“If you've got a breath and you're a warm body, then I know that fun is going to be the magic, my most potent weapon...to be able to invite you to participate.”

Mark Collard is the Founder of Playmeo, a company that provides a group-game wonderland with over 440+ games & activities towards team building and experiential education. He inspires facilitators, educators, and managers to empower groups to connect more effectively and build stronger teams. With training workshops and invaluable resources in their online database, Mark offers the essentials and more to exercise trust for organizations. Mark’s mission to lead with fun through games can ultimately lead to magic and results. 

In this episode of Control the Room, Mark and I discuss the creation of the temporary community to foster trust, the deliberate/strategic approach of connection before content, and the ongoing virtual facilitation challenge towards engagement. Listen in to hear how Mark is masterfully leading with humanity in his group game bag of tricks to not only build connections in groups, but amplify results in your organization. 

“It's all about how you work with teams, not as a collection of individuals, but as a team, as an organism essentially. And that just completely changed the way that I facilitate and work with teams.”

Sara Nelson is the Senior Director of Design at PepsiCo, where she leads the charge of design thinking programs forward to drive key outcomes.  Sara seeks to uncover the patterns & relationships her teams practice to develop greater strategies and leverage better results. 

In this episode of Control the Room, Sara and I discuss the impact of design thinking for team success in organizations, the collaboration efforts teams must exemplify, the “worthy workshop” intention and expectation, and the ongoing mindset of learning. Listen in to hear how Sara is reinforcing design thinking as the foundation forward in her organization and beyond.

“Universities have the opportunity to create micro-credentials, unbundle their education and then drive them[students] to a different ecosystem in terms of a lifelong learning model that is aligned to industry.”

Matt Alex is the Co-Founder of Beyond Academics, where he guides the Future of Work and Digital Transformation divisions to gather the most brilliant minds of higher education, entrepreneurship, innovation and industry.  Matt strives to transform the college experience by inspiring lead educators across universities from around the country in collaboration towards a life-long learning workforce for the future of work. 

In this episode of Control the Room, Matt and I discuss the future of work through the higher education lens, the juxtaposition of the earn-it model with the life-long model for students, the unbundling and reimagination of the college experience, and the breakdown of segments in structured and unstructured work.  Listen in to hear how Matt is changing the course of higher education for the future of our workforce.

“I think there's a real power in a community and having a community of diverse backgrounds.  I feel our unique position with the Facilitation Lab gives facilitators the opportunity to not only practice in a safe and inclusive environment with other facilitators of different backgrounds, but also that there aren't a lot of unique spaces for and by facilitators to openly do just that.”

Kierra Johnson is the Community Manager at Voltage Control and host of the weekly Control Room Facilitation Lab where she focuses on nurturing a network of facilitators. The lab is a place where facilitators connect, ideate, and troubleshoot methods and activities in a virtual forum to gain real-time learning and feedback. She connects hundreds of facilitators from around the world with a passion for practice and continuous growth in facilitation. 

In this episode of Control the Room, Kierra and I discuss the power of positivity,facilitation lab’s impact, and how facilitators are connecting beyond the Lab. Listen in to hear how Facilitation Lab   supports the needs of facilitators and the significance of experimentation. 

“I think that people have been trying to facilitate these virtual meetings and they're pretty dry in a lot of ways, but they get the point across and that's good, but they're finding maybe a lack of productivity that happens when people just feel like this mundane day-to-day.”

Rachael Green is the CEO and Founder at Rach Green Cocktails, where she uses high level hospitality, spirits and cocktail knowledge to entertain thousands of people from around the world.

In this episode of Control the Room, Rachael and I discuss hospitality, hybrid events, and mixology. Listen in to hear how prioritizing fun and connection can usher in balance and harmony within your teams.

“The only assumptions that can hurt our products are the ones we don't know about. I lean into the assumptions, I say, "Let's get them all out on the table.” Let's align around them, because until we get all of you guys aligned, we're not going to be able to change your minds anyway.”

