Facilitation Lab Podcast
The Facilitation Lab Podcast is hosted by Douglas Ferguson, founder of facilitation academy Voltage Control. He talks with Voltage Control Certification Alumni and other facilitation experts about the impact of their work. The show takes a method-agnostic approach and covers a wide range of topics and perspectives on enabling meaningful group experiences. It focuses on helping listeners navigate the realities of facilitating collaboration so every session can be transformative. Listeners can also join the Facilitation Lab Community to apply these ideas in live sessions with peers.
Episodes
New Friction 8: AI Doesn't Remove Friction, It Just Moves Upstream
In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Alyssa Coughlin, Director and Chief of Staff for Autodesk's Data, AI, and ML Platform organization, about what it actually takes to move a large engineering company from AI-enabled to AI-native. Coughlin describes how bottlenecks have shifted away from writing code toward code review, deployment permissions, and desi
New Friction 7: Decisions, Not Doing, Are Now The Bottleneck
In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Jeff Chow, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Miro, about where friction is showing up inside product teams as AI reshapes how work gets done. Jeff describes how PMs prototyping in high fidelity, designers coding, and engineers orchestrating agents are collapsing old role boundaries, and argues the underlying te
Episode 175: Drawing Your Way Through Conflict and Change
In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Kristi James, a Lead Change Manager at the World Health Organization's Health Emergencies Programme in Berlin. Kristi traces her facilitation instincts back to childhood event planning and an early corporate career at DHL, where she discovered that sketching out processes and user journeys helped teams see where they
New Friction 6: Why Miro's AI Bets On The Canvas, Not Chat
In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Joe McLean, Group Product Manager for the AI Stream at Miro, who led the overhaul of Miro's Sidekicks and Flows AI surfaces launched at Canvas 25. Joe traces how his hobbyist love of Eurorack modular synthesizers shaped Flows, arguing that visible, patchable connections reveal what a chat box hides, and that a good t
New Friction 5: Scaling AI From Personal Habit To Company Capability
In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Taran Lent, Chief Technology Officer at Illumia, about how his organization moved from individual AI experimentation to enterprise-wide capability. Lent describes building an "enablement task force" that deliberately avoided becoming a governing bottleneck, instead creating conditions for employees to play, learn, an
New Friction 4: AI Readiness Is A Behavioral Transformation, Not A Technical One
In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Sarah B. Nelson, Distinguished Designer at Kyndryl and co-founder of Kyndryl Vital, about why AI's promise to remove friction is actually surfacing the human dynamics organizations have always avoided facing. They unpack how a single word like trust splinters into distinct concerns — model accuracy, data use, organiz
New Friction 3: Why AI Transformation Is About Alignment, Not Tools
In this episode of the New Friction podcast, host Douglas Ferguson speaks with Peter Bell, founder of Gather.dev and author of the forthcoming O'Reilly book Scaling AI Adoption in Engineering. Bell draws on his work running invite-only peer communities for senior engineering leaders to diagnose why most organizations stall out in AI pilot mode rather than achieving meaningful transformation. The c
New Friction 2: What Higher Education Knows About AI That Industry Doesn't
In this episode of the New Friction podcast, host Douglas Ferguson speaks with Jeff Grabill, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University at Buffalo, recorded in the immediate aftermath of the IHE US AI Summit 2026, which both men attended. Grabill recounts what emerged from that two-day working convening — the foundation of the Buffalo Statement, a collective public agenda for AI in
New Friction 1: Is AI Really Eliminating Friction?
