpose. The app is now in Zoom’s approval pipeline. We’ll offer it free to facilitators once it’s live; newsletter readers will hear first. In the meantime, the story behind it is the point: Instant prototypes helped us get from idea to clarity to build in days, not months, and kept us anchored in real facilitator needs every step of the way.

Run Your First Instant Prototype

If you want to try this with your team, block about 90 minutes and pick a clear decision to make. Load an Opportunity Brief and your best research, then run the flow together. The first set of artifacts—Research Insights, User Flow, Screen Requirements, Prototype—will land in minutes. Don’t rush past them.

Facilitate three quick reflections: What’s useful? What’s missing? What feels ready to test? Treat each draft as a conversation starter, not a verdict. Capture insights, update prompts, and re-run the step to see what changes. Keep early versions visible so you can remix later—seeing your evolution builds confidence.

Wrap with a simple consent check: Is this good enough to try for now? Record the decision and next steps in a quick decision diary. Even one or two cycles will shorten time-to-tangible dramatically and strengthen your team’s collaboration muscles.

Advanced Moves

Once you’ve got the basics down, keep evolving your flow:

• Codify what works. Turn great prompts into shared Sidekicks so others can build on them.
• Keep evidence close. Link research and prototypes so every choice traces back to insight.
• Remix intentionally. Combine the best of multiple drafts into a stronger version.
• Slow down to learn. Instant doesn’t mean reckless—pause for reflection where it adds value.
  

The goal isn’t to automate creativity, but to amplify it. Each run builds sharper instincts and a stronger rhythm for thinking with AI, not just through it.

The Facilitation Edge

The more AI accelerates creation, the more facilitation matters. Instant prototypes don’t eliminate the need for structure; they heighten it. Without clear decision rules, timeboxes, and roles, teams will still spin—only faster. The good news is that these AI-powered flows free you from tedium so you can lean further into the work that requires human judgment and relationship-building. You’ll spend less time herding tabs and more time helping people make sense together.

Treat your board like a living workshop. Place buttons where you want to trigger generative moments. Add visible agreement frames to capture consent checks and decision diaries. Name the decisions for each session and timebox the creation. Facilitate critique as remix. When the prototype is wrong—and it will be at times—frame it as a lantern in the fog that illuminates what matters next. Mistakes become maps.

And remember, bringing AI into the meeting is the unlock for team-level competency. Individuals optimizing alone will always struggle to align. Teams practicing together can develop shared habits that stick. We’ve been revitalizing our AI Teammate personas for Sidekicks so you can easily bring missing perspectives into the room. Imagine clicking a button to hear from a skeptical CFO persona or a privacy-conscious legal voice, grounded in your actual company context. That’s not science fiction anymore. It’s simply good facilitation—expanded.

Ready to bring this magic to your team?
Join the AI Teammates waitlist for early access when it launches in the Miroverse.

The post A Lantern in the Fog appeared first on Voltage Control.

In facilitation, leadership, and systems change, edges are not simply metaphors. They are indicators of movement, of invitation, of challenge and potential. They show up when we notice our comfort being tested, when our default tools no longer fit the moment, when our story rubs up against someone else’s, or when a group tiptoes toward transformation.

This July, we’re exploring the theme of Edges not only because it shows up again and again in our work, but also because it will guide us through our upcoming Facilitation Summit. To support this exploration, we’re highlighting one of our favorite peer coaching tools: Troika Consulting. This structured activity invites three people to rotate through the roles of client and consultant, holding space for reflection, clarity, and challenge.

This month’s featured facilitation activity is Troika and we’ve included five provocative prompts you can use for Troika that are tied to the acronym EDGES:

• E – Explore the Unknown
• D – Disrupt Patterns
• G – Generate Dialogue
• E – Embrace Tension
• S – Steward Emergence

Each prompt invites participants to work with a different kind of edge—personal, interpersonal, systemic, or strategic. Below, we unpack each letter of the acronym, explore the deeper meaning, and share how it can guide your practice.

Explore the Unknown

Troika Prompt: Where in your work or life are you currently standing at an edge—something uncertain, emerging, or uncomfortable?

The edge of the unknown can feel exciting—or terrifying. For some, it sparks curiosity and energy. For others, it can produce anxiety and resistance. What matters is not whether we enjoy it, but whether we learn to stay present with it. In our certification programs, we often frame this as a “growth edge,” a place just beyond what’s familiar.

Edges are not always visible. Sometimes, we sense them before we can name them: a pattern breaking down, a restlessness we can’t explain, an opportunity that feels both thrilling and destabilizing. Exploring the unknown requires a stance of openness—not to answers, but to noticing.

It also helps to remember that edges don’t always emerge spontaneously. Sometimes we have to seek them. That might look like joining a new community of practice, offering to facilitate in a new context, or even initiating a difficult conversation. Growth happens in motion.

Facilitators aren’t immune to stagnation either. We often see facilitators return to tools and scripts that used to feel alive but now feel rote. Standing at the edge of our own evolution means becoming reacquainted with uncertainty—sometimes even learning to love it. That’s a skill in itself.

Troika is especially powerful for surfacing these edges. As you speak your uncertainty aloud, others can help you see the contours of what’s forming—even if you can’t quite see it yet.

Disrupt Patterns

Troika Prompt: Where are you being invited to stretch beyond your facilitation comfort zone—and what’s at stake if you do?

Disrupting patterns means naming what’s familiar—and questioning whether it still serves. That might be a facilitation habit, a team dynamic, a structure, or even a mindset. Disruption doesn’t have to be violent. It can be intentional, thoughtful, even gentle. But it does require honesty.

We often see facilitators cling to methods that once worked but no longer fit the moment. The urge to “stick with what I know” is strong. But so is the cost of stagnation.

Stretching beyond the comfort zone requires vulnerability. It can also reawaken creativity. The edge here is not about abandoning everything—it’s about holding your tools lightly, staying flexible, and listening for what the group really needs.

In learning theory, this aligns with the zone of proximal development: that sweet spot where challenge meets support. Troika can illuminate this zone by reflecting back where your current comfort is limiting your next step.

And while pattern disruption may start with technique or practice, it often moves inward. It asks, “What am I avoiding by staying in this groove?” or “Whose needs am I prioritizing when I fall back on this routine?” Sustainable disruption requires pausing to explore our own attachments to comfort, control, or perfection. This deeper layer is often where real transformation begins.

Generate Dialogue

Troika Prompt: What’s a provocative question that lives at the edge of your current project or inquiry?

Some edges live between us. They show up in culture, power, language, identity, and expectation. These edges often surface as friction—but underneath that friction is potential. When we generate dialogue at these edges, we open doors to new understanding, deeper collaboration, and collective insight.

Provocative questions help us reach these edges. They challenge assumptions, uncover values, and reveal blind spots. The edge might be a conversation your team has been avoiding. Or a topic you’re nervous to name out loud. Or a question that feels just a little too big to answer.

In our Facilitation Lab meetups, some of the most powerful moments happen when someone asks a question they’ve been carrying alone—and discovers that others have been holding it too. That’s the power of dialogue.

This Troika prompt encourages you to name one of those edge-questions, and let others reflect it back, stretch it, or reframe it. What feels provocative to you may be the spark that helps your collaborators move forward.

Not every question will feel welcome in every space. That’s part of the edge, too. Facilitators must tune into when to push and when to pause. A provocative question in the wrong moment can close a group down, but in the right moment, it can open up entirely new territory. Timing and trust are everything.

Embrace Tension

Troika Prompt: Where have you felt tension at the edge of a group, culture, or identity—and how is that informing your work today?

Tension is not the enemy of progress. It’s often the signal that something important is at stake. In facilitation, we sometimes talk about the “tightrope” between comfort and discomfort. Stay too comfortable, and there’s no movement. Lean too far into discomfort, and people disengage.

The most skilled facilitators learn to surf this edge. They notice when tension arises. They stay grounded. And they help others interpret the tension, rather than flee from it.

