In this Facilitation Lab podcast episode, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Rubens Filho, Director of Spells & CEO of Abracademy, about using magic as a tool for transformative learning and team development. Rubens shares how magic, psychology, and learning design are blended to create engaging, research-informed workshops that foster curiosity, wonder, and collaboration. The discussion covers the origins of Abracademy, the power of metaphor and storytelling in leadership, the importance of embracing diverse perspectives, and the impact of shifting from militarized to magical language in the workplace. The episode highlights the value of human-centered, memorable learning experiences.

Show Highlights

[00:04:27] Personal Journey into Magic
[00:06:10] Integrating Psychology, Neuroscience, and Magic
[00:11:04] The Role of Secrets and Trust in Magic
[00:15:22] Challenges in Blending Magic, Science, and Learning
[00:19:02] The Dual-Facilitator Model
[00:26:56] Magic’s Universal Language and Global Reach
[00:34:09] Looking to the Future: Humanity and Technology
[00:42:21] Final Thoughts: Shifting from War to Magic Language

Links | Resources

Abracademy on Instagram

Abracademy on X

Abracademy on the web

About the Guest

Rubens Filho transforms the way teams and organisations learn, grow, and connect. As Director of Spells & CEO of Abracademy, he has spent the past decade reintroducing the magic of human potential into the workplace—helping people rediscover wonder, belief, and collaboration through a unique blend of expert facilitation and real magic (yes, actual magic!).

Before entrepreneurship, Rubens spent 17 years as a Creative Director in global advertising, leading award-winning campaigns and multicultural teams across Brazil, London, and other international markets.

His mission? To make business more human—one magical experience at a time.

About Voltage Control

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

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Transcript

Douglas Ferguson:

Hi, I’m Douglas Ferguson. Welcome to the Facilitation Lab Podcast where I speak with Voltage Control certification alumni and other facilitation experts about the remarkable impact they’re making. We embrace a method agnostic approach so you can enjoy a wide range of topics and perspectives as we examine all the nuances of enabling meaningful group experiences. This series is dedicated to helping you navigate the realities of facilitating collaboration, ensuring every session you lead becomes truly transformative. Thanks so much for listening. If you’d like to join us for a live session sometime, you can join our Facilitation lab community. It’s an ideal space to apply what you learn in the podcast in real time with peers. Sign up today at voltagecontrol.com/facilitation-lab, and if you’d like to learn more about our 12-week facilitation certification program, you can read about it at voltagecontrol.com. I’m with Rubens Filho, co-founder of Abracademy, where he creates magical learning experiences that helps teams grow, collaborate, and rediscover wonder in the workplace. He blends professional development, psychology, and real magic to transform how people learn, work, and connect. Welcome to the show, Rubens.

Rubens Filho:

Thank you, Douglas. It’s a pleasure to be here. Curious to know where this conversation will take us.

Douglas Ferguson:

I am interested as well, and we spoke earlier this summer, I guess it was late spring, early summer, and you’re anticipating a nice holiday and this 10 year anniversary, a lot of excitement around that for you. So I’ve been looking forward to this conversation. And so I want to start by looking back at the dawn of Abracademy. In 2015, Unicode founders set out to unlock the magic potential in people. So I’m just curious for the listeners, what inspired the idea of blending learning design and magic?

Rubens Filho:

Well, thanks for your question, Douglas. I guess in 2015 there was an idea of trying something different like making learning more engaging in some way, and that kind of converged with this, how can I say, skill that I had. I’ve been a magician since I’m a teenager and I met another magician. We start to talk about things about possibilities, and that’s when Alex told me, one of my business partners, he said, “Rubens, what if we create a school of magic?” I said, “Well, Alex, perhaps we don’t create a school of magic, but if we could use magic to teach people other things, that could be beautiful.” And that’s how we started it.

Douglas Ferguson:

At the time when you were thinking about teaching other things, were there needs you were noticing, or were there things that you were driven to help people understand about themselves or the world?

Rubens Filho:

Yes. I came from, after 20 years in advertising, I joined Hyper Island for a masters in digital transformation. So this year at Hyper gave me lots of space to think about the things I wanted to do, the business I wish to create, and that kind of brought me to realize that I wanted to work with people’s transformation. After working in communication for long, I wanted something more purposeful. And what I realized at Hyper is that digital transformation technology is just one side of the story, what’s important to change the other side, which is change the humans. And that kind of came together with this idea of bringing something new. So how can we help people transform and change? And magic seemed like a great way of doing it in an authentic manner with a different perspective.

Douglas Ferguson:

And did you meet Jenny at Hyper Island? Jenny Thielen, a good friend of Ultra Control and familiar with her work for a long time. Now I know she’s with you over at Abracademy. So did you all meet when you were at Hyper Island?

Rubens Filho:

No, not at that time. Jenny joined us two years ago. Of course, when we hear that each other went through a Hyper Island experience, then it makes everything easier. But at the time we didn’t know each other. We have lots of friends in common that are there or were there, but yes, it’s a recent acquaintance, let’s say.

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah, yeah. And so coming back to beginnings, how did you first get into magic? What was the original draw there?

Rubens Filho:

Yeah, I had this drive for performance. So first I start doing juggling. I liked circles, I played with circles in my early teen days. And then one day I saw this magic course and that triggered my curiosity. I said, “Oh, let me take it.” It was before YouTube, so I had to become an apprentice of a magician, which was quite interesting. I was an apprentice for four months, and then I graduated with a magic show. So that was fun and that kind of… I started the journey. Then I became very passionate for a few years, and then as my career took off in other realms, then it became just a hobby until Abracademy.

Douglas Ferguson:

And what was your first magic show? Do you remember? Was there anything interesting about one of your early magic shows that’s memorable?

Rubens Filho:

Yeah, it was old times traditional magic, but I do remember that I performed three magic pieces and one of them was with doves. So I worked with doves for a few years, later on became bigger stage show. But today people don’t work with doves anymore. But I had two doves, would nurture and train them, and we worked together, collaborated well.

Douglas Ferguson:

Oh, wow. So early on it was collaborating with doves and now it’s collaborating with people.

Rubens Filho:

Yeah, exactly. I mean, I did other things, very interesting pieces of magic. But that was a great start.

Douglas Ferguson:

So I’m just curious about exploring more of the influences. There’s this psychology, magic coaching. How do you see them all fitting together?

Rubens Filho:

Yeah, I must say that first of all, there was my career in advertising as a creative director, I had to work with people from different backgrounds that had lots of different wants and needs and egos, and a lot of my talent was dealing with these people and bringing them together. So I think that is one part of the story of the foundational things that later on played a role. But when we got together and start to explore how magic could help, the first year of Abracademy, we only worked with young people and the need there was to give them confidence, to provide psychological safety so they could contribute. There was a sense of belonging that was born there. There was the element of play. We start to work with number of schools, but also with the NHS. We did work with some kids that had mental health challenges that struggled to keep their attention, even if it’s for 30 seconds and magic helped grasp that attention and then bring something new, some kind of learning.

There is this element of the experiential learning that in part I start to experience at Hyper Island, but we took to another level, how can we make experiential learning interesting and powerful? So the psychology and neuroscience aspect comes from another need. I realized that for us to use magic for a purpose that went beyond entertainment, we needed to bring credibility. So from the onset we partnered with a number of magicians that worked with Goldsmith University. They were researching through magic and we start to do some collaboration. And for years we had a scientist in the team. So we first started with neuroscientist, then we had a scientist that focused on well-being and positive psychology. Then we had another one that focused on decision making, and now we have one that’s about cross-cultural collaboration. So I think that was important to bring credibility to the work and the methodology we developed.

Douglas Ferguson:

So tell me a little bit more about the research. How did that work exactly?

Rubens Filho:

Well, there is a number of incredible scientists that do everything with magic. So they research cognition, they research attention, control, they research connection. They research whether secrets help build trust or not. So there are a number of researchers going on that use magic. When I entered this collaboration with Dr. Gustav Kuhn, who also wrote a fantastic book called, The Experience in the Impossible, published by MIT Press, and all this research is there somehow not entirely connected to what Abracademy does, but lots of seeds of things that can be further explored. So my idea at the time was to do things that went beyond just a gut feeling, “Oh, this could work, this could not work.” And that has been working incredibly well.

Douglas Ferguson:

Any particularly memorable research that’s come up that’s really influenced your work?

Rubens Filho:

I guess in terms of the areas, the research, for example, there is this element of perception and how perception works. And this is, let’s say, bringing awareness to the limitations of our perception. It is something that we do using the magic, and it’s fantastic because you can show something, then you show that people didn’t see it, it’s in their faces, and then you bring the reflection and you can move forward. And there are lots of different researchers in terms of where we don’t see and where we see. And that’s what we started to put together. There is also a great research. We had Dr. Hugo Caffaratti was our neuroscientist. He was researching wonder. And that moment that we experienced wonder, the very moment of this cognitive dissonance that we see something that doesn’t match our previous experiences. And then we have this moment of confusion, which is super powerful. But even more powerful is what comes after which is curiosity. And this developed into what we call the wonder mindset.

Douglas Ferguson:

Love that. You mentioned secrets and my ears perked up. What kind of secrets are we talking about there?

Rubens Filho:

Yeah, it could be all kinds of secrets. When you share something with someone and you can’t give your confidence to this person in a way, does that help or not help building trust? And it’s still controversial. I don’t have an answer, but the indication is yes, but the circumstances may vary of depending on what you share and what’s the intention behind sharing.

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah, it’s not binary, right? There’s a level of intimacy maybe we’re willing to go into.

Rubens Filho:

And this is something I learned working with scientists along these 10 years is that research is difficult. It’s difficult because it researches a particular moment in time. So for example, if you want to research if a workshop is effective or not, it doesn’t work scientifically straightforward because there are so many elements into a workshop. So you can research probably one piece of it, a little part, one exercise, but not the whole thing, becomes a lot.

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah, it’s really hard to control when you think about controlled experiment. It’s like how do you exactly compare an organization that did the thing versus one that didn’t do the thing? And were all the circumstances the same and all the outside variables. Interesting to think about, especially when you compare someone doing scientific research in a more specifically scientific realm versus a business realm.

Rubens Filho:

Exactly, yes.

Douglas Ferguson:

I’m still stuck a little bit here in these kind of informative moments. Can you share a moment or a story around an early tada moment that you had with a client?

Rubens Filho:

Yeah, I guess it was very interesting because first we worked with the schools and after a year we were going bankruptcy, right? It’s not easy to work with schools. I didn’t have knowledge about the grant space, how to apply for grants. So we started to shift our work towards the corporate space and work in the workplace. So we created the first workshop, it was a pilot, and then immediately we got a workshop with Comic Relief, followed by Twitter. And then came Freeformers, which was another learning company that after doing the workshop with us, they said, “Hey, we have this possibility of pitching for a project with HSBC would like to join us.” They thought the magic could bring something special to the proposal. So we pitched together and we won. So all of a sudden in company in collaboration with Freeformers, we had to train 4,500 people.

And I think this period, it was for a nine-month period, we used magic and we start to train our facilitators, magilitators we call them because they blend magic and facilitation. And I think the insight there was about the potential of magic because I had this idea that magic could teach certain things, but what I start to realize doing it more and more is that it was vast because magic has so many different elements from the science to the psychology, to the empathy, to the relationship with the audience, to the mastery, to the control of attention. So it is so vast that in this space of nine months we could really repeating it again and again and again, see that we had a proper business in our hands that demanded more and more attention.

Douglas Ferguson:

And it’s fascinating, all the variants of things that you can explore there. And I’m curious, which things did you find to be challenging? I’m sure that some things were magic just was ready fit for, but what were the things as you were building the business and working with the clients that you’re became real head scratchers? They’re like, “Oh, we really have to spend some time tackling this one.” Because I asked that question the most proud of those kind of moments when we hit the obstacles and really figured it out. So I’m curious what you ran into over the years like that.

Rubens Filho:

Okay, yeah, I’m going to share some and then you share yours. So we learn from each other. But I think one element that’s so always difficult is to blend all together, blend the science, blend the learning, blend the play. So making things make sense together. So if you developing a new session, let’s say, to talk about attention and how we notice the world, let’s say bringing all these elements together in a way that’s useful for teams, organizations, that is always takes time and takes effort. Over these years we have developed about 15 magical moments we call them. They are three-hour sessions that have one focus. It could be unlocking creativity. We have another one called Unleashing Imagination. We have the power of perception. So each one of them does one thing. Developing one, it’s one of our biggest pleasures to create something new using this vast resource that is magic. And also using, as we talked about, professional development, psychology and everything else.

Douglas Ferguson:

I think that single focus is so valuable. I think oftentimes people try to cram too many things into their agendas and it comes from often a healthy place of we want to do a lot for these. We don’t want to bring a lot of value, but it ends up just being distracting and overwhelming.

Rubens Filho:

And you see sometimes you create something that you find amazing, but maybe people are not ready for it or it’s not their focus at the moment. I don’t know how you find it. Would be curious to hear one of your experiences there.

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah, for sure. The thing that came to mind for me was balancing because we get a lot of folks that are brand new as well as folks that have been facilitating for years. Coming in and shaping an experience and curriculum that can support both of those folks in the same space at the same time was a fun challenge. And a lot of it has to do with getting people into the right mindset of curiosity and how we can learn. Because for the folks that have been around a little bit longer if something that looks familiar, how do we make sure that they are put in a head space where they examine it and think about what’s different this even though it seems familiar? Because the more experience you get, the more everything starts to look the same because it’s like, “Oh, I can categorize this now I have this language and these ways of thinking about it.”

And also setting up structures, prompts, questions, and even building or scaffolding the experience where the folks that are more experienced can start to understand that there’s a lot to learn from the beginners too, just in how they show up and how they ask questions and how they struggle. Because that’s part of becoming really masterful in your senior capacity is your ability to notice what novice folks are doing and how to even coach them. Being able to explain why you do things the way you do, because some stuff just becomes maybe a force of habit or intuitive after doing things for a long time. So building that capacity to be able to explain it to others I think is really where you get into the higher levels of craft.

Rubens Filho:

Yes, indeed. And the passion that young facilitators bring, it’s amazing, isn’t it? So you have this blend of the experience that know how things work, and they are brilliant at creating these conversations that harvesting the learnings, but then you have this passionate facilitator that brings their energy and wants to divert things. I love that connection and that contrast. And in that regard, I would like to say that Abracademy has a very specific approach regarding magilitation as we call it, which is we always have two people in the room.

We have someone that comes from a facilitation background that can hold the learning, make sure that learning outcomes are there, and we have someone coming from the magic background that is in charge of the magic, but of the joy, of the energy. So it’s not fixed because depending on the facilitator and the magician, it could be that the magician knows facilitation. It could be the facilitator knows magic, a bit of magic, and they play. And I love it because it allows you to bring energy and rhythm to a session that otherwise would be more difficult.

Douglas Ferguson:

And it’s sort of like the improv concept of the ensemble. You’re bringing them together because they have these complementary qualities and when they work together in a cohesive way, it’s bigger than the sum of the parts.

Rubens Filho:

Definitely. When you find a team that becomes extraordinary, right? Because the two of them together makes something even more fantastic. Yes.

Douglas Ferguson:

And something think is remarkable about what you all are doing is if we step back and think about how magic is a powerful metaphor to begin with, and anybody could just invoke the magic metaphor in our facilitation or in how we relate to work, but you’re really taking it a deeper level. It’s more of an experiential tool in addition to the metaphor. So I’d love to hear a specific example of actual illusions or magic that you’re using to either shake up expectation or spark curiosity in learners.

Rubens Filho:

Yeah, thanks for the question, Douglas. I think I can share a few different things because it’s not one thing, the answer is difficult. The first one is, it is, let’s say common that we use a metaphor, we present a magic trick and we share the main idea of the workshop there or something that we want to focus on. So we have a magic trick, for example, which is a small box. And we talk about how important it is for leaders to be curious. And we ask people, “Hey, what’s in the box?” And people say, “Oh, it could be a ring, could be this or that.” And I say, “No, actually this is you.” “This is me,” I say, “And you can see that I’m quite blocked in my way. It’s quite squared. I need to stretch in order to get moving.” And so I take the elastic band off, as I say stretch, I open, but when I open there is a surprise because there is another box inside the box, I say, “But you see it’s not that easy because I’m more square than it looks.

