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.

Summer pulls us toward lighter rhythms: vacations, spontaneity, curious explorations. As September arrives, it can feel like the calendar snaps back to “serious mode.” Our invitation this month is to resist the false choice. Play is not the opposite of work; it’s the fuel for it. When we integrate play with our facilitation practice, we open space for emergence, loosening our grip on pre‑baked outcomes and discovering what a group can create together.

In the conversations we’ve been having with Douglas and Erik, we returned again and again to this idea: when we reduce the stakes just enough for people to experiment, they discover sharper insights, stronger patterns, and more humane ways of working together. This month we’ll show you how to bring that spirit into your meetings—on paper, in Miro, and in the room or on Zoom.

Play as a Path to Growth (Not a Detour)

When kids play, they aren’t optimizing for perfect outcomes. They’re exploring. They re‑arrange the blocks, try a new angle, and—without judgment—see what emerges. As facilitators and leaders, we can borrow that stance. “Holding things loosely” doesn’t mean abandoning rigor; it means allowing discovery to shape the rigor we apply next.

Play widens the field of possible moves. It invites risk that feels safe enough for participation. In practice, that could look like a sketch‑before‑you‑speak prompt, a two‑minute “pass‑a‑move” energizer, or a quick remix of a trusted game to match the moment. These low‑friction moves unlock momentum for high‑stakes conversations later.

If your organization is wrestling with adoption of product operations, AI, or cross‑functional rituals, consider how a dose of play lowers resistance. People step in when it’s okay to try, learn, and change course—together. Serious outcomes often begin with serious play.

Try this prompt: “For the next 5 minutes, we’re just exploring. What’s one tiny experiment we could try this week that might move us closer to our goal?”

Make It Tactile—Even (Especially) in Digital Spaces

We love pen‑and‑paper warmups because they unlock the hands‑mind connection. But the same tactility is possible in digital tools. In Miro, modularize ideas into stickies and small clusters. Treat them like physical objects: drag, rotate, recolor, label, regroup. The more granular the ideas, the more freedom you have to sort and recombine.

Tactility also comes from simple constraints. Use dot voting to reveal energy. Add quick icons or imagery to turn abstract notions into visible metaphors. With the newest AI helpers, you can vary the representations rapidly—generate a handful of visual framings, then let the group react.

The goal is not decoration; it’s grip. When people can literally “get a handle” on ideas, they move faster and see relationships they’d otherwise miss.

Micro‑move: Break big notions into single‑idea stickies; name thematic clusters only after you’ve moved the pieces around.

Try Squiggle Birds from Gamestorming 2.0

This month, we’re spotlighting Squiggle Birds, a delightfully low‑stakes way to turn doodles into creatures—and hesitation into momentum. It’s pure play that sneaks in real practice: pattern recognition, sense‑making, and visual confidence.

Purpose: Warm up creative muscles, lower inhibition, and prime teams for sketching/ideation.

Time: 6–12 minutes

Materials: Paper + pen/marker (or Miro with a simple template)

Steps (analog):

1. Ask everyone to draw 6–9 fast squiggles, each in its own little space. No thinking—just lines.
2. Choose a squiggle and add a tiny triangle beak, a dot for an eye, and a couple of stick legs.
3. Repeat with more squiggles. Optional: add feathers, environment, or names.
4. Gallery walk: hold up your favorites; share what made a squiggle “turn into” a bird.

Steps (Miro):

1. Provide a frame with scattered freehand lines (or have folks draw with the pen tool).
2. Add beaks/eyes/legs with simple shapes and the pen tool. Duplicate to go faster.
3. Use quick groups/clusters to notice patterns (“tiny birds,” “long‑neck birds,” etc.).
4. Zoom out and reflect: what helped your brain see “birdness” in noise?

Debrief Questions:

• What changed once you added a single detail (beak/eye/legs)?
• Where else do small cues help your team make shared meaning fast?
• How can we keep this looseness as we shift into today’s core work?

Facilitator tip: Seed it before you need it. Introduce Squiggle Birds early so your group expects playful sketching later.

Remix with Purpose — Altitude as a Closer

One theme we’re modeling this month is purposeful remixing: once you understand the core of a method, you can repurpose it to fit the moment. Altitude (from Gamestorming) is often used to set perspective at the start of a session—sea level (ground truth), plane (systems view), satellite (strategy/vision). We’re experimenting with it as a closer.

Invite participants to check out at a chosen “altitude” and say why: “I’m at sea level—grounded with two next steps.” or “I’m in the stratosphere—my imagination’s buzzing.” This reinterpretation honors the game’s essence (perspective‑taking) while helping groups reflect and integrate.

The meta‑lesson: play with the plays. When facilitators remix openly, they license groups to do the same—adapting rituals to local realities while keeping purpose intact.

Callout: If someone later reads the book and asks why you used Altitude differently, celebrate the curiosity—and share your purpose for the remix.

When a Dance Break Re‑Wired the Room

During the Cardano Constitutional Convention (see our recent case study), visa restrictions created a hybrid dynamic: a large in‑person gathering in Buenos Aires and a parallel hub in Nairobi. Tensions surfaced in Nairobi as remote participants felt peripheral to decisions. Our facilitator on the ground, Reshma Khan, hosted an impromptu dance party—music chosen for cultural resonance and belonging.

The result? Smiles, connection, renewed energy—and a subtle but vital re‑balancing of power. The Buenos Aires room noticed the joy and, soon after, spun up its own music moment. Two separate rooms, one shared vibe. A playful move revealed a serious truth: sometimes you have to meet emotion with motion.

Takeaway for leaders: play is a strategic lever, not a garnish. When used purposefully, it brings people back into the circle and restores the conditions for productive work.

Do this tomorrow: Add a 90‑second “pass‑a‑move” in your next long meeting. Let each person invent a stretch and pass it around.

Turning Play into Practice

Play can’t be the whole meeting. After you loosen the room, translate energy into clarity. Three moves help:

1. Granular artifacts. Convert ideas into single‑idea stickies or short statements. (If it’s two sentences, it’s two stickies.)
2. Visible sorting. Cluster by patterns the group names together. Title clusters last.
3. Proportionate commitment. Use dot voting, Fist‑to‑Five, or Impact/Effort to move from “fun” to “focus.”

Rotate through these moves quickly and you’ll feel the gear‑shift: from open, generative play to intentional, shared next steps. That rhythm—open → converge—is the practice.

Script: “We just opened up—great range. Now let’s converge. One idea per sticky, then we’ll cluster and vote.”

Normalize Play So It Doesn’t Backfire

Play works best when it’s part of the culture, not a surprise cameo. If you introduce a playful activity once, and it lands awkwardly, people may reject the approach. Normalize it.

• Set expectations early. Tell teams, “We’ll regularly use short playful warmups to build creative confidence.”
• Model the stance. Show your own willingness to experiment and remix. Narrate your purpose.
• Connect to outcomes. Always link the play to the work: “We doodled to loosen judgment so we can sketch product ideas now.”

When play is practiced, it becomes a trusted pathway to clarity and momentum. It’s not “fun for fun’s sake”; it’s how we work.

Leader’s nudge: Play gives permission. Purpose gives direction. Use both.

Bonus Moves & Micro‑Practices

• Music as momentum. Pair playlists to activities (tempo for time‑boxed sprints; thematic songs for laugh‑and‑learn moments).
• Parallel sketching. In design sprints, have everyone sketch at the same time; then reveal. Social energy multiplies courage.
• AI accents. Use Miro’s AI to generate quick frames or variations; let the group choose and edit. Keep it light, keep it human.
• The Classic Stretch‑and‑Share. Ubiquitous in 2020—and still great. It shifts gears in minutes.

Community Spotlight: Gamestorming 2.0 Launch (Giveaways!)

Gamestorming has been a cornerstone of our certification for years. With 2.0 out now, we’re celebrating across September and October (and likely into November) with distributed launch‑party vibes at our monthly labs. We’ll be practicing Squiggle Birds, Event Horizon, Hidden Variables, and our Altitude‑as‑Closer remix—and giving away books.

Share back: Post your birds and insights in the Hub. What did one small detail change about what everyone could “see”?

A Call to Practice (and Play)

Play isn’t a seasonal fling; it’s a stance. As you move into fall, keep summer’s looseness and combine it with deliberate practice. Let doodles become birds. Let sticky clusters become decisions. Let movement re‑set a room. And let small remixes become your signature as a facilitator and leader.

Call to Action:

• Join this month’s Facilitation Lab to practice Squiggle Birds and more.
• Bring a LabMate (or find one at our LabMate Matchup) and commit to one playful practice each week.
• Share your remix of a favorite game in the Hub—what did you change and why?

Perfectly practicing play won’t make things perfect. It will make them possible. And that’s how real work moves.

The post Bridging Play & Practice appeared first on Voltage Control.

Over the course of two years, concluded by five months of workshops leading to the Cardano Constitutional Convention, Voltage Control worked with the Cardano community to facilitate a collaborative approach to drafting, editing, and ratifying the Cardano Constitution. No other blockchain ecosystem or cryptocurrency provider has embraced decentralization this thoroughly and with such success.

By reviewing the process behind the Cardano Constitutional Convention, leaders in Web3 can learn how to successfully organize and facilitate a blockchain conference.

Inside the Cardano Constitutional Convention

By the end of the two year facilitation process, the community from Cardano had created a governance document that was ratified on-chain with 85% approval. Over 1,400 community members took part in 63 Community Workshops in 50 different countries leading up to the Constitutional Convention, with additional Delegate Synthesis Workshops facilitated simultaneously. 

Finally, 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. Facilitators from Voltage Control were there every step of the way, from traveling to attend workshops around the world to designing the final summit, leveraging their facilitation skills in participatory decision-making to ensure a successful process. 

Get exclusive insight into the Cardano Constitutional Convention and its supporting events by reading our case study, available here.

Going forward, international Web3 conferences and events will continue to grow in importance, serving as collaborative opportunities for advancing the industry while building in-person connections in the community. At the same time, blockchain networks will host meetings, workshops, and summits to make critical decisions and drive their communities forward.

As the facilitation team for this first-of-its-kind process, we saw the power of in-person events for Web3. In this article, we gathered our best insights and tips on how to facilitate a successful blockchain conference, workshop, or other event in 2025 and beyond.

Types of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Events in 2025

Blockchain events can range in size from just a few participants to thousands of attendees, hosted online, in-person, or hybridly. These conferences and events may be internal and related to one blockchain ecosystem, like the Cardano Constitutional Convention, or open to the broader blockchain and cryptocurrency community, like Consensus 2025.

Events that are specific to one blockchain community can include:

• Ecosystem Development – Participants collaborate on key decision-making for topics like governance and planning.
• Community Workshops – Participants gather based on location, role, or interest to network, collaborate on a project, learn, or otherwise work together.
• Annual Meetings – The entire network is invited to build connections and catch up on the latest developments in the community.

Alternatively, events that apply to the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry more broadly can include:

• Large-Scale Conventions – Attendees travel from around the world for multi-day conventions.
• Interest Group Conferences – Web3 professionals gather based on a shared interest or unique background, such as the annual ETHWomen conference for women in blockchain.
• Industry-Specific Conferences – The central focus of these events is the intersection of blockchain and another specialized industry, such as cybersecurity or DeFi.
• Regional Events – The state of Web3 in a particular region, country, or continent is explored through a local convention, like at the Blockchain Africa Conference. 

Facilitation goes hand-in-hand with event planning for these events, particularly when collaboration or decision-making is an element of the agenda.

How to Plan a Blockchain or Crypto Conference

In 2025, every blockchain event will have unique needs and obstacles when it comes to planning a successful event. Below we outline eight key tips to keep in mind when developing your event.

1. Build an exciting agenda.

The right agenda will have attendees buzzing well before the event kicks off. Before you finalize your agenda, identify your goals for the conference alongside the goals of those who will attend, taking time to ensure alignment. By getting into the headspace of the average conference passholder, you can adjust the blockchain conference design to ensure harmony, achieve goals, and drive up attendance to less popular sessions.

For larger events, consider the different session types to create a schedule that will excite your attendees. Blockchain conference session types can include:

• Panel discussions
• Lectures
• Networking opportunities
• Interactive workshops
• Expos
• Q&A sessions
• Hackathons

For smaller events, such as community workshops and member meetings, work with a facilitator to design an agenda that features the right pacing, breaks, and engagement. 

2. Select the right facilitators.

As the Cardano community prepared to start the process of creating a governing document, they saw the task before them was monumental—and they knew they needed the support of an expert facilitation team. Cardano partnered with the team of Certified Facilitators from Voltage Control to design and facilitate the constitutional development process, working together to facilitate 63 community workshops in 50 countries as well as the Constitutional Convention that took place in December 2024.

At larger conferences, facilitators can appear at Q&A sessions, collaborative workshops, and panel discussions, and they can also provide behind-the-scenes support for the event hosts. Private summits and collaborative events, like the Cardano Constitutional Convention, also often need the support of professional facilitators to ensure smooth, successful decision-making processes.

Read more about how Voltage Control worked with Cardano to facilitate the development of the first community-run blockchain governance model in our comprehensive case study.

3. Develop networking opportunities.

At any Web3 conference, many attendees will eagerly network with one another, discussing the latest in the booming industry and building lasting connections with peers. To encourage these interactions, blockchain conferences can host dedicated networking events, with those sessions offering an area to mingle and meet, sometimes accompanied by a theme or refreshments.

The most common type of networking session is certainly the happy hour. However, hosts and facilitators can revamp the classic happy hour in favor of group activities, breakfast events, lunch and learn sessions, and more. A local facilitator can help plan an appropriate networking event based on the makeup of your attendees and local cultural expectations.

For smaller events, networking can still be facilitated through dedicated time for introductions and collaborative tasks. Participants can also network through shared downtime like a hosted lunch and a dedicated digital channel to connect before or after the event, such as a Slack channel.

4. Create a comfortable environment. 

People of all backgrounds, hailing from all around the globe, take part in blockchain, cryptocurrency, and the broader Web3 industry. These diverse perspectives can be a powerful force for innovation—but this can also present a challenge for the hosts planning blockchain conferences. 

Consider cultural differences as well as accessibility and translation needs. By planning ahead, you can develop an inclusive environment where all attendees feel welcome and safe, allowing them to fully focus on the topics at hand. 

For hybrid and remote events, consider how to bridge the digital divide for virtual attendees, as they may feel less engaged when attending through a screen. To create multiple touch points, you can offer additional opportunities for facetime and leverage supporting software such as Slack and Mentimeter. Experienced facilitators can help attendees foster connections and build meaningful relationships in a comfortable, welcoming environment.

5. Identify the latest blockchain trends and topics.

No matter the focus of your event, your attendees will be tapped into the latest buzz from the ever-developing world of Web3, and, by adding these topics to your schedule, you can increase attendance and excitement for your event. Nimble hosts may add or adjust sessions as new topics crop up before the event.

Trending topics related to blockchain, cryptocurrency, and Web3 may include:

• Artificial intelligence (AI)
• Blockchain-enabled business models
• Sustainability
• Internet of Things (IoT) integration

Facilitators should make note of how any trending topics could affect the conversation, especially if facilitating any collaborative workshops or decision-making processes.

6. Invite the right people.

For closed events, like an annual summit for a specific blockchain’s members, plan ahead to get invitations out in a timely manner and follow up with regular reminders and drip campaigns to establish clear communication. Consider how hybrid and remote attendance options can integrate into in-person events to maximize the number of potential attendees.

For the Cardano Constitutional Convention, hosts prioritized having the in-person sessions for the event in Argentina and Kenya. These locations made the event more accessible to stakeholders in Africa and South America while also emphasizing the growing importance of those communities in the blockchain industry.

For large blockchain conferences and cryptocurrency conferences, hosts should create and implement an event marketing plan that identifies the ideal audience and outlines a plan to reach those potential attendees. Meet your audience where they are with targeted advertisements, email marketing, and supporting content that generates buzz for your event.

7. Test your technology.

Web3 leads the way when it comes to online innovation and smart software solutions, so it only makes sense for a blockchain conference or cryptocurrency conference to leverage technology effectively. For workshop sessions, work with your facilitators to select the right software and tools for accurate note-taking and collaboration.

If your event has remote attendees in addition to an in-person event, consider how you can make those virtual attendees feel fully engaged and appreciated. To accomplish this, your blockchain conference may offer virtual networking events, recordings, and interactive sessions like live Q&A panels.

8. Follow up with attendees.

Your last touchpoint should not be when your attendees walk out the door. The immersive digital world has set high expectations for consumers, with the onus on the provider to follow up with the individual. For blockchain conferences, this means that event hosts should develop a clear follow-up plan to continue to engage with attendees after the event. 

This post-conference communication plan can feature:

• Recap emails
• Satisfaction surveys
• Event highlights shared on social media and blog posts
• Exclusive community channels
• Speaker information
• Videos and recordings

Event Facilitation for Blockchain and Crypto Conferences in 2025

The rapid ascension of Web3 has created an expanded community of developers, investors, professionals, and enthusiasts stationed around the world, many of whom will take part in Web3 events like blockchain conferences, cryptocurrency conferences, workshops, and summits. With the right facilitation and preparation, these events can serve as launching pads for continued growth and innovation.

The recent Cardano Constitutional Convention stands as a blueprint for a successful blockchain conference, demonstrating how global collaboration can work with thousands of participants coming together to define the future of Cardano governance. To get the full download on the event, including an exclusive look at the agenda, read the case study from Voltage Control.

Our facilitators from Voltage Control were alumni from our Facilitation Certification Program. They came equipped with the facilitation skills, techniques, and methodologies in order to help the Cardano community succeed. We’re experts in the unique needs of facilitation for blockchain conferences and events.

Are you planning a workshop, conference, or event for blockchain, cryptocurrency, or Web3? Contact Voltage Control to explore how our experienced facilitators can work with you to design a successful event.

The post How to Facilitate a Blockchain Conference 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.

At a recent Facilitation Lab in Dallas, an interesting tension emerged. Some participants expressed a need to do more planning, while others realized they needed to loosen their grip and be more adaptive. It was a moment that perfectly captured the spectrum of growth in facilitation. And it pointed to something deeper than any single method, activity, or tool: the importance of competency-based practice.

At Voltage Control, we’ve seen firsthand how competencies—foundational skills that are observable, transferable, and practicable—enable facilitators to grow beyond reliance on static methods. While methods are valuable, they can become crutches. A competency-based approach, on the other hand, provides a durable structure for reflective growth, adaptive leadership, and collaborative impact.

That’s why, in our Facilitation Certification and across all our programming, we center our work around five core competencies: Purpose, Inclusive, Clarity, Crafted, and Adaptive. These competencies create a common language for facilitators to assess where they are, reflect on what’s working, and grow with intentionality. In this month’s newsletter, we’ll explore what each competency means and how they come to life—highlighting one of our favorite exercises, Nine Whys, and giving a nod to the Facilitation Superpowers tool that helps build reflective muscles.

What Are Competencies (And Why Should We Care?)

Competencies are the skill sets and behaviors that transcend any one facilitation method or context. Think of them as the core building blocks of great facilitation—portable, observable, and repeatable. While methods can be learned and deployed, competencies are practiced and honed.

The reason they matter is simple: facilitation isn’t about running perfect activities. It’s about being able to read the room, adjust in real time, and bring people along. And that kind of capacity can’t be downloaded from a template. It’s grown over time through practice, feedback, and reflection.

A competency-based approach to learning shifts the focus from “Did I use the tool right?” to “Did I show up in a way that supported the group’s purpose?” This opens the door to reflection, growth, and adaptability. Because competencies are observable, they also give us a way to assess progress—whether we’re doing that ourselves, in community with others, or within a structured certification program.

In short, competencies give us a clear, common language for growth. They allow us to get specific about what great facilitation looks like and help us avoid the trap of confusing motion with progress.

Building with Competencies—The Foundation of Our Certification

Our Facilitation Certification is designed from the ground up to help people grow through competencies. From day one, participants are introduced to five core areas that form the foundation of the program: Purpose, Inclusive, Clarity, Crafted, and Adaptive. Each one maps to a set of habits and mindsets that great facilitators practice regularly.

By anchoring in competencies, we’re able to be method-agnostic. We don’t teach one framework or approach—we help people understand the why behind the method and equip them to decide what’s best for their group and their goals. That flexibility is crucial, especially for facilitators working across diverse industries, cultures, and challenges.

Competency-based learning is also deeply practical. We create opportunities for participants to get reps in—not just running activities, but making decisions, facilitating discussions, and navigating ambiguity. And because competencies are observable, we’re able to give meaningful, grounded feedback that accelerates growth.

This approach culminates in a portfolio—a living artifact that represents a facilitator’s growth across the five competencies. But more than a final deliverable, the portfolio is a practice: a cycle of reflection, experimentation, feedback, and adjustment.

Purpose – The Compass of Great Facilitation

Of all the competencies, Purpose is first for a reason. Without a clear understanding of why we are gathering, who we’re serving, and what we hope to achieve, everything else risks going sideways. Purpose is the compass that guides every facilitation decision—from who to invite, to what methods to use, to how to handle challenges in the moment.

But purpose isn’t always obvious. We often assume it’s clear, or we avoid interrogating it because the conversation feels tedious or political. Yet when we make the time to surface it, we often uncover powerful insights—and sometimes, deep misalignments.

One of our favorite tools to do this is Nine Whys, a simple but profound activity from the Liberating Structures repertoire. The activity begins with a basic question like, “What’s the purpose of this project?” or “What drives you to do this work?” Then, working in pairs, one partner interviews the other by repeatedly asking, “Why is that important to you?” The goal is to peel back layers until you hit something essential, something felt. Often, the ninth why reveals the true motivation that has been hiding under layers of assumption.

We’ve seen this activity shift entire trajectories. In one cohort, a facilitator working in the public sector initially described her purpose as “helping people navigate civic spaces.” After a deep Nine Whys session and continued reflection through her portfolio, she reframed her purpose as “creating real community in an era of algorithmic isolation.” That clarity changed how she approached her work—and how she described its value to others.