Sometimes, we have to sharpen the edge to make it visible. Other times, we need to soften it so the group can move safely through. There’s no single rule. As we discussed recently, facilitation is not about erasing all tension, but about knowing how to hold it well.

This Troika prompt invites you to examine a moment of past or present tension—especially one connected to difference, identity, or power. How did it shape you? What did you learn? How are you applying that learning now?

We also encourage facilitators to notice their internal reactions to tension. Often, the discomfort we perceive in a group mirrors our own edge. Instead of smoothing over the moment, try asking yourself: What if I stayed curious? What might this tension be pointing to? What’s just beyond it?

Steward Emergence

Troika Prompt: Where are you holding on to an old pattern or process, even though you’re aware something new is trying to emerge?

Emergence is the process through which something new comes into being—often gradually, unpredictably, or at the edges of what we understand. It’s not the same as a goal or a plan. It can’t be controlled. But it can be stewarded.

Many facilitators sense when something new is trying to surface. A group dynamic shifts. An old strategy loses traction. A client begins to ask different questions. You might feel it in the language people use, or in the energy of a room.

The challenge is that emergence often requires letting go. That might mean releasing a process that once served you, or admitting that your usual approach is no longer aligned. It can be humbling—and freeing.

Troika is a beautiful space for stewarding emergence. By naming what feels outdated or misaligned, and asking others to reflect what they sense is trying to take shape, you create a container for clarity. You also signal your readiness to evolve.

This final prompt asks you to name the edge between what was and what wants to be. That’s where the real work begins.

And here’s the truth: emergence rarely feels efficient. It feels messy, slow, ambiguous. That’s because we’re not just solving problems—we’re making room for what didn’t exist yet. Facilitators who learn to live in this ambiguity become better stewards of systemic change, helping groups build resilience for the unknown.

Edges as Practice, Not Destination

Edges aren’t places we conquer. They’re places we practice. They invite us to show up with presence, humility, and curiosity. They are, as one of our team members recently said, where the magic happens—not because they are magical, but because of how we meet them.

As you explore these prompts, we invite you to try them in a Troika with your peers, team, or learning cohort. You don’t have to have answers. You don’t even have to know exactly what your edge is. You just have to be willing to look, to name what you can, and to listen to what others see.

We hope these prompts serve as a doorway to your next threshold—and that you walk through with intention.

Here they are once again, ready for your next Troika:

1. Explore the Unknown: Where in your work or life are you currently standing at an edge—something uncertain, emerging, or uncomfortable?
2. Disrupt Patterns: Where are you being invited to stretch beyond your facilitation comfort zone—and what’s at stake if you do?
3. Generate Dialogue: What’s a provocative question that lives at the edge of your current project or inquiry?
4. Embrace Tension: Where have you felt tension at the edge of a group, culture, or identity—and how is that informing your work today?
5. Steward Emergence: Where are you holding on to an old pattern or process, even though you’re aware something new is trying to emerge?

Walk to the edge. Look around. Listen. Something powerful lives there.

The post On the Edge of Something Powerful appeared first on Voltage Control.

Table of contents

• Essential Role of Meeting Facilitation in Blockchain
  • Facilitation for Global Collaboration
• Case Study: Cardano Constitutional Convention
• Meeting Facilitation for Web3, Blockchain, and Crypto Companies

Web3 continues to be one of the fastest growing sectors, with cryptocurrency and blockchain organizations expanding their footprint and exploring integrations to sectors both inside and outside of tech. Since these organizations operate through a unique combination of technological innovation and human collaboration, they can benefit greatly from implementing effective meeting facilitation.

Essential Role of Meeting Facilitation in Blockchain

Web3 organizations are not immune to the stereotypical unproductive meeting that plagues the corporate landscape. Through proper meeting facilitation, meeting culture can be changed for the better, which allows the organization and its individual participants to develop sustainable habits and best practices for optimal efficiency and beneficial collaboration.

Benefits of successful meeting facilitation for blockchain and Web3 companies can include:

• Better Decision-Making: Facilitators can help networks identify and overcome obstacles to shape the best possible decision-making process.
• Improved Transparency: Facilitation can help make communication clearer, allowing community members to better understand what’s happening across the organization. 
• Increased Engagement: Blockchain networks are reliant on community participation, and great facilitation can improve that participation and build lasting engagement.

Blockchain and cryptocurrency are driving forces for innovation in the tech world and beyond. Web3 organizations deserve the efficient outcomes that proper meeting facilitation delivers, and trained facilitators are able to help these groups maximize efficiency when it comes to the collaboration of their stakeholders and network participants.

Facilitation for Global Collaboration

There is an inherently global makeup to Web3 organizations, as many blockchain networks and cryptocurrency providers have participants and stakeholders scattered around the world. Since Web3 is not constrained by geographical bounds, its global talent pool can participate in virtual and hybrid meetings which require dedicated facilitation for global collaboration and diverse perspectives.

Facilitators are experts at designing processes that allow for maximum collaboration between different perspectives, and, above all, they are able to nimbly adapt to the needs of a given goal, event, or group of participants. Voltage Control Certified Facilitator Caterina Rodriguez explained, “If you have intentional design and purposeful structure, you can make [meaningful] conversations happen at a global scale.”

Rodriguez was one member of the global team of facilitators who partnered with blockchain network Cardano for their governance development project, which led to the approval of their constitution and their eventual transition to fully decentralized governance.

Case Study: Cardano Constitutional Convention

Cardano solidified itself as a leader in Web3 when the blockchain network drafted, revised, and certified an on-chain governance document that reflects their decentralized structure. The process required the input of stakeholders and network members who were stationed around the globe, so Cardano partnered with Voltage Control to ensure successful facilitation.

In the months leading up to the Cardano Constitutional Convention, facilitators led Community Workshops in dozens of countries around the world, with participants reviewing and revising sections of the governance document draft. While some workshops were facilitated remotely, facilitators frequently traveled to conduct these day-long sessions in person, ensuring an optimal meeting environment.

Facilitators worked closely with workshops hosts from each location to plan an in-person, hybrid, or remote event. They balanced unique cultural considerations, including language barriers and local requirements, while keeping the participants focused on the topics at hand and working toward a common goal.

After dozens of Community Workshops and Delegate Synthesis Workshops, the community gathered for the keystone event at the Cardano Constitutional Convention on December 4 to December 6, 2024. The event was run simultaneously at two locations connected by video link, Nairobi, Kenya, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, with additional remote participants joining from around the world. 

“The live Argentina-Kenya link was a milestone in global gatherings. I have personally never seen something like that happen where both locations were live and participating,” explained Certified Facilitator Reshma Khan. Attendees were enthusiastic participants, embracing the opportunity to connect and collaborate with one another for this important event.

The three-day event relied heavily on the skills of the facilitators to keep the final revision and drafting process for the constitution on track, with over 400 participants contributing to the final document. Ultimately, the participants produced a constitution that would later be ratified on-chain with 85% approval, and Cardano became the first blockchain network to have created decentralized on-chain governance.

Read the whole case study of Cardano here.

Meeting Facilitation for Web3, Blockchain, and Crypto Companies

Web3, blockchain, and cryptocurrency organizations can reap the benefits of successful meeting facilitation, including increased transparency, higher engagement, and improved decision-making. Facilitation can provide the key to optimal process design and network structure, as evidenced by the successful facilitation of Cardano’s constitutional creation process.

Voltage Control has partnered with countless top tech organizations to deliver tailored Facilitation Training Programs at the organizational level. Today, leaders in Web3 are joining that list, leveraging the program’s impact of sustainable facilitation practices and transformative change. Web3 organizations that partner with Voltage Control for facilitation certification can count on being at the forefront of the latest in facilitation techniques, best practices, and methodologies.

On an individual level, professionals from blockchain, cryptocurrency, and decentralized finance (DeFi) organizations are also increasingly joining the personal Facilitation Certification program from Voltage Control, with recent cohort members including CEOs, product managers, consultants, team leads, and beyond.