I have all these defenses, I don’t want to change. But if I keep searching and then I open the other box, I find my values,” and inside this little second box there is like a sponge ball. It’s like a little fluffy ball and say, “When I find my values, which is what I care about, what’s important to me, magic happens.” And this moment when I reassemble the box, the box that was outside becomes inside and the one that’s inside comes outside so that I can talk about possibilities. So when I find my values, I can lead with integrity. And then as I open it again, there is another ball. So I say, “Hey, this becomes contagious. When I lead from within, I can bring more people with me.” And there is a less movement where I bring another ball from a different color and I talk about people from different backgrounds and all walks of life. So it straight away makes the point of the workshop, let’s lead from our values, let’s lead with integrity from our values.

Douglas Ferguson:

What a great way to connect people into an important learning. And I imagine too with the magic flare, there’s probably a bit of performance and how everything’s presented and how the ball show up and these kinds of things.

Rubens Filho:

Exactly. I broke it down a bit just for you to kind of understand, but when you do with the magic, it’s quite captivating and you create this wonder and then from this moment of wonder, we have a conversation about wonder, what’s wonder, how it impacts us, and then how curiosity is born. And then we invite people to be in this space of curiosity towards whatever they’re doing. If it’s a leadership workshop, could be about being curious about themselves, being more self-aware. If it is a team development work, it could be being curious about each other and how they work together. And if it’s something bigger for the entire organization, a change program for example, we can ask them to be curious about the entire organization. So using this magic prompt and this magic feeling, this feeling that magic creates to help people then start to shift their perspective.

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah, that’s fantastic. And I imagine modeling such a powerful tool, and so if magic can allow people to flip a switch and experience wonder, and then you can talk a little bit about what was it like to experience that and how can we harness that more readily in our work? I imagine that’s a pretty pithy conversation, a lovely debrief to have with the team.

Rubens Filho:

Exactly. Exactly. And that’s what great facilitators know how to do also because we are known for the magicians, but we are also extremely good because our facilitators are very senior and extraordinary themselves. So when you are able to harvest an experience like that, then you can move on in their learning journey in a way that’s quite different. And it is not that linear, but it’s fantastic. It’s beautiful like reaching people from a different space.

Douglas Ferguson:

So I’m going to switch gears here a little bit and talk about, if I understand correctly, you spent four weeks in Brazil and a week in Kenya, intentionally slowing down. And what did that journey reveal about your leadership, the company, and your broader purpose for Abracademy?

Rubens Filho:

Thanks for the question actually because I think we need to talk about leadership in different terms nowadays and try to create at Abracademy space that we walk our talk so that we can all be curious and that we can have a less hierarchical structure so everyone can lead depending on what’s needed at the time. So I need to share that we had two maternity leaves in the first six months of this year, and we are not the big company. So it has an impact when two of your business partners go maternity leave. So I had to really accelerate and I was trying to be everywhere and doing beyond my role, and I did, but I was exhausted by July. So I said, “Now is the moment that I need this space and we will need to survive here.” So the rest of the team stepped up and they did what they need to do. So I come back now and I’m regenerated to a certain extent and we can continue to do what we need to do.

Douglas Ferguson:

That’s amazing. You stepped up when time called and then when you needed a break, the other stepped in. And I think that’s really what good teamwork’s about is supporting each other when we need to provide each other support.

Rubens Filho:

Kenya was work already, so it was very nice project, was a lab that we are creating for an NGO. And I think it’s fascinating for me is how universal the language of magic is because we’ve done workshops in 10 languages now, countless number of countries, and it always works. And it works not only because the magic, but also because of the emotions that come out of from magic, the spaces that magic allows you. They’re quite global. If you talk about this feeling of wonder, that’s a global feeling. Everyone in the world feels wonder. So it’s possible to debrief where you’re working with Chinese, Japanese, French, English, German, America, any culture, Brazilian, in any language. Curiosity, how perception works, there are so many elements, empathy, it’s a beautiful space to talk to humans because I think in this world of technology, we need to become more human. So we need to find ways to provoke the human there and magic is a good one.

Douglas Ferguson:

I love that idea of provoking the human. Let’s shift a little bit here with our remaining time. I want to talk about your 10 year celebration and maybe look to the future a little bit as well. So speaking of the 10 year celebration, I know you had a plan that had a really interesting arc. In fact, for me, [inaudible 00:28:31] work is such a core part of how we teach facilitation, how we think about it, big fan of open explorer clothes. And then I love that your appearing act to vanishing act arc because it was so rooted in the magic experience and so super cool and playful. So how did the team come up with that storyline and what does each phase mean to you? Just tell us a little bit more about this really thoughtful and creative journey that you’re taking with the 10 year celebration.

Rubens Filho:

Just to let everyone know, we are doing this 10 year anniversary schedule. It starts with this appearing act, which is September, October. We kick off with feasibility, with our stories, our origin stories. So it’s about sharing these moments and milestones that we had. Then we go coming together to rituals. So this is the gathering. This is the moment for our community to connect all the facilitators, magilitators, the clients, the collaborators. Then there is a moment of gifting and giving, which is like we call a generous spell. So we want to gift inspiration tools, sparks of magic for other people. The last one is the vanishing act. So this is what we are calling the transformation is how we want to close the cycle is with learning. It’s like a reflection where you have one takeaway. What did you learn over along this 10 years? So this is the moment, and I think I consider very important to your question, because we design learning like we design experiences.

This is something very important for Abracademy. We design a workshop, one would design a magic show. So we think a lot about the moments. If you look at a Abracademy design, normally we have four phases, which is we ignite, we explore, we unlock, and we embed. And we always follow these four moments, a moment of igniting the magic. A mindset, it could be that’s a possibility mindset because we have belief mindset, possibility mindset. We have the wonder mindset. So depending on the challenge, we ignite one mindset, then we explore what’s there to be explored in that particular challenge. Then we start with after this exploration to unlock could be connections, it could be thoughts, it could be anything. And then how do we incorporate this in the day-to-day we embed and we try to also design these 10 years in a way that was more meaningful and that lasted a bit longer. So we thought that each one of these phases demanded attention and could do the job that it needs to do, which is we are not celebrating ourselves only, it’s not celebrating our community and the amazing clients that trust us.

Douglas Ferguson:

Super thoughtful and I’m excited to track it from a distance. And one of the things that really resonated with me was this gifting and giving in January, February. And a thought that I had that was emerging for me is our annual conference is in February. And so in the spirit of gifting and giving, I would like to invite you to join us, a free ticket in February if you’re able to make it, or maybe someone in your stead. So I’m just throwing that out there.

Rubens Filho:

Wow, that’s beautiful, Douglas. And I’m happy to do something there if you want me to go share something. It could be one exercise, whatever. I don’t know what shape it takes, but let’s make this even more beautiful. I’m a deep believer in serendipity. I don’t know-

Douglas Ferguson:

There you go.

Rubens Filho:

… how much you read about the serendipity mindset. But it’s beautiful. We’re incorporating in our learnings too, and it’s a bit of what’s happening right now.

Douglas Ferguson:

Amazing. Yeah, the spirit of our conference is all about practitioners coming together and learning together. And so it would be absolutely many moments to try things out and show stuff. And so yeah, we’ll talk more about that. That’s exciting. And then I guess the vanishing act lasts from March to April. Do you have anything planned to really punctuate the end?

Rubens Filho:

I think what we want is kind of make sense, make meaning out of this period. So it’s not something that’s totally structured yet in terms of how we’ll make it, but it is bringing people together to kind of make a reflection. So for example, we have our magilitators club where we have the community. It’s not a massive community, it’s the people that work with us, but we want to bring them together, have a moment, and share the learnings over this period so we can create the future together also. So this can give us ideas and insights to a new moment. I think we also are firm believers in unforgettable experiences. Whatever we build is memorable. And when you create insight for people, when you create connection, you create something memorable. So I think this is a bit of what we are aiming at for this last act, let’s say the vanishing act, imagining the future. Also, obviously from the past and the present, we can imagine the future a bit like the magicians do, right?

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah. It’s kind of a bit of a lens that we can peer through. And speaking of the future, I was thinking about your next 10 years and I’m curious how you envision Abracademy’s place in evolving landscape?

Rubens Filho:

It’s a very good question, and I guess the foundation is that in this world of technology, we need to become more and more human. So how can we push us to open up to this deeper humanity? How can we empathize much more? How can we be more daring, more creative? How can we innovate? How can we create things together? Maybe collaborating thousands instead of collaborating in dozens or in small groups. I would love to work with a group of 37,472 people, and can we create something there that’s amazing, that’s unique, that’s different? And I think that the technology will enable us to do that.

So help people embrace uncertainty, help people become more and more curious. These are core skills that we need to live in this space of not knowing. Magic is about being in a space of not knowing. We are constantly not knowing. If you want to create impossible, how can you know? You don’t know. So how can we support that? I think there is a massive aspect in terms of and how they can cope. I talk a lot about choosing curiosity over anxiety, choosing curiosity over ambiguity. So I think there are beautiful spaces for us to deep dive and create new things and create learning that’s engaging, but also that allows the human to be there. It’s not like something that you look and then you forget, that makes a difference.

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah, I mean to use your words, it has to be unforgettable.

Rubens Filho:

Yes. Yeah. Curious to hear a bit from you too where do you want to go next 10 years? Because it is a difficult question to answer.

Douglas Ferguson:

Well, certainly people hear from me on every one of these episodes, but I echo your sentiment around leaning into our humanity. I think that AI is going to force us to do that. There’s a lot of fear of job loss and these things, but I think just with any massive technological shift and invention, it’s going to force us to reimagine what work is, what life is. We’re only on the tip of the iceberg. I usually compare it to when the iPhone came out. Amazing technology, App Store was also an amazing invention, but the first apps in the App Store were calculators.

Rubens Filho:

Yes.

Douglas Ferguson:

So I want everyone to just think about the fact that we’re in the era of calculator apps in the App Store, and so when do we move to… When we get to the point where we’re Uber is showing up, that’s when this AI stuff is really going to be mind-blowing. People think it’s mind-blowing now, but we’re still in the early days, and as rapidly as it’s accelerating, there’s a lot more in store. And I think that it’s important and incumbent upon us to think about our humanity, think about how we’re showing up, think about the life that we want to create for ourselves. It’s easier to guide that now before it’s thrust upon us, and we haven’t been intentionally tending.

It’s sort of like a garden. If we don’t take the time to carefully put the pieces in place, then we’ll end up with this overgrown garden then we had to deal with. So the daily tending and learning and spending time with this stuff I think is super important. So that’s where I’m really focused. It’s hard to have a very specific concrete vision of what it’s going to be like. I just know that we need to spend time cultivating our humanness, being really curious about how it’s changing and attentive to those things so we can set up structures that we’re going to be comfortable with.

Rubens Filho:

When you look at the serendipity mindset, there is a lot about when we tell a story, we make it much more linear than it is, and we forget all the details that were unpredictable and that change our direction. So I loved your question in the beginning when you asked a moment where things had an insight or there was a big change and there were so many of these moments, but I think these moments worked because we had an intention. Our intention remains the same as bringing more magic to the world, specifically the magic of people. Of course, we use the rep in the hat, but we want to unleash the magic of people getting to know themselves, each other and becoming curious about the world they live in. So how can we make this magic bigger? And we know it’s a big task. We won’t do it alone.

That’s why we need collaboration. That’s why we need to be creative, to innovate. But it’s very inspiring to keep that because then when the opportunity arises, we step in. For example, globally, we wanted to become global, but it was not that we, “Oh, let’s become global and create an office here or there.” It was in the pandemic that we became more global than ever because there was a limitation there that you could see as, “Oh, I lost all my business that was face-to-face in day one.” For four months there was zero. I am very curious to hear your story, but for us, we had the dream clients.

We were working with Netflix, we were working with Sony Music, and then all of a sudden, boom, nothing next day. And then we said, “Oh, let’s just start playing online. Let’s do something. Start giving away workshops and just learning the tool, learning how to create the emotions online and how to collaborate.” And I think that openness allowed us now to then become a global business. And now we can be anywhere in the world, not only online, but also physically. We have facilitators in different languages and from different cultures.

Douglas Ferguson:

Serendipity mindset, definitely very helpful during the pandemic being open to possibility. A lot of it was just going with the flow, right? Like, “Oh, here’s a new thing that just happened and how do we address this?” And just a lot of being very comfortable with uncertainty.

Rubens Filho:

Yes.

Douglas Ferguson:

That’s my recollection. To your point, there’s so many details. Some of them you forget. Some of them it is just boring to retell. But man, so much of it was just like, “Wow, everything’s just changing almost on a daily basis.” And you just had to roll up the sleeves and try things and see what stuck and listen to people’s needs. But it’s the same as it’s always been. But there was just so many people experiencing change at the same time that I think that’s what was so unique about it.

Rubens Filho:

Yeah, I love to observe how people react differently. There were people that were in fear for a few months. There were people that were problem solving straight away. And seeing all these different responses I think shows how different we are and how we need to understand each other to be able to collaborate and work better together. Because you cannot just leave one part of the people out because they’re not good in this and the others are. And it’s also like this beauty of diversity and bringing people with their strengths, but also their weaknesses to collaborate.

Douglas Ferguson:

There’s so many working styles and making sure we are supportive and our collaborative ways of working aren’t optimized for one type of individual.

Rubens Filho:

And that’s what the learning we want to create also, right? That can fit different personalities and ways of learning because there is not only one.

Douglas Ferguson:

Well, as we’re coming to an end here, I want to make sure to leave you time to offer our listeners a final thought.

Rubens Filho:

Well, thank you for this opportunity, Douglas. I would like to say that in the world of business, we use way too much the language of war, but we are in the front line. We create the war room. There is so much terminology about war, and there is so much terminology about sports, winning and losing and the ball is in our court and the champions and so on. But what if we use the language of magic, possibility, curiosity, wonder, in magic we make the impossible possible, we make the invisible visible and we make the ordinary extraordinary. So that’s my message. I think the extraordinary starts with us, and I hope we can all together create something beautiful. All these facilitators that are changing companies, that are changing teams, that are provoking people to grow and evolve. I hope we can get together, create something beautiful.

Douglas Ferguson:

I really like that there’s so much of business language as militarized. It’s hard to go a full day without just getting bombarded with. In fact, that right there, I mean, is a little bit of a stretch, but there’s so many places where these metaphors and jargon shows up. And I love the sentiment of adopting more magical language. I’ve heard of people saying they’re going to demilitarize their language, but actually offering them up an alternative I think is powerful. Also, if we really attune to those things, what a fun way to have a memory device. There are these daily reminders of like, “Oh, I just said that, or I just used that, or someone just said that,” and let that be our little memory device, our little reminder, the string around our finger that we need to be thinking more about magic. We need to be thinking more about wonder. So I love that invitation, Rubens.

Rubens Filho:

Thank you. I feel that the world’s not in a good place, and the more we use this violence, violent language, or a language where one wins and the other loses, I mean, this has an impact in our everyday lives and how we connect to other people. So if we shift, I mean, it makes a massive difference where you pay attention and how you act, therefore, because it’s also connect to your thinking and your actions. So let’s give it a go. It’s not easy, but we can try together.

Douglas Ferguson:

Love that. Well, Rubens, it’s been a pleasure chatting with you. I really appreciate you jumping on the show today. We’ll talk more soon.

Rubens Filho:

Thank you very much, Douglas. Thanks a lot everyone.

Douglas Ferguson:

Thanks for joining me for another episode of the Facilitation Lab Podcast. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave us a review and be sure to subscribe and receive updates when new episodes are released. We love listener tales and invite you to share your facilitation stories. Send them to us on LinkedIn or via email. If you want to know more, head over to our blog, or I post weekly articles and resources about facilitation, team dynamics and collaboration at voltagecontrol.com.his work look like for you as you continue to shape it? Where are you hoping it leads to?

