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• MAFN's April 2025 Online Workshop Series: Playful Work Design for Enhanced Facilitation: Unlocking Creativity, Flow, and Engagement

  • Start
    04/15/2025
  •  
  • End
    04/29/2025
  •  
  • Schedule
    3 sessions
  • Location
    Online using Zoom

  Register

  Duration:  3 Session Series – 90 minutes each session (4.5 hours total)

  
  

  About the workshop: 

  
  

  Discover how to transform your facilitation practices through the power of play and flow. This multi-session series will equip you with innovative tools and techniques to foster creativity, enhance engagement, and achieve peak performance in any facilitation setting. Learn to apply playful work design principles, understand the flow cycle, and create environments that encourage active participation and meaningful interaction. Perfect for facilitators at all levels seeking to elevate their skills and drive impactful change in their organizations.

  
  

  The "Playful Work Design for Enhanced Facilitation" series is designed to delve deep into the intersection of play, flow, and effective facilitation. Over three sessions, participants will explore how to harness the power of playful culture and the flow state to enhance their facilitation practices, boost creativity, and foster a more engaging and interactive environment.

  
  

  Why Use Play and Flow:

  
  

  Studies have shown that incorporating play into work can increase creativity by up to 20% and improve problem-solving skills by 14% (Statista, 2022). Flow, a concept popularized by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, has been linked to a 500% increase in productivity (McKinsey, 2013). By understanding and utilizing these principles, facilitators can create more dynamic and effective sessions.

  
  

  Session 1: Introduction to Playful Work Design and Flow (90 minutes)

  • Overview of playful work design and its benefits

  • Introduction to the flow state and its significance in facilitation

  • Detailed exploration of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s and Stephen Kotler’s flow cycle (Struggle, Release, Flow, Recovery)

  • Case studies demonstrating successful application in various industries

  • Interactive exercises to identify personal play styles and preferences

  • Techniques to help facilitators and participants achieve and maintain flow

  
  

  Session 2: Creating Playful and Interactive Sessions (90 minutes)

  • Strategies to incorporate play into facilitation to enhance engagement

  • Tools and techniques for designing interactive, participant-driven sessions

  • Practical applications and role-playing scenarios to practice new skills

  • Long-term strategies for embedding playful work design into facilitation practices

  • Evaluating the impact of playful work design on participant outcomes

  • Developing a facilitation style that is flexible, creative, and adaptive

  
  

  Session 3: Overcoming Burnout Through Play and Flow (90 minutes)

  • Recognizing signs of burnout and understanding its impact on facilitation

  • Techniques to use play and flow for stress reduction and resilience

  • Creating a personal action plan for maintaining well-being and peak performance

  
  

  Learning Objectives 

  In this session, participants will:

  
  

  • Understand and apply the principles of playful work design to enhance facilitation practices.

  • Achieve and sustain flow states to boost creativity and engagement.

  • Develop strategies to create interactive, participant-driven sessions that foster active participation and meaningful dialogue.

  
  

  NOTE: This workshop will be recorded for distribution to all who register.

  
  

  This is a 3-part 90-minute Series. Each session will take place starting at 2:00pm EDT.

  
  
  

  Speakers: 

  Acey Holmes is a seasoned expert in workplace dynamics and corporate training, specializing in the transformative power of play and flow. With a robust background in facilitating engaging workshops, Acey has worked with diverse clients, including tech startups and educational institutions. Her focus is on enhancing employee well-being, creativity, and performance. 

  Acey’s recent TEDx talk on overcoming burnout through play and flow has solidified her reputation as an engaging and insightful presenter. She brings a wealth of knowledge and practical strategies to her workshops, aiming to inspire and drive meaningful change in professional environments.

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• (Members Only) MAFN Small Business CoP - Small Business Community of Practice

  • Start
    04/28/2025
  •  
  • End
    12/22/2025
  •  
  • Schedule
    8 sessions
  • Location
    Online using Zoom

  Register

  Duration: 60-Minutes 

  4th Monday each month at noon

  (Note: We are not meeting on May 26, 2025, due the Memorial Day Holiday.)

  
  

  The MAFN Small Business Community of Practice (CoP) is a group of MAFN members with small facilitation businesses who work together to improve their business knowledge and skills through support, innovation, and shared resources.  This CoP will be a co-creation space for MAFN members to host, bring topics to the table and use this space to support one another, innovate and share resources. We are seeking volunteers to join as co-facilitators and tech hosts.

  
  

  Responsibilities include:
  

  • Ability to work with other leaders to identify a topic each month.
  • Ensure there are a minimum of two facilitators each month.  
  • Commit to shared responsibility for 6 months (you do not need to facilitate, host or attend each CoP) to help strategize the future of the SB CoP.
  • For those interested in volunteering, please contact christine@swangnomy.com.