To learn more about how Voltage Control can partner with your team, contact us today.

The post Meeting Facilitation for Blockchain and Crypto appeared first on Voltage Control.

Table of contents

• Blockchain Technology in 2025
• Key Pillars of the Cardano Constitution Project
  • Global Collaboration
  • Iterative Approach
  • Decentralized Governance
  • Engagement and Participation
• What Facilitators Need to Know

Cryptocurrency and blockchain networks are some of the most rapidly evolving technologies today, challenging established processes and systems in favor of an ever-evolving, democratic trajectory. This trend is exemplified by blockchain platform Cardano’s recent transition to community-led on-chain governance, the result of two years of planning and five months of intense global collaboration.

This historic accomplishment was made possible thanks to dedicated facilitation from Voltage Control. Our certified facilitators traveled around the globe and dialed into hybrid events in order to ensure that the voices and feedback of thousands of participants were heard through a well-coordinated and successful collaboration.

Both our facilitation team and contributors from the Cardano community agree: the Cardano Constitution project was like nothing before. Its success offers far-reaching implications for not just the blockchain industry but also for facilitation, tech, finance, and organizations in both the public and private sectors.

A comprehensive overview of the process behind the Cardano Constitution can be read in our exclusive case study, available for download here.

In this article, we break down the essential takeaways for the future of blockchain and its overlap with facilitation practices.

Blockchain Technology in 2025

Blockchain is a distributed, decentralized, and immutable public ledger that enables secure transactions across a peer-to-peer network. Put simply, it is a secure database to record transactions and manage assets that can be transparently accessed by network participants. Each transaction on the network is recorded as a “block” of data.

Blockchain technology originated in 2008, born from the infrastructure behind Bitcoin, but, today, blockchain applications go far beyond cryptocurrency. Blockchain use cases include:

• Supply chain management
• Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)
• Healthcare records
• Internet of Things (IoT)
• Smart contracts
• Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs)
• Digital identity

Facilitators, thought leaders, and business professionals across industries can benefit from understanding and embracing blockchain and its features, including interconnectivity, Decentralized Finance (DeFi), and cryptography.

Danielle Stanko from Cardano discussed the value of this process as it extends beyond Web3, saying, “To me, not only are we really leading the way in the blockchain industry, but it’s a model worth looking at for any industry with difficult problems to solve… It’s really taking advantage of the diversity of thought, the diversity of experience across the world that people have had… empowering them, giving them a system that is more engaging to be part of and just better for people.”

Key Pillars of the Cardano Constitution Project

The Cardano Constitutional Convention took place from December 4 to December 6, 2024, in Nairobi, Kenya, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, with additional remote attendees from around the globe. The event was the culmination of two years, including five months of Community Workshops and Global Synthesis Workshops involving thousands of participants.

The process behind the Cardano Constitution gave a clear snapshot into the world of blockchain, displaying what it offers to other industries and how facilitation can be optimized for Web3. Let’s explore the key pillars of this process.

Global Collaboration

The Cardano network is accessible by any internet user, no matter where they live. The future of blockchain is clearly multinational, and the politics of blockchain continue to develop in real-time as the industry grows and adapts.

Each participant brought their own cultural backgrounds, personal experiences, languages, and values to their workshops. Facilitators had to balance these personal considerations with the goals of the project, and Cardano hosts had to keep in mind the regulations and expectations of the participants’ different countries.

Cardano Co-founder Charles Hoskinson identified how participants built strong connections with one another, explaining, “They’ve made lifelong friends and those delegates that went to the Constitutional Convention, they’re still talking to each other.”

The Cardano Constitutional Convention and preceding Community Workshops affirmed that successful global collaboration was possible. The Cardano Constitution was ratified by delegates at the Constitutional Convention with 95% approval, and then later voted for on-chain with 85% approval.

Iterative Approach

An iterative approach to governance means governance is introduced incrementally, with regular, designated opportunities for feedback and continuous improvement. This method is especially effective for organizations moving towards decentralization, as it allows for sufficient time for feedback and review from wide swaths of participants.

During Community Workshops, this iterative approach meant workshops participants were assigned a few focused questions regarding the Constitution text to review rather than attempting to evaluate the entire document. Over the course of five months, the workshops eventually compiled feedback for the entire governance draft.

Cardano Co-founder Charles Hoskinson highlighted how the approach to this project supports long-term success, saying, “The bigger achievement is an iterative process where year by year people continue to come together, it gets larger and more meaningful, and then you treat it like an open source work project.”

In the future, Cardano will continue to leverage an iterative approach to further develop governance and other network transformations. The ecosystem will build upon previous progress for a future of sustainable growth.

Decentralized Governance

Public blockchain is inherently decentralized, meaning it’s not owned by a single person or organization. The application and success of this decentralization can vary by network, and, for Cardano, it was important to create a governance structure that used sustainable, equitable decentralized decision-making.

Decentralization is a core pillar of Web3. Blockchain technology, cryptocurrency, and other Web3 products offer the opportunity to take power away from central authorities and instead distribute to a decentralized network. Decentralization in Web3 is trustless, meaning users do not need to place their trust in any one authority, and open to all to participate in.

Decentralized decision-making has beneficial applications well beyond Web3 and the blockchain industry, with its benefits including increased innovation, faster decision-making, improved accountability, and empowered participants.

Engagement and Participation

The process to create Cardano governance would only work if community members from around the world would actively participate in the events and decision making. Participants exceeded those expectations, approaching the process with enthusiasm and thoughtfulness.

The facilitators ensured that every voice was heard, leveraging different facilitation techniques and methodologies to make the most of the participants’ time and feedback. Facilitator Britta Wulfekammer explained, “My role was to make sure we get everyone to speak.” She balanced cultural differences and different power dynamics in order to make the process as successful as possible.

Today, Cardano governance is community-driven, prioritizing transparent decision-making that engages the community through liquid democracy. It offers a blueprint for success to other blockchain networks and decentralized organizations.

What Facilitators Need to Know

The future of Cardano offers plentiful insights into the future of blockchain technology, all of which is made possible by effective facilitation. Blockchain technology and Web3 are only going to continue to grow alongside other rapidly accelerating technologies, such as artificial intelligence.

The process behind the Cardano Constitution can be applied to countless industries and organizations, from private enterprises dabbling in blockchain to global nonprofit organizations applying the principles of decentralization. Cardano itself served as a proof of concept as it became the first network to have on-chain governance that was created collaboratively and approved through an on-chain ratification.

The facilitators from Voltage Control were alumni from our Facilitation Certification Program. They came equipped with the facilitation skills, techniques, and methodologies in order to succeed in this important project. To get a taste of our community, attend Facilitation Lab, a weekly virtual meetup of the facilitator community, and explore Community Hub, a dynamic space for networking, learning, and developing as facilitators.

To read a complete breakdown of the process behind the Cardano Constitution, download our case study.

The post Exploring the Future of Blockchain through Facilitation appeared first on Voltage Control.

Table of contents

• Decentralization, Explained
• Decentralized Facilitation Process
  • Community Workshops
  • Cardano Constitutional Convention
• Making Blockchain History
  • Facilitation for Blockchain and Cryptocurrency

Blockchain platform Cardano has recently broken new ground by transitioning to community-led on-chain governance through the ratification of their constitution. The Cardano Constitution was written, revised, and finalized through a five-months-long process that included community workshops in 50 different countries, with over 1,400 participants.

In December 2024, the final steps of this process took place as a three-day Constitutional Convention was held simultaneously in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Nairobi, Kenya. Once the delegates there voted to approve the constitution, with an overwhelming 95% voting “yes,” the document was passed on for on-chain ratification by the community’s members around the world.

No cryptocurrency provider or blockchain platform had ever before taken on decentralization at this scale and with such a commitment to collaboration and consensus. Cardano’s work can be considered a blueprint for collaboration on an international and even global scale, with key ramifications for the fields of decentralization, blockchain, and facilitation.