Tamara Adlin is a UX expert and consultant who helps startups, and companies who want to behave more like startups, create products their customers love. She is also the co-author of the Persona Lifecycle book series and has created a method she calls Alignment Personas.

In this episode of Control the Room, I talk with Tamara about shared narratives, alignment and personas. Listen in to hear how exploring assumptions and allowing data to inform decision making creates a unified team and a clear perspective.

“Using the other person's words is the nearest thing that the FBI has to a Jedi mind trick, because when the other person hears their words coming back, what they think is that person is using words like mine, therefore, they must be like me, therefore, I should like them.”

Judy Rees is a consultant at Rees McCann where she leads a community of trainers, facilitators, producers and others who want to make online better than in-the-room. She is also the co-author of the Web Events That Connect How-to Guide and Clean Language: Revealing Metaphors and Opening Minds.

In this episode of Control the Room, I talk with Judy about clean language, gardening, and contextual intent. Listen in to learn what subtleties can be uncovered in the words we use every day, through active listening and asking the right questions.

“I think about creativity as toggling between wonder and rigor to solve problems and the way we can get better at that toggling, the way we can get better at exercising our creativity is through what I call the three I's. And the three I's are inquiry, improvisation and intuition.”

Natalie Nixon is a creativity strategist and president of Figure 8 Thinking, where she helps leaders achieve transformative business results by applying creativity and foresight. As a global keynote speaker as well as author, editor, and contributor of multiple writing publications, Natalie communicates awe and inspires teams around the world to reach their maximum business value.

In this episode of Control the Room, I talk with Natalie about polymaths, dance, fashion and gratitude. Listen in to see how wonder, structure and grace can make the major difference in an organization when interconnected.

“I often say that the facilitators who have been in this profession for over seven, eight, 10 years, we've been very fortunate to learn through trial and error. We made some errors, we got feedback, et cetera. Today I think there's less room for errors, which means peer reviews. I like what you said, if you are doing those practice sessions, that's when you have got to put people through situations where they are stepping back. Are they jumping in to share their opinion? What's the kind of question? Is it a leading question? Is there an implicit bias behind the question? Those things we need to deal with in a lab or in a practice environment, because when we are in service with the actual group, we have to be even more careful of holding our space in a neutral space with everyone. If that makes sense? So I've learnt this skill of stepping back as a way of managing my derailers.”

Vinay Kumar is the founding Director of C2C OD, where he enables organizations and their talent to be more effective. He is also the global chair of the International Association of Facilitators, and has held leadership and management positions in the worlds of education and banking.

In this episode of Control the Room, I talk with Vinay about listening skills, elephants, and patience in facilitation. Listen in to hear what small, nuanced actions a facilitator can take to leverage their team’s fullest potential.

“Well, with this pandemic, I decided I'm going to buy a Nintendo Switch. And I bought the Switch, and I'm very excited because everybody talked about Animal Crossing, and I was like, "I can't wait to play." And "I can't wait to play Mario Kart." And so, I got my Switch, and years ago I had carpal tunnel issues in my right hand, and so I started doing a lot of things with my left hand. And when I use this controller, after a while my hand starts to hurt. And I just think, "There's no accessible controller for the Switch." There is for Xbox, but I did actually just find an accessible controller that can lay flat, but it's only available in Japan at the moment for the Switch. I was like, "Why isn't this available in America?" I mean, so, give me the options, right? Just give me the options to do things differently.”

Regine Gilbert is an Industry Assistant Professor at NYU, and the author of Inclusive Design for a Digital World: Designing with Accessibility in Mind. As a UX designer, she has educated peoples domestically and internationally concerning the value of widening the boundaries of what we deem possible, and necessary in design.

In this episode of Control the Room, I talk with Regine about Nintendo, VR and accessibility as a byproduct of observation. Listen in to see how awareness fuels innovation and inclusion for an audience that needs it.