Inclusive – Designing for Belonging and Bravery

If Purpose is the compass, Inclusion is the heartbeat. Once we’re clear on why we’re gathering, the next question is: who should be in the room to support that purpose—and how can we ensure every voice matters?

Inclusive facilitation means more than inviting a diverse group. It means creating the conditions for all participants to feel safe, seen, and heard. It also requires deliberate choices about who not to include in a given moment—what Priya Parker calls “purposeful exclusion.” This isn’t about gatekeeping. It’s about being strategic in service of the group’s outcomes.

True inclusion surfaces hidden voices, supports dissent, and creates the psychological safety necessary for generative conflict. And it’s essential for navigating the messy, often emotional terrain of group work. Without it, you get artificial harmony at best—and dysfunction at worst.

Facilitators who build this competency learn to see the system: to recognize power dynamics, honor lived experience, and make space for authenticity. When inclusion is practiced well, people feel it. They open up. They step in. And real transformation becomes possible.

Clarity – Making the Invisible Visible

Clarity is about translating purpose and inclusion into concrete action. It’s what allows a group to move forward together without confusion or hesitation. And it’s often the difference between a workshop that feels powerful and one that feels chaotic.

Facilitators must bring clarity and seek it. That means designing with clear goals, crisp prompts, and focused outcomes. It also means actively listening for moments of confusion, misalignment, or hesitation—and addressing them in real time.

In our certification program, we emphasize how even small design choices can create clarity: the way you structure breakout prompts, the visuals you use to frame a discussion, the transitions between moments. Every one of these details can reinforce (or undermine) a group’s ability to make progress.

Clarity is especially vital in hybrid and high-stakes environments. The more ambiguity a group is facing, the more important it is for the facilitator to illuminate the path. That might mean naming the uncertainty, framing the choices, or simply slowing down to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Crafted – Intentionally Designing the Experience

Crafted is where preparation meets artistry. It’s the act of designing an experience—not just an agenda—that will carry a group from where they are to where they need to go. And it’s not just about structure. It’s about emotion, energy, and flow.

Facilitators who develop this competency don’t just copy/paste old decks or run the same three methods every time. They ask: what does this group need? What emotional arc will support their journey? What choices can I make in pacing, framing, and modality to help them succeed?

Being crafted also means holding your design loosely. Yes, you’ve made a plan—but you’re also ready to pivot. In fact, the best designs are the ones that make room for emergence.

This is where the craft of facilitation shines. It’s not about perfection. It’s about intention. A well-crafted experience sets the stage for insight, connection, and forward momentum—even if it doesn’t go exactly as planned.

Adaptive – The Pinnacle of Facilitator Growth

If Purpose is the foundation and Crafted is the container, Adaptive is the dance. It’s the ability to respond in the moment—to shift based on what’s needed, not just what was planned.

Adaptive facilitators don’t panic when the room goes quiet, or when conflict arises, or when someone challenges the agenda. They adjust. They trust their presence, their preparation, and their purpose.

This competency is often the most elusive. It can only be built through reps—through showing up, trying things, reflecting, and adjusting. And it’s why the other four competencies matter so much. The more grounded you are in purpose, inclusion, clarity, and craft, the more confident you’ll be when you need to flex.

At the Dallas Facilitation Lab, some participants realized they needed to let go more. Others saw they needed to plan more. Both realizations were right. Adaptive isn’t about being spontaneous for its own sake. It’s about knowing when to adapt—and how.

Reflective Growth – The Portfolio as a Practice

Growth isn’t just about doing—it’s about noticing. That’s why we anchor our certification in reflective practice. And the heart of that reflection is the portfolio.

In our program, participants build a portfolio that showcases their growth across all five competencies. But the real value isn’t the final product. It’s the process of creating it. Asking: What happened? Why did it matter? What would I do differently next time?

Some participants stick with our Miro template. Others remix it into pitch decks, websites, or storybooks. One facilitator in Hawaii built her portfolio around the metaphor of traditional irrigation—using water flow to illustrate each competency. That creativity is itself a sign of deep engagement and reflection.

For those not in the program yet, the Facilitation Superpowers template is a great starting point. It helps you reflect on where you shine, where you want to grow, and what stories you’re already telling through your work.

A Call to Practice with Purpose

Facilitation is not about running perfect exercises. It’s about showing up with intention, curiosity, and the courage to lean into uncertainty. It’s about being a mirror, a compass, and a guide—often all at once.

Competency-based growth is how we get there. It gives us a common language, a shared focus, and a structure that supports both individual reflection and collective learning.

If you’re looking for a place to start, try Nine Whys. Ask yourself, or a colleague, “Why is that important to you?”—and keep going. You might be surprised by what you find. Or explore the Facilitation Superpowers to identify your strengths and your edges.

And if you want to go deeper, join us in the Facilitation Lab or explore our Facilitation Certification. Because this work isn’t about checking a box—it’s about growing into the facilitator you’re meant to be.

The post Facilitation Is a Practice, Not a Playbook appeared first on Voltage Control.

At the 2025 Facilitation Lab Summit, Elena Farden led an immersive session titled “Consent as Ceremony: Learnings from Nurturing Safe Connections in Indigenous Play Parties.” Elena, known for weaving cultural rituals and deep respect for consent into her facilitation practice, provided profound insights into how we can integrate these sacred traditions into our own work.

The session began with Elena’s warm aloha and a traditional chant, or oli, inviting ancestors to guide the participants. Through this powerful opening, Elena demonstrated the importance of connecting with the land and community—using rituals to ground and center both the facilitator and the participants. This deep, intentional connection is foundational in her work, and she encouraged everyone to explore how their own rituals can help deepen their connection to the spaces they facilitate.

Relational Accountability

One of the core practices explored was relational accountability, or the idea that facilitators are shaped by their place, their ancestry, and their community. Elena asked participants to reflect on their “mauna” (mountain) and “wai” (water), asking them to think about the places that sustain and connect them. This exercise wasn’t just about physical geography—it was about understanding how our stories, identities, and the places we come from shape our perspectives and our practices. It was a deeply reflective practice, encouraging each participant to consider how their own background and context influence their facilitation.

The session also explored the power of consent—not just as an ask but as an offering. Elena guided participants through a simple yet profound exercise: Janken Po Rockstar, a playful take on rock-paper-scissors that allowed participants to practice offering and receiving with full consent. By integrating play, Elena demonstrated how consent can be woven into the very fabric of facilitation, creating space for vulnerability, trust, and authentic connection.

Elena also shared her unique perspective on indigenous play spaces, explaining how these communities use clear, structured rituals to ensure that participants are both physically and psychologically safe. Consent, she emphasized, is not just about asking for permission; it is about creating a reciprocal space where both the offering and the receiving are valued equally.

Gratitude Circle

The workshop culminated in a gratitude circle, where participants were invited to express appreciation for those around them. This circle, filled with non-sexual but consensual physical touch, offered a moment for reflection on how physical touch can help deepen connection and build trust in a facilitated space. The exercise left participants moved and reflective, with many sharing that it had been an important step in rebuilding trust and intimacy after the isolation of the pandemic.

Elena’s session was a powerful reminder of the importance of bringing intentionality and care into every step of our facilitation practices. By weaving together consent, cultural practices, and deep relational care, Elena provided the tools to build safer, more inclusive spaces for everyone involved.

Watch the full video below:

Transcript of Elena’s Session:

Elena Farden:
[foreign language 00:00:14]. So aloha to all of you with gratitude and love and compassion. My name is Elena Farden. I am from Ka’aihe’e in Makiki on the island of Oahu, and I grew up in Kaimuki. I ask for your indulgence in just a quick moment to allow me to open the space in a way that I do within my practice. And then, I would love to be able to share this with you to see how you might share this in your practice.

MUSIC:
[foreign language 00:00:53].

Elena Farden:
This chant or oli that I offer with you is something that’s written for all of us, not just for those that grew up and was born in Hawaii. But this is an opening mele or song or chant that we often use when we’re entering into new spaces. And we’re basically asking for our ancestors and those past and present to be with us. Huna o na mea, huna no’eau show us those hidden teachings, those learnings that are there. And E Hō Mai is really asking them, in this journey, let us not be alone. Come be with us. We invite you in with us. We invite you to guide us.

So I share this with you and ask as you’re looking at these words that may be a little bit different from you. How as you as a facilitator? What are your rituals? And how you’re connecting relationship and intention when you come into a new space? I believe we all have these rituals. It may not look like this, but there are ways in which your rituals and your practice can deepen your intention when you’re coming into different spaces that may have different beliefs or different culture. So we’ll share a little bit more about that.

Before I do, and thank you for allowing me that time, a proper introduction of who I am. I shared my greeting earlier. I asked for knowledge to be here, but who am I as a person? Again, Elena Kavai’ala Uluwehi Onau’una Saba’ina’el Farden. You can call me Elena. I answer to almost anything. I’m born and raised on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. I was born under the Malu or the protection of Le’ahi, which is here. You may know it as a different name or Diamond Head, an iconic mountain that we have in Waikiki. It is known for its shape that looks like the tuna of the fish.

And in ancient times prior to tourism and our overpopulation, it was used to light the way for ships that were out at sea to come home. So I think about this place as I might do in my facilitation. What is the light that I’m wanting to bring? How do I help guide them back if they are something that needs to be rescued? How do I bring things home that belong home? And then with the same mauna or mountain, the rains that sustain me, the fresh water that sustain me, so that I can be abundant and sustain myself and grow. The name of that rain is Apuakehau, and it means a basket of dew.

This is also the name of the rain and the stream. And there was so much rain, so much so that within Waikiki itself, it was known as a very abundant place of fertile land, lots of food in order to grow and feed thousands and thousands of people. So these are the two things that guide me. And when I introduce myself to new places, I always connect them to a place. What is my mauna? What is my mountain? What is my fresh water source? So I’m going to ask and take some time for you folks to do the same thing. You have on your tables. So we’re going to delight in some joy.

And I’m going to ask you to take about five to seven minutes, and think about where you come from. What is your mauna or your mountain? And what is your wai or your fresh water source? I am learning from Adam that Dallas does not have a mountain range. No. So if you do not think about a landmark, I think on day one there was a participant in this back corner perhaps who had shared one of the trailing edges with Dom’s presentation that one of her things is to look out the window to see the Golden Gate Bridge.

So if this is a landmark, a city skylinescape, something that connects you to that place. It may not be a mountain, then I want you to think about that and draw that. If you don’t know your water source, you may be as Alyssa is here, an ocean person. She needs to be near the ocean. You can identify a saltwater source. So let’s take a few minutes. And perhaps if we have some music, but if not, it’ll just be me and you thinking through your mountain and your freshwater source.
All right, I know we still have folks drawing. You’re going to still be able to hold on to them, and we’ll still have some time. You’ll have a minute to share this out in just a little bit. But as we are moving forward, I just want you to continue to think about what is your mountain, your mauna, your landmark? What is it that tethers you to a place that allows you to have a relationship that you do? And with that, also thinking about what sustains you, and why is it so important that you tie your identity to a place?

So relational accountability. When we’re coming into places, we are not coming in as individuals. We’re coming in as people that are shaped by our place where we come from. It could be our organization, it could be where we grew up, it could be our childhood. We are also shaped by our ancestry. So not just your own ethnic heritage. But for example, coming into this space here, I might change the way I introduce myself by the ancestry or genealogy of my knowledge. I am an alumna of the Voltage Control Facilitation Certification program.

These are ways that I want to connect. Why is it important for me to connect? Because I want to know, Adam’s from Dallas, but his parents are from Wyoming. I’m from Hawaii, but I’m trying to build connection. What is it something that we have in common besides eating tacos from a truck in a dive bar, right? These are things that I’m looking for as I think about the reciprocal framework of these things. So on the other side here in this picture I have He aha kau hana? I know I wrote it in Hawaiian.

I was thinking English. But basically it’s saying, what is your work? What is your hana? Your hana is your work. So I want you to think of your reciprocal framework as, how am I reframing how I introduce myself by my connection, by my belonging and my purpose? It sounds nebulous, but we’re going to talk it through together. And your mauna, your mountain and your wai or your river will come into play with that. So this is mine. Connection is meaning where am I coming from?
So coming into a place, whether it’s here or in Hawaii or in a new community context, I might say, “My name is Elena. I’m coming from the waters of Apuakehau sheltered by mauna le ahi famous for lighting the path home for those far out to sea. I’m connected to this space today here at the Facilitation Summit because I believe in facilitation as a powerful leadership practice that can steward a collective towards meaningful change.” It doesn’t have to be that long, but the connection is basically asking you, where are you coming from? What place? What organization? What’s your framing stepping into this place? Why are you here? What’s your purpose?

Belonging or influence. Growing up in Hawaii, we have a very big extended family. For those that are also similar in that space, people will often ask you, “Who do you belong to?” Or, “Who are your parents?” And basically, they’re asking that to say, “If you act up or get out of line, I need to know who to report to, so who do you belong to?” In this context, I’m asking, what are you carrying with you? Who do you belong to? What is your tie? Building on your connection. So for me, I might introduce myself using belonging influence as, I carry with me the wisdom of my ancestors and mentors that knowledge is a responsibility.

I also carry the teachings from Voltage Control as an alumna of the Facilitation Certification and facilitation practitioners of art of hosting and such communities that are dedicated to a deep community of practice for facilitators to lead with purpose and cultivate conversations that matter and foster growth. Obviously, I love to talk a long, long time. It doesn’t have to be this long. It can be short. But basically, who do you belong to in your influence is asking you, what are you carrying with you? What are you bringing into this space?

And then, last is purpose. Always building on the connection and the belonging. Why are you here? Why are you called to be here today? Why now? Why this place? And what is it that you’re bringing to add to this table of learning of knowledge? So for me, I would say, “And today I’m here to share what I know and what I’ve learned about rituals of consent and how I can support an authentic connection.” So back to your mauna and your wai as your tether to your place and identity.
I’m going to give you time now to also start to maybe write out or draw out your connection. I come from where? Where are you coming from? Your belonging, I carry with me this. My purpose, I should say your purpose. And today, I’m here to share this, to gain this, to do this, to feel this, to accept this. Can I help care for any questions with connection, belonging, and purpose as you folks begin to script out your identity and your introduction?

All right, so working individually is helpful, helps us to zone in on our thoughts, get something down. But we are social creatures by nature. We know that we need each other. So I’m going to ask you to work or invite you to work in pairs and to share your introduction with someone else, either on your table or someone next to your table to help you with… And I’ll put it back once. Your connection, your belonging, and your purpose, introductions or your statements. I’m asking you folks to also give each other feedback, ask questions throughout our sessions together in the past day. We’re leaning in with curiosity. We’re practicing. We’re being vulnerable. And can I help care for any questions, any instructions that need clarity, any support that I can provide?

Stephanie:
So you have a deep cultural and heritage. I come from nowhere and everywhere. What does that look like?

Elena Farden:
I would invite you to think about what are places that shaped you? It could be an organization. It could be a club or a team. It could be something about your hometown where you grew up that may not be your home, but something about that place. It could also be, for example, I grew up in Hawaii, but my young adulthood was spent in California going to college, I do consider Los Angeles a second home for me.

So in a way, I could pick two places. I could say within Glendale, California is also home for me. I could pick Deukmejian Mountain or Brand Park as maybe my mauna or the rivers that run through it. It could be something that way. So I would think about what are the places that shaped you, influenced you, impact you in your life. It doesn’t have to necessarily be the home you grew up in. It could be a different place. It could be a person, it could be a landmark, it could be a team. Is that helpful? Yeah. Good question. Other thoughts?

Speaker 4:
Stephanie, I was the same as you trying to figure what my Dallas connection is, but Mike gave me some great advice. He said, “Think back to your childhood.” And I grew up in Tatum. It’s a small town, but I drew it out, a farmhouse with a fire coming out of the fireplace, and we had 77 acres, and we had water on there for the cattle and for the horses. And I drew all that out because that’s really kind of my home. When I think about what’s really my home, where I came from.

Elena Farden:
That’s beautiful.

Speaker 4:
Yeah.

Elena Farden:
This is where your heart feel it’s most full.

Speaker 4:
Yeah.

Elena Farden:
Yes.

Speaker 4:
I have fond memories of my childhood.

Elena Farden:
Where you feel you’re most yourself.

Speaker 4:
Yes.

Elena Farden:
Where you can come in and people actually, “I know you.” I don’t have to put on a front.

Speaker 4:
Yes.

Elena Farden:
This is me exactly who I am. It could be a karaoke bar, that could be a place that defines you. Everyone knows me, my name, and the songs that I want to sing. This is my place where I feel most at home. Any other questions before I ask you to work in a pair, just to get some help and feedback with your introduction. This is I know a different muscle than most may be used to in how you introduce yourself.

But I’ll share with you the importance of it when it comes to coming into a community. Okay. So with that, I’m going to ask that you folks find a pair or someone to work with on your table or next to your table. Share them what you have so far of your connection, belonging, and purpose, and get some helpful feedback.

All right. I’m going to ask a pair from table 3, 5, 8, and that last table in the back to share. I’m going to start with the table in the back. If you folks would like to share, if you folks were able to get through a full introduction. Or what are some of the emerging thoughts in introducing yourself in this way?

Debbie Baker:
[foreign language 00:17:33]. Hello, my name is Debbie Baker. I work for the Choctaw Nation and I’m also a tribal member. So I’m also trying to embrace my indigenous culture. It’s been a challenge because I didn’t grow up in it. I’ve only spent the last 10 years learning it. Sorry, I’m a little bit nervous because I’ve never really talked in Choctaw out loud to anybody, so.

Elena Farden:
Good for you.

Debbie Baker:
On a side note, my daughter is in an apprenticeship program where she’s learning to speak the language. She spends 40 hours a week learning, so I’m really proud about that. So one of the connections that I have, which I’ve always stated from the time that I got into the certification program is that my purpose is to bring back facilitation to my tribe because we used to make decisions in a communal fashion. We made decisions that were in the best interest of the tribe. We no longer do that. We have people at the top making corporate level decisions for our tribal members, and it breaks my heart. So I really want to figure out a way to bring that back into the culture of who we are in making decisions. Thank you.

Elena Farden:
Thank you for sharing that. A pair from table eight. Something that either you were able to finish it, your introduction, or what’s emerging for you, sort of introducing yourself in this framework or format.

Speaker 6:
So I was born in Mexico where you could see the Popocatépetl and the Iztaccíhuatl, which were the mountain ranges, and you can’t see them now because of the smog. In 1981, I moved to St. Paul, Minnesota with my family. And a big definition of that is the Mississippi River. So when my stepmother, when she died, we had her ashes going into the Mississippi River. That was her wish. I said, “I come to this place to represent myself. And yes and that space, which is my site. In this community of practice, I bring my sense of coaching and teaching and appreciation of this craft to connect, to enrich, and to build momentum.”

Elena Farden:
Mahalo. Thank you. It’s beautiful. All right. A pair from table five, and then three.

Annie Love:
Hi, I’m Annie Love. I’m from Seattle via Idaho. I grew up in the mountains of North Idaho. We have a big lake, amazing freshwater lake. Mountains and water have always been a part of my life, especially water. I’ve always been drawn to it. When I moved to Seattle, it’s all the mountains, it’s all the lakes, it’s the sound, it’s everything. It’s gorgeous. One of the things when I was growing up on the farm, it was for me, I had no close friends nearby, you know? So it was only at school that I got to hang out with friends. So it was a lot of time by myself.

And so, I just became an explorer. I had a pond. Sorry, I get nervous speaking. I had a pond that I could just take my canoe on. I had a tree house that I could climb. I would just dream up all these scenarios in my head, and it kind of has led me to where I am today. I’m a world traveler as a hobby. But for my job, I am in exploration. Geocaching is exploring the world through a really fun game. And so, my background has really brought me to where I can help share that with other people. And so, my journey and purpose is to help grow myself and not be a nervous speaker in front of my team at work, so that we can do our best to help everyone else become an explorer, so yeah.

Elena Farden:
Mahalo. Thank you. Being nervous just means that we care about what we’re sharing in the space, so thank you for that. All right. Table three, bring us home. Someone would like to share?

Doug:
Hi, I’m Doug. And we had a number of good things we talked about at our table. But myself, I grew up in the Midwest in a farm family and really bring with me a lot of heritage, and legacy, and trustworthiness, and wisdom from my ancestors. But I always wanted to live on a river. And I used to go canoeing down in Missouri. And finally, I had an opportunity to get some property in Virginia. So now I live in the mountains, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, on a river, and went kayaking 21 times last year on my river. So I love where I’m living now. I came here to this session, to this two-day session to really get better at being able to guide people and bring out the best in people when I facilitate.

Elena Farden:
Thank you, Doug. So from wanting to live on the water to helping people facilitate with that flow, to growing up in Mexico over the mountains that can no longer be seen, but knowing that the river in which the ashes of your mother lay are also carried with you, to wanting to be able to explore more because this is how we interact with the world. This is how we build relationship with the world to being able to revive and revitalize indigenous languages and practices and how we make decisions. So beautiful. Thank you everyone for sharing. I appreciate that.

So with that, we also want to build on this. And so that is, you’ve done your mountain, your water, your introduction, you’ve had that share and some feedback with a trusted partner. Now, it’s also knowing your name and knowing your intention. So as I shared earlier, my name, my given name is Elena. It is a Greek origin. It means light or enlightenment. And it also ties into the way I see myself and also my tether to my land. And with that, I think it also manifests certain types of characteristics in me. I am an Aries Sun, Leo Moon, Sagittarius Rising. It’s fire, fire, fire all the way through.

And that’s what you get when you have two Sagittarius that have a child. So this is what I am. But in knowing my name, it’s also many different names. So Elena, I call it my taxpayer name. This is my taxpayer name. Kavai’ala Uluwehi Onau’una is my given, my identity name. So this name was given to me when my mother was pregnant. And my grandmother remembers smelling gardenias that would grow outside of our window. And so, that scent would sort of linger on her skin unforgettable. And so, this is the name that I carry.

