Blog
VIDEO: What does reliable transportation enable?
Knowledge walls aren’t just about creating a beautiful artifact. They are also research tools. Learn how we used knowledge walls to support the Better Bus initiative to improve Metrobus for the Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia region.
WEBINAR: Listening to Self and Others
Unless we are able to listen to ourselves mindfully, there's little chance of being able to listen well to others. Listening well to others enables us to understand the bigger picture and make informed and intelligent decisions for ourselves, our families, our teams and our organizations. During this webinar, we explore the concepts of listening, mental models and internal story-telling.
INTERVIEW: Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Launched My Business or Startup
Taking the risk to start a company is a feat few are fully equipped for. Any business owner knows that the first few years in business are anything but glamorous. Building a successful business takes time, lessons learned, and most importantly, enormous growth as a business owner. In this interview with Doug Noll, Lauren Green shares the lessons she’s learned since starting her business.
RECORDED WEBINAR: Introduction to Facilitating with Visuals (December 9, 2022, hosted by MAFN)
Visuals are central to facilitating engaging meetings, but many facilitators and trainers lack a strong design muscle. Stop making boring, meaningless slide decks and start bringing visuals into your meetings in a fun, purposeful and creative way that will have a real impact on improving the outcomes of your meeting.
This webinar is a teaser version of our online course Introduction to Facilitating with Visuals. It was recorded live and hosted by the Mid-Atlantic Facilitators Network.
PODCAST: Do Your Meetings Suck? with The Biz Dojo and Lauren Green
In this episode of The Biz Dojo, Seth Anderson, J.P. Gaston and Lauren Green explore some common issues with meetings, what can make them better, and how visual notetaking is a complete game-changer to creating connection between meeting goers and the content.
PODCAST: Visual Notetaking with Beltway Broadcasts and Lauren Green (September 21, 2022)
In this episode of Beltway Broadcast, your Metro DC Chapter of ATD hosts Lauren Green. Lauren shares how to capture key insights and takeaways during meetings and events with words and images and discusses the benefits of creating an illustrative record of the session.
Visual Facilitation Tools for New-to-Visual Facilitators
Visual tools help people see their ideas in a way that gets people focused and on the same page. Sixty-five percent of the population are visual learners, so if you’re not using visuals, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to engage participants.
So You Think You Can’t Draw (and Why That Isn’t True)
Drawing as an adult is different than as a kid or an artist. Drawing as an adult can, of course, be something that you do just for fun, but it can also be purposeful and valuable in the workplace.
Designing Meeting Agreements with Visual Tools
The way we frame a discussion has a direct impact on achieving the outcomes of a meeting. Meeting agreements are ground rules, metaphors or principles that help a group understand the expectations of behavior during a meeting.
5 Drawing Skills Every Facilitator Needs
Facilitators are not illustrators, nor do they need to be; however, basic drawing skills are an essential tool to be able to quickly draw models and create engaging and informative meeting visuals.
5 Simple Visual Planning Templates
When questions and ideas are visualized, it’s easier to identify what knowledge and plans are missing. A visual template works like a silent facilitator, making meetings faster, smoother and easier to facilitate.
8 Models Every Facilitator Should Be Able to Draw Live
A model is a diagram that helps convey a key concept using strategically aligned words and images used in a meeting to encourage a specific mindset or prompt thinking in a new way. Here are eight essential models and how to draw them.
3 Visual Energizers for In-Person and Online Meetings
Energizers are the glue that keeps your agenda together, especially virtually. Energizers should always have a purpose, whether building connections, testing the technology or modeling the behavior.
PODCAST: Facilitation Lab with Douglas Ferguson and Lauren Green (March 7, 2022)
In this episode of Control the Room, Lauren Green joined Douglas Ferguson to discuss her facilitation journey, incorporating movement into meetings and the importance of facilitation training for leaders.
Highlights from Control the Room Episode with David Sibbet: Graphic Recording vs. Graphic Facilitation
I hear it all the time. What’s the difference between graphic recording and graphic facilitation? There’s a lot of industry debate about this term, but no one is more qualified to make this distinction than David Sibbet.
Leading Self: Bring Your Whole Self to Work
The best leaders are the ones who know themselves well enough to admit their limitations and lead from their strengths.
Listening Made Simple Part I: Listening to Ourselves
Listening is a first step in a much longer and more complex healing process. This blog is part one of a two part blog series on listening, designed to make learning to listen simple.
Listening Made Simple Part II: 3 Skills for Listening to Others
We start by listening to our own stories, so that we can set them aside more easily in order to consider other "sides of the beach ball."
Leading Self: Understanding Conflict
Whether you’re experiencing conflict as an individual or as a team, understanding how to have constructive conflict allows for innovation, learning and growth. Having a good sense of your personal conflict style and how to use other styles makes you a more flexible and effective leader.
Mastering the Art of Giving and Receiving Feedback
Some feedback is easy to give. Then there's feedback we resist. This blog explores the art of giving and receiving feedback.