Lori Boozer:

I’m hoping, and I’m just really getting started. I feel like Thailand was the birth of a vision, and now I’m in the space of trying to build out the different elements that I see, and that is a long game, but what I would love to see is really just creating more spaces for individuals to talk about healing and what that journey is really like, what it really takes. So that our workspaces and our places of engagement can be spaces that can hold the wholeness of people and not just the fragments that we’re expected to show up with. So that we are connecting because we understand that people are carrying so many different things, either things from their past or things from their present that are affecting how they show up. And so how do we just take away the stigma? And make it acceptable to say, “You know what? If we’re not healing, if we’re not healing ourselves, if we’re not investing in that, our workplaces are going to stay sick, our society doesn’t get better.”

Like collective healing and transformation, all the things that we say we want have nothing to do with just changing the system and everything to do with your own personal change. People are who make systems. We build the systems; they’re a reflection of who we are. So the more we give ourselves permission to heal and expand, the more we help our systems heal and change in ways that support people who can be whole people. So I think that’s where I’m hoping this conversation goes. What does healing look like? How do workplaces become safe containers for whole people? What role does facilitation play in helping people to make that bridge? And how do we embody that? How do we embody that in an age where we’re dealing with artificial intelligence, which I’m not against, but how do we not lose ourselves to it because we become more embodied in our humanity?

Douglas Ferguson:

Well, what an amazing journey to be on, and you’re at this moment of exploration and curiosity can be exciting and daunting and all the things. And I want to remind you, as a Voltage Control alumni, you have access to free office hours, and we love supporting and also just being a sounding board. Sometimes it’s just helpful to tell someone else something and then see how it feels to say it out loud. So join us for the weekly office hours if you ever, you know, contemplating a direction or wanting to sound out some ideas because that’s why we do it. That’s why we want to be there for y’all as you’re going through these transitions.

Lori Boozer:

Definitely. And I think I definitely will. I remember doing my little portfolio. And my picture was about, “How do you have difficult conversations?” And I remember saying, “I want to lean into the hard stuff. That’s where I want to be, in the space where people are afraid to talk.” So I think knowing that there’s continued support as I develop the vision that I’m working on is always great to have operating in the background.

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah, happy to help and glad to be there for alumni. As we wrap up, I want to give you an opportunity to leave our listeners with a final thought.

Lori Boozer:

I would say for a final thought, I’m going to say two final thoughts. One is every time you feel fear; that’s the moment where you need to lean in. And I think right now there’s a lot of fear because of everything that’s happening, and so we shut down. But it’s like, how do we challenge ourselves to lean into what that fear is asking us to think about or to consider? I think we just have space with everything that’s happening back home to really lean into our healing and to lean into change and personal transformation and use that as an opportunity. And that’s on the individual side.

And I think on the collective side, I feel like, I don’t know that I’m a Meghan Markle fan, but she gets a lot of slack for her show, With Love, I think it’s called. But at its core, it’s really about connecting. And I feel like for all of the backlash that happens, and the way it’s talked about, it’s not just about making the jam; it’s the fact that she’s bringing these people into her world and they’re doing these activities together. And I guess, how do we continue to find ways in all that’s happening to have little moments of connection? To keep the charcuterie board parties going, jump on a Zoom with a bunch of friends. Like, how do we just continue to honor that and create space for that in front of us?

Douglas Ferguson:

Nice. Well, Lori, it’s been a pleasure. I could keep chatting with you on and on and on, but we had to hit the pause and pick up again some other time. But it was a pleasure having you on the show. Thanks for being here.

Lori Boozer:

Thanks for having me. And to be continued.

Douglas Ferguson:

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

The post The Greatest Secrets of Blending Magic and Psychology for Team Growth appeared first on Voltage Control.

I don’t remember when I first heard the word facilitation. But looking back, I can see how it found me. I began my career in health education, working at a free clinic in Los Angeles that served homeless and runaway youth. That work demanded deep listening, empathy, and the ability to draw connections across community needs, systems, and services. Later, after moving to Sacramento in 1988 and starting a family, I transitioned into education. It was a pivot that happened organically: as a stay-at-home mom, I told the principal at my kids’ school, “I don’t bake cookies, but I can write grants.” That was enough to get me started.

One of my first grants was for arts education. We used the funds to launch a school-wide Shakespeare festival. Every grade level prepared a performance, with sixth graders even writing their own Seinfeld-inspired parody. There were turkey legs and storybooks kid versions of Shakespeare plays for sale. It was magical—not just because of the grant, but because it tapped into what the community already cared about. That was a lesson I would carry forward: the most powerful ideas don’t come from funder guidelines; they come from people.

Over time, I came to realize that facilitation was at the heart of good grant writing. You have to bring people together, gather their voices, understand what they need, and tell their story with clarity and heart. The funders can tell when you’re bluffing. You can read a grant and know instantly if it’s real or not. I used to review federal and state grants, and it was obvious which ones were just parroting back language. The authentic ones had depth—and that only comes when you’ve facilitated honest dialogue.

I called it guerrilla dialogue back then. You couldn’t always get people to come to a meeting, especially after school. So I would show up wherever they were and start asking questions. I’m a curious cat by nature, and I would talk to parents, teachers, cafeteria workers—anyone who had a perspective to share. I listened with an ethnographic lens. The physical space of a school told its own story, too. The cracked pavement, the posters on the walls, the sounds in the hallway—it was all data.

Later, as I started working with high-poverty schools and refugee families, I learned to adapt even more. I ran listening sessions in Farsi, Pashto, Spanish—whatever language the community spoke. That required close partnership with interpreters, attention to cultural dynamics, and sometimes changing what I wore or how I showed up as a woman. But if you ask parents about their kids, they’ll talk. Everyone wants a better life for their children.

Rediscovering the Power of Structure

The challenge, over time, was that things started to shift. It got harder to get people to talk together. The climate changed—socially, politically. Mistrust was in the air. In educational spaces, I started to feel the strain. People weren’t just reluctant; they were polarized. I facilitated a session on school safety once where students spoke powerfully about not wanting police on campus. Officers in the room sabotaged the process. The district ultimately ignored what the students said. I left that project with a deep sense of betrayal.

That experience wasn’t unique. As facilitators, we sometimes get used. We create safe space, people open up, and then leaders go back to the plan they always had. I realized I needed to be clearer in my contracts, to protect not only myself but the communities I serve. That realization was a turning point. I wanted better tools, better ways to hold space, and more skill in client management.

Around that time, I started noticing Voltage Control in my feed. I think it was the algorithm doing its magic. I joined a few Facilitation Lab sessions and immediately felt at home. There were people from all kinds of industries—tech, academia, aerospace—and they were grappling with some of the same questions I was. It was energizing. One guy had like six computers. Another was a university professor. I loved the cross-pollination.

I hadn’t realized how much I missed having a community. As a grant writer, I was often the only one doing what I did. Same with facilitation. So finding a space where people were asking the same kinds of questions—even if they were solving them differently—was a huge spark. When I saw the certification program launch, and Eric (a fellow educator!) was involved, it felt like a no-brainer.

Learning New Tricks

I joined the very first cohort. The timing was perfect. I was winding down my formal career and stepping into a new chapter. My certification project pushed me to think not just about skill development, but about my identity and offerings as a consultant. We focused on my LinkedIn profile, using it as a way to refine my narrative. I started posting regularly, curating book recommendations, and testing what resonated. I eventually slowed that down, but the clarity it gave me was invaluable.

I remember getting some real pushback from my cohort: “I don’t think that word means what you think it means.” It was exactly what I needed. The feedback was honest, generative, and kind. Phil and I became close collaborators, and others in the group brought such different lenses—a psychologist, a business founder, someone calling in from Asia in the wee hours of the morning the middle of the night. That diversity was the magic.

What I also appreciated was how the program helped me formalize what I had been doing intuitively. I’d always followed my nose, but now I had a more structured process. I took the Magical Meetings course, fell in love with SessionLab, and began building agendas that were strategic, inclusive, and actionable. I started designing activities that spoke to power, meaning, and affect—the full range of communication styles. It wasn’t just about getting through a meeting. It was about creating real engagement.

Sparkable Moments

One of the biggest things that shifted for me after certification was how I work with young people. I’ve always had a strong rapport with students, but now I was more intentional about building spaces where they felt truly heard. When you bring in the right activities, the right groupings, the right rhythm—it works. It really works. Those kids hug me at the end of the session. It’s real.

Another area where I’ve grown is in cross-cultural facilitation. I think deeply now about how I show up, not just what I do. That includes being intentional with check-ins (even if they feel like a “time suck”) and pulling inspiration from books like The Art of Gathering to structure the space with care. I also became more proactive about navigating power. I had a session where I had to stop an adult in their tracks for going after a student. That protective stance is something I now claim unapologetically.

What I Choose Now

Today, I’m mostly retired—but not inactive. I just wrapped a two-year project with my former school district, where I worked with a team of teachers,  guiding them through equity-based design work using the Liberatory Design framework. We worked deeply with one school, building capacity across the year and even creating a custom field guide for the team to carry the work forward.

I’m also working with another district to reimagine their alternative education pathways. It’s fascinating to think about what school could look like for students who don’t fit the standard mold. We’re applying futures thinking, design tools, and, of course, facilitation. I do it because it’s sparkable. If it’s interesting, if I can help unlock something, I’m in. Otherwise, I go on field trips with fourth graders. I do what I want.

Learning Forward

What keeps me energized is what’s next. I still love learning. I’m halfway through Voltage Control’s course on futuristic thinking and eager to dive deeper. Futures Wheels, liberatory design, AI applications in equity work—these are all areas I’m curious about. I’m following Jeremy Utley from the d.school and exploring how we might use AI for good instead of just efficiency.

I may be an old dog, but I still love new tricks. What I want most is to keep asking better questions, creating better spaces, and helping people imagine what they haven’t yet imagined. Especially in education, where the stakes are so high and the systems so slow to change. It’s hard to sell design thinking in a system obsessed with 11-point fonts and funding compliance. But that’s exactly why we need it.

Learning and connection. That’s what I got from the certification. And that’s what I would offer anyone considering it: don’t underestimate the power of being in a room (or a Zoom) with people who ask the kinds of questions you ask. Even if they’re in tech or aerospace or consulting, if they care about how people come together to solve problems, you’ll find kinship.

This work is never done. But it gets richer when you’re not doing it alone.

The post From Guerrilla Dialogue To Liberatory Design appeared first on Voltage Control.

In this episode of the Facilitation Lab Podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Lori Boozer, a narrative strategist and wellness visionary. Lori shares her journey from law to facilitation, emphasizing the importance of creating inclusive spaces for genuine participation and healing. The conversation explores group dynamics, the power of storytelling, and removing hierarchical barriers to foster authentic connection. Lori reflects on her experiences in Thailand and the need for “reparative engagement” in communities. Together, they discuss how facilitation can drive collective transformation, especially in workplaces and a world increasingly shaped by technology.

Show Highlights

[00:04:07] Recognizing Group Dynamics
[00:09:09] Zooming Out and Sensing Group Energy
[00:13:38] Reparative Engagement in Politics and Community
[00:22:39] Facilitation as World-Building
[00:28:43] Blending Facilitation and Narrative Change
[00:32:28] Understanding Behaviors and Work Stories
[00:36:32] Vision for Healing and Wholeness in Workspaces
[00:39:58] Final Thoughts: Leaning into Fear and Connection

Links | Resources

Lori on Linkedin

Lori on Instagram

Lori on the web

About the Guest

Lori Boozer is a social impact strategist, narrative alchemist, and wellness visionary with 20+ years of experience spanning law, politics, government, and philanthropy. Known for making the complex usable and the invisible visible, she has built a career designing stories, strategies, and systems that enable people and communities to thrive.

Her leadership has included senior roles in New York City government and philanthropy, where she directed multimillion-dollar initiatives focused on poverty alleviation, health equity, and community empowerment. At the Robin Hood Foundation, Lori led the $25 million Mobility Learning and Action Bets (LABs), advancing community-driven strategies to lift families out of poverty.

Drawing on lived experience and professional expertise, she integrates research, foresight, and cultural insight to help leaders and institutions move beyond performative change toward deep, transformative change. She is particularly recognized for her ability to merge strategy, storytelling, and spirituality into frameworks that shift paradigms, policies, and possibilities. She is also an adept facilitator, known for creating spaces where diverse stakeholders can engage truthfully, bridge divides, and co-create solutions that last.

Currently based in Southeast Asia on a working sabbatical, Lori writes, consults, and explores global approaches to wellness, belonging, and sovereignty. Her emerging platform, Root × Water, centers individual and collective healing, reminding us that systems change begins with self-liberation.

A sought-after speaker and facilitator, Lori creates spaces grounded in truth, courage, and connection. Her work continues to be guided by a simple belief: healed people heal systems — and build new ones.

Outside of her work, Lori finds joy in writing afrofuturist fiction, nature photography, global travel, and long afternoons at the spa.

About Voltage Control

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

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Contact Voltage Control

Transcript

Douglas Ferguson:

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

Today, I’m with Lori Boozer, narrative strategist and wellness visionary. She’s the creative root and water, a developing platform dedicated to individual and collective healing, freedom, and reimagining community. Lori is also writing about her journey from survival to alignment and the practices that help us move toward wholeness. Welcome to the show, Lori.

Lori Boozer:

Hi. Thanks for having me.

Douglas Ferguson:

It’s so great to have you here, and really neat to have you calling in from Thailand on such a special break from the insanity.

Lori Boozer:

I’m happy to have a break. I’m happy to call in.

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah, so often we need breaks and we don’t get them, so I’m happy that you’re taking one and we get to spend some time doing it, so you’ll be… You’re clear-eyed and fresh and whatnot. So let’s get started here. You began your career as an attorney focused on individual cases in New York City. Looking back, what were some early moments that hinted you were already stepping into facilitation?

Lori Boozer:

I think I can say one of the earliest things that hit me, probably even before I got to law school. I remember interviewing for a fellowship, and they gave us some individual exercises, and then they gave us a group exercise, and I remember thinking, “This is the most perfect opportunity for me. I’m going to kill this.” And while we were in the group exercise, I remember sort of defaulting to… I wasn’t as engaged in the act of solving the problem they gave us. I was more focused on how to organize the group, how to collect everyone’s thoughts, how to keep the conversations moving. That was sort of just my default, the default position that I ended up playing. I don’t think that’s what they wanted us to do. So I didn’t get the fellowship, but I remember, it’s funny, this just came to me as you asked the question.

I remember in that moment thinking that that was really weird, and I said to myself, “Why were you doing that? Everyone else was leaning in and trying to solve the problem, and my draw was to how do we get the flow of this space to work?” And I was too young, I think, to kind of contemplate that facilitation was even a thing. But I think as you asked the question, I was sort of playing that role, and I think that that is an energy that has sort of always emerged from me in the different spaces that I’ve worked in. I think it’s maybe a combination of that, but also just the way that I think and sort of recognizing that I tend to be able to zoom out in a lot of ways that people aren’t able to when they’re stuck in the thick of a problem. And so I think just naturally I sort of take on this sort of facilitator-like position in spaces. And so that brought me to wanting to explore a more formalized way to improve the practice of it.

Douglas Ferguson:

Do you remember what you were noticing in the moment that made you want to focus more on the dynamics in the room versus the problem at hand?

Lori Boozer:

Disconnection and chaos, and I think I have… It’s like nails on the chalkboard. So when I’m in a space and I see humans unable to center and organize, I think I just naturally default to, “How do we bring order to the chaos?” because we’re trying to move towards a goal. And typically I’m in spaces where that goal is something that is to improve something, someone’s life, the betterment of humanity. And so that pull for me to want to see the outcome, the impact, brings me to a space of, “Well, I don’t need to dabble in the problem always, but if I can help us move towards, move the conversation that’s solving the problem,” that feels just as powerful to me. So I think that that’s kind of what I’m feeling. And I think the more you become embodied in your leadership, you start to feel physically what your friction points are. And so for me, my friction point is always, “We’re going in circles, we’re not moving towards the goal, people are frustrated. How do we make this feel like a smoother process for people to participate in?”

