A conversation with Tony Toto, Facilitator at Outdoor Wisconsin Leadership School

“Take that risk, take that step forward. Don’t think about it, just do it. Sometimes you just have to take that step, and by doing that, my life changed completely.”- Tony Toto

In this episode of the Facilitation Lab Podcast, host Douglas Ferguson converses with Tony Toto, a facilitator at the Outdoor Wisconsin Leadership School. Tony shares his journey from real estate to facilitation, emphasizing the transformative power of adventure-based team-building activities. He discusses the importance of physical and emotional safety, non-verbal communication, and the role of conversation in fostering trust and collaboration. Tony also reflects on his continuous learning process and the impact of his work on participants. The episode underscores the significance of taking risks, seeking mentorship, and the lasting benefits of experiential learning.

Show Highlights

[00:05:11] First Steps into Facilitation
[00:05:58] Advice on Taking Risks
[00:08:04] Building Trust through Activities
[00:12:11] Stories of Growth and Confidence
[00:16:25] Creativity in Facilitation
[00:30:14] Community Support in Growth
[00:34:44] Common Mistakes in Facilitation

Tony on Linkedin

About the Guest

Tony has facilitated more than 300 groups and positively impacted thousands of lives in his 12+ years as a professional facilitator. He takes a Facilitative Leadership approach with every group he works with. This approach opens lines of communication for all participants to engage in robust conversation, idea generation and creates a psychologically safe space for collaboration to thrive. Tony enjoys providing guidance and direction for groups to achieve their desired outcomes based on their purpose of why they’re gathering for a session.

About Voltage Control

Voltage Control is a facilitation academy that develops leaders through certifications, workshops, and organizational coaching focused on facilitation mastery, innovation, and play. Today’s leaders are confronted with unprecedented uncertainty and complex change. Navigating this uncertainty requires a systemic facilitative approach to gain clarity and chart pathways forward. We prepare today’s leaders for now and what’s next.

Subscribe to Podcast

Engage Control The Room

Voltage Control on the Web
Contact Voltage Control

Transcript

Douglas:

Hi, I’m Douglas Ferguson. Welcome to the Facilitation Lab podcast, where I speak with Voltage Control Certification alumni and other facilitation experts about the remarkable impact they’re making. We embrace a method agnostic approach so you can enjoy a wide range of topics and perspectives, as we examine all the nuances of enabling meaningful group experiences. This series is dedicated to helping you navigate the realities of facilitating collaboration, ensuring every session you lead becomes truly transformative. Thanks so much for listening. If you’d like to join us for a live session sometime, you can join our Facilitation Lab community. It’s an ideal space to apply what you learn in the podcast in real time with peers. Sign up today at voltagecontrol.com/facilitation-lab. And if you’d like to learn more about our 12-week facilitation certification program, you can read about it @voltagecontrol.com.

Today I’m with Tony Toto at Outdoor Wisconsin Leadership School, where he facilitates team building programs for all age groups from grade school through graduate school to executive groups. He is currently developing a facilitation business that will service not only team building programs, but product ideation, design sprints, creativity, innovation, meeting facilitation, and strategic planning. Welcome to the show, Tony.

Tony:

Thank you. Thank you for having me, Douglas. I appreciate your time and the ability to do this.

Douglas:

Absolutely. It’s my pleasure to chat with alumni and hear the amazing stories you all have to tell. So looking forward to really diving in. And for me, it’s always really fascinating to hear how folks got their start. So you’ve had a 10-year journey as a facilitator in adventure recreation. I’m curious, how did it all start? How did you get bit by the facilitation bug?

Tony:

I got into facilitation in a different way, I started off as a volunteer. Back in 2008, I was doing mortgages. I was in the real estate industry, and the industry went belly up with the financial crisis and I was lost. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I was kind of broke out of money. I had to have a family member take me in and rebuild myself to the point where I wanted to be. So I was out of a job for about three years because the economy was bad. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. So after three years, I was writing down a whole bunch of information on a sheet of paper trying to decide what excited me, what encouraged me, what I wanted to do for a new career. I just couldn’t find my place. I was lost. I was absolutely lost.

