Facilitation Lab
Facilitation Lab North America
Practice Playground
With Douglas Ferguson
In Partnership With Miro
March 19, 2025
10am - 12pm CDT
Live Online
Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting out, this is your safe playground to push boundaries, explore new methods, and level up your facilitation skills!
At Facilitation Lab North America, facilitators and collaborative leaders come together to experiment, refine, and grow through real-time practice and role-play – because we believe that learning by doing is the best way to develop our facilitation muscle! We use a tried and tested role play format called Practice Playground, which is a dynamic, hands-on process to help us sharpen our skills in a low-stakes and interactive way.
This is a rare chance to practice in a truly safe and supportive environment, where we can test new techniques, experiment, take risks, and get valuable, constructive feedback from peers.
Make the most of your session
Come prepared to role-play and facilitate a new facilitation method or something you’ve been working on. We’ve found attendees who step up benefit the most because they receive tailored feedback, and leave with real growth and confidence.
At Facilitation Lab North America, facilitators and collaborative leaders come together to experiment, refine, and grow through real-time practice and role-play – because we believe that learning by doing is the best way to develop our facilitation muscle! We use a tried and tested role play format called Practice Playground, which is a dynamic, hands-on process to help us sharpen our skills in a low-stakes and interactive way.
This is a rare chance to practice in a truly safe and supportive environment, where we can test new techniques, experiment, take risks, and get valuable, constructive feedback from peers.
Make the most of your session
Come prepared to role-play and facilitate a new facilitation method or something you’ve been working on. We’ve found attendees who step up benefit the most because they receive tailored feedback, and leave with real growth and confidence.
March 19, 2025
10am - 12pm CDT
Live Online
Interested in a private cohort for your team?
Let us know
Spread the word
Agenda
Impromptu Networking
We’ll open with some connections to give you an opportunity to meet other community members
Idea Marketplace & Voting
Everyone shares their practice areas and opportunities for growth edges and we vote on the top ones.
Practice & Role Play
Participants take turns facilitating a method or the group role-playing a real-life facilitation scenario
Reflect, Debrief, & Commit
We’ll end with an opportunity for some quiet reflection, group debriefing, and solo commitments
Who Should Attend
Experienced & New Facilitators
Who want to level up their facilitation skills and enhance their ability to effectively engage participants
Chiefs of Staff
Who want to align initiatives across departments and ensure strategic projects are implemented successfully
Product & Project Managers
Who want to steer stakeholders to the best outcomes and learn best practices in stakeholder management
Teachers & Trainers
Who 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 practice sessions.
Realize the potential to learn from anyone, appreciating the value of diverse experiences and perspectives.
About Facilitation Lab North America
Facilitation Lab North America is a bi-monthly virtual meetup for changemakers, collaborative leaders, and facilitators across North America. Our purpose is to foster learning by doing in a psychologically safe environment, building a strong and supportive community of peers across the region.
As Regional Lead, Douglas cultivates a space for experimentation and collaborative leadership development, with a focus on people-powered organisational change.
Facilitation Lab North America is a global network of regions, including other virtual meetups organized by continent and in-person meetups organized by cities. See the region list for a full list of all active meetups.
You can also join us in the Facilitation Lab Community Hub to stay connected with the facilitation community and get reminders of all upcoming events.
Featured Facilitators
Douglas Ferguson
Douglas Ferguson is an entrepreneur, educator, and human-centered technologist. He is the founder and 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. Douglas is a thought leader and author of four books: Magical Meetings, Beyond the Prototype, How to Remix Anything, and Start Within.
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
"The community’s warmth and generosity in tending to me and the issue made me feel cared for and supported. Beyond the suggestions, which were immediately useful, the culture of the community makes leaning into that growth edge easier, and more delightful."
Katrina Mitchell
Senior Technical Advisor, JHPiego
“I just wanted to say thanks for the great session last night. Your feedback and suggestions were fantastic. I left very energized!"
Dan Corbin
Instructor at Pragmatic Institute
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.