Douglas Ferguson:

So you’re more invested in getting to an outcome versus what the outcome was.

Lori Boozer:

Yeah. In that type of role, I think it’s more about creating the space, creating the container for people to show up in a way that allows us to get to the outcome. I’m invested in the outcome too. I guess it depends on what my position is. I have a job to do. If I’m purely a facilitator, then yes, but if I’m a manager, it’s probably a mix of both. I’m invested in what the outcome is, but I also know that in order for us to get a good outcome, my team has to operate in a certain way.

And I think one of the things that I took away from my training with Voltage, and I didn’t think this was going to be a part of the conversation, was the work we did around group dynamics and meeting structures. And I think people in management positions, we tend to make agendas and throw up meetings, and we don’t really think about ourselves as facilitators in that moment. And so in hindsight, after doing the work with your team, I really started to make the connections between this facilitation for a facilitation sake. You serve specifically as a facilitator; you show up in the space, and that is your role to create the container, to hold the space for the action and the activities to take place. But there’s also just the skill that you embody when you may hold different titles and positions in workspaces. And how do you bring the idea of facilitation through the way you organize your meetings, the way you create your agendas, the way you structure time with your teams to be more efficient? So I think that there’s a duality of that as well.

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah, it comes down to, are we talking about competencies versus tools or identities or behaviors? And I think you’re speaking from that perspective of competencies. Anyone can take these competencies and apply them in lots of different scenarios.

Lori Boozer:

Yeah. And I think what’s important too, and why I think facilitation has become so critical and especially now, is that we’re so easily disconnected that I really, and maybe this is just my own personal way of thinking about it, but I think that there’s just a powerful moment in our current state of being where we need people who can hold those spaces because we’re so naturally inclined, in this day and age, to be so disconnected. We have computers in between us, we have social media in between us, we have AI now coming in between us. And so to use Priya Parker’s term, The Art of Gathering, in different spaces, in different capacities, to be able to bring people together in conversation or to achieve a goal or to work through things or improve dynamics and workspaces. I think people are overlooking, to some degree, how critical the competency is and how we need to, I think, train towards being able to hold or create more of these containers for ourselves.

Douglas Ferguson:

And you talked about zooming out earlier when you were in that moment, and I’m curious to hear more about that. What does zooming out mean for you? It conjures a few different things from me, and so I was just curious if it was about the moment or if it was about seeing a bigger picture somehow or stepping outside of what everyone else is in and noticing dynamics. What does zooming out look like for you?

Lori Boozer:

Zooming out for me, I think it looks like noticing where my own energy is being pulled and if there’s a bit of an imbalance there. So if I’m starting to lean into the dynamics of the conversation, like we’re trying to solve X and sort of recognizing that… It’s like I’m able to pick up on the human, the unspoken dynamics. I can see in this person that they don’t feel like their response is being heard or the idea is being respected. I can see tension, I can see hesitancy and people who don’t want to participate. I can see the people who are participating and taking up all the energy. And so sometimes that for me triggers, “Okay, I want everyone to belong.” I think it’s just a part of my natural wiring. I want everyone to feel heard. I think some of that comes from being a black woman and sort of understanding what it is to not feel heard or to not be seen.

So there’s a particular focus that I have sometimes in spaces where it’s like, “Is this space welcoming everyone’s participation in a meaningful way?” And so I think the zooming out is starting to zoom out, and I think a lot, we don’t do this right; we don’t really pause to pick up on the energies and the dynamics that play. We sort of just get really wound up in the thing that we’re trying to do. But when you have this inclination to facilitate, I think you can zoom out and say, “Ah, it looks like it’s a conversation, but really there are people who aren’t speaking.”

There’s stuff that’s not happening, which means that that collaboration, that interaction, that exchange isn’t going to be able to produce the best outcome because it didn’t have the participation of everyone in a way that would get to the best outcome. I think we get outcomes, but sometimes the silent people are carrying information that we need, and people who are not speaking up or people who are having their ideas overlooked. And so how do you create a container or space where everyone starts to feel engaged so that the outcome reflects the breadth of everyone?

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah, it’s making me think how, I don’t know how good this metaphor is, but what’s conjuring up for me right now is this idea of some people’s style is more like they have a megaphone and they’re trying to rah-rah-rah and rile folks up. And some people have a bit more of a, they’re more like an antenna. They’re tuning and measuring the energy in the room and trying to drive engagement by understanding what’s there and responding to it versus the “Let’s pour energy in the room and hope everyone responds to the energy.” And certainly both approaches can work, but it’s fascinating to think about that distinction, and I’m wondering if any of that conjures up any memories or any thoughts.

Lori Boozer:

I think the rah-rah has its place. I think it’s like, you kind of want to walk around with a toolbox, and you want to understand what different spaces might require, and some spaces might require a rah-rah or some inspiration or an energy that just kind of elicits things from people. I think it depends on what the purpose of the space is. And I think that there’s different spaces where it’s intended to maybe be more collaborative, not so much focused on a particular person or a particular… Energy is supposed to be about this exchange. And I think in those spaces, rah-rah can kind of take up the space, but it doesn’t necessarily invite everyone’s participation in a meaningful way. I think if we zoom this out to society and not to, I don’t know, be a little rude. I think it’s the way we think about our political system. People run for office, and those people are like, “rah-rah,” and they bring in energy, and that energy elicits something out of you.

You go vote. There’s not really an exchange. You might not see this person in person. You may not ever be someone that goes to a debate and sees them hash out the issues, but there’s a dynamic at play that as a society who’s going to follow along in that energy. But I think what we notice is where the breakdown is, the disengagement of voters and sort of the silos of people who aren’t responding to the rah-rahs anymore. The people in Cole County who feel left behind, people who for whatever reasons are on the margins, and it’s like, “Well, the rah-rah isn’t enough to get those votes.” What they require is actual reparative engagement. And reparative engagement means that that’s more of an energetic exchange and more of a collaborative way of listening to and receiving what they have to say and inviting them into conversation. And that’s the difference. I think that’s a different part of the puzzle.

And I think that that’s maybe where politics kind of gets some things wrong in the ground game. We rely a lot on the rah-rah, but we don’t do enough in small communities to actually listen and lean into people who are not, what I would say, we have this idea of the polls telling us this group votes the most, so we’re going to rah-rah at that group, and that’s who we rely on. But then now we have built up these silos of people who are on the margins and who are not really feeling heard and seen within their government. So I think that’s the example that I would say demonstrates the difference between inspirational leadership and magnetism and moving people in the direction versus engagement and maybe reparative engagement in spaces where it’s about listening and exchange and collaboration.

And I think as we think about just how disrupted we are as a country, how divided we are, in order for us to see our own landscape shift, we have to think about… We look at facilitation as like this thing we use in office spaces, but it’s actually universally applicable because it’s really about the capacity to zoom out, zoom in, and understand how to bridge connections, hold space, and create containers for people to engage in dialogue and to feel belonging and that they matter. And I think we have an opportunity where it’s time to be out in some of these communities to do that, to change, to move away from just the rah-rah paradigm of politics.

Douglas Ferguson:

Wow. Yeah, I love that that question led to that line of thinking and sharing because I think it’s super relevant what you share here about voter behavior and politicians’ behaviors. It’s an important topic now given the landscape, but also it parallels how things work in the office, how things work in organizations of all sorts. Anytime you have a constituency that needs the need to be met, those dynamics are at play, right? That’s really fascinating, and I love this idea of reparative engagement. I haven’t heard that term before. Does that come out of the work that you do, or what are the origins there? Of that term?

Lori Boozer:

I think you mentioned that I’m on this break, so my time at my last job sort of came to an end, and I was in this in-between space of, “Do I get another job, or is there something else that calls to me?” And I was close to getting another job. The job I just left, I did a lot of work in community. My focus was really on community engagement. And I think as I was shifting into this space of giving myself permission to kind of rest and think about vision and what would I want to create, the question you asked, “If you had all the money in the world, what would you do?” And I think a lot of it really centered around healing and sort of healing as the missing link to some of the conversations that we’re struggling to have. And from a community perspective, I think I started to think about the ideas of what is repair at the community level.

There’s community engagement, but usually when we engage, we want something. I think reparative engagement is more about what does the community want and what are we building together? And how are we restoring trust in our communities? I think if you were looking at it through a political lens, reparative engagement is critical because communities don’t trust their politicians. And so I think it’s if you move away from a model where it was just about extraction, “I’m just going to show up when I need your vote, I’m going to give you enough things so that you feel like I care about you.” And moved into a model that said, “I have a two-year runway or a four-year runway. What does it look like to keep boots on the ground and to keep conversations going and to speak in my community from a place of repair and understanding? The harms that this community may have suffered, the harms that they currently suffer, the needs, the wants in a real meaningful way.”

I think that that’s how you restore the trust and how you bring a lot of siloed communities and siloed voters back into the fold. But you can’t build that trust if you’re just showing up a couple of months before the election. And I think that favors the status quo system because it doesn’t give people space to make a decision from a place of having had any real encounter. It’s just the name recognition, and there’s maybe limited options, two or three candidates, and you have to vote or you don’t vote, right? The worst case is you don’t vote. The medium case is you vote for someone you’re not really interested in, any of the candidates, because there’s not been any real engagement there.

Douglas Ferguson:

I want to bring us back to your trip in Thailand. So in the pre-show chat, you kind of mentioned some recent experiences and how it felt so different from your experiences at home, not only having a big break from being deep in work and in the grind but also just culturally. And it kind of echoes something you said earlier about being a black woman and how that influences how you show up in spaces. And it sounds like you had a similar experience in Thailand, just noticing what it was like to be in those spaces.

Lori Boozer:

Yeah, I noticed what it was like to feel welcomed and to feel… I think in America we talk a lot about this idea of belonging and inclusion and all the fuzzy words, and I don’t think anyone understands how to actually create that. And I think while I’ve been here particularly, I was in the northern part of Thailand, in Chiang Rai, for about four months, and it was an interesting… I felt unguarded, and I felt less hypervigilant, and I felt more belonging than I do at home because it is almost like there’s a level of hospitality and engagement that just accepts you in the state that you’re in.

I never really, I didn’t walk around feeling, “Oh, well, I’m black, so now I’m being watched,” or, “I’m black so I’m not going to get good care or good treatment.” I actually had to have surgery in Thailand, and I found myself kind of going along with the care in a way that I just would not back home because I would say, “Oh, they kill black people in America. I have to ask all the questions, do all the things. I don’t trust this doctor. I don’t feel comfortable; I don’t feel safe.” That’s sort of where the trauma exists. And then to be in a different country and feel like you can kind of relax, I think it’s kind of been really healing to give my system the space to feel free in that way.

And that’s why a lot of my work now is really thinking about healing and reparative practices and how do individuals heal, but also what does a collective healing actually look like. Because I think we don’t really know how to get ourselves there. So when you’re in a place where you just feel welcome and you can kind of let go, it’s like, “Well, how do you translate this energy? What’s the difference?” What’s the difference, Douglas?

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah.

Lori Boozer:

What is the difference between the energy in a place like this versus the energy in America, and how do we get some of this good juju?

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah. How do we create that imaginary world for folks so that they can start to adopt it on a more regular basis?

Lori Boozer:

Or how if we really wanted to explore ideas of belonging, when you think about it as a facilitator, this is the energy that you want to… That you create. You create that hospitable, welcoming, be-yourself, you-have-permission kind of energy. If you’re good, I have some bad facilitation. You’re just like, “Ah, I don’t know about this.” But I think when you do it, you kind of create that kind of energy. And it’s weird. It is like facilitation kind of lets you create these; it’s like world building.

You get to create these little spaces that are not the outside world. You’re going to leave the space and go back to the real world, but in the facilitated space, it’s protected, and it’s cocoon-like to some degree. And so I think the energy that I experienced here feels a lot like that. Welcoming energy is you want to create in those spaces. And I think, I guess, how I’m trying to connect this is… Part of how we move forward back home, I think, is in creating that energy more often, creating that welcoming, “I see you just because you’re you” energy, which I think is really hard for us because we’re so into containers and labels and boxes. But how do you create that? I think that that could be really healing for people to experience.

Douglas Ferguson:

That’s making me think of this group here in Austin. I used to get invited to, called House of Genius, and they had this thing where when you showed up, you weren’t allowed to tell people anything other than your first name. You couldn’t say what your job was, you couldn’t say your last name, you couldn’t talk about anything you do when you’re networking and chatting ahead of time. So as these startups are presenting and everyone’s given advice, everyone’s advice is on an even playing field because you don’t know if this person next to you is on three different boards of public companies or the janitor or whatever. And at the end you get to reveal during the networking after. I thought that was really interesting. When you remove the labels, when you remove the expectations, how much it shifted the dynamic of how I experienced the room and showed up, and I’m a white guy, and so it was a super neat space. They were creating.

Lori Boozer:

It’s interesting; when we did the last convening from the Mobility LABs initiative that I worked on at my last job, we did something similar. We purposefully had people leave off their organizations and their titles, and all they had was first names and the word “community member” on their name tags, but it was for the same purpose. It was to mitigate power dynamics, to remove the separators, the things that make you play a particular role. Because if you are a manager or the nonprofit and you see a funder and a foundation, there’s a default set of roles that you fall into. I think we don’t even realize that the way that we’re programmed, we sort of fall into roles within spaces based on how we react to people’s titles, what we perceive someone can do for us or not do for us. So it is interesting, the similar concept of how do we just make this about human beings in a room and less about in the room because you do X or you have Y.

And so I agree. I think that that’s actually a really powerful way to structure time, communal time together to take away the separators, the things we use to create distance or false connection. We connect with people for reasons that are about service to what we need, not necessarily the depth of who we are. So it’s a false connection. “I don’t get to know Lori, but I get to know Lori, who may have money to give me.”

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah, yeah.

Lori Boozer:

It’s a very different thing. I used to hate that about my job because all I felt like was a dollar sign walking around.

Douglas Ferguson:

False connections. I love this idea. You’re making me think about how the false connections are very superficial, right?

Lori Boozer:

In front of you.

Douglas Ferguson:

Because they’re there because of some other pretense, but it really gets in the way; it’s a hindrance to go into, actually, deeper.

Lori Boozer:

How can you actually solve problems if there’s not or any real connection there? I think, as I was saying, that’s one of the things working in philanthropy that was a pain. It was like I wanted to connect deeply with people or learn about work that people were doing. Not necessarily because I had money to give, because I often didn’t, but I think people just connected with me as a dollar. And so that was like if I said, “I don’t have any money to give,” it was like, “Okay, next.”

But I’m like, “Well, I could probably help you in 10 other ways,” but because there’s no space to connect more deeply outside of the role. This wasn’t everyone, but there were just instances where you could tell where it was like, “Oh, I don’t have any money.” So that’s the end of that conversation. And I think, to your point, false connections, we have a lot of that. It’s like an epidemic. Social media is a false connection. We think we’re in community, but we’re not. We’re just on there chitchatting, and we feel like we’ve got a million followers, but we’re not actually connected in any meaningful way. We’re more socially isolated than ever before. So how do you get back to the real connections?

Douglas Ferguson:

I love that. I want to pivot a little bit to the future here as we’re kind of ending our time together. And I remember you talking about blending facilitation and narrative change and storytelling. What would an ideal project at that intersection look like for you?

Lori Boozer:

So I think the idea first came to me at my last job, where I was hosting a Women’s History Month event, and I did an activity, which was an icebreaker, where I basically wanted to demonstrate the concept: we’re not as connected, but we have more in common than we actually understand ourselves too within our workspaces. So I had people close their eyes and think about the community that they came from, not where they live now, where they grew up. What did it smell like? What did it look like? What did it feel like? Who were your neighbors? What did you do when you were a kid? You weren’t running up and down your local street. And then when we came back together, I asked people to share their experiences. And it was fascinating to watch these people who didn’t talk much in the office or seemed to not anything in common light up around these sort of shared childhoods filled with pride that they had in their communities or recognizing that they had touched the same spaces and letting people sort of tell their story.