Towards the end of 2011, I said to my mom, “Hey mom, I’m thinking about volunteering at the Boys and Girls Club of America. Maybe that will get me into a new field, a new job.” And she said, “Go for it.” So I applied for the volunteer over there and I got accepted. I was in a teen center on a three-month contract. Towards the end of my contract, I looked down on the table and I saw a brochure. On that brochure had a ropes course, and my eyes exploded. My jaw dropped. I’m like, oh my gosh, I did this back in college. Through my recreation program at Western Illinois University, our instructor took us… This is an outdoor recreation class, he took us on a team building weekend. He took our class divided into three different groups, and one weekend at a time took our group out to that course.

And during that time, we had to work together using those leadership skills that we talk about, the problem solving, the conflict resolution, communication. We had to solve these activities together as a group, and I never forgot that experience and how amazing it was for me personally. So when I saw that brochure I said to myself, I want to facilitate this. So I went home. I got on the computer and I typed in ropes courses, Kenosha, where I live in, Kenosha, Wisconsin. And a site came up west of my house about 50 minutes away. So I went to their website and I went to the contact information page and I sent a message to the director. I said, here, “My name is Tony Toto. I went to Western Illinois University. I have a degree in recreation parks and tourism administration. Do you accept volunteers?” And I sent it off.

A few days later, I got a response from the director and he said, “Oh, you’re a McGowanite.” Dr. McGowan was my professor that took me out on that team’s weekend back in college. He knew my professor directly because they worked together on a committee in an association in the industry. So he says, “Yeah, we need some volunteers come on out.” So I went out there, he sent me a couple of days in May. So I shadowed a facilitator for a couple of days in May, went out there for a couple of days in June. And then one day I was out there in July and I was waiting at the top of a hill for one of the facilitators. And at this point I was really excited. I love this. This is where I loved doing because I never forgot that experience in college. So I saw the facilitator who I was going to shadow walk up the hill and she handed me an envelope. And she says, “This is from Big Dog.” And Big Dog was a nickname for the director at the program.

So I opened the envelope and I pulled out and I saw a bunch of paper was a higher packet. I was like, what? So when I saw him later on that day, I went up to him and I showed him the packet and this is what he said to me, “Well, if you’re going to show up, I might as well pay you for it.” So I became from volunteer to a part-time facilitator/tech guy. And then the next year I was with his staff full time and I’ve been facilitating ever since. So just by the power of volunteering, I got into the industry full time based on that role.

Douglas:

I once heard this advice which was, if you want to get somewhere just turn up.

Tony:

Yeah, just show up. Take that risk. Take that step forward. Don’t think about it, just do it. A lot of times people get into analysis paralysis where they’re overthinking it. Sometimes you just have to take that step. And by doing that, my life changed completely just by sending out that message and just wanting to volunteer and driving that distance just to do it, just to get in.

Douglas:

And so what was some of the early facilitation like for you when you started to lean into some of that work that was going to be volunteer work, but turned into a part-time job with Big Dog?

Tony:

The facilitation itself, I was learning. I was in a complete learning mode. And I remember what our instructor did with us back in the class and those activities. And as I was watching these activities, I’m like, I remember this so well, so vividly. And I just had to learn the style of delivering it. And I just spent that first year, that volunteer time and the part-time time just learning it and watching other facilitators. And then eventually I just started incorporating like, okay, I want to do it this way. I want to do this design. I want to try it this way. And then when I became full-time next year, I designed my own progression and my own activity set based on what I learned and based on the training that I experienced. So just by observing, asking questions and having the strong willingness to learn and grow, I developed a very successful program for my groups over the next decade plus.

Douglas:

So for those listeners that aren’t as familiar with this kind of facilitation, tell us a little bit more about what the nature of these activities, how they work, what we’re asking participants to do and the benefits they might get out of it.

Tony:

Yeah, this is adventure-based recreation team building. This is experiential learning, so learning by doing. And what we do is when a group comes in, we start it off small. We start off like simple name games, and then we start doing ground initiatives where we’re dissolving the physical barriers, getting the group start connecting and bonding, start building that trust. I dissolve an initial barrier with me so they can start trusting me and be comfortable with me, because I’m going to take them through these challenges that are going to build on themselves and become more and more challenging and requiring a lot of trust throughout the day. So what we do is I design a progression to start out those name games, go to the ground initiatives and eventually at some point we’re doing trust leans, trust falls, lifting and spotting. And then to the point where we’re lifting people sometimes 12 feet off the ground using just each other in the team. And then eventually doing some high ropes and high climbing with rock courses, rock climbing walls and zip lines.

