How to Design Conversations that Matter w. Daniel Stillman

Our work and lives are made of conversations: Meetings, summits, workshops, one-on-ones... How can we shape these conversations so that they do more than work - how can we make them sing? If you lead a team, run meetings, coach, sell, present... you need to rethink how you design conversations.

Facilitation, it's a magic skill hard to practice

Facilitation: It's a magic skill to make every meeting better, whether you're a manager, a scientist, a CEO, a researcher or anything in between.

Facilitation is hard skill to practice - when you need it, the stakes are already high. How does a facilitator get better? Intentional practice in a safe space.

Our guest, Daniel Stillman

Daniel Stillman is an independent design facilitator. He wears many hats: teacher, workshop leader, coach, mentor, facilitator, writer and always, a designer. He's taught advanced facilitation to organizations from Google to Visa and has run sprints of all shapes and sizes for both non-profits and Fortune 500 companies alike.

Before getting a Masters in Industrial Design at Pratt in Brooklyn, he got a degree in Physics and did crazy things like manage a secret lab on the roof of the Natural History Museum and lead university research acquisitions outreach for a medical venture fund.

He's been a design strategist, a UX lead and has founded and exited startups. Now, he travels the world teaching design thinking to teams and organizations, helping them be more mindful and intentional at work. 

He believes that design means making things better tomorrow than they are today, and that a *shared* vocabulary of design across your team and organization has the power to change how you work for the better.

The Conversation Factory, the podcast

Since 2 years, The Conversation Factory podcast peels back the layers of conversation design to discover principles for shaping conversations. The podcast is Daniel's laboratory, where he explores the edges of conversation design with leading thinkers in agile, organizational change, the future of work and more. You can learn from great leaders and facilitators working for large organizations.

Conversation Factory podcast

Good talk, the book

Daniel will also share principles and concepts behind his latest book Good Talk: How To Design Conversations That Matter.

Good Talk is a step-by-step framework to effect change in your personal and professional conversations. With dozens of tools and interactive components, Good Talk is a handbook to navigate the conversations that matter.