And I think it disarms the room because you start to see another human. You don’t see the job, you don’t see the title. You see Lisa from Pennsylvania, and your aunt is from Pennsylvania, and then now it’s like, “My aunt is from Pennsylvania, and I grew up there too,” or… So it’s interesting letting people tell those stories because I realized that when we worked together, we are trying to solve the same problem, but we’re influenced by the perspectives that we have playing in our minds that are related to our personal stories. Whether we say it out loud or not, I am impacted by my personal childhood as a black woman growing up in a particular neighborhood. And when I’m in a nonprofit space, whether I’m saying that out loud or not, the perspectives that are playing in my mind are influenced by that experience.

And so I need to understand your experience, Douglas, but what was your experience? Because that helps me understand the perspective that you bring to the work and how we might bridge disagreement about the work because now we’re able to see eye to eye and understand sort of where we’re coming from. So when I think about narrative change and facilitation, I think that the narrative change piece, as twofold, is the personal storytelling to break down the walls between individuals, and then it’s the forming of a collective narrative in the facilitated space that supports the outcome that the group is trying to achieve. So once you break down the wall, and this is kind of like the divergence-convergence theory in some degree, right? There’s divergence in the beginning, but a lot of times it’s not just about the work; it’s just personal perspective. So how do you sort of chip away at that a little bit so that you can get to this collective outcome and use storytelling to do that?

And then when you get to the outcome, it is also, “What is the shared vision?” but, “What’s the narrative around this that we all are going to tell?” We now have a shared story. So we’ve gone from, it’s like divergence and convergence and narrative. We had these individual stories that are driving us in the background that we’ve now talked about and brought into the facilitated space, and we move toward this outcome, this shared outcome, but also a shared narrative and a shared story that we’re now going to tell collectively as a group that unites us around the work and how we want to present that work to the world.

Douglas Ferguson:

It also makes me think even slightly less deep, maybe a little bit more superficial. This trend manifests itself too, because you’ve got situations at work or disagreements come up, and when I say work, this could be in any collaborative endeavor. We’re trying to work on something together, and problems start to arise. And oftentimes this is rooted in beliefs and values and even fears that have been created in our prior collaborations, our prior projects. So it might not have been how we grew up or some of the foundational things about what we believe, but just some beliefs that we gathered around, “I don’t like this tool because the way my prior company used it was really painful,” or “They treated you really bad if you didn’t enter stuff in a certain way.”

And now when I’m being asked to use it here, I’m resisting. Whereas the person on the other side is like, “Why are they so resistant to the simple thing?” but not understanding the context by which some of those behaviors and beliefs were rooted. And I think people don’t spend enough time trying to understand the why behind behaviors. They just look at it as like, “Well, that’s dysfunctional, or that’s a difficult person.” And I think the spirit of digging deeper, really getting connected and grounded in what’s driving the need to feel supported in a different way.

Lori Boozer:

Right, yeah. We all have a work story. We all have a personal story, but it is just we’re carrying these things in every space that we go to, but there is no space to hold it because I think we came out of a time when it was looked down upon to be honest about how you feel. If you were bothered by the tool, you couldn’t just say what you thought, right? You had to kind of go along lockstep with whatever your job was asking. So then you do get labeled, or you get ostracized, or you don’t really feel like you’re fitting in, but it’s something that could be resolved if there just was understanding about what was happening. Or I think even people show up with all sorts of challenges that they don’t talk about, but we spend how much time at work. How much time do we spend in our job with coworkers?

I think it’s absurd that we have to leave all authenticity and humanity behind when we’re in these spaces for at least seven, eight, or more hours a day. They’re only 24 hours, so almost half your lifetime is spent working, right? I don’t know the exact data points. But what would it mean to just have more storytelling and narrative work in spaces? I think narrative work can also just be how the space tells its own story to create space for you to show up in that way. Like, “This is a space that values X, and it looks like Y.” And then you show up and you say, “Okay, I’m having difficulty with this because…” So it kind of feeds into the permission to lean into more authenticity, more connection, more understanding within the workspaces. So I’m still playing around those concepts, but I think just from an organizational change perspective, there’s a space for storytelling and narrative work that can be really powerful in terms of how we work.

And I think with AI now more than ever, we have to learn how to connect. We have to. We can’t go to work anymore and just be, “Oh, that’s just Bob,” and that’s it. Because that human connection is the thing that is going to distinguish what we do versus what a computer does. And the more we allow ourselves to lose that, the more likely it is that people will feel like, “Well, humans are just replaceable.” And I don’t think that that’s the case. I think that we’ve just lost a little bit of our humanity along the way.

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah, it’s important for us to identify what that is and cultivate it. So what does this work look like for you as you continue to shape it? Where are you hoping it leads to?

Lori Boozer:

I’m hoping, and I’m just really getting started. I feel like Thailand was the birth of a vision, and now I’m in the space of trying to build out the different elements that I see, and that is a long game, but what I would love to see is really just creating more spaces for individuals to talk about healing and what that journey is really like, what it really takes. So that our workspaces and our places of engagement can be spaces that can hold the wholeness of people and not just the fragments that we’re expected to show up with. So that we are connecting because we understand that people are carrying so many different things, either things from their past or things from their present that are affecting how they show up. And so how do we just take away the stigma? And make it acceptable to say, “You know what? If we’re not healing, if we’re not healing ourselves, if we’re not investing in that, our workplaces are going to stay sick, our society doesn’t get better.”

Like collective healing and transformation, all the things that we say we want have nothing to do with just changing the system and everything to do with your own personal change. People are who make systems. We build the systems; they’re a reflection of who we are. So the more we give ourselves permission to heal and expand, the more we help our systems heal and change in ways that support people who can be whole people. So I think that’s where I’m hoping this conversation goes. What does healing look like? How do workplaces become safe containers for whole people? What role does facilitation play in helping people to make that bridge? And how do we embody that? How do we embody that in an age where we’re dealing with artificial intelligence, which I’m not against, but how do we not lose ourselves to it because we become more embodied in our humanity?

Douglas Ferguson:

Well, what an amazing journey to be on, and you’re at this moment of exploration and curiosity can be exciting and daunting and all the things. And I want to remind you, as a Voltage Control alumni, you have access to free office hours, and we love supporting and also just being a sounding board. Sometimes it’s just helpful to tell someone else something and then see how it feels to say it out loud. So join us for the weekly office hours if you ever, you know, contemplating a direction or wanting to sound out some ideas because that’s why we do it. That’s why we want to be there for y’all as you’re going through these transitions.

Lori Boozer:

Definitely. And I think I definitely will. I remember doing my little portfolio. And my picture was about, “How do you have difficult conversations?” And I remember saying, “I want to lean into the hard stuff. That’s where I want to be, in the space where people are afraid to talk.” So I think knowing that there’s continued support as I develop the vision that I’m working on is always great to have operating in the background.

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah, happy to help and glad to be there for alumni. As we wrap up, I want to give you an opportunity to leave our listeners with a final thought.

Lori Boozer:

I would say for a final thought, I’m going to say two final thoughts. One is every time you feel fear; that’s the moment where you need to lean in. And I think right now there’s a lot of fear because of everything that’s happening, and so we shut down. But it’s like, how do we challenge ourselves to lean into what that fear is asking us to think about or to consider? I think we just have space with everything that’s happening back home to really lean into our healing and to lean into change and personal transformation and use that as an opportunity. And that’s on the individual side.

And I think on the collective side, I feel like, I don’t know that I’m a Meghan Markle fan, but she gets a lot of slack for her show, With Love, I think it’s called. But at its core, it’s really about connecting. And I feel like for all of the backlash that happens, and the way it’s talked about, it’s not just about making the jam; it’s the fact that she’s bringing these people into her world and they’re doing these activities together. And I guess, how do we continue to find ways in all that’s happening to have little moments of connection? To keep the charcuterie board parties going, jump on a Zoom with a bunch of friends. Like, how do we just continue to honor that and create space for that in front of us?

Douglas Ferguson:

Nice. Well, Lori, it’s been a pleasure. I could keep chatting with you on and on and on, but we had to hit the pause and pick up again some other time. But it was a pleasure having you on the show. Thanks for being here.

Lori Boozer:

Thanks for having me. And to be continued.

Douglas Ferguson:

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

The post How Can Facilitation Foster Genuine Connections and Healing in Our Communities? appeared first on Voltage Control.

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.

In school, I never hesitated to volunteer. I remember being a cheerleader for basketball despite being 4 feet 11 inches tall and definitely not the fastest on any field. Sports weren’t exactly my thing, but I loved bringing energy, pulling people together, and making sure everyone felt connected. Even though it was a tiny school, with only about 70 students in my graduating class, there were plenty of committees and clubs—Pep Club, FBLA, Student Council—and I ended up holding a governance role in nearly all of them. By senior year, I was the student body president, coordinating events, and rallying people around shared goals. It wasn’t ambition; it was simply a love for building momentum and energy.

I think a lot of that came from the way I was raised. My mom always pushed me to get involved, try everything, step out of my comfort zone. Being curious, eager, and willing to dive into new things just became second nature. It shaped my instinct to step into leadership roles, even though at the time I wasn’t really thinking about leadership or facilitation at all.

When I was at DHL, our vice president asked me to present at an internal department meeting. I was one of the most junior people in the room, but I stepped up and delivered my content my way—casual, interactive, conversational. I had everyone laughing, engaging, and openly giving feedback. Months later, at an all-hands meeting, she singled me out, saying, “Our best presenter is Kristi.” I was stunned. I hadn’t been intentionally performing; I had just been myself. But that moment sparked a curiosity. I began to wonder: what exactly was I doing differently? How could I refine it and become more intentional about creating engaging experiences for others?

I brought this mindset into our sports marketing initiatives. At baseball games, we didn’t just put up a DHL banner—we created a story. We dressed up as DHL drivers and delivered pizza to fans in the stands; we made it fun, memorable, and immersive. We had to create moments where people felt part of something bigger, moments that would linger long after the game ended. This wasn’t just brand building; it was community building, story building, and momentum building.

Later, when I transitioned into internal communications, I faced the challenge of getting people aligned around internal goals and strategies, which is notoriously difficult. I instinctively leaned into workshop formats—though, again, I wasn’t explicitly calling it facilitation yet. I realized traditional presentations weren’t going to move the needle. I needed engagement. That meant interactive activities, structured conversations, and visual ways of working.

It was around this time I started working with a coach, Mary Beth Mains, who became both a mentor and a good friend. She continually reinforced what I was naturally good at. I often overlooked these skills because they came easily to me, but she encouraged me to see them clearly, to acknowledge them as valuable, and to build on them intentionally. That encouragement was a crucial pivot point—it validated that my natural instincts were worth honing and deepening.

When the Format Becomes the Force

Moving to WHO brought a new level of complexity. Here I was, trying to help teams implement global health solutions in wildly diverse contexts. Every country had its own starting point, its own political landscape, its own tech capabilities. There was no single implementation plan that worked for all 194 member states. You couldn’t just roll out a policy and expect it to land.

I started to notice where things were breaking down: our meetings. Teams would say, “We’ve had five meetings and nothing’s moving.” And I’d ask: “What happened in the meetings?” Usually, they’d show a slide deck, ask a few questions, and… nothing.

So I started intervening. Asking: what is the actual purpose of this meeting? Is this about informing? Co-creating? Making a decision? Let’s get clear on that first. Then let’s create space for the people in the room to actually participate. Even at academic conferences, where the norm is to present and move on, I began experimenting with embedded 1-2-4-Alls or structured prompts to turn passive listening into idea generation.

I wasn’t trying to overhaul everything overnight. But I did want to inject curiosity, experimentation, and shared authorship into the way we gather. Not just to feel better, but to actually get things done.

One memorable example came during a major WHO workshop originally planned as an in-person, three-day event. Due to unexpected funding cuts and travel freezes, my team had to rapidly pivot to hosting the event completely online. Everyone around me was skeptical, convinced it couldn’t be done effectively virtually. But I had just begun the Voltage Control facilitation certification and was learning powerful methods like Liberating Structures, particularly 1-2-4-All. I told my team, “We can do this.”

Despite resistance and logistical challenges—like no access to Zoom and limited familiarity with Microsoft Teams whiteboards—I methodically began to apply the facilitation techniques I was learning. We rehearsed, troubleshot, and experimented relentlessly. The result was a huge success. We didn’t just meet our objectives—we exceeded them. Participants engaged fully, contributed rich feedback, and left energized rather than drained. It was a revelation to my colleagues: facilitation wasn’t a nice-to-have; it was transformational. From then on, they trusted me to structure interactions differently, understanding the power of a thoughtfully designed meeting.

Clicking Through the Chaos

I found Voltage Control the way a lot of people do: by Googling. It was the fall of last year, and I was searching for facilitation programs. Voltage Control kept showing up on all these curated lists. Coming from a marketing background, I know lists can be bought. So I was skeptical at first. But I kept seeing them again and again. Either they were very rich, or very legit. (Spoiler: it wasn’t the former.)

What stood out was the length of the certification. Most other programs were a couple of days or weeks. This one was three months. That felt like the right depth. I’d done a creativity coaching program the year before and realized how valuable it is to stretch learning out over time. It lets you try things, apply them, and come back with questions.

So I applied. I didn’t overthink it. I tend to ask questions later and trust my gut.

Learning by Doing, Not by Lecture

I’ll be honest. I showed up to the first day of the certification without fully understanding what I had signed up for. Skye kept referencing the final portfolio presentation, and I kept thinking, “Wait, what are we working toward again?”

But I loved that it was experiential. There were no lectures on theory. We’d read something, then immediately use it—Troika, TRIZ, 1-2-4-All. There was no lengthy breakdown of the method; we’d just try it, reflect, and move on.

It affirmed what I’d always felt. I’d rather run a meeting with a handful of liberating structures than with a polished deck. PowerPoint makes me break out in hives. I’d rather people interact with each other and the content than just sit through slides.

The cohort itself was also a gift. We clicked quickly, and that made the solo weeks in the middle of the program harder. When we returned to the final phase, there was real joy in seeing everyone again. The feedback and encouragement I received, even from people I hadn’t worked with directly, was incredibly validating. It reminded me: this isn’t just something I enjoy, I’m actually good at it.

Prototyping Change in Real Time

During the certification, I was building a real-time workshop for WHO. Originally, it was going to be in-person over three days. Then came the travel ban. Suddenly, we were going remote. My team panicked. “There’s no way this will work online,” they said.

But I was in the middle of certification and knew it could work. I started slowly—shifting our planning meetings to be more participatory, getting the team familiar with breakout groups and digital whiteboards. They were skeptical, but I kept going.

We didn’t have a Zoom license, so we used Microsoft Teams, which is famously clunky. Our consultants logged in with personal Gmail accounts to practice. We ran rehearsals. We built the whiteboards. And we pulled it off.

The virtual workshop exceeded expectations. We didn’t just gather feedback; we co-designed implementation pathways. Participants shared what would and wouldn’t work in their contexts. They offered open-source code, shared plans, and talked openly about collaboration. It worked because we created space for them to speak.

From Host to Catalyst

Since the certification, I’m being asked to help more teams—not just run meetings, but design gatherings that work. I’m doing diagnostic work with colleagues: What is the real purpose of your meeting? What kind of engagement are you inviting? Is your format actually aligned with your goals?

In the middle of our reorg, I’ve been working with leadership on what happens after the org chart is published. What kind of culture do we want to create? How do we design the space to live into that culture?

The certification helped me name and strengthen something I was already doing intuitively. It gave me tools, vocabulary, and the confidence to stand by my choices. When someone pushes back—”People won’t do 1-2-4-All,”—I now know how to hold my ground and say, “Let’s try it. Let’s see what happens.

Bringing Intention to the Unknown

Looking ahead, I want to do more of this strategic work. Not just facilitation, but guiding teams through the full arc of convening—before, during, and after. Helping them set the right questions. Helping them listen better. Helping them design with their stakeholders, not just for them.

WHO’s mission is to convene. My work is about making those convenings matter.

Whether I’m designing a multi-country workshop or supporting leadership through change, I want to make sure we’re not just informing, but transforming. That people walk away not just with information, but with ownership.