Douglas:

So is this like rock climbing stuff where someone down below is helping provide the guideline or what is that technique called?

Tony:

Well, with the rock climbing wall there’s the belay technique, and then with the most there’s belaying. But what we do prior to that is we do it ground initiatives and some low ropes courses where we get them prepped for that type of physicality and that trust. So I start off very low, like I said, with those name games. Then I start building up from there. We start getting people foot off the ground, two feet off the ground, six feet off the ground, 12 feet off the ground and then eventually up into the climbing mode. So those activities they build upon themselves to a higher degree of trust and energy and more and more challenge.

Douglas:

Yeah, for sure. What was the pinnacle challenge when you think about the most difficult thing that you would have folks do?

Tony:

If they’re not going to climb for the day, I built them up for the 12-foot wall. What it is a 12-foot wall where the whole entire group has to get to that wall one at a time. They have to go up and over just using themselves. So when you’re going up the wall yourself, you’re pretty much surrendering your body to the team. And as a team they’re lifting you and pushing you up. And the team, the members at the top of the wall are helping you get up and over that wall to achieve that success. And once you’re up and over, you help bring up the next three people until it is your time to go back down again. Getting that trust from the beginning of those name games for the group to start trusting each other, it’s building up that support so when they’re ready to go over the wall, they have the entire support of their team and they can trust their team to keep them safe throughout that entire activity, because it’s very high energy, high trust.

And I always say, don’t let the energy get in the way of the safety. So it’s not just physical safety but it’s a mental and emotional safety, as you know with every single type of facilitation activity.

Douglas:

Yeah, those layers of safety are important. I’m curious the impact that you’ve seen when groups go back to working outside of the environment you’re working with them in.

Tony:

That is actually fascinating. I can give testimonial based on that by the groups that come out year after year, like some of the school groups and the chaperones come back. And some of the students who are in their leadership mentoring programs come back as upperclassmen who see me. And the testament is this, that the chaperones say, “Tony, I want to be in your group again because of what you did for my kids for the last several years.” So they see how powerful it is because throughout the year, these leadership programs are working together, freshmen with the upperclassmen and the upperclassmen are there to help them get through their freshman year. So by the testimonies of the chaperones coming back over and over again, and the students I see maybe from freshmen to upperclassmen, they know the power of that. It works because they are growing. I see the growth and I see the happiness in the chaperones faces based on what I’ve helped them do as a team and grow from that point.

Douglas:

Interesting. And what kind of stories are they telling you about what they notice when they’re back at school, outside of the camp or outside of the course?

Tony:

Some of the freshmen they come in very shy. For example, let’s take a leadership program, they come in shy. And over the course of the next couple of years they’re in this leadership program, and whether they stay or not stay, I’ll hear back from the chaperones saying their experience with you has given them more confidence to go through high school and do what they need to do to succeed beyond high school. So I’ve heard firsthand that their confidence has been built and it has grown based on their experience working with me on these courses.

Douglas:

Yeah, very cool. And it makes me think about how a lot of facilitation in the business space or in the community space tends to be or revolve around a lot of conversation. How much does the conversation play a role in this fairly physically challenging space that you’re operating in?

Tony:

There is a lot of conversation because the activities that we give them, they’re so challenging that the groups I give them time to take that silence to think about what they want to do. I give them that time to plan, which is a big thing. A lot of it could be trial and error, but I give them those moments to plan. And as they’re going through the plan, if they fail they got to either start over and regroup and engage in that conversation again. Or they’re talking throughout the whole entire program saying, here’s what I’m seeing, this is what I’ve done. This is what worked, let’s try this. So the conversation is constantly going throughout. But the funny thing is that sometimes when I give them these very vague, yet strict rules, if they have a mishap I will give them a consequence which is silencing the group and they have to communicate non-verbally.

But conversation either words or non-verbal is very powerful. And the chaperones love it. And even the groups love it when I silence them because some kind of magic occurs during that moment of silence when they’re trying to communicate without words.