In the inaugural episode of New Friction, host Douglas Ferguson and Erik Skogsberg explore how AI has shifted organizational friction from execution to decision-making and alignment. While AI accelerates production, it magnifies existing dysfunctions when teams lack collaborative habits. They introduce the concept of "multiplayer AI"—moving beyond individual productivity gains toward team-level co
New Friction 0: A new series from Douglas Ferguson
New Friction is a podcast from Douglas Ferguson on the real organizational challenges of AI transformation. AI made execution almost free but most organizations are still stuck. Not because the technology doesn't work, but because the people problems got harder: decision-making, governance, and trust friction. Each episode features practitioners navigating AI change at ambitious organizations — wh
Episode 174: The Greatest Secrets to Engaging Facilitation: Unlocking Team Potential
"I showed up just wanting to observe, but a deep prompt and a one-on-one conversation led to a beautiful, unexpected connection." - Erin Warner In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Erin Warner, founder of Head + Heart Coaching and Facilitation. Erin shares her journey from traditional leadership training to interactive facilitation, emphasizing the powe
Episode 173: How Can Authenticity Transform Facilitation and Workplace Culture?
"I wondered what would happen if I opened a C-suite meeting with a dad joke or a meme, and it made people actually look forward to coming." - Renita Joyce Smith In this episode of the Facilitation Lab Podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Renita Joyce Smith, CEO of Leap Forward Coaching and Consulting. Renita shares her journey into facilitation, emphasizing the importance of authenticity, hum
Episode 172: The Greatest Lessons in Trust and Generosity from Online Communities
"When I started my career, people said there's no way a computer can create real human connection, and I was like, I think it can." - Sophie Bujold In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Sophie Bujold of Cliqueworthy. Sophie shares how her early experiences in MIRC chat rooms shaped her approach to building human-centered, connected communities. They disc
Episode 171: How Can Rituals in Design Enhance Facilitation and Organisational Resilience?
"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." - Marco Monterzino 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
Episode 170: The Best Practices for Creating Safe and Engaging Learning Environments
"I need people to not just feel safe, but to actually feel excited and engaged in whatever the moment is bringing, to take risks, and to grow in real time." - Grace Losada 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, athletic
Episode 169: The Greatest Secrets of Blending Magic and Psychology for Team Growth
"The emotions that come out from magic, the spaces that magic allows you, they are quite global." - Rubens Filho 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 e
Episode 168: How Can Facilitation Foster Genuine Connections and Healing in Our Communities?
"When I see humans unable to center and organize, it feels like nails on a chalkboard to me." - Lori Boozer In this episode of the Facilitation Lab Podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Lori Boozer, a narrative strategist and wellness visionary. Lori shares her journey from law to facilitation, emphasizing the importance of creating inclusive spaces for genuine participation and healing. The c
Episode 167: How Can Facilitators Foster Bold Participation and Collaboration in Nonprofit Organizations?
"Sometimes in facilitation, it's a dance between creating space for others and offering perspectives that move the conversation forward." - Robin Cory In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson speaks with facilitation experts Tammy Shubat and Robin Cory, both Voltage Control certification alumni. Tammy shares her journey from leadership to facilitation, focusing on rel
Episode 166: From Talking Sticks to Blockchain: Revolutionizing Governance Through Collaboration
"The very fact we came together and wrote a constitution, even if it's not a perfect constitution, is a monumental achievement because people from 50 countries had to come together and get something done."- Charles Hoskinson In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson engages with Charles Hoskinson, CEO of Input I Output and Co-Founder of Cardano. They delve into them
Episode 165: The Greatest Shift: From Competition to Collaboration in Idea Generation
"It's so much more beneficial when everyone gives up ownership of ideas and creates something that belongs to the whole group."- Emilia Åström In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Emilia Åström, facilitator at Howspace and co-creator of "Perspectives." Emilia shares her journey from competitive advertising to collaborative facilitation, inspired by her
Episode 164: How Can Facilitators Ignite Creativity in Diverse Workshop Environments?
"Somewhere along the line, as we grow up, we get so used to doing things a certain way that we lose touch with that creative side of the brain. As kids, we tried all sorts of things and never stuck to a certain methodology or structure, but I think facilitation brings out that childlike curiosity, which makes the whole thing very special. And I think that's what's kept me going."- Varsha Prasad In
Episode 163: How Can We Combat Loneliness Through Shared Experiences?