If you’re on the fence about the certification, I say: jump in. Try it. See what happens. If you’re like me, you’ll ask questions later. But you’ll learn by doing, and you’ll leave with more confidence than you walked in with.

This isn’t a traditional classroom. It’s an experience. And if you’re someone who finds energy in ideas, who likes bringing people together for a reason, then you’re going to love it here.

The post The Power of a Well-Placed Why appeared first on Voltage Control.

These takeaways also come from decentralized communities that may not qualify as true DAOs, such as blockchain ecosystems like Cardano, which recently celebrated a successful constitutional creation process thanks to their active participation in their community.

Participation Challenge in DAOs

As fully autonomous organizations without centralized authorities, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) use blockchain smart contracts to operate in an automated, decentralized manner. In order to make critical decisions and plan for the future, DAOs must rely on the active participation and collective effort of their members—and getting members to participate can be an ongoing challenge.

The participation challenge in DAOs crops up when it comes to essential functions like voting on proposals, staking, delegation, and discussions, with active community participation needed in order for the DAO or cryptocurrency to have successful operations and governance. 

DAOs can suffer from the “free rider problem,” where community members who do not actively participate in governance and operations still benefit from efficient operations and growth. The free rider problem can compound with voter apathy and uninformed voting, which involves token holders voting blindly. 

Token-Based Governance in DAOs

The most common form of DAO governance is token-based, involving the issuance of digital tokens which represent voting power, and those token holders become the participants in DAO operations, decision-making, and governance. For decentralized organizations, these tokens are more than just digital assets—they are the lifeblood of the blockchain. 

Role of Tokenomics

For cryptocurrency DAOs with token-based governance models, tokenomics encompasses the economic framework of a token system on the blockchain, including token distribution and token utility. Effective tokenomics is closely tied to active participation of community members and overall success of the DAO or cryptocurrency.

To improve engagement and facilitate community participation, DAOs can review the state of their tokenomics, including these crucial factors:

• Token Distribution: DAOs disseminate tokens through mechanisms like Initial Coin Offerings, mining, and airdrops but should prioritize fair and equitable allocation to prevent a concentration of power in one group.
• Token Supply: The supply and demand of tokens in DAOs has a significant impact on its market value and should be managed with proper future modeling in mind.
• Token Utility: The specific functions of a token are unique to that DAO, often representing cryptocurrency, voting power, or ownership stakes.
• Incentives: DAOs should have effective mechanisms to encourage active participation and engagement from token holders.

In a tokenized blockchain network, tokens are representation. Effective tokenomics promotes a shared sense of responsibility and supports a decentralized distribution of power. There’s no one recipe for success when it comes to managing the token economy in a blockchain, but, by prioritizing its effectiveness, stakeholders can build a community of active participants.

For some blockchain systems, active participation is tied closely to the consensus mechanisms in their Proof of Stake (PoS) models. Delegation can be implemented to create a representative system, with the option of liquid democracy allowing for fully flexible delegation of voting power.

Alternative DAO Governance Models

Not all DAOs use token-based governance models, with reputation-based governance models and hybrid models offering alternative options. Reputation-based governance models utilize blockchain mechanisms to calculate the contributions of members, and that calculation determines the voting power of the members. Hybrid governance combines aspects of both token-based and reputation-based governance.

Reputation-based governance is used successfully by DeFi DAO Colony. The members of Colony who are most active and engaged have the most voting power through their reputation, which cannot be bought or sold. While this type of DAO governance supports an engaged community, DAOs that use reputation systems may still benefit from facilitation techniques that encourage active community participation on all levels.

Additionally, many entities in the Web3 space utilize a decentralized organizational framework without meeting the true definition of a Decentralized Autonomous Organization, and those groups may also struggle to overcome the same participation problems as DAOs.

How to Improve Member Participation in DAOs

Any member of a DAO can help spark increased community participation and overcome voter apathy by focusing on a few key pillars of the organization.

Transparency

DAOs are inherently dispersed and decentralized, which can make it challenging to ensure transparent, clear communication channels. That communication and transparency is necessary, though, to keep members aware of current and upcoming proposals and other important voting opportunities.

Members may have different levels of understanding when it comes to the structure and operations of the DAO, so increased transparency provides the opportunity to educate these members. Knowledgeable members have a better understanding of the “skin in the game” they have as a part of the organization.

Incentives

Tokens can be offered as a useful incentive mechanism for DAOs, although these “tokenomics” need to be thoughtfully planned and implemented in order to ensure appropriate utility, supply, security, and engagement. 

Examples of common token-based incentives and DAO functions include:

• Reward Structures: Community members can earn more tokens as a reward for their voting, engagement, proposals, and other types of participation.
• Token-based Voting: Tokens give users voting rights, which can take the form of a one-person, one-vote system or a vote-per-token system.
• Staking Mechanisms: Token holders can stake their tokens with the network or a designated delegate, which provides more stability for the network and is important to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus algorithms.
• Asset Access: Tokens may grant users access to exclusive tools, products, or other digital assets.
• Revenue Sharing: Distribution of profit may be determined partially or wholly by tokens, contributions, or other metrics.

Alternatively, DAOs can use reputation-based incentives to encourage active community participation from DAO members. Reputation mechanisms offer a measurement of a member’s expertise, influence, or engagement within the blockchain.

Events

The automated nature of smart contracts and blockchain technology allows for streamlined, 24/7 operations for many DAOs. By implementing dedicated remote, hybrid, and in-person events, DAOs can increase member participation and generate excitement. These events may take the form of collaborative sessions like town halls and workshops, large gatherings like summits, and informal networking opportunities for interest groups.

In order to optimize participation at DAO and Web3 events, organizations can partner with certified facilitators, such as alumni from Voltage Control. This type of dedicated facilitation can be particularly helpful for collaborative exercises like developing governance documents, which was recently demonstrated by the work of Cardano and Voltage Control to develop Cardano’s governing constitution.

Case Study: Cardano Constitutional Convention

In December 2024, Voltage Control facilitated the Cardano Constitutional Convention as a simultaneous in-person event in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Nairobi, Kenya, with additional remote participants from around the world. Facilitators had to assist the blockchain’s members as they came together from differing backgrounds and opinions in order to finalize the most important document for the future of their network—which they did successfully, with the Cardano Constitution eventually receiving 85% on-chain approval.

The event came after two years of development and six months of facilitated workshops around the world in order to draft the blockchain’s governing document, which would be the first of its kind. Those global workshops, which included both in-person and remote Community Workshops and Delegate Synthesis Workshops, provided invaluable feedback on the constitution delivered on a line-by-line basis. 

Certified facilitators ensured that these day-long workshops did not get stuck or become adversarial, allowing participants to be heard and feel like empowered decision-makers in a decentralized organization. Facilitators had to be highly adaptable based on the needs of each workshop’s attendees, adjusting to cultural norms and local demands while making the one-day event successful.

At the Cardano Constitutional Convention, the facilitators were more important than ever, serving as an essential liaison between the two locations and remote attendees while providing the support to keep the process of drafting a finalized constitution moving forward. In total, 450 attendees and 63 elected delegates representing 50 countries partook in the three-day event—and it was a huge success.

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

These connections encourage continued engagement with the Cardano project, and this monumental event only marks the beginning of the community’s journey. In February 2025, the Cardano Constitution had been ratified on-chain with an 85% approval rate, well above the required 75% approval rate. Cardano became the first truly decentralized blockchain with a community-run governance model, made possible by its engaged, active community of participants.

Certified Facilitators with Web3 and DAO Experience

DAOs commonly face the challenges of voter apathy and waning community participation, but these organizations don’t have to tackle these obstacles alone. By partnering with facilitators like the team at Voltage Control, DAOs can design and implement actionable plans for events and projects that result in an engaged, enthusiastic membership.

Every DAO and Web3 organization is unique in its build and operation, but all of these organizations are founded on the participation of community members, often with those participants spread around the globe. DAOs can hugely benefit from partnering with a professional facilitation team like Voltage Control to achieve active community participation and collaborative success. 

All facilitators at the Cardano Constitutional Convention had obtained their Facilitation Certification from Voltage Control. The Facilitation Certification program is aligned with International Association of Facilitators (IAF) competencies, and it builds the foundational facilitation skills needed to successfully transform meetings, drive change, and inspire innovation, skills which have become instrumental when it comes to DAO operations and facilitation.

To work with Voltage Control on your Web3 or DAO project, contact our team today. To learn more about the facilitation of Cardano’s constitution, read our complete case study here.

The post Facilitating Active Community Participation in DAOs 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.

Ever wondered how someone ends up as a professional facilitator? It’s rarely a childhood dream. But the winding road that brings us here is often full of learning, pivots, and the pursuit of more meaningful collaboration. It’s a running joke within the community. Most of us stumbled upon this profession by accident, perhaps sensing that there had to be a better way for people to work and learn together. And discovering a passion and a potential career in solving that problem. Every so often, I receive a message asking how I found my way into facilitation. And like many others, my path wasn’t a straight line; it was more of a winding, adventurous trail. Perhaps my story will offer some insights for those of you just starting or curious about the journey.

Starting Without a Map

The world after college felt vast and directionless. My initial career strategy was simple: try different professions until one truly resonated. This feeling was amplified by a couple of uninspiring internships that made it clear I needed more than just a paycheck; I wanted to be the guy who could see the big picture and help others see it too.

Learning Through Adventure

Fate intervened in the form of a college friend who gave me a strong recommendation for a role at a student travel company. This marked the beginning of my deep dive into the world of experiential education, a cornerstone of my career journey for the next decade. I spent those years crafting and leading global travel experiences for students across the Americas, helping groups of young individuals and their teachers broaden their horizons and work in teams.

At first, I was drawn to the idea of getting paid to explore. But as I matured in the role, I fell deeply in love with the art of experiential learning, the subtle dance of making the learning process not just educational but truly impactful. The benefits of this approach are profound and well-documented: improved knowledge retention through active, relevant group activities; the development of crucial soft skills like teamwork, communication, and leadership; enhanced motivation and emotional engagement; the crucial bridge between theory and real-world practice; a safe space for experimentation and learning from mistakes; and ultimately, increased self-efficacy and empowerment. 

I loved trying to make our programs feel as effortless as possible, meticulously noting needs that arose during one experience and then addressing them in the design of the next. Before I knew it, I had worked all over the Americas, contributing to the growth and development of hundreds of students, teachers, and adventurers.

The work felt incredibly rewarding. I tell people I’d probably still be doing it if I hadn’t hit a ceiling as an employee. So much so that I made several passionate but ultimately unsuccessful attempts to launch my own programs. When those ventures didn’t pan out, I felt adrift, the prospect of starting a less exciting career loomed.

Discovering Design Thinking

Then, in 2015, a new horizon appeared: Design Thinking. A friend in Bogota invited me to help implement a program teaching students the fundamental principles of Human-Centered Design. This was a revelation. I was immediately struck by the powerful impact this seemingly simple problem-solving approach could have on teams. And then, I discovered that companies worldwide were actively seeking individuals to integrate Design Thinking methodologies into their business processes.

Finally, I knew my next move. I had found a more practical approach to helping people learn, and solve problems. In 2016, despite lacking a formal background in design or technology and with only one short project under my belt, I dove headfirst into the world of Design Thinking.

There was a steep learning curve! It felt overwhelming at times. I immersed myself in problem framing, various research methodologies, prototyping, and the crucial balance between convergent and divergent thinking, among a myriad of other topics. And, of course, the ever-present question loomed: how long would it take to start earning a living?

Facilitation as a Craft

With the cost and time commitment of a Master’s degree feeling prohibitive, and a strong belief in my natural ability to bring people together for social learning, I opted for an entrepreneurial approach. Alongside devouring the essential books, listening to insightful podcasts, and actively participating in online forums, I recognized the vital importance of building genuine relationships with established design leaders in the industry. This led me to start a Design Thinking meetup in my new home of Salt Lake City, Utah. At each gathering, anywhere from five to fifty people would come together to apply Design Thinking principles to tackle a real-world public challenge. Over four remarkable years, I hosted eighty of these Design Thinking meetups.

During this period of intense self-learning, I stumbled upon Jake Knapp’s work, “Sprint.” In this book, he brilliantly breaks down the often-intimidating innovation workshop into an accessible recipe, clearly defining the roles of each participant. I believe that was the first time the role of a facilitator truly crystallized for me.“Facilitation wasn’t just a skill—it was a mindset. A way of holding space, of helping people find their own way forward.” And then, seemingly out of the blue, I was offered the opportunity to facilitate Design Sprints at a local company!

It was exhilarating! The process felt remarkably similar to crafting those student travel experiences; I could focus on the process, ensuring everyone was engaged and learning together. I was hooked!

Finding My Facilitation Community

So the question remained: how could I create more opportunities to facilitate? Having now glimpsed the joy of professional facilitation and becoming aware of even more methodologies and skills, I felt a new wave of overwhelm. Even having already successfully led corporate innovation sessions, I knew it was time to stop going it alone and build confidence with like-minded people on a similar path.

My first step was to attend the Design Sprint Conference, where I experienced my first workshop facilitation training. It was there that I had the opportunity to connect with many inspiring individuals, one of whom was Douglas Ferguson, the President of Voltage Control. He was doing the very work I aspired to do, full-time and with evident passion.

One of the persistent challenges for facilitators is finding consistent opportunities to practice. Reading about facilitation techniques can only take you so far; practical, real-world experience is essential. Douglas, recognizing this need, hosted a weekly online community of practice session called Facilitation Lab. I became a regular participant, forging friendships within the community and actively sharing my learning journey on LinkedIn.

Perhaps recognizing my commitment and enthusiasm, Douglas extended an invitation to work as an assistant during his workshops. This was an incredible opportunity to become more comfortable navigating client relationships and new processes without all the stress. 

It also made me want to do what he was doing even more. It created an urgency within me to level up my own game faster. I needed a program to help me get there. And the Voltage Control’s Facilitation Certification was just what I needed to do it. 

Saying Yes to the Certification

Not to say there weren’t some initial hesitations about the Facilitation Certification. Since its 3 months, time commitment was a significant concern; juggling my existing work, passion projects, friends, and yoga obsession already felt like a tightrope walk. Additionally, because the certification program was intentionally method-agnostic, I worried it would be too theoretical. 

My doubts were quickly assuaged during the admissions call for the Voltage Control Facilitation Certification. This wasn’t a generic sales pitch; it felt like a tailored consultation. The team, with whom I already had a relationship, took the time to better understand my aspirations and challenges. They thoughtfully mapped out specific aspects of the program that would have the most significant impact on my individual growth and how to use the capstone portfolio presentation to fulfill the individual outcome I wanted. 

Deciding to finally enroll felt fantastic. I couldn’t wait to carve out time to work deeply on my goals. But the surprises didn’t end there, I was invited to be a Teaching Assistant (TA) for the program! I was genuinely thrilled.

Growth Through Practice and Community

Stepping into the role of TA brought with it a fresh set of challenges. Initially, I wrestled with self-doubt. Would I be knowledgeable enough? Could I effectively support other learners? However, these insecurities were overcome by the supportive environment of the cohort. The other participants were not only learners but invaluable allies. We were all navigating a learning journey together, sharing our experiences, offering encouragement, and celebrating each other’s progress. 

This cohort-based learning model proved to be incredibly powerful. The shared momentum kept us all engaged and accountable. The sense of community fostered a supportive system where we could freely ask questions, offer peer feedback, and build lasting professional connections. The diverse perspectives, combined with participants’ individual agendas, enriched our discussions and broadened our understanding of facilitation in various contexts.

Unexpected Gifts Along the Way

Unanticipated gifts surfaced out of these discussions. I discovered a new skill that would be both challenging and profoundly transformative for my practice: mastering Clean Language. Clean Language is a hallmark of effective facilitation. It’s the idea of using language precisely and neutrally, without injecting personal biases or interpretations into the conversation. Clean Language is a precise and empathetic way of facilitating conversations that allows individuals and groups to explore their own unique “map of the world” and discover their own meaningful insights and outcomes.