The Cardano community partnered with Voltage Control to facilitate and design this process. Our facilitators traveled to countries near and far, conducting sessions in multiple languages, and sometimes dialing in with remote facilitation and hybrid participation.

In this article, we break down the basics of Cardano’s decentralized governance and what went into the facilitation process for the Cardano Constitution.

Decentralization, Explained

Decentralization is defined as an organizational structure based on the distribution or redistribution of power away from a central authority. Decentralization can be implemented in countless spheres, including in organizations, businesses, governments, technologies, and software, with new strategies and applications of this form of governance continually emerging.

Decentralized governance refers specifically to the shift away from centralized decision-making and administration toward a distributed structure of activities and power. For Cardano, their new constitution would outline the structure of their decentralized organization and how it is governed.

Decentralization is a particularly important trend in Web 3.0 and its sister concept, Web3. As the third generation of the World Wide Web, Web 3.0 is a developing iteration of the internet that features increased connectivity through a smarter internet, offering a more transparent and open online experience. Web3 is centered around blockchain technology and how it can redistribute control of data and identities online. 

For facilitators, it’s important to understand the opportunities for decentralization that are introduced by Web3 and Web 3.0. As the latest version of the internet develops and grows, the people behind it will have to collaborate in greater numbers and on bigger projects—which requires great facilitation.

The innovations of Web3 will reach well beyond technological industries, as will the practices of decentralization used by blockchain platforms. By becoming familiar with these trends, facilitators can stay on the leading-edge.

Decentralized Facilitation Process

Since its founding, Cardano has prioritized the core principles of Web3, including transparency, autonomy, and equity. Its constitution would become a pioneering document for cryptocurrency and blockchain networks that are pursuing decentralization, as the document was created through a collaborative, egalitarian process.

To do this, the Cardano community had to somehow bring together thousands of participants from around the world to work collaboratively. The delegated participants would have to come to a consensus on the final document before turning it over to the broader community for ratification.

The Voltage Control team was a part of this process from the introduction of CIP-1694, which introduced the constitution creation process to the chain. From there, Voltage Control Certified Facilitators assisted in the design of the process and facilitated dozens of events, including Community Workshops in 50 different countries, remote and hybrid Delegate Synthesis Workshops, and the three-day Cardano Constitutional Convention.

Community Workshops

A total of sixty-three Community Workshops were held in fifty countries around the world during three busy months. These day-long events were an opportunity for Cardano community members to gather and discuss the text of the Constitution. 

Facilitators worked with hosts from Cardano member organization Intersect to organize these workshops, which were typically held in person, with some hybrid and remote events as needed. Voltage Control tapped into our global network of Certified Facilitators and alumni to pair facilitators with workshops, including sending facilitators who spoke the participants native languages when available. 

At the Community Workshops, participants worked through four to five specific questions about the text of the Constitution. Time was limited at these events, so these questions gave each group designated topics to focus on and work through. The Civics Committee managed the distribution of questions, which could be kept flexible as time went on and it became apparent which topics would need more attention.

The participants would also elect a delegate to represent their Community Workshop at the upcoming Cardano Constitutional Convention.

In order to prepare for the Constitutional Convention, facilitators and hosts worked together to hold remote Global Synthesis Workshops, which brought together elected delegates to review data and feedback from the Community Workshops. These Synthesis Workshops occurred alongside the Community Workshops that were happening around the globe, which allowed hosts to adjust the agendas as needed.

The facilitation team focused on staying adaptable to the needs of each event and each group. Facilitator Caterina Rodriguez, who facilitated South American community workshops in Spanish, spoke about this, saying, “There were groups that wanted to move to the process methodically. There were groups that wanted to take no breaks. Then there were groups that were like, we want a full-blown debate. So it was about being adaptable to what was emerging in the space.”

Cardano Constitutional Convention

The climatic event for this process occurred over three days, from December 4 to December 6, 2024, as the Cardano Constitutional Convention. The gathering was held simultaneously in Nairobi, Kenya, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, with additional remote participants attending from around the world. Participants were connected in real-time via Zoom, Mentimeter, and other digital tools.

In total, 450 attendees, including 63 delegates, represented 51 different countries for this collaboration. This historic event marked the end of two years of planning and five months of intensive work on the network’s decentralized governance constitution.

Led by facilitators and community  hosts, attendees reviewed and refined the text of the Cardano Constitution through discussions and collaborative workshops taking place over the first two days, with edits to the document being made in real time. On the final day, delegates signed off on the historic document with a 95% approval vote.

The Cardano Constitutional Convention also served as an important gathering for the blockchain ecosystem, with community members able to build connections with each other through in-person and hybrid channels. Informational sessions, including speakers and panels, invited participants to learn more about the blockchain ecosystem, encouraging continued engagement even after the event.

By building community knowledge and personal relationships, the event hosts ensured the continued successful decentralization of Cardano’s governance. Attendees gained a better understanding of key topics and grew their personal networks.

Making Blockchain History

On February 19, 2025, Cardano Co-Founder Charles Hoskinson announced that the Constitution had been ratified on-chain with an 85% approval rate, well above the 75% approval rate needed to be enacted. Cardano became the first truly decentralized blockchain with a community-run governance model.

This groundbreaking moment is just the beginning for Cardano. Through Voltage Control’s facilitation process, the Cardano community became enthusiastically engaged with the governance process. This engagement will continue into the future, which is essential for the success of the blockchain platform.

Cardano Civics Committee Secretary Danielle Stanko commented, “We have so many people now in the ecosystem who care about governance, who know about the Constitution and have read it, and that’s a really great foundation to start from.”

For the broader Web3 and blockchain community, the Cardano Constitution serves as a pivotal proof of concept. Through strategic facilitation, the Cardano community was able to come together and communally write, revise, and approve a governing document for their blockchain network. Thousands of participants from around the globe engaged with the process, partaking in an effectively decentralized process.

Facilitation for Blockchain and Cryptocurrency

For the facilitation team from Voltage Control, the process required maximum deployment of facilitation skills and methodologies. The global collaboration brought together thousands of participants from different backgrounds, who spoke different languages and held varying opinions on the future of Cardano governance.

All facilitators had obtained their Facilitation Certification from Voltage Control. The Facilitation Certification program is aligned with International Association of Facilitators (IAF) competencies, and it builds the foundational facilitation skills needed to successfully transform meetings, drive change, and inspire innovation.

Our certified facilitators helped the Cardano community overcome countless moments of disagreement and paralysis, assuring a supportive, productive use of time for every workshop and event. Together, Cardano and Voltage Control proved that a large, global network of people can achieve wide consensus through well-executed facilitation.

To work with Voltage Control on your project, contact our team today. To learn more about the facilitation of Cardano’s constitution, read our complete case study here.

The post Facilitating Cardano’s Decentralized Governance appeared first on Voltage Control.

What does it mean to truly practice together? At Voltage Control, we believe that facilitation isn’t just a skill that can be mastered in isolation; it’s a collective pursuit. That’s why we call our community Facilitation Lab. The word “Lab” is no accident—it’s a nod to experimentation, mutual support, and a safe space where learning happens in real time. In a lab, things might fizzle, spark, or explode, but you’re never alone when it does. That shared commitment to exploration builds the kind of trust that enables deep, transformational growth.

Collective practice is about more than polishing facilitation techniques—it’s about building the muscle to adapt, to hold space, and to grow alongside others. It’s a culture of curiosity where people show up, not just to get it right, but to try it out. Facilitators at every stage—from aspiring to seasoned—gather at our meetups not to show off but to get better, together. And in that space, there’s freedom to stretch boundaries, push comfort zones, and play with new tools in ways you rarely get to do in client sessions or corporate meetings.