Douglas:

Wow. Yeah.

Tony:

So conversation’s an ongoing thing, and I have a great example of this. I had a senior executive group come out one time at one of the courses I was working. And one thing they mentioned to me, the main context says… Well, actually I did a name game. I said, “I want you to say your name and a strength you have and a name and a weakness you have.” And the most senior executive in the group said, “Well, my weakness is that I’m not very approachable. I don’t like people… I’m not good with people coming up to me and talking and just I’m not very approachable in my office.” So I designed the specific activity from scratch, my own design from a base activity that I always did. I included instructions and I included consequences, and I included rules. I put the group through this and it got to the point where he was shut down. He couldn’t see, he couldn’t talk. He was reliant on the rest of the group.

They got him through the end, they got the group through the end. After we were done with this activity and after we processed, he came out and said, “Thank you everyone. Now I’m more approachable and I welcome all of you to come to my office anytime you have a problem.” Because he relied on his team to help him get to the end. My activity completely shut him down which was one of the purposes of the group, was to have them connect and bond and become closer and trust each other, because the group was in the process of a big merger with the new company coming in. So there was a lot of, not necessarily mistrust but a lot of questions to be had. But I was able to connect them to the point where this guy was just surprised by how much his team helped him in a moment of crisis in that activity.

Douglas:

Yeah. And I’m picking up on a thread of passion and deep interest in that work you were doing. Can you share a little bit about what led you to pivot from the work with the physical challenges and the ropes courses and things, to more business setting or more innovation type facilitation?

Tony:

Yeah. During my time as a team building facilitator, I saw this amazing creativity coming from people during these activities. And that always just really got my fire going, just watching the creative process happen. And I realized that going through the certification program with Voltage Control, that in any situation the creative process is there. So going into the business model, the business side or the group or the corporation side or the meeting side of it, I could still do these activities, facilitate the activities and see the creative process happen. That’s the one thing that drives me that I’m passionate about. To see these groups come together, collaborate and work together and cooperate and have that creativity thrive and shine, so they can all work at an optimal level and achieve what they want to and have that success.

Douglas:

I was also thinking about the moment you shared in the alumni story about the health crisis that you encountered, and make me think about just how often these tough moments that we go through help us discover the depth of our resilience. And I was just curious to hear a little bit more about that time for you and how much that played a role in how you were thinking about your career.

Tony:

Yes, I was obviously back out in team building in 2021 after everything started to open back up again. And in July of 2021, I started experiencing this health issue with breathing, and I found that my feet were getting swollen and I was retaining water and I just couldn’t figure out what was going on. And my mom says I was always tenacious, so I just always worked through whatever, I need to work through my issues. But it got to the point where I was having extreme breathing problems where I couldn’t speak more in two words without coughing. And I eventually went to the emergency room and they found out that I had a critical heart issue that I needed to have surgically repaired. They had to replace my aortic valve. And because I’m tenacious and because I’m a fighter, I’ve always has been, that didn’t determine me. I just knew I had to heal myself, get back to work.

I never lost my passion for facilitating, and I knew I wanted to get back into it. I couldn’t do team building right away because of my recovery, because of the restrictions I had. But now it’s been three years so I am resilient. So I healed myself back up. I put on a lot of muscle again, and I’m able to go back and do what I love as a passion.

Douglas:

So you’re back out on the ropes course with teens and young adults?

Tony:

Yeah, I’m back out there. I’ve been facilitating the summer. I got back on top of a ropes course 30 feet in the air, climbed the pole to get up there, went out to the course to help people in need. So I’m back to where I was and I’m happy I’m able to do that. The director at the place where I got my start was Owens, that Outdoor Professional Leadership School, it’s a new director now. And he knew my situation. He’s like, “Take your time. You do what you need to do. I’m here to support you and back you up.” And it was no problem for me. I just built myself back up to where I needed to be. It’s not just a physical thing, it’s a mental thing. I had a little thought in my head, I’m like, am I going to be able to do this? But I pushed myself through because I’ve always been an adventurous person. As a kid I was out there breaking bones, and playing around and scratching and bruising with my childhood best friends. So I’ve always been that type to just keep pushing myself forward.

Douglas:

What did it feel like being back in the course with the youth and getting on the top of the 30 foot?

