In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, Douglas Ferguson interviews Marco Monterzino, a human-centered designer and innovation facilitator. Marco shares his journey from luxury product design to facilitation, emphasising the significance of ritual, adaptability, and purpose in both fields. They discuss how design thinking and frameworks like the hero’s journey inform facilitation, and how rituals shape user experiences. Marco also explores building organisational resilience, the evolving nature of purpose, and the importance of cultivating equanimity. The episode concludes with insights on blending facilitation and education to foster resilient, innovative teams and communities.

Show Highlights

[00:01:45] Marco’s Entry into Luxury Design
[00:08:21] Rituals and Product Design
[00:15:49] Gaining Confidence and Structure as a Facilitator
[00:23:59] Workshops as Human Gatherings
[00:31:14] Bridging Facilitation and Education
[00:35:17] Final Thought: The Equanimity Hack

Links | Resources

Marco on LinkedIn

About the Guest

Marco Monterzino is a Human-centered Designer and Certified Innovation Facilitator at Monterzino Design, where he helps senior leadership teams discover their organisational resilience.

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Transcript

Douglas Ferguson (00:05):
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 to 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.

(00:38):
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 realtime with peers. Sign up today at voltagecontrol.com/facilitation-lab. If you’d like to learn more about our 12-week facilitation certification program, you can read about it at voltagecontrol.com.

(00:58):
Today I’m with Marco Monterzino, human-centered designer and Certified Innovation Facilitator at Monterzino Design, where he helps senior leadership teams discover their organizational resilience. Welcome to the show, Marco.

Marco Monterzino (01:14):
Thanks for having me, Douglas. Great to see you.

Douglas Ferguson (01:16):
I just want to say it’s so wonderful having you on the show today. You’ve been such a great collaborator, and the work you’re doing at Facilitation Lab Europe is so wonderful. We really appreciate everything you’re doing there. And we’ve got some cool stuff that we’re working on that we might be launching next year. So always a pleasure to chat with you, and it’s so wonderful having you on the show today.

Marco Monterzino (01:37):
Thanks. Look, it’s been an incredible experience and so supportive of my own journey. So yeah, thanks for setting it up really.

Douglas Ferguson (01:46):
You began your career designing luxury objects, like lighters and fountain pens. What first drew you into that world? And what did you learn from working in such a rarefied space?

Marco Monterzino (01:56):
So that’s a great question, Douglas. I would say I more or less stumbled upon this market. It’s something that I was introduced to by the college I studied at. So Central Saint Martins College in London is a college that has a very strong network in a very specific niche of the market, which is the high end luxury market. Really because they are active in the intersection of art, fashion and design. So that’s the kind of network that I got introduced to.

(02:31):
I also have to say, as a child growing up, I really enjoyed collecting lighters and fountain pens, but really not the lighters that cost you half a yearly salary. So these are things that I just encountered along my journey and I really enjoyed discovering. Especially I would say the whole experience of creating these items, luxury items, high end items is connecting to a notion that the French call savoir faire, which is basically craftsmanship.

(03:11):
So having a chance to immerse myself in companies that have these workshops where they make bespoke diamond-encrusted accessories for gentlemen, for ladies, it was really super, super precious. And opened up my mind as a designer because I could see how … This was my first experience in connecting the practice of designing to the practice portfolio manufacturing, and this was a very specific type of manufacturing. It’s very little industrial production, just a little bit of C&C milling, digital manufacturing, which was then all finished by hand, encrusted by hand, engraved by hand. So the range of possibilities was really endless.

Douglas Ferguson (04:04):
I recall that your big project was the Diva. And I playfully suggested From Diva to Facilitator as your alumni story title, but that felt a little off to you. Tell us about the origins in the name Diva, and what was there for you as you were working on that project?

Marco Monterzino (04:19):
Yeah, thank you. That’s a great memory actually to recall. So I had been given this assignment to work with a young audience for a luxury brand called Stephane Tissot Dupont based in Paris. They started being known for travel case design. They created these travel cases that people use for traveling on the great liners of Cunard, that heritage. When I went to visit the factory, the workshops, the atelier actually how they call it, it was really super feeling the weight of these objects and hearing the sound of the lids as they came open. I was introduced to a whole new universe. I never really could see how you could design into that level of detail.

(05:08):
Now, the concept actually came because I was struggling with coming up with an idea for something in that market. It’s really not my market, I hardly could empathize with the user. And that’s my first job as a designer, understanding what a user needs. So one day I was just walking around in Lugano, on this Italian border with Switzerland. Actually, it was the Swiss border with Italy. And I saw … Sometimes you start observing, and I’m the kind of person sometimes, a bit awkwardly stops and starts staring at something as if I was invisible. I was super mesmerized by something that I was observing. And this scene was a guy and a girl who was basically, they didn’t know each other and they crossed paths on the shore of this lake. She asked him if he had a lighter. And the way this interplay happened was really beautiful because the light was just right, there was a gust of wind, and their hands gently touched each other as they were exchanging this moment, this gesture.

(06:28):
And for me, that moment was where I was, “Oh, wow, that’s really beautiful. What if I could design a physical object, a tool like a lighter, that could really represent and enhance this ritual of giving fire?” The elegance of an open gesture like that. So the idea was what if a person like me could, in a dream, be able to treat a woman like a diva, like you see in the great films of the Hollywood era. So that’s how the name came about, just thinking of a lighter that was dedicated, it was an homage to the user. A lady who’s treated like a diva by a gentleman. The divas are in this dream scenario that I lost myself into.

(07:38):
That landed really well Stephane Tissot Dupont, the creative director really liked it and said, “We can manufacture this.” And in fact, I think they didn’t end up manufacturing that specific design unfortunately, as it often goes with product innovation. But they built the idea of something that could be operated with an open gesture in other collections. One for 007 is operating that way, then they have another one that is a bit more sporty and leverages the strength of the hand. Because the whole idea was to offer a lighter, rather than in your fist like many would, on the open palm of a hand, as if your hand was a surface rather than your hand holding onto something.

Douglas Ferguson (08:21):
That story immediately drew me to the idea of ritual, and I think you even invoked that word yourself. This idea of passing the flame has become a thing of the past because people are moving away from smoking due to health concerns or picked up vaping instead. Are there other human-to-human rituals that we’ve lost that we could amplify with design or objects?

Marco Monterzino (08:44):
Look, it’s a very interesting space, that one, I think for all forms of industrial design especially because that was where I asked myself this kind of question. The idea of a ritual really is at the root of many products that we use. If you think about simple rituals like how we use our handsets, there’s lots of little rituals in there. A lot of little gestures, a lot of thoughtless acts, a lot of cultural norms we can play with.

(09:17):
Now of the top of my head, I wouldn’t be able to pull in a specific ritual that I have in mind. But if you think about the usual rituals of, for instance the tea ceremony or many other cultural rituals, really are about the process being just as important as the outcome. Because the outcome, at the end of the day, might be drink a cup of tea. But what if the pleasure and the value of the experience is throughout the process from the beginning to the end? Yeah, how you prepare the mug, how you select and appreciate the blend, how you embody a certain posture rather than another one. In certain cultures, like in Japan, there’s a lot of very sophisticated detail that goes into these things. So I think ritual is everything in product design and it’s a great place to start a design process from my experience.

Douglas Ferguson (10:18):
At what point did you realize objects, though beautiful, didn’t quite align with your own values? And how did that spark your pivot toward utilitarian design?

Marco Monterzino (10:28):
Now, it didn’t come without its pains. You can imagine, I was very excited to be in such a market. It made me feel extremely fortunate. I didn’t see myself designing a fountain pen for Montblanc or helping Stephane Tissot Dupont launch a new lighter. It was something that it was completely foreign to me. But I don’t know, I just felt by doing other bits of work, the purpose part of it was really driving me.

(11:03):
When designing these beautiful objects, you’re often designing items that end up being collected. They might not even be used as much. These brands are really keen to make sure that their products are not seen as collectibles, but unfortunately quite often that’s the way it goes, especially with the more customized and expensive pieces. So being on the other end of the spectrum, so solving real life problems, everyday problems, really addressing something that you might observe in real life, like how can we make packaging not end up in our seas, that sort of problem. How can we help people behave in a different way when it comes to sustainability? These are issues that I’ve dealt with very, very regularly.

(11:55):
It’s the other end of the spectrum. Very, very fast-moving goods, packaging. Not glamorous at all, not massaging my ego as much as a designer, but definitely giving me a sense of purpose and I’m having an impact here. Which I have to say, I wasn’t feeling as much when I was designing the other products. And that is not to say that you can’t have a sense of purpose when designing those other products. If you’re a watchmaker, I think there’s a lot of purpose there. But just it didn’t really click with me. I felt I needed something more grounded. Yeah.

Douglas Ferguson (12:36):
Can you share the moment when you first sensed that facilitation, not just product design, might be the real work you were meant to do?

Marco Monterzino (12:44):
I think I mentioned earlier, product innovation, that’s when my shift happened. That’s the first moment I encountered the … I understood the skill behind design. The mindset was transferable, I could use it outside of designing stuff. I could use it to help an R&D team come up with a product without designing the product, just coming up with 10, 20 ideas. So it was incremental in my experience. I went from designing hands-on, to a degree like a craftsman. Designers are, to a degree, craftspeople. They apply their ability to understand manufacturing and form. I went from that place to a place where I could generate lots of ideas for organizations.

(13:44):
And then that turned into we’re not solving product innovation problems now, but when working with a large fast-moving goods company, like Proctor & Gamble or Pepsi, PepsiCo, we might need to really think about, say structural problems for a smaller organization like a startup or a scale-up. And that’s when I could see that holding that hand in understanding how they could discover their product. So their very first product, it was all product-based at the beginning for me, could be done through the same process that I used for designing the product itself. So understanding the what problem is, reframing it, coming up with solutions, and then prototyping and testing solutions to a degree whenever it really fits.

(14:40):
And that’s when I actually started doing design sprints because I overheard at Makerversity, a lovely coworking space I was based at in London, I overheard that my friends in the neighboring office or set of desks were able to sell this product like hot cakes. I was like, “Wow, what’s the secret here?” And the secret was, it was very clear. For the first time I was able to hear people talk about the design process like something that was bite-sized and that could be seen as very tangible because you got from big problem to a user-validated solution at the end.

(15:25):
So that’s where I could see that there was something on the horizon around facilitation. But by no means, I didn’t have the experience or the methodology I could lean on. It was all I was winging it big time. And sometimes, as you do when you’re winging it, sometimes it goes really well and some other times it doesn’t go just quite as well. So yeah, that’s actually how I came about you guys and it was very much to address that need for structure, that need for a sense of also confidence. Because if I was winging it and it was a sunny day and everything was going well, I was completely confident and bold. But if things were not working out, or the client was potentially pushing back, or things were not really, yeah, working out, I would be losing my confidence. You can’t lose your confidence as a facilitator, it’s a key feature of the work we do. We have to guide and lead in a confident way.

(16:30):
So having methods, the readings, especially the first reading, the Art of Gathering, super clear. It was a big light bulb that went off in my head. It clarified my role. I was gathering people, I wasn’t just running workshops. So there was a lot more thought that had to go into it.

Douglas Ferguson (16:53):
That confidence is really key. You talk about when everything’s sunny and goes well, it’s easy to follow the playbook, run the recipe. But then what happens where there’s a perturbation in the system or something goes unexpected? We have to be unflappable. We have to be resilient. That’s why we have our competency of adaptive. If we’re not adaptive facilitators, when we’re met with adversity it’s going to be really hard to respond.

Marco Monterzino (17:25):
Definitely, definitely. Look, one thing that really got me thinking about this topic was when, I think you brought it up on Circle, on the live community, the Facilitation Lab community. You brought up the topic or the notion of equanimity, which was an entirely novel term for me. The English language is not my first language and I had not come across this word before. So I looked it up. I was like, “Oh, I need a bit of this.” It was this inner smoothness was really extremely tantalizing. It was like, “Yeah, I need more than a bit of that. I need to have control of that.”

(18:11):
So yeah, that planted a little seed somewhere in the back of my head. And then through experience, I was able to actually craft for myself something that could ground me when things were not working out quite the way I was hoping.

Douglas Ferguson (18:30):
So tell me more about that?

Marco Monterzino (18:31):
Well, this is something that I refer to as my, I don’t know, it’s a mantra for me. Something that I go to to find my footing. And I found myself and I still find myself quite regularly … Maybe it’s because it’s I’m a creative, I’m a designer, emotions have a strong grip on my psyche. So whenever there’s some emotion that’s making me feel less confident because maybe I’m experiencing an emotion called fear, then as soon as I realize that’s going on I go, “Okay.” I just take a breath and then I just repeat within myself quietly, “I’m here to serve you.” Because at the end of the day, all the work that I do as a consultant, as a human-centered designer is to serve people.

(19:22):
And then it’s like pressing autofocus on a very blurred image. Things go blurry, blurry, blurry, and then I go, “I’m here to serve you,” and everything is crystal clear and instantly I have my confidence back. Instantly, every time. Super reliable.

Douglas Ferguson (19:39):
Nice. There’s a reason purpose is first and adaptive is last. If we’re not starting with purpose and anchoring the other competencies along the way, it’s going to be really difficult to get to adaptive.

Marco Monterzino (19:51):
Totally, totally. And I would say that adaptability is a key feature of purpose. Because I can see my purpose as a business evolving over time, and I can see that you guys possibly have the same. Depending on how you evolve, your purpose has to evolve. Depending on how the market evolves, your purpose has to evolve. Depending on how the learning that I take on along the way informs me with new knowledge, my purpose has to evolve. And that piece where I’m constantly iterating my purpose is the adaptability, the ability to keep that purpose, the driving purpose fresh on my mind. I don’t know how it is for you guys, but that’s definitely the case with me.

Douglas Ferguson (20:39):
Yeah, that echoes true. I want to come back to the journey we’re talking about there. At Untapped Innovation, you saw design embedded in R&D and fueled by frameworks like the Hero’s Journey. How did that experience shape your view of design as facilitation?

Marco Monterzino (20:54):
So yeah, I would say one thing that I came across when working with Untapped was I would label it as a wealth of experience. They had a huge amount of experience, they’d been working with lots of large organizations, companies, multinational companies. One of the methodologies we were using that I encountered was the Hero’s Journey. Because ultimately, one of these human-centered design 101 methodologies is you put the user at the center and you design the whole narrative of whatever you’re innovating upon around it. So that was super, super powerful.

(21:35):
Just a quick example, a quick memory, anecdote. I was brought in to work with a manufacturer of a product that has been … Well, I’ll just say it. I was brought in to work on a tobacco harm reduction project with a large organization that needed to address the fact that their products were harming people. So I remember how having that perspective that put the user at the center, and also having that perspective as a designer to think about the user as a person who is engaging in rituals, especially when it comes to consuming drinks or having other experiences. That became the core aspect of how we generated ideas. So we generated ideas about how we can reduce harm by making the experience of, for instance consuming tobacco, while physically less harmful, but also a lot more about the ritual. A lot more about the quality of the experience, rather than just the consumption and going through packets of cigarettes. So that was powerful.