There’s a kind of magic that happens when you practice with peers who are also committed to learning. Vulnerability becomes a strength. Reflection becomes a shared act. And you stop thinking of practice as preparation for “the real thing”—because this is the real thing. The community becomes your classroom. Over time, those shared experiences build a library of insight that we draw from in moments of challenge and growth.

What Collective Practice Really Means

When we say “collective practice,” we’re not just referring to a group setting. We mean engaging in an active, live environment where each person is simultaneously learning and contributing to others’ learning. In our Practice Playgrounds, you might be leading a breakout as the facilitator one moment, and embodying a skeptical participant the next. That fluidity is part of the learning. You’re always one pivot away from a new perspective.

This kind of environment creates space for not only skill development but self-awareness. We’ve seen it function as a sort of litmus test—who’s willing to show up in public and practice with a bit of edge? Who’s ready to explore the less comfortable, more emergent aspects of facilitation? It reveals who’s confident, who’s adaptable, and who’s curious enough to keep going. And that’s often the truest mark of a great facilitator: curiosity and humility.

Collective practice also flips the script on expertise. You might enter a session thinking you’re there to help someone else, only to realize halfway through that your biggest insight came from playing the role of participant. There’s a particular kind of empathy that forms when you experience both sides of the room. It sharpens your ability to read group energy, respond in the moment, and build workshops that meet people where they are.

It’s also worth noting that the rhythm of collective practice builds endurance. The more you participate, the more facilitation feels like a natural, fluid way of being rather than something you have to prep for or put on. It’s less of a performance and more of a practice in presence.

The Rise of Participant Practice

A fascinating thread that’s emerged recently in our Labs is the idea of participant practice. That is, how can someone get better at facilitation—even if they’re never “in charge” of the meeting? In one North America session, we heard from someone discovering the magic of facilitation while stuck in a non-leadership role. Her story sparked a reflection: How do we show up as excellent meeting participants?

Being a “magical meeting participant” isn’t about taking over. It’s about modeling curiosity, asking great questions, and supporting the flow of the session. It means noticing dynamics and finding ways to offer subtle assists—like that personal trainer who doesn’t lift the bar for you but gives just enough support to help you make the rep. That type of contribution can shift the mood of the room and unlock more productive conversations.

Leaders who adopt this mindset can shift their organizational culture, not by commanding the room but by creating space for others to step up. It’s a form of facilitation through participation—activating others by how you show up. It’s how cultures of collaboration are born. In many cases, it’s the seed of a long-term transformation.

The idea of participant practice also acknowledges that facilitation isn’t always about holding the marker. Sometimes it’s about holding the energy. The ability to sense when to lean in or hold back is a powerful form of emotional intelligence. And we’ve seen firsthand how those who embody this ethos gain influence and trust far beyond their title.

Cultivating Feedback Culture

At the heart of collective practice is feedback. Not the kind that’s buried in performance reviews, but real-time, practical, human feedback. Our go-to tool for this is the classic Plus/Delta—what worked and what could be improved. But the magic isn’t in the tool; it’s in the culture that surrounds it. The questions invite honesty, but the environment makes that honesty land with care.

In our redesigned Practice Playground format, we now offer additional practice roles—not just as facilitators, but as openers and closers too. And even though those segments aren’t formally debriefed, participants still crave that feedback. We’ve seen people linger after the session to exchange thoughts, ask questions, and reflect together. These spontaneous sidebars often become some of the richest parts of the experience.

What’s remarkable is how this feedback culture fuels a loop of continuous improvement. Participants leave with insights they can immediately apply, and facilitators walk away with a clearer sense of how they landed. And because it’s all framed as practice—not performance—feedback isn’t threatening. It’s welcomed. When people know they’re in a space that celebrates iteration, they’re more likely to take risks and stretch themselves.

We’ve even seen cases where someone who received tough but caring feedback one week returns the next with a dramatically improved approach. That kind of resilience, powered by community, is what makes collective practice so special.

Global Collective Practice

Between mid-April and mid-May, we launched one of our largest experiments in collective practice to date. In collaboration with Jake Knapp and his new book Click, we facilitated over 70 workshops around the world. Each event focused on practicing the Differentiators activity—a tool from the new Foundation Sprint—and the results were electrifying.

This global sprint wasn’t just about showcasing a new method. It was a real-time prototype of how distributed practice can build shared momentum. From San Francisco to Amsterdam, Austin to Toronto, facilitators and participants rolled up their sleeves and tried it together. People shared photos, stories, and lessons on social media. New faces joined the community. It clicked. And that shared momentum continues to ripple out.

We also saw the power of iteration in action. The original Easy Brew case study evolved with each city. In North America, we trimmed it down and added fictional competitors to reduce cognitive overload. Varsha expanded the options in Amsterdam with two new case studies. This layering of improvements is what collective practice looks like in action.

What started as a celebratory launch transformed into a collaborative design process. Each facilitator added their own touch, and together we shaped something more refined than any one of us could have created alone. That’s the hallmark of a thriving practice culture—distributed ownership and creative contribution.

Practicing Belonging

One of the simplest but most effective ways to warm up a room for collective practice is through connection—and the Common Denominator activity delivers every time. It’s fast, fun, and reveals shared traits you might not expect. We break people into small groups, task them with finding commonalities, and see who can find the most.

At first glance, it feels like a game. But look deeper, and you’ll see the scaffolding of collaboration forming. The activity builds pattern recognition, sparks laughter, and sets the tone for open, curious engagement. You’d be surprised how fast strangers feel like a team when they discover they’ve all traveled to the same country or have the same weird food habit.

We’ve run Common Denominator at regional Labs, at SXSW, and even as a delay tactic when sessions needed a time buffer. It’s versatile and always delivers. It also provides a fascinating window into group dynamics: which teams optimize for speed and strategy, and which ones go deep on nuance and connection? Both reveal something valuable.

We’ve noticed that how a group approaches Common Denominator often mirrors how they collaborate. Are they focused on getting the “right answers” or on getting to know one another? Are they competing or co-creating? These moments of play hold deep insight into how we work together.

Designed for Real Growth

Over the last year we’ve been listening to feedback and iterating on our process and have developed a V2 of the Practice Playground format. Version 2 drops the open space section where participants brainstorm growth edges. Instead, we come prepared with a specific method—like Differentiators from the Foundation Sprint—to practice. This small shift has had a huge impact.

It turns out that anchoring the session around a shared activity frees up cognitive load and allows more time for role play. Rather than trying to translate personal growth goals into facilitation challenges on the spot, participants can inject their challenges into the method itself.

We also added new framing: before jumping into practice, each group discusses where and how this method might show up in their work. What’s likely to go wrong? Where are the edge cases? This primes the group with scenarios to role-play, making the experience richer and more grounded.

The feedback? Overwhelmingly positive. People want more time to practice. More clarity. More structure. V2 delivers that, while still leaving room for creativity and self-discovery. And because the practice is live and iterative, even those new to the method can contribute meaningfully.

This format also reduces the cognitive overhead for facilitators leading the session. With a shared focus and clear agenda, it’s easier to guide the group and spot emergent learning moments. We’re seeing more confidence from new facilitators and deeper engagement from returning ones.

Graceful Authority & the Invitation to Practice

What emerges from this kind of ongoing, public practice is something we call graceful authority. It’s not command-and-control. It’s not about being the expert in the room. It’s authority earned through presence, empathy, and adaptability. You’re trusted not because you always know the answer, but because you’re willing to explore it with others.

Facilitators who thrive in collective practice spaces don’t posture. They co-create. They get better not in secret, but in public. And that’s the kind of leadership we need more of—in our organizations, our communities, and our world. In many ways, this is the future of leadership: collaborative, emergent, and shared.

So here’s your invitation: come practice with us. Join an upcoming Facilitation Lab meetup. Try Common Denominator with your team. Bring a method to your next meeting and let others try it on for size. The point isn’t perfection. It’s progress—together.

Whether you’re new to facilitation or a seasoned guide, there’s room to grow. And there’s no better way to do it than in community.