  Mission:

  To foster a learning environment where members can exchange knowledge, tools, and resources to manage and grow successful facilitation businesses.

  Benefits:

  • Collaboration: Connect with like-minded professionals to co-create and innovate.
  • Business Expansion: Gain insights into marketing, client engagement, and scaling small facilitation businesses.

  If you're passionate about facilitation and looking to enhance your small business, this community will provide the resources, inspiration, and support to help you thrive.

  
  

  Please note that this is for MAFN members only and there is limited space, so please register early. 

  
  

  Our guiding principles are:

  • Come open to learning

  • Bring your questions, share your expertise

  • Don’t expect closure - our shared learning is a process!

  
  

  Please note that this is for MAFN members only and there is limited space, so please register early. 

  
  

  ONLINE CoP Discussion REMINDERS

  • If you register and cannot attend, please cancel to allow someone else to come. 

  • Registration closes at midnight the day before the discussion group.

  • Registered participants will receive instructions for joining the live session and any additional details 1 day in advance and the morning of the event. Please be sure to look for the link in your email.

  • MAFN CoP discussions will not be recorded in order to support space for learning.

  • For registration or membership questions contact info@mafn.org.

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• MAFN's May 9th Online Workshop - Introduction to Applied Improv in Meeting Facilitation

  • When
    05/09/2025
  •  
    12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
  • Location
    Online using Zoom

  Register

  Duration:  90 minutes

  About the workshop: 

  As a facilitator, you design your meetings to be interactive, agile, and engaging. Improv games can make your sessions more creative, memorable, and playful while still enabling you to accomplish your learning and discussion objectives. 

  This workshop will introduce you to several games you can use online or in-person to generate and deepen the conversation, stimulate planning and visioning, safely explore areas of concern and disagreement, and much more. 

  Session leaders will select volunteers to demonstrate the games, and create opportunities for participants to explore ways in which to use them. 

  Learning Objectives 

  In this session, participants will:

  • Explore the concept of Applied Improv and how it can be used in group facilitation. 
  • Experience a sample of games to assess their potential and impact
  • Expand their own facilitator’s toolkit

  NOTE: This workshop will be recorded for distribution to all who register (breakout rooms will not be recorded).

  This is a 90-minute workshop. It will take place starting at 12pm EDT.

  
  

  Speakers:

  

  Claudia Lach (Principal, Lach Training & Consulting) is passionate about partnering with clients to identify the change they need to achieve their desired outcomes. She is an OD consultant, facilitator, and leadership coach who founded her private practice in 2000. Her practice focuses on leadership development, strategic planning, inclusive and equitable workplaces, conflict resolution, and teamwork. Claudia works with various nonprofit, public, and private organizations.  Her clients work in education, legal services, social services, worker rights, civil rights, municipal services, community organizing, community development, affordable housing, philanthropy, health care, and consulting services. Claudia has an MS in Management from Lesley University.

  
  

  
  

  Sheree Galpert (Principal, Dramatic Results) is a trainer, actor, writer, and educator with over three decades of experience delivering highly engaging, interactive, and playful learning experiences.  One of her favorite areas of expertise is Applied Improv - using improvisation as a jumping-off point for team building, data gathering, and management training. Clients include Harvard University, Merck, Nestle, Xerox, Partners Healthcare, Microsoft, and Simmons Leadership Institute. Sheree did her graduate studies in Organization Development at American University/NTL, and earned her BFA in Theater. 

  
  

  
  

  ONLINE WORKSHOP REMINDERS
  

  • No refunds or credits for registration cancellations.
  • Registered participants will receive instructions for joining the live session and any additional details 1 day in advance and the morning of the event. Please be sure to look for the link in your email.
    
  • Workshops begin promptly at 12:00PM Eastern.  Please log on at least 15 minutes in advance to ensure your internet connections, audio and other settings are functioning properly.
  • MAFN Members have access to all online workshop recordings via the MAFN website.
  • For registration or membership questions contact info@mafn.org.

  Show details
• Technology COP: Play with StreamAlive

  • When
    05/20/2025
  •  
    5:00 PM - 6:00 PM
  • Location
    Online using Zoom
  • Spaces left
    41

  Register

  Duration: 60-Minutes

  
  Tuesday, May 20th, 2025, 5:00-6:00 PM EDT

  
  

  This month we will play with the app StreamAlive: an application that pulls responses from the chat directly into interactive visuals: maps, word clouds, polls and much more. https://www.streamalive.com/

  We are still new to this app ourselves, but wanted to test it out after having heard great things about it. Join us to discover all the options StreamAlive has to easily make our sessions more engaged.

  If you have a lot of experience with StreamAlive already and would like to show us how you use it, please reach out to us before the COP (anneclairefrank@gmail.com).

  
  

  Please note that this is for MAFN members only and there is limited space, so please register early.