Douglas Ferguson (22:59):
Yeah, that reminds me of some advice I’ve heard in the past about quitting cigarettes and how important it is to not leave the rituals behind. A lot of times, people smoke when they’re having coffee. A lot of times people will take their smokes breaks. That will be the only time they go outside and take a break from work. There’s some people that even argue it’s the deep breathing that is the relaxing part because nicotine’s a stimulant, it actually raises the blood pressure. So if there’s any argument to it feeling relaxing or stress relieving, it’s the deep breathing that you’re doing when you’re inhaling deeply and exhaling, which people don’t normally do. So this group encouraged folks to, “Hey, keep your coffee ritual. Keep your afternoon and mid-morning breaks. Go outside and breathe.”

(23:47):
I find that interesting reminder of that story while listening to you around designing around those rituals. It kind of comes back to what we were talking about earlier with the lighters and the other human exchanges.

Marco Monterzino (23:59):
Yeah. Look, we could connect this with also the practice of seeing workshops as gatherings. For me, it’s the same matter, or it was the same transition. Because why should we suddenly treat a workshop as a situation where there’s one person talking at a group, and there is no structure, and there is no ritual to it. It doesn’t feel like something that belongs to our culture, something that belongs to our human nature.

(24:35):
When you say if we look at it as a gathering, wow. We start thinking about a big circle of people with a blazing fire in the middle. It can become something I think quite natural and quite … There’s a lot of references from our culture itself. So when you are running a workshop, you should think about how the most important thing is the relational quality of it, especially at the beginning. Clarifying purpose of course, keeping things on track, but also making sure that people connect because that’s why you’re bringing them together. And it’s not about getting people through as many design thinking exercises as possible to get to an outcome that is designed by committee. But rather, getting people excited about being together. Able to give shape, to contribute with their logs to the big fire, and to make it bigger and better, and make it memorable.

(25:30):
So yeah, I think making experiences whatever they are human is one of the key learnings of human-centered design, and at least one of those that I really keep close to my heart.

Douglas Ferguson (25:40):
Love that. And also, in your work you’ve described facilitation as “helping organizations access their own resilience.” Could you share an example where you saw that resilience come alive in a powerful way?

Marco Monterzino (25:53):
Right. So this one is covered by a certain amount of confidentiality, but I think I want to share, I would say, the essence of it. Which is there’s been, due to geopolitical changes on the landscape, there’s been a need for certain technologies to be employed in the defense sector. And a lot of innovation, because we’ve gone through a lot of periods of extensive peace which has been I think something we took for granted. And unfortunately, we’re looking at a picture that is a lot less clear and a lot less certain as we speak.

(26:32):
But anyway, these companies were required to help their countries to be resilient in a time where there was disruption. Or these companies themselves were going through a change of purpose that was potentially going to push away a number of their workforce. Or these companies were experiencing a disruption in how they saw themselves and that takes a lot of intentional structure. You can’t do those sort of things just organically. You can, but it takes longer, it’s a lot riskier, and you might risk losing a lot of your people along the way.

(27:17):
Well, if you do it in a very structured way, in a very fair way, in a very transparent way, in a very intentional way, in a way that is designed, then you have basically the equivalent of a well-operating device. You’re basically taking charge of that process. And I think facilitation does that brilliantly because it comes into a place where there is need to be able to spring back to shape after disruption, and I’m giving this example, but it could be other examples. Even simply an organization needing to change management. So there’s a new CEO and maybe with the CEO, a whole new group of executives come into the organization. I’ve been involved in a couple of these larger structures. That’s a huge disruption that then poses the question how do we then connect with the workforce? And how do we enable the workforce to be taken on to a journey?

(28:21):
Because sometimes I’m asked, “Marco, can you help us roll out a new strategy?” And of course what I hear is, “Can you help us enable the work to themselves lead parts of their strategy and meet those goals one-by-one?” And that’s what we do basically, and I think that’s where I see facilitation being, let’s say, a skill or a role or a responsibility that is conducive to resilience. Because it makes disruptions, it turns disruptions into fuel, rather than into things that stop your motion and stop your progress. You take the disruption as an opportunity to redesign, as an opportunity to come up with new solutions, and as an opportunity to refresh. And yeah, facilitation can definitely do that.

Douglas Ferguson (29:11):
Yeah. It’s sort of reframing. Because what might seem like a disruption, or if you look at it through the lens of a disruption is something that is destructive versus looking at disruption as something that is as signal, as a force. But how can we harness that force and utilize it? Because it is showing that people are passionate and there’s energy there. So if we’re able to harness it, if we’re able to redirect it in ways that help us in pursuit of our goal, wow, that’s super effective.

Marco Monterzino (29:42):
Yeah. The notion of resilience has gone through phases. It’s been a buzzword during the big eras of disruption around COVID and I think people grew tired of it. And now I think there it’s come back up with new disruptions and new challenges. I can see that it’s a word that attracts a lot more interest now and I’m glad to see that. But I think there’s been a big argument that resilience is not enough. So what if resilience is not the point?

(30:14):
I can’t remember what was the author, maybe someone will be able to let us know who was the author of this piece of writing. But there was a book that described the 2.0 version of resilience is being this anti-fragility, the anti-fragile type of system. And I don’t like the word itself because I find it a bit difficult to pronounce, it’s a bit long, where resilience to me flows nicely. But I think when I think of resilience, I think of resilience as something that is really fed by challenge. So at the end of the day, it’s something that is anti-fragile. It’s really fueled by all of the challenges that we have coming towards us.

Douglas Ferguson (30:57):
Are you think about Nassim Taleb’s book?

Marco Monterzino (30:59):
That’s the one.

Douglas Ferguson (31:00):
Yeah, great read. And yeah, that word can be a little bit challenging for folks, but I think that might have been its goal. Let’s put something out there that catches people’s attention.

Marco Monterzino (31:12):
I think so. Yeah, definitely.

Douglas Ferguson (31:14):
Well, let’s look ahead. You’re starting to bridge facilitation and education. Thinking about lecturing and other pursuits that are in that world of academia, what excites you most about teaching as a natural extension of facilitation?

Marco Monterzino (31:28):
So the two worlds are very intertwined, aren’t they? Teaching and facilitating. Now that I’ve discovered what facilitation is, which is this soft skill, the mother of all soft skills, I understand or I see teaching in a completely new light. I realize that people who are teaching are facilitating a gathering, a class is a gathering. There is a purpose, which is let’s learn about that subject, that topic, and by the end of the session we will be at the end of that chapter or whatever it might be. So I think there’s a quality which is a natural extension of the more commercial facilitation practice.

(32:11):
And then the other aspect is I have been myself asked a number of times, “Marco, can you help us train our own people so that we can empower our workforce with human-centered design, with collaboration skills, with workshop design, with facilitation?” And that I think took that part of my brain or gave me an opportunity to grow into a new aspect of my practice. Which is to be able to not only perform the craft of facilitation, but also being able to communicate it and to be able to take other people, a journey where you have to make the right space for learning, you have to create the right conversations among peers so that learning can happen. You have to stand back and really not be at the front of the room as much. You’re there enabling this mysterious phenomenon, which is how do people learn stuff.

(33:19):
But yeah, it’s something that I’ve come across as a request, an ask. People ask me, “Can you do that for us?” And I’m like, “Yes, let’s do some experiential learning.” Which is basically taking people through the experience. And then I came across you guys, and you talk about practice, practice playgrounds, which is a brilliant way to experience methodologies and to basically understand that like playing an instrument really well, like finger-picking on a guitar. You might be born with it, but you don’t have to be born with it. You can just spend many, many hours every week practicing, practicing, practicing, and then you get the hang of it. And then you get better, and better, and better. And facilitation is the same, learning these kind of skills is the same. I find it exciting to hold space for that sort of thing because find it made it useful for me, and so I believe it can be useful to others.

Douglas Ferguson (34:15):
And if you look a few years down the road, how do you hope your work, whether in consulting, education or facilitation will contribute to building more resilient organizations and communities?

Marco Monterzino (34:25):
If I blur my eyes and I try to see beyond the horizon, I think I see myself doing a blend of the two worlds. I think that’s where I might be able to keep myself fresh. And also, learn, pick up new things and cross-pollinate. So I think my ambition is to continue on this journey that I’m on. I’m not keen to, let’s say change everything, but I’m keen to continue making small changes as I go forward. And I think these two spaces, the learning and the consulting space to me, there’s a tradition. Lots of designers do that, lots of people in the consulting space also teach, and I see the point. And I think that’s a good ambition to work towards.

Douglas Ferguson (35:17):
And as we come to a close today, I’d love to invite you to leave our listeners with a final thought.

Marco Monterzino (35:22):
Okay. So my final thought for the listeners is as an invite as much as a small challenge. I invite you all to craft your own equanimity hack, something that you can tap into when you might lose your confidence. Because as you know because you are maybe already working as a facilitator or maybe it’s something you will discover as you start working as a facilitator, being able to keep that wind in your sails no matter what is crucial in this practice. So craft yourself a little hack to tap into your equanimity and rekindle your confidence. That’s my final thought.

Douglas Ferguson (36:12):
So important. Thanks for coming on the show, Marco. It’s been great chatting.

Marco Monterzino (36:16):
Thank you, Douglas, for having me. It was lovely.

Douglas Ferguson (36:18):
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 Rituals in Design Enhance Facilitation and Organisational Resilience? appeared first on Voltage Control.

As November settles in, teams naturally shift into long-view mode. It’s the season for pruning, strengthening roots, and harvesting insights from the year so we can plant smarter in the next one. That rhythm is tailor-made for the kind of thinking AI transformation actually requires—systems thinking. Because while AI can accelerate what works, it can also amplify what doesn’t. If you adopt it as a series of isolated tools, you risk scaling the very patterns you’re trying to change.

This month, we invite you to step back and see the whole. AI transformation is not a tool swap; it’s a chance to redesign roles, rituals, rules, and boundaries across your organization. When you map the system together—actors, relationships, flows, and incentives—you uncover bottlenecks before they appear, create better decision pathways, and frame experiments that compound learning rather than stall in governance fog.

Our Activity of the Month is Systems Mapping, inspired by the session Erik Skogsberg and Dirk Van Onsem led at the Facilitation Lab Summit 2024. If you’ve never mapped a system with your team, this is the perfect time to try. If you’re already mapping, this is the perfect time to revisit your map, stress-test your future state, and align on experiments that everyone can rally around.

Below, you’ll find a practical, seven-part guide to approach AI with a systems lens—complete with an activity you can run in 60–90 minutes, ways to anticipate tomorrow’s bottlenecks today, and facilitation moves that turn digital transformation teams into conveners of clarity. Let’s get you set to map before you move.

See The Whole To Change The Parts

AI adoption tends to enter organizations as a noun—a new platform, pilot, or policy. But sustainable transformation lives in the verbs—how we decide, coordinate, hand off, learn, and adapt across the system. If you focus on “the tool” you’ll optimize pockets of work. If you focus on “the work,” you’ll redesign the moves that matter most—especially the moves between people and teams where friction and value compound. Verbs over nouns is the mental shift that keeps AI from amplifying yesterday’s patterns.

That shift is only possible when you broaden your container. Instead of asking what AI can do for one role or function, ask what becomes possible across roles, rituals, rules, and boundaries. Where are decisions waiting on a single person? Which incentives reward local wins at the expense of system outcomes? Which rules were written for old constraints that no longer apply? Seeing those dynamics is what lets AI actually change the system, not just accelerate it.

It helps to imagine your organization as an ecosystem, not an org chart. Ecosystems thrive through flows—of information, decisions, value, trust. When we talk about AI adoption, we’re really talking about ecosystem gardening, not gadget shopping. It’s the work of cultivating healthy relationships, pruning outdated norms, improving the soil of incentives, and introducing new capabilities with intention.

Most important, a systems view honors human needs. Change lands well when people feel safe, skilled, and significant. If fear is present, judgment narrows and teams retreat to what they can control. That’s why a facilitative stance matters. Check-ins, working agreements, and visual artifacts create a shared field of view. They lower the waterline of uncertainty so teams can engage, learn, and own the change together.

Make It Visible Together

Systems are invisible until you draw them. The fastest way to move from assumptions to alignment is to make your work visible—actors, relationships, dependencies, decision points, and feedback loops. When it’s out on the board, you can collectively see where latency piles up, where incentives subtly pull teams apart, and where a small change could unlock major flow.

We love Miro as a base container for this work because it supports both divergence and convergence in one place. You can invite many perspectives, surface assumptions quickly, then converge on the parts that matter for your next move. With Miro’s AI features, you can even bring in an “extra lens” to help spot patterns—emerging loops, clusters, or contradictions—that the group can then interpret, validate, and refine.

A critical step is asking whose voices are missing from the container. If you’re mapping a process without someone who lives its pain points, you’ll miss essential nuance. If you’re designing decision rules without folks who actually carry them out, you’ll create elegant bottlenecks. Make your invitations explicit: who co-owns this map, what benefits and responsibilities come with participation, and how the artifact will be used beyond the workshop.

Finally, remember that maps are prototypes. The goal isn’t a perfect diagram, it’s collective insight. A good systems map gives you enough clarity to move, learn, and iterate. Hold it lightly. Update it as you test, so your shared understanding grows. When the map changes, that’s not rework; it’s progress.

Activity Of The Month: Systems Mapping

If you run just one session this month, make it a 60–90 minute systems mapping workshop. This is a practical, low-lift way to transform big conversations about AI into concrete decisions and experiments. Our facilitation team has been running versions of this for years, and the moves are straightforward to adapt to your context.

Start by clarifying purpose and boundaries. In 10 minutes, align on what system you’re mapping and where it starts and ends for this session. Then list actors—teams, roles, customers, partners, tools, policies—who impact or are impacted by this system. In the next 20–30 minutes, map flows: how work actually moves today. Surface handoffs, delays, and decisions. Highlight where information waits, where approvals stack up, and where “ghost rules” create drag.

In 20 minutes, annotate the map with friction points and incentives. Where are people rewarded for local optimization? Where are norms or policies written for constraints that no longer exist? Where does trust have to be rebuilt for a new move to stick? As you talk, capture opportunities for AI to help at the system level: better triage at handoffs, improved decision support at key thresholds, smart routing to reduce latency, or lightweight automation where waste is predictable.

Close by harvesting experiments and decision rules. Choose 2–3 experiments you can run within 30–45 days. For each, name the owner, success signal, consent threshold, and a safety check or ethical red line. Define how you’ll make the decision to scale, reverse, or sunset. This small governance layer keeps learning fast and trust high. For more background and inspiration, watch the Activity of the Month video and revisit Erik Skogsberg and Dirk Van Onsem’s 2024 Facilitation Lab Summit talk on systems mapping:

Find Tomorrow’s Bottlenecks Today

The most valuable maps don’t just describe today; they help you see around corners. As AI introduces new capabilities, bottlenecks move. You may reduce time on a task and inadvertently flood a downstream team. You may open access to information and discover that decision rights—not data—are your new constraint. Mapping lets you anticipate those shifts so you’re not surprised when your pilot meets friction.

One powerful move is to run a premortem on your future state. Sketch the improved flow you want with AI in place. Then ask, “It’s three months from now and the pilot failed—what happened?” Look specifically at four areas: data access, decision latency, policy gates, and trust. Where will approvals slow you down? Where is risk-threshold clarity missing? What new handoffs appear that weren’t there before? This is how you “pre-mortem the future” so the future doesn’t mortem your pilot.