"Connection moves at the speed of vulnerability. It takes courage to be the first on the dance floor or to reach out to someone, but those brave steps can lead to powerful connections"- Bahaa Chmait In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson converses with Baha Chmait, a facilitator and 2024 TEDx speaker focused on combating loneliness through shared experiences. Baha d
Episode 162: Why Did the Facilitator Bring Legos to the Meeting? To Build Connections!
"One of the things that really motivates me is seeing the light in people's eyes when they come into the innovation center and we have them play with Legos or do something fun. Bringing enjoyment into work is something that really motivates me personally."- Ralitsa Dimitrova In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson converses with Ralitsa Dimitrova, who leads the Ignit
Episode 161: How Can Inclusive Facilitation Transform Decision-Making in Organizations?
"The power of facilitation is to bring all the voices to the table, and as you may have heard this saying, "nothing for us without us," and I love that, it resonates so much."-Alexis Scranton In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson converses with Alexis Scranton from Aligned Impact Solutions. Alexis shares her journey from teaching kindergarten and third grade to tra
Episode 160: Finding The Click
"It's most costly in the wasted human energy and time that goes into things that people in the end don't care about. That is what's the most frustrating to me, seeing people pour their energy with the hope that it's going to pay off, and then in the end, when people shrug, it's just so demoralizing."- Jake Knapp In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson converses with
Episode 159: The Greatest Shift: From Traditional Training to Engaging Facilitation
"You can talk the talk all you want, but the group is going to know if you're not walking the walk. As the facilitator, you have to be the one that's ready to lead in what you're asking them to do."- Caterina Rodriguez In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson converses with Caterina Rodriguez (Cat), a facilitator consultant and strategic leader at ADL. Cat shares her
Episode 158: How Can Embracing Vulnerability Transform Your Leadership Journey?
"I saw her facilitate and I thought, "Wow, she's really drawing things out of the group instead of telling them what to do." That was so powerful, and I thought to myself, "I want to do that. I want to be able to do that type of work someday."- Dr. Karyn Edwards, PCC In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson converses with Dr. Karyn Edwards, an organizational psycholog
Episode 157: From Extrovert to Empowerment: The Art of Facilitating Group Dynamics
"There is so much humanity in vulnerability. If you're going to ask others to be vulnerable, you have to be willing to do so yourself and let your walls down to have rich, honest conversations."- Alyssa Coughlin In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson converses with Alyssa Coughlin, Chief of Staff Director for the Data and AI Platform Organization at Autodesk. Alyssa
Episode 156: How Can Curiosity Drive Justice and Social Change in Organizations?
"I was blown away, absolutely enthralled and fascinated. My granddad turned to me and said, "You've got an inquiring mind, don't ever lose that." It has essentially formed who I am."- Dan Walker In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Dan Walker from Collective Imagination Consulting. They discuss Dan's journey from the legal field to the outdoor industry,
Episode 155: Unlocking the Secrets of Engaging Facilitation
"Seeing the magic of bringing people together, setting clear agendas, and leaving with action items was eye-opening for me."- Lipika Grover In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson converses with Lipika Grover, a consultant, executive coach, and facilitator. They explore Lipi's career journey, starting from her early experiences at Accenture, where she observed effect
Episode 154: How Can Effective Facilitation Transform Personal Connections and Group Dynamics?
"If you don't have those underpinnings of being anchored to something, it's really difficult to do anything else. That's just baseline sort of human functioning."- Kellie Artis In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson converses with Kelly Artis, founder of Mission Identity, who empowers women through the Enneagram. The discussion highlights the transformative power of
Episode 153: How Adventure-Based Facilitation Can Transform Team Dynamics
"Take that risk, take that step forward. Don't think about it, just do it. Sometimes you just have to take that step, and by doing that, my life changed completely."- Tony Toto In this episode of the Facilitation Lab Podcast, host Douglas Ferguson converses with Tony Toto, a facilitator at the Outdoor Wisconsin Leadership School. Tony shares his journey from real estate to facilitation, emphasizin
Episode 152: How Can Facilitation Transform Leadership in Times of Change?