Whether that has a good meaning or a bad meaning, it doesn’t say if the smell is nice or if the smell is not nice. I don’t know. But that’s the power of names in being able to grow into your name and your responsibility. So how do we get to know each other’s names? So in indigenous play parties, which we’ll not be doing here. We will be keeping our clothes on. There will be no playing of that sense, but the learnings that happen in play parties and being able to understand who’s in the room and how do we get to know each other’s name in a very consensual way.

We’re going to play a quick game. So this is called Janken Po. Many of you might know this as rock, paper, scissors. In Hawaii, we call it by its Japanese name, Janken Po. So the way it goes is you only have three things you can do, rock, paper, and scissors. Is anyone familiar with this game? Perfect. We call this Janken Po Rockstar. I’m going to ask if perhaps table three can help me demonstrate. So if you can come stand here with me, we’re just going to demonstrate for the crowd, and then we’re all going to do it. Yes.

So the way Janken Po Rockstar works, you’re going to pair off and find someone to do rock, paper, scissors. So I’ll go with JJ. And then, we’ll do this. So Janken Po, Janken Po, Janken Po. All right, so he wins. Rock defeats scissors. So now, I become JJ’s cheerleader. So what happens is I stand behind JJ and say, “JJ, JJ.” While he searches for a new opponent. “JJ, JJ, JJ, JJ, JJ, JJ. Get him. JJ.” Who’s the winner?

JJ:
Me.

Elena Farden:
Okay, so now you become part of our JJ cheerleading line. “JJ, JJ, JJ, JJ, JJ.” Who’s the winner? Brian?

Brian:
Yeah.

Elena Farden:
Now, we all become Brian’s cheerleader line. “Brian, Brian, Brian, Brian, Brian, Brian, Brian, Brian, Brian, Brian, Brian.”

Brian:
I got it.

Elena Farden:
So Brian is now the winner, so…

Brian:
My introvert’s like yelling at me right now.

Elena Farden:
Thank you for helping me with this. So what we’ll do for Janken Rockstar, you’ll start with your table first. Pair off to go Janken Rockstar. Then once you’ve done with your table, you’re going to need to expand through the room. Continue to find someone else to challenge until there are only two left. And again, if you are the non-winner, because we have no losers, if you are the non-winner, you become the cheerleader for whoever has acquired you. Any quick questions? I know that was a lot of…

Speaker 10:
1, 2, 3, hit?

Elena Farden:
1, 2, 3, hit. 1, 2, 3, reveal. Yep. And only rock, paper, scissors. No T-Rex, or Velociraptor, or dynamite. None of those will work. Any quick questions? Are we all good with Janken Po Rockstar? Until there’s two left. All right, start at your table.
Who was the winner? Steve?

Audience:
Steve.

Elena Farden:
Steve. Where’s Steve? Congratulations, Steve. So thank you everyone for playing Janken Rockstar. Now that you found another good way to find everyone’s name and also a way to cheer them on, and this is our winner, Steve.

Audience:
Whoo!

Speaker 12:
Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve.

Elena Farden:
Steve, in knowing your name and now that you’re a winner, would you be open to sharing the story about your name? How did you get your name, Steve?

Steve:
Gosh, I wish I knew better.

Elena Farden:
I’m sorry I put you on the spot.

Steve:
Yeah. No, I think my parents had a list of names that were actually relatives, and they were nixing each other’s different options. So they settled on Steve because it was not a relative, and they liked it. I was born in the time of when maybe Steve McQueen was popular and stuff like that, so there might’ve been some influence there. And then, my middle name is after one of my cranky great-grandfathers. My great-grandfather, Ed Hauser, who supposedly was just a cranky, disagreeable person unfortunately.

Elena Farden:
Truly opposite of you, huh?

Steve:
I think so.

Elena Farden:
Okay.

Steve:
You don’t need the last names. I mean, I got that. There was no choice in that.

Elena Farden:
It’s up to you if you’d like to share.

Steve:
Yeah, Bozak is a Slovak name that came from my great-grandfather who emigrated here about 150 years ago, and went from rags to riches, then got ruined by the Great Depression actually. Yeah. And it actually means either poor person or barefoot person in Slovakia, so yeah.

Elena Farden:
Thank you, Steve. Thank you for playing. Yep.

Audience:
Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve.

Elena Farden:
Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve.

Audience:
Steve, Steve, Steve.

Elena Farden:
Oh, but that is also the power of names and also the power of story. We would’ve never known that that was a story behind your name, how you got it. So with that, again, knowing your name is also knowing your intention and the things that you come with. For those of you that may not know the story of your name, I encourage you to ask your parents, your family, your grandparents, if they’re still with us. Ask them how you got your name. Where does my name come from?
If you’re so bold, ask them, “Do you remember when or how I was conceived? What’s the story behind that?” There might be a story of how your name came to be. What music was playing? I don’t know, so. So our names and our stories are important. And again, congratulations to Steve, but also thank you for sharing that story. In indigenous places, we consider stories a sacred place because you are revealing things about yourself that are open, that are vulnerable, that may not always be known. So thank you for sharing that.

All right. Our next thing with identifying our mauna, the things that sustain us, how we introduce ourselves, and now ways that we get to know each other’s name. And coming into consent as ceremony, we’re also wanting to do an offer before an ask. So I’ll model this. And the way we do this in places that I am familiar with is we always want to bring an offering. It could be food, it could be a blessing, it could be a song, it could be a moment of gratitude. It could also be an ask for forgiveness.

We want to offer that before we ask for anything, meaning we’re always filling before we’re taking something out. So in this exercise, I’m going to ask you to work in pairs. You’ll have partner A is to find an object. It could be anything on the table, and you can pretend what it might be. And you’re going to provide an offering to your partner, and it can be simple. I offer time. I want to offer you a moment of gratitude. I want to say I was inspired by your story, whatever it might be.
And your partner has to receive that offering fully, meaning I accept it. Thank you. I appreciate this. And then, you as partner A is going to ask them for something. And it could be a simple, “I would love to have a conversation with you after this. I’d love to connect with you on LinkedIn, so we can continue this conversation that we had here at the summit.” So to help model this, I would like to offer and ask for forgiveness, and that would be to Douglas and Jamie. And coming into this session, I had offered to host and facilitate one.

And during that time, I know that I was not in my best behavior and following up with communication with both Douglas and Jamie having to chase me constantly, making sure that I would turn in my materials if I had any questions, if I’m coming to the meeting, do I need anything else? Are there any materials? And it was a much, much delay on my part and impacted their planning. So with that, for Douglas and Jamie, I offer my deepest and sincere apologies for my behavior, and I know it wasn’t productive.

And going forward, I commit to having more timely communication in how I interact with you and all of Voltage Control because you are an important part of my community, so I offer that to you, and I ask that you humbly accept it. Yep. Great. Now that they fully accepted it, my ask of Douglas and Eric and Jamie is if perhaps the slides that were shared by the facilitators might be available somehow is my small ask. And if not, that’s also okay. Okay, perfect. So in pairs, either at your table or someplace else, remember we just had Janken Po Rockstar. You’ve met tons of people that you’ve cheered for. Find someone, pick who’s going to do the offering first, who’s going to receive, and then you’re going to switch.
So thank you for that. I’m wondering, I’m going to ask from the tables in the back, also table one, what it felt like to receive fully before you were asked something. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 14:
Yeah, like, oh, I’ve received it. Now, I have to give you what you’re asking for, so.

Elena Farden:
It can feel like a trap. I should’ve mentioned, you have free will to say, you could say no. I wasn’t explicit. Right. Yeah, good point. Good feedback. Our table’s in the back. Yes. Oh, in this table?

Speaker 15:
Sure.

Elena Farden:
Frank?

Frank:
I had no problem giving. I actually felt really good because for me, it’s disarming.

Elena Farden:
Sure.

Frank:
Yeah. Plus I was concerned. You know, vitamin C, the tangerine. I want to make sure she was healthy, so.

Elena Farden:
Yep.

Speaker 17:
It was so funny. I had no problem giving. I gave a wonderful little flower made of these little dots here. But I had a lot of trouble thinking about my ask, I was like, “Oh, what do I want to ask for? I don’t know if there’s anything I want to ask for.” And so, that was just an interesting observation for myself.

Elena Farden:
Feeling like a trap, being a giver, but also you just want to give. You don’t know if you want anything in exchange. That could be a thing too. Yeah, not knowing. Yes.

Speaker 18:
I guess the idea of reciprocity. It’s like if I actually need something, I’m going to give this to you. And then, therefore be able to ask you of something. I guess that’s another way you can look at it. That’s a little more cynical to me, but that’s kind of how I saw it.

Elena Farden:
No, reciprocity is a very big thing in the offering and the ask, and then also your intention. There was a hand here. Okay, I’m coming. Oh, you can…

Speaker 19:
So I gave Katie here a highlighter and I just grabbed the first thing. And then as soon as I handed it to her, it became very obvious to me that this is a magical device to mark what’s important in life and the important moments. And I’m normally not capable of finding things like that. And I think that’s a hundred percent a testament to your ability to set the frame and the spirit in this room, so thank you very much.

Elena Farden:
Thank you. Thank you. One last reflection or comment. And then, we’re going to move into our closing. Okay. So in our last 30 minutes together and on our last day, I’d like to offer a closing circle. Something that I also do in my practice within indigenous play spaces. And I did have a question from Melissa, what is an indigenous play space? So I’ll just address that really quickly to put some questions at ease. But an indigenous play space or play parties is where people from different backgrounds, either ethical, non-monogamy or consensual non-monogamy have abilities to gather together in order to have consensual play.

And that may be an open relationship, that may be a swinger type of situation, but these things need structure, they need guidance, they need consent, they need strict rules to be followed so that there is psychological and physical safety, that everyone is aware of what their expectations and rules are. And if those are not followed, what happens for the consequences because of the type of physical and mental damage that could happen. So that is what a play party is. And most of the facilitation that I do is somewhat in that space, but mostly in indigenous spaces. So I hope that helped answers your question.

With that, I’m going to quickly and nervously move to a closing circle. So I’m going to ask from this table on, if I can have you stand and come into a circle, maybe around these two tables. I know it might be difficult. But if I can ask this table 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, have you stand and come into a circle. You’re going to face inwards and face each other, and try to make a circle as best as you can.

Speaker 20:
Close on.

Elena Farden:
Close on. Yes.
All right. Now that you’re in this circle, what’s going to happen is I’m going to ask you to close your eyes. Does anyone have any injuries on your top right shoulder? Or does anyone not like to be physically touched on your top right shoulder? If so, you’re welcome to step out of the circle and just observe. There is no judgment. I just want to make sure you’re fully informed of what will happen to you.

So the touch will be… Is it okay if I touch your shoulder? It will look like this, and that’s it. If you’re not okay with that, and that’s completely fine as well. Feel free to step out of the circle and you can just observe. Okay? I’m going to ask you folks to stay within this circle and close your eyes. No peeking. All right, I’m going to ask this half of the room to surround the circle on the outside where I’m here in this way. All the way around, if you can make it.

I’m going to give the outer circle three prompts one at a time. And with those prompts, you’re going to touch the shoulder of the person that matches that prompt. You can touch as many shoulders as you want. Again, only the top right shoulder. This is non-sexual consensual touch. We are not touching anywhere else on the body. Again, you can touch as many participants in the inside circle as you want pending the prompt.

So for example, a prompt might be, touch the person on the shoulder of who you are happy that you met today at this two-day summit. Okay? All right, we’re going to go counterclockwise. When you come back to the person you are standing in front of after you’ve made your round, you’ll just pause there. Okay? Does that make sense? Clockwise. Is this clockwise? Am I making it weird?

Speaker 21:
Nope.

Elena Farden:
Okay. Okay. Okay. I will lean into the movement of the group. All right. So we’ll start inner circle, keep your eyes closed. Outer circle, please touch the top right shoulder of someone that you met today that helped change your perspective about your facilitation practice.

I see we’ve made our way around. Your next prompt for the outer circle is to touch the top right shoulder of someone you were so excited to cheer for, whether it’s Janken Po Rockstar, whether it’s hearing them share their story, whether it’s anything throughout these two days together where you saw them stand up, be vulnerable, be open to feedback and share with the whole group.

And now, for our last prompt, touch the top right shoulder of the person who you didn’t have a chance to meet, but had their presence not been here in the past two days, the experience would have not been the same. Inner circle, continue to keep your eyes closed. Outer circle, your gratitude has been seen, felt, and acknowledged. Take one step over to your left. And inner circle with your eyes still closed, put your left hand on the right shoulder of the person next to you and just thank them for being in the space with you.

You can open your eyes, sorry. That might be helpful. Yeah, so that there is no inappropriate placement of hands. Perfect. My inner circle, now with your eyes open, I’m going to ask you to step out. And our outer circle, you’re going to step in and find your place to close your eyes. Again, same for the inner circle. If there’s anyone uncomfortable or does not want to participate, there’s no judgment. You can feel free to step out at any time and just be an observer and a witnesser.
For our outer circle. You’re going to go clockwise, which I guess is this way. Yeah, that’s what I was told. Sorry, I live on an island. Any questions for the outer circle before we start? I know you had eyes closed in the beginning. All right. Inner circle, please close your eyes, settle in. For our outer circle, please touch the shoulder, top right shoulder of the person you are glad you met, that they came to this facilitation summit, that you made a connection with them, that they helped change something about your perspective in the work that you do.

All right, thanks for coming full circle. Our next prompt. Touch the top right shoulder of someone that you may not have had the opportunity to meet, but you’ve witnessed them in their quiet moments with them talking with others, with them eating or doing their work. You saw their presence here, and you just want to acknowledge that you see them. So touch the top right shoulder of someone you didn’t have an opportunity to meet, but you are grateful for their presence here.
And our last round, touch the top right shoulder of someone who did something, said something, wore something, pushed back at something, agreed with something, made you say, “Heck, yeah, this might be my people, my person. I’m so overjoyed that you attended.” Outer circle, your gratitude has been seen, felt, and acknowledged. Thank you so much. Inner circle, you can open your eyes. Please put your left hand on the right top shoulder of the person next to you, and just thank them for their presence here. Yep. All right. Everyone, you can have a seat if you wish. Thanks.

We have just a few minutes to wrap up. I’m going to ask two folks to just share. So I’ll ask you just quick reflections on the gratitude circle. Anything that stood out or how you might incorporate it in your practice, or just open thoughts and feedback would be great.

Speaker 22:
Thank you. So it reminded me how much… Well, I mean. Yeah, thanks. I was thinking. It reminded me how much physical touch is important. And I think especially following the pandemic and even before that, I think we were drifting further and further away from physical touch. And I was thinking, “Okay, how might I safely bring this into the groups that I work with?” I would like to understand this a lot more. And I’d love anything else that you might be able to offer if we were to bring this to our groups, especially the ones that don’t have the same levels of trust that I hope that we’ve built here. So thank you for that.

Speaker 23:
And strangely, I’m nonverbal. I don’t have words. Moved is the word that I have. Moved. Thank you.

Elena Farden:
Thank you both for sharing. So that closes us out. Here, I have our closing circle, our lei hipu’u. Our lei or wreath that we wear. Hipu’u is a type of tie. You can see these leaves are tied by their stem. The leaves that are here are from candlenut or kukui. They symbolize light or enlightenment. And so, why they’re tied in this knotted fashion is symbolic of fastening the knowledge that you’ve gained over time. So oftentimes, this lei style is given to graduates when they get their degree, when they move on to a new job that the knowledge and intellect and everything that they’ve imbued is fastened tightly. They don’t lose it, and they carry it with them forward.

So I offer this lei hipu’u with you folks, and thank you for being open in this gratitude circle. I have a 1, 2, 3 in case this is something that’s helpful for you. Just a quick reflection. One thing that you’d like to carry forward in your practice. Two things shared today that you are still holding questions about. They still feel nebulous maybe. And three things you want to dig into more deeper or you want to understand more. And this will just be for your own self-reflection. So thank you so much. And I have five minutes to spare. I feel like I should get a little star or something. Thank you for everyone. I close this out and I send it back to you folks.

The post Consent as Ceremony appeared first on Voltage Control.

At the 2025 Facilitation Lab Summit, Kathy Ditmore led an impactful session on “Mapping the Change Journey”, offering valuable tools and frameworks for creating successful change processes within teams and organizations. This session focused on using a canvas as a “compass” to guide projects toward success and aligned transformation, emphasizing how to adapt and lead through change effectively.

Exploring the Canvas: Your Compass for Success

Kathy kicked off the session with an engaging icebreaker: participants placed their birthdays or favorite day on a sticky note, fostering connection and lightening the mood. This simple exercise set the tone for a session that combined reflection with actionable tools for leading change.

The heart of the session was Kathy’s introduction of the canvas, a tool she described as a guiding framework for navigating the complexities of change. The canvas wasn’t about adopting a one-size-fits-all solution—it was about offering a flexible, living document that helped teams clarify their vision, align on purpose, and identify what steps to take next.

The Journey of Change: Setting the Stage for Success

Kathy shared a key lesson from her career: change succeeds when people connect to purpose and have ownership of the direction they’re going. Her early experience as a programmer highlighted how even the most well-intentioned training efforts fall short without a clear understanding of why the work matters.

The session continued with a deep dive into the backpack essentials for change: staying open, being curious, and engaging fully. Kathy encouraged participants to leave behind preconceived methods or frameworks and focus on adapting their approach to the specific needs of the team and project at hand.

Exercise: The Tale of Two Changes

To help participants internalize the concepts, Kathy led them through an exercise titled “The Tale of Two Changes”. Attendees were asked to reflect on a successful change and a struggling one. They identified key factors that fueled the success of the former and what was missing in the latter. The group shared insights, revealing common themes: clear roles, communication, support, and leadership alignment all stood out as crucial for successful transformations.

The Canvas: Your Roadmap for Change

As the session unfolded, Kathy introduced the canvas, which was structured into three main areas:

1. Mindset: Aligning everyone around a shared vision and understanding of the “why.”
2. Execution: Defining the guiding principles, roles, resources, and risks that shape the change process.
3. Connection: Understanding stakeholders and engagement strategies to ensure that everyone is on board and moving in the same direction.

Kathy emphasized that this tool should be viewed as a living document, one that evolves as the team progresses and learns together. She also provided an example of how the canvas could be used in project rescue, helping teams reorient struggling initiatives through a purposeful re-evaluation of their vision.

Creating Clarity: Vision and Purpose

A key moment of the session focused on visioning: crafting a shared purpose and aligning everyone around the “why.” Kathy facilitated a story-building exercise to help participants break down complex ideas into manageable, clear themes. By engaging with a simple exercise that explored direction and clarity, attendees were encouraged to rethink their approach to projects—emphasizing the importance of alignment from the very start.

Practical Insights for the Road Ahead

Kathy concluded with reflections on the importance of dialogue in change processes. The canvas is a tool to guide these conversations, helping teams stay on track and adjust as needed. She shared examples of using the tool to identify potential detours, offering a framework for troubleshooting when change processes start to veer off course.

The session left participants with a renewed focus on how to approach change with clarity, empathy, and a structured plan—ensuring that transformation isn’t just about the end result, but also about the journey of alignment and ownership along the way.

The session left participants with a renewed focus on how to approach change with clarity, empathy, and a structured plan—ensuring that transformation isn’t just about the end result, but also about the journey of alignment and ownership along the way.

Watch the full video below:

Transcript of Kathy’s Session:

Kathy Ditmore:
Hello? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Yeah, okay, great. Thanks. Thank you for having me today. So, as Eric mentioned, the topic today is Mapping the Change Journey and I’ve chosen a tool, I was thinking about this, what did I want to bring in so we’re going to be looking at a canvas as a compass for your project’s success. So, while you all are settling in and as we’re getting in, if you take a sticky and go ahead and put your month and day of your birthday. And if you’re not comfortable putting that out there to everybody, just pick your favorite day and put that on the table in front of you so the other folks at the table can see the month and day, don’t need the year. So, as you’re doing that.

So, a little bit about me and why this topic is important to me. Early in my career as a young programmer, I had the opportunity to engage with a client at a different level and it was great. Kathy, you’re connecting, we’d love you to train our client’s teams how to use the system. Wow, that’s great, I’m being recognized. So, I go in and I train. Blank stares, everybody’s looking at me. It’s very uncomfortable. So, while I found I could teach them how to click buttons, how to navigate the screens, there was something missing for everyone in that room and that was their why and how the work they were doing was going to transform how they did business, was going to transform the results that they were bringing in and the outcomes that they were seeking.

So, that set in motion what is at my core. We did a little work on purpose statements yesterday so I’m going to read mine out. I’m a facilitative project delivery leader creating space for teams to align around a shared purpose and co-create their path forward. And what does that mean? I thought about this. Through my roles over my career, I’ve always been in the technical industry as a programmer, a business analyst, project manager, a change practitioner, change leader both in commercial and nonprofit. I’ve seen over and over again that change succeeds when people connect to purpose and have ownership in the direction they’re going and agency in how they adapt, they have a say. And even if their say isn’t heard … Even if their say doesn’t change the direction, it’s been heard, they can weigh in, they can frame the messaging.

As we go through today, I may use some terms. These are not industry standard terms, these are just definitions that I’m throwing out there for you. So, some reference points as we go on this journey. The first one is a project, it’s a temporary endeavor. We’re creating something new or different or making something different, it might be the next step. A change and that’s the human journey from what is to what will be, also known as transition. Done well, it’s nice. Not done well, looks a little like Swiss cheese. In fact, I think Prosci likes to use that term. As much as I love Swiss cheese, it’s probably not a great way to do change. Change leadership, it’s creating that space and the conditions for teams to navigate the change together. And project rescue, I do reference this at some point. So, when I talk about a project rescue, I’m talking about reorienting your struggling initiatives through purpose.

Any things folks would want to add? Questions? All right. So, a little about our journey today, a bit of a guide for you. First thing we’re going to do is we’re going to check our backpack essentials. We’re going to check what we don’t want to carry with us as we go on this journey and we’re going to check those things that we want to keep in mind as we go through. We’re going to explore patterns in change, we’re going to explore change dynamics, we’re going to discover our compass, today we’ll use the canvas. We’re going to practice orientation, orienting with the compass and then we’ll talk about some insights for the road ahead. So, hopefully, you all are ready to go on this journey.

