3 days

Think With Ink is Lizard Brain’s flagship graphic facilitation training. This is an intensive workshop that covers the essentials of using visuals to facilitate a group process. The workshop covers three areas:

1. Visuals: Markers, paper handling, color use, lettering, drawing, forms, levels of information, listening for synthesis.

2. Facilitation Models, Methods, and Tools: visual energizers and icebreakers, meeting principles and ground rules, and visual tools for brainstorming ideas, comparing ideas, and collaboratively deciding the way forward.

3. Design: experiential practice designing and leading facilitated modalities.

1 or 2 days

A methods-focused workshop designed to provide working facilitators tools and techniques to help participants share ideas, make decisions, and plan the way ahead.

2 days

See Your Ideas teaches vision mapping: a collaborative, facilitative process that results in stakeholder engagement and a graphic representation of a successful future. Vision mapping:

Draws on design thinking, graphic facilitation, and participatory decision making.

Accessibly shares large amounts of information all at tonece and in context.

Promotes Systems thinking

Shows Relationsihps, patterns, and gaps

Promotes transparent communication and invites feedback

Allows stakeholders to explore the aspects of the vision that interest them the most

4 hours

The condensed version of See Your Ideas, Mapping Visions of Change focuses on three essential skills of creating strategic graphics: visual triage, affinity clustering, and rough and ready sketching.

1-day

In this workshop, we’ll practice the design and use of visual templates: large-format paper worksheets designed to guide group processes and foster effective collaboration. Visual templates guide through reflection, direction-setting, and planning, helping turn high-level goals into actionable steps. You don’t have to be an artist or a genius to use them—they’re made for regular humans who just want to get things done. Visual templates can be used virtually and in-person.

1-day or 4-hours

Leading through Facilitation is our crash course to help supervisors, managers, and executives learn and adopt more facilitative decision making processes. 90% experiential, Leading through Facilitation introduces proven methods for enrolling others in change initiatives and leveraging diverse perspectives to make the best decisions.

1 day or 4 hours 

Drawing for Facilitation is a hands-on workshop designed to help facilitators, trainers, instructors, and coaches boost their confidence and competence in visual communication. You’ll learn practical techniques to improve your lettering, icons, color choices, and layout, whether you're using flipcharts, whiteboards, or large-format butcher paper.

Through guided practice and real-time feedback, participants will explore simple, reusable visual elements to make content more accessible and engaging. We’ll cover how to structure your boards for maximum clarity, choose colors that support your message, and draw common concepts quickly, even if you don’t think of yourself as an artist. You’ll leave with a set of go-to visual tools, a fresh boost of confidence, and the skills to turn any space into a more inviting, visual environment for learning and collaboration. Just bring markers and your curiosity—we’ll supply the rest.

4 hours or 2 hours

Since 2016, we've taught hundreds of facilitators how to be at their best online. We updated The Virtual Facilitation Workshop in August 2020 to apply the realities of living in an online world. In this interactive, online workshop, we’ll cover best practices and activities for facilitating groups online. We'll discuss:

Part 1: Design, Mindset, and Energy Online

Welcoming and orienting attendees

Designing for participation

Managing participants' energy and engagement

Part 2: Facilitation using Zoom - Creating Trust and Connection

Developing your appearance online

Easing participants into new technology

Energizers and connection activities

Part 3: Facilitation using MURAL - Participatory Decision Making

Collaborative brainstorming, clustering, and deciding

Managing breakouts:

Participatory group work

In addition to the workshop, we hold Office Hours after the workshop to answer your questions in more depth... so be sure to hold time on your calendar after the workshop to participate!

Feedback on the Virtual Facilitation Workshop

"I really appreciated Brian's ability to pivot in a lightning-fast way to structure the workshop so it benefited our particular team. Every team or organization will have different needs and questions for virtual facilitation, and it felt very 'bespoke' - it's especially impressive because I'm aware he made that happen in real time."

"Overall, I thought the workshop was very informative and helpful, and left me with a great deal of things to think about and try in my own virtual facilitation tasks ahead."

"It was quite engaging, timely, and enlightening on best practices for being a good virtual facilitator. I particularly liked the use of MURAL, the mood check-ins, polls, and activities."

"It was so different than any other workshops I have been in before, and I learned so much! A lot of the backstage of facilitation I had no idea about. It was delightful to learn how to use MURAL just a few days after I learned about it!"

"Home run. This is serving the world beautifully in a time of great need."

  2-hour or 4-hour

This workshop teaches facilitators how to use mind maps as practical tools for sense making. A mind map starts with a central idea, then branches out like an organized spiderweb. It’s how your brain wants to think, but with more markers. Instead of forcing linear thinking, mind mapping shows relationships, gaps, and patterns that help people connect ideas faster and smarter. You’ll get your hands dirty with live exercises, sketching your own maps and guiding others through the process. We’ll cover how to set up a mapping session, how to guide it effectively in a group setting, and how to use color, keywords, and images for organization and clarity.

4 hours

This workshop is designed for facilitators who want to lead with more presence, resilience, and insight—especially when the room gets hot. You’ll learn to recognize resistance not as opposition, but as a form of participation—often a sign that someone is wrestling with the implications of change. You’ll explore how to respond to resistance without trying to fix or fight it, but instead making space for it, naming it, and inviting deeper engagement.

Through real-world scenarios, roleplay, and peer feedback, participants will practice:

Identifying the common forms of resistance (e.g., giving incomplete information, asking for more detail, confusion, time constraints).

Responding skillfully to emotional triggers (yours and others’).

Re-centering a group without suppressing strong voices.

Establishing psychological safety while holding firm boundaries.

You’ll leave with a clearer understanding of how to turn tension into transformation and resistance into relationship.

2 or 4 hour

In this hands-on workshop, participants will learn the essentials of visual notetaking. Visual Notetaking is designed for anyone who wants to capture and communicate ideas more effectively, regardless of drawing ability. We’ll cover the basics of sketchnoting, including how to listen for big ideas, organize content visually, and build a simple visual vocabulary using basic shapes. Through guided exercises and real-time practice, you’ll learn how to combine text, images, and structure to make your notes more engaging and memorable.

Come ready with a notebook and pen—by the end, you’ll walk away with new skills, a few pages of visual notes, and the confidence to bring your ideas to life.

The Design Thinking Crash Course is an experiential workshop that will tap into your creative potential and problem-solving skills. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to refresh your innovation toolkit, this session offers something for every level. Based on the design thinking methods of the LUMA Institute, you will build a working knowledge of innovation methods and the confidence to use them in your own work. This course is open to anyone curious about innovation. No prior design or technical background is needed.