That’s the power of collective practice.

The post The Power of Collective Practice appeared first on Voltage Control.

When I stepped onto the stage to kick off Facilitation Lab Summit 2025, our 7th annual facilitation summit, I took a moment to acknowledge the deep appreciation and humility I felt as I reflected on our seven remarkable years and journey that brought us all together. Full of exuberance, curiosity, and optimism for what we all might create together, the energy in the room was palpable. In the days since, I kept telling people how special it felt, as if it were a barometer of great things to come. 

The summit is an annual experience dedicated to showcasing our talented and engaging alumni and fostering an environment of shared curiosity and practice. This year was filled with inspiration, learning, and growth. Facilitators from all backgrounds came together to engage in thought-provoking sessions, participate in interactive activities, and share their expertise. Whether you attended or are hearing about it for the first time, here’s a recap of what made this year’s summit unforgettable.

Summit Highlights

I’m deeply proud of all eight of our alumni who facilitated the conference this year. They did an exceptional job of guiding everyone through thoughtful exploration of concepts alongside hands-on exploration. In the coming weeks, we release videos of each of the workshops. In the meantime, here are some key highlights:

Day 1: Laying the Foundation for Transformation

Our summit kicked off with an electrifying session by Skye Idehen-Osunde on building credibility and psychological safety in workshops. The Safety Net session set the tone for the day, equipping facilitators with practical tools to foster environments where everyone feels safe, valued, and heard. Skye’s high-energy delivery was the perfect catalyst for the learning and exploration that would unfold throughout the day.

Next, Alyssa Coughlin took us through Change Through Stories: Capturing Hearts and Aligning Minds, a powerful workshop on the role of storytelling in change management. Alyssa demonstrated how compelling narratives can unite teams and inspire collaborative action, offering attendees a framework for creating stories that resonate and drive transformation.

After a brief networking break, Kathy Ditmore led a session on Mapping Your Change Journey. Kathy dove deep into the complexities of change initiatives, guiding participants through the essential steps to successfully align teams and navigate the challenges of process redesign. Her interactive exercises, including pre-mortem analysis, provided real-world tools to help facilitators tackle change with confidence and purpose.

In the afternoon, Dom Michalec brought a groundbreaking approach to the table with his session, Facilitating Transformation: How Small Changes Change Everything. Drawing on his expertise in Behavior Design, Dom illustrated how tiny, intentional shifts can lead to massive transformations in both personal and professional settings. His insights were both practical and inspiring, leaving attendees with a newfound superpower: the ability to create lasting habits and facilitate meaningful change.

As the day wrapped up, we gathered to honor the incredible contributions of our community. The Facilitation Lab Summit 2025 Awards celebrated some outstanding individuals whose dedication and innovation have left a lasting impact on the field of facilitation:

• Innovation Award: Dan Walker for reshaping how facilitators engage teams with creative techniques.
• Growth Award: Theresa Ledesma for her continuous learning and professional development, making a positive impact in her community.
• Community Award: Robin Neidorf for her mentorship and fostering collaboration within the facilitation community.
• Impact Award: Dirk Van Onsem for his profound influence on driving organizational change and empowering teams to tackle societal challenges.

These incredible facilitators exemplify the power of facilitation in driving positive change, and we were thrilled to celebrate their achievements.

Day 2: Deepening the Practice and Creating Lasting Connections

Day 2 of the summit began with Dr. Karyn Edwards, PCC, as she introduced The Secrets of Applying Executive Coaching to Facilitation. Karyn’s session on non-directional coaching techniques provided valuable insights into how facilitators can create self-led discovery and foster deeper learning within groups. Her session was a transformative experience for attendees looking to refine their facilitation skills and deepen their impact.

Next, JJ Rogers led us in exploring Radical Acts of Delight. In this lively and inspiring session, JJ encouraged facilitators to infuse joy and creativity into their practice, creating high-trust environments where participants feel engaged and connected. The session was a reminder that delight and creativity are essential to making facilitation memorable and impactful.

After lunch, Caterina Rodriguez brought us into the world of nonverbal communication in her workshop Enhancing Facilitation Through Nonverbal Communication. This interactive session highlighted the critical role nonverbal cues play in building inclusivity and connection. Participants learned how cultural values shape communication styles and gained practical tools to enhance their facilitation by listening beyond words.

The summit closed with a truly special session by Elena Farden titled Consent as Ceremony: Learnings from Nurturing Safe Connections in Indigenous Play Parties. Elena’s exploration of cultural practices of consent and gratitude provided profound insights into creating environments where respect, trust, and connection flourish. This session offered a unique perspective on how cultural teachings can enhance facilitation, fostering deeper connections and more inclusive experiences.

Key Takeaways from the Summit

While the summit was full of insightful sessions, here are some key takeaways that resonated across the two days:

• Psychological safety and credibility are crucial for creating impactful workshops where everyone feels valued.
• Storytelling is a powerful tool for fostering change and aligning teams around a shared vision.
• Small, intentional behavior changes can lead to meaningful transformations.
• Nonverbal communication plays a pivotal role in creating inclusive and engaging environments.
• Infusing delight and creativity into facilitation fosters greater engagement and trust.

Join the Community and Stay Connected

Although the summit has ended, the journey doesn’t have to stop here. Continue engaging with facilitators from around the world through our Community Hub. Share resources, exchange ideas, and keep the momentum going!

Join the Community Hub

Looking Ahead to the 2026 Summit

Excited for next year? Early bird tickets for the 2026 Facilitation Lab Summit are now available at a discounted rate, but don’t wait—these tickets are only available until August! Secure your spot early and save on registration.

Get 2026 Tickets Now

Thank you to everyone who made Facilitation Lab Summit 2025 a success. We can’t wait to see you next year as we continue to inspire, engage, and transform through the power of facilitation.

The post Facilitation Lab Summit 2025 appeared first on Voltage Control.

Table of contents

• Fostering Psychological Safety
• Developing Trust
• Embracing Failure
• Ensuring Every Voice is Heard
• Turning Tension into a Catalyst for Growth
• Conclusion

Innovation is not just a desirable trait; it’s a critical component of success. Companies that fail to innovate risk falling behind, losing their competitive edge, and ultimately becoming irrelevant. However, innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It requires an environment where creativity is nurtured, where risk-taking is encouraged, and where failures are seen as stepping stones rather than setbacks. At the heart of such an environment lies psychological safety—a concept that has gained significant attention in recent years, but one that is still often misunderstood or overlooked in practice.

Psychological safety refers to the shared belief within a team that it is safe to take interpersonal risks. It is the assurance that one can speak up, offer new ideas, admit mistakes, or challenge the status quo without fear of negative consequences such as embarrassment, rejection, or punishment. When psychological safety is present, team members feel comfortable being themselves, which fosters a culture of openness, trust, and collaboration. This is the kind of culture where innovation thrives because individuals are free to explore uncharted territories without the fear of being judged or penalized.

In this blog post, we will delve into the critical role psychological safety plays in fostering innovation. We will explore how to cultivate this essential component within teams, the connection between psychological safety and trust, the importance of reframing failure, strategies for ensuring every voice is heard, and how to handle conflict constructively. We will also provide actionable steps for leaders and facilitators to implement these concepts in their own organizations. By the end of this post, you will have a comprehensive understanding of how to create and maintain a psychologically safe environment that not only supports innovation but drives it.

Fostering Psychological Safety

Psychological safety is the cornerstone of any innovative team. Without it, creativity is stifled, and meetings often become echo chambers where only the most conservative, well-rehearsed ideas are shared. This not only limits the potential for breakthrough innovations but also diminishes the overall energy and engagement within the team. When participants don’t feel safe, they are less likely to take the risks necessary to propose bold ideas or think outside the box.