This is also where governance benefits from a reframing. Many teams get stuck because governance shows up as a heavy brake. Try treating governance as choreography—the roles, rules, and rhythms that keep you moving responsibly. Define consent thresholds for experiments, decision rights for scaling, safety checks for sensitive data, and clear reversibility criteria so decisions can be unmade with minimal cost. When governance clarifies motion, momentum follows.

Finally, watch for latency loops that quietly drain energy. When decisions repeatedly wait on one person, consider role-based or rule-based approaches that preserve accountability without creating single points of failure. When a policy meant to protect inadvertently blocks benign learning, craft lightweight “sandbox” zones with clear boundaries. Each constraint you make explicit lowers the cognitive load on your team and raises your chance of compounding wins.

From Commanders To Conveners

Digital transformation teams are increasingly being asked to lead AI strategy and enablement. The temptation is to become the owner of the answers—publish standards, pick platforms, roll out roadmaps. But in complex environments, invitations beat mandates. The most effective transformation teams act as conveners of clarity, not commanders of compliance.

Being a convener means you design the spaces where cross-functional sensemaking happens. You set cadence, craft agendas that surface trade-offs, and make the work visible. Decision logs, journey maps, and systems maps become the living artifacts that align stories when memories diverge after the meeting. Instead of “big announcement” heroics, you build trust through reliable rituals and transparent artifacts that anyone can reference.

Co-ownership is key. Ask yourself: who needs to co-create and co-own the map for it to matter? Which leaders and operators must be present for decisions to stick? Spell out the benefits and responsibilities of participation in plain language. This sense of authorship is what turns alignment into commitment. When people see themselves in the work, they carry it forward without extra push.

This stance also transforms your messaging. Rather than “Here’s the tool we’re rolling out,” try “Here’s what we want to get better at doing together, and here are the experiments we’ll run to learn how.” Verbs over nouns. Process over prescriptions. In our experience, the more your team is asked for answers they can’t hold alone, the clearer the signal that it’s time to convene the system.

Incentives, Norms, and Skill Building

Many AI “adoptions” stall because the organization’s incentives are tuned for local optimization. A team gets rewarded for shipping more tickets, so they resist a change that would slow their queue to speed value end-to-end. Or a policy written for old constraints blocks safe experimentation under new constraints. Systems mapping helps you spot these misalignments so you can adjust rules and rewards to fit the era you’re actually in.

When you identify friction on the map, treat it as a design clue, not a personal failure. Ask, “What agreement, norm, or slight boundary change would unclog this without shifting the burden somewhere else?” That last part matters. A superficial fix often moves the problem downstream. The systems view helps you see those second- and third-order effects before you pull a lever.

Skill-building belongs inside the work, not outside of it. Instead of one-off trainings, create peer-led practice circles that meet regularly. Turn early adopters into coaches without anointing them gatekeepers by pairing them with peers and rotating roles. Use check-ins to surface where people feel unsafe or unskilled, then scaffold practice moves into your routines. When people feel safe, skilled, and significant, they try new things. That’s the engine of transformation.

Finally, clarify decision-making patterns so experiments don’t stall. Define when consent is sufficient, when advice is required, and when a higher threshold is needed. Make decisions visible and, where possible, reversible. The goal is not reckless speed; it’s responsible velocity—the discipline to go fast where it’s safe and slow where it’s wise, with clarity everyone can trust.

Cadence, Artifacts, and the Power of Visible Agreements

Cadence builds trust. Sporadic heroics and big-bang announcements breed resistance; steady, predictable rhythms build reliability. Think weekly mapping huddles, biweekly experiment reviews, and monthly retros that refine working agreements. This isn’t ceremony for ceremony’s sake. It’s the social choreography that turns insight into practice and practice into capability.

Artifacts align stories when memories diverge. After a workshop, each person carries a slightly different recollection of what was decided. A living map, a simple decision log, and a one-page experiment sheet reduce rework and confusion. Ask, “Which artifact would most reduce rework this month?” Then keep it live—visible, updated, and used—rather than letting it become a static prop.

Co-own your artifacts to strengthen buy-in. If the transformation team is the sole author, artifacts can feel like compliance documents. When leaders and operators co-create, artifacts become references people trust. Make sure each artifact lives where the work lives, not tucked into an obscure folder. Visibility is an invitation.

And let’s talk cadence that sustains momentum without fatigue. Use check-ins to tune pace and focus. If your rituals are creating drag, prune them. If they’re building clarity and confidence, strengthen the roots. This is the season to ask: what cadence serves our goals, and what can we let go of to protect energy and attention for the work that matters most?

November Harvest and Your Next Move

November is a natural time to harvest insights and prune scope so new growth can thrive. Look across your meetings, decision rules, and flows. What will you sunset to make space for better practices? Which rules were written for constraints that AI has lifted? Which norms reward silo wins over system outcomes? Retire rituals gracefully. Name what you’re letting go of and why. That story helps people release the old to welcome the new.

Use your map to make smart trade-offs explicit. When you reduce scope, show the dependencies you’re preserving and the risks you’re accepting. When you create a sandbox for safe learning, document the boundaries and the reversibility. Transparency compounds trust. The more clearly you visualize trade-offs, the more confidently your team can move.

As you look ahead, ask a few focusing questions: What cadence will sustain momentum without fatigue? Where are skills uneven across roles, and how might peer-led practice close the gap without creating gatekeepers? How will we connect AI use cases to our purpose and values so participants carry a clear story back to their teams? Those stories are how change scales.

Call to action: Run a 60–90 minute systems mapping session before the month ends. Clarify your purpose and boundaries. List actors. Map flows, handoffs, and decision points. Identify friction and incentives. Harvest two or three experiments with clear decision rights and safety checks. Watch our Activity of the Month video to guide your session, and revisit our write-up on facilitating change by mapping systems. Then share your map and learnings with your broader org to build momentum. If you want a partner, Voltage Control can facilitate your first mapping session or coach your team to lead its own. Let’s map before we move—so your AI transformation amplifies what you value most and your system is ready for what’s next.

Resources:

Facilitating Change by Mapping Systems

Summit talk video

Activity of the Month Video Systems Mapping

Ready to convene clarity? Reach out to schedule a mapping clinic, join an upcoming facilitation certification, or bring Voltage Control in to help your digital transformation team lead with a systems lens.

The post Map Before You Move appeared first on Voltage Control.

I grew up in San Jose, California, in a big Filipino family that knows how to throw a party. Like, really throw a party. These gatherings weren’t just any backyard barbecues—they were full-blown community events built around a celebration called Sinulog, honoring the Holy Child, Santo Niño. It was a mix of food, faith, and family, but for me, it was also about the stage. Starting when I was just a kid, my family would have me emcee or perform dances at these events. One year, I was front and center doing choreography. Another, I cracked jokes and kept the flow going as the MC.

Even though I’d always considered myself shy, my family saw me as outgoing. I think because I could get up in front of a hundred people and make them laugh, they just assumed I was born for the mic. But really, I think I just loved the feeling of everyone being together, of helping people have a good time. That was the thread that carried through, even as I went off to community college. I started out as a teaching major (my mom and grandma were both teachers), but switched to communications after taking a public speaking class—one of two options to fulfill a graduation requirement. I chose it because it scared me the most, and ended up falling in love with it.

There was something about that class that stuck with me. My professor taught us how to write a strong slide, how to hold an audience’s attention, how to speak so people could really hear you. That was the first time I began to see that creating a moment of connection was more than just being confident—it was about being intentional. It was my first taste of what would eventually become a passion for facilitation.

At the time, I didn’t have a name for it. But the core of it was there. I loved making things clear. I loved holding space where people felt comfortable showing up. I loved bringing people in. Later, I started working at Philz Coffee on Middlefield Road in Palo Alto, tucked away in a quiet part of the neighborhood, it was the fourth store ever to open. Being in that kind of neighborhood meant we saw the same smiles every day,and that same thread showed up again. It wasn’t about the coffee. It was about knowing the regulars, building relationships, creating a little hub of community. I stayed there for three years because it felt good. That was always my north star: people, and the spaces between them.

Learning to Lead, Even Without a Map

Fast forward to my time at Strava. I started as a recruiting coordinator, then got promoted into a role called Organizational Development Manager. That’s when facilitation began to take center stage in a whole new way. I was asked to lead a mentorship program project—a huge initiative that had no playbook. Total ambiguity. I was in charge of guiding a group of people toward something that didn’t yet exist. And I could tell they weren’t buying in. They weren’t engaged. And I didn’t yet have the tools to reach them: though I tried. I even scheduled 15-minute one-on-one meetings with each person in the project to ask for feedback and figure out what I needed to do to get them onboard

So I started Googling. And honestly? It was overwhelming. I didn’t even know the word “facilitation” could unlock this whole universe of practices and techniques. I saw the potential of facilitation everywhere—in meetings that fell flat, in presentations that didn’t land, in rooms where people felt confused or disengaged. I was trying to solve these problems intuitively, but without the frameworks or confidence to back me up.  I didn’t even know what to search for, and when I did find something useful, the step-by-step instructions often weren’t enough to do it justice. Something was missing, some deeper understanding, some context, some why behind the how.

That project became my friction point. I knew I needed support. I needed actual learning. And as I started looking around, someone in our internal L&D Slack channel mentioned a program they’d done through Voltage Control. There was a ripple effect from a group of Strava PMs who had gone through the certification and loved it. They were recommending it left and right, especially for folks who wanted to uplevel facilitation skills.

The timing couldn’t have been better. I was frustrated, exhausted, and desperate for some clarity. So I started digging in.

A Signal of Safety

I’m naturally a little skeptical, so I did my research—Reddit, reviews, you name it. What stood out most wasn’t just the testimonials. It was the fact that there was a Diversity Scholarship. That told me this wasn’t just another cookie-cutter professional program. It told me someone had thought about who gets access to this type of learning. For me, that small detail signaled psychological safety before I even applied.

I needed to know that I wouldn’t be the only person of color in the room. That I could bring my full self. That I wouldn’t have to translate my experience for people to get it. That mattered more than any syllabus or schedule.  It was incredibly impactful to say something like, “my Filipino family was conflict avoidant,” and feel understood without having to explain what that meant. Even if others hadn’t lived it, they got it. That kind of understanding made me feel safer, and it made the conversations move with more depth, more honesty, and a faster rhythm.

And I was right. From day one, I felt like I belonged. The people in my cohort were from all over—someone worked for the UN, another person was based in Africa, others in tech, nonprofits, government. But we got each other. We were all learning together, from different angles. That mix made the learning richer, the conversations deeper, and the insights more nuanced.

Stepping Into My Power

The moment everything clicked for me was during a coaching session with Skye. I was still stuck in this mindset of, “I’m just a beginner, I don’t know what I’m doing.” And she stopped me. She had me list all the things I’d already done, all the choices I’d made to bring people together, all the facilitation moves I had already used—without even realizing it. And then she said: “You are a facilitator.”

That shift was huge. It was like someone handed me a mirror and said, “Look.” From that point on, I started showing up differently. In meetings, in sessions I led, in the way I talked about my work. My confidence skyrocketed. And confidence, for someone like me who has battled self-doubt for most of my life, is everything.

What changed wasn’t just how I felt. It was how I acted. I made decisions faster. I trusted my gut. I leaned into hard conversations instead of tiptoeing around them. And I had the words, tools, and frameworks to back it up. 

That session with Skye flipped a switch.  It helped me realize something I’d heard a million times—“you are enough”—but never really believed. I started to ask myself: What have I missed out on just because I thought I wasn’t ready? Is anyone really an expert before they start? No. Some people are less qualified and still go for it. So why not me? That realization cracked something open. It reframed not just how I showed up—but what I believed I was capable of.

My Toolbox, My Team, My Transformation

One of my favorite things about the program was how immediate and tangible it was. We’d read about a technique one week, then try it out in our next session. 1-2-4-All became my go-to. It’s now in my back pocket anytime I need to draw out quiet voices or avoid groupthink. This was especially important on my team, some folks hated breakout rooms. And honestly, if you’ve ever led a workshop, you know: the moment you mention breakouts, a few people instantly disappear. 1-2-4-All gave me a way to create participation without forcing discomfort. Paired with what I knew from the Enneagram, that people process and engage differently. It became a pivotal moment for me. I saw clearly: we have to meet people where they are.

I also fell in love with the Portfolio Project. It gave me space to reflect on what really matters to me as a facilitator: psychological safety, inclusion, shared ownership. It wasn’t just a collection of assignments. It became a declaration of my purpose. And that clarity translated directly into how I show up at work. Now, even for something as simple as a weekly check-in, I ask: How can I make this meaningful? How can I make sure every voice is heard?

Honestly, my whole team has changed as a result. They see the way I facilitate, and it’s influencing how they lead their own sessions. They trust me more. They come to me for advice. And yes, they pile on more work (because doing a good job tends to have that effect!). But the work feels aligned. It feels like impact.

Bringing It Back Home

One of my proudest moments recently was leading a team workshop that combined Enneagram with team dynamics. I only had 60 minutes, but I designed a flow that introduced the framework, surfaced a specific team challenge, and led us to a clear action plan. At the end, people were energized. One person said, “That was the best session I’ve ever attended.” And we walked away with a shared commitment to build a more connected team.

That’s the kind of transformation I never could have facilitated before the program. Not because I didn’t care or didn’t try—but because I didn’t yet have the clarity, confidence, or structure. Now I do. And the results speak for themselves.

Tool for Belonging

The biggest mindset shift for me is that facilitation isn’t just a skill. It’s a leadership practice. It’s a way of creating the conditions where people can be brave, take risks, and do their best work. It’s about guiding, not controlling. Inviting, not telling. Holding space, not filling it.

I’m especially passionate about how this shows up for people who don’t always feel seen. In my family, we were loud and vibrant, but we also avoided conflict. That shaped how I approached facilitation. I had to unlearn the instinct to smooth things over. Now, I help make space for the hard stuff—because I know that’s where the breakthroughs happen.

Helping Communities Thrive

Looking ahead, I see a world of possibilities. Right now, I’m in tech. But long term? I want to support nonprofits. I want to work with local bike shops (I’m a huge cyclist) to create learning spaces around adventure and community. I want to use my skills to build safer, stronger spaces for people who don’t always get them.

That vision—of helping communities thrive because someone facilitated their way through a challenge—that’s what drives me. I may not know exactly how it’ll unfold, but I know what it’ll feel like: vibrant, connected, purposeful. And that’s enough to keep going.

If you’re on the fence about facilitation certification, here’s what I’ll say: You don’t have to wait until you feel “ready.” You’ll never feel 100% confident starting out. But Voltage Control creates a space where you can learn at any level. Where you can see yourself reflected. And where you get more than just skills—you get belief in yourself.

If my story resonates, take the leap. You might just walk away with a whole new way of seeing your voice, your impact, and your path forward.

The post From Stage to Safe Spaces appeared first on Voltage Control.

I sometimes joke that my career has been a journey from geopolitics to office politics. But when I look back, I can see the thread running through it all: people trying to understand one another, to build bridges, and to work together despite differences. That thread is what ultimately pulled me toward facilitation.

When I was eight years old, my family moved into a seminary housing complex in southern California, and suddenly my neighbors were from places like India, Bulgaria, Korea, and Madagascar. It sparked in me a deep curiosity about the world and a desire to understand people across cultures. I studied French, met my husband while studying abroad in Bordeaux, and taught English at a French elementary school after my undergraduate degree. That love of cross-cultural understanding, combined with an interest in negotiation inspired by the book Getting to Yes, took me all the way through a dual master’s program in International Affairs at Sciences Po in Paris and Columbia University in New York. My compass was always set toward doing good in the world, and I started seeing my contribution in terms of helping people connect across divides.