"I think that is one of the best gifts that you can give other people is yes, we're all just chemical biological beings at the beginning of these, and we have all the choices in the world to go somewhere else."- Nathan Hughes In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson converses with Nathan Hughes, COO and co-founder of Detroit Labs. Nathan shares his journey from a tech
Episode 151: How Observation and Play Enhance Your Facilitation Style
"I take the opportunity to build culture and connection with that team to make them stronger. And that's something that's really rewarding for me—when I leave the process to see after nine months of working with them that this team is much more close, more connected, and trusts each other more.."- Julie Baeb In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson speaks with Julie B
Episode 150: The Most Impactful Visual Tools for Facilitating Team Alignment
"Now more than ever, we need facilitation, which is different than being a facilitator."- Jim Kalbach In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, Douglas Ferguson talks with Jim Kalbach, Chief Evangelist at MURAL and author, about his facilitation journey and expertise in mapping. Jim shares a pivotal experience leading a workshop at LexisNexis and how it propelled his career. He discusses th
Episode 149: How Can Effective Facilitation Transform Team Dynamics and Collaboration?
"Change is inevitable; it's how you adapt to it. It's the tools that you look for, the how do you want to grow so that you can adapt better to these changes that come your way."- Neallie Kani In this podcast episode, Douglas Ferguson hosts Nelly Carney, a UX Specialist from Hogan Assessments, who shares her facilitation journey and the impact of leadership classes on her career. She discusses the
Episode 148: How Can Facilitation Transform Professional Learning in Education?
"I allow myself to be very vulnerable and open because I know I'll grow in it, but I also know it helps others step into being vulnerable alongside me."- Susan Wilson-Golab In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, Douglas Ferguson converses with Susan Wilson Go Lab about her evolution from a K-12 district administrator to an expert in educational leadership and facilitation. Susan delves
Episode 147: The Impact of Delightful Facilitation
"Delight is actually a combination of multiple emotions; it is joy coupled with surprise. So, I've really been thinking about how I can bring in more of that delight with very small tweaks to our everyday rituals at my company."- JJ Rogers In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson speaks with JJ Rogers, Director of Product Design at Watermark and a facilitation expert.
Episode 146: Embrace Discomfort to Adapt to New Ways of Working
"I am a poor participant when I am poorly led, but when I'm well led through a process, I'm really willing to play along."- Rebecca Sutherns In this podcast episode of the Facilitation Lab, host Douglas Ferguson talks with Dr. Rebecca Southern about her journey in facilitation and the nuances of group work. Dr. Southern, with 27 years of experience and authorship of three books, including "Elastic
Episode 145: Empowering Leaders For Sustainable Change
"We need facilitators to create that room. There are very few and the scientists who are quite enthusiastic as well as the decision leaders, what they know right now is PowerPoint one PowerPoint after another. And which is quite boring but they don't know what to do, how different, what other ways can we do it, can we pass on this information? Any sector that you talk about within Africa, they wil
Episode 144: Impactful Facilitation Techniques for Building Multicultural Teams
"I think that is my superpower. I do connect. I believe that no one can be successful without the other. We need each other to thrive and we have to realize that we are strong in certain areas and others are strong in other areas. And together, when we do connect, we can do really incredible stuff. So I like connecting people, where people are talking to me and in my mind, I'm already thinking who
Episode 143: Making Meetings Less Painful and More Productive
"It was a humbling experience because I was the one leading those unproductive meetings or leading the teams astray and just talking about the work and really not having any action items or decisive plan of action afterwards. It was both a humbling experience but also really exciting because I felt like it was that itch that was finally scratched for me. You see it in action and you realize, yep,
Episode 142: Transforming Team Dynamics
""When you just take the time to apply a few of these facilitation techniques, it really can help people focus, help them make better, more efficient decisions, and ultimately feel like they're all bought in on it."" - Phil Canning In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson talks to Phil Canning, leader of the Human Centered Design Studio and Facilitation Practice at Al
Episode 141: From Awkward Silence to Powerful Breakthroughs
"Listening in the silence, observing, seeing what's not being said in that silence, that tells a whole story as well." - Reshma Khan In this podcast episode, Douglas Ferguson interviews Reshma Aziz Khan, the CEO and Founder of Kenzo Consulting Limited. They discuss Reshma's background in the nonprofit sector and her interest in facilitation. Reshma shares a story about her first experience working
Episode 140: The Most Essential Facilitation Skills for Building Trust and Collaboration
"We live in such a polarized world right now, at least in the US, and I'm not going to get into that, but I think it is important that we be able to hear each other, really hear each other. Not necessarily agree, but how do we start to move a little bit closer to each other? And probably that's going to have to be through complicated, messy conversations and real listening." In this episode of the
Episode 139: Control the Room Is Now Facilitation Lab!