Learning Clean language is not easy. It takes lots of practice. It’s one thing to understand the theory, but putting it into practice requires conscious effort and self-awareness. I was ecstatic when Voltage Control provided a dedicated course on Clean Language during our asynchronous learning month, where I could roleplay with peers. 

The second unanticipated gift of the method-agnostic program was the confidence to lead across facilitation disciplines. Listening to my peers, I noticed that while specific activities might have different names across methodologies, the underlying principles often remain the same. I gained the ability to quickly see how activities from Design Thinking could be easily applied to organizational development, strategy, and learning agendas. 

I used Facilitation Lab to try out what we had been learning in the cohort. I liked having a safe space to experiment and receive feedback before sharing back with our cohort for more feedback. All these opportunities to practice instilled in me a greater sense of readiness for work with clients. 

Becoming a Facilitation Chef

Finally, receiving detailed feedback on my capstone portfolio project was perfect for gauging if I had met my personalized learning goals. It made me document and reflect on my evolving facilitation style, the strategies I employed, and the outcomes I helped achieve. This portfolio has become a crucial asset in communicating my capabilities to potential clients and collaborators, effectively showcasing the depth of my facilitation skills and my unwavering commitment to continuous improvement.

It became clear from feedback by experienced professionals that I had become more confident and adaptable in my practice. It made me think of an article I had read years earlier about “facilitation chefs”. “Cooks” follow recipes(Design Sprint), but the “chef” understands the ingredients and can adapt and create based on the specific needs of the group. What seemed like such a stretch at the time had become reality.

Beyond the tangible skills gained, the program created a deeper passion for the art of facilitation and the people doing the work. And just like during my time in student travel, I moved beyond just wanting a paycheck, doing something fun. I’ve fallen in love with a noble profession and desire to help advance it. This personal evolution transformed me into not just a more capable facilitator providing a better service for my clients, but a more fulfilled individual, genuinely excited about the prospect of driving meaningful change through the power of collaboration.           

As I look ahead, I’m committed to not only doing great work with great clients but helping others discover the magic of facilitation, too.

The post Bug Spray To Sticky Notes appeared first on Voltage Control.

In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson speaks with facilitation experts Tammy Shubat and Robin Cory, both Voltage Control certification alumni. Tammy shares her journey from leadership to facilitation, focusing on relationship-building and creating safe spaces for bold participation. Robin discusses her facilitation approach, inspired by Tammy, and emphasizes thoughtful session design to foster engagement and creativity. Together, they explore the challenges and opportunities in the nonprofit sector, highlighting the importance of collaboration, purposeful gatherings, and centering relationships to drive meaningful change within mission-driven organizations.

Show Highlights

[00:01:33] First Sparks of Facilitation
[00:06:42] Tools, Techniques, and Intuition
[00:10:30] “Wreck and Rebuild” and Improv Activities
[00:13:54] Designing for Bold Thinking
[00:21:14] Honoring People and Setting the Stage
[00:25:44] Warming Up for Bold Participation
[00:28:38] Head vs. Heart: Actions and Connections
[00:34:09] Future Challenges: Collaboration and Collective Impact

Links | Resources

Tammy on Linkedin

Robin on Linkedin

About the Guest

Tammy has worked in health promotion and education for more than 22 years, and specifically for the last 17 years with Ophea, advancing health and well-being in Ontario schools. Currently in the Director of Partnerships and Public Affairs role, Tammy aligns provincial and national partners, business development opportunities, and strategic objectives for Ophea, and for the sector at large. With a practice in grounded in social justice and anti-oppressive approaches in education, Tammy is a proud member of the 2SLGBTQ community, an advocate, and a mum.

Robin Cory is a strategist, facilitator, and coach dedicated to turning bold ideas into meaningful action. With over 20 years of experience, Robin has worked alongside non-profits, foundations, and collaboratives across Canada to sharpen their strategies and deepen their impact.  

About Voltage Control

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

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Voltage Control on the Web
Contact Voltage Control

Transcript

Douglas:

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

Sign up today at voltagecontrol.com/facilitation-lab and if you’d like to learn more about our 12-week facilitation certification program, you can read about it at voltagecontrol.com. Today I’m with Tammy Shubat and Robin Cory. Tammy is at Ophea where she facilitates and enables partnerships and public affairs for the organization and for the education sector more broadly to advance the health and well-being of kids in schools across the province of Ontario. Robin leads a strategy and facilitation practice that helps mission-driven organizations at pivotal moments gain strategic clarity, make powerful decisions, and take bold action. Welcome to the show.

Robin:

It’s such a treat to be here. Thanks, Douglas.

Tammy:

So happy to be here with you both.

Douglas:

Yeah, it’s a treat for me too because I usually don’t have two people on at the same time. So I get two alumni in the room with me today. I’m so excited to dive in with both of you, to hear both your stories and it’s an intertwined story because you work so closely together. You do a lot together, so it’ll be inspiring to hear how you collaborate. So let’s start at the beginning. Could you each share the moment of facilitation that first caught your attention?

Robin:

My mother was really a born facilitator. As a child, I got to witness her in lots of community settings, whether it was advocating for a new school in our neighborhood or leading community meetings or door-to-door fundraising. So I really saw her in action and left me really inspired. And as I went through school, high school in particular, I gravitated towards roles where I got to lead groups and influence people and work in teams and it really gave me a buzz. And I’ve since then continued through university and through jobs to be leaning into that passion.

Tammy:

I love that, Robin. I feel like I would’ve probably in my earlier life self-identified as a leader, but maybe not as a facilitator. And I think probably my spark was probably seeing you facilitate for the first time when you came to Ophea about 10 years ago to sort lead that initial strategy exercise. I remember just being so taken by your approaches and how you engaged people and how far you sort of pushed the questions that you were sort of asking us. And so I would say you were my spark to the practice of facilitation as something that I wanted to maybe embed in my own practice in some way.

Robin:

And our kind of journey together has been such a fun one. And it’s so interesting to hear you reflect on that because really today we operate as peers and spend so much time co-facilitating that it’s hard to even imagine that you are inspired by me, because I’m so very inspired by you in many, many ways.

Douglas:

Tammy, in your alumni story, you mentioned previously identifying more as a leader versus a facilitator. Oftentimes, I’ve seen that come down to how language and vocabulary influence how we self-identify. When you reflect back to those days of just having that lens of leadership, how much of what you were already doing was rooted in some of these beliefs and philosophies that we now hold dearly in facilitation?

Tammy:

It’s a great question, Douglas, and I wish I could be kinder to myself because I’ll be honest and say I think my, I really loved in my earlier days, having the room and having the space and I always thought I had something so great to say. And I remember even thinking to myself, “I can’t wait for this person to stop talking so I can say what I have to say because it’s so much better than what that person has to say.” So I think it’s actually taken a fair bit of growth in my own learning trajectory to see my role differently, which is perhaps less as the contributor or the most powerful voice in the room, but rather as the person who has the ability to perhaps tease out a variety of perspectives that can enrich the conversation in a more full way. So I would say my early days were not exemplary. They were perhaps great ground for learning though. And I’m sure a few people put me in my place, which is wonderful and has gotten me to maybe where I am now.

Robin:

Admittedly, I can relate to that feeling certainly. And I also think, Tammy, when I think about you in a room, what I think is actually such a powerful part of the way that you facilitate is that you hold the space and you invite people’s contribution in such a sort of warm and welcoming and inclusive way, but at the same time, you actually aren’t afraid to assert a point of view. And I think sometimes in facilitation it’s this dance between really creating space for others but also offering perspectives and questions and ideas that are going to move the conversation forward. And I feel like you do that selectively and intentionally and it really does indeed, I think move the conversation forward.

Tammy:

Thank you for that. And I love that point in the sense that I think the idea of a neutral facilitator is false. None of us are. And actually in fact, even if we’re pretending to really just facilitate the voices in the room, we’ve designed the facilitation, you obviously have a desired outcome. So I think I appreciate that and I think I appreciate that perspective around the dance that that is. And so how do you strike that sort of balance in the spaces that you create versus where you may be contributing more pointedly?

Douglas:

That makes me curious, do you have tools and techniques that you rely on or is it intuition that enables that? What’s helping you determine when to step back or when to step forward? When is my opinion valuable to the group? When is it disruptive?

Tammy:

I love that question. So there’s a lot of intuition in how I would operate for sure, but I think I’m always watching for cues and I think for those, for what you’ve just articulated, I tend to prefer in-person facilitation because it allows me to read the room in a really different way than in a virtual facilitation. So in an in-person facilitation, I’m always watching body language, where people are sitting, where they’re looking, if they’re having sidebar conversations, those are all cues to me around somebody in this room has something to say or there’s this underlying feeling of dis-ease.

And so how might I pose a question that allows folks to bubble up what it is might be going on under the surface? I think I struggle a bit more with that with virtual facilitation because I think people use so many tools differently, like the mute function or they’ll go off-screen or I think the strategies for engagement I haven’t fully maybe figured out, but I’m trying to. But yeah, but there’s a fair bit of intuition there in terms of when I might inject my perspective. I don’t know, Robin, how you feel that.

Robin:

Yeah, something I’ve seen you do and I think I try to do as well is potentially frame up a hypothesis. “So based on everything that I’m hearing, it feels like where you are leaning is this.” Or, “Based on everything I understand and know about your organization and your context or your team, it strikes me that Y would be a really healthy and effective path forward.” Let’s say. And then it at least creates that opening for them to say, “Actually, no.” So it’s a hypothesis they can react to or get the feeling of, “Absolutely, yes.” And then that sometimes helps to just move the conversation to the next level. We actually don’t have anything that we need to discuss anymore, we’re actually aligned and clear.

Tammy:

I love when you do that session-effective approach.

Douglas:

Do you recall a time when that happened recently?

Robin:

It’s funny, as Tammy was talking, I was thinking about a session I had yesterday, and actually I don’t think it was the best version of this, but it was an attempt to do this and I think it yielded the results I wanted, but I sometimes think the risk is, so what happened yesterday in this conversation I was leading was that I felt like there was a point of alignment where I was trying to distinguish between in my work what an organization might think of as their ultimate impact, which is kind of that big lofty goal they’re driving towards, but they’re not likely to be able to hold themselves accountable for it, and hunger and homelessness, that kind of thing. Versus the intended impact, so what are the things that they can directly contribute to and hold themselves accountable to or for?

And in this moment yesterday I kind of declared, like I said, “I think we can all agree that your organization is not likely to drive or be able to hold yourself accountable to this particular ultimate impact, so let’s talk about what you can hold yourself accountable to.” And they pushed back actually and said, “That’s actually not our operating assumption. We do believe that we can contribute meaningfully to that ultimate goal as big and lofty as it might be.” And that was really helpful for me to hear. It wasn’t a point at which I was going to agree or disagree with that, but it actually really was an important thing for me to know about how that organization relates to that particular goal.

Douglas:

That reminds me of a powerful technique, posing the wrong answer or a prototype for folks to respond to. Oftentimes, if I have a thought, I like to couch it in, “This is probably wrong, but what do you think about it?” Because it makes it safe for them to tear it apart or let them go, “Actually, yeah, that does make sense.”

Tammy:

Totally.

Robin:

Yeah, yeah. Or, “This is here for you to wreck and rebuild.” My partner, Margot loves to say that and I adopt that as well. And that really gives people freedom. Usually they’re like, “No, no, no, we don’t need to fully wreck and rebuild.” But then you can kind of dial back and say, “But we could tweak or change these few things.” And giving people permission to do that I think does create an opening.

Douglas:

Wow, that wrecking and rebuilding is making me think about. Fortunately, an activity that was used as a closer for a recent facilitation lab facilitated by Lori Wilson, also known as fortunately, unfortunately. Unfortunately We is an improv game where participants take turns creating the story together, alternating between positive and negative developments. The first person starts by describing a fortunate event, beginning with the word fortunately, we, the next person follows up with something unfortunately, kind of tearing down the previous thing, starting with unfortunately, then it goes back to fortunately and so on. It’s quick, playful, and challenges everyone to think creatively and stay present.

Robin:

Yeah.

Tammy:

That’s cool.

Robin:

That’s a good one. I really like that. It reminds me a little bit of the pre-mortem where you start with all the things that could go wrong at the beginning of a process as opposed to waiting for the post-mortem at the end of a process. And I think it reveals similar things of how do we preempt or potentially avoid certain things from happening? How do we lay the track or put the conditions in place for this to really be successful?

Tammy:

I think, and even just in both of those examples, sorry, it opens up space for, it is precisely what you folks said around giving people permission to participate in that way where we’re not going to tiptoe around the issues. We will give ourselves permission to actually boldly engage with what we’re going to talk about today or participate and be able to take that risk. So I love that.

Douglas:

Let’s further explore this idea of taking bold risks. What are some of your other favorite ways of doing that?

Tammy:

We talked a little bit about this morning, Robin. It makes me think about maybe just style. I think maybe we set the stage differently, but I think sometimes for me it’s about relationship building with people in the room first to allow for that. So if I’m, for example, facilitating in a space that might have folks with different levels of power within an organization, or the board is there with the staff, and so we’re trying to create something collaborative off the top where they’re able to work together.

So in a recent facilitation that Robin and I did together, we did something arts-based at the beginning. That seemed like a little bit fluffy, but for a lot of the more junior staff who were in the room, they really valued that as a beginning point. It allowed them to become more comfortable in the space and to open up on something that was, I’m going to say maybe lower risk in the moment, but allowed them to take more risks later on during the day. So I think that’s one of the ways. I think Robin, you do a really good job often, perhaps maybe less so with an activity, but more around what are the conditions for participation today. But go ahead.

Robin:

Yeah, no, I agree. I think doing that early work to set the table so that people feel like it is a space where you can be bold and sometimes the boldness comes out of the messiness and the friction, and so how do you make sure that there’s freedom to imagine and to dream. And we used, actually it was in terms of the cascade in that particular session’s design, Tammy did a beautiful job actually in the morning with this particular exercise. It was called Pionki, and it was this really cool thing that they built that looked like a spider. It kind of looked like a mobile if you picture hanging from a crib. And it’s, I think you said a Polish word, and it’s all about harmony and good fortune and interconnecting this with people. And so everybody kind of built their strand of this Pionki as a group and then they had to assemble it. So it actually hung together and worked.

And I thought that was really powerful, because it did let people see where they were coming from and they actually had to discuss something related to the strategy and related to something that they were connected to around Ophea’s work and Ophea’s strategy. As the day followed, we spent some time talking about the context and some of the conditions that might be standing in the way of some of the kinds of outcomes that Ophea is driving toward. And then we actually ended the day, so back to your question, Douglas, about bold, how do you set the stage for people to think boldly? We actually used the deflection point exercise that I learned as a part of the Voltage Control program that allowed people to first start talking about with Ophea’s plans as they’ve been laid, what would be the status quo outcomes? What do they think they could achieve if they continued on the path that they’re on?

Then we talked about what does the bold path look like? So what if you were to times 10 your impact? What if you were to take audacious and transformative steps towards even greater impact? What would that look like? And then we talked about the rockets and the anchors. So what are those things, the rockets that are going to kind of propel you towards the bold path and what are the anchors that have the risk of pulling you down to status quo? And we’re really at the early stages of a strategic planning process with Ophea. So I thought it gave us some really good fodder for what boldness could look like and help us kind of calibrate where people’s thinking are right now. And in some cases we’re going to need to push them further, and in some cases we’re going to be able to, I think, lean into some of the things that people surfaced. Is that fair, Tammy?

Tammy:

Totally. And I think I want give you your flowers for how thoughtfully you designed that particular activity because I think that could be a quick sort of somewhat mechanical activity. But I think Robin put a lot of thought into the design and the questions that would support people in really identifying what truly were some of those bolder opportunities and what actually might hold people back. And I think and really played it, we played it out a fair bit before actually moving into the facilitation. Like, how might people answer this question and how will this sort of play out in the broader facilitation? And I think we were able to sort of stick with that activity for quite a long time and I feel like it really unlocked some of the bigger opportunities and maybe some of the bigger barriers that we’ll face in trying to get there. So it was really powerful.