So, the backpack essentials. The first one, stay open and stay curious. I had some particular notes on this one and it’s really about … This may be familiar territory for a lot of you but try to approach it with fresh eyes. Engage fully beyond your methods. So, this isn’t about doing the right way so leave your methods, we’re talking about things you don’t want to carry on your backpack. This isn’t about Prosci, not about Cotter, not about Lewis models of chains, leave all that aside. This is about the process we’re going to be going through as far as how we use this tool and it should apply regardless of a method. Ask you to lean in the detours because it’s in those spaces that your learning happens and then make it real. As we’re going through, I’m coming from one perspective. Each of you have different backgrounds so think about what you’re going to be able to pull from today to bring into your practice with your customers and how you show up and how you bring your teams along on their journey.

Is there anything folks would like to add to the agreements today? Great. So, our first exercise is going to be exploring the tale of two changes. Each of you, I’m sure, has been through a change that went really well but you’ve also been through a change that just went not quite so well, it struggled. This poor guy, he’s trying to limp over the finish line, it’s quite sad and there’s cost to that. I think earlier it was mentioned, the adoption, that can be painful. So, I’d like each of you to think about, and I’m going to put it on the next slide too, the instructions, what are some key factors that gave momentum to a change done well. Think about that change, think about how you felt, how the team engaged, what was right about that particular endeavor and the same for your struggling change. What was missing from the change that struggled?

So, we’re going to do this. Step one, everybody got their birthday or their favorite day on the table, that’s actually step four. But go ahead and take a piece of paper, your sticky notes, fold it in half or use the individual sticky notes. Individually, take a couple minutes and think about both of those, a change that went well and a change that didn’t go quite so well and pull out those key factors of what contributed or what was missing. Then you’re going to pair share at your table and, if you have an odd number at your table, you’re welcome to triple up or look at somebody from another table and create your sticky notes and then you’re going to table share. You can use the backside of the giant canvas and put out your sticky notes, theme them out and I’d like, as a table, for you to pick your top three for both. And your spokesperson, lucky winner today, if you don’t have a volunteer, if you have a volunteer, that’s great. But one way to find your volunteer is whoever has a day that’s closest to today. And if your birthday’s today, happy birthday. So, with that, we’ll let you go for a few minutes.

Okay, you should start moving to your table shares. You may not have all completed getting to your top three so, if you have a few more to read out, that’s fine. But that looks like there was a lot of great discussion happening so I’m really curious to go around and hear from folks in the room. Who would like to share for … We’ll start with the change that went well. What were some of the key factors that gave momentum? And mics will go around.

Speaker 2:
Okay. So, there was a couple of key things that came out from our table on what were success factors. One of those being that the organization supported a culture of change and a culture of experimentation so that people were more accepting of change. We just know we’re changing and we have a purpose for it and we’re evolving and to expect it. So, that was one of them. Another program that was used for some change was some early adopters that accepted the change, were able to proactively advocate for the benefits of those change and speak to it in a positive format. And then the last one is buy-in from the top down, that’s always a big one. Making sure that leadership understands, accepts and clearly communicates the change and the need and the why and that they can speak to it.

Kathy Ditmore:
Oh, thank you. Excellent. Are there things folks would want to add to that? Any other table want to add to that?

Speaker 3:
Hi. It is my birthday today so … I think there’s another birthday too.

Kathy Ditmore:
Whoo, happy birthday.

Speaker 3:
I think there was another birthday as well. Was there?

Speaker 3:
Yes.

Kathy Ditmore:
Who was it?

Speaker 3:
Okay, close.

Speaker 3:
Cool. So, for positives, we said that effective communication was essential and using one standardized system, people know what to expect, how you’re going to be communicated to in a certain timeframe. One that I brought up that was a bit, I think, unique was we call it the source booth at a company, our company and it’s that there’s one place to find all the information you’ll need. It’s equal opportunity so everyone has access to it, everyone has permission. If you’re out of office, you come back, you know where all the details are, it’s right there in the source of truth. And then third, having lead time. So, if you’re going to make a change, we made a big payment provider change at our company recently, we had a few months lead time and that wasn’t really enough. So, the more time, the better to make that change possible.

Kathy Ditmore:
Wonderful. Thank you for sharing and I appreciate that source of truth, that central place that speaks a little bit to the agency that people can find their information as well. Anybody else want to add to that?

Stacy:
I’ll go. Hi, I’m Stacy, my birthday’s on Friday.

Kathy Ditmore:
Happy birthday.

Stacy:
One that came up again and again for us was really clear roles and responsibilities. So, everybody knowing what their job is and what their purpose is, that’s the biggest one. And then just affirmation that you’re valued and knowing that you’re valued and trusted, that was another big one for went well.

Kathy Ditmore:
Great, thank you. We have one more in the back and then we’ll move to change that struggled.

Jackie:
Okay. I’m Jackie, my birthday is in about three weeks so I just put myself out there.

Kathy Ditmore:
Happy birthday.

Jackie:
So, I’ll just try to add the ones that we haven’t already had but we talked about not just clarity of vision but having a shared vision and purpose certainly contributes to a successful outcome. Believing in yourself to make the change, doing the internal work as the facilitator and to have the right people in the right roles. In other words, a match of talents and skills with what a project needs and what people want to give to the project to have a successful outcome.

Kathy Ditmore:
Excellent, thank you very much. So, I’m sure there’s a lot more folks can add on but a lot of things stood out here. I am curious, before we compare the two, who would like to share some of the findings for what was missing in a change that didn’t go quite so well?

Harry:
My name’s Harry, birthday is in 10 days.

Kathy Ditmore:
Happy birthday.

Harry:
One was actually understanding the difference between workload and the resources you had. So, even if you have the great plan, have you actually understood the resources available to make the change? Another one was either missing wise or even bad ones that don’t resonate with the group. And the last one was also the forced feelings you get, isn’t this exciting. If it’s not exciting, you don’t want to nod your head and agree but you may not have the space to disagree so, yeah.

Kathy Ditmore:
Thank you, appreciate that. Anybody else?

Speaker 8:
Okay, I [inaudible 00:13:46]. I was going to say empathy.

Kathy Ditmore:
Yeah.

Speaker 8:
But also, one thing that came up at this table is having leadership say that they’re open to feedback but appearing not to take it seriously. That seems to be a rough one.

Kathy Ditmore:
Appreciate that. I heard a lot of hmmm on that and I’m seeing a theme to the sessions we had earlier too. So, anybody else? One more. Please, go ahead. Oh, we’ve got one. We’ve got two more. Thanks.

Speaker 9:
Oh, sorry.

Speaker 10:
Sorry, I did not mean to cut in. We didn’t discuss it at our table but, when you were talking about leadership, it reminded me of how many changes I’ve seen fail because senior leadership is not aligned. So, it’s not enough to just have that change be communicated from the top down but the top needs to be on the same page first.

Kathy Ditmore:
Thank you for that.

Speaker 11:
At this table we did a little bit of a grouping and we didn’t quite get into all of the not well but I do see some repetition of progress report. So, understanding how that change is being received and how is it going so you can adapt and you might get all the way down the line and realize this didn’t actually go well but we didn’t have that visibility into what’s going on.

Kathy Ditmore:
Yeah, I appreciate that. I’m curious, as you’ve heard things today such as around support, things that contributed to things that went well, support experimentation, early adopters, buy-in from the top down, knowing the whole system, how to communicate, knowing where that source of truth is, clear roles and responsibilities. And then I’m going to jump, I know there were a lot more, I’m going to jump over to things that contributed to change that didn’t go quite so well. Understanding the progress, feeds a little bit into maybe the experimentation, senior leadership alignment, being open to feedback, having empathy, those forced feelings and workload and resources. Are folks seeing any themes or connections come out across those? What about how people are coming together? I see a hand over there.

Speaker 12:
Whether you’re focused on the change or on the people experiencing the change? It’s the customer focused as opposed to the-

Kathy Ditmore:
Both.

Speaker 12:
… us focused.

Kathy Ditmore:
Well, we’ve been through … This has been great discussion and it sounds like everybody’s had experience with both sides of change and I’m struck with something interesting here. So, when changes work, it sounds like people seem to be moving the same direction whether it’s they know their roles, their senior leaders are aligned, they know where to find information, they know what the experience should be, there’s a feedback loop, there’s empathy. So, there’s a clear path of how you’re going to be moving forward together. So, I’m going to move on to another exercise, this is … Take this with us as we bridge over to … We’re going to go over to another interesting idea here. So, I want to dig into the idea of direction and clarity and I’m going to jump over to another exercise. We got the time.

We’re going to do this one relatively quickly. What’s going to happen is I’m going to put three images on the screen. You can use those images however you want for three minutes as a table to build a story, three sentences. If you want to go to four, it’s okay, you want to keep it short. Story needs to begin with once upon a time. You can use those images however you want. You can use them literally, you can ascribe meaning to them, you can think about what’s happening outside the frame, what happened before, what happened after. You can think about the individuals that might be in these images, what they’re talking about, what they’re experiencing, what they’re feeling. You can use those images however you want to build a story that’s three sentences. Are you all ready? And pick one person at your table to be a scribe. If you do not have a volunteer, pick the person who has a birthday closest to July 4th.

Image one, image two, image three and you have three minutes. So, I know it was a lot to squeeze in in three minutes, that three minutes goes fast. But don’t worry, you have an opportunity. I’m now going to give you a theme. The moment we chose to leap. Still three sentences about, still once upon a time, you can still use these images however you want in any order and I’d like you to take a look at your story, see if there’s something you want to shift in your story or adjust. And you have two minutes for this. I know that was a quick exercise but I am curious, in the room, is there anybody here that actually adjusted their story? I’d love to hear from at least one of your tables, talk to me about that.

Speaker 13:
The first story is about once upon a time my grandfather and granddaughter created a magic garden. They lived on top of a hill, had a steep Securitas road to get there until one day Gargamel showed up in his hot air balloon and then they made the garden disappear by going invisible. How we changed this was the grandfather and granddaughter lived a happy vegetarian life, plant-based vegetarian life until one day Gargamel showed up with his pet pig, crashed the balloon, killed the pig, they barbecued it and everyone lived happily forever.

Kathy Ditmore:
That’s fantastic. So, how did you get there as a table?

Speaker 14:
So, part of it was that we asked people who hadn’t contributed for the first time to contribute and then we got super silly. Not silly, we were very serious.

Kathy Ditmore:
Okay. Is there anybody … You had a shift to your story there, it was a bit of a rewrite. Did anybody do a complete rewrite?

Crystal:
Well, so … Hi, I’m Crystal.

Kathy Ditmore:
Hi, Crystal.

Crystal:
We in our group, we wanted to try out what doing something bigger could look like and then, once we got the theme, we rewrote quite a bit. So, ours reads, once upon a time, humanity was born. We needed to be equipped with tools to leap. So, then we added leap obviously. To see problems from above, support each other, to be part of each other’s journey. So, you can see problems from above, hot air balloon, helping each other and cultivating and then that journey.

Kathy Ditmore:
Great, thank you. So, for those of you who shifted, and thank you for the table shares, fantastic stories. For those of you who felt the shift, what made shift? Was it the theme that made you shift?

Speaker 16:
More direction.

Kathy Ditmore:
Anybody else? Agree? Anything else that may have contributed?

Kathy Ditmore:
I’m sorry?

Speaker 18:
That we had a second set of time.

Kathy Ditmore:
You had a second set of time, that’ll help too. You now know what it’s about as well, right? So, I appreciated the more direction and so, going on the theme of what we’re hearing about people being aligned, having purpose, I’d like to introduce a tool you may want to use. On your tables, there’s small versions, it’s a canvas. Many of you are already familiar with canvases. The business model canvas. If any of you do lean change, you’re familiar with the lean change canvas that came out in the early 2000s. There’s lots of canvases you can use. My first experience with a canvas was early in my project management days, I had a sponsor who didn’t want to read a charter. Put a document in front of him, his eyes glazed over. Project on a page, it was our canvas. So, there’s a lot of great uses for a canvas and you can tailor them however you’d like.
Today’s canvas is set up on three sections. The middle is your mindset and that’s aligning everybody. It’s aligning on your vision, feeding on what was offered earlier around that compelling future state, what are you aiming to achieve. Helping people understand the significance, the why this has to happen, what happens if we don’t do it now. And then describing the benefits to the organization, to the team, to your customers, to them as individuals. On the left, I call this execution. This is the guiding principles, this is what’s going to guide your decision making. It could be your even overs, it could be your polarities you have to work through, that was a topic that came up with the group yesterday. But how are you going to make those decisions in the project? How are your teams going to be allowed to make decisions?

Your resources and roles, we heard about roles and responsibilities earlier. Who do you need on this project? What are their roles going to be and where are your gaps is most important as well and how are you going to support those people? Your change risks and mitigations. So, this is looking ahead and saying where are those detours going to happen on this project, what do I need to worry about, what does my team need to worry about and you’d want to be tracking those even at a high level. The canvas isn’t meant to be in great detail, you may have a lot of supporting materials underneath of this but it’s meant to pull out the top themes, the top highlights.

On the right, I call this connection. It has your stakeholders and impacts, these are your groups. This is very high level. How are they going to be impacted? Their jobs are going to be impacted, their compensation approach is going to be impacted, who they report to, processes, maybe tools they use, technology, usually track that separately. So, it gives you an idea of what you need to worry about and how you may need to make them aware of things or engage them which is the next group, engagement. Each of these groups like to be communicated to in a particular way. Not everybody is going to read an email. In fact, I’m someone, if you send me an email, it’s the last thing I’m going to read if I have time at the end of the day. If it’s urgent, you need to message me. So, how do people want to be engaged with? How do they want to communicate back to you? How are you going to capture their input? What are the channels? Maybe it varies by team. What can you leverage within the organization?

In the bottom right, there’s progress and success measures. Somebody mentioned experimentation earlier, those quick wins. I worked on a project recently and we found that, before we implemented the system, we could actually roll out pieces of the process that needed to change beforehand. So, those were experiments we were able to push out in advance, they were quick wins for the organization. So, where are those quick wins either within your teams or within the larger project? That’s a quick overview of this version of a canvas. Any questions?

Speaker 19:
It took me a minute to figure out my question. When you’re in the beginning of a project, do you fill this out all at once? Is there some living part of this over time? What’s the lifetime of this and this information?

Kathy Ditmore:
Yeah. So, this is meant to be a living breathing document and the beauty of a canvas is you create it for your engagement. This is one. Underneath of this which I didn’t share today, teams have a canvas. They have the vision at the top but then they have the impact specific to their team and what they need to do to support the change or what they need from the organization to support the change. So, this is all visible and all bubbled up. I have a slide later we’ll talk through where you could use it but, yes, initiation, you’d start filling it out. You could fill it out on your own after interviewing or you can gather your teams like we’re going to do in our next exercise and capture the collective intelligence and have a starting point.
So, let’s read the instructions first. You have a big canvas on your table so feel free to open that up and use it. Today, I was thinking you’d want to focus on, where I like to start, vision purpose, significance, the why now and the benefits. You might find as you’re working through this that you come up with ideas that belong in other blocks and that’s okay, put those stickies in those other blocks, you’ll come back to them later. I gave you a prompt if you’re doing a vision, you come up with your own but I’m sharing one if that helps you. Your approach today is, first, individually and I’m going to give you scenarios. Is individually, quickly capture your thoughts on sticky notes once you read the scenario. One idea per sticky around the vision.

So, you’re going to read the questions here. What’s your why? What’s your cause? What’s your purpose? What pains exist in your significance? What happens if you don’t do it now? Why is it important now? And your benefits. What are your anticipated improvements to your employees, the organization or external parties? Then, as a table, you’ll look at the stickies, please start just placing them in the middle sections. Talk as a table and start grouping them coming up with themes and go ahead and create your vision. Try to draft one and we’re going to have a table readout. If you don’t have a volunteer spokesperson, we’re going to pick the person whose birthday is closest to Halloween. All right, we’ve got at least one lucky winner in the room.

So, for this exercise, I’m going to cut us short a little bit because I do want time for us to have dialogue so I apologize for that. I’m going to give you first three minutes to start doing your stickies individually then you can go into working as a table and I will give you 10 minutes for that. So, a total of 13 minutes to work through this and then listen for the chime. Any questions before you start? Oh, yes, hold … The most important thing, I was so excited. You also have on your table, I apologize, a scenario.

Audience:
Aaah.

Kathy Ditmore:
Aaah, the magic thing. Got so excited, sorry. So, you have three scenarios, I’m going to put those up and then I’ll come back. Your first adventure is your group has been given a $10,000 budget and you’re going to go on an unforgettable trip. You have different ideas about your vacation and you need to ensure that trip aligns with your group’s priorities while staying in budget. Your second scenario and the third is … The second scenario is around onboarding. Everybody’s lived that, experienced that. You have employees that are struggling in the first 90 days feeling lost, disconnected and unclear in expectations. So, your leadership wants to redesign onboarding for a smoother, more engaging experience while balancing efficiency and personalization.

If you pick the third scenario, Douglas is going to want to see this at the end. So, the third scenario, as facilitators, you understand the power of well-designed experiences, you are loving the conference this year and you want to help with next year. So, Voltage Control is welcoming your input as they begin planning next year’s event to maximize engagement, connection and actionable takeaways. Your team has been tasked with mapping key changes.
So, as a table, quickly pick your scenario. You have a couple minutes to start drafting your individual stickies, put them on this canvas and then start working together to theme those and build your vision.

Speaker 21:
Question.

Speaker 22:
Quick question.

Kathy Ditmore:
One question.

Speaker 22:
So, I’m hearing a lot of language that’s big picture, vision and then I’m hearing other language that’s pretty specific on how to. Is it intended to be intertwined? It’s a little-

Kathy Ditmore:
It’s intended to bubble up the themes. So, sometimes folks can only look at the detail and then you can bubble up your themes.

Speaker 22:
Okay.

Kathy Ditmore:
So, this canvas is intended to really be high level, maybe later supported by more detail.

Speaker 22:
Okay.

Kathy Ditmore:
Thank you. And you should start, working as a table, putting your stickies in the middle. So, I’m going to call for a pause in conversations and I know that’s a quick exercise. First, you would not go this quickly in your business changes, at least I hope not. How does this feel for folks using something like a canvas to work through this? Yes?

Speaker 23:
Thanks. I think I saw a difference between high level thinking and low level thinking and there was maybe even some discordance, discord over that, yeah.

Kathy Ditmore:
Yeah. Thank you for sharing that and we’ll come back to that. That does happen at times depending on the groups. We have a few more.

Speaker 12:
It was really useful to have buckets to put our ideas into but it was too much all at once. It would’ve been nice to roll out just the center strip and then the next piece and have a build.

Kathy Ditmore:
Great, thank you.

Speaker 24:
Yeah. To plus one on that, it was hard because there were just so many, I’m like, “Oh, my gosh, where do I even start?” and then of course I went straight to solutions.

Speaker 25:
And they [inaudible 00:33:22].

Speaker 24:
Oh, of course.

Kathy Ditmore:
Great, thank you. Anybody else?

Stacy:
I have a microphone but I can’t figure out where all the voices are coming from. But I noticed there’s a really delicate balance between the beauty of the constraints and the prompts and then also allowing yourself to veer off the prompts when it happens and allowing that to happen organically.

Kathy Ditmore:
Absolutely, thank you. Anybody else? Over in front.

Speaker 3:
I sense some personal resistance to using such a formal system for … We used prompt one so it was a vacation. I was like, “Oh, I’m overthinking this, I don’t want to do that but I think it actually is I’m not overthinking it.” All these things are necessary but using them for a personal project feels like almost inappropriate but it actually is appropriate. You know? Does that make sense? I don’t know.

Kathy Ditmore:
I think it does. We have one more over there and then I want to see how … Did other folks align, run into the same things? I’ve heard discord, the ability to stay within the constraints but also permission, allowing yourself to veer off.

Speaker 26:
I think we did good and I love templates to help group our thinking. I think what is additionally helpful is examples. I think it would have been good if we would have seen an example, that would have just given us a little bit of a different-

Kathy Ditmore:
Different overview.

Speaker 26:
… perspective or helped us a little bit where we struggled at which bucket … And like you said, it doesn’t really matter which bucket it goes into but that would have helped us, I think, be not as confused.

Kathy Ditmore:
Okay. Indeed, thank you. One more.

Monica:
I just wanted to comment that I’m used to someone’s being like, “Fill out this canvas, Monica, for your product strategy,” and I’ve always really struggled with that and I think one of the reasons why is because I was doing it in a vacuum and there wasn’t a sequential process of prompts and thought to talk about that. I think that that’s the expectation that these conversations are happening and so it should be easy for me to go and synthesize it. So, I appreciate wanting to take this back and say how might we fill out this canvas a little differently, that’s more meaningful where everyone is more engaged.

Kathy Ditmore:
Interesting. The dialogue. Yeah, not in a vacuum. We have one more.

Speaker 28:
Do I go?

Kathy Ditmore:
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 28:
Okay. One of the things that was interesting for our table that I had to adjust is … We picked two for the onboarding and I actually facilitated my company’s onboarding transformation and so I’m sitting here going how do I share thoughts without, during a scramble, it’s human nature, who has experience at this and then you’re pulling in that but then I didn’t want to stifle other people’s ideas either. So, there was the natural tension of how do we have random ideas show up but who has actual experience doing this and how do you leverage it. So, I think, as facilitators, we have to leave space for the two types of people because I think there’s value in both.

Kathy Ditmore:
Indeed. Thank you for sharing that. And I appreciate that … Oh, we have one more over here.

Speaker 10:
I was just reflecting on a couple of comments around doing it all at once was challenging and it just made me think about how important it is for teams to be aligned on a north star. I was just wondering, if we had all agreed on our vision and then built out the template, would we have come from so many different perspectives? So, just something that dawned on me is like, “Oh, starting with the vision, starting with why”-

Kathy Ditmore:
Always start with that.

