Facilitation Lab
Facilitation Lab Chicago
Practice Playground
With Ariel Goldfarb and Olga Frias-Basta
In Partnership With Miro
July 31, 2024
4pm - 6pm CDT​
The goal of Facilitation Lab Chicagoland! Is to foster a vibrant community where facilitators can connect, explore, and share experiences; all about facilitation. Facilitation Lab Chicagoland brings together facilitators from diverse backgrounds and levels of experience. This space is dedicated to nurturing meaningful exchanges and fostering deep connections among community members and new visitors alike. Whether you are a seasoned expert or just beginning your facilitation journey, Facilitation Lab Chicagoland offers an inclusive environment to engage with peers, exchange ideas, and build professional networks.
July 31, 2024
4pm - 6pm CDT​
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About Facilitation Lab Chicago
Facilitation Lab Chicago is a monthly in-person meetup focused on helping facilitators & collaborative leaders connect with peers in a supportive and inspiring facilitation playground.
We gather to experience and explore all aspects of facilitation, including Liberating Structures, Game Storming, Thinking Wrong, MG Taylor, Improv, and much more.
At each meeting, we rotate topics and approaches, from highlighting practitioners sharing tips and tricks to open facilitation practice where you get hands-on with new tools and concepts.
In addition to Facilitation Lab Chicago hosted by Olga and Ariel. Voltage Control hosts Facilitation Lab HQ, and there are other meetups around the globe hosted by Facilitation Lab regional leads. See the region list for a full list of all active meetups.
Join the Facilitation Lab Community Hub to connect asynchronously with the facilitation community and get reminders of all upcoming events.
Agenda
Building Connection. (Who’s in the room?)
We’ll open with some connection to give you an opportunity to meet other community members.
Imagining Facilitation Lab Chicagoland (FLC)
What do we want FLC to be? What types of activities and outcomes would be most beneficial for us? We’ll explore potential areas to explore and activities for future meetups.
Learning Opportunities Exploration
Based on outputs of the previous activity, we’ll explore facilitation challenges and opportunities for growth in more detail.
Reflect, Debrief, & Wrap Up
We’ll end with an opportunity for some quiet reflection, group debriefing, and exploration for what this can mean for your practice going forward
Who Should Attend
Experienced & New Facilitators
Who want to level up their facilitation skills, meet like-minded professionals and enhance their ability to effectively engage participants
Leaders
Anyone in a leadership role who needs to manage people to a useful outcome
Product & Project Managers
Who have an interest in facilitation and want to steer stakeholders to the best outcomes and learn best practices in stakeholder management
Teachers & Trainers
Who value the power of facilitation and want to design the most impactful learning and create engaging learning experiences
Key Takeaways
Gain hands-on experience with a spectrum of facilitation techniques, from classic to cutting-edge.
Receive immediate, constructive feedback in a nurturing environment to refine your facilitation skills.
Explore the depths of your existing facilitation knowledge and boost your confidence through low-stakes exploration.
Realize the potential to learn from anyone, appreciating the value of diverse experiences and perspectives.
Featured Facilitators
Ariel Goldfarb
Ariel is managing partner of Concentric Growth Partners, which develops collaborative innovation and intelligence programs for corporate and institutional clients. He has 20 years of experience in research, marketing and strategy, both in the U.S. and overseas.
Ariel guest lectures on the role of customers and brand on innovation at the Segal Design Institute at Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering. Previously, he was on the faculty of Northwestern University’s Medill School for 12 years, where he taught Brand Equity Management in Chicago, San Francisco and London. He is a recipient of the 2010 Faculty Teaching Award, holds a Bachelors degree from U.C. Berkeley, and a Masters degree in Integrated Marketing and Communications from Northwestern University.
Ariel lives in Evanston. His afflictions are slow cycling, espresso in all its forms, and baking pizza and sourdough. His interest in facilitation and joining VC Facilitation Lab is to explore and unlock the power of collaboration to do things better and do better things.
Ariel guest lectures on the role of customers and brand on innovation at the Segal Design Institute at Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering. Previously, he was on the faculty of Northwestern University’s Medill School for 12 years, where he taught Brand Equity Management in Chicago, San Francisco and London. He is a recipient of the 2010 Faculty Teaching Award, holds a Bachelors degree from U.C. Berkeley, and a Masters degree in Integrated Marketing and Communications from Northwestern University.
Ariel lives in Evanston. His afflictions are slow cycling, espresso in all its forms, and baking pizza and sourdough. His interest in facilitation and joining VC Facilitation Lab is to explore and unlock the power of collaboration to do things better and do better things.
Olga Frias-Basta
Full time Scrum Master/Facilitator at Trane Technologies where she leads two teams within their Digital Organization through all of their Agile practices, coaching best practices along the way and finding better ways to communicate complicated scenarios across development teams. I love the opportunity to practice new techniques, like Liberating Structures and Improv, that have been made possible through Voltage Controls Facilitation Labs. My goal is to bring those opportunities to practice and explore new techniques in person through a live community of practice.
With over 25 years of software development experience, and aware of how easily unintentional silos can inhibit delivering value quickly, I relish the opportunity to explore and experiment with different techniques for communicating ideas, information, and ensuring every voice gets heard.
When not donning my Super Scrum Master cape I enjoy riding long distances on my bicycle (I don’t go fast but I go pretty far), playing my mountain dulcimer (and pretending to sing), and playing complex board games (still trying to master Wingspan, figuring out Alhambra, and hooked on Crew and all iterations of Azul).
With over 25 years of software development experience, and aware of how easily unintentional silos can inhibit delivering value quickly, I relish the opportunity to explore and experiment with different techniques for communicating ideas, information, and ensuring every voice gets heard.
When not donning my Super Scrum Master cape I enjoy riding long distances on my bicycle (I don’t go fast but I go pretty far), playing my mountain dulcimer (and pretending to sing), and playing complex board games (still trying to master Wingspan, figuring out Alhambra, and hooked on Crew and all iterations of Azul).
In Partnership With
Miro
Miro is an online workspace for innovation that is visually reminiscent to whiteboards we have in meeting rooms. All the tools are located on the left side of the screen. And it allows you to add various content from texts to images, create maps and diagrams, and work with visual templates together with a team.
What People are Saying
"In a world where we tend to connect digitally, it's so important to still come together, especially in a shared community where we're learning from each other and we're also affirming each other. So, coming here is worth the travel. It's worth being in the presence of others. You can't replicate that in a digital forum."
Susan Wilson-Golab
Bloomfield Hills Schools
"I always enjoy the opportunity to network with other facilitators in the Facilitation Lab. I've gained so much knowledge from other attendees' insights & experiences each and every week in our community."
Anonymous
Facilitation Lab Attendee
Photo Disclaimer
Please note that photographs, video & audio recordings will be taken throughout this event. These will be used by Voltage Control for marketing and publicity in our publications, on our website and in social media, or in any third party publication. Please contact our events manager if you have any concerns or if you wish to be exempted from this activity.