Tony:

Oh, it felt exhilarating. Actually I mentioned to the director, I said it felt so good to be back up there again. I just recently did a two-day program with a group that I’ve been working with for years. The leader of the group saw me for the first time in five years. He was happy to see me. I did a facilitation program on the ground with him the first day, then we did the high ropes the second day. So he was happy to an experienced facilitator back with his group again. And to me, it just felt good to be up there and work the course and work with the group.

Douglas:

That’s fantastic. I’m glad you’re back at it.

Tony:

Well, it’s funny because I thought, as I mentioned in my article, was I going to lose my skills, was I going to be rusty. But once you get out… I was a little rusty when I got going again, but as I kept doing the same activities or doing the same thing over and over again, I quickly remembered how to do it. I didn’t lose sight on anything. It just happened really fast to the point where the director’s like, “Okay, I have to go down to the bottom of the hill. Tony’s going to be a site supervisor on the ground.” Oh, okay, because he trusts me. I’ve been in that course for over a decade so he knows that I know what I’m doing.

Douglas:

What advice would you have to others who might be facing similar challenges or making a pivot of some sort, exploring new things?

Tony:

Just go for it. There are times where I’ve experienced analysis paralysis. I just at this point say, if you want to try something, you have to do it. Otherwise, you’re never going to do it. Just take that step forward, even if it’s baby steps. But the biggest thing with that is surround yourself with mentors and surround yourself with people you can learn from. That’s the key to all of this. When I first got started, I just listened, I absorbed, I learned, I observed. I just took it all in. I am a question asker, so I would ask questions all the time and everybody in the industry was just so patient with answering my questions. So that’s the one thing I would tell people is ask questions because people are out there willing to help you. It’s kind of funny because the old director when he first hired me, he would introduce me, “This is Tony. He likes to ask questions.” Just because I just drilled him all the time with questions because I wanted to learn.

I wanted to know because I wanted to make my activity set for the day very powerful and impactful. And when I designed it and I tested it on a group, it worked so well based on our debrief and processing that it was a coach of a soccer team. They loved it. So I just kept doing the same thing over and over and over again to the point where I mastered the delivery and I became very good at facilitating. I was able to ask the right questions, engaged in those strong conversations and watched the group grow and thrive in the moment.

Douglas:

Yeah. So when you joined us for the certification program, you’d been facilitating for quite a while, and as you just mentioned, had built a lot of confidence around techniques. And yet when you came to us, you had that facilitation identity. And afterwards you mentioned to me that you had redefined that identity from a whole new perspective. I’m curious how that felt and what that really meant for you as far as how that identity shifted.

Tony:

Oh yeah. So the identity changed in a little bit where I realized that team building facilitation is not the only type of facilitation out there. I realized that my identity can expand and I can use this in any aspect of facilitation, whether it be in meetings for nonprofit groups, corporations, product development. So my identity is expanded as a facilitator. And I’m happy to see that with the certification program that allowed me to see beyond just the team building. So it is just what I experienced in that facilitation certification class was very eye-opening because I was introduced to a whole new world of style activities, programs, and possibilities. It’s not just team building. There’s just so much more out there that I had no clue that existed. So I’m just happy for me to continue to learn and grow and explore those opportunities.

Douglas:

Yeah. And how much of what you learned during certification has found its way into the team building work that you’re doing? So when you find yourself doing the games with youth or on these rope courses, do any of those little lessons or little shifts in the way you think about your work, have they found their way into those moments?

Tony:

Yes. Actually, I was working with a high school football team a couple of weeks ago, and I included the 1-2-4-All, the writing structure. I never heard of that until I got into the course and started researching that. So I gave them a topic and I had them all think about it for a minute. Then I had them pair up, then I had them come to groups of four. And then I had them come to the entire group and the conversation was rich and robust after I did that set up. And another thing that just happened with this two-day group that I worked with, it’s a college group, there were RAs. They were going to be RAs for the year, Residence Assistants in the dorms. And based on what I saw in the facilitation class about the power of silence that Eric talks about in the class, I’m a talker.