Speaker 10:
… “Is so important.”

Kathy Ditmore:
Thank you for that. Going to the compass, right? Always know the direction you’re going. Anybody else? We have one more, a couple more over in the back.

Speaker 28:
Yeah. So, I was struggling also, I noticed myself, I was reading every sentence and I was overwhelmed, my fault maybe. But I was thinking what if all of this was blank except for the colored items and we would have started with questioning what kinds of questions do we want to ask ourselves regarding guiding principles and, afterwards, maybe adding the missing important questions, et cetera. So, you take more ownership as a team or an organization towards what’s guiding principles for us instead of saying these aspects.

Kathy Ditmore:
Right. And that’s fantastic. Yes, the tool is intended for you to create your path forward together. Questions offered are certainly just for the purposes of today and I think that’s a wonderful idea to maybe, as a team, figure out what is it you really want to be answering about your project. Speaking to the discord, you might want to think about as a facilitator who you have in the room. So, do you want to do this with your senior leaders separately from your teams first, especially if you’re working on the vision, and then work with your teams and maybe one senior leader or your teams alone and then bring everybody together but it’s all about bringing that alignment. I heard looking at the whole canvas and so, for the purposes today, yes, I shared the whole canvas. But as a facilitator, you would probably block off the blocks that you don’t want to see with your group because, indeed, it can be overwhelming to dig into this.

So, I think there have been a lot of creative ideas here offered around how it could be used and so, hopefully, folks have some thoughts on how that might apply as you bring it back. So, I’m not going to make you redo your vision but I’d be curious what people think if you’d been offered a detour. So, somebody here had mentioned dialogue. I was doing this in a vacuum. Really, the tool is intended to promote dialogue. So, if you’ve been offered a detour after doing your vision, how would that have changed your discussions? How would the tool help you? How might you use it or not? Any thoughts on that?

John Rabasa:
Hi, Kathy, John Rabasa. So, I took from this that it was like a discovery tool where you had a lot of different prompts and so this is, as you said, a living document where things may bubble up that then informs, answer the question of your vision so you make sure you don’t leave things out. I look at these detours and I think that’s probably the information that you might pick up along the way and some of them are actually very helpful because they give you more definition.

Kathy Ditmore:
Indeed. And so, when you encounter these detours, whether you use a tool like this or something else within your teams, how are you evaluating that together on what those impacts are? Again, that tool to guide that discussion. Anybody else?

Robert Britton:
Yeah, I was going to … My name is Robert Britton.

Kathy Ditmore:
Hi, Robert.

Robert Britton:
I was going to add to this that I think the timing always gets people. Especially in a workshop, you’re like, “In the interest of time or because of time or take this for 10 minutes,” and I think what we do is we shut down our thinking and it’s not really exploratory. So, when you add these detours, I think that also gives us that breath of, you know what, if we don’t get it all today, we can come back to it. So, as facilitators, I think we also need to find ways to give them space afterwards to say, hey, you’re not going to be done when you’re here, this is just a starting point so you can keep going once you leave here.

Kathy Ditmore:
Indeed, thank you. Progress over perfection. We have another one over there.

Speaker 32:
Right. So, when I saw the detour, we were doing the employee experience and that was like, “Okay, yeah, you need to ask the people that are going to go through the change what … you need to get their inputs, design it around what they prefer.” And then it triggered something, I don’t know why, a second point, sorry for hogging the mic here, but when do you go and how deep do you go into this type of exercise. And sometimes just getting to vision can take days and weeks depending on what it is. So, I’m curious what other people think about that and what you think about that.

Kathy Ditmore:
Yeah, it’s like the theme I’m picking up here which ties into this is adapting. This is iterative, this is not a once and done experiment or tool. It’s not once and done, use it as initiation. I’ll show some other points, there’s various points where you’ll use it. So, you mentioned vision could take a long time and it does. I’ve had a vision take five weeks to develop with eight sponsors, that was quite a challenge just to get to the vision and that’s all we focused on. And then, after that, we were able to start digging into some of these other areas and it’s almost like peeling back the layers of an onion. You might start and only get so far and then it marinates, people start moving down a path. You might be building out your plan, you might be mobilizing your resources, you might be working through your procurement process if you’re bringing in a new solution, you might be still doing some of your pain points discussions, they may still be underway to work through things, you might be starting to do pre-mortems.

Whatever tools you’re using, out of those, more things will come out that bring richness to your project, your goals and how you need to work together so you’re always coming back to this. It’s also recommended to make this visible, whether you’re using a Miro board, some people post it on a wall although I know many of us are hybrid or remote now. I often will take sections and make sure that, when I go in a meeting with sponsors, we go back to the vision. If something comes up, how does it play into our guiding principles? So, I’m always coming back to these and so you have to think about what’s important to you and your team, your sponsors, your project leads, your stakeholders that you need to keep bringing back to them. Because they may say, “Oh, yeah, we said that but …” I don’t know if that helps. So, it’s like layers of the onion, digging, the details will surface over time. It’s a little more agile approach to change.

Carrie:
I’m Carrie. My sense is you asked how the detours might have changed things and, if our vision is visionary and broad and big enough, then the detours should … They’re a gut check to ladder up to that to ensure that our vision is really truly the north star and that the detours should be a part of that.

Kathy Ditmore:
Yeah, definitely. Thank you. Anybody else? So, I’m going to share … This clicker’s not … Got to get our check our bearings. So, how would you connect this to your practice? We’ve heard a few things here, I hear folks starting to think about this. Any ideas? It’s okay if it marinates.

Speaker 8:
Thank you. I have more than one word. For me, looking at this and thinking about the different boxes, it seems to me that some of these would be way more flexible than others. And so, while nothing is locked down, there are areas like guiding principles or vision that maybe, if those are starting to be in question because of the tactics of engagement, that goes up to another level of leadership versus my teams would be able to really be in the tactics of what engagement is. And so, I think that that is really helpful and something that I would bring back to my practice.

Kathy Ditmore:
Yeah, thank you for sharing that. We have one over here.

Speaker 19:
Just a question. When you said a minute ago the long vision exercise that was five weeks, wondering how you landed that, how you knew you were done and did the map help? Did you go into significance of benefits and cross connect that or was it totally unrelated to that?

Kathy Ditmore:
So, with that particular audience, not everybody, when you present the canvas, they’re like, “Ah,” the eyes glaze over. I think your head’s like … Right? And you don’t have to use this canvas, any canvas but it’s really helped to guide your conversations. You can use other tools. You had asked earlier how would I do this with my sponsors. Sometimes I’m interviewing the sponsors individually, I’m collating the information and I’m sharing it out to them to make sure we’re theming it correctly and we’re then evolving a vision together. Sometimes that’s an interesting exercise because it surfaces, they haven’t necessarily talked to each other, so it surfaces a lot of those polarities or personal agendas or something else that may not tie into what I’m getting from the most senior sponsor. So, you can use different methods to surface this information and bring it together. Okay, that’s it. Anybody else?

Tamara:
I guess the first thing I would say, hi, I’m Tamara. First of all, I applaud you and everyone else who is willing to get up and present because I think facilitating a group of facilitators, speaking of F words, is the f’in hardest thing on the planet-

Kathy Ditmore:
Terrifying.

Tamara:
… because it’s hard. And so, I also want to thank you for starting with your reminders that you really asked us to stay curious and to lean into it and make it real. I really appreciate that because this gave me an opportunity to think about my own impulses as a participant facilitator. But I recognized I have a lot of impulses around the use of posters, I use a lot of these too and what I realized is, oh, when you put something in front of me, I want to read every single word, I want to make sure I got it right, how do I get an A plus, what are we going to do. But I think that it helped me realize that I have to rethink the use of some of these tools to be thoughtful about different ways that people start to enter into something like a shared space like this. So, anyway, thank you.

Kathy Ditmore:
Thank you. I’ve got a couple minutes and I’m happy to keep talking about the tool after. I want to share a couple of things. Somebody asked, “Where would you use this?” I’ve mentioned it, anywhere. Use it at project initiation, you could use it as a health check, you can use it in your strategy sessions, you can use it when you encounter detours, when you need to do a project rescue, that poor guy, just lost. You can use it for your readiness checks, you can use it for your resource shifts, you can use it any point you need to align or realign, when you’re onboarding teams, when you’re offboarding someone, who’s still filling that spot, what does that mean to how you’re approaching things and you can use it at the beginning when you’re trying to develop your strategy.

Quick example of how I might use this from a rescue perspective or when I have a project going off track. This one, I might do with not the entire team but pieces of my team. So, the paper that you have has a bunch of questions. So, I might take one of these that’s filled out for what I know about the project but then I’m going to look at it and go, “Mmm, what’s really happening?”

Speaker 35:
H, M, L, C?

Kathy Ditmore:
Oh, I’m going to get into that. High, medium, low, complete and a green check mark. So, when I identify gaps, I might talk to my sponsors and say this is a high impact to our success or a medium impact or a low impact that might prioritize what we need to work on next. You see that it was something we talked about and it’s complete, we can remove it the next time we look at it. And a check mark is telling me we’ve got some good things going on too. By the way, we worked through some incremental process milestones, we’re going to see some winds along the way and generate some noise. Someone had asked about sponsors, it takes time to work through vision, indeed it does.

In this example, I happened to have a sponsor who had made a commitment that was not part of our original vision, our original benefits and so it resulted in a pause to the project where we needed to regroup and determine how serious that was because what they were asking for was a very different project. So, while we may have achieved what we all agreed to in our charter and our vision and our benefits, it wouldn’t be what the most senior stakeholder was looking for so it would have been considered a fail. So, this is another way to use the tool to evaluate how your project is doing. Okay, time. So, I think we’ve talked about our insights for the road ahead. Using a tool like this may help in identifying that clear north star, that purpose, that vision. It’s a tool for dialogue whether you use it as is or to help frame what discussion do you want to be having with your team so they can connect around that central vision and then, hopefully, you’re delivering together well.

My last one. So, I want to say thank you to my guides along the way, I’ve had plenty of people help me. Voltage Control and Douglas, Douglas took my phone call and was like, “Yeah,” but thank you for the invitation. This was terrifying and fun and I can go down many rabbit holes and it was really hard to pick which rabbit hole to go down. John Rabasa, amazing guide and mentor. Erin Nicole Gordon of The Wayfind, she was very helpful and I really appreciated her guidance that she gave me. Mark Reilley is my boss, he’s an amazing boss, he’s super encouraging at Pew. And my dear friends Claudia who couldn’t be here this year, Randy Logan and Penny Potts, they, any phone call, just let me ramble on for hours even though I’m sure their eyes were glazing over. So, thank you all and I’m happy to chat with you at any point. Thanks.

The post Mapping the Change Journey 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.

At the 2025 Facilitation Lab Summit, Dom Michalec led an engaging and thought-provoking workshop titled “Facilitating Transformation,” focusing on the practical aspects of creating lasting change—both personally and professionally. With a mix of theory, hands-on activities, and personal reflection, Dom took attendees on a journey of understanding how transformation happens and how we, as facilitators, can support others in driving meaningful change.

Defining Transformation: Starting with Ourselves

Dom began the session by addressing the essential question: What does transformation really mean? In his simple yet profound definition, transformation is about creating lasting change that sticks—whether for ourselves, our colleagues, our businesses, or even communities. The focus was clear: to facilitate meaningful transformation in others, we must first practice the skills of change within ourselves.

“Start with yourself,” Dom encouraged. “Practice the skills of transformation so you can help others develop those skills too.”

This message set the tone for the entire session, where personal growth and reflection were key to building effective facilitation practices. Dom emphasized that true transformation begins from within and that facilitators must be willing to embark on their own journeys of change.

The Power of Tiny Habits in Facilitating Transformation

A significant part of Dom’s session focused on how to make transformation more practical and accessible. Drawing from Behavior Design principles, Dom shared insights from Dr. BJ Fogg’s work on creating small, lasting changes through tiny habits. According to Fogg, one of the most practical ways to introduce change is to start small—tiny habits that can be integrated easily into everyday life. These small steps create momentum and build the foundation for larger, lasting changes.

“Tiny habits are not about big transformations all at once. They’re about starting small and building the muscle for change,” Dom explained. “You don’t need motivation to start. You just need to start.”

Breaking Down the Process of Behavior Change

Throughout the session, Dom guided participants through a hands-on exploration of behavior change. One of the key takeaways was the Fogg Behavior Model, which explains that behavior happens when three elements converge: motivation, ability, and a prompt.

• Motivation is the desire to perform the behavior.
• Ability refers to how easy or difficult the behavior is.
• Prompt is the reminder or cue to take action.

The key takeaway? To change behavior, we must focus on making the behavior as easy as possible to do, which eliminates the need for high motivation. For example, Dom shared a practical approach to creating tiny habits by breaking down large goals into small, actionable steps. By focusing on simplicity and celebrating success, even the smallest behavior can become a powerful habit.

Creating Lasting Change through Celebration and Identity

A central concept Dom introduced was the importance of celebration in cementing new habits. Unlike traditional notions of reward, Dom highlighted that immediate positive emotions, rather than delayed rewards, help behaviors become ingrained into our routines.

“Celebrate every small success,” Dom emphasized. “It’s the emotion that drives habits, not repetition. The more positive emotion you associate with a habit, the more automatic it becomes.”

Another critical point Dom made was about the role of identity in habit formation. He asked participants to reflect on their habits and how those habits align with their identity. When we design habits that reflect who we are and what we value, those behaviors are more likely to stick.

Practical Exercises and Insights

Dom’s session was filled with interactive exercises that helped participants apply these concepts to their own lives. One such activity invited attendees to reflect on a habit that sparks joy in their lives and how that habit reinforces their identity. By sharing these reflections with others, participants were able to connect with their motivations and understand how small habits can play a significant role in creating lasting change.

Through group discussions and individual reflection, participants discovered common themes of identity reinforcement, such as creative pursuits or physical activity, that enhance both personal and professional growth. These simple, everyday habits were identified as critical in building a foundation for greater transformation.

Key Takeaways from Dom Michalec’s Session

• Transformation begins with small steps: Focus on tiny habits that are easy to do and align with your identity.
• Celebrate successes: Positive emotions, immediately following a behavior, help solidify it into a lasting habit.
• Clarify your aspirations: Align your habits with long-term outcomes to ensure lasting change.
• Behavior design works: Focus on motivation, ability, and prompts to create change that sticks.

Dom’s session at the 2025 Facilitation Lab Summit provided both actionable insights and valuable tools for facilitators to integrate transformation into their own lives and the lives of others. His approach reinforced that lasting change doesn’t require large, dramatic shifts but instead focuses on small, consistent actions.

Watch the full video below:

Transcript of Dom’s Session:

Dom Michalec:
Thank you, thank you. Thank you, Eric. Everyone hear me all right? Perfect. Before we get started, just to bring a little energy in the room, I want to use this as an opportunity to express a little bit of gratitude for Voltage Control for hosting us. Jamie, helping to put everything together. Douglas, Eric, y’all make it run really smooth in the background. Really appreciate that.

So to get started today, obviously you can see the title of this time, Facilitating Transformation. And I think it behooves us to have a really nice working definition of what we mean by transformation. How many folks in here have been a part of a transformation effort at work, and we have no idea what it really means at the end of the day, right? When I think about transformation, I think about it in a very simple terms. Creating lasting change, whether that’s lasting change for ourselves, for others, for our colleagues, for businesses, societies, communities. Creating lasting change that actually sticks. And in thinking about it that way, I think when we go into the session right now, the best way to practice those skills of change, those skills of transformation, of creating a lasting change, is to start with ourselves. Start with ourselves, practice the skills, so when we’re ready, we can take it out to the world and we can help other people gain these skills as well.

So, what are we talking about today? In the word of modern day philosopher and my favorite athlete of all time, Allen Iverson, we’re talking about practice. Not the game, not the game, but practice. And early this morning, we practiced a bunch of different skills. Skills of changing the narrative, creating change through how we tell stories, creating change for the conditions, creating psychological safety, creating that safety net, and creating change for our own and mapping our own change journey. So today what we’re going to do, is we’re going to practice skills of change of creating habits for ourselves. We’re going to create behavior change in ourselves. I’m going to show you, as Eric alluded to, why starting small, starting tiny is usually the right place to start no matter where you are.

So for the past, what, at this point seven years, I’ve been in pursuit of answers to this question. What’s the most practical way to create a lasting change? Does anyone have any ideas? Just throw it out there. I’ll give my answer here in a moment. Yes, sir.

Speaker 2:
Just start.

Dom Michalec:
I’m sorry?

Speaker 2:
Just start.

Dom Michalec:
Just start. I love it. What other ways, what other practical ways have you? Yes, please.

Speaker 3:
Create the environment that [inaudible 00:02:58].

Dom Michalec:
Create the environment. You read the book, that’s great. All right, who else? Yes.

Speaker 4:
Document it, and then reinforce the positive feeling.

Dom Michalec:
Document it and reinforce those feelings. Yeah, okay. One more, we’ll take one more. I think I saw your hand go first.

Speaker 5:
I read the [inaudible 00:03:15] book and I think you say start small.

Dom Michalec:
Yes.

Speaker 5:
[inaudible 00:03:20].

Dom Michalec:
Small is fast there yeah, exactly, tiny. You can start at any time, no matter the conditions you’re in.

So, what we’re going to do today is we’re going to walk through basically a workshop to together where we use what I consider to be the most practical way to introduce change into your life, whether it’s personal, professional, whatever it may be. Everyone’s here for different reasons, but we’re all here to learn. We’re all here to help create change in our societies and our businesses and ourselves. Everyone’s here for different reasons, that have different motivations, different aspirations, different outcomes you’re trying to shoot for after you leave this summit. But I’ve designed this session in a way that no matter what your aspirations or your intended outcomes are for coming to the summit, you can walk away with practical change strategies that you can take with you and put into your life immediately after leaving.

So, I think this is a great working definition, or not working definition, but a great quote from, as Eric alluded to, a colleague of mine, Dr. BJ Fogg. I’ve had the great pleasure of being able to work with BJ for the past four years. There’s really two people that inspire me in this line of work that I do, one being BJ, and another one is here in the room today. Steph Weldy. Steph Weldy has been working with BJ for, what is it 10 years now?

Steph Weldy:
Just shy, yeah.

Dom Michalec:
Yeah, just shy. Anyways, so this quote, it will help set the scene for what we plan on doing today. There’s really only three ways that you can create lasting change, according to BJ. Have an epiphany, change your environment. Someone said, redesign your environment back here, I believe. Change your environment or change your habits in small ways. I don’t know about anyone else in this room, but I’m not a magician. I can’t create epiphanies for myself. Maybe you can, I don’t know. If you can’t, that’s cool. So where can we start? If we want to create change, lasting change transformation in ourselves, where do we start? We’re going to change our habits today in tiny ways.

So as we get into this session, again, I’m going to give pretty detailed instructions, but that doesn’t mean that they’re going to always make sense to you. So I do encourage folks as we go through today’s session, you got a question? Throw your hand up. Dom, that didn’t make sense. Dom, what about this? Dom, whatever, just go ahead and raise your question. Go ahead and interrupt, we have plenty of time to get through this.

So, just to get the blood flowing in true Voltage Control fashion, I want to ask everyone to get up. And we’re going to talk to each other. So I know it may be a challenge, you may have talked to a lot of folks already. I want to ask you to try to find someone new in the room. And I’m going to invite you to first think about this for yourself. What is that one habit that you have in your life today that sparks an absolute sense of joy? And how does that habit that you have serve your identity or some aspect of your identity? Think about that for a moment. What I want everyone to do, is I want you to pair up and I want you to share your reflection with a colleague or someone in the room. Let’s start with someone who you haven’t met yet. So, let’s start there. Share your reflection to those questions.

So we’ve had a chance to talk to two other people about that habit in their life that sparks absolute joy. And we asked them, what about that habit is reinforcing your identity? How does it serve your identity? We’d love to hear from someone and don’t share your, don’t feel free to… You don’t have to share the habits themselves, but what’d you learn from your conversations? What maybe themes did you draw from your conversations with folks? Anyone? Please, yes.

Speaker 10:
It’s such simple things that we’re doing, they’re not big activities, but it was tiny things that have spark joy.

Dom Michalec:
Yeah, cool. Awesome. Yeah, Stacy, is it? Okay, cool. I can see the tag.

Stacy:
Most people I talked to did something specifically in the morning, first thing.

Dom Michalec:
Yeah.

Stacy:
Do mornings, or-

Dom Michalec:
Sorry. We’re going fast here, we’re going fast here. Yeah, usually, I mean, we’ll get in this in a moment, but identifying the aspects of your routine. Usually morning routines are great and are great anchor moments for creating habits. Your name?

Frank:
Frank.

Dom Michalec:
Frank. Sorry, I couldn’t see your name tag. Go ahead.

Frank:
So actually, we had the same habit, is to focus on something creative, both with art. So using art as a way to be creative, and I noticed how that spilled over into my work as well. So, it’s making sure that we take time out to kind of be creative.

Dom Michalec:
Cool.

Frank:
And find a creative pursuit, so.

Dom Michalec:
That’s awesome. We’ll take one more and I will let… Yep, that’s fine by me.

Speaker 9:
Both of us had a common habit around being active and healthy, and I think someone else said it, but just to do the thing and not… And I brought up the fact that you don’t want to rely on motivation because you won’t have it every day. So just do a little bit of it, even if you don’t feel like it.

Dom Michalec:
Cool, excellent. Yeah, so you’ll notice that in these conversations, at least what I noticed, I saw a lot of people light up when they got to talk about their favorite habit, even with a complete stranger. I’ve never met you before, I want to tell you about my favorite habit. I also heard some aspects of reinforcing parts of our identity, our creative side, our physical. Some folks identify they like to be physically fit and active and like to cultivate habits that push that part of our identity forward. What’s important to take away from this exercise is that, I believe you hit on it. I didn’t hear anyone talk about anything that took a lot of motivation to get. You’re already doing things that you wanted to do and you’re just finding those habits that help support you in doing that. And as we get into more of the meat and potatoes of behavior design, I do, if you have a pen, paper, there’s a couple takeaways and I’ll call them out here throughout.