After graduating, I got a job at the philanthropic foundation Carnegie Corporation of New York, where I worked in the international peace and security program and was steeped in grantmaking that supported dialogue and bridge-building. I was fascinated by grantee convenings that brought adversaries or skeptics into a room and created enough trust for them to imagine a shared path forward. At the time, I didn’t call it facilitation. I called it conflict management. But the seed was there.

The first time I encountered a professional facilitator by title was in an internal meeting in 2022 at Carnegie. We had invited Christa White to facilitate a conversation around how we could think more intentionally about our organizational culture. Watching her work was eye-opening. The way she structured the discussion, the way she held space for vulnerability and presence—it shifted the dynamic completely. It wasn’t just us talking at each other. There was flow, coherence, and clarity. And I thought: I want to learn how to do that.

Around the same time, I was also making a career transition from program analyst to learning and development specialist—the first such role at Carnegie. My chief HR officer encouraged me to step into it, and as I learned more about what people in L&D roles actually do, I realized I had found a path that could bring together the things I loved most about my international affairs work and apply them much closer to home. Designing learning experiences, supporting professional growth, and helping colleagues connect across differences felt like the right fit. And facilitation has been at the center of it.

Learning From My Mistakes

One of the moments that most shaped my curiosity about facilitation actually came from a failure. In May 2020, only a few months into the turmoil of COVID, I co-designed a virtual communications workshop for my own department. It was one of the first workshops I got to design by myself, and I made the rookie mistake of not securing alignment with the rest of the team beforehand. I didn’t clarify the purpose with participants, including senior staff, and when the session began, people immediately started asking: why are we doing this? I froze. I had prepared meticulously, but I wasn’t nimble in the moment. I didn’t know how to respond constructively to the resistance in the room.

That experience stuck with me. It taught me that facilitation isn’t just about designing a good workshop; it’s about having presence, agility, and confidence when things don’t go as planned. Later, when I read Magical Meetings, the metaphor of the facilitator as a Jedi resonated deeply. That’s what I had been missing in 2020—the grace, responsiveness, and calm authority to guide a group even through the unexpected. From then on, I was determined to build those skills.

After moving into the new L&D role in the fall of 2022, I took foundational ATD courses on instructional design and coaching, which built my knowledge base on effective structures for learning and engaging colleagues deeply around challenges they were facing. Facilitation still felt like the missing piece – a skillset that could address what I kept hearing in staff conversations: that we wanted stronger relationships, better communication, and more productive collaboration.

Choosing Voltage Control

When I decided I wanted formal facilitation training, I assumed I’d find something in person in New York. But to my surprise, there wasn’t much. That’s when I discovered Voltage Control. What drew me in wasn’t just the certification itself, but the ecosystem around it—the community hub, the Practice Playgrounds, and the Summit. It wasn’t going to be a one-and-done course; it was going to be a living practice.

To test the waters, I joined an online Practice Playground. I wanted to get a taste of who these people were and how they worked. Right away, I saw a group of practitioners who were willing to experiment, to try things, and to share generously. That gave me the confidence to sign up for certification, even though it was virtual. The promise of live interaction, a diverse cohort, and an ongoing community made it feel right.

Building My Presence

In the certification itself, I had two major breakthroughs. The first was the diamond of participation from The Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision Making. Understanding the dynamics of divergence, the groan zone, and convergence was like turning on a lightbulb. Suddenly, what I had been experiencing in group settings made sense. Discomfort wasn’t failure—it was part of the process. And with the right structures, I could help groups move through it.

The second was the shift from techniques to presence. I came into the program still focused on tools: which activities, which exercises, which Liberating Structures. And those were valuable. But the deeper lesson was about me: who am I as a facilitator? What is my purpose? How do I show up? With guidance from my instructors and inspiration from my peers, I began to see that my strength lay in creating dialogue—helping people have the conversations they wouldn’t otherwise have. Once I embraced that, my confidence grew. I didn’t need to have all the answers; I needed to create the space.

The learning partners were another unexpected highlight. With Brian Buck, I went deep into identity and purpose. Debbie Baker introduced me to visual facilitation. And Robin Neidorf gave me the encouragement I needed to finish my portfolio. These relationships made the experience richer, and meeting them in person at the 2025 Facilitation Lab Summit was a joy. Walking into that room and already knowing I belonged to this special community made it one of the most rewarding professional experiences of my life.

Bringing Facilitation Home

After certification, I had the chance to facilitate a full-day strategy and process-improvement retreat for my old grantmaking team. In the past, our retreats had been loosely structured and not always as productive as we wanted them to be, with some voices tending to dominate while others held back. This time, I applied everything I had learned. I interviewed participants in advance and co-created the agenda. I clarified outcomes and roles, including careful intentionality around when and how the group would make decisions. I designed a flow that balanced purpose and process.

The retreat was a success. Participants told me it was the best retreat they’d ever had—productive, engaging, and relationship-building. For me, it was validation that the skills I had invested in were real, practical, and could help groups move forward even in complex contexts. 

Alongside this, I began applying facilitation not just to team retreats, but also to organization-wide capacity-building. For example, I’ve had the chance to roll out Crucial Conversations training as a certified internal trainer. Because the course already comes with such strong content and structure, it gave me the freedom to focus on my presence in the room. The topic itself makes facilitation especially meaningful: creating a space where colleagues can explore the difficult conversations we often avoid, even though they shape so much of our work. I’ve come to see that the work of dialogue—whether in international affairs or collaborating with coworkers—always starts with yourself. The same is true of facilitation: I had to focus on my own presence and mindset in order to create the conditions for others to open up. The feedback I’ve received has been deeply affirming, with participants highlighting my openness, a nonjudgmental approach, active listening, thoughtful responses, and a warm, clear style. I truly love this work because it feels like an opportunity to practice the kind of dialogue that strengthens both people and organizations.

Leading in Community

One of the unexpected rewards of the program has been not just learning facilitation practice, but leading it. After my initial disappointment that there wasn’t a Practice Playground in New York, it was incredibly rewarding to help launch one as the regional lead for Facilitation Lab NYC. Month after month, I get to challenge myself, experiment, and build community with others who are curious about facilitation. The mix of alumni, newcomers, and curious professionals makes for a dynamic group, and I always leave energized and grateful.

The community aspect is, to me, one of the most powerful parts of Voltage Control. Facilitation can feel like an individual skill, but it’s really a collective practice. Getting to learn, stumble, reflect, and grow alongside others has made me not just a better facilitator but a better colleague and leader.

Looking Ahead

Right now, in addition to my L&D work, I’m also supporting a new initiative at Carnegie focused on reimagining the system of national service in America as a way to counter the forces of political polarization. We’re working with longtime leader in the field Alan Khazei, co-founder of City Year, to explore how service can provide more opportunities for young people and strengthen the civic fabric. As part of this, we hosted a major summit in early October with leaders across government, education, business, philanthropy, the military, faith communities, and the nonprofit and service sectors. My facilitation training has been and will continue to be directly relevant as we’ve thought through designing a purposeful gathering, creating trust, and ensuring a range of voices and perspectives are heard as we build toward a shared vision.

Long term, I plan to continue blending facilitation with my passion for dialogue and bridge-building. Whether it’s international relations, civic health, or organizational culture, I’ve learned that the work is based on the same core principles: creating spaces where people can listen, connect, and collaborate across differences. That’s the work I want to keep doing.

If you’re considering the certification, my advice is simple: do it. Whether you’re brand new or twenty years into your practice, you’ll gain skills, perspective, and community. And if you’re not quite ready, try a Practice Playground or come to the Facilitation Summit. Those experiences give you a taste of what’s possible—and you might just find yourself, as I did, saying: this is exactly what I’ve been looking for.

The post From Conflict Resolution to Collaborative Leadership appeared first on Voltage Control.

In this Facilitation Lab Podcast episode, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Grace Losada, Vice President of Learning and Development at Change Enthusiasm Global. Grace shares how her early experiences in peer counseling, athletics, and performance arts shaped her facilitation style. The conversation explores creating safe, engaging environments for learning, the importance of shared language, and the art of scaling intimacy in large groups. Grace offers insights on embracing mistakes, fostering connection, and designing impactful experiences, emphasizing playfulness and agency. The episode highlights facilitation as both an art and a science, rooted in intentionality, collaboration, and authentic human connection.

Show Highlights

[00:04:27] The DJ Turned Facilitator Story
[00:08:15] Beyond Psychological Safety: The Role of Enthusiasm
[00:16:52] Team Dynamics and Nonverbal Communication
[00:21:18] Advice to Her Teen Self
[00:24:02] Discovering Facilitation as a Discipline
[00:32:09] Designing for Impact in Large Groups
[00:37:38] Scaling Intimacy in Large Venues
[00:42:32] Connection as the Ultimate Outcome

Links | Resources

Grace on LinkedIn

About the Guest

Leveraging a background in learning and psychology, Dr. Grace Losada has served as an executive leader in start-up and high growth organizations at the intersection of business and social enterprise.  Well before the pandemic, she successfully built and led multi-functional national teams, both face to face and virtual, through rapid growth and change.  At the center of Grace’s work is creating professional environments that support the development of individuals and teams so people and business can thrive. 

Born and raised in Asia, Grace attended an international school that gave her a love of travel, a global perspective, and a dedication to inclusive development of people. She is grateful every day to live in sunny San Diego.

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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. 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 Grace Losada, at Change Enthusiasm Global, where she serves as vice president of learning and development, supporting individuals and enterprise clients to navigate change in a more human way. Welcome to the show, Grace.

Grace Losada:

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Douglas Ferguson:

So great to have you. I’ve been looking forward to chatting. I really enjoyed interviewing you for the alumni story and seeing that get published. So I know it’s going to be a great conversation today.

Grace Losada:

Looking forward to it.

Douglas Ferguson:

So you’ve shared that your facilitation roots trace back to high school, specifically to a retreat in Hawaii where friends nudged you into a pure counseling program. When you revisited that first immersive weekend, what was the moment you realized a well-held container could transform how people show up with one another?

Grace Losada:

Yeah. It was such a powerful experience. And I wish I could remember the name of the organization who embedded in our high school and helped us get this program off the ground. Because I feel like I tell this story sometimes and I want to give them credit, and I can’t remember the name of the organization and I feel terrible. So if they’re listening out there, remind me. But I went to a few different high schools, but in this particular instance, it was a small private high school where we got to do a lot of really cool creative things, just by the nature of our size. And also, I’m going to give credit to my headmaster. His name was Pieper Toyama, and he was just a gifted educator. And this peer counseling program was set up between our high school and a rival high school in the area where we had some bad blood, to be perfectly honest.

And so they set it up so that the sophomores, juniors and seniors got trained in this particular protocol. And then we put on an event for the seventh, eighth and ninth graders. And it was an overnight event, which I think is always risky when you’re dealing with middle and high schoolers. And we all camped out in a gym for two days and had really meaningful conversations about the nature of life and where all these young people about to launch. And certainly, because of the nature of the relationship in the high schools, we also talked a lot about human relationship and what that was like for us, and what we wanted to create going forward in the world. It was just a mindblower for me. I’ve never been exposed to something of that depth at that age, and they put the kids in charge. That was the thing that was just so incredible when I look back on it.

But there were just these moments of closeness and connection that were so emotional and heartfelt, and powerful and transformative. That’s the word I really want to say. It was transformative and you could just feel it happening. And people were laughing and crying and hugging, and we were a bunch of teenagers. It was great. It was truly, truly amazing. I’m so grateful for that experience. And I didn’t really know the impact at the time. I knew I was feeling something, I was experiencing something. I had no idea that that was going to be kind of a harbinger of things to come in my life, but it certainly was. Yeah.

Douglas Ferguson:

Let’s talk about the DJ turned lead facilitator twist.

Grace Losada:

So again, I was reluctant to join this group. I had no interest. It just didn’t occur to me. But a couple of my friends were like, “No, no, no, you got to do this. We’re going to all do this. Let’s go do this together.” And so I joined the group. And still not really seeing myself as any kind of a facilitator, or leader or… I just was a kid who was into theater and soccer and whatever. And not a great student, by the way, and just didn’t see myself in that capacity. And so I show up at this thing and we’re having all these conversations and we’re setting up roles for the event. So most people were going to be facilitators, and then there were a couple of roles that I would call more like production and logistics. And there was one role that was the DJ for the event, and you got to put together all the music and lead that effort. And I thought, “Oh, that sounds fun. I’ll do that.” And I raised my hand for it.

And the adults in charge, kind of pulled me aside and they were like, “Well, if we think that maybe we could really leverage your talents in another way that was just more powerful, are you open to that?” And I was like, “All right, sure. Yeah.” I was again, along for the ride. So they did not give me the DJ role. They put me in a facilitator role. And again, I think that they saw something in me at that time, that I didn’t really see in myself yet. And that’s again, the mark of a good educator. That’s hopefully, what we’re doing for young people when we’re educating, is we’re pulling things out of them that were going to help blossom and grow. And they did that for me for sure.

Douglas Ferguson:

So I was curious how that experience shaped the way you spot and cultivate leadership in others?

Grace Losada:

Oh, that’s a great question. Well, I guess I’m probably having these thoughts for the first time, because I don’t know that I ever really thought about that, but it absolutely did upon reflection. Because what I know that I have done with young people and adults that I’ve worked with in terms of leadership development, is most often trying to create the container, I guess I’ll call it. We’re creating the conditions and the container for something to occur, and then we have to let go. We let go of the reins. So when I work with people, specifically around leadership, which is a big part of what I do, you’re looking for these flashes of insight and beauty in the way that they’re relating to others, in the way that they’re reflecting vulnerably, in the way that they’re willing to share. And then you want to pull that thread.

So the best way I know to do that is to create an environment, to create a container, to create the conditions where people feel not only safe, but we talk a lot about psychological safety, and that’s super, super important. But it’s a step beyond that, because I need people to not just feel safe, but to actually feel excited and engaged in whatever the moment is bringing. And to take risks and to reach and to quite literally, grow in real time and watch that transformation happen right in front of you. It’s the most exciting thing I’ve ever experienced as a professional. And really, the thing that’s kind of cool about it is it’s almost effortless if you’ve set up the environment, because people take it on themselves. They drive their own ship, so to speak.

Douglas Ferguson:

I love that. And coming back to your point around it needs to be more than just safety, I think you missed a great opportunity to point out that it has to be enthusiastic.

Grace Losada:

Yeah. Well, right. And I should be talking about that. Change Enthusiasm Global, if nothing, we are enthusiastic. And I think that that’s just, it’s a symptom. It’s a marker of great engagement. When you’ve got people sort of on the edge of their seats because they’re so into whatever it is that you’re discussing or doing, the enthusiasm just starts to flow, and then you know, then you know you’ve got them.

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah. So let’s talk about Parker School. Am I understanding, they champion student voice and you help recreate retreats for younger students?

Grace Losada:

That’s right. Yeah, that’s right. That school again, was just it was ahead of its time. And our headmaster was ahead of its time and very, very gifted. So another example of just empowering students, you had the opportunity to create not all, but some of your own courses. So being that it was a small school, they had sort of the core curriculum that was offered. And then if you wanted to do something that was slightly out of the box or unique, et cetera, you were empowered to design your own course. And you would find somebody on the faculty who would champion the work that you wanted to do, and you could put that whole thing together. And so, I remember one I wanted to do was photography, and I created the whole course and found a sponsor. And I did a photography course that I actually wrote that went on my transcript.

