Facilitation Lab HQ: The Power of Facilitation in Product Management

Featuring: Douglas Ferguson and Dan Corbin

At their core, Product Managers drive conversation and guide teamwork on a daily basis. Facilitation is a critical skill that will set you apart as you navigate complicated business challenges. Facilitation helps to create alignment, improve collaboration, resolve conflicts, and design optimal experiences to help companies and their products thrive. It’s the secret weapon to your career success!

Join us for a discussion with leading Product Managers who will share top facilitation techniques they’ve used to unlock immense career growth and product success. During this session, we’ll cover:

-What makes a good facilitator?
-How facilitation skills ignite career growth and product success
-Top 3 facilitation techniques Product Managers can use tomorrow to drive impact
-How to hone your facilitation skills

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Facilitation Lab HQ is a virtual 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 HQ hosted by Voltage Control, there are meetups around the globe hosted by Facilitation Lab regional leads. See the region map 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.

Date

November 30, 2023

Time

1pm - 2pm CT​

Location

Live Online

This event is happening again!

You should join us on November 25

Get Tickets

Interested in a private cohort for your team?

What to expect

What to Expect

We offer opportunities for facilitators to gather in a safe judgement-free zone to learn from experts and one another. Our community offers many levels of engagement and exclusive resources for facilitators, whether you are a beginner or a Master Facilitator. Our weekly Facilitation Lab makes up 5 key segments: impromptu networking, our guest facilitator session activity, community critique, a weekly giveaway, & After Hours. Come & network with facilitators from around the globe and expand your facilitator toolbelt from each Lab experience!

What You'll Learn

In the Facilitation Lab, you will learn to elevate your skills in facilitation and collaborative leadership. This global community offers a vibrant and dynamic environment where both new and experienced facilitators can grow and develop their craft. You will have the opportunity to explore and learn a variety of practices and techniques that are essential for effective facilitation, ranging from fundamental concepts for beginners to advanced strategies for seasoned practitioners.

How You'll Learn

The learning experience in the Facilitation Lab is designed to be interactive and community-driven. You will learn through weekly virtual meetups that provide a supportive space for facilitators and collaborative leaders to connect and practice their skills. These meetups act as a playground, where you can engage with peers, receive prompts, and participate in hands-on activities.

Agenda

Impromptu Networking

Engage with everyone in the community during a quick round of introductions to network and begin our time together

Guest Facilitator Session

Experience the lead facilitator's activity & method to engage together as a community.

Rose, Thorn, Bud Critique

Share your feedback as a community and offer expressions of tangible takeaways to our lead facilitator.

After Hours

Stay awhile & chat post-session about your experience in the Lab.

Who Should Attend

Team Managers & Leads

who want to learn more & benefit from the power of facilitation practice

UX Designers

who want to expand their facilitation skillset while gaining inspiration of new approaches

Experienced & New Facilitators

who want to level up their facilitation skills and enhance their facilitation tool belt

Teachers

who want to gain feedback & uncover new resources with forward-thinking activities

Key Takeaways

Discover what withholds are getting in the way of your life, career, and intimacy

Learn how to transform a Raw Withhold into a Skilled Withhold

Get a peek into the most advanced conscious communication skills training available

Practice a facilitation skill to have a room of crickets speak up

This event has ended

Interested in hearing when this workshop will occur next?

Douglas Ferguson

Douglas is an entrepreneur and human-centered technologist with over 26 years of experience. He is president of Voltage Control, a facilitation academy that develops leaders through certifications, workshops, and organizational coaching focused on facilitation mastery, innovation, and play. He has helped transform leaders, innovators, and creatives from Nike, U.S. SOCOM, Google, the Air Force, Gap, Tesla, MSU, Church & Dwight, Apple, Adobe, Dropbox, Fidelity, Vrbo, Liberty Mutual, Humana, and SAIC.

Prior to Voltage Control, Douglas held CTO positions at numerous Austin startups, where he led product and engineering teams using agile, lean, and human-centered design principles. While CTO at Twyla, Douglas worked directly with Google Ventures running Design Sprints, and now brings this experience and process to companies everywhere.

Douglas is currently active in the Austin startup community, where he serves on the board of several non-profits, mentors startups, and advises early-stage ventures.

Dan Corbin

Dan is a distinguished leader in product management with decades of industry-spanning experience. He has helmed multifaceted product teams across various sectors, demonstrating adaptability and innovation. Not only has Dan spearheaded numerous successful product initiatives, but he has also committed himself to fostering the next generation of product management professionals. As an instructor, mentor, and coach, he has guided countless individuals to new heights in their careers, marrying theory with practical insights.
What People Are Saying

"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

Apply for a Diversity Scholarship

A key part of our mission is to support diverse facilitators from different methodologies, backgrounds, races, genders, sexual orientations, cultures, and ages. If you are a part of, or serve, a traditionally underrepresented group and feel that this scholarship would allow you to amplify this mission, please apply now.

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 us via email if you have any concerns or if you wish to be exempted from this activity.​

The Books

Bring Your Ideas to Life

Innovation can seem complex or reserved for the exceptional. But we believe innovation is for everyone. We’ve set out to illuminate a path for you to generate bold ideas, visualize and share them, overcome obstacles, and turn them into reality. Our books are equal parts guidebook and stories from years of experience helping companies adopt an innovation mindset and culture. They’re practical & actionable, so you can get started now. We hope they’ll help you on your journey to realizing your biggest, boldest ideas.