But here’s your first takeaway, the best way to create lasting change, and that’s for yourself, that’s for others, communities and businesses, is to do two things. These are called the maxims of behavior design. Help yourself or others do the things that you already want to do. And the second aspect is, help yourself or others feel successful. And we’ll talk about those two aspects a little bit more detail here. We’ll get a little bit systematic with this, but if you take anything away from this session, when you think about designing habits or starting new habits in your life, ask yourself, am I doing, is this something that’s, do I already want to do this? Is this something I already want to do? Are you helping yourself do the things you already want to do? And how can I make myself feel successful or others feel successful while doing it?

So, three superpowers you’re going to walk away with today, at least I hope you do. I want to do my best to make sure you get there. The first one is, you’re going to be able to explain what causes a behavior to become a habit. I’m going to get the trick answer out of the way. It’s not repetition. You won’t be able to analyze your behavior, any other person’s behavior like a true behavioral scientist. We’ll get into the model of that here in a moment. And the last one, which is my personal favorite and the whole reason why I’m here, is to help you intentionally design any new habit you want into your life. It’s really important to take into consideration the aspect of your identity that you want this habit to serve.

Today, we’re all facilitators. When we all go home, we’re brothers, we’re sisters, wives, husbands, aunts, uncles, and we nurture those aspects of our identity. So, whichever aspect of your identity or where you are, the context matters, I guess is what I’m trying to say. So when you think about the habits you want to design today, think about the context in which those habits are being designed and which aspects of your identity those habits are served. Are those okay superpowers? Are we cool with that? We walk away feeling pretty good about these like yeah, this is a good session? Okay, cool. All right, so those are your three superpowers and here are the models and methods that are going to help you gain those superpowers.
And these models and methods are the models and methods of a system called Behavior Design. The models are there to help you think clearly about your own behavior and the methods are there to help you design for behavior change. First model we’ll talk about is obviously the Fogg Behavior Model. It’s a universal model for understanding human behavior, and this is not all-encompassing, by the way. There’s a bunch of different models we could possibly go through. So I had to kind of pick and choose which ones I wanted to introduce during the session. And we’ll talk about the Spectrum of Automaticity too.

The main method we’ll talk about today, which I believe some folks maybe are already familiar with, is the method of tiny habits and the various steps to create a tiny habit. Going from a big lofty aspiration or a desired outcome, and systematically breaking that down into very tiny small steps that we can take and removing the guesswork along the way. So clarifying the aspiration, we’re going to explore our behavior options, and this is going to be a very personal session, by the way. So there will be aspects of engagement and sharing and all that stuff, but for the most part, this going to be very personal because I think habits are a fairly personal and intimate aspect of our lives. But we’re going to go through behavior matching as well, we’re going to show you how to take a habit that you want and scale it down or start with the starter step to get going. And help you find a good prompt, we’re going to help you celebrate that success.

But first, let’s start with the Fogg Behavior Model. Who here is already familiar with the Fogg Behavior Model? Steph, don’t you? Okay, cool. Got a couple folks. Again, the Fogg Behavior Model, and this is obviously named after the guy who created it, Dr. BJ Fogg, Stanford behavior scientist 20, 30 years, considered preeminent expert in this space. And when you write out the model, it goes something like this. A behavior happens when, and when I talk about a behavior, it’s any behavior. So like a behavior, or a habit is a type of behavior. A one-time behavior is obviously a behavior. Stopping behavior, it’s a type of behavior. A behavior happens when three elements converge at the same moment in time. Motivation to do the behavior, the ability to do the behavior in a prompt, a cue, someone that says, “Hey, do this behavior now.”
So when all three of those elements converge at the same time you will see a behavior performed. And if any three of these elements are missing, if a prompt is missing, if you have low ability or low motivation, you’ll see here in a moment, you will not see the behavior, you will not perform the behavior. And you can actually visualize this model on two dimensions across the vertical axis here we can plot out motivation, and motivation is a range from high to low or anything in between. So we can have high motivation to do a behavior, all the way down to low motivation to do a behavior. And like motivation, ability is also a range from high to low. But instead of saying high to low, we say easy to do for high ability, all the way down to hard to do.

And now I want to use an example here to kind of put this model into action. Let’s say the behavior we’re trying to get someone else to do, is we want them to donate $100 to the local dog shelter, let’s start there. If they have high motivation to donate to the local dog shelter and it’s fairly easy for them to do, we plot them up here in the upper right-hand corner of the Fogg Behavior Model. When prompted to make that donation, they’ll reliably do that behavior every single time. Conversely, if someone has low motivation to donate to the local dog shelter or animal shelter, I don’t know, maybe they don’t like animals for some reason. If you don’t like dogs, that’s a different conversation, but that’s just me. Maybe it’s really hard for them to do, right? Maybe they’re just not able to do it, maybe they don’t have enough money to do it. Maybe they just don’t have the time to do it, it takes too much physical effort to do. We plot them down here. What prompted to make that donation, they will not make that donation.

What I haven’t shown you yet, is there’s actually a really cool relationship between these first two elements, motivation and ability, and that relationship is represented by this cool little green curve line called the action threshold. Essentially, this action threshold is here to signify one thing. If anyone is above this action threshold or action line at the point of being prompted, they’ll reliably do the behavior every single time, that includes yourself. We like to say prompts are effective above the action line. And if anyone is below the action line of the action threshold at the point of being prompted, they will not do the behavior.

Speaker 10:
Is ability, ability, is it subjective or is it objective?

Dom Michalec:
Ability is dependent upon the person. So I’ll give you an example here. If I ask Jeff Bezos who loves dogs to make a donation to the ASPCA, he has high ability to do it. He has the time, he has the money, it’s not that hard for him, but maybe a college student who’s strapped for money and they don’t have a lot, they don’t have the ability to make the donation, they’re in class, it’s too hard. When they’re prompted to do it, they’ll fall below. So it’s all dependent upon the person. Ability is not a universal, everyone has the same ability to do a behavior. Everyone has different elements of ability to do a behavior.
I’m showing this to you now because I want you to think clearly about this model as you go through the next steps, and we’ll do some activities here to create our habits. What you notice here is like I said, there’s a relationship between motivation and ability. It’s called a compensatory relationship. The more you have of one, the less you need of another to get above the action line. So what you see here is if someone’s highly motivated to do a behavior, think about yourself in this example, if you’re super motivated to do a behavior. You can do both easy and hard to do behaviors. And if something is easy to do, you don’t have to rely so much on motivation in order to do that behavior. Hence, why we’re here today.

When we design our habits, we’re going to design our habits in a way where we can get into that upper right-hand corner, kind of stack the deck in our favor to get into that upper right-hand corner. We’re going to align on an aspiration or desired outcome, something that endures from a motivation perspective, because we know our motivation fluctuates from context to context over time, but we’re going to align to an aspiration or a desired outcome that we have, something that has enduring motivation, and we’re going to pick very specific behaviors, make them super easy to do, so we can reliably be above that action line when we prompt ourselves to do those behaviors. So that’s why I wanted to introduce this to you now, and this is a great troubleshooting, this is a great model for analyzing behavior.

So we think about maybe outside the context of this workshop, we’re at work, we want people to show up to a meeting and people are showing up late or not showing up at all. First thing we need to ask ourselves is, what’s making it hard for those people to show up to the meeting on time? Usually, a lot of times we start with motivation. We think, oh, if we just motivate people, they’ll do the things that we want them to do. We just need to motivate them, motivate them, motivate them.
What I hope you take away here is, ability is probably where we should start. How can we make things easier for people to do, for things we want them to do, including ourselves? And for things we don’t want people to do, how can we make them harder? How can we get them below the action line? So thinking about this, this adds a little bit more of an element of first starting with, how do we make something easy? How do we make a behavior easier to do so we can create a habit out of it? And then we’ll talk about motivation later, because motivation fluctuates over time, as we know.

It’s oftentimes that we hear when people create habits that they start at a desired outcome or an aspiration or a goal, and they just kind of guess as to how to achieve that goal. I want to get better sleep, so I’m going to buy this fancy pillow, or I’m going to get these new sheets, or I’m going to get to bed at 9:00 PM every single night without fail, and they just scatter shot a bunch of different behaviors to hit that goal. When you clarify the aspiration, and you’ll see here in a moment when we explore behavior options, what we’re going to do, is we’re going to ask ourselves, if I could do anything, we’re going to generate a big list and we’re going to whittle it down to the ones that are most effective for you, instead of just guessing. It’s important to have a clarified aspiration or an outcome so we know which are going to be most effective for us moving forward, so we’re not just guessing.

I know we just flew through probably the hardest thing to do in behavior design, and I’m not going to just gloss over that fact. But again, we’re just practicing this, but I hope you see now that folks who studied, folks who use behavior design, we like to get very specific about the behaviors that we like to change, whether it’s our own or for others. And you’ll notice that a lot of times, and I think everyone here at one point in time raising a hand like, I’ve been a part of a change transformation. I’ve been a part of a transformation effort in the past. In the context of work, when you go back to work, maybe you’re already still in that transformation effort. When you go back to work and you hear people talk about what we need to get done in order to transform our business.

In my experience, I’m going to project a little bit, rarely will you ever hear them speak specifically about very specific behaviors that people need to do. They’ll speak in generalities. We need to create value chains, we need to align business incentives. The hell does that mean? What are people actually doing? So this is an opportunity for you to look at your behavior in other people’s behavior in a different lens and start maybe to coach them a little bit like, well, what do you mean by aligning incentives or creating value streams? What are people doing to… If you were to watch someone create a value stream, what are they doing in order to do that? You start to think about behavior, your own and theirs, in a little bit different way.

So what have we done up to this point? And continue working, I’m just going to keep talking here. So, what have we done up to this point? We’ve clarified an aspiration or a desired outcome that we want, whether it’s a professional, personal, whatever it may be, something that matters to us. We’ve explored various avenues to achieve that aspiration or desired outcome. Again, we did a generative exercise to just explore what we could possibly do to achieve something that matters to us. And now, we’ve done focus, this is called focus mapping, by the way. We’ve brought focus to the high-impact things that we want to do that allow us or help us achieve that aspiration or desired outcome.

Now we get to the meat and potatoes of the tiny and tiny habits. We’re going to start tiny. If you were to distill down this whole idea of creating these tiny habits, it really boils down to this. Take something you want to do, distill it down into its smallest form. Find where in your environment, in your life, that habit fits best, and nurture its growth. That’s no different than how you create habits naturally, now we’re just designing very specifically and systematically in a way that habits naturally form anyways. So, what are we going to do now? We’re going to take those golden behaviors and we’re going to make them, create the tiniest form possible, that’s still providing meaning to us at the same time.

In a moment here we’ll talk about, I’ll talk it about now, with the tiny habits recipe. Remember, can someone remind me what the three elements are? A behavior happens when three things come together. What are those three things?

Audience:
[inaudible 00:23:34].

Dom Michalec:
Okay, I heard it. We have this recipe set up this way because after I do a behavior, I will do my now new behavior and immediately celebrate by, we’ll get that here in a moment. The after I, we will focus here first. The after I is the anchor moment. You’re going to use your existing routine as your prompt. So it’s not going to be an external prompt, it’s not going to be your phone dinging, it’s not going to be you putting up a sticky note. You’re going to use your existing routine as a reminder to do your new habit. Things that you are

ady do consistently in your life, you’re going to use those as your reminder, and those are called anchor moments.
I will, that’s your scaled back gold behavior. That’s the new habit that you want in your life. So let’s find a good prompt for you. I already hear some folks talking about their morning routines, you’re already kind of ahead of the game here. That’s cool, that’s cool. We’re going to identify some good prompts for you. One more new term here I want to introduce is, identifying the trailing edge of that anchor moment. Identify instead of the first thing you do in a sequence in a starter step, you identify the last sequence of something you do in your daily, weekly, monthly routines, whatever it may be. And I’ll give you an example here.

I chose the prompt of brewing a cup of coffee in the morning to wipe down one countertop in the kitchen. This is important, because it matches the physical location of where I’m want to do my new behavior, matches the frequency, and in some aspects, it’s kind of thematic for me. So this is a good match for me because I was already in the kitchen brewing a cup of coffee, let me wipe down the countertop. But that wasn’t the trailing edge prompt, that prompt didn’t have its trailing edge identified.

So, what’s a trailing edge of brewing a cup of coffee, at least in my life? Press brew on the Nespresso machine. Anyone have a Nespresso machine or a Keurig or anything like that? Okay, y’all know you have to do something, you have to get the pod, you got to put the pod in, you got to check for water, make sure that there’s a cup. Hit the button. There’s actually four or five things that you do just to get a cup of coffee. So what’s the last thing that I do? I hit brew. Hitting that button is my prompt to wipe down the countertop in the kitchen. This is the power of using your existing routine, not reminders on your phone, not the dent, not sticky notes on your computer, using your existing routine to help you identify and do a new habit.
I want to talk about one more model. And again, the models are here to help you think clearly about behavior. The methods on the right are here to help you design for behavior change. So, I did have this cool little thing pulled up on Menti, but we’re going to skip it. I just want everyone to shout out some answers. What do you think causes a behavior to become a habit? I gave you a hint earlier, it’s not repetition. One more time.

Speaker 3:
Positive reinforcement.

Dom Michalec:
Positive reinforcement. Cool. Anyone else?

Speaker 3:
Desire.

Dom Michalec:
Desire? Is that what you said? Desire? Okay, great.

Speaker 3:
Knowing your why.

Dom Michalec:
Knowing your why, okay, cool. Okay, we have the scientists in the group. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 10:
It has a low cognitive load. I don’t have to think about it, it’s easy to do.

Dom Michalec:
Okay, we’ll definitely talk about automaticity for sure. One more. These are all great by the way. Do you have any other guesses as to what causes a behavior to become a habit?

Speaker 3:
[inaudible 00:27:08].

Dom Michalec:
I didn’t want anyone to say… Because I’m about to say “No, that’s wrong,” and I didn’t want to embarrass anyone. So I was like, “No, it’s not repetition.” Go ahead.

Speaker 3:
Reward.

Dom Michalec:
Reward? Okay, let’s talk about that for a moment, before we talk about… So Dr. Fogg likes to talk about these ideas of rewards. You hear about it in pop culture, you hear about it, where if you reward behavior you’re reinforcing the behavior. What’s important to take into consideration is that the word reward is kind of circling the right answer, but it depends on when that reward is given for the behavior. If it’s an incentive, frown to the future, that’s not going to create a positive emotion, which increases your automaticity. But if it happens immediately after you do a behavior, that’s getting closer to the answer. So we’ll talk about how celebration, creating positive emotions helps create that aspect. But be very careful when we use the word reward, the timing of the reward matters a lot.

So, let’s get into it. When we think about behaviors, let’s first talk about habits. When we talk about habits, usually we talk about them in terms of, these are things that we can do just automatically. It doesn’t take a lot of thought, it doesn’t take a lot of effort, it’s just boom, we do it. We jump in the car in the morning, we drive to work, sometimes we don’t even think about how we get there, and boom, we show up to work. Whatever it may be. So these are, habits are behaviors that are fairly automatic.

So you can think about behaviors living on a spectrum of automaticity. How automatic is this behavior? How automatic is that behavior? And you can think about this on a range from left to right, things with no automaticity, behaviors are choices or decisions that we have to make. Where am I going to go on vacation? What am I going to eat for dinner tonight? Which plane ticket am I going to buy to get to Austin, Texas for this summit? Which airline am I going to use? It takes deliberation and some choice in decision-making. Whereas behaviors with high automaticity are very automatic, you can almost think of them as reflexes. And on this range, you can think of anything towards the right-hand side as a very strong habit. You have very strong habits with high automaticity. Weaker habits with still some automaticity but not quite as much as your stronger habits, and then everything else to the left is not a habit.

So the question that I’ve been asking is, what causes a behavior to become more automatic? What causes a behavior to move closer to the right-hand side of this model? And I heard some great answers. I heard pretty much, I think some folks even got it correct. It’s not repetition. Emotions make behaviors more automatic, it’s the emotion that creates a habit. It’s not the repetition. I’ll ask a quick question before we move on here. How many folks have used Uber to get around town? Okay. How many times did you have to use Uber to know that it was superior to calling a cab? It felt amazing, right? It felt like you were just, it was magic. I just put in an address, a car came by, picked me up, whisked me up, nice person drove me to my destination. It felt amazing. Feeling that emotion, that positive emotion probably made you want to use Uber again the next time and the next time and the next time. So, it’s the emotion that created the habit.

The repetition makes a behavior easier to do. It gives you more skill to do that behavior. Lifting a five pound weight every day for five minutes, you’re going to get pretty skilled at that over time. It’s not the repetition that’s creating a habit. You’re creating a skill. It’s making it… that five pound weight’s going to get easier and easier to lift in every subsequent time. So you’re increasing your ability through repetition, but it’s actually the emotion that creates the conditions for a habit to form. And someone had mentioned dopamine, the brain reward circuitry. We won’t get into the science of it, but essentially, yeah.
So, why am I talking about this? In order to wire in these habits effectively, we need to find, we need to somehow create a positive emotion. And we think about creating a positive emotion as a skill that we can bring into our tiny habit, is celebrating our success. After I hit the Nespresso button, I will wipe down one countertop and give myself a fist bump, create a positive emotion immediately after doing that behavior, so it wires in the habit and I feel good, I feel successful, and I want to come back and do it again. So after I brew my Nespresso machine or I have to hit brew on my Nespresso machine, I will wipe down one countertop in the kitchen and immediately celebrate by, yeah, give myself a fist bump and smile in the… Oh, I forgot that part, yeah, I look in the microwave mirror. I’m a huge weirdo. I do smile in the microwave every once in a while. I forgot I put that in there. Wow. Didn’t think.

Speaker 2:
[inaudible 00:32:21].

Dom Michalec:
There you go. Things that are revealed in front of 100 people that you didn’t think would be revealed. All right, cool. A big part of wiring in a new tiny habit is rehearsing that habit. So for instance, when I showed you a habit of wiping down the countertop, I did it 10 times in a row. I walked out of the kitchen, I walked in. I didn’t actually brew a cup of coffee every single time, I brewed the water, just hit the button. I walked in, hit the button, wiped down a countertop, fist bump, walked out of the kitchen. Turned back around, did it again. It looked really silly but it helped and it wired it in. And the very next day, it was very automatic. I didn’t even have to think about it. I was like, oh, of course I hit the brew button, I wipe down the counter.

So take these cards with you, put in your back pocket, your bags, whatever it may be. And whatever environment that your new tiny habits you want to do these in, make sure that you rehearse them after you leave today. And make sure you’re rehearsing the celebration aspect of those tiny habits, that’s the important part, a lot of people skip that. It’s like, I’ll just do the tiny habit, I’ll do the celebration later. No, celebrate every single time. Again, it’s that positive emotion. It’s the emotion that creates the habit. It’s what moves it into automaticity. Celebrate every single time.

This is going to maybe sound a little, I don’t know, I don’t want to say overstated, but I do want everyone to take a moment to recognize how far you come in just an hour and a half. Not to compare, but think about how many people are outside of this room right now who want to make a change in their lives and they don’t know where to start. Y’all have taken an amazing first step today, and the idea here is, as you walk out of this room today, share what you learn. Teach people the Fogg Behavior Model. Learn about the Fog Behavior Model, teach it to people. Use your skills of change to help other people change their lives as well. Don’t just hold all the magic for yourself. Apply these skills, get better at them. Create habits. Put those habits, troubleshoot those habits. If you miss a habit, ask yourself and go, what can I do to make this easier? Do I need to switch up the prompt?

There’s another method in tiny habits called iterate, troubleshoot, and expand. We didn’t cover that today because obviously there’s nothing to troubleshoot, we haven’t put them into practice yet. But do take note that if you don’t do a habit, take it as a moment of curiosity. Why did I forget to do that, or why am I not doing this? Explore that. But take a moment to recognize how far you’ve come today in just an hour and a half, officially, hour and a half in about five seconds. But also don’t hold it all for yourself. If you learned something that you really enjoyed, share it with others. Get them curious as well. Maybe you can have a big impact on their life as well, in very tiny ways.

For those who don’t want to share vocally what they thought or what they learned, feel free to scan this QR code, give me some feedback. But I’m looking for feedback. How’d it go? What’d you learn? What’s one thing that resonated with you in today’s session? Outside of, my hand is hurting because you just made me write a mile a minute for an hour and a half.

Speaker 12:
Dom, thank you. I do think we did come pretty far, at least I feel like I did.

Dom Michalec:
Good.

Speaker 12:
The emotion nugget was definitely something that was sort of a new nuance to me.

Dom Michalec:
Cool.

Speaker 12:
And I like the idea of cheesy celebrations. So, you the man.

Dom Michalec:
Good.

Speaker 12:
I’m the woman.

Dom Michalec:
Let’s go.

Speaker 12:
You are awesome.

Dom Michalec:
Let’s go. All right, we’ll take time for one more because I know we’re out of time. I know Eric and Douglas have some pretty important things to wrap up. So we’ll take one more insight, one more aha moment.

Speaker 13:
I really like the idea of going deeper, because we could have stopped at this first step and been like, okay, we feel good about that and then tried to figure out how we can activate against it. But it was like, no, take it kind of a step further. What does that mean? Kind of just dig deeper, dig deeper, and then put it on a grid so that you could really, really understand which ones are the easiest ones, but still going to help you the most. So, just the overall framework was very good.

Dom Michalec:
Cool.

Speaker 13:
And then specifically just not stopping at the first thing that you come up with. It’s like, dig a little bit deeper, like doing the double click.

Dom Michalec:
There’s so many paths to achieving the things you want to achieve in life, and you learn the skills of how to navigate that. It’s cool.
Thank you all so much. Appreciate that.

Speaker 13:
Thank you.