And so they were just very good about putting us in the driver’s seat. And I think for this particular peer counseling program, the idea of putting a bunch of teenagers in charge of some younger teenagers or pre-teens, that’s a really risky thing to do. You’ve got to have a lot of confidence in your ability to create that container. You’ve got to have a lot of confidence in your ability to create the condition, so that that goes well, because it could very easily go poorly. And you could easily put kids in a situation where real damage is done psychologically and relationally, and so forth, but they were just masterful. So another kind of pain point, right? So I mentioned we had 10th, 11th, and 12th graders in charge of seventh, eighth, and ninth graders. And mind you, in these schools, seventh and eighth was middle school and ninth was high school.

And so the freshmen were like, “What in the heck? You’re putting me back in middle school?” And so we were starting with a loaded situation, where people were already kind of like, “Oh.” But it worked, it just worked. And it was brilliant that they did that in the end, because it gave the freshmen this opportunity for what I guess I’ll call, like a transitional leadership. Because they were the oldest of the bunch. They were in a different sort of category in terms of their grade at school, but maybe they weren’t quite ready to lead because they were just getting their feet wet. And it gave them this sort of transitional leadership opportunity that I think initially, they felt like, “Oh, I’m being pushed back into middle school.” But then they quickly realized the ability that they had in that role to sort of stretch their own leadership wings, which was really cool.

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah, that’s really neat, this idea of almost passing the torch and these ritualistic moments where people are priming for the next evolution of themselves.

Grace Losada:

Yeah, absolutely. The whole program really was essentially like a social emotional learning program. We talk a lot about that now in education. This was back in the early ’90s. And I think it was maybe just beginning to be a conversation around those things. None of those labels, I don’t remember any of those labels being put on what we were doing. But as I grew in my own career and went into the psychology and science of learning, I started to understand the wisdom and what they had set up for us and really appreciate them.

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah, it’s powerful stuff. Speaking of foundational experiences, I’m always really fascinated by the influences folks have throughout their life that kind of shape who they are today, and what makes for great facilitation skills and just all the resources and experiences you bring into the work. And for you, early on, you balanced outrigger canoeing, and soccer, and dance, and theater, even playing some notable roles on stage. So I’m curious, how did the rhythm of athletics and the presence of performance train your facilitation muscles around timing, energy and reading the room?

Grace Losada:

Yeah, that’s such a good question. And again, one that I wasn’t aware of what was happening at the time. But upon reflection, I just think, “Oh, that was the recipe.” So I often talk about performance when I talk about facilitation, because I think when we think about facilitation, we think about clearing the way for participants to drive. And that’s really, really important. And I think that sometimes we forget because we’re so focused on clearing the way as a facilitator, there’s one way of thinking that maybe what we need to do is sort of fade into the background, be almost unseen as this thing starts to happen in the room with the participants. And there’s some truth to that, but I also really feel that none of it starts to happen unless the facilitator has the ability to model the energy and enthusiasm that we’re looking for in the event, in the exploration. Whatever the topic is, whatever the assignment is that we’re working on collectively, the facilitator sets that tone, at least initially.

And at some point, maybe they’re passing the baton to certain people in the room, but that’s sort of phase two. In the beginning, another thing that I’ll say a lot of times is no one’s going to learn from you if they’re not paying attention. And how do we get people to pay attention? Well, in the beginning, we kind of have to entertain them. We have to sort of pique their interest. And there should be the ability, I believe, of the facilitator to stand in front of a group of people well, to take up space and energy, and then also retreat and become smaller and be in command of that. It can’t be accidental. It’s got to be purposeful. And you learn a lot of those skills in theater and performance. So I was a dancer and I was an actress, and I loved those things, and I have absolutely brought them into my facilitation.

And when I am working with people who are learning facilitation skills, I bring that up right away. I recently led a development for a group where that was pretty much all we did. We called it a day of play and learning, and we took on different personas and they had to deliver content that they were used to delivering that they already understood really well, but they had to do it now in some kind of crazy character, and start to feel what that was to stretch and where were those points of authenticity, even when you were emulating something ridiculous, like Austin Powers. And just to really play with that and have fun with it. And it opens the door also to laughter, which is a huge connector for people.

And then when I think about the sports aspect, primarily, I did do a couple of sports early on that were individuals. I was on the swim team at one point, and I think I was just a very kinesthetic kid. I was very active, and so that was always a part of my life. But when I really got into it, was when I started to play team sports. And so it was the outrigger canoeing and soccer. These were sports where you have to be really in tune with your team and coordinated. And if you’re not pulling together in the same way with the same end goal in mind and with a certain rhythm, you won’t be successful.

So I think you learn to communicate with human beings in ways that are sometimes free of language. So you can’t always stop and sort of consult when you’re on the soccer field, or certainly not in an outrigger canoe boat. So if people don’t know what that looks like, it’s a six-man canoe and you’re all lined up front to back, straight down the row, and you have the steersman calling out the stroke changes, but you can’t hear each other. There’s no conversation. You’ve got to be in tune with each other.

And that one’s even really interesting, because you really can’t see each other either. You can see the person who is right in front of you, but that’s it. And so you’re not even picking up on body language. You’re picking up on energy. And again, you become successful in that space through solid human connection and being able to read each other and take unspoken cues towards a goal, while pulling together towards a goal. And I definitely learned so much about the dynamics of a team, because here’s the other thing, especially at that age too, right? We are still learning how to be good human beings. Well, I guess the whole life, we are trying our whole lives. But it’s high school. There’s squabbles. You don’t love everybody on the team, and that persists today, but you still have to work together. You still have to find a way to put all of those things aside and find a way to pull together. And I think sports are a tremendous way to do that.

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah, absolutely.

Grace Losada:

Another thing that happens too in sports, I think, is that even though you have a designated position, so you’ve got a position in the boat, you’ve got a position on the soccer field, your defense or your offense, or whatever the case may be, but the reality is, when the game gets going, you’re trading positions. And you are filling in where you are needed, and you are looking at the gestalt, the whole picture, to understand where the detail lies and where the opportunity is. And I think that’s a great metaphor for life too. I think the people who really are successful in broader scheme of things, they’ve kind of figured that part out. They’ve figured out how to look at the big picture, and also understand how the minutia fits into that and feeds it.

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah. An ability to move from high levels of granularity, to low levels of granularity, and even specificity sometimes, because we have to make decisions on really quick information. Some of it feels almost like intuition. And it’s really fascinating when they do those studies around, like baseball players, for instance. They’ll ask them, “What are you doing when you hit a home run?” And they’ll say all these things. And then you put a high speed camera in place and they’re not doing any of the things they think they’re doing. They’re just in a moment, right?

Grace Losada:

Yeah, yeah. It’s the difference between an expert and a novice. When we’re just learning something in the beginning, it’s not automatic yet. And so we’re being conscious about all of our choices. And the more you do it and the more sort of expert you become, oftentimes, the worse you are at being an instructor or teacher or mentor to someone, because now, all of these things that you’re doing are unconscious. It’s all automatic. And you have to really stop and reflect and think deeply. And sometimes you’re going to get it wrong about, “What am I doing? How did I get from point A to point B? What would be the roadmap I would give to someone?” And we’ve oftentimes put that way back in our mind somewhere, because now, it’s just automatic and we’re looking at different things.

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah. I’ve often heard that referred to as the curse of knowledge. Once we get really good at something, it’s hard to remember what it was like to not know that thing or not be able to do it.

Grace Losada:

Yeah. Absolutely, absolutely.

Douglas Ferguson:

So another question about the past, and then we’ll get to kind of what’s happening right now. But I’m really curious, if you could sit beside your teen self after that first retreat, what short principle or reminder would you whisper into her ear?

Grace Losada:

I think it would be something about dreaming big. Because again, I think one of the things that when I… And maybe this is universal. This is probably not just me. I think it’s got to do with where we are developmentally. Right? But when I reflect back on all of these different elements that we’ve been talking about, the common thread for me was just not really being aware yet of my own agency and power as a human being. I don’t know if other people would say this, but when I look back on who I was at that stage in my life, I would characterize myself as a floater. I would sort of just like, wherever the wind took me in, I was just in the moment. And I wasn’t future oriented. I wasn’t really thinking about any of these experiences as being foundational or something that I would build upon in my life going forward.

I just didn’t have that awareness. And I wasn’t talking about that stuff at home with my parents. Some kids are. Some kids are really, and parents are really focused on kind of like, “You’re building your future,” and all this kind of stuff. I wasn’t getting any of those messages. My parents are not that style either. They’re very sort of in the moment as well. And I think I didn’t have an awareness that whatever I kind of dreamed, I could build it. I could do that, as we all can. And I might whisper that. And I think it’s a hard thing. It’s like the sliding doors principle. Right? Because on the one hand, maybe I would have made different choices and there would have been some different and new opportunities that would have come up in my life, and things that I would have created intentionally. On the other hand, it’s been a pretty good ride.

So I don’t know. Do I want to mess with it? I don’t know. But I think that there was definitely a lack of awareness on my part of like, the agency and power I had as a human being to create my reality. And that’s a belief that I’ve developed over time, that we all have that ability to create our reality to an extent, obviously. We can’t control certain outside forces, but I just didn’t have that awareness at all, and I think that would have been a helpful awareness for me to have from a younger age.

Douglas Ferguson:

Nice. So switching things up a bit, and you can talk about the present day, or at least leading up to it, you described joining Change Enthusiasm Global as the moment you realized facilitation is a distinct discipline. And I’m kind of curious, what assumptions you held about facilitation that was most productively challenged in that process?

Grace Losada:

I don’t know if it was an assumption, maybe it was. Yeah. Okay, it was. I guess it was an assumption that these things just happened, these magic moments with groups of people where they’re coming together with an intention, but it’s just sort of happening. And I probably did know because I was designing things as a facilitator without calling it that, designing experiences for people. And so I did know that there were certain things that I learned you could do to create one type of experience versus another, et cetera. If you’re looking to have a creative exchange, if you’re looking to have a problem solving exchange, there’s so many different reasons that we come together. I just didn’t know that it was a field of study. I just didn’t know that it was a whole profession. And of course, it is. Why wouldn’t it be, right? If there’s something like this that’s so powerful, why wouldn’t there be people out there who are thinking about and documenting and creating a common language around this phenomenon, this study, this professional ability? But I just didn’t realize that.

And I think anytime that you start to organize your thinking in that way, so it’s like, “Okay, now, I get it.” This is a whole field and there’s structured ways to think about this and approach this. And my goodness, the role of the producer blew my mind. And I sort of had had producers, I suppose, in a certain way, in different events and experiences, but there were no labels on any of these things. And so when we don’t have labels, we don’t have the clarity to understand really what it is that we’re talking about.

So it was like all of a sudden, everything came into focus. “Oh, that’s what we’ve all been doing this whole time. I get it. Yes, okay.” And now, because I have language and a structured way of thinking about it, I can be even more intentional about the choices that I’m making as I’m doing this work. And it just all of a sudden, rockets you forward in terms of the sophistication of what it is that you’re doing.

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah. I love how much of a force multiplier that can be.

Grace Losada:

Yeah, absolutely. I’ve really felt it deeply. And also, there have been moments where I’ve kind of wanted to laugh about certain things and go back and thank people who have been a part of the journey. There was a woman that I worked with for a long time who, again, I didn’t call her a producer. She probably wouldn’t have used that label herself. I don’t remember what we said, but she sort of made sure that everything that needed to happen, happened. And then I was facilitating in this recurring learning experience that we were… It was an onboarding process for a company that I was with. And at the time that we were doing that, I was in graduate school. So I was being flooded with new thinking and ideas all the time, and I would get excited about those ideas and I’d want to bring them into the experience.

And so this was a recurring learning experience that was designed to be the same way every time. And every time I would show up and I would be like, “Karina, I’ve got this new idea and we’re going to do this whole new thing.” And she’s very much a very structured, organized thinker. I loved partnering with her because I would be out there with these wild ideas and she would help me narrow in and actually make it happen. And I know I sent her into a panic every time I would show up and be like, “I’ve got this new idea.” And she would kind of groan. But to her credit, she’d go along with it and it was a great partnership.

Douglas Ferguson:

I love that. In fact, I was curious to hear more about the producer-facilitator partnership. I was recalling in your alumni story, you had mentioned following the keynote with a learning session for hundreds, complete with streamers, lights and personal storytelling. And so I’m curious, it seemed like that experience taught you a bit about the producer-facilitator partnership. And so I’m curious about that, and what practices are now non-negotiable when you design at scale?

Grace Losada:

Oh, that’s a great question. Yeah. And that was a new aha again. As you said, there was a keynote. I think the keynote was for about 600 people. And then we were following that with a learning experience, an interactive learning experience for about four… Well, what was supposed to be about 400 people, ended up being almost everybody stayed for the learning experience, and that credit goes to Cassandra for her keynote. But as we were planning this and we were up against the wire because this invitation to create this experience came late in the game. So we didn’t have a lot of time to plan. And of course, we’re going to be delivering this in person together, but the entire team was remote. And we were given a producer by the company that we were serving in this situation.

And this was someone I had never met before, and they were producing the entire week long event for this organization and we were one piece of that. So we started talking, and initially, it’s just kind of the basics. Here’s a handful of visuals we want to share. Here’s some moments where we want to have some music and talking about microphones, and who’s going up and who’s going down, and just some real basics. And then I started to get the feeling that this gentleman I was working with, he was pretty gifted at what he was doing. And so then, I started bringing forward some really more theatrical, I’m going to say, ideas. And that’s a little maybe out of the wheelhouse of what you would typically see in corporate learning event, but he was right there with me. And then he started bringing in ideas and they were so good.

And what we ended up with was this experience that was very dramatic, very emotion… I don’t want to call it emotional, but it elicited a lot of emotion from the audience and got them involved and engaged in a way that was really important for the learning. I wanted them to feel personally connected to some of the stories that were being told and go on an emotional journey with the facilitators. I think we largely achieved it because of what the production team brought to the experience. If we hadn’t had the element of music and lighting and so forth, that really became almost like another member of the facilitation team where all of those elements in the room, we still would have gotten somewhere with the team, but it would not have been nearly as impactful. And so I look for that now, especially when I’m doing something on a bigger scale.

Because you’ve got to be able, I think, when you’ve got… The more people you have in the room, it’s like you almost have to have these things choreographed in an even stronger way to have the impact. It’s like, the more bodies that are in the room, the more things have the potential to be diluted. And if you really want to have the impact, you’re going to have to keep upping the ante, but you’ve got to have a producer who fully understands that and can work with you on timing. Timing is big and visual impact is big. We’re visual creatures. So yeah, gosh, that was a lot of fun. I’ll remember that forever. And it set a new standard for me, in terms of how I’m thinking when I’m thinking about designing for large groups.

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah. It’s a different ball game when you got way more folks and way more things that you’re thinking about, what could go wrong or what attentions could shift. And it’s such a big wave that could happen.

