Facilitation Lab Podcast

"I'd say the feminine is the magician, and the masculine is the warrior. And those are two archetypes that are used in union and different types of readings that I've read of archetypes. So with that, I would say that this article lays out that there are about 28, I believe 27, 28 leadership competencies, and it shows the feminine expression and the masculine expression. And how that ties to my work is that I sometimes will be coaching someone, and I'll notice that they are sharing some of the challenges that they're having and how they want to be a better leader. Oftentimes I hear a lot improve executive presence, whatever that means. Improve your executive presence. And I think that really, that just means be authentically yourself as a leader and be confident in yourself." -Leah Fleischner

In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Leah Fleischner about her experience in working with startups, coaching executives, and leading enterprise change initiatives. She shares some thoughts on the needs and motivations of today's worker that's driving the 'Great Resignation'. Later, Leah explores topics like mental health while working remote, why words matter, and the masculine-feminine expressions of leadership. We then discuss what it takes to be a great coach. Listen in for more interesting thoughts on moving forward with grace.

"I think that's where the leadership development side of the work that I've been doing really comes in. Because to be a leader within an organization that encourages autonomous teams with missions and encourages cross-functional work and a more decentralized structure, they need to feel comfortable and confident themselves. A lot of organizations I've seen will have that command and control kind of traditional hierarchy, and a lot of that is because that's what the leader has experience in and that's what the leader is most comfortable with. So to have this blend of something that's more, maybe not quite self-managed, not to that level but to a level where we do have teams that can do their homework, they can build a hypothesis, they can do some experimentation, they can share back on that, they can learn from it and they can pivot, it takes a leader who I think is comfortable with that." -Kate Leto In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Kate Leto about her experience in Product Management, Organizational Development, and Personal Development industries that has taken her around the world. She shares how self-awareness can help make you a better leader, develop confidence, and battle imposter syndrome. Later, Kate explains why changing Organizations must first start with changing individuals and teams. We then discuss different types of leadership skills and how to develop them. Listen in for more interesting thoughts on how to build higher-performing teams.

" So we've been studying energizing ties for over 20 years now. And so we've found that people in organizations have a range of impacts on each other. At the one extreme are interactions we would call energizing. And I think we all kind of intuitively know the characteristics of an energizer. They help you tackle problems. They are kind of selfless in their willingness to help you. They're optimistic but not pie in the sky optimistic. And they act with honesty and integrity, and thoughtfulness. And so what we've found is that whether you're an energizer is a huge predictor of forwarding momentum through your organization. So people who score high on these energizing scores by the network around them are much more likely to win with clients. They win in the internal labor market. They get more from people around them. There's been some great research that when you're in the presence of an energizer, you yourself are more creative." -Dr. Peter Gray

In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Peter Gray about his years of experience creating more collaborative organizations through his work studying professional networks. He shares how the pandemic has impacted workplace networks and influenced innovation. Later, Peter explains how the size, reach, and quality of a professional's network impacts their career. We then discuss how the future of work will reward team performance over the individual. Listen in for more interesting thoughts on the future of work.

"Yeah. I think it's absolutely true. I think there are also really interesting things that happen with adults when it comes to playing of, why don't we? What's in the way of that? Is also really interesting to me too, when all those things that you're seeing are true, right? If it's as needed in our lives, why aren't we doing it? What is it? I think, from what I've found in facilitation, what holds people back from ... We think of play, I think, when we think of, as facilitators often we'll think of the icebreaker or the stoke activity or something like that. But I find it to be so much more about ingraining it into all of it. And it's more of a mindset for play or a posture for play, I'll often say too, and what gets in the way of that for people." -Shannon Varcoe

In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Shannon Varcoe about her experience building a career as a designer and facilitator focused on injecting more play into our work. She shares how her diverse background in theater and engineering has informed her work. Later, Shannon addresses some uncomfortable moments in facilitation like reflections, silence, play, and debriefing. We then discuss correctness, momentum, and collaboration. Listen in for interesting thoughts on the future of teamwork.

"The spontaneity and the collaboration effect are definitely more prevalent inside of the asynchronous on-premise environment. However, do I want to give up all of that deep work for that type of spontaneity? Because a lot of the time spontaneity is a distraction in another... You call it spontaneity. I call it a distraction. I call it, okay, this is the seventh time someone's walked into my office today, and I actually just really need to get this email sequence written as an example. And I can't actually get it done because I've had these spontaneous conversations throughout my workday. So a lot of these times they can end up looking like distractions when a lot of people call them collaboration and spontaneity. So I'm not quite clear actually on where that's going to go. But I have seen this happen a lot inside of the corporate world where people just get into meetings because that's the flow of what they should be doing. But the reality is that you could actually, as you said, turn a lot of those meetings into an email." -Liam Martin

In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Liam Marin about his experience building conferences and software for Remote Work advocates. He shares why he builds products and services that are defined by the concept of giving workers the flexibility to work wherever they want, whenever they want. Later, Liam offers tips on how to manage Remote Work with asynchronous communication. We then discuss connection vs. free work, ideas vs. execution, and management vs leadership. Listen in for Remote Work trends and predictions.