The post Facilitating Transformation appeared first on Voltage Control.

At the 2025 Facilitation Lab Summit, Caterina Rodriguez led an insightful workshop exploring the powerful role of non-verbal communication in facilitation. In a room filled with facilitators, leaders, and team builders, Caterina took participants on a deep dive into how our bodies, gestures, eye contact, and even silence contribute to the effectiveness of facilitated sessions. Her session emphasized that facilitation is not just about words; it’s about how we use our physical presence to guide and influence group dynamics.

The Power of Non-Verbal Cues

Non-verbal communication, while often underestimated, plays a crucial role in holding space and fostering connection. Caterina kicked off her session with a fun, energetic exercise to shake off the “lunch slump” and get the room moving. As she led the group through a few lines of the Cha-Cha Slide, it became clear that how we move in a space—whether it’s dancing, standing tall, or leaning in to listen—has a powerful effect on the people around us.

Caterina’s focus on non-verbal cues was not just about body language; it was about the whole spectrum of communication that goes beyond words. She walked participants through three key forms of non-verbal communication:

Vocal Cues and Silence: The tone, pitch, and pace of our voice influence how participants interpret our words. Silence, often overlooked, is also a powerful tool in guiding reflection and allowing participants time to process.

Facial Expressions and Eye Contact: These are the most obvious forms of non-verbal communication. Facial expressions communicate emotions, and eye contact signals engagement and attentiveness.

Body Language: Posture, gestures, and proximity all shape the physical space of facilitation. How we stand, where we position ourselves, and how we physically interact with the room can significantly impact how comfortable and engaged participants feel.

Understanding Your Non-Verbal Style

Before diving into strategies to refine our non-verbal communication, Caterina emphasized the importance of self-awareness. Participants were guided through a self-assessment to identify their unique non-verbal style and how it translates into their facilitation work. She encouraged facilitators to recognize that there is no single “right” way to use non-verbal communication—it’s a matter of authenticity and adaptation.

Practical Strategies for Facilitators

The bulk of Caterina’s session was dedicated to hands-on strategies to improve non-verbal communication in facilitation. Here are some of the key techniques she highlighted:

1. Own Your Physical Presence: Your posture and body language immediately set the tone of the room. Facilitators who stand tall, make eye contact, and use open body language invite participation and set a welcoming tone.
2. Leverage Eye Contact: Use eye contact to engage participants and guide the flow of the session. By intentionally making eye contact with someone, you encourage their participation and create a sense of connection.
3. Experiment with Vocal Variety: Varying your tone, pace, and volume helps shape the energy in the room. For example, slowing down your speech or lowering your voice can signal a shift to a more reflective or serious moment.
4. Play with Proximity and Space: How you move through the room or position yourself relative to participants can impact engagement. Caterina encouraged facilitators to experiment with proximity, moving closer to build connection or stepping back to give space for others to contribute.
5. Embrace Silence: Silence can be uncomfortable but is an essential tool for reflection. As a facilitator, allowing moments of quiet after a prompt can encourage deeper thinking and invite more thoughtful responses from participants.

The Role of Non-Verbal Trust

One of the most powerful insights Caterina shared was the impact of non-verbal communication on group trust. Research has shown that facilitators who use positive non-verbal cues—such as open body language, making eye contact, and aligning their energy with the group—help build stronger trust within the group. When people feel seen and heard on a deeper, non-verbal level, they are more likely to engage and share openly.

Whole Body Listening: An Essential Skill for Facilitators

As the session drew to a close, Caterina introduced the concept of “whole body listening.” This technique encourages facilitators to listen not just with their ears but with their whole body—paying attention to verbal cues as well as non-verbal cues such as body language, facial expressions, and even silence.

Caterina provided exercises to practice whole body listening, encouraging participants to be present in the moment and to respond to not only the words but also the underlying emotions and energy that participants are conveying. This method helps build stronger, more meaningful connections and fosters an environment where participants feel truly heard and understood.

Key Takeaways

Caterina’s session reminded us that as facilitators, we are more than just speakers or presenters—we are the ones who set the tone and create the environment for connection, collaboration, and transformation. By refining our non-verbal communication, we can hold space more effectively and create deeper connections with participants.

• Non-verbal cues (body language, eye contact, vocal tone) are just as important as verbal communication in facilitating meaningful conversations.
• Being self-aware of your non-verbal style can help you adapt and engage more effectively with diverse groups.
• Silence and body language can guide the flow of a session, build trust, and help you connect with participants on a deeper level.
• Whole body listening is a powerful tool for facilitators to enhance their presence and ensure that everyone feels seen and heard.

Caterina’s session was a vibrant and enlightening exploration of the often-overlooked aspects of facilitation. It reminded us that facilitation is about the whole experience—the spoken, the unspoken, and everything in between.

Watch the full video below:

Transcript of Cat’s Session:

Speaker 1:
Thank you. So Eric did give you a teaser, and I’m going to ask you all to get on your feet because it is lunch. It’s that lunch slump of the day. It’s day two. People are a little tired. So we’re going to do little exercise. You might recognize this as it starts to fade in, and I expect all of you to follow. Yep. Ready? We’re going to… And I want you to get funky.

MUSIC:
To the left.
Take it back now, y’all.
One hop this time
One hop this time.
Right foot, two stomps.
Left foot, two stomps.
Slide to the left.
Slide to the right.
Crisscross.

Speaker 1:
All right. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. I let DJ Casper do a little bit of our warming up for us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So I am Cat from Orlando. It’s lovely to be here with you all. I wear actually dual hats in my work. So I actually have a full-time job where I do a lot of program design, learning and development, and internal org development facilitation for my full-time employer, which is ADL. Never a dull time to be in a civil rights organization right now. And then my other hat is as a consultant. That’s actually how I got plugged into this community. And I’m so, so excited to be here with you all to really dive into what we all love and eat and breathe, which is gathering people.

When I thought about what I wanted to bring to the space, I really wanted to think about the bodily experience of both facilitating and being a participant in a facilitated space. So a little fun fact about me is that I’ve always been in the social justice space in some way, shape, or form, but I actually got started in the theological space. I was training to be a hospital chaplain, quickly realized that I do not compartmentalize well enough to last in that profession. So God bless to those who do it. But what I realized as a chaplain in training was the importance of my physical and non-verbal presence in that space, because it’s often in situations where words just fail. And I got to really reflect on what was the transformative power of hearing and seeing someone without using my words.

And so ever since then, I’ve always really wanted to explore ways to bring that to the forefront of my practice. And so that’s what we’re going to be doing today. But first, why is this important at all for you all as facilitators? We don’t just create containers, we hold them, and how we hold them matters. And so as facilitators, the ways in which we hold that container are going to determine the outcomes, not just of what you’re trying to do, but also the connections that you’re making. So, we’re going to be doing a couple of things over the next hour and 25 minutes that we have left. We’re going to start at just understanding why non-verbal communication is important. We’re going to take a look at what does that even mean. It means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Sometimes we have ideas of the most obvious forms of non-verbals, and sometimes there’s some more unspoken ones that we’re going to also dig into.

We’re also going to be reflecting on and doing a little bit of a self-assessment. Because before we can even talk about how am I going to go into space and use this to both hold a space and engage my participants, I need to figure out, well, what is my non-verbal style? And I’m going to give you a spoiler, there’s no one right way to do that. It’s going to be heavily relying on a lot of personal factors that we’ll explore. We’re going to learn some practical strategies about how do we start to fine-tune our non-verbal styles in facilitation spaces to create those deeper connections and deeper more meaning-making conversations. And then we’re going to practice, right? That’s the theme of this summit, right, practice makes practice. We’re going to practice quite a bit towards the end in using non-verbal cues to both listen and respond.

So with that, I want you to ground yourselves in a time. Ground yourselves in a time, the very first time you realized the impact of non-verbal communication. This can be in a personal setting or it can be in a professional setting, either way, but one of the earliest memories you became keenly aware of non-verbal communication. What I want you to do is hone in on the impact that realization had on you.

So I’ll give you an example. My earliest one is personal. I immigrated to the United States with my family when I was 13, I’m originally from Dominican Republic. I come from a family that has a huge Latin American and Mediterranean background. Hint, hint, I may or may not be the facilitator that has three citizenships. So bingo for you. And so I grew up being very physical touch and proximity, not an issue. In fact, every space that I entered growing up, it was expected that you would, I mean literally find every person in that space and go [foreign language 00:06:15]. It was just you went around and you found every person in that space or else you were kind of seen as a little bit rude.

And then when it was time to say goodbye, we’d reverse it, ” [foreign language 00:06:31]. Yeah. Not a fun time during COVID. Not at all. So when we moved to the United States, when I was 13 years old we moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Yeah, lovely place. I’m just saying yeah because of the shock, right? Imagine that drastic change in culture. I will never forget the first time that we met our neighbors and we went to go in and say hi. I was like, “Hey, nice to… ” and I literally leaned in and they went, “Nice to meet you.” I was like, “Oh, right, that’s not a thing that I guess people do here.”
In that moment I realized two things. One is I wasn’t even reading the situation. Non-verbals were not a thing to me up until that point in my life. And what the impact that stuck with me was I’m different from these people and there are big adjustments I’m about to have to make. And what that would mean later on in life and all the other thing,. But that’s where I think that realization of really big difference started for me because DR is a tiny country, it’s very homogenous. The US is not that. And so that for me was the first realization of difference.

So that’s what I want you to do is take the next two minutes and I want you to hone in. You don’t have to write it, you can if that helps you record it, but I want you to think about that first moment you became keenly aware of non-verbal communication and the impact it had on you.

All right, we’re going to keep that music going, but what I want you to do now, stay at your tables. So I just had you up and moving a lot. We’re going to move again a little bit later, but I’ll let you chill for now. Turn to your neighbor and if you have an odd number, it’s okay if there’s a triad at your table, and take the next five minutes to talk about that moment and that impact and what it meant for you.

So would love to hear from a couple of folks. Tell us a little bit about what surfaced in your conversations, whether you drew up an insight or something came up for you unexpectedly. Please share your name when you speak.

Speaker 3:
I have to share my name? Sarah. It’s Sarah. It’s Brian Terello, the one that won the gravy packet yesterday. So Granny and I are here talking about our experiences. They were both young, traumatizing experiences with a mother. Her mother gave her a look, and then I got a look in junior high school. I moved to a new school in a new part of the country where I didn’t know anybody and didn’t know the culture and wasn’t part of a group or anything. And I said something, I don’t even know what it was, but the girls gave me the look and I was like, “What is that?” I felt terrible and they just all dispersed, and I was like, “I don’t know what I said.” It was terrible and it was an icky experience. And they were wondering if anybody actually had a positive experience with this.

Speaker 1:
Yeah, I mean, y’all are in conversation with each other. Anyone have positive experiences? So many. Anyone want to share? Oh gosh, there’s so many hands.

Speaker 4:
I’d love to share. Oops. Can I share here in the middle since I have the mic? I’m Jackie. Thank you.

Speaker 1:
I was like, “Wait, wait, wait, wait.”

Speaker 4:
Not that I want to be authoritative in that way, but I’ll take advantage. It took us a moment to think about it, first of all, it’s not an easy prompt. And then when we talked about really that I shared that feels so powerful to me, I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily early, but it’s powerful and it has to do with certain morning rituals. I’m Jewish, and so when you make a condolence call, you do something you call you sit shiva. You sit down with a person, you might not even say a word to them. You sit with them and you let them lead if they want to speak. And just your physical presence of being there with them brings comfort to them and to you and you’re so attuned in that moment. It’s incredibly powerful.

I’ve also had the experience with people who have sadly been ill or had a loss in their family and just as a close friend sitting with them looking deeply into their eyes and feeling what’s in their heart. There’s something so incredibly powerful about it. And yeah, thank you for asking the question because that’s a positive non-verbal. I mean, it might’ve been in a sad occasion, but it’s positive in terms of the power of being present with someone.

Speaker 1:
Yeah, thanks for sharing that, Jackie. Really appreciate that. Maybe a couple other folks. Yeah, Catherine.

Speaker 5:
Okay, so my first memory, it came to me really fast unlike some of you, I don’t know why. But my mom was driving with me in a car. I was probably maybe two or three, I’m not really even sure. I was sitting in the front seat, so you know how long ago that was. I remember her at a stoplight, we stopped the car for some reason, and I remember her leaning down and giving me an Eskimo kiss. And it makes me a little bit clumped here because physical touch matters and that the small moments count.

Speaker 1:
Thanks, Karen. All right, maybe one more over on… Yep, right here, perfect timing.

Speaker 6:
Hi, I’m Lily, and I wanted to share mine because mine felt like a little bit of a cop-out because I’m actually deaf. I have bilateral cochlear implants, and so my parents really tried to do over-exaggerated facial expressions, like mouth movement, like ways to help me realize that when you speak you have to speak it, you can’t just move your mouth and make words. So especially before I had these cochlear implants, I couldn’t hear, and so they had to use those gestures, those facial expressions, the eye contact, the exaggerated looks of surprise or happiness or whatever to get me to make that connection to whatever the thing went on at the time.

Speaker 1:
Yeah, thanks, Lily, for introducing also that level of accessibility when we lean into not just our verbal, but also our non-verbal communication.

All right, so I want us to stay anchored in that. I think the big theme that’s coming up for us is the power and the lasting impact that non-verbal communication can have on us, whether it’s for the better or the worse. And so let’s talk a little bit about what we mean when we say non-verbal communication before we dig into exploring our own styles. I am a very systematic thinker. I love buckets of categories. You can tell I might be a little bit of a Virgo. Aye, my Virgos. Don’t worry for my Leos in the room, I’m actually a Virgo Leo cusp, so I got you too. Yeah, I see you.

Actually, what we’re looking at here is by column. Our first column is what most people immediately think of when we say non-verbal communication, it’s what’s happening on our face. So our facial expressions, how we’re using our mouth, our eyebrows to express different kinds of reactions and emotions. And then, of course, there’s our eye contact, so how we’re using our gaze. Where is it going to? Is that where I’m focusing? Have you ever been in a conversation with someone and you’re talking to them and then all of a sudden they’re like, “Uh-huh. Yeah,” and they’re over here and I’m like, “Yeah, yeah, I got you.” And so how we use our gaze. That first column we’re talking about face. That’s the most common recall of non-verbal communication.

Our middle column here is our whole body, our whole body and movement. So we’re talking about our gestures and our postures. This is much more upper body, so our gestures, how we’re gesticulating with our arms, with our hands. I actually tend to gesture a whole lot more, but I have a handheld mic because these curls will not be tamed and the mic would land right where it hits. So I would typically be gesturing a whole lot more with both of my hands, just because that’s how I grew up. And then our posture, how are we standing. We’ll talk a little bit about what those different kinds of body cues might mean in a bit. And then proximity and movement. So this is how we are inhabiting the space in terms of the actual spatial awareness, as well as in relation to people. So I’m here right now delivering some kind of information, but as you all were talking, I was moving around the room trying to glean some of your incredible nuggets of wisdom that you were talking about.And also, if I’m having a direct conversation with someone, if I move in a little bit closer to listen as I make that eye contact versus maybe move back as I’m trying to address a larger group of people. So all about the movement of our whole body.

And then that last column, that’s the one that actually most people don’t think of, which is sound. We think non-verbal means that it’s all about non-sound things of our body, but actually, vocal cues are a huge part of our non-verbal communication. So it’s not what we’re saying but how we’re saying it. So the tone, the pitch, the pace. You could probably tell right after we did the Cha-Cha Slide and I started, I was talking up here and a little bit quickly. Part of that was absolutely you should probably not dance that hard right before you’re about to be the one speaking, because I was definitely a little bit winded.The other part is just like those jitters that come in the first two to three minutes. I’ll be super vulnerable with you, it was absolutely the Cha-Cha Slide and nerves at the same time that had me up here, where I almost couldn’t catch my breath.

So that is what we mean when we say vocal cues, like how are we holding that voice, how fast are we talking, how high or low are we talking? And then my favorite one is silence. So how and when do you choose to lean into the absence of sound? We’ll talk a bit about what that looks like. I just want to leave you with just three really interesting key insights to drill down on this idea of why non-verbal communication is so important, especially for facilitators who are people-gatherers.
So there’s this thing called the 7-38-55 rule, which is often misunderstood and people actually think that the research says that 93% of all communication is non-verbal. That’s actually not what that means at all. What this actually means is it’s taking a look at when verbals and non-verbals don’t match, what happens, which happens a lot. I’m sure that for all of you in this room that are facilitating groups of people, often you realize that what’s surfacing verbally is only 30 to 50% of the story, right? Yeah, I’m starting to see some nodding heads in there.

What actually happens when those two are not aligned is that people actually pay way more attention to the non-verbal cues in the space than they do verbally. So when those aren’t in alignment, people are only making meaning at 7% from what’s being said. The other 93% is from vocal cues, so how it’s being said, and from all of the silent body language, facial expressions, all those other things that we just talked about. So this is point one as to why it’s really, really important for us to refine this and become really aware of what our style is and where we can lean in to engage our groups.

Next we have emotional synchrony. So this is that as facilitators who hold these containers, we have the power to shape the energy in that room without saying a single word with how we show up. I mean, granted, DJ Casper was saying all the words, but I didn’t say anything. I was just moving with y’all, right? There’s also something that happens where people start to unconsciously mirror the energy and the non-verbal language that we’re giving off. It’s not that it’s going to magically happen all at once, but because of the role that we inhabit as facilitators, they do look to us at a certain point, especially at the very beginning. Once we start to dig in, because our goal as facilitators is to create that incredible conversation between each other, not just with me, so they’ll start to take those cues from each other as well. But at the beginning, in that foundational first five minutes, they’re taking their cues from you for the most part.

And then our last little piece of research before we start digging into our own styles is around non-verbal trust. Research has actually shown that facilitators who use non-verbal cues and communication build stronger group trust. And so what that might look like, it can really differ. In this study, they looked at these three categories, but we’ll talk a little bit about a variety of different ways we might be able to use non-verbal communication. So here they were talking about open body language and expansive posture… I almost held it over here… eye contact and facial responsiveness, so being engaged with you, very actually visibly engaged and reacting to what you’re sharing. And then lastly, marrying an attunement to group energy. So a little earlier, Karen was talking a little bit about that mirroring piece and language. We’re going to talk actually about that mirroring piece as well in terms of body.

All right. So this is a lot of really nice information, but it means nothing if you don’t end up applying it to yourself. And that’s exactly what we’re going to do next. So there should be a three-page worksheet that is only two pages because we print double-sided to save the environment. No, it’s not double-sided, never mind. The printer made a choice. They did not get the two ply to one ply memo, and here we are. So I’ll briefly explain how this worksheet works and then I’ll give you a little bit of time. So the first part, part one, as you can see is called scales. And there’s different kinds of non-verbal communication methods in here. I want you to think about it in regards to two categories, your personal context and your facilitation or professional context.For some of you, those might be very aligned. For others of you, they may not be. And for some, you might be in the middle about some being aligned and some not.

And then the second part is rankings. And again, this is very personal to you, which is understanding your facilitation purpose, your facilitation style, and your non-verbal style. Which of those are most impactful in your facilitation practice for achieving your purpose in that space? So I’ll give you about five minutes. And as you’re filling that out, it won’t take you long, but the reason I’m giving you five minutes is because I want you to be thinking through these questions that we’re going to discuss afterwards. So for those of you that are like, “Boom, boom, boom, boom, I’m done in 10 seconds,” here are the questions I want you to start percolating on and maybe taking some notes. How has your culture, social upbringing, or conditioning shaped your non-verbal communication?How do your non-verbal behaviors shift in different settings? So start to dig in a little deeper and analyze that. Why might I change my proximity in a professional setting than I do in a personal setting? Or why might my eye contact shift? And then what surprised you most? What surfaced for you, whether it was a delight or whether it was, “Oh, that’s a challenge. That’s something that I need to think about.” We’ll do some focus music. I’ll give you all about five minutes to fill out that worksheet, think through these questions, and then we’ll move on to discussion.

We are now going to talk as a table. We’re going to do intensive pair work in a bit, so I want you to have a little bit more of a larger group discussion at your tables. If there’s a lot of people at your tables, feel free to split up into two groups of three or four, because I want to make sure you all get to dig into these questions really well. But if you’re at smaller tables, talk as a whole group. And we’ll give you about 10 minutes in those to explore, see what comes up for you and the insights you gain from those conversations.

So those were some pretty meaty conversations y’all were having. I mean, I walked around and the stuff that y’all were sharing and starting to dig into, incredible. So I know that there’s lots of interesting insights and connections that were made, and I’m curious to hear from you all what surfaced in those conversations.

Speaker 7:
Hi, everyone. I’m Pooja. One thing that I’ve always struggled with is projecting my voice. I am really great in a small circle of people or on one-on-ones, but when talking to one-to-many like this, unless… I mean, I have a mic right now, but I do ordinarily struggle with that. But I’ve also been told that I’m very facially expressive, that I use a lot of gestures, my body language is more open. And so in filling this out, it just occurred to me that maybe I’ve been overcompensating for my lack of projection with all of these other ways of communicating with folks. So I thought that was really interesting as I was filling this out.

Speaker 1:
Yeah, thanks for sharing that with us, Pooja, and having a very holistic view of, okay, not just what my one skill says about this, but as a whole, what does this mean and how am I balancing those things. Absolutely.

Speaker 8:
We had a really interesting conversation about the impact of COVID on our non-verbal cues, all the way from, first of all, proximity was a no-go. Even though we’re past that, I still almost pause for a second, I’m like, “Are you okay with me being near you? Are you okay with me touching your hand?” And then when everybody was wearing masks, I was saying I really struggled to read people without being able to see their mouths. And you had to learn how to smile with your eyes. And then just everything moving to virtual, your body language is just here up. And so then you have to readjust and be like, “How do I convey what I’m trying to say without the ability to move the majority of my body?”

Speaker 1:
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for bringing in the virtual element as well. A lot of times you think, “Well, it’s online, so there’s not much I can do.” But how do we inhabit that square of ours and how do we lean in and lean back and how do we use that space? Absolutely. I guess, sorry, your hand up first, and then we’ll go to you.

