“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 Patti Dobrowolski about her career helping teams navigate growth and change.  She starts with how her background in Theater has influenced her career.  Later, Patti shares her journey of awareness that has helped her make it easier for people to connect to themselves and us.  We then discuss how and why to include play at work.  Listen in for the steps to help bridge states of consciousness with the groups you’re facilitating.   

“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 forward? What are the actual steps that we take? What are the approaches that we use? What are the resources that we draw upon and how do we make sense of it?” -Joan Ball

In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Joan Ball about her career helping organizations flourish in times of change.  She starts with insights into the resources, resourcefulness, and their connection to navigating uncharted territory.  Later, Joan shares how she uses Emergency Services as a metaphor to help her clients make sense of the dynamism they’re facing.  We then discuss the importance of including unstructured time in our schedules. Listen in for the steps to anticipate and thrive during disruption.   

“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 going to be like, 'We are in current state. We are in root cause analysis'." Because they're learning the structure, they don't feel natural in it. And that is totally what I went through. But I knew I had that cheat sheet of the structure next to me so I could look down at it. And maybe what my practice was is just to feel more comfortable knowing that I don't know exactly and I've got to kind of follow a guide.” -Lori Serna

In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking withLori Serna about her career leading business transformation initiatives at Cal Poly.  She starts with tips on how to facilitate transformation at a large organization.  Later, Lori explores common fears that facilitators share during transformation work.  We then discuss the nuts and bolts of Lean and Kaizen Methodologies. Listen in for insight that spans industries.  

“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 feels like it's happening to me and change imposed is changed opposed. So we're going to oppose anything that's imposed on us.” -Natalie Born

In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Natalie Born about her role as VP of Innovation at Territory Global.  She shares how an interest in negotiating influenced her career path.  Later, Natalie explores topics running from emotional journeys and change, to groud rules and burnout.  We then discuss the importance of developing a rest ethic.   Listen in to learn all about giving people a vision that helps them get to the other side of change.  

“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 right question, do we get to the right solution? And so that's some work that Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg did in his book, What's Your Problem? And I started thinking about, but how do we apply this to discrimination? Are we asking the right questions?” -Eksteen de Waal

In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Eksteen de Waal about leadership and helping people flourish.  He shares how a traumatic childhood event influenced his career.  Later, Eksteen explores topics like Psychological Safety, culture, and fairness.  We then discuss employee needs in and out of the office.   Listen in to learn all about developing exponential cultures.

“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 enables someone to spend more time with their kids, or pursue a hobby that they love, or just have time to rest during what would be an otherwise hectic work day. So I feel like you can have all the policies in the world and outline all the best practices and all of the things, but if you don't have the actual stories around how that's impacting people's lives in a tangible way, then it doesn't really matter to people. So I think that's what feels so important about this work is that it's not just helping the company tick, it's helping people's lives work better in the end. So it definitely is ... it's a big, important piece of the story.” -Betsy Church Bula

In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Betsy Church Bula about how a deep interest in people and journalism led to her career as a Remote Work Evangelist.  She shares how storytelling has been such an important part of her career.  Later, Betsy explores the benefits of the nonlinear workday and the opportunities it opens up.  We then discuss productivity in and out of the office.   Listen in to learn how remote work is different after COVID.  

“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 new metaphor to view something in the world.” -Elizabeth Weingarten

In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Elizabeth Weingarten about how a deep interest in people and journalism led to her career researching and sharing the science of leadership development to clients around the world. She shares some of the many benefits of having strong relationships at work and how they can help us tap into positive energy.  Later, Elizabeth explains the three factors that best create the conditions for learning.  We then discuss the importance of sponsoring your peers and helping them move forward at work.   Listen in for reasons why leadership behaviors are more important than traits.  

“ I did this project at one point when I was a teacher with my students where we built these dual compost in the trees. I came back a year later and one of the families that received a dual compost in the tree, and they helped work on it as well, they were using it as a closet.  Another family that had received one and worked on it as well were using it as a bathroom only for very, very important persons. So I was like, "Wow, we built this thing. It was technically correct. It worked. It function. But the people didn't care for it, didn't necessarily want it, didn't show ownership of it, didn't know how to maintain it, couldn't repair it if it's broken, et cetera." And that's when I started this journey of like, "Oh, how do I bring in the human element into all of this?" Because I wasn't taught any of that. None of the social science stuff about human needs or human factors, et cetera.” -Victor Udoewa

In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Victor Udoewa about his varied work experience that brought him to his current position as a Service Design Lead at NASA. He explains how his experience as an engineer, educator, International Development Specialist, and health and trauma councelor helped him land a job designing educational software for Google.  Later, Victor shares his thoughts on Integrated Design, Asset based problem solving, Defuturing, Reworlding, Ontological Design, and Hyperlocality.  We then discuss the importance of including community members in the design process.   Listen in for reasons why facilitators should give up power to better attend to the needs of the people they’re serving.  

“The main objective is to drive economic impact for our city, for our province, for our country. So, we need to give a platform to entrepreneurs to have their brand shine, but we also need to architect them meeting people. So, how do we source the audience? How do we create moments of connection throughout the experience? How do we hype people before the event to come and discover these talents? That's really kind of what's driving the whole vision. That's how we're thinking about designing our stages, our content. That's how we're thinking about having a lot of collaboration and all the activities that we're doing because we want to multiply the number of times people will collaborate and will meet humans." - Anick Beaulieu

In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Anick Beaulieu about her experience designing impactful collective moments for C2 in Montreal.  She shares how having the right questions lead to a creative vision.  Later, Anick explains why intention is the key to collective moments and conversation.  We then discuss fostering tan health and connection in times of crises.  Listen in for more inspiration in using flagship events and collaboration to drive economic development in your region.

“Keep listening. Definitely keep listening, keep trying. But it is what you're saying, it's our goal to help people change their behavior. And if we want to help people change their behavior, we have to show them how and we have to seduce them. If we force people to change, it will be much harder. But what if we seduce people to change, to show them what it's worth for them to change? That's much more interesting. And people are far more willing to do that. Instead of forcing people like, "You need to change." And you're like, "Okay, I'm going to do it because you want it." But how about I want to do this because I want it myself?” -Anita Abaisa

In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Anita Abaisa about her experience making a greater impact using VR in her DEI training programs.  She shares how using the technology in her training compares to the participants that don’t.  Later, Anita explains why taking little steps is the key to behavior change.  We then discuss the importance of showing people how to change.   Listen in for more inspiration in how to support and engage teams to stop talent from changing jobs.