Facilitation Lab
Facilitation Lab Portsmouth
Work in Progress: Design tools and reflections for career change
With Devon Skerritt
In Partnership With Social Design Strategies
Our March Facilitation Lab is back in Portsmouth, exploring tools and engaging conversations at the intersection of design thinking and career transitions. In this moment of rapid professional disruption and increasing career uncertainty, life design offers a framework that treats our professional journeys as iterative prototypes while centering our strengths, values and identities. Whether you are personally navigating a pivot or looking for new ways to support others through change, this session offers a space to practice agency, curiosity, and coherence in our work lives.
Interested in a private cohort for your team?
Let us know
Featured in the Lab
Work in Progress is a Facilitation Lab focused on adapting design tools and reflective practice for understanding where we are while imagining possibilities for what we might do next. Led by Devon Skerritt, this Lab uses his training in Designing Your Life principles with adult development and identity change research to help us navigate the tensions of professional uncertainty and change. Acting as a community of practice and support, we will test three techniques to help people assess their past, ground themselves in the present, and imagine new possibilities for their future of work. We will prioritize care for each other while practicing approaches aligning experiences, skills, and identity with the creative agency to design something new about your work life.
Participants will leave with a grounding in life design mindsets and interactive exercises to shape our futures, from an experience that seeks to recognize the humanity and dignity so often missing in times of accelerating job change.
Participants will leave with a grounding in life design mindsets and interactive exercises to shape our futures, from an experience that seeks to recognize the humanity and dignity so often missing in times of accelerating job change.
About Facilitation Lab Portsmouth
Facilitation Lab Portsmouth is a monthly in-person meetup for changemakers, collaborative leaders, and facilitators across Portsmouth. 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, Devon cultivates a space for experimentation and collaborative leadership development, with a focus on people-powered organizational change.
Facilitation Lab Portsmouth 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.
Agenda
Opener
An attendee will lead us through an engaging opener
Practice & Role Play
Attendees take turns role-playing as facilitators and participants as we practices different methods
Debrief
After some quiet reflection we’ll debrief the role-play and key learnings
Closer
An attendee will lead us through a purposeful closer
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.
Featured Facilitators
Devon Skerritt
Devon Skerritt, Ed.D., is an independent design researcher, facilitator, and strategist growing people’s capacity to navigate change and imagine possibilities by design. Driven by curiosity, Devon works at the intersections of learning, inquiry, and civic engagement focused on communities’ participation in initiatives impacting them. Over eight years of human-centered design practice, Devon drove design thinking through facilitation, coaching, and qualitative research across innovation teams at Southern New Hampshire University and organized Design and Innovation programs at Southern Methodist University through academic experiences and corporate partnerships. Devon has served as an adjunct lecturer teaching about Life Design and Liberatory design thinking, and brings more than 15 added years of experience in education administration roles serving students as an advisor and counselor at organizations from K12 to higher education. Devon received his Ed.D. from SMU and master’s degree in higher education from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, where was also a 2015 Social Impact Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, with a B.A. in
history from Colgate University.
history from Colgate University.
In Partnership With
Social Design Strategies
Helping clients understand people, context, and possibilities with facilitation, research and innovation/change strategy - by design.
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.