We are excited to announce that Control the Room is now the Facilitation Lab podcast!
Episode 138: Product Managers Unlock Flow Through Facilitation
"In today's world, compassion and kindness in the business environment is the most valuable thing that you can bring to your business or any working session." - Eli Wood In this podcast episode, Douglas Ferguson and Eli Wood discuss the importance of facilitation in working with interdisciplinary teams and building successful products and business offerings. They emphasize that facilitation is not
Episode 137: Humanizing Change
In this podcast episode, Douglas welcomes Tim Creasy, the Chief Innovation Officer at Prosci, to discuss the field of change management. Tim shares his origin story and how he became interested in understanding human systems and implementing change at scale. They discuss the intersection of economics and political science, the concept of systems thinking, and the potential impact of generative AI
Episode 136: Stamp Out Boring Workshops: A Facilitator's Mission
"It's to stamp out boring workshops around the world forever because i think if you do have the opportunity to bring teams together or people together that's kind of sacred time so how do you get and this isn't about getting the biggest roi but how do you make it more meaningful and a once in a lifetime opportunity for them? - Leanne Hughes In this episode of the Control Room podcast, Leanne Hughe
Episode 135: Clarity Without Certainty
"I wanted to find a different way to think about the future and specifically wanted to understand the decision making process that leaders go through when they're facing extraordinary amounts of uncertainty. Because frankly, a lot of what I saw was just bad behavior. I was really lucky in finding my way to this extraordinary community of learners, of questioners, of facilitators, of designers. It
Episode 134: Creating Systems That Prompt Behaviors In A Certain Way
"Well, for me, I like to think of ensemble as a behavior rather than a specific group of people. And to think of ensemble behavior as a situation when I'm looking at the group that I'm with and we are working to make something that's different than what any one of us would make on our own, and that this specific ensemble I'm going to work with to support the thing that we are going to make togethe
Episode 133: The Art Of The Possible With AI
"I mean, frankly, in a lot of ways it's kind of a frightening time. So both of my parents are artists and I've grown up surrounded by musicians and artists of all different kinds, and a lot of them are reaching out to me and asking about with things like Dolly or most people know of Mid-Journey, the website that kind of aggregates a lot of these generated images, what's going to happen to their li
Episode 132: Moving From Bricklayer To Architect
"Design systems are the tool that enable us to step out of being individual makers, crafters on particular interfaces. And it elevates our craft to a point where we're able to spend more time focusing on our users, bringing in our stakeholders, collaborating more and less time just kind of grinding through production. That might be scary to some people, but I genuinely think it'll be a better job
Episode 131: No Company Thrives Without Good People
"I feel like I'm a unicorn at times because I'm able to speak different languages in the way that I can connect with people, right? So I was a solar entrepreneur. The pain points that I would have as a solo entrepreneur and growing and scaling and leading teams of contractors, I've done that, or working at a large global company and running an employee resource group along with doing a ton of sale
Episode 130: Learn To Change Your Business
"... that ties back to OKRs because it's like what is the one thing that we're going to work on? And that's hard to do, because if you try to focus on 10 things, you're not focusing on anything. But that's what's nice about OKRs and why they can be helpful in meetings or saying no to meetings because well, that's not what my OKR is, that's not what we're focusing on, or we're not hitting this obje
Episode 129: Step Into The Light
"Transitions are scary. Change is scary. So depending on the context, it could be a good thing, it could be a bad thing. And all of that can activate our fear response and our grief response. So there's a lot of neuroscience theory and brain science theory around transitions and change that we can talk about. But I think for me personally, I always feel like I step into the light. I'm very curious
Episode 128: Creating The Conditions For Change To Emerge
"It is looking into the narratives that an organization holds about itself, and that people hold about themselves, and understanding if these narratives are helpful or hindering to the change. And then actually from there trying to understand what would be a better narrative for this organization to hold, and what would it take for us to go onto that journey." - Nicole Brauckmann In this episode o
Episode 127: Building Innovation Muscles