Douglas:

Robin, hearing her talk about how you just didn’t throw the structure at them has reminded me of your alumni story and how you shared your intention of transitioning from relying on structure to navigating complex dynamics with more ease. I’m hearing that you thought about the people, the questions, and the prompts you need to get the desired reaction. It seems like you’re actually leaning into those dynamics a little more rather than just throwing the structure out there.

Robin:

Yeah, yeah. And that’s part of, I think one of the things that is so helpful about having a co-facilitator, even though Tammy in this case was the client and sort of hired me to do this work, we’ve done so much co-facilitation in the past I think, and Tammy brings that skillset that usually when I’m doing things with her organization, we are co-facilitating it. And so I think that sometimes if I don’t have a Tammy, I do have to kind of just go in on faith and trust that the exercise is going to work well. But what’s nice is the thought partnership of being able to sort of, as Tammy said, sort of test what could this look like with your crowd? How do we think people might answer this? What are some of the things that might come up that I wouldn’t expect? And going into rooms, I do like to have that preview wherever possible of what could happen and how I might be able to get ahead of that.

Tammy:

I think that’s one of your greatest strengths as a facilitator, Robin. I think it’s what you bring to the facilitation process. As someone who’s worked with you for a really long time, I would say there are a lot of folks who have tools and who can just throw a tool out there and facilitate. But I think the thought that Robin puts into the design in advance really is one of her greatest strengths as a facilitator. Because I think I’ve worked with many facilitators who will just sort of throw tools or throw canned exercises into a room based on what they think might be a standard process or a standard outcome that groups are trying to achieve.

But I think the way in which Robin tries to understand context and how a particular question might land with a group of people really brings that extra added value, because when she plays that out and then we actually bring it to the space and it does land in a particular way, it can be really transformational for a group of people versus just what folks might just mechanically go through an exercise. It’s a tremendous value that she brings to that process for sure. I often joke with my colleagues, it’s never easy to work with Robin. It feels like… No, I mean that in a loving way. I’m not looking for easy. It’s like she pushes you and pushes you and asks that next question and, “What if we think about it this way? And what if we think about it that way?” And twists the whole thing up to then move us through what will be a better experience? It’s absolutely worth it, but it’s not easy and that’s a good thing.

Robin:

I still remember when we were planning for last week’s session, we were at a cafe, actually, Douglas, when we were planning it, and Tammy looked at me and she said, “I’m done.”

Douglas:

Tapping out.

Robin:

“I think we got it. I think we got it.”

Douglas:

That’s so good.

Robin:

I do kind of really get into it. Yeah, but I tend to work with partners and clients that are kind of up for it and Tammy most certainly is.

Douglas:

Great point, Tammy. You’re throwing accolades at Robin for bringing this attention and care to what might surface in the room. It’s also important to acknowledge the fact that you value it and you’re embracing and encouraging it and you’re able to articulate insights on the team. There’s a lot of leaders that facilitators might go to and ask the same questions, try to get the same stuff, and either they don’t value it or they don’t have the right observational tendencies or abilities to be able to reflect the important stuff back. And it’s a real gift to have to collaborate with partners like this that can help point out some of the things so that we don’t have to just guess or totally just tune our radar into the moment without any prior knowledge.

Robin:

Yeah, totally. I want to give an example actually, because I think hopefully for listeners, some of the facilitation examples are instructive, but in this particular session just because it was so recent, it’s top of mind. When we talk about the way we set the stage for being able to have people feel connected, in addition to doing that exercise, the art exercise, the other thing that Tammy actually built into the session was that there were two staff members that were hitting their 15 year anniversaries with the organization. And it was a strategy conversation, it was a board staff retreat, but she felt like it was a good moment to actually honor these two staff members.

And so I’ve been to lots of anniversary celebrations of people that hit milestones in workplaces, and this was very unique. What they had actually done was they had, for each of the people had put up on the wall, what’s their catchphrase? What was their core values? What were their favorite places? What were their favorite foods? What were their favorite expressions? And that was all up there as Tammy and other people were kind of saying, acknowledging things right down to if this person were a mascot for the organization, what animal would they be? And what about the fox or what about the raccoon represents them? And admittedly, I was listening, I’m like, “This is long.”

And Tammy knows that I’m all about, “We got 10 minutes. We got 10 minutes.” But I sort of obviously pulled myself back and I thought, “My God, how beautiful is this moment? And how honored do these people feel? And how rare is it to really deeply acknowledge people who have contributed so many years and so much to an organization and have them be seen and appreciated in front of all the people they probably care most about?” This was the board of the organization, this was the full staff of the organization. So really hats off to you, Tammy, because those are the things that I know we didn’t even talk about it in the debrief, but that I think really made for the kind of environment that then enabled us to get to where we got to.

Tammy:

Thank you. I appreciate that so much. I think, and we’ve talked a little bit about this, one of my biggest drivers, or maybe one of my core values is how people feel. How people feel, and also to have people feel something as a result of something that we go through together. And I think whenever there’s a moment, and even if it’s a longer moment, to embed that, I actually think it goes a long way in the rest of the day. So I’m happy to spend the time there. But yeah, thank you. I’ll find your mascot animal, Robin, next time I’ll identify your mascot animal for you.

Robin:

I was hoping, I was hoping.

Tammy:

It’s coming.

Douglas:

Tammy, in your alumni story, you mentioned letting go of control and learning to be present. I’m curious, how’s that journey going and how did it impact how you showed up at this recent session?

Tammy:

That’s a great question. I think I will say that’s a lifelong journey for someone like me, Douglas.

Douglas:

Of course.

Tammy:

I’m an A type personality who enjoys a tremendous amount of control, and I think that’s why I like being front of room, because I’m not at the mercy of how other people are going to run a show. I feel like Robin’s probably the only person I trusted to run a room with. But I think in recent years I’ve had a lot of positive experiences in, I would say more collaborative approaches that leave a little bit to chance because I think there’s always a way to sort of steer it from the sides rather than the center, if that makes sense. So I think in this particular example of this day and that arts-based activity, I didn’t realize how worried I was about how that was going to go or not go.

I spent a stupid amount of time getting materials ready, thinking about how people were going to thread their stories together, thinking about all these little elements for what was really just an introductory activity. I probably spent more time there than I should have, but I think it was because I was leaving so much up to chance in that moment, in that particular activity in the room. And it could have flopped, they could have not been able to pull it off. They could have not wanted to engage, but it didn’t. And I think there’s perhaps a whole bunch of reasons for that. And also we just have a good bunch of people who are willing to take a risk. But to some degree, maybe some of those conversations and the staff accolades and stuff at the beginning maybe set the tone for a space of low enough risk that it was a space of care that we were in.

Robin:

Yeah.

Douglas:

You talked earlier about using art and getting people comfortable and preparing them to be bold. That got me to thinking about how singers will warm up their voices. If they just start to show up and then just start seeing immediately, they might damage their voice or they might just not be ready or capable of doing the things they might demand of their vocal cords. And it’s these transformations and change that takes time and care. And so asking people to be bold and innovative or just behave in ways that aren’t asked to day in, day out is hard without a transformation or a transition.

Robin:

Yeah, it’s funny, I was thinking of a quote that I actually wrote down that Eric, I think it was Eric who said during the Voltage Control training, and he drew it from psychological safety, it sounds like sort of pedagogy. And the quote was, “You need to decrease social friction to increase intellectual friction.” And I think there’s something there about the way in which Tammy’s oriented to forming connections that, and we’ve joked before about Tammy maybe being more the heart and me being more the head. Although I don’t think, I think there’s a strong overlap in our Venn diagrams on that. But I do really try to channel that in designing sessions so that you’re really having people feel connected socially and connected to each other so that we can have sometimes really tough conversations intellectually. And I don’t know if that directly answers your question, but that’s what was sort of sparked for me when you were asking it.

Tammy:

And if I were to maybe amplify that, I would say I think we’re, even if I think about facilitating five or six years ago or in a pre-pandemic context, I think that the world is a bit of a different place now, and I think this desire or need for connectivity is greater maybe than it was before. I think people are increasingly disconnected. People work in their remote work environments, they’re largely connecting online. Sometimes we’re bringing them together in a room and we expect this muscle that they used to have to be ready to go, and it’s not actually.

And so I actually do think it is worthwhile taking a little bit more time in the upfront to set the conditions for everyone to be able to be present and be in the room and contribute in the way that we’re hoping that they will. And I think they crave it, but I don’t think they know how quite, I think. And I notice that there are some generational differences in that as well, there are identity-based differences in how people are able to show up. But I do think now more than ever, there’s a need for us as facilitators to sort of zoom in on that maybe as part of our practice.

Robin:

Yeah. And we didn’t actually say the heart and the head. We talked about people feeling a focus on you, sort of focusing more on connections and me focusing more on actions and decisions. And I think that there is, just apropos to what you just said about the lack of people being physically together, is that I’m finding there’s a lot more work you got to do to get people to the point of making decisions and taking action because they’re not, to your point, doing that, engaging with each other in the same ways with the same regularity and sometimes not about tougher things. So because you’re a box on a screen, you’re just not going to put the energy often into disagreeing.

It’s like, I’ll just be okay with that, or I’ll go off-screen and deal with it elsewhere. Versus when you’re in spaces live, there’s just more friction that happens, like healthy friction and you work that muscle of working through it. So I think as facilitators, it puts more of an onus on investing the time and energy in doing some of that. And I have to hold back my desire to quickly get to decisions and actions and do more of that, making sure the ground is fertile for that.

Tammy:

If I were to give a nod to one, I’m going to say approach that really helped me during the cert was the e-learning course on a narrative futures design. And so I think that’s an approach that has served me as a facilitator, I think, in thinking about this moment and the disconnection that folks are experiencing. And it really opens up the space to dream in a way that perhaps other approaches haven’t. And so I’ve really enjoyed utilizing that, especially if we’re doing sort of forward-thinking work and as opposed to designing to solve a problem. Let’s imagine the desired state, not with all of the obstacles or barriers sort of discourse that we would typically use when we facilitate. So I think that is one particular approach that supports dreaming and connection and these sort of approaches that I think really serve having people show up in a space in a particular way.

Robin:

And Tammy, you said, I remember after because that was one of the electives in our Voltage Control course, and I remember afterwards you were saying that you’ve been finding it particularly effective with young people.

Tammy:

Yeah, yeah, because I think if we think about generational impacts of the pandemic or even just sort of where we’re at in the world, I think there’s certain generations of young people that you speak to that maybe don’t dream or that possibility of dreaming has sort of gone away. The perception of the future is not so great, but if you ask them to, they’re very capable, but I think no one’s asking them to. They’re always caught in these conversations about these really dire social issues or these moments that we’re in as opposed to how might we dream or imagine the world that we want to be in and contributing to.

Robin:

Yeah, and one of the things I know that has resonated both with Tammy and me that came out of our Voltage Control conversations and training is this idea of the spaces we create being these temporary worlds, I think is how you all talk about it. And so to that point about dreaming, we have the privilege as facilitators to be able to create this world, this space where people can do things that they don’t do outside of the room. And if we do it well, that creates an opening for people to connect in different ways, to think together in different ways, to potentially lead to different kinds of results than they can have. And the practice of operating in this temporary space potentially in new ways, maybe more creative, maybe more silly, maybe more vulnerable ways can then carry over if we do it well into other environments.

And I think that what I’m finding in this moment, particularly working in the nonprofit sector where the virtual work has remained, I think more so than in corporate settings where people are going back to work more days of the week, I’m finding that the moments where I get the opportunity to lead staff sessions or bring teams together around strategy conversations are some of the rarest in-person moments they have. They’re just precious moments. And so I feel like there’s a privilege, but there’s also responsibility in making sure with these rare moments where people are together in the same room, that we’re not just checking the box around, have we come up with the right strategic priorities? But we’re really maximizing that time to, usually organizations have lots of different goals that they’re packing in to what they want to achieve in a single day or a single retreat.

Tammy:

What I tend to try to do with that one, Robin, just around this idea of this temporary world that we’ve created is if I’ve intentionally sort of done that at the beginning, I always try to end with what of this world would you like to take forward with you in your day to day? Because I think although these moments are rare, I would like for that way of being or existing or engaging to be less rare for folks. So what is it of what we created in that moment that they would like to embed in their practice or in their regular meetings or in their day-to-day? Because I think that is the culture shifting stuff that an individual touch point can sort of have in the future.

Robin:

What a great prompt. I love that.

Douglas:

Let’s point our attention toward the future and hear about the challenges and opportunities you’re most energized to take on.

Robin:

I think that the challenge that I am probably, as Tammy knows, spending the most time thinking about, is really about how to more intentionally, maybe more creatively, maybe more effectively be able to bring multiple stakeholders, organizations, groups together that can align around shared goals and need to really chart a course towards achieving them. And I think in this moment there, we kind of had a heyday of collective impact a decade ago where I think people really were drawing from and leaning on that pedagogy. And I feel like there’s still collaborative work, there’s still collective work, but I feel like there isn’t as much as is needed to address the complex issues that we face.

And I’m really clear we’re not going to solve some of the big intractable things that we’re, or seemingly intractable things that we’re faced with on any dimension, homelessness, climate, food insecurity, all the things that organizations I work with deal with one organizational strategy at a time. It’s just not going to happen. And so the interplay between different players is what gets me really excited. And how do you create those spaces for innovative thinking and dialogue and alignment around them? So I’m looking for opportunities to do more of that and organizations that want to sort of be together in a sandbox to try on some different ways of working together.

Tammy:

And I think if I were to piggyback off of that, Robin, because we’ve chatted about this a fair bit, and I think we’ve tried through some of our facilitations to do some of that broader sector work, but it’s hard. It’s difficult in this current climate and context. I don’t know if this is true in the US, but in Canada, charities and nonprofits are really struggling. There’s a number of smaller ones that are shutting their doors. There’s a real, I would say, survivability mindset as opposed to a more collaborative mindset or a mindset of abundance where we might all sort of benefit from working more together.

So I think as someone who works within an organization who is pleased to collaborate, it’s been really difficult to even convince funders to put money into a pot for a number of organizations to work together. So I think that continues to maybe be the challenge of the future, but it is certainly the only way to solve the problems that we’re seeking to solve. So I think continuing to, in the absence of really direct pathways to achieving that, what are some of the creative ways that we can pull that off is I think a bit where we’re at in a future state, but it’s definitely, it is a driver. There is no one individual charity or organization that will change the world on the issue that they’re trying to change the world on. It’s not possible.

Robin:

Yeah, and you see this up close with the kind of system level work you do as an organization. So it’s kind of in your DNA to work this way.

Douglas:

Amazing. You’re doing important work, and I’m glad you’re focused on it. I hope you catch the next wave of collaboration and collective work.

Tammy:

Yeah, totally.

Robin:

Yeah. Thanks, Douglas.

Tammy:

Yeah, I hope so.

Douglas:

As we come to a close, I’d like to invite you to leave our listeners with a final thought.

Tammy:

My final thought for listeners would be to reflect on the importance and the value of relationships in the work that we do. And so at the end of the day, we are all in relationships with each other. Some of them are good, some of them are strained, and we’re seeking to enhance those. And without centering our practice on those relationships, I think we will inevitably leave people behind.

Robin:

That resonates for sure. I am a huge Priya Parker fan. The Art of Gathering I know was one of the books we read as a part of this, and my, I guess final thought would be around, for anyone out there that’s gathering people or facilitating conversations or leading meetings, there’s a really simple truth at the heart of her book, which is that you need to start with purpose. And while it seems obvious, so many meetings happen without actually crystallizing why we are coming together. And so starting your with that question of why and what will be different and working backward from that outcome, so you were designing with that why in mind is something I go back to often from her work.

Tammy:

You definitely walk that talk, Robin, because-

Robin:

Thank you.

Tammy:

You definitely asked me that question probably three times in the last three weeks.

Robin:

Thank you for the validation.

Douglas:

Well, it was my pleasure having you on today. It was so great chatting. Hope to see you again soon.

Tammy:

Likewise. Thank you for your time, Douglas and Robin. It’s always a delight to share ideas with you, so thank you.

Robin:

Yeah, same, Tammy. And thanks Douglas, and thanks for the gift that keeps giving of this program.

Douglas:

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

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