Grace Losada:

Yeah, yeah. And everything does go wrong, by the way. Everything does go wrong. And I think that’s another beautiful part though of facilitation. And I think it’s a point where you can see a facilitator sort of level up when they… There’s this point where I think facilitators stop fearing that the mistakes and the errors and the things that go wrong, and instead, start noticing them as opportunities. And comfortably leveraging those things to propel the learning, whether it’s as simple as bringing human fallibility into the room and just acknowledging that these things happen, and what that does to people’s willingness to take risks and be wrong and show their vulnerability or maybe something more profound too. But I think that’s a really important lesson for facilitators. And I also think it’s one that you can talk about ahead of time, but it’s not until you really have the experience that you start to truly trust that.

A phrase that I use all the time is trust the process. And just know that whatever happens, it’s going to be okay. And that’s usually my final message when I’m working with a group of facilitators. And we’ve done everything we can to prepare, and then it’s time to release and just go do the thing. And the last thing I try and always remind people is, listen, trust the process. You’re not going to do something so wrong here that it’s going to sabotage the whole thing. In fact, it’s going to be beautiful. And just know that and just trust it. And magical things happen in these settings and I really enjoy watching that. And in that respect too, I feel as a facilitator, if we’re tuned into that, we never stop learning either, which is part of the appeal to me of facilitation. We get to continue learning and making new connections throughout this process, even though we’re sort of there supposedly setting up the learning for others. I think that part is magical.

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah. I think similarly, you mentioned building a shared language for your facilitation team at Change Enthusiasm Global. What rituals, artifacts, or even debrief habits are helping keep that language alive across different clients and contexts?

Grace Losada:

That’s a great question. I think a lot of it is about repetition, deciding what’s really important. What are those things that need to be centrally held, and making sure that we’re attending to that over and over again, and we’re saying it over and over again. And I think also, there’s something about it that needs to be playful, so that that language… I’m trying to remember who I learned this from, but there’s this point when you’re being repetitive about something, there’s this point where it becomes a little obnoxious. And then if you keep going, it becomes fun again. And it’s funny, and you can be a little self-deprecating about it. And it’s like, “Yeah, I know I’ve said this 15,000 times and here we go, 15,001, because it’s that important.” And so I think I try and have fun with it, but it’s really about repetition.

There’s an educator, his name is escaping me right now. It’ll come to me. When I first read about in the world of K-12, he was promoting this idea of doing classroom walks. And so what he meant by that was getting together a group of educators and walking through the school building and observing in classrooms and having conversation about that. And the whole point of doing it from his point of view, was to create this common language. Because one of the challenges that you can have in education is you have three people conduct an observation in a classroom, and they come out and tell a story of three very different classrooms, even though they just looked at the same thing. And it’s because they don’t have a common language about how they want to talk what’s important, what are we going to talk about about this space?

And so just doing it over and over and over again, and doing it together and building that language together, and how powerful that is. And I think you have to be willing to allow the language to evolve as well, in that you’ll begin in one place and you’re on this hopefully, lengthy journey of learning. And as you do that, if your language isn’t evolving, you might be doing something wrong because that’s awfully static. Right? And so, I think you’ve got to be willing to allow the voice of the group to come alive and add to what you’re talking about and maybe take away too, when sometimes you realize that, wow, now we have a new awareness that so shifts our paradigm that we’re going to release this part of it, and because now, we kind of see that we want to go in this new direction. And that’s a co-creation. That has to happen collectively. You can start it, but then it becomes something that the group owns, I think, and it should own.

Douglas Ferguson:

So let’s take that ownership and intimacy to another level. You were wrestling with the question, how do we scale intimacy? When we spoke about the alumni story and as you envision ballrooms, maybe even stadiums, what designs, principles guide you to ensure that a massive venue feels like a small, brave space?

Grace Losada:

Yeah. I think I’ll be learning about this for a while, but where I am right now, I mean, I think we can think about it metaphorically like, just life and humankind. There are things that are happening on a global and on a national scale that we’re all experiencing. And yet, in our day-to-day lives, our relationships are much more intimate and direct, and we’re being impacted by what’s happening in our broader context. But still, our day-to-day reality is much smaller than that. If we were to draw circles around like, “What do I experience every day?” And then there’s these rings of context expanding from there, it’s kind of the same thing I’m thinking, when we’re designing for these large groups, is we have to be aware that there are certain things that are going to be experienced by all in this broader context in the space, again, whether it’s a ballroom or even a stadium. You could think about it in concerts too. Right? Everybody’s watching the band play, but they’re also having an intimate experience with whoever is sitting in the seats right around them.

And so being able to be mindful of what those things are, what elements are at play, and how can you impact them through design. Are there things that you can do through design that impact both the broader context and what’s happening in the little space? So yeah, in this instance, the event that we were talking about, we’re in this huge ballroom and there are certain things that everybody is experiencing, but then everybody is also organized into tables. And I think it was 10 tops in this particular environment. There were 10 people at each table. Those people are having an intimate experience. They’re having a unique experience in the room that’s going to be impacted by what everybody else is experiencing, but it’s also going to have elements that only occur at that table because of who is at that table.

And so really thinking about how we set up in a learning experience like that will have usually, moments where we ask people specifically to turn to your neighbor or discuss as a table or that type of a thing, and being really intentional about how we set those moments up. There’s also something to be said also about creating little allegiances and little teams within the team. So we had, again, in this particular experience, people were sitting in the room according to the division that they belonged in the company, and we decided to sort of lean into that. There were some things that the company wanted us to lean into with respect to that, to create a sense of camaraderie and connection on those teams, that was an opportunity to deepen the connection for those teams. And so there were certain things at play that we could pull on that were already in place within the organization, but then that was where we brought in certain color and team names. And we set up these moments of celebration that were specific to the team.

We had talked about there was an energy around and a desire initially, for us to put a lot of competition into the room, which is one way that you can do things. But I think that I tried to resist that a little bit because it can also backfire. And I felt like what this particular organization was trying to accomplish, might not be what they really needed. And instead, what they maybe needed was to celebrate together. And so we leaned into that a little bit, and it worked, and it was really powerful. Some of the intimate conversations that we were asking people to have were pretty emotionally laden. And those were quiet conversations that happened in small groups, and people kept that confidentiality. We talked about that part and set that up. And then we had these slightly larger experiences where people were still affiliated with a smaller group, but they were celebrating together in a way that was not diminishing to any other group, but still was uplifting for the group that they were a part of. And we had a lot of fun with that.

Douglas Ferguson:

So last question before we wrap up. When you imagine someone leaving your largest future events years from now, not recalling every bullet point, but remembering how they felt, what do you hope they say they carry forward in their work, their teams, and their lives?

Grace Losada:

I think it’s connection. I think it’s just about building connection. I believe that as social creatures, we are at our best when we are well-connected to each other, and disconnection is the thing that drives most of our challenges. And so if we’re promoting one thing, I hope we’re promoting connection, human connection.

I went to a concert several years ago, some people listening probably went to the same one. It was a Coldplay concert and I don’t remember the name of the album. I’m not good at this stuff, but it might have just been Colors, that might have been the name of the album, Colors. When you walked into the stadium, you got this wristband that sort of looked like a watch. It was white and there was no face on it. There was no numbers or anything, but it sort of looked like a watch and you were instructed to put this on. And so then, we’re all in the concert, and at some point, these watches start lighting up in colors that are forming patterns and just amazing beauty in tandem with the music. And also, sort of geographically, somehow they know where you are in the stadium because there’ll be waves of colors going through. And it was so powerful. I’ve never forgotten that.

And it’s something that I try and think about, as I’m designing experiences for people, just the power of that moment, how these little… First of all, it was unexpected. Maybe some people knew what was coming. I sure didn’t. And the wristband was white. And so when it all of a sudden, lit up in color, I had no idea that was going to happen. It was beautiful. So visually, it was stunning and it was a connector. It connected everybody. The entire stadium was going, “Oh, wow,” all at the same time. And we’re watching the colors flow through our bodies essentially. It’s connected to our bodies through, and it was the most powerful thing. That’s probably one of the things that that band, Coldplay, is known for, is that they’re good at eliciting emotion and a sense of connection in their audiences. And boy, did that work. That was really cool.

Douglas Ferguson:

Super cool.

Grace Losada:

Yeah.

Douglas Ferguson:

Well, we had to come to a close, so I want to give you an opportunity to leave our listeners with a final thought.

Grace Losada:

Oh, goodness. It’s just to have fun. Just play with this. It’s hard to make a wrong move. I think just have fun with it and recognize that if you have the opportunity to do this work, as in you’re functioning as a facilitator, or even participate as a participant in an experience that’s being facilitated by someone, what an incredible experience. What a wonderful way to learn, to create, to grow, to develop. I just think it’s a unique gift that we have. And not necessarily the way that things are always structured. There’s a lot of times where it’s a stand and deliver or a top down, or this is what it is, and it’s just a forced delivery. And so when we have the opportunity to create experiences in a more creative way that gives the power and the agency to the people in the room, it’s just beautiful. It’s magical. And just have fun with that. And I think the more fun you have with it, the better it goes. And I mean, that’s certainly my goal.

Douglas Ferguson:

That’s lovely, Grace. It’s been such a pleasure chatting with you. Thanks for coming on.

Grace Losada:

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Douglas Ferguson:

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 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 at voltagecontrol.com. 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.”

The post The Best Practices for Creating Safe and Engaging Learning Environments appeared first on Voltage Control.

I didn’t grow up thinking I would become a facilitator. My first career was actually in dance. For six or seven years, I performed professionally while also juggling different small jobs that I pieced together to make a life in the arts. Dancing nurtured my creativity and encouraged a willingness to try new things and take risks. It also required that I be comfortable in the spotlight. Even though I wasn’t the loudest personality, I learned to step into the spotlight with purpose, confidence, and presence. That experience has followed me into every chapter since and is undoubtedly a grounding foundation for my work as a facilitator now. 

Back then, when I was transitioning from dance into higher education, I wasn’t thinking about facilitation; I was thinking about college students. While working at AXIS Dance Company, where dancers with and without disabilities perform together, I oversaw interns—mostly college students. I found I loved mentoring them as they gained professional experience. Around the same time, my husband and I were involved in college ministry at our church, meeting students where they were and encouraging them in meaningful ways. Looking back, those two experiences were my first glimpses into a world of facilitation, even though I didn’t yet know the word for it.

So I went to graduate school for counseling—not with the goal of becoming a therapist, but because I wanted to be in higher ed. I loved the richness of that developmental time in life: students are asking great questions, trying things, and being vulnerable in ways that adults rarely are. After grad school, I worked in academic advising at UC Berkeley for two years, then moved into my current role at the University of Virginia as an academic coach. I’ve now been at UVA for almost seven years.

My role involves both one-on-one coaching and group facilitation. On the individual side, I meet with students about study strategies, time management, choosing a major, breaking down projects, or managing procrastination. It’s not always straightforward—sometimes students know what they need, other times I help them uncover the deeper challenges underneath the surface. On the group side, I design and facilitate workshops to support student success, such as navigating the transition, adopting a growth mindset, or using the science of learning. I also lead an accountability group for students who struggle with focus and/or organization.. In all these contexts, I began to wonder: how can I refine my skills to lead? What else is out there that could make me better at guiding these conversations and learning experiences?

Searching for Better Tools

During COVID, these questions became urgent. I was teaching a class of 150 first-year students online, plus leading a discussion section of 15 or 20 on Zoom. It was difficult to get them engaged. I remember thinking: I don’t have the tools I need to do this well. A few years later, I taught another in-person class for first-years, and although I managed some good breakout activities, I still wanted to get better. That’s when I started googling.

Somehow, I landed on the word facilitation. That became the keyword that opened up a new world. I discovered Voltage Control through one of their introductory sessions. I could only attend part of it before being pulled into another meeting, but even in that short time, I was struck by the energy, the interactivity, the way engagement was baked into every moment. That was exactly what I was searching for.

I didn’t do a ton of research beyond that. I saw enough to know that this was the kind of growth opportunity I was looking for. I wanted to learn how to design better experiences, not just transfer knowledge. I wanted tools that would help me spark participation rather than stare at blank Zoom screens. Facilitation seemed to be the bridge.

Making the Leap

In the end, the decision was fairly straightforward. I had professional development funding through my job, so the resources were available. The timing worked. The little taste I had seen from Voltage Control felt aligned with what I needed. So I jumped in.

There wasn’t one single dramatic tipping point—more of a quiet confidence that this was the right move. And I’ll admit, I was nervous. I didn’t think of myself as a facilitator at that point. I wondered if I belonged in a certification program where CEOs and senior leaders were also enrolled. But I knew that I wanted to grow, and that was reason enough.

Finding My Place in the Cohort

Once the certification began, I quickly realized the power of being in community. My cohort was filled with people from contexts wildly different than mine—executives, consultants, global leaders. At first, their titles were intimidating. But everyone was kind, and the pairing with buddies helped make the experience more personal. My instructor, Skye, had a background in higher ed, which reassured me that my context belonged in this space too.

During the program, I was paired with three great buddies from around the world. Each person was a valuable connection.: We were fellows journeying the path together, encouraging, sharing ideas and feedback, providing accountability, and more. Even though I sometimes wished there were more people from K–12 or higher ed in my cohort, the diversity of perspectives was a gift. It helped me see that facilitation is a universal skill, one that adapts across industries and cultures.

The content itself gave me several “aha” moments. Priya Parker’s work on the importance of purpose especially stuck with me. Slowing down to ask “why” before diving into planning has transformed the way I design workshops. I loved it so much that I borrowed the book from the UVA Library after giving my copy away, so that I could ask my new hire to read it so we could share the same grounding. The field guide activities were another highlight. I tried “I Used to Think, Now I Think” with a group of incoming first-years, and it worked beautifully. Such a simple tool, but powerful in helping students notice their own growth.

Perhaps the biggest shift, though, was simply starting to see myself as a facilitator. Before certification, I would never have used that word to describe myself. Now I do—with confidence.

Bringing It Back to UVA

The changes showed up quickly in my work. That summer workshop I mentioned, where I ended with “I Used to Think, Now I Think”—I don’t think I could have designed it as thoughtfully a year earlier. It felt like a workshop with more purpose, more intentionality, and more engagement. The response confirmed it. The feedback from colleagues helping to facilitate was overwhelmingly positive, and I’ve heard the Orientation Team wants to include the session multiple times next year, so more students can participate. A few students even stopped on their way out to say thank you and tell me how helpful it had been; for an 18-year-old to offer that kind of feedback unprompted meant a lot.

I have also found myself stepping into meetings and increasing leadership moments with more confidence. After being promoted last fall, I started contributing ideas in peer and supervisor meetings, suggesting new approaches, or gently redirecting conversations. I realized that facilitation isn’t just something I do in front of students—it’s a way of showing up in any group setting. Even as a participant, I can help make a meeting better. I’ve even caught myself drawing on field guide activities informally, like reframing a discussion with colleagues by borrowing language from “hopes and fears,” or inviting quieter voices in the room with a facilitation move instead of waiting for someone else to steer.

Looking Ahead

For now, I see myself staying in higher ed. Maybe at some point I would consider a move into talent development, but for now I still love working with college students and I love the vibrancy of this developmental stage..Wherever I go, whether in work or in my personal life, facilitation skills will translate. I know I’ll keep drawing on these tools whether I’m teaching, coaching, or leading meetings.