"That is one of the most difficult things, especially in a corporate environment, I think to get people to have that zone of safety. A lot of times when we talk to people within our organization like a Nelnet and we ask them to come up with a brand new idea, we try to protect them as much as possible from having to present their idea until they have some evidence around it. And have them think dif
Episode 126: Creating Environments For Group Genius
"I think I was lucky to be a teacher of very young children as my first career. They taught me so much about the joy of teaching and learning. Within the first few months of teaching it was clear to me that mutual learning created authenticity and trust. We had wonderful fun together growing with and for each other. Many of my current ways of thinking and acting developed during those few years wi
Episode 125: Embracing Emergent Coherence
"I've come to believe that trust is an emergent phenomenon. You do not have to go in trusting the people that you're engaging with. What I do believe you need is a shared question and it acts as a strange attractor. So to get at that, back up a sec and say my entry point for engaging was really a breakthrough kind of insight, which is that all change begins with disruption. And if you think about
Episode 124: Don't Talk About It, Be About It
"Yeah. And it's crazy because you hear that... Well, we always hear the adages, this generation is soft. I got bullied when I was a kid and it was like, pause for a second. Can we acknowledge that just because it happened to you doesn't mean it was right and that someone else should have a similar experience just because it happened to you? I was in a bad car accident. I don't feel like every driv
Episode 123: Making A Viable Organization
"Teams might be better able to own things if we adjust the boundaries or might find it really tricky because the cognitive load is too high. So suddenly we're talking about stuff which is not just technology, it's about making a viable organization effectively. We're thinking about viability, the ongoing ownership of different streams of change on an ongoing basis. That's a healthy conversation to
Episode 122: Power TO The People
"I think this aspect of psychological safety is probably one of the most interesting that I think about in terms of psychological safety. So first of all, most of us learn management from our managers. We learn what management looks like, we learn what management is through our own managers. And because of the way time and careers work, most of the managers that we have, certainly early in our car
Episode 121: Reframing The Future Of Work
"People are so concerned with this innovation piece, this collaboration piece. How are we going to get more products out the door? How are we going to serve more people? How are we going to be CX/UX design premier to make sure we meet people where they're at and our customers are satisfied? But if your workforce can't even speak up, or feel comfortable or don't feel like there's that psychological
Episode 120: Fight Like You're Right, Listen Like You're Wrong
"So we know that, that's how we create our shows at Second City. We have a 12 week process, we develop in front of the audience, and we know the first four weeks there's going to be a lot of seemingly garbage, but we allow that seemingly garbage to surface because there might be a gem actually inside there, especially when sort of looked at a different way." - Kelly Leonard In this episode of Cont
Episode 119: An Imagination Deficit
"I think it's really important to understand the difference between safety and trust. So safety is actually a state of our nervous system. It's a neurobiologic process that happens for human beings. Trust on the other hand is how we relate to each other. It's a way to have relationship. So I can trust you maybe to complete your work and say you're going to do what you said you're going to do, and
Episode 118: Calling People In
"Yeah, he's been doing some amazing things in his organization. One is that he's been talking about personality as a place to welcome diversity, that everyone doesn't have to be nice all the time, that people who are fractious or have personalities that are annoying, that you can be actually radically inclusive of those personalities. I'm not talking about people who are racist or sexist or those
Episode 117: Change The Way You Change
"Well, I do think the first step is for Managers to understand change management, because everybody's talking about this and it may seem too difficult to apply, so they can be resistant about what is change management, but the first step would be educate them about the whole theme. And we act as coaches, as partners of the leaders on those projects, because of course they will go through the situ
Episode 116: Flexible, Inclusive, and Connected Work