I was very uncomfortable with silence in my early days of facilitation. I felt like I had to give the answers. They didn’t know what was going on. I just sometimes couldn’t control myself. But eventually over time, I learned how to step back and let the group take complete control. With this group when it came to the end of the day, we just got off the higher-ups course. It was time for us to do our closing before they were going to leave for the afternoon to go back to college. I circled up the group for a final debrief, and a lot of times some groups will just debrief for five or 10 minutes. I actually got them in a circle for 30 minutes and I started off by asking them to, I said, “Okay, we just did a bunch of activities that involve leadership. You’re going back to college to become leaders. What have you learned on this course the last two days in terms of leadership, and how are you going to take that back to college and put that into play with your students and on campus?”

And I silenced them for a minute to think about it. Just complete silence, and then we had this amazing discussion with all 26 of the RAs. And then I silenced them again for another 30 seconds and I said, “Okay, we experienced some challenges out here. What challenges that you saw out here that you think you could possibly face back in school and how you going to solve those challenges? What resources are you going to use?” So I silenced them for 30 seconds, and then we had another robust conversation. So I used that power of silence. Well, later that day, I was in the office with the director and I was kind of debriefing on some key issues that I saw over the last two days when the leader of the program he came in to pay the bill, and he looked at me and he looked at the director.

He goes, “Tony, I was blown away by that 30-minute debrief that you just had. You stole my thunder. I was going to do exactly what you just did.” I said, I’m glad that you silenced the group. I’m glad that you used that power of silence to get them to think instead of just throwing out their words to have that deep thinking because on our campus, they’re going to need to do that. They’re going to have to think about those challenges and those leadership roles that they have to play without just jumping in sometimes And I want them to do that deep thinking. So he was very appreciative, and he said to the director and me, he goes, “I love the fact that you are very well-groomed and well-known facilitator in terms of your learning, your style and how you deliver, how professional you are.” So he was very happy with how professional my role was in getting his team to an optimal level for this school year.

Douglas:

That’s fantastic.

Tony:

This was our first event as RAs for the year. He also said, “I’m glad somebody outside of the group did what you did and not just listening to me all the time, because I’m going to be training them for the next two weeks. Last thing they wanted to do is hear more out of me, so what you did in that debrief is exactly what I was looking for.” So he says, “I understand the power of professional facilitation of facilitators, and you’re one of those.” So I did that based off what I learned from Eric in the class is that power of silence. And when I hit my stopwatch, I was comfortable standing there in that silence. Before I’d be like, come on time, hurry up. I can’t take the silence. But at that point I was just like, this just feels great.

It’s wonderful because it gives everybody a chance to think, especially the introverts. I’ve noticed that introverts don’t just want to say something, they want that thought before they share. So it’s also a good example of know your group, and I’ve worked with this group in the past. So know your group very well and do your pre-work with the group so you have a good strong understanding, because with our briefing notes as the groups, we get their purpose, their goals and objectives. And I read that and I design my day or two days around those briefing notes. So it’s the power of facilitation works with every group.

Douglas:

Yeah, that’s great. And you mentioned the power of community in your professional growth. Can you share a story about how the Voltage Control community supported you during a critical moment in your journey?

Tony:

Yes, actually I can. In my cohort for the certification program, when I was working on my portfolio, I was kind of lost on my last artifact that I wanted to do on there. And I just didn’t know what to do. And so I reached out to Eric and he gave me some pointers and I said, “Okay, I know what I’m going to do now.” When I wrote it out, I had my monthly partner look it over. He goes, “No, you got to do this, this, this, and this. You got to change this to this. You got to change this to that.” So I took his recommendation because he had experience on what my artifact said. So after I rewrote it, I showed it to him again, he goes, “This is perfect. He did exactly what you needed to do.” So I got that community of being able to reach out to somebody to look at your work and get feedback on it to improve yourself, plus that person providing the feedback also grows and learns from you, it’s just very powerful.

So I am very community focused because as my growth in team building, I used a lot of mentors to help me grow. And I saw that in our cohort, and I saw that in the Facilitation Lab and circle that people are out there to answer questions and help everybody grow and become successful.

Douglas:

Yeah. And you’ve been playing a really active role in the Facilitation Lab as a volunteer.