"What I often share with people is that oftentimes at a party, we're doing things together, but separately. Like there's this story we tell ourselves like, "Oh, I'm United with everyone around me," but there's actually very little eye contact. There's very little touch. There's very little attention that we put on each other in these maladapted party environments. So yeah, creating more of that sense of unity and belonging and seeing each other is something that, yeah, I'm obsessed with. And that's why I have like a toolkit of hundreds of games and songs." -Jacques W Martiquet

In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Jacques W Martiquet about his time working as an International Facilitator who designs belonging experiences for people-first companies and unusual events. He shares why it's ironic that the more he learns about facilitation and human connection, the less he identifies with the word 'party'. Later, Jacques explains why his work as an EMT and obsession with public health, and specifically, the health benefits of human connection lead to his current career. We then discuss a few of his favorite terms like 'fun quotient and the 'threshold of acceptability. Listen in for inspiration on how to host your own events that put human connection first.

"And to your earlier point about complexity, most of those kinds of models and titles and bands and blah, blah, blah, are complicated solutions that don't serve well in complexity. And so my job as an org designer is to say, what is the lightest most elegant, most intuitive solution that equips us to navigate complexity rather than what is a complicated and over-engineered solution that doesn't actually do anything to cut through complexity, it's just an exercise that we have to go through." -Rodney Evans

In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Rodney Evans about her 20+ years as an adaptive organization designer and future of work consultant. She shares how rebellion first lead to her interest in helping teams explore new ways of working together and self-managing systems. Later, Rodney asks some great questions like: "what does it take to help teams thrive? What are some good foundational agreements for teams? And what does participatory change look like?" We then discuss the criteria for filtering out bad clients to work with. Listen in for inspiration on how to build the shared responsibility to help teams execute their own change.

"I think we're going to be as vulnerable as we're comfortable or as vulnerable as we're aware. To be a leader today, I think to be able to be vulnerable, to model vulnerability, we still have to be aware of our own stories, and what are we comfortable sharing of our own stories? What are we comfortable sharing of all parts of ourselves? In writing, my book, one of the things that came through loud and clear, is it's one thing for me to be vulnerable with my employees, right? But one place that I found a lot of men expressed fear in the interviews I conducted, was the fear of being vulnerable in front of other men, regardless of if it's at work or outside of the workplace." -Sean Harvey

In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Sean Harvey about his 20+years of experience working in personal, organizational, and societal transformation as a Purpose, Talent, and Org Development consultant. He explains how the healing work of men serves as a critical lever and catalyst for building compassionate bridges across society. We then discuss heart transformation and how to use it to understand yourself. Listen in for inspiration on how to use compassion to unlock the healing power of men.

"We're now entering the fourth industrial revolution, and I think this is really where Jobs 3.0 is happening. And if I had to describe it in one word, I would probably say fluid. It's a much more fluid model, and it comes down to all those different things we touched upon. It's the global citizen, it's the role of the office. It also comes down to your background in education, how that role will play, and these new structures of DAOs, and the way you are being compensated. One thing as well to add there, which I think is going to be a huge role is truly your skillset and how you evolve that. I think there's going to be a lot of importance of having a mix of hard and soft skills. So as we know, you have to, regardless of what job you have, you need to have some sort of technical skills. And I mean, I'm personally, doesn't come from a technical background, but I do realize that there are certain ways that I can upskill in terms of being more technical. And I need to focus on that." -Yasmine Morrison

In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Yasmine Morrison about her diverse background in management consulting, venture capital and entrepreneurship and how it has informed her view on the future of work. She explores why lifestyles will determine the locations we work from, the future of collaboration, and the global talent pool. We then discuss Decentralized Autonomous Organization and how to best contribute to them. Listen in for more reasons for more tips on how to best prepare for work 3.0.

"Yeah. I think the facilitative approach to leadership it's all the good things about leadership like bringing active listening skills to a group, being able to encourage and generate participative discussion and groups. Help stimulate creative thinking through different brainstorming and idea generation processes. Help people work through different problem spaces. Being able to draw out the opinions of people in objective and non-judgmental ways, be able to create that psychological safety. Help shape more powerful and strategic questions that teams can explore, but being a manager for so long, I've intuitively developed these skills, like really worked on building better empathy and better listening skills, but I haven't found a structured approach to really developing myself in that. It's more like gut intuition and just practice and finding this more structured, tangible skillset of facilitation has been really empowering for me here. I was like, there are actual tools and different techniques that you can learn and frameworks that you can develop yourself and to become better at all these things as the leader." -Nicole Richard

In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Nicole Richard about her ample experience leading product teams, developing STEAM programs for children around the world, and studying the nuances of facilitation. She shares how to get colleagues to try new collaborative approaches to work and potential pitfalls. We then discuss her facilitation training and the importance of developing the language and narrative to share your professional aspirations. Listen in for more reasons to give yourself more grace at work.