Hey there Conversation Designers! Welcome back to the Conversation Factory, Season Three! I’ve got some amazing interviews lined up for the coming weeks and months and I’m excited to get cracking.

Douglas Ferguson is a deep and brilliant facilitator, entrepreneur and technologist. Douglas and I met at the Google Sprint Conference and got to know each other a lot better when he came to NYC to join my Facilitation Masterclass. It’s always humbling to see the caliber of leaders who come out the masterclass.

Douglas’s Innovation Agency, Voltage Control, is hosting a Facilitator Summit in Austin May 23rd and I’m excited that he invited me to do a session on Narrative Models for facilitation. We’re also co-hosting a pre-conference Masterclass. I’m really excited about it and I hope you can make it out. Learn more and get tickets here: https://voltagecontrol.co/the-facilitation-master-class-with-daniel-stillman-douglas-ferguson-c827a62d8a71

Douglas and I go deep on Innovation, Co-creation, sprinting and he talks about his journey as a facilitator and how he keeps learning and growing.

At minute 19, we dive into why and how diversity helps groups solve problems and towards the midpoint Douglas reveals his facilitator’s secret resource: Camp counselor activity books.

By minute 35 we muse about a leader as someone who sets the cadence of work, and who makes sure that cadence doesn’t become a rut or burnout.

At minute 40 we talk about the Austin facilitation summit and why we’re co-running a masterclass together.

Finally, at minute 53 we talk about how to talk to a CTO and how, not surprisingly, they are people.

Some other episodes you can dig into to learn more:

·        Kai Hailey, head of the Google Sprint Master academy on the importance of Ethics in a Sprint culture

http://theconversationfactory.com/podcast/2018/9/26/building-sprint-culture

·        Dee Scarano, who’s a Design Sprint Trainer and Facilitator at AJ and Smart, for more background on the sprint and being an awesome facilitator

http://theconversationfactory.com/podcast/2018/8/3/everyday-design-sprints-dee-scarano-aj-smart

·        Paul Pangaro, professor at Carnegie Mellon University about cybernetic theory in conversations

http://theconversationfactory.com/podcast/2017/12/16/professor-paul-pangaro-on-the-cybernetics-of-conversations-and-a-theory-of-everything

Things we dig into, and some links to help you dig even deeper:

Co-Creation cultivates Advocacy, ownership and Mutual Understanding

https://voltagecontrol.co/co-creation-is-a-powerful-tool-for-digital-transformation-5cfd942702bf

Co-Creation builds requisite Variety/Diversity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variety_(cybernetics)

IAP2 spectrum as a model for the spectrum of co-creation

https://www.iap2.org/

Complexity Theory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complexity_theory_and_organizations

Liberating Structures, a model for modular workshop mechanics

http://www.liberatingstructures.com/

Cynefin (kuh-nevin)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin_framework

The power of Making and Sharing Tools (The Voltage Control Sprint Scorecard)

https://voltagecontrol.co/the-voltage-control-design-sprint-scorecard-503b1fc1b8be

The History of Design Sprints and the power of AWE (Accelerated working environments)

Jake’s Book:

https://www.thesprintbook.com/

Google’s Toolkit

https://designsprintkit.withgoogle.com/introduction/overview

Timeboxing and Raising the Stakes

More on Holocracy in my Interview with Sally McCutchion

http://theconversationfactory.com/podcast/2017/6/6/sally-mccutchion-on-holacracy-and-self-management-at-all-levels-of-organization

Liberating Structures: Troika Consulting

http://www.liberatingstructures.com/8-troika-consulting/

Liberating Structures: 1-2-4-All

http://www.liberatingstructures.com/1-1-2-4-all/

Note and Vote as a Modular Component (thinking alone before thinking together)

https://www.fastcompany.com/3034772/note-and-vote-how-google-ventures-avoids-groupthink-in-meetings

To Engineer is Human

https://www.amazon.com/Engineer-Human-Failure-Successful-Design/dp/0679734163/

Places to Learn about Douglas and Voltage Control:

voltagecontrol.co

twitter.com/voltagectr

https://www.instagram.com/voltagectrl/

https://www.facebook.com/voltage-control

https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglasferguson/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/voltage-control