Facilitation Lab Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

"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, 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

"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, 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.

"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 training teachers on national reform projects, which led her to specialize in facilitating corporate social responsibility and social impact initiatives. The discussion highlights the importance of inclusivity in decision-making, the differences between facilitating adult learning and teaching children, and the role of effective questioning in overcoming resistance. Alexis emphasizes creating environments where all voices are heard, fostering collaboration, and drawing out collective wisdom for impactful outcomes.

"Fallow is such an eco-cyclical idea but I feel that it's very underrated. So I've been thinking about the value. We think about moving through creative destruction into periods of renewal, there is a space and time that is fallow. Things are sort of resting and they're quiet. And there are different ideas and different sorts of notions or learnings that are sort of dormant in us.  And then they come out at these times and you're like, well, that's been waiting to just emerge as this delightful piece of tacit knowledge, and then it becomes more explicit knowledge. But I love the idea that there are these things simmering. They're all part of the compost. They're all part of the soil."-Anna Jackson

In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Anna Jackson about her experience helping groups work together on what matters most to them, often facilitating collaborative learning experiences, and as a partner for people who want to learn Liberating Structures.  We explore why it's ok to be fallow at times and methods for understanding the needs of clients.  We then discuss the differences in group work and individual work.  Listen in to learn about the mechanisms of systems thinking, transitional facilitation, and learning partnerships.

" I wanted the classroom to be based on the fact that first and foremost, bring everything you got. Bring all aspects of who you feel and think and believe yourself to be, because we're all constantly forming that idea, all trying to figure out who our authentic self is. So through that, I started to focus more on creating an actual pledge for each of my class periods. So instead of saying these are the rules, I had my students help create community in that particular class period and what that meant to them. So that's something that I've presented nationally on creating a pledge, a classroom pledge for each individual classroom."-Matthew Reynolds

In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Matthew Reynolds about building a Diversity and Inclusion Consultancy, what inspired their strong point of view within the industry, and finding a sense of belonging growing up as a multiethnic, same gender, peaceful warrior in rural America.  We explore strategies for creating environments of humanity and shifting the consciousness of humanity.  We then discuss the distinction between acquaintance, friend, and close friend.  Listen in to question how much of your thinking is your own thinking.

"One of the most common things that I'm hearing is, 'thank you for sharing'.  It drives me nuts because there's a big part of me that is just like, there's no 'thank you' needed.  I didn't share that for your gratitude to be received. I shared that because it was on my mind. And so I think what I fear is happening is we're starting to have this conversation about let's listen. Let's just take time to listen. Without having been trained on what to do after you hear things. And I don't know if we're quite ready to really deeply listen without having to know what to do." -Bre Gentile

In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Bre Gentile about her unconventional career path transitioning from Academia to tech to Founder of her own lab.  We discuss the amazing knowledge she has gained in trauma and toxic stress research and how she was able to leverage her lived experience to help app designers, UX researchers, and other creatives become more trauma-informed so they build more accessible products. We then talk about using friendship as a tool to develop emotional intelligence, empathy, and deep listening skills. Listen in to learn strategies for developing self awareness and empathy at work.  

"I think one of the things that is unfortunate about design thinking is it gets a little bit of a bad rap in that people don't see a practical application of it. And I think if you can strip away some of the aesthetics and strip away some of the language, but there are practical applications, I call it, we have to be practical and tactical because we can really drive a lot of change in our organization by doing that." -Brian Sullivan

In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Brian about his twenty plus years of experience in the Design Industry and what led him to become a Design Thinking advocate and educator.  We discuss how to make Design Thinking more practical and the joy of having a job making other people better at their job.  We then talk about the importance of creating space for mental health and a few activities he uses with his teams.  Listen in to learn about his unique approach for educating design students, designing mentorships, and knowledge sharing.

"We spend a lot of time figuring out how to dismantle people's ideas.  How to poke holes in them. Critical thinking is supposed to be critical, right? Well, not always.  Critical thinking sometimes is about how you combine things in new ways and create new things out of them.  See what's possible.  Not just how you deconstruct them and leave all the parts on the table."-Gregory Galle

In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Gregory Galle about his 30 years of experience applying his Think Wrong problem solving system to both the private and public sectors.  We discuss scaling his business internationally and recruiting local assets for global problems.  We then talk about the importance of understanding Cross Sector Communication and creating the conditions for 'Being' in business.  Listen in to learn about his unique approach to Challenge Statements, reframing How Might We questions, and lots of practical activities to help you change group dynamics.

"Every product leader needs to have their own definition of what makes a great product manager because there is not this one size fits all definition. We're operating in so many different sizes and types of companies and organizations, so I strongly encourage the product teams to come up with their own definition."-Petra Willie

In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Petra Willie about her extensive experience developing product people and how her experience as a software developer influenced her facilitation practice. We discuss a meeting she designed called Team Radar, the purpose of the meeting, what it helped accomplish, and why it was so powerful. Listen in for actionable facilitation tips, virtual challenges, and a few of her favorite facilitation questions.  

"I really believe that anyone who has a business is a salesperson. You've got this far and you may not follow that traditional path. You may not be the guy in the polo shirt who's going to make 100 phone calls that day. But I feel like there's something to be said for people who have built their business and want to keep selling it and they have the tools to sell it. You can have these conversations."-Dana Publicover

In this episode of Control the Room, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dana Publicover about her extensive experience designing experiences for customers across a variety of creative industries and how her background in facilitating Design Sprints influenced her current business. We discuss the importance of embracing your inner salesperson,  and we explore what designing an exceptional sales experience looks like and why you shouldn't hire a salesperson. Listen in to learn about outbound vs. inbound sales, nurturing relationships, and setting the rest of your team up for sales success.