To foster psychological safety, facilitators must be intentional in their approach. It begins with creating a culture of respect and empathy, where understanding takes precedence over persuasion. Facilitators should actively encourage the sharing of ideas, no matter how incomplete or unconventional they may seem. This can be achieved by setting clear expectations that all contributions are valued and by providing equal air time for all participants. When people feel that their input is genuinely appreciated, they are more likely to engage fully and bring their most creative ideas to the table.

Moreover, focusing on progress rather than perfection is crucial in creating a psychologically safe environment. Perfectionism can be a significant barrier to innovation, as it discourages experimentation and the exploration of new ideas. Facilitators can combat this by celebrating incremental improvements and framing challenges as opportunities for learning and growth rather than as failures. This approach not only fosters a more open and creative atmosphere but also encourages continuous improvement and resilience in the face of obstacles.

Developing Trust

Trust is often hailed as the foundation of effective teamwork, but it’s essential to recognize that trust doesn’t emerge in isolation. It is built on the groundwork of psychological safety. When team members feel safe to be themselves—expressing their ideas, admitting mistakes, and offering honest feedback—trust naturally follows. This trust is not just a nice-to-have; it’s a critical element of a high-performing team that can innovate and adapt in the face of challenges.

In environments where psychological safety is prioritized, team members are more willing to take interpersonal risks, such as sharing unpolished or controversial ideas. They feel confident that their contributions will be met with respect rather than criticism. This sense of security fosters deeper connections and stronger relationships within the team, which in turn builds trust. When trust is present, collaboration becomes more fluid and effective, as team members are willing to engage in open, honest dialogue without fear of negative repercussions.

Leaders and facilitators play a pivotal role in cultivating this trust. By modeling vulnerability and openness, they set the tone for the rest of the team. For example, when a leader admits their own mistakes or shares a learning experience, it signals to the team that it’s safe to do the same. This creates a ripple effect, encouraging others to step out of their comfort zones and engage more fully in the collaborative process. As trust deepens, so does the team’s ability to innovate, as members are more likely to challenge the status quo and support one another in the pursuit of new ideas.

Embracing Failure

Innovation and risk-taking are intrinsically linked, but with risk comes the potential for failure. However, in a psychologically safe environment, failure is not viewed as something to be avoided at all costs; rather, it is embraced as an integral part of the creative process. This shift in perspective is essential for teams that want to push boundaries and explore new ideas without the paralyzing fear of making mistakes.

In many traditional workplace cultures, failure is stigmatized, leading to a fear-based approach where team members are reluctant to take risks. This fear of failure can be a significant barrier to innovation, as it stifles creativity and discourages experimentation. To counteract this, leaders and facilitators must actively work to reframe failure as a valuable learning opportunity. By doing so, they create an environment where team members feel empowered to take calculated risks and explore bold ideas, knowing that even if they don’t succeed, the experience will yield valuable insights.

This reframing of failure involves several key strategies. First, leaders should openly discuss the importance of failure in the innovation process, highlighting examples where setbacks have led to significant breakthroughs. Second, when failures occur, they should be debriefed constructively, focusing on what can be learned rather than assigning blame. This approach not only normalizes failure but also reinforces the idea that mistakes are a natural part of the journey toward innovation. Finally, leaders should celebrate the effort and courage involved in taking risks, regardless of the outcome. This recognition helps to build a culture where failure is not feared but embraced as a necessary step toward success.

Ensuring Every Voice is Heard

Collaborative decision-making is a powerful process that brings together diverse perspectives to create more informed and effective outcomes. However, its success hinges on the presence of psychological safety. In environments where safety is lacking, meetings can quickly devolve into scenarios where only a few dominant voices are heard, while others are silenced or overlooked. This not only undermines the quality of the decisions made but also erodes the sense of inclusivity and engagement within the team.

For collaborative decision-making to be truly effective, facilitators must actively work to ensure that every voice is heard. This starts with creating a culture of transparency, where participants feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and opinions without fear of judgment. Facilitators can use various techniques to achieve this, such as establishing ground rules that promote equal participation, actively soliciting input from quieter team members, and using structured decision-making processes that allow everyone to contribute.

Another key aspect of fostering collaborative decision-making is the emphasis on the value of diverse perspectives. When team members come from different backgrounds or have varying levels of experience, they bring unique insights that can lead to more innovative and well-rounded solutions. However, these diverse perspectives can only be leveraged if team members feel safe to express them. Facilitators should encourage open dialogue and create opportunities for team members to share their ideas in a way that feels comfortable to them, whether through verbal contributions, written input, or anonymous feedback mechanisms.

Ultimately, when every voice is valued and heard, the decisions made are more likely to reflect the collective wisdom of the group. This not only leads to better outcomes but also strengthens the team’s sense of ownership and commitment to the decisions made. By prioritizing psychological safety in the decision-making process, leaders can ensure that their teams are fully engaged and capable of achieving their highest potential.

Turning Tension into a Catalyst for Growth

Conflict is an inevitable part of teamwork, especially in high-performing teams where passionate, diverse individuals come together to achieve a common goal. While conflict can be uncomfortable, it’s important to recognize that it is not inherently negative. When handled constructively, conflict can serve as a powerful catalyst for growth, innovation, and stronger team dynamics. However, the key to harnessing the positive potential of conflict lies in the presence of psychological safety.

In a psychologically safe environment, team members feel comfortable addressing conflicts openly and honestly. They trust that their colleagues will listen to their concerns and engage in dialogue without resorting to blame or defensiveness. This creates a space where disagreements can be explored in a productive manner, leading to deeper understanding and more creative problem-solving. Rather than avoiding conflict or allowing it to fester, teams with high psychological safety are able to confront issues head-on and use them as opportunities for learning and improvement.

Leaders and facilitators play a crucial role in guiding teams through conflict. By setting the tone for how conflicts are handled, they can help to ensure that disagreements are approached with a mindset of curiosity and collaboration rather than competition. This might involve encouraging team members to express their viewpoints fully, asking open-ended questions to explore underlying concerns, and helping the team to identify common goals and shared values. Additionally, leaders should model constructive conflict resolution by remaining calm, empathetic, and focused on finding solutions rather than assigning blame.

When conflict is approached as a learning opportunity, it can lead to more innovative solutions and stronger, more resilient teams. By prioritizing psychological safety, leaders can create an environment where conflict is not feared but embraced as a necessary part of the team’s growth and development. This approach not only helps to resolve issues more effectively but also strengthens the team’s ability to navigate future challenges with confidence and collaboration.

Conclusion

Creating a culture of psychological safety is not a one-time effort; it’s an ongoing commitment that requires consistent effort, attention, and reinforcement. As we have explored throughout this post, psychological safety is the bedrock upon which trust, collaboration, and innovation are built. It is the foundation that allows teams to take risks, embrace failure, engage in meaningful dialogue, and navigate conflict constructively. Without it, teams are likely to fall into patterns of safe, predictable behavior that stifles creativity and limits their potential.

For leaders and facilitators, the journey toward building and maintaining psychological safety in teams involves a proactive approach. This includes not only fostering an environment where every voice is heard and valued but also modeling the behaviors that encourage openness, vulnerability, and continuous learning. It also means being vigilant in addressing any signs that psychological safety is lacking, such as a lack of participation in meetings, reluctance to share ideas, or avoidance of difficult conversations.

The benefits of prioritizing psychological safety are immense. Teams that operate in such an environment are more engaged, more innovative, and more capable of achieving their collective goals. They are also better equipped to handle the challenges and uncertainties of today’s dynamic business environment. By committing to the principles of psychological safety, leaders can unlock the full potential of their teams, paving the way for continuous improvement, growth, and success.

The post Creating a Culture of Innovation Through Psychological Safety appeared first on Voltage Control.

Introduction: Setting the Tone for the Holidays

The holiday season is often an opportunity to gather with loved ones, but it can also come with challenges: differing opinions, old tensions, and the pressure of expectations. As facilitators, we know the power of intention and positive purpose in creating the environments we want to experience. This holiday, why not bring some facilitation skills to the table? These skills can help transform gatherings into opportunities for genuine connection, curiosity, and understanding. Let’s explore how you can use facilitation principles to create more meaningful and harmonious holidays.