I also hope to keep connecting locally. I attended the first Facilitation Lab Charlottesville meetup, where I ran into colleagues from UVA I didn’t even realize had gone through the certification. That was energizing, to see how this work is sparking connections even on my own campus and within my context. I’d love to keep building those networks and practicing together. It reminded me of the joy of bumping into fellow learners unexpectedly—like discovering a shared vocabulary that makes collaboration easier. Knowing there are others nearby experimenting with facilitation gives me energy and courage to keep practicing, not just alone but as part of a living, breathing community.

Facilitation has given me new confidence and new language for the work I’ve already been doing. It has shown me that what I do matters, even if my context looks different from others in my cohort. If you’re considering certification, my advice is simple: reach out. I had a one-on-one call with Eric before joining, and his validation gave me the assurance I needed. Don’t be afraid to ask, does this fit me? The answer might surprise you.

And once you’re in, start your portfolio early. It’s time-consuming, yes, but worth it. The process forces you to reflect, to capture your growth, and to own your voice as a facilitator. For me, that was the real gift of certification: not just learning new tools, but learning to see myself differently. And now, whether I’m in a classroom, a meeting, or a community gathering, I carry that with me.

The post From Stage to Seminar appeared first on Voltage Control.

A New Chapter in Collaboration

As Miro unveils its next chapter in collaborative AI at Canvas 2025, we’re reflecting on a journey that began not with code, but with a question:

In an era when most AI tools promised to make individuals faster, we wondered how AI could make teams better. After years of running facilitation workshops around the world, one truth was clear: most innovation problems aren’t about ideas—they’re about alignment. People don’t struggle to think creatively; they struggle to think together.

That’s the problem we set out to solve. And that’s where this story begins.

The Vision Before the Tools

Back at SXSW 2025, we invited a room full of innovators, facilitators, and technologists to imagine a new kind of collaboration—one where artificial intelligence wasn’t a tool outside the circle but a teammate inside it.

Our session, AI Teammates: Facilitating Human Connection in the AI Era, wasn’t about automation or productivity hacks. It was about relationship. We staged a live experiment: participants interacted with fictional “AI teammates”—each with a personality and role to play in the group dynamic.

• There was The Challenger, who surfaced hard truths.
• The Synthesizer, who connected patterns across ideas.
• The Optimist, who expanded possibility.
• And The Historian, who anchored choices in precedent.

These personas weren’t chatbots. They were conversation archetypes designed to stretch how people think together.

As the session unfolded, something remarkable happened. The room came alive—not because of any output the “AI” produced, but because people started thinking differently about how they thought together.

When the exercise ended, one participant said, “I’ve never seen AI make a conversation feel more human.”

That comment stuck with us. It wasn’t about speed; it was about sensemaking. And yet, at the time, there was no product to make this vision tangible. It was still a simulation—a facilitation experiment about what could be.

The Moment Miro Made It Real

Fast-forward to the summer of 2025. When Miro invited us into the early beta of AI Flows and Sidekicks, we instantly recognized it as the missing bridge between concept and capability.

Here, finally, was the interface we had imagined at SXSW:
AI that could listen, synthesize, and act alongside humans, right inside the collaborative canvas.

We began experimenting in August, building facilitation patterns and testing how Miro’s new AI could support real-time group work. What we discovered was transformative.

AI Flows acted as intelligent pipelines—automating the translation of inputs (research, briefs, notes) into structured, visual outputs like user journeys, prototypes, or summaries.

AI Sidekicks took it a step further. They gave form to something we’d imagined months earlier at SXSW: AI as a teammate, not a tool. With Miro’s Sidekick framework, we could finally bring our original AI Teammate personas—The Challenger, The Synthesizer, The Optimist, The Historian—directly into the canvas as participants that offer voices often missing in the room. Whether surfacing dissent, expanding optimism, or connecting overlooked patterns, these AI teammates help facilitators create richer, more balanced conversations. What had been a facilitation exercise in Austin became an intelligent, inclusive system teams can now use in real sessions.

It was the perfect realization of our SXSW philosophy:

We brought our original AI Teammate personas—The Challenger, Synthesizer, Historian, and Optimist—into Miro as Sidekicks. We even added new ones:

• The Sketcher, who makes structure visible.
• The Co-Facilitator, who guides process and inclusion.

Each Sidekick embodied a mindset we teach in facilitation—listening deeply, synthesizing meaning, and supporting clarity.

For the first time, AI could actively participate in a team’s thinking process rather than merely executing after the fact.

Behind the Scenes: Building the Bridge

Our collaboration with Miro’s product and partner teams felt like a masterclass in co-creation. We shared prototypes, tested facilitation flows, and offered feedback on how facilitators actually use AI in live settings.

Our earliest conversations centered on one key distinction:

That question shaped our approach to every prototype.

We realized that the future of collaboration isn’t about speeding up work—it’s about amplifying shared understanding. AI should help teams see patterns sooner, articulate assumptions faster, and move forward together more confidently.

It’s not automation for automation’s sake. It’s augmentation for alignment.

Instant Prototyping: From Insight to Alignment in Minutes

To prove this approach, we built Instant Prototyping—a Miro AI Flow designed to help teams move from an opportunity to a prototype in minutes.

Instant Prototyping turns messy beginnings into momentum.
You paste your opportunity brief, add any research, and click “Run.” Within moments, the Flow generates:

1. Research Insights — a synthesized view connecting what you know.
2. User Flow — a map of how someone might engage with your solution.
3. Screen Requirements — what each step needs to deliver.
4. Prototype — a visual concept you can immediately react to.
   

The process feels facilitative: review, adjust, and re-run. Each iteration invites reflection and sharper focus. When the AI gets it wrong, that’s useful—it reveals assumptions, gaps, and preferences faster than traditional review cycles ever could.

“When the AI is wrong, it’s useful—it surfaces gaps and preferences fast, accelerating alignment.”

This pattern—speed plus direction—has become the backbone of how we help teams build clarity in real time.

Proof of Concept: Breakout Buddy

The first major product we built using Instant Prototyping was Breakout Buddy, a revolutionary Zoom facilitation app that gives hosts unprecedented control over breakout sessions.

In just a few weeks, we went from a blank canvas to a working prototype. Using AI Flows, we synthesized user research, mapped facilitator pain points, and visualized solutions—all inside Miro.

Each iteration made the design clearer. By the end of the first session, we weren’t debating what to build—we were deciding how to make it real.*

That clarity paid off. Breakout Buddy is now in review at Zoom’s marketplace, a tangible example of how facilitation-guided AI can accelerate both design and decision-making.

Instant Prototyping didn’t just make us faster; it made us truer to our facilitation roots—inviting multiple perspectives, clarifying intent, and turning conversation into shared artifacts.

Field Testing with Real Clients

Following the success of Breakout Buddy, we began testing Instant Prototyping and AI Flows with select clients in diverse industries.

• Financial Futures Planning App: A fintech startup used our Flow to translate complex customer research into clear decision journeys. Within a day, they had multiple prototype directions visualized—something that previously took weeks of back-and-forth between product and design teams.
• Local Home Services Platform: A startup supporting plumbers, electricians, and home service professionals used Instant Prototyping to map their booking experience. The team went from vague strategy discussions to a concrete, visual service flow in a single session.

These pilots validated what we believed all along:

Each engagement reaffirmed that the goal isn’t to replace human thinking—it’s to surface it faster, make it visible, and align around it collaboratively.

AI Teaming: A New Paradigm

At Voltage Control, we call this shift AI Teaming.

It’s the practice of designing relationships between humans and AI systems that are purposeful, participatory, and aligned with facilitation principles.

Most organizations treat AI as a personal productivity tool. But true transformation happens when AI becomes part of the collective intelligence of the group.

Facilitation provides the ethical and practical structure for that shift. It defines:

• How we listen to AI (and each other).
• When to pause automation for reflection.
• How to ensure every voice—including digital ones—is used responsibly.

AI Teaming is not about doing the same things faster. It’s about working differently:
more conscious, inclusive, and experimental.

“Facilitation has always been about helping groups find clarity together. Now AI can help us see that clarity forming in real time.”

AI Teaming, Not AI Tooling

There’s a quiet but crucial distinction shaping the future of work: AI tooling is about personal productivity. AI teaming is about collective intelligence.

Most organizations still think of AI as something individuals use to move faster — a personal assistant, a summarizer, a generator. Helpful, yes. But when every person uses their own AI tool in isolation, the result isn’t alignment; it’s fragmentation. Ten people might leave a meeting with ten versions of truth.

That’s why facilitation matters.

AI Teaming is built on three principles we’ve practiced for years in facilitation:

1. Inclusion: Everyone — human or machine — has a voice, but not every voice should dominate. The facilitator’s role is to balance inputs and create psychological safety for contribution.
2. Transparency: The group should always see how conclusions are reached. Hidden algorithms are the enemy of trust. That’s why we design Miro Sidekicks to work in the open — you see every prompt, every output, every change.
3. Purpose: AI should never be busywork. It exists to clarify, not to clutter. When used well, AI helps teams focus on why they’re doing something, not just how fast they can do it.

In practice, this means running meetings where AI participates visibly and democratically:

• The Synthesizer summarizes insights, and the group edits or corrects it together.
• The Challenger surfaces risk, and participants discuss trade-offs transparently.
• The Optimist explores new possibilities, and the team refines them collectively.
• The Historian recalls precedent, and the group draws lessons from what’s come before.
• The Sketcher maps structure, and the team spots patterns, gaps, and next steps.
• The Co-Facilitator proposes next moves, and the team stays aligned and engaged.

When AI joins the conversation like this, facilitation becomes the safeguard that keeps collaboration human.

We’ve seen how powerful this is in action. In workshops where we introduced Sidekicks as participants, teams reported higher engagement and greater confidence in their decisions. It’s not just that the AI saved time; it changed the tone of dialogue.

Participants started talking to each other more — not less — because they had a shared reference point to react to. That’s the paradox of AI Teaming: the more intelligence you add, the more human the process becomes.

“The future of collaboration isn’t human versus AI. It’s human with AI — guided by facilitation.”

Miro Transformation: Turning Capability into Culture

Technology adoption often fails because teams layer new tools on top of old habits.
Our Miro Transformation programs exist to prevent that.

We guide organizations through a facilitation-first approach to integrating Miro’s new AI capabilities responsibly.

• Step 1: Assess How Teams Work
  We observe how information flows, how decisions are made, and where collaboration breaks down.
• Step 2: Introduce AI Intentionally
  We co-design flows and Sidekicks that enhance—not replace—human judgment. This means creating ethical automations that preserve context, learning, and inclusivity.
• Step 3: Measure Real Value
  We focus on results that matter: shorter meetings, higher engagement, faster synthesis, and clearer outcomes.

Transformation in Action

• A global innovation team reduced alignment time by 60% by using Sidekicks like The Synthesizer and The Coach during workshops.
• A leadership group adopted AI Flows for decision documentation, cutting weekly update time in half.
• A product team transformed sprint planning from frustration to flow by running Instant Prototyping to visualize priorities on the spot.

Each story reflects the same truth: facilitation is what makes AI collaboration work—ethically, efficiently, and humanely.

Responsible AI: Designing for Trust and Inclusion

As the world rushes toward automation, facilitation is the counterbalance that keeps technology human.

In our AI Strategy Workshops, we help leaders define what responsible AI looks like in their organizations. Together, we explore questions like:

• How do we make AI reasoning transparent to the team?
• When should a facilitator—not an algorithm—make the call?
• How do we ensure that speed doesn’t silence diversity of thought?
  

Responsible AI begins with inclusion and ends with trust. It’s not a checkbox—it’s a culture.

By grounding AI use in shared principles, we ensure it supports the behaviors that make teams thrive: curiosity, dialogue, and accountability.

Product × Practice × Purpose

At Voltage Control, our partnership with Miro rests on a simple but powerful equation:

• Product gives teams intelligent scaffolding for synthesis and action.
• Practice ensures those tools are used with intention and care.
• Purpose keeps it all rooted in why we collaborate in the first place: to connect, create, and contribute meaningfully.

This triad—Product × Practice × Purpose—is the DNA of AI Teaming. It’s how we turn new technology into new ways of working.

Facilitator Reflections

When we facilitate, we tune into the subtle shift—the instant confusion gives way to clarity. You can see the spark. You can feel the room align.

Seeing that same shift occur with AI present on the canvas is extraordinary. It’s not about replacing intuition; it’s about scaling it.

Facilitators now have new instruments to play with—flows that structure conversation, Sidekicks that spark reflection, and automations that handle logistics so humans can focus on what matters most: the quality of connection.

That’s the art and science of facilitation in the AI era.

The Full-Circle Moment

From SXSW to Canvas, we’ve witnessed a transformation that began as a thought experiment and matured into a new practice of working together.

Today, every team can experience it firsthand:

• Run a Miro AI Flow to turn insights into prototypes.
• Invite AI Teammates like The Challenger or Synthesizer to expand group thinking.
• Use Utility Sidekicks to manage the board and free up human attention.

This isn’t a simulation anymore. It’s collaboration—amplified.

“AI teaming was once an idea we simulated.  Now it’s something every team can do—live, visual, and human with Miro.” —Douglas Ferguson, Founder & CEO, Voltage Control

Join the Movement

Explore how facilitation and AI come together to unlock team potential:

• Explore Voltage Control’s Miro AI Collection
• Join the Instant Prototyping Waitlist
• Discover Miro Transformation Programs
  

Because the future of collaboration isn’t about replacing people,  it’s about inviting AI in to help people work better, together.

The post AI Teaming Comes Alive on the Miro Canvas appeared first on Voltage Control.

As the air turns crisp and the nights arrive sooner, the horizon can feel a bit foggy—especially when teams are staring down big bets and competing priorities. October is a season for lanterns, and in our world of collaborative leadership and facilitation, AI Teammates are exactly that. They throw light just far enough down the path to reveal the next steps with confidence. Not because they’re perfect, but because they are tangible. A first draft beats a first debate, every time.

If you’ve felt the growing tension between moving faster and staying customer-rooted, we’ve been there too. That’s why we’ve doubled down on AI Teaming—collaborating with AI in the room so teams can shift from abstract concepts to concrete artifacts in minutes. Ambiguity becomes visible, discussable, and solvable. You see what you want—and just as often, what you don’t. Either way, you move.

This month, we’re excited to showcase how Miro’s new AI features make collaborating with AI not just possible, but exceptionally practical for facilitators and leaders. We’re Platinum Sponsors at the Miro Canvas Conference, partnering to deploy facilitator-focused product innovation tools on top of these new features. These all roll out into the Miroverse soon; for now, there’s a waitlist as Miro completes the feature release process. Consider this your early lantern beam—what’s now possible and how to harness it for your team.

In the Room

Most organizations still treat AI as an individual productivity tool—something to use before the meeting to prep and after the meeting to summarize. That’s helpful, but it also isolates the learning and amplifies misalignment. You wind up with fast individuals heading in slightly different directions, creating more fog for the group. What teams need is shared momentum, not solo velocity. Bringing AI into the meeting—live, visible, and facilitation-ready—changes everything.

We’ve been experimenting with that shift for the past year. Some of you joined us at SXSW for our AI Teammates workshop, where we introduced AI personas to enrich team conversations. We imagined what it would look like to treat AI as a dynamic teammate, contributing perspective at just the right moment. Now, with Miro AI Flows and Sidekicks, that vision is ready for prime time. You can strategically place one-click buttons on your board to generate artifacts, synthesize research, or introduce a missing viewpoint—right in front of everyone. No toggling. No mysterious magic. It’s collaborative, transparent, and grounded in your team’s context.