  
  

  Our guiding principles are:

  • Come open to learning (growth mindset)
  • Not expert-led – will be hosted by peers with space to learn from all
  • Bring your questions, share your expertise

  
  

  ONLINE CoP Discussion REMINDERS

  • If you register and cannot attend, please cancel to allow someone else to come.
  • Registration closes at midnight the day before the discussion group.
  • Registered participants will receive instructions for joining the live session and any additional details 1 day in advance and on the morning of the event. Please be sure to look for the link in your email.
  • MAFN CoP discussions will not be recorded to support space for learning.
  • For registration or membership questions contact info@mafn.org.

  Show details
• (Members Only) MAFN Community of Practice: Conversations about Facilitation in Training

  • Start
    05/27/2025
  •  
  • End
    11/25/2025
  •  
  • Schedule
    4 sessions
  • Location
    Online using Zoom

  Register

  Duration: Each session is 1 hour (60-minutes)

  
  

  • March 25th, 2025
  • May 27th, 2025
  • July 22nd, 2025
  • September 23rd, 2025
  • November 25th, 2025

  
  

  Core facilitation skills and values inform not only facilitation practice but aligned professions such as training (where trainers often describe themselves as “facilitators!”). In this bi-monthly peer-led COP, we discuss how facilitation expertise enhances training delivery, sharing best practices from our experience as facilitators and/or trainers. These online facilitated conversations are standalone topic-based forums, with discussion groups limited to encourage maximum participation from all attendees. Topic suggestions and volunteer leaders are always welcome. Come with curiosity; participate with passion; leave with new learning.

  
  

  You are welcome to attend as many meetings in the series as your schedule allows. They will not build on each other. Once you register for the series, you will receive a notification for each meeting.

  Please note that this is for MAFN members only. These sessions will NOT be recorded.

  
  

  
  

  Recipient of the inaugural 2024 NYS Justice Peer Initiative Impact Award in Training & Development, Ruth Riddick, CARC-RCP/f, is a coach and trainer with a specialization in addiction recovery and a 20-year practice at Sobriety Together.  She is co-founder and program manager of the New York Certification Board Trainer Registry, an organization of professional trainers enhancing standards in non-clinical role training.  As a curriculum developer, she has contributed to role training for Veteran Supported Recovery, CRPA-Family and CRPA-Youth trainings for professional certifications.  She serves on the Board of the New York Association of Treatment Court Professionals.  She has been widely honored for her work.

  
  

  Our guiding principles are:

  • Come open to learning

  • Bring your questions, share your expertise

  • Don’t expect closure - our shared learning is a process!

  
  

  ONLINE CoP Discussion REMINDERS

  • If you register and cannot attend, please cancel to allow someone else to come. 

  • Registration closes at midnight the day before the discussion group.

  • Registered participants will receive instructions for joining the live session and any additional details 1 day in advance and the morning of the event. Please be sure to look for the link in your email.

  • MAFN CoP discussions will not be recorded in order to support space for learning.

  • For registration or membership questions contact info@mafn.org

  Show details
• MAFN's June 13th Online Workshop - Power of the Debrief: Fueling Innovation Through Reflection

  • When
    06/13/2025
  •  
    12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
  • Location
    Online using Zoom

  Register

  Duration:  90 minutes

  About the workshop: 

  Join Tes Cohen from Transformative Gatherings for a dynamic, participatory workshop where we will explore the often overlooked power of the debrief. Discover how creating space for post-gathering/engagement discussion, to reflect on successes and lessons learned, can pave the way for continuous improvement and innovation.

  Learning Objectives 

  In this session, participants will:

  • Explore the importance and tremendous value of debriefing
  • Gain a deeper understanding of potential debrief components
  • Be inspired to debrief more often and with more intention, ultimately resulting in increased impact

  NOTE: This workshop will be recorded for distribution to all who register (breakout rooms will not be recorded).

  This is a 90-minute workshop. It will take place starting at 12pm EDT.

  
  

  Speakers: 
  

  Tes Cohen’s life purpose is to create meaningful opportunities that foster curiosity and community in order to cultivate interconnectedness and continuous learning. She delights in doing that in her consulting practice by co-creating transformative workplace gatherings. Her career began as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Costa Rica and includes nonprofit program management and CSR at Gap Inc. Tes is also cofounder of Radical Reset, creating a movement of rested leaders and a world in which rest is normalized, democratized, and celebrated.

  
  

  ONLINE WORKSHOP REMINDERS
  

  • No refunds or credits for registration cancellations.
  • Registered participants will receive instructions for joining the live session and any additional details 1 day in advance and the morning of the event. Please be sure to look for the link in your email.
    
  • Workshops begin promptly at 12:00PM Eastern.  Please log on at least 15 minutes in advance to ensure your internet connections, audio and other settings are functioning properly.
  • MAFN Members have access to all online workshop recordings via the MAFN website.
  • For registration or membership questions contact info@mafn.org.

  Show details