Tony:

Yeah, I enjoy it. Here’s the funny thing about me, when I find something I really like and I’m passionate about, I go guns blazing. I enjoy it. I love it. I put my heart into it. That kind of goes back to that being tenacious. I want something, so I’m going to go after it. I want to get my ideas out there. I want to help people grow and share what I know. And it’s just the power of that community is just amazing wherever you go, as long as you are tuned into what’s going on and you take an active role and part in that whole process.

Douglas:

Yeah, absolutely. It’s one of those things where you get out of it what you put in.

Tony:

It truly is because when I first got started and when I was asking all these questions, one of my old managers, he managed three different courses throughout the time I was in team building. He recently left the business back in 2021. But every single course he went to, he always brought me on because he knew that I was willing to learn, willing to grow, stay on top of my profession, stay on top of new technology, new activities, new ideas. So I’m one of those people that always stays on top of trends and technology in any industry. So for example, in the circle, the fact that Eric puts up workshop design or people putting in advice or people putting in activities and libraries and books to read, I’m all about that support and providing that as well because that’s what helped me grow. And I just want to be able to go full circle and give it back to the people that are new in the field of facilitation.

Douglas:

Absolutely. Speaking of people that are new in facilitation or even ones that have been around and are looking to take their skills to the next level, what key pieces of advice do you offer?

Tony:

That’s a good one. It goes back to the whole… So I’m a big networker. I’m an extrovert, so I like talking to people, meeting people, connecting people. I used to be in Chambers of Commerce in my old industries. I just like getting that whole connection. So I would say build your network of facilitators in any industry because we all have different experiences, backgrounds, ideas, suggestions that can be incorporated in any style of facilitation. No matter what activity you’re doing, you can always have that delivery in a certain way. So build your network, surround yourself with mentors. I always say surround yourself with people smarter than you so you can learn from them, that’s my saying. So get that network in that community of people in place so you can grow and thrive from that experience.

Douglas:

Are there any common mistakes you see people making that you want to advise folks to try and avoid?

Tony:

Yes, I’ve seen mistakes, and I hate to say it this way, but I’ve seen bad facilitation. What I would suggest is… And this happened to me, when I provide feedback… I remember one time we just got done with an eight-hour session. And the new facilitators were, I hear a bunch of complaints. I hear a bunch of arguing, I hear a bunch of this, hear a bunch of that. I was staying silent because I learned that leaders speak less like, you know what? I’m just going to let this ride. Finally, toward the end the director said, “Tony, you’ve been quiet. What do you have to say?” So I wanted to just listen to what they were saying and I said, “This is what I see.” And I shared my thoughts. And whether or not they take that with them or not, that’s up to them.

But it is challenging for me because sometimes people don’t want to hear what you have to say because they think they know the best or they think their way is working, when you clearly see it’s not or may not be working in the moment. So you kind of give them some feedback. So even I remember one time I got feedback back in 2013, I was struggling with some of my facilitation because I was still new to it. And one guy brought me up to a white board. He goes, “Okay, this is what I’m seeing out of you. This is where you need to be. This is the steps you need to take. I took that to heart.” Next thing I know, I was at that moment. That’s where I learned to talk less and listen more. So I’ve learned from my mistakes and I take on everything that’s coming to me as a learning opportunity. So that’s what I would do regarding mistakes.

So just listen to the people, listen to everybody’s… Just listen to feedback. It may not work for you, just listen to it. You may have that aha moment somewhere in the future. It’s like, oh, I understand what he said now. It makes sense in this moment.

Douglas:

Yeah, having that growth mindset and being willing to hear suggestions from anyone, it’s really valuable asset and equality to have as an individual.

Tony:

Yeah, don’t fight it. When I was doing workshop facilitation for a non-profit for a year and a half, one of the things we said was be open to feedback. Don’t fight it, don’t resist it. It may not work for you, but you may have that aha moment down the road where it will. So that’s one thing people have to take to heart.

Douglas:

And as you continue your journey, what are the things you’re most excited about with your career?

Tony:

What I’ve always experienced with what I’ve been currently doing is watching people connect, collaborate, thrive, create and grow. I’m all about that, getting them beyond that choke point where they can expand and grow to the point where they succeed. So I’m all about the expansion of ideas and having every voice heard so that everybody can learn from them, and they can work effectively after the time with me.