"There's this old phrase, 'Culture eats strategy for breakfast.' I'm a firm believer in that one. I learned it the hard way. When I first started my career, I was a consultant. When I jumped off into startups, I honestly really struggled. The first couple years were pretty bad, because I was not a very good manager. It took a while to realize that the needs of people from different backgrounds and
Episode 115: Unlocking Service And Creativity
"We need more people being of service. And it's not just the appointed tech host, it's their responsibility. You could have teams of people where they know all of these skills, they're going to function better as a team because they know how to behave this way. But I think still there aren't enough tech hosts or service-minded people in these meetings to be able to do that." - Heather Martinez In
Episode 114: Creating High Performing Cultural Values
"Winston Environments tell us how to behave. Others in the environment reinforce the messages given by the physical space." -Rob Evans In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Howard Kincaide about his long career in Product Leadership. He starts with how his nature to always be making things served him throughout his career. Later, Howard discusses his long journ
Episode 113: Designing Humane Working Environments
"Winston Churchill said something like, "We create our buildings and then our buildings create us." So we are deeply influenced by our environment. This species didn't evolve except by paying very careful attention to what's going on around us. Because we're not that fast, we don't have good teeth, we had to be pretty attentive to our environment to even survive. Well, we're still those creatures.
Episode 112: Learning For Life
"When you look at what's happening with the population, boomers aren't getting any younger and they've got plenty of discretionary income and a lot of the solutions that are out there aren't very friendly feeling to that population. And it's hard to design for a group that you've never been a part of or that you don't know anything about. It became really important to me to be part of teams where
Episode 111: Who's In Here?
"Wherever you go, there you are. You're always bringing your family dynamics into it, so you just have to figure out who's who in the dynamic of whatever you're experiencing in the room, and then once you know that, you'll understand what's getting triggered, and you can work together to move through it." -Patti Dobrowolski In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with P
Episode 110: Flourishing In Times Of Transition
"And so the more that I looked at people outside of the ideal, this ideal that we should fail forward, this ideal that we should pivot forward, I became and remained fascinated with the notion of in that moment, when we have some kind of a catalyzing disruption or interruption, how do we get our bearings? How do we understand who we are in that and then how do we determine how we want to move forw
Episode 109: Discerning What's Needed In The Moment
"But the thing that I hear the most from the students is that they're afraid that they're not going to know how to help. They're going to stand up in front of their peers and say, "I'm here to help you guide you through this, A3 problem solving workout or this kaizen, but at the core of it, I'm really just got this structure that I'm following. I'm afraid I'm going to sound like a robot or I'm goi
Episode 108: Change Imposed Is Change Opposed
"But what we don't realize is that it's actually our job to help manage change. And it's our job to give people a vision that helps them get to the other side of change. So, so often we just tell people, you need to change. We never tell them why. And we don't give them a vision for the future. And we don't ask them to come alongside of us and help build that future together. We oftentimes, change
Episode 107: Helping People Flourish
"You know, there are so many different forms of discrimination and prejudice. But I thought, when you write a book about leadership, what is there that hasn't been written yet? And so for me, leadership is about perspective. Finding different ways of looking at things to solve problems. To be creative and to innovate. We need to look at problems from different perspectives. So we don't ask the rig
Episode 106: Benefits Of A Nonlinear Workday
"It's so interesting because I think in the process of documenting things like asynchronous workflows and some of the really hot ticket items that you hear about remote work, we've gotten to pull out stories from different people's lives and how that plays out. It's really what kind of brings this work to life, because it shows you how something like being able to work a non-linear work day enable
Episode 105: Redefining Leadership
"Absolutely. And that's what's so cool about people. And I think bringing people together is those moments of like, "Oh, I was thinking about it in this way. And oh, your lived experience means you're thinking about it in this totally different way." And how exciting as a facilitator to kind of be in those moments where your assumptions are challenged or where all of a sudden you have this whole n
