Facilitation Lab Podcast

In this episode of the New Friction series from the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Darren Cambridge, Managing Director of the Institute for Trustworthy AI in Law & Society (TRAILS) at the University of Maryland. They start from Darren's framing that the next decade's central question is capabilities and authentic humans together, not humans fitted in around AI. Darren d...

In this episode of the New Friction series from the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Daniel Elizalde, VP of Product and Technology at ReUp Education, about why faster AI-powered building doesn't automatically produce business results. Daniel describes the "speed fallacy" in B2B, where long sales cycles, security reviews, and limited customer attention cap how fast product...

In this episode of the New Friction podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Bryon Jacob, a technology advisor and AI strategist who previously co-founded data.world as CTO and spent a decade at HomeAway. Jacob argues that the teams succeeding with AI-assisted software development share one thing in common: rigorous governance — including near-100% automated test coverage, strictly enforced archi...

In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Yvette Cronje, Head of UX Design for HP's unified consumer app experience, about how design leadership is shifting as AI compresses production time. Cronje argues that AI hasn't removed the hard part of design so much as relocated it: craft is shifting from executing pixels to judgment, taste, and critique, and teams...

In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Alyssa Coughlin, Director and Chief of Staff for Autodesk's Data, AI, and ML Platform organization, about what it actually takes to move a large engineering company from AI-enabled to AI-native. Coughlin describes how bottlenecks have shifted away from writing code toward code review, deployment permissions, and desi...

In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Jeff Chow, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Miro, about where friction is showing up inside product teams as AI reshapes how work gets done. Jeff describes how PMs prototyping in high fidelity, designers coding, and engineers orchestrating agents are collapsing old role boundaries, and argues the underlying te...

In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Kristi James, a Lead Change Manager at the World Health Organization's Health Emergencies Programme in Berlin. Kristi traces her facilitation instincts back to childhood event planning and an early corporate career at DHL, where she discovered that sketching out processes and user journeys helped teams see where they...

In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Joe McLean, Group Product Manager for the AI Stream at Miro, who led the overhaul of Miro's Sidekicks and Flows AI surfaces launched at Canvas 25. Joe traces how his hobbyist love of Eurorack modular synthesizers shaped Flows, arguing that visible, patchable connections reveal what a chat box hides, and that a good t...

In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Taran Lent, Chief Technology Officer at Illumia, about how his organization moved from individual AI experimentation to enterprise-wide capability. Lent describes building an "enablement task force" that deliberately avoided becoming a governing bottleneck, instead creating conditions for employees to play, learn, an...

In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Sarah B. Nelson, Distinguished Designer at Kyndryl and co-founder of Kyndryl Vital, about why AI's promise to remove friction is actually surfacing the human dynamics organizations have always avoided facing. They unpack how a single word like trust splinters into distinct concerns — model accuracy, data use, organiz...

In this episode of the New Friction podcast, host Douglas Ferguson speaks with Peter Bell, founder of Gather.dev and author of the forthcoming O'Reilly book Scaling AI Adoption in Engineering. Bell draws on his work running invite-only peer communities for senior engineering leaders to diagnose why most organizations stall out in AI pilot mode rather than achieving meaningful transformation. The c...

In this episode of the New Friction podcast, host Douglas Ferguson speaks with Jeff Grabill, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University at Buffalo, recorded in the immediate aftermath of the IHE US AI Summit 2026, which both men attended. Grabill recounts what emerged from that two-day working convening — the foundation of the Buffalo Statement, a collective public agenda for AI in...

In the inaugural episode of New Friction, host Douglas Ferguson and Erik Skogsberg explore how AI has shifted organizational friction from execution to decision-making and alignment. While AI accelerates production, it magnifies existing dysfunctions when teams lack collaborative habits. They introduce the concept of "multiplayer AI"—moving beyond individual productivity gains toward team-level co...

New Friction is a podcast from Douglas Ferguson on the real organizational challenges of AI transformation. AI made execution almost free but most organizations are still stuck. Not because the technology doesn't work, but because the people problems got harder: decision-making, governance, and trust friction. Each episode features practitioners navigating AI change at ambitious organizations — wh...

"I showed up just wanting to observe, but a deep prompt and a one-on-one conversation led to a beautiful, unexpected connection." - Erin Warner In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Erin Warner, founder of Head + Heart Coaching and Facilitation. Erin shares her journey from traditional leadership training to interactive facilitation, emphasizing the powe...

"I wondered what would happen if I opened a C-suite meeting with a dad joke or a meme, and it made people actually look forward to coming." - Renita Joyce Smith In this episode of the Facilitation Lab Podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Renita Joyce Smith, CEO of Leap Forward Coaching and Consulting. Renita shares her journey into facilitation, emphasizing the importance of authenticity, hum...

"When I started my career, people said there's no way a computer can create real human connection, and I was like, I think it can." - Sophie Bujold In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Sophie Bujold of Cliqueworthy. Sophie shares how her early experiences in MIRC chat rooms shaped her approach to building human-centered, connected communities. They disc...

"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...

"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, athletic...

"The emotions that come out from magic, the spaces that magic allows you, they are quite global." - Rubens Filho In this Facilitation Lab podcast episode, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Rubens Filho, Director of Spells & CEO of Abracademy, about using magic as a tool for transformative learning and team development. Rubens shares how magic, psychology, and learning design are blended to create e...

"When I see humans unable to center and organize, it feels like nails on a chalkboard to me." - Lori Boozer In this episode of the Facilitation Lab Podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Lori Boozer, a narrative strategist and wellness visionary. Lori shares her journey from law to facilitation, emphasizing the importance of creating inclusive spaces for genuine participation and healing. The c...

"Sometimes in facilitation, it's a dance between creating space for others and offering perspectives that move the conversation forward." - Robin Cory In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson speaks with facilitation experts Tammy Shubat and Robin Cory, both Voltage Control certification alumni. Tammy shares her journey from leadership to facilitation, focusing on rel...

"The very fact we came together and wrote a constitution, even if it's not a perfect constitution, is a monumental achievement because people from 50 countries had to come together and get something done."- Charles Hoskinson In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson engages with Charles Hoskinson, CEO of Input I Output and Co-Founder of Cardano. They delve into themes...

"It's so much more beneficial when everyone gives up ownership of ideas and creates something that belongs to the whole group."- Emilia Åström In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, host Douglas Ferguson interviews Emilia Åström, facilitator at Howspace and co-creator of "Perspectives." Emilia shares her journey from competitive advertising to collaborative facilitation, inspired by her...

"Somewhere along the line, as we grow up, we get so used to doing things a certain way that we lose touch with that creative side of the brain. As kids, we tried all sorts of things and never stuck to a certain methodology or structure, but I think facilitation brings out that childlike curiosity, which makes the whole thing very special. And I think that's what's kept me going."- Varsha Prasad In...