Set the Intention Before the Gathering

Intentions are powerful tools in any facilitated session, and they’re equally valuable at family gatherings. Too often, we default to old habits, approaching conversations without reflection on what we truly want. Before the holiday begins, take a moment to set an intention. Instead of defaulting to convincing others of your perspective or expecting specific outcomes, focus on building or deepening relationships. An example of a strong intention might be: “I want to learn something new about my Uncle Bob,” or “I want to leave this gathering feeling more connected to my cousin.” When we let go of convincing others and, instead, shift to understanding and curiosity, we open up new possibilities for connection.

Another example could be setting an intention to let go of expectations around how the day should unfold. Often, we carry a mental picture of what a perfect holiday looks like, and deviations from that image can cause stress. Instead, try focusing on how you want to feel and the kind of energy you want to bring to the gathering. Is it kindness, patience, joy? Use these intentions as your anchor when things get a bit chaotic.

Break Out of Routines: Establish New Patterns of Interaction

Families often fall into routines—default ways of interacting that might not serve us well. Think about your family’s conversational routines and consider whether they’re leading you to the outcomes you desire. Just like in our facilitation work, where we try to break free from unproductive habits, we can do the same in family gatherings.

One way to do this is by incorporating a new ritual, such as opening the gathering with a reflection prompt: “What is something that has brought light into your life this year?” By replacing predictable, sometimes stale, routines with intentional prompts that invite everyone to share meaningfully, you can change the entire dynamic of your gathering.

Consider trying an activity like “Rose, Thorn, Bud.” Invite each family member to share a rose (something positive), a thorn (a challenge), and a bud (something they’re looking forward to). This simple exercise breaks the pattern of small talk and encourages a deeper, yet structured, connection. The more you practice breaking out of the old routines, the more space you create for authentic interactions.

Hold Space for Authentic Feelings—Even When They’re Difficult

Holiday gatherings can sometimes bring up challenging emotions. Whether it’s the stress of expectations or the resurfacing of past tensions, these moments can be hard to navigate. Instead of avoiding them, consider holding space for these emotions. This doesn’t mean dwelling on negativity but rather acknowledging that everyone may bring their own complex feelings to the table.

A powerful exercise is “Nine Whys,” where you dig deeper into why certain things affect you. For example, if you’re anxious about seeing a relative, ask yourself why that is—and then continue asking “why” until you reach the core of your feelings. This can help you understand yourself better and approach the gathering with more compassion and clarity.

Another helpful tool is simply naming emotions. If someone seems withdrawn or upset, it can help to acknowledge it gently: “I’m sensing there’s some tension here. Would you like to talk about it?” This acknowledgment can defuse defensiveness and create space for vulnerability. Remember, holding space doesn’t mean fixing—it means being present with the emotion.

Lean Into Curiosity with Active Listening

Active listening is one of the most important facilitation skills, and it’s invaluable in family settings, especially when there are different opinions. Instead of preparing rebuttals or filtering what others say through your own assumptions, try to be as present as possible. Reflect back what you’re hearing to ensure understanding. This practice slows the conversation down, creating space for genuine connection and reducing misunderstandings.

For example, if someone shares a strong opinion, try paraphrasing: “What I’m hearing is that you feel strongly about this because of X. Is that right?” Reflecting helps others feel heard and invites more thoughtful dialogue. Another useful tip is to use open-ended questions. Instead of asking, “Why do you think that?” which might feel confrontational, try “What experiences have led you to that belief?” This small shift encourages deeper conversation rather than debate.

Consider adopting “the power of the pause” during conversations. If someone says something provocative or challenging, take a breath before responding. This moment of pause can prevent escalation and gives you time to choose a response rooted in curiosity rather than defensiveness.

Incorporate Playfulness: Prompts and Games for Connection

Playfulness can ease tension and create a more open, joyful environment. Consider introducing a lighthearted prompt, such as, “What’s lighting you up these days?” or “What’s a holiday tradition you’ve always loved?” For families who enjoy a little healthy debate, try an activity like determining the “quintessential holiday movie” by collectively deciding on criteria. The key is to keep it fun and collaborative, encouraging everyone to share and connect.

Improv games like “Five Things” or even creating a “Family Portrait” through a storytelling game can also bring everyone together in laughter and shared creativity. Another favorite is “Reverse Charades,” where the entire group acts out a word while one person guesses. The collective hilarity can diffuse tension and remind everyone why gathering together is important.

Another great activity to consider is TRIZ, a facilitation technique that can add humor while helping the group identify unhelpful patterns. Introduce TRIZ as a way to brainstorm all the things that would make the holiday absolutely terrible—encourage creativity and laughter as people come up with the worst possible ideas. Then, have everyone reflect on whether they’ve ever unintentionally done any of those things. Finally, create a list of behaviors or traditions to avoid in order to make room for more positive experiences. This structured but playful approach can help everyone feel more invested in making the gathering as joyful as possible.

If you sense tension rising during the meal, try using humor or pivot to a lighter activity, like a “Gratitude Circle.” Invite everyone to say something they appreciate about the person to their left. This playful yet meaningful activity can instantly shift the mood and deepen bonds.

Navigate Traditions and Rituals Inclusively

Traditions are a big part of the holidays, but they can sometimes create tension, especially when different people value different things. Facilitation teaches us to co-create experiences—an approach that’s also useful when blending family traditions. Have an open conversation about which traditions are most meaningful to each person. This allows you to decide together which traditions to honor and what new experiences to create.

It’s also an opportunity to be inclusive, especially if you have guests from different cultural or religious backgrounds. Ask them what they’d like to bring to the gathering, and explore ways to integrate these elements into the family celebration. For example, if someone in your gathering celebrates a different holiday, invite them to share a story or ritual that’s meaningful to them. You might light a candle together or share a dish that’s part of their tradition.

You can also create new shared rituals. One family began the tradition of a “Holiday Memory Jar,” where each person writes down their favorite memory from the past year, places it in the jar, and then these are read aloud after dinner. This activity honors both individual experiences and collective sharing, fostering inclusivity and togetherness.

Embrace Spaciousness: Less Can Be More

In facilitation, we often talk about the importance of spaciousness—leaving room in the agenda for reflection, rest, and connection. The holidays are no different. It’s tempting to fill every moment with activity, but this can lead to stress and exhaustion. Instead, think about paring down your holiday plans to what is most essential. What activities are truly in service of connection, joy, and rest?

Leave space for unplanned moments—whether it’s a spontaneous walk, an afternoon nap, or an extended conversation over coffee. By embracing spaciousness, you create a more relaxed atmosphere where meaningful interactions can naturally unfold.

Consider building in a collective “Pause Moment” during the gathering. Maybe after dinner, suggest everyone take a few minutes to sit quietly, enjoy their dessert, or simply reflect on the day. These moments of stillness can help everyone decompress and allow for deeper, more thoughtful conversations to follow. Remember, it’s often in the unplanned, quiet moments that true connection happens.

Facilitating Joyful Gatherings

Facilitating during the holidays doesn’t mean you have to be the “official facilitator” of your family—it’s about bringing intention, openness, and curiosity to every interaction. By setting clear intentions, breaking out of unproductive routines, holding space for authenticity, listening actively, incorporating play, navigating traditions inclusively, and embracing spaciousness, you can transform your holiday gatherings. The goal isn’t to have a perfect holiday—it’s to have a holiday that’s meaningful, connected, and joyful. This year, let’s use our facilitation skills to create memories that will last.

If you’re inspired to bring facilitation into your holiday gatherings, share your experiences with our community! We’d love to hear what worked, what surprised you, and what new traditions you started. Let’s learn from each other and continue building a community of thoughtful facilitators—not just in the workplace but also at home. Join us in the Facilitation Lab to share your stories and get more ideas for transforming gatherings of all kinds.

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