This is a competency-building moment for teams. Instead of optimizing individual AI hacks, codify your best prompts and patterns as Sidekicks embedded in your templates and team spaces. That builds a shared library and spreads capability beyond a few power users. You’ll see your facilitation hygiene get sharper: clearer decision rules, tighter timeboxes, faster cycles of consent-based iteration. And most importantly, you’ll collectively build the muscle of collaborating with AI, not just using it.

Think of it like this: AI Teaming speeds up the “what” and “how,” giving you back time and attention for the “who” and the “why.” In a world filled with AI fog machines, your job as facilitator is to design a container where evidence is visible, decisions are crisp, and the team experiences AI as a lantern—lighting the next few steps together.

Activity of The Month: Instant Prototyping

Our new Instant Prototyping Template is a practical example of an AI-powered flow that transforms research insights and strategic vision into tangible prototypes. In minutes, you’ve created the full stack of artifacts needed to move from hypothesis to something the team can react to.

Then the facilitation begins. We pause for structured reviews and workshopping between each step—not to slow things down, but to build confidence. The first draft is a litmus test. It’s usually wrong in useful ways, surfacing gaps in context or fuzzy assumptions that would have stayed hidden for weeks.

Two practical tips make this flow sing. First, version as you go: duplicate frames before regenerating and version-label them (e.g., Flow v1.2). Second, trace decisions back to evidence. As you review outputs, highlight where a flow step or screen requirement connects to a direct quote, a research insight, or a JTBD. Decision clarity grows when the evidence is visible and near. You move faster because you trust the direction.

Speed matters. But what matters more is direction. Instant prototypes give you both—an initial draft to react to, and a concrete way to align around user-centered evidence. You’ll move from research insights to confident product decisions faster, with less debate and more learning. When the fog is thick, create a draft and let the team see the next step together.

From Draft to Decision 

When drafts are easy to generate, the bottleneck shifts from creation to decision. That’s a good shift—as long as you’re working with clear decision rules. We encourage teams to adopt consent-based iteration in place of endless consensus-seeking. Consent asks, “Is this good enough to try for now?” rather than “Do we all love this?” It privileges learning and movement over perfect alignment – small bets beat big arguments.

Put this into practice with lightweight, recurring moves. After each auto-generated artifact, timebox a three-part review: What’s useful here? What’s missing? What will we try next? Use dot votes to prioritize the top two or three changes and capture them as prompt updates or flow adjustments. Then re-run the relevant step. If a stakeholder says, “This isn’t it,” ask them to point to the evidence and translate their feedback into a prompt tweak or a research addition. 

Facilitators, this is where your craft shines. Name the decision up front. “By the end of this session, we’ll have a directionally correct prototype of onboarding plus a short list of open questions.” Timebox the creation of first drafts via the flow, then spend your energy facilitating the review and remix moments. Keep a visible decision diary on the board to track how evidence drove changes. The more you practice this loop, the more your team’s AI competency grows—and the more everyone experiences AI as a teammate rather than a mystery box.

Case Study: Breakout Buddy

We recently used the Instant Prototyping flow to build something our community has wanted for years—a Zoom app we’re calling Breakout Buddy. Many of you have joined our Facilitation Lab Mates events where we run speed networking and match people with accountability partners. The experience is energizing, but the logistics are painful. Zoom doesn’t design breakouts the way facilitators think. There’s no drag-and-drop. Timers are limited. You select number of rooms instead of people per room. And running patterns like 1-2-4-All requires manual, error-prone steps. We had a hunch that a facilitator-first tool could change the experience.

To build it, we gathered research from community listening sessions and Huddles, collected wish lists and gripes, and wrote an Opportunity Brief that detailed use cases like speed networking, group merge and split, and easy time extensions. We dropped all of that into the board and clicked once. The first pass got plenty wrong—exactly what we needed. It misinterpreted “preformatted” in a way that wasn’t helpful and didn’t yet account for saving and recalling group configurations. Those misses illuminated what we hadn’t explicitly included. We added precise requirements, traced the needs to specific quotes, and reran the flow. Within a few hours, we had a prototype that captured the core facilitator workflows, ready for a designer to polish.

Here’s what’s inside Breakout Buddy. You can rapidly set the number of people per room, merge or split groups to run patterns like 1-2-4-All, extend time with a single click, and mark participants who shouldn’t be assigned (think observers or folks with connectivity constraints). It remembers those choices so your cognitive load drops each round. The goal is simple—free you from tedium so you can focus on relationships, process, and purpose. The app is now in Zoom’s approval pipeline. We’ll offer it free to facilitators once it’s live; newsletter readers will hear first. In the meantime, the story behind it is the point: Instant prototypes helped us get from idea to clarity to build in days, not months, and kept us anchored in real facilitator needs every step of the way.

Run Your First Instant Prototype

If you want to try this with your team, block about 90 minutes and pick a clear decision to make. Load an Opportunity Brief and your best research, then run the flow together. The first set of artifacts—Research Insights, User Flow, Screen Requirements, Prototype—will land in minutes. Don’t rush past them.

Facilitate three quick reflections: What’s useful? What’s missing? What feels ready to test? Treat each draft as a conversation starter, not a verdict. Capture insights, update prompts, and re-run the step to see what changes. Keep early versions visible so you can remix later—seeing your evolution builds confidence.

Wrap with a simple consent check: Is this good enough to try for now? Record the decision and next steps in a quick decision diary. Even one or two cycles will shorten time-to-tangible dramatically and strengthen your team’s collaboration muscles.

Advanced Moves

Once you’ve got the basics down, keep evolving your flow:

• Codify what works. Turn great prompts into shared Sidekicks so others can build on them.
• Keep evidence close. Link research and prototypes so every choice traces back to insight.
• Remix intentionally. Combine the best of multiple drafts into a stronger version.
• Slow down to learn. Instant doesn’t mean reckless—pause for reflection where it adds value.
  

The goal isn’t to automate creativity, but to amplify it. Each run builds sharper instincts and a stronger rhythm for thinking with AI, not just through it.

The Facilitation Edge

The more AI accelerates creation, the more facilitation matters. Instant prototypes don’t eliminate the need for structure; they heighten it. Without clear decision rules, timeboxes, and roles, teams will still spin—only faster. The good news is that these AI-powered flows free you from tedium so you can lean further into the work that requires human judgment and relationship-building. You’ll spend less time herding tabs and more time helping people make sense together.

Treat your board like a living workshop. Place buttons where you want to trigger generative moments. Add visible agreement frames to capture consent checks and decision diaries. Name the decisions for each session and timebox the creation. Facilitate critique as remix. When the prototype is wrong—and it will be at times—frame it as a lantern in the fog that illuminates what matters next. Mistakes become maps.

And remember, bringing AI into the meeting is the unlock for team-level competency. Individuals optimizing alone will always struggle to align. Teams practicing together can develop shared habits that stick. We’ve been revitalizing our AI Teammate personas for Sidekicks so you can easily bring missing perspectives into the room. Imagine clicking a button to hear from a skeptical CFO persona or a privacy-conscious legal voice, grounded in your actual company context. That’s not science fiction anymore. It’s simply good facilitation—expanded.

Ready to bring this magic to your team?
Join the AI Teammates waitlist for early access when it launches in the Miroverse.

The post A Lantern in the Fog appeared first on Voltage Control.

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.

Subscribe to Podcast

Engage Control The Room

Voltage Control on the Web
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. 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.

In facilitation, leadership, and systems change, edges are not simply metaphors. They are indicators of movement, of invitation, of challenge and potential. They show up when we notice our comfort being tested, when our default tools no longer fit the moment, when our story rubs up against someone else’s, or when a group tiptoes toward transformation.

This July, we’re exploring the theme of Edges not only because it shows up again and again in our work, but also because it will guide us through our upcoming Facilitation Summit. To support this exploration, we’re highlighting one of our favorite peer coaching tools: Troika Consulting. This structured activity invites three people to rotate through the roles of client and consultant, holding space for reflection, clarity, and challenge.

This month’s featured facilitation activity is Troika and we’ve included five provocative prompts you can use for Troika that are tied to the acronym EDGES:

• E – Explore the Unknown
• D – Disrupt Patterns
• G – Generate Dialogue
• E – Embrace Tension
• S – Steward Emergence

Each prompt invites participants to work with a different kind of edge—personal, interpersonal, systemic, or strategic. Below, we unpack each letter of the acronym, explore the deeper meaning, and share how it can guide your practice.

Explore the Unknown

Troika Prompt: Where in your work or life are you currently standing at an edge—something uncertain, emerging, or uncomfortable?

The edge of the unknown can feel exciting—or terrifying. For some, it sparks curiosity and energy. For others, it can produce anxiety and resistance. What matters is not whether we enjoy it, but whether we learn to stay present with it. In our certification programs, we often frame this as a “growth edge,” a place just beyond what’s familiar.

Edges are not always visible. Sometimes, we sense them before we can name them: a pattern breaking down, a restlessness we can’t explain, an opportunity that feels both thrilling and destabilizing. Exploring the unknown requires a stance of openness—not to answers, but to noticing.

It also helps to remember that edges don’t always emerge spontaneously. Sometimes we have to seek them. That might look like joining a new community of practice, offering to facilitate in a new context, or even initiating a difficult conversation. Growth happens in motion.

Facilitators aren’t immune to stagnation either. We often see facilitators return to tools and scripts that used to feel alive but now feel rote. Standing at the edge of our own evolution means becoming reacquainted with uncertainty—sometimes even learning to love it. That’s a skill in itself.

Troika is especially powerful for surfacing these edges. As you speak your uncertainty aloud, others can help you see the contours of what’s forming—even if you can’t quite see it yet.

Disrupt Patterns

Troika Prompt: Where are you being invited to stretch beyond your facilitation comfort zone—and what’s at stake if you do?

Disrupting patterns means naming what’s familiar—and questioning whether it still serves. That might be a facilitation habit, a team dynamic, a structure, or even a mindset. Disruption doesn’t have to be violent. It can be intentional, thoughtful, even gentle. But it does require honesty.

We often see facilitators cling to methods that once worked but no longer fit the moment. The urge to “stick with what I know” is strong. But so is the cost of stagnation.

Stretching beyond the comfort zone requires vulnerability. It can also reawaken creativity. The edge here is not about abandoning everything—it’s about holding your tools lightly, staying flexible, and listening for what the group really needs.

In learning theory, this aligns with the zone of proximal development: that sweet spot where challenge meets support. Troika can illuminate this zone by reflecting back where your current comfort is limiting your next step.

And while pattern disruption may start with technique or practice, it often moves inward. It asks, “What am I avoiding by staying in this groove?” or “Whose needs am I prioritizing when I fall back on this routine?” Sustainable disruption requires pausing to explore our own attachments to comfort, control, or perfection. This deeper layer is often where real transformation begins.

Generate Dialogue

Troika Prompt: What’s a provocative question that lives at the edge of your current project or inquiry?

Some edges live between us. They show up in culture, power, language, identity, and expectation. These edges often surface as friction—but underneath that friction is potential. When we generate dialogue at these edges, we open doors to new understanding, deeper collaboration, and collective insight.

Provocative questions help us reach these edges. They challenge assumptions, uncover values, and reveal blind spots. The edge might be a conversation your team has been avoiding. Or a topic you’re nervous to name out loud. Or a question that feels just a little too big to answer.

In our Facilitation Lab meetups, some of the most powerful moments happen when someone asks a question they’ve been carrying alone—and discovers that others have been holding it too. That’s the power of dialogue.

This Troika prompt encourages you to name one of those edge-questions, and let others reflect it back, stretch it, or reframe it. What feels provocative to you may be the spark that helps your collaborators move forward.

Not every question will feel welcome in every space. That’s part of the edge, too. Facilitators must tune into when to push and when to pause. A provocative question in the wrong moment can close a group down, but in the right moment, it can open up entirely new territory. Timing and trust are everything.

Embrace Tension

Troika Prompt: Where have you felt tension at the edge of a group, culture, or identity—and how is that informing your work today?

Tension is not the enemy of progress. It’s often the signal that something important is at stake. In facilitation, we sometimes talk about the “tightrope” between comfort and discomfort. Stay too comfortable, and there’s no movement. Lean too far into discomfort, and people disengage.

The most skilled facilitators learn to surf this edge. They notice when tension arises. They stay grounded. And they help others interpret the tension, rather than flee from it.

Sometimes, we have to sharpen the edge to make it visible. Other times, we need to soften it so the group can move safely through. There’s no single rule. As we discussed recently, facilitation is not about erasing all tension, but about knowing how to hold it well.

This Troika prompt invites you to examine a moment of past or present tension—especially one connected to difference, identity, or power. How did it shape you? What did you learn? How are you applying that learning now?

We also encourage facilitators to notice their internal reactions to tension. Often, the discomfort we perceive in a group mirrors our own edge. Instead of smoothing over the moment, try asking yourself: What if I stayed curious? What might this tension be pointing to? What’s just beyond it?

Steward Emergence

Troika Prompt: Where are you holding on to an old pattern or process, even though you’re aware something new is trying to emerge?

Emergence is the process through which something new comes into being—often gradually, unpredictably, or at the edges of what we understand. It’s not the same as a goal or a plan. It can’t be controlled. But it can be stewarded.

Many facilitators sense when something new is trying to surface. A group dynamic shifts. An old strategy loses traction. A client begins to ask different questions. You might feel it in the language people use, or in the energy of a room.

The challenge is that emergence often requires letting go. That might mean releasing a process that once served you, or admitting that your usual approach is no longer aligned. It can be humbling—and freeing.

Troika is a beautiful space for stewarding emergence. By naming what feels outdated or misaligned, and asking others to reflect what they sense is trying to take shape, you create a container for clarity. You also signal your readiness to evolve.

This final prompt asks you to name the edge between what was and what wants to be. That’s where the real work begins.

And here’s the truth: emergence rarely feels efficient. It feels messy, slow, ambiguous. That’s because we’re not just solving problems—we’re making room for what didn’t exist yet. Facilitators who learn to live in this ambiguity become better stewards of systemic change, helping groups build resilience for the unknown.

Edges as Practice, Not Destination

Edges aren’t places we conquer. They’re places we practice. They invite us to show up with presence, humility, and curiosity. They are, as one of our team members recently said, where the magic happens—not because they are magical, but because of how we meet them.

As you explore these prompts, we invite you to try them in a Troika with your peers, team, or learning cohort. You don’t have to have answers. You don’t even have to know exactly what your edge is. You just have to be willing to look, to name what you can, and to listen to what others see.

We hope these prompts serve as a doorway to your next threshold—and that you walk through with intention.

Here they are once again, ready for your next Troika:

1. Explore the Unknown: Where in your work or life are you currently standing at an edge—something uncertain, emerging, or uncomfortable?
2. Disrupt Patterns: Where are you being invited to stretch beyond your facilitation comfort zone—and what’s at stake if you do?
3. Generate Dialogue: What’s a provocative question that lives at the edge of your current project or inquiry?
4. Embrace Tension: Where have you felt tension at the edge of a group, culture, or identity—and how is that informing your work today?
5. Steward Emergence: Where are you holding on to an old pattern or process, even though you’re aware something new is trying to emerge?

Walk to the edge. Look around. Listen. Something powerful lives there.

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