Douglas:

Yeah, that’s so important and quite common with a lot of facilitators feeling that way.

Tony:

One thing that I had a crisis with was this, how do I know I’m making an impact on people? I remember I was talking to another facilitator about that, and she’s had a lot of experience doing a lot of different things. She said it very clear. She goes, “Well, think of it as being a teacher. Your students leave after the year, you may never see them again. You just got to trust that what you’re doing is providing opportunities for them to grow in their future.” And actually, after having this conversation with her, I reflected on my team building days when I was doing this workshop facilitation. It’s like, yes, by the chaperones coming back out and some of the students coming back out again and hearing what I did for them the year before, shows that I am making a positive impact on a lot of people. So with all the groups that I’ve facilitated over the years which has been over 400 and the thousands of people I’ve positively impacted just based on feedback, I know that I’m succeeding in my job and doing it very well.

In fact, I remember one year I went into work one day at one location. I used to work at all these different ropes courses. I was brought on to nine, 10 different places throughout my years. And I remember I came in one day and I met this woman that worked at one of the locations. She goes, “Tony…” She said, “I got to get my daughter in one of your programs.” I said, “Why?” He goes, “Did you see what came in the mail?” I said, “No.” He goes, “Eric got this envelope full of thank you cards. Your name’s all over them.” I’m like, “What?” She goes, “Yeah.” She goes, “It’s just unbelievable the feedback they were giving you, this great feedback.” So at lunchtime I looked through all these cards. I’m like, holy cow. So I saw firsthand the positive impact I was making on people’s lives.

Douglas:

That’s amazing. Well, as we come to the close, I’ve just got a couple of questions. First is, how do you plan to continue evolving as a facilitator, and what role do you think the Facilitation Lab community might play in that?

Tony:

I’m going to continue to evolve by doing what I always do, and that’s learn, grow, ask questions, get involved, because I noticed that the more you get involved you’re just going to learn from that experience no matter what you’re doing. For example, as I volunteer in the lab and I’m putting up articles and stuff, I’m reading some of the stuff and I’m learning something new. So that’s part of my growth evolution. So that just makes me feel happy because now I have more information in my toolkit to make myself more successful for the groups and make them more successful in the end.

Douglas:

Yeah, it is amazing how just having a project or having something that needs to get done can force so much learning. It’s like if you need to post something in the hub, then guess what? It’s forcing me to go look something up that I might not have otherwise.

Tony:

Right. And when I look at some of these briefing notes, I study them like, okay, I’m going to do this. I’m going to do this, I’m going to do this. And it becomes a learning experience because based on what their purpose is. And I learned something new every single time I at the facility and I’m like, well, this worked. This didn’t work as well, so let’s just kind of tweak it this way. But through that growth process, I’ve mastered a delivery that’s just crazy good. Just got a lot of feedback, and it just makes me feel so good because I know I’m doing my job at a high level.

Douglas:

Great. That’s wonderful to hear. And to wrap things up, I’d like to invite you to leave our listeners with a final thought.

Tony:

Yeah, this is pretty much based on a lot of stuff we touched on today. One, take that step forward. I don’t care how small it is, take that mini step if you have to, because I always say and I used to do this with one of my groups, I would show them the photo of that circle where inside the circle says your comfort zone, and then the circle says where the magic happens. You have to step outside of your comfort zone to achieve that magic. So take that baby step and keep moving forward with every single step. I’ve designed stuff I’m like, I have no clue what this is going to look like. But in the end, it became very, very successful. So take that baby step, create your network, surround yourself with mentors, ask questions, and always have an open mind about any information you’re receiving. If you’re not sure, ask somebody with that experience or just get some feedback or just engage in that conversation to bounce ideas off one another.

Douglas:

Fantastic. Tony, it’s been a pleasure having you on the show, and I really enjoyed the conversation.

Tony:

I had so much fun, Douglas. Thank you for inviting me on here. I really appreciate you and your time.

Douglas:

Thanks for joining me for another episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave us a review and be sure to subscribe and receive updates when new episodes are released. We love listener tales and invite you to share your facilitation stories. Send them to us on LinkedIn or via email. If you want to know more, head over to our blog where I post weekly articles and resources about facilitation, team dynamics and collaboration. Visit voltagecontrol.com.