Speaker 9:
Oh, thanks. Two things. One is that I’m definitely better at facilitating than I’m in my interpersonal relationships, so I was like, “Wow, I’m much more comfortable with silence in a room of 300 people than I am at silence one-on-one. I’m much more comfortable with eye contact when I’m in a room with a bunch of folks than I am in… ” That was just an interesting personal reflection.

Our conversation veered towards the gender nature of things. I was thinking a lot about how I taught Designing Your Life at Stanford for a number of years, and the founders who taught it, one is a six-foot-five pastor of a male who has just this commanding presence of a room. And I’m like a short little Italian lady with boopy energy. Just like I could practice and I could say everything the same and I could make the most resonant points and people are just never going to look at me the same as they looked at him. So we had a really just cool conversation around different things that women have tried or not tried and projecting voice and not projecting, all the things. No real huge insights, just generative dialogue in that camp.

Speaker 1:
That is huge. Absolutely. Right? Yes.

Speaker 9:
Thank you.

Speaker 1:
Absolutely. And actually, I’m really glad that that’s what came up for y’all because that is what that question is asking, right? Because realistically, non-verbal cues are read differently depending on the identities we hold. And it’s not because of the identities themselves, but because of the conditioning and the systems we live in that teach us how to react to certain identities in certain ways. So that’s a huge insight. Thank you. Thank you for bringing that to the group.

Speaker 10:
Hi, everybody, my name is Adam. I grew up in California. My parents are from Wyoming, and they’re big personalities. So in this context, my house was never silent. There was always a TV on, always a fan on. There’s never silence. I associate silence with sadness, funerals, really dark moments. And so in my personal life, I’m a big personality, I’m very expressive as my coworkers totally know. But silence is very scary to me personally, but also in facilitation. And that’s a big weakness of mine that I recognize totally. But then I in this ranking, I put it at my bottom because I’m afraid of it. It’s scary. I don’t want to touch it. Get away from me. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. But I think it comes from, the first question, it comes from my home life for sure. I want to address that and maybe learn some more from today and in the future.

Speaker 1:
Thanks for sharing. So I think that was about six nos, so I take it you don’t like silence. Okay, just noted. Noted, noted. All right, Peter.

Speaker 11:
I have a quote for you from Edwin, my neighbor, when we did a one-on-one, “Let the silence do the heavy lifting.” It was so cool because we were talking about the earlier case of all the non-verbal cues and how silence… Like my example was a virtual meeting and how put the question out there and just let it sit for 10 seconds and 15 seconds and 25 seconds. Pretty soon someone starts to talk and it really unlocked a whole thing, which is really cool. So just want to add that.
One other thing, we talked a lot about virtual here. Often if I have a high-stakes conversation, I’ll switch my mic and I’ll have one really close to my mouth and I’ll have headphones on so I can really hear and I can talk very low. Seems to really make a difference, versus if I’m speakerphone and all that. And for a facilitator for me, it really puts me in a different space.

Speaker 1:
Thanks for sharing that.

Speaker 12:
So this is a trick that NPR uses, just to build off of the idea that we heard a second ago. So if you’ve ever been interviewed on NPR, especially in the studio, one of the things that they’ll do is they will turn up your own voice in your own ears. And so when they do that, there’s a tendency to bring it a little bit lower and say, “This is [inaudible 00:30:37]. Welcome to NPR.” And so you can do the same thing depending on the tone that you’re trying to go for. So thank you for adding that.

Speaker 1:
And thank you for your NPR tone. I love it. I love a good NPR tone. All right, maybe… Yep, we’re here.

Speaker 13:
I didn’t even bring this up to my friends here, but something Adam said made me think of something really funny. So I’m from Texas, and when I used to travel around consulting in the Northeast, they would always be like, “You don’t sound like you’re from Texas.” And I was like, “Well, there’s like 30 million people down there.” All the accents are homogenous now basically. But almost to a point, every single client would say that. At one point there was even a dialogue with my team about if I should start hamming up the accent to play on that idea, but it never happened. But just going through the notes, my tone and inflection and volume is something that I really deem myself on, and I just now recalled that story.

Speaker 1:
Thank you. It’s such a crystallized example of how our non-verbals completely get impacted by experience, whether we’re conscious of those experiences or not. Absolutely. All right, we’ll go to these… Oh my gosh. Okay, final three, final three. No one else raise your hands. We’ll go 1, 2, 3.

Speaker 14:
I actually have a question. I was wondering, so much of what I do is and what we all do. How would you augment some of that information to make it more accessible for neurodivergent folks or more? If you’re working with a group that’s really autistic, a lot of people on the spectrum, do you have any advice for that? Do you just make it really explicit? Is there something else you would do?

Speaker 1:
Yeah, well, so it’s tough because being on the spectrum means so many different things. And so it really depends on the group you’re going to work with. So there are some groups where you are going to want to lean more into your non-verbals because they don’t do subtlety. And that is super important.

Then there are some groups where your words become hyper important because it is just that the social reading is really, really tough. But I would say that’s a little bit tough to answer generally, just because it truly depends. Being on the spectrum, I mean, these days words are changing so fast, it used to be that we had autism, Asperger’s spectrum, now it’s all in the spectrum. And then there’s other things being lumped into the spectrum, so it really depends literally group to group. So what I would say is discovery is always critically important, including understanding how you’re going to be facilitating non-verbally and understanding those group dynamics and group needs before you even get to that space with them. And that will help lead you to some more insights and answers to that. Yeah. All right, my other two hands. Go here and here. Where’s my back mic? Where’s the mic in the back?

Speaker 15:
Sorry, mic’s getting…

Speaker 1:
Okay, no worries.

Speaker 15:
Real quick. One of the things when I saw proximity that I think about a lot as a facilitator, and I learned this from another co-facilitator, was even the design of how you do work in groups. Obviously because we’re constrained in space here, we have tables, but my co-facilitator, Taylor, would tell me, “Hey, oftentimes it’s not really democratized when it’s in front of somebody.” Even how we were doing some of our exercises today to have it on a wall versus on a table. And so even that kind of spatial awareness for me is a non-verbal exercise, not just my non-verbal, but when I put a thing on the wall and start posting and we’re all looking at it together, we’re all equal now versus it being the paper in front of myself or another colleague. Anyways, when I think about proximity, I’d love to expand that to this idea of how do we create spaces by which we all feel like we’re contributing equally.

Speaker 1:
I love that, designing for non-verbal inclusion. Absolutely. Thanks, Danny. All right.

Speaker 16:
I wanted to say something about tone and vocal cues. I also do what Sarah does up there in the graphic recording and people often ask, “How do you know what to capture?” And whenever anybody goes… what they’re going to say is going to be capture-worthy. And when they go through a slide like da, da da da da, da, I’m not capturing any of that because that’s not what it’s about. But I can tell before they’re going to say something that matters, so that’s how you know. And you all know that too. I mean, we all know that intuitively.

Speaker 1:
I love that. And that brings us back to sound. That’s the sound of breath. So relying on that non-verbal cue to be like, “That’s an important point to them.” Absolutely.

So before we move into our final practice, let’s talk a little bit about what are some of those non-verbal strategies that we can try to leverage, especially as we look at our scales. What I mean is you do not need to be at a level five across all your scales. It needs to be authentic to you, and it also needs to meet the needs of your group. So also how you show up non-verbally might have to be adaptive to your group’s needs and to what emerges in that space in a way that still feels like you’re showing up authentically.

But so own your physical presence to set the tone. Your posture and your body language are going to immediately kick off the tone of that session. So if I’m talking to y’all and I’m a little bit slouched and I’m just really closed off, that’s not quite as inviting you into a conversation with me as if I’m here and I’m facing you and I’m standing up tall, leaning into that generous authority. Thank you, Priya Parker. And owning that space as your own. You’re holding that container for those people on purpose.

Leveraging eye contact to guide participation, so that’s super important, whether it’s that I’m specifically focusing in on someone’s [inaudible 00:36:42] to let them know I’m paying attention and I value what you’re sharing. And just that gaze, that focus as a facilitator will make others start to mirror that behavior and focus in. Or whether I’m scanning the room and making sure that people know, “Oh, she’s not just here to listen to some of us. She’s paying attention to all of us.” Super important.

Experiment with vocal variety to shape energy. So who just talked a little bit about how she leans a bit more into these other strategies and interesting things with voice, because volume is not the only thing. And so understanding, if we want to really emphasize a point, does our pitch go up a little bit? Are we excited about that? If there’s something difficult in the space right now, I’m not going to be like, “Guys, this feels like there’s a really big tension here.” That seems like really… Right? “You know what? I’m sensing that there’s a sticking point here. Let’s explore that.” So tones go down. So managing the energy in that way.

Play with space and proximity to influence engagement. So Danny kicked us off a little bit in how do we start to think about playing with that proximity piece in our design and in the choices we’re making about how we structure our activities, but playing around and seeing how to inhabit the space and what’s working for your group and adapting to what they respond to.
So also a big piece is you should not be keeping the same exact levels of non-verbal communications throughout the whole time. You should be paying attention to what’s emerging and how they’re responding to you and leaning in when you start to notice, oh, okay, this brought them in more, that kind of not so much. So maybe I do a little less of that.

I don’t know if you all have ever worked with law enforcement, but I’ve done sessions for law enforcement before, and those look really different than when I work with educators, with students, in mission-driven orgs where I really lean into bringing that emotion full forward and using all different kinds of non-verbals. Whereas law enforcement, it is very much like you stand up straight and you connect with them. They’re much more around, “Give me the information. Tell me how it applies to me. I don’t want any of that woo-woo stuff.” And understanding what the needs are. If you have time to work with them over long term, you can start to crack that shell a little bit. But so understanding what your different group’s needs are is really important.

Mirror and match to build trust and connection. This goes back a little bit to what Karen talked about in mirroring language. Same thing with non-verbal language. Starting to mirror a little bit of the language that your participants are giving off with their bodies helps for them to start to create this really subtle form of connection with you, and they start to see themselves a little bit.

And then lastly, I’m sorry Adam, I’m going to tell you to embrace silence just a little bit. My rule is if I ever prompt the group, I do not talk for at least 10 to 15 seconds. At least. Sometimes I let it go for 20 to 30, watch people squirm a little bit until someone talks. But honestly, oftentimes we mistake that silence for people are not engaged when in reality what it means is just they’re thinking, they’re taking it seriously. And it’s going to help you do two things. It’s going to help get you to deeper meaningful dialogue with your groups. And it’s also going to help create a space where those that might hesitate to speak up don’t feel pressure that they need to do it now. Have you ever been prompted and then all of a sudden, two to three seconds later, it’s like, “Anyone? So any thoughts?”

And if I’m the person that has a hard time speaking up, I’m going, “No thoughts. No, just anxiety.” So playing around with those different kinds of non-verbal communication methods. I use the phrase playing around on purpose. Like I said, there’s no one right way to do it. Every group is going to have different needs, so play with it. See how your groups react, engage or don’t engage and make adjustments.

Our last exercise for the day, I said we were going to deepen our listening skills. We are going to do whole body listening. What does that mean? That is the wrong arrow. Yes. So what does that mean? So three levels of listening, we have focused listening… oh, sorry, we have internal listening, focused listening, and whole body listening. What internal listening is level one, is that we are listening to respond. This is where a lot of folks, especially in the spaces that we work with, are typically at, where I am listening and trying to figure out what I’m going to say to you next to the point that I miss all non-verbal cues and half of the verbal ones too. I’m just like listening to formulate my own response.

Then we have focused listening. This is where a lot of facilitators are at, where we are paying attention, we’re doing active listening, we’re paraphrasing to make sure we got it right. We’re asking those curious questions to probe a little bit deeper, right? We’re listening to understand. And then there’s whole body listening, which is when we listen to connect. What whole body listening looks like is that I am responding to what you are saying with your mouth and with your body. And so, all of a sudden my curious questions aren’t necessarily just based on what you’re saying to me, but how you’re saying it. “Hey, I’m curious, you hesitated in that moment before you shared that. I just want to know why. What about that made you hesitate?” or “Your face lit up when you were talking about this? What about that excites you?” So all of a sudden, your curiosity, your questions become about what their needs and values are, what’s important to them, not what I’m trying to understand for myself alone. So that’s whole body listening. S.

O what’s going on underneath the surface? Level one, when we’re listening to respond, it’s very ego-driven. It’s just about me and what I’m bringing to it. So we’re easily activated, we have very low regulation because it’s all about me, and anything that even slightly challenges my perspective I feel very defensive about. The outcome of this is that people do not feel heard. They feel shut down.

And then when we think about focused listening, what’s going on here? We’re better emotionally regulated because it’s not all about me. I really want to understand you, so there’s a little bit more cognitive engagement. I’m really trying to pay attention and respond to what you are saying, not what I’m thinking. And we’re starting to practice not just active listening, but that active curiosity.

And then when we go into whole body listening, our level three listening, that’s where we get into a space of deep empathy, because our responses are to try to meet the needs of that other person and drill deeper into what’s important to them. That’s where we get into that heightened sense of awareness where I end up paying attention and listening to everything about you. That’s where we get to that relational [inaudible 00:44:19] where all of a sudden I am feeling this connection because I have been listened to in a way that took me to places that I never knew I needed to go, and that’s where we ended up.
So with that, that’s exactly what we’re going to do. But we’re not going to do two rounds. The conversation was so rich that as a facilitator I adapted to what emerged and I made some quick changes. So here’s what we’re going to do. We are going to do one full round. We’re not going to do the last step, which is repeat. Your prompt is, what is a moment in your facilitation practice that changed the way you lead? I know I didn’t bring any easy questions today, I am sorry. It doesn’t have to be the first moment, not the earliest moment, but what is a moment in your facilitation practice that changed the way you lead? It could be something you did and the way the group responded. It could be something a co-facilitator did. Anything, right? And it doesn’t have to be negative, it can be positive, but something that changes the way you lead.

I’m going to give you a minute or two to think about it, but the way it’s going to work is like this. I’m going to give you all 10 minutes. You’re going to find a partner. Now we are going to stand up. I’m going to challenge you to find someone you still have not partnered up with throughout this summit. What’s going to happen is one of you is going to share and respond for five minutes. So partner A is going to be answering this prompt. Partner B, I want you to do whole body listening as they’re answering this question to you. Don’t just hear what they’re saying, but see them. See them in their wholeness and start to ask questions based not just on their verbal, but their non-verbal language. So start to pick up on things and drill down on things that are exciting them, making them fearful or hesitant or anxious or question things.

You’re going to do that for five minutes. Then we’re going to switch. Partner B is going to share their prompt and partner A is going to do whole body listening and respond accordingly with curious questions based on what the other partner is not just saying with their mouth, but with their body. Anything I can clarify before I start giving you that thinking time? All right. So I’ll just give you a brief two minutes to think about this existential question. Seems enough. And then I’ll cue you to stand up and we’ll go ahead and chat on those pairs for 10 minutes. All right, so if you could, as you’re ready, stand up and find a partner you haven’t spoken to yet at the summit. And I’ll give you the five-minute cue when it’s time to switch.
All right. If you have not switched yet, please go ahead and switch.

Please thank your partner for listening and getting curious. So let’s spend just a few minutes or last few minutes together unpacking. I’m curious to hear from you all not necessarily what it was that you were talking about, but what the experience was like and you can choose to respond in either way. What did it feel like to be listened to in that way? How was that a different experience than your regular conversations? Or on the other hand, what did it feel like to listen and get curious in that way? What about it was maybe easy or challenging for you? And how did you find the conversation went for you as a listener?

Speaker 17:
Hi, I am Marsha. I was just having a conversation with Pooja here. Since the exercise was all about whole body listening, she spoke to me about three situations. The first two situations I’m like, “Oh, am I supposed to respond to this? Am I listening the right way?” So I got a little conscious there, but in the third situation, I was being a little more present in terms of what is she exactly trying to convey. And then I put myself in that situation and I was like, “Yeah, that is what I get.” And I think there was a little learning that I did through that exercise, so thank you so much.

Speaker 1:
Thanks, Marsha. Absolutely. Anyone else had that same moment of like, “Oh crap, am I doing this right?” Yeah, yeah, so you were not alone.

Speaker 18:
Yes, and I was super conscious when I was talking with Dan, which thank you, Dan, great job. I will say one thing that going to him I knew that I could already trust him because I knew that he was going to show up in that space for me. So that was something that was different in terms of how my expectations changed because I understood that. I noticed when I was talking, I was shouting at him. And I noticed that when I was listening that I was very conscientious about my body at that point and what I could give and how I could show that to him. So just giving and receiving in that conversation is very different for me in terms of how I’m going to try to show up is what I noticed.

Speaker 1:
Yeah. Thanks. Thank you, Monica. Yeah, it takes a whole different level of intention. Others?

Speaker 19:
I was going to say the exercise worked so well that we… or Brian was such a great listener that I spoke the entire time, so we didn’t even get to hear what Brian had to say. But he was so engaging as a listener that it just kept inviting more out of me that I wasn’t even thinking about to begin with. So fantastic facilitator in Brian.

Speaker 1:
Kudos to you both. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that experience. I think I saw… Yeah, and we’ll go here.

Speaker 6:
Hi, it’s Lily again. So at first I was like, “Oh my God, am I doing this?” And then it got really hard because I mentioned I’m deaf, and so the way I look at people is I read their lips, and that’s my connection of what they’re saying to what I’m hearing. And so I’m like, “I can’t look at their face and look at their body and then look at their face and use my ears and try and all of that.” It was a hard connection for me to make. I think I did okay. So it was just like, “Oh yeah, it’s kind of looking at all places at once and then taking it in and trying to respond in a way that’s like I’m not trying to respond just to respond, I’m trying to actually unpack it and get after what you’re saying.” So it was an interesting experience.

Speaker 1:
Yeah, definitely. Someone mentioned I got that practice, and this is also a muscle we don’t flex often, so it’s going to feel awkward at first where we’re like, “I need to pay attention to everything about you as you’re talking.” Where eventually it’ll get to a place where you’re just focused on their face and you just also soften your gaze to make yourself aware of the rest of them. But it’s not that you necessarily have to draw your attention to their whole and it’s like, “Oh, they bent the knee a little bit. What does that mean?” I’m exaggerating on purpose, but it is something that needs to be practiced and refined. And so I’m not at all surprised for folks not feeling quite there. Absolutely. All right. I think I’d seen… Oh my gosh, so many. It’s amazing.

Speaker 14:
I was really conscious of my height. I had this desire to get myself at eye level or below, like lower myself to them height wise. But I didn’t do it because it would’ve been super distracting because we were standing up. But yeah, sure.

Speaker 1:
That’s really interesting that that’s what became really hyper aware for you.

Speaker 20:
Hi, I am Jane. We didn’t talk about this, but as you were speaking I thought about animals and how in-tune you have to be with them, especially if you’re around horses, because they’re prey animals and they’re fearful and you’re always watching to see if they’re going to blow up over something that wouldn’t scare you. So I was just thinking about that, that if you pay attention to your animals to understand them, that could translate to people.

Speaker 1:
Yeah, because our bodies are the only way we can communicate with animals.

Speaker 21:
I would just like to say kudos to the Facilitation Lab and Voltage Control. In two days, I’ve already seen things a different way. So that’s pretty amazing that in two days that you can change the way somebody thinks. I’ll get my wife to come next week and y’all can help her understand me better.

But when I was talking to Lindsey, in our business, in the utility business, a lot of the things we facilitate just so fast-paced, aggressive. It’s all about this event could have killed someone or this event could have cost us $10 million. But when I was listening to Lindsey, I really caught myself wondering how she felt because she was put in a difficult situation instead of just nodding your head okay. But I was really sensing and I was even asking her, “How’d that make you feel?” I really got into the listening part. And then when she listened to my story, it really felt really good to be listened to, just the simple things in life that things get complicated and you tend to not appreciate.

Speaker 1:
Thanks for sharing that, Galen. Thank you. All right, I think I had a couple hands here, so I’m going to go one, two.

Speaker 22:
So I come from the K-12 education space, so I definitely noticed this, and I do something similar to this in my facilitation with teachers in having the ability to assess students without having grades on paper. What it felt like with the scanning was we were assessing the conversation and then we were able to dig either deeper into the conversation or to find another avenue to where the conversation was going. Through my conversation with Edwin, I noticed that he was able to tell me about a moment that helped him grow, and then I was able to assess to say, “Tell me a little bit about that moment of growth and then what can you do in the future to make this a better situation for you.” So that’s something I think that could be lovely in the K-12 education space.

Speaker 1:
Yeah,, starting to connect that forward-thinking as well based on the insights you get. All right. Going to be our last comment because there’s my walk-off music right there.

Speaker 23:
No pressure or anything. Hi, I am Susanna. I’ve been for the past few years thinking about eye contact because I’ve noticed myself, when I listen to people, I will look away. I was like, “What is that telling them?” And I’ve been thinking a lot about why is that. I find it’s like a sensory overload when I have to do all of the non-verbal thinking about it, but then also hearing and processing. And so it’s almost like I’m choosing to listen or I’m choosing to pay attention, but doing both at the same time is extremely… My ram is not catching up with this.

Speaker 1:
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for sharing that, Susanna. Absolutely, this is something that is not intuitive. It’s not the ways in which we have been taught and conditioned to interact with each other and listen to each other. So it is going to take that practice. Like I said, I encourage you to lead into the word play when you think about practicing whole body listening, when you think about how to use different non-verbal communication styles and tactics. Use Facilitation Lab community as a place to be like, “Hey, you want to get on Zoom for 15 minutes and do some whole body listening practice, right?” That’s totally valid. That’s what this community is for. What I’ll leave you with is I know that it is a challenging practice, and I’m using the word practice on purpose, that’s our theme, but practice makes practice. Because being heard, powerful. Being seen is powerful. But being heard and seen that’s magical. And so as facilitators, as people-gatherers, I challenge you to hear them, to see them, and to go out there and make that magic happen. So thank you.

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