NOVA Scribes

Join us for a lighthearted, fast‑paced experience that will have you laughing while gaining powerful insights into the neuroscience of teamwork, critical thinking, and influence—quite possibly the most fun you’ll ever have learning how your brain works.

Why this matters:
When you put smart people in small groups, give them five minutes, and ask a strangely simple question — Would you rather fight an ostrich or a giraffe? You get one of the most entertaining demonstrations of human decision-making you’ll ever experience.

• Part team challenge, part psychological experiment, and part comedy, this activity reveals how quickly our instincts collide with logic, evidence, and the persuasive power of other people.

Participants begin by choosing a side based purely on gut feeling. Then the real fun starts:

• Teams must create a collective battle plan using nothing more than imagination, basic tools, and the information they can argue their way into believing.
• To make things even more interesting, most every group experiences a “strong opinion holder” (Designated A-hole) whose job is to push debate, stir disagreement, and introduce just enough chaos to expose how groups actually make decisions under pressure.

By the end, people switch sides, defend surprising positions, and learn more about their own thinking styles than they expect. Some discover they’re driven by intuition, others by evidence or logic, and others by the social dynamics unfolding around them.

Who it’s for:
Forward-thinking leaders, facilitators, coaches, consultants, mediators, and innovators who want to understand how we form beliefs, test claims, persuade others, and adapt our views when confronted with new information.

Format:

• Online (Zoom)
• 90 minutes, highly interactive
• Bring paper for reflection or note-taking

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Dr. Ethan Eagle is both recovering engineer and a recovering awkward person — someone who has taken a somewhat embarrassingly long time learning that humans, not hardware, are the real engines of innovation. He now works from a simple belief: every person brings irreplaceable value to a creative enterprise. In a nod to Arthur C. Clarke, Ethan is fond of the saying, “Any sufficiently advanced creative collaboration is indistinguishable from chaos,” because, in his experience, great ideas don’t emerge from tidy processes — they show up in the wonderfully messy, human spaces where curiosity beats certainty. He also happens to hold a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan.

Nonviolent Communication Made Simple
A practical empathy workshop with Marjeta Novak

Build bridges instead of barriers — one conversation at a time.

In this hands-on, 90-minute session, certified Nonviolent Communication (NVC) trainer Marjeta Novak will introduce simple, practical tools to bring more empathy and connection into your facilitation, coaching, or team conversations.

Drawing on over two decades of experience in dialogue facilitation, Marjeta translates key NVC principles into actionable techniques you can use right away.

In this 90-minute workshop, you’ll learn to:

• Recognize what truly matters to people beneath what they say
• Transform charged words into insight — and action
• Test and adapt NVC-based protocols for your real-life situations
• Experience the healing powers of empathy
• Apply five simple NVC-inspired moves to your facilitation or leadership practice

Why it matters:
Every facilitator eventually faces moments of tension when stakes are high, emotions run strong, or opinions clash. Nonviolent Communication gives you a structure and mindset to stay grounded, curious, and compassionate. It helps you transform charged language into needs-based dialogue that opens space for mutual understanding and co-creation.

Who it’s for:
Facilitators, coaches, consultants, mediators, and leaders who want to communicate with more clarity, empathy, and ease, especially in challenging group settings. No prior NVC experience required.

Format:

• Online (Zoom)
• 90 minutes, highly interactive
• Bring paper for reflection or note-taking

Marjeta Novak is a facilitator and systems-change consultant who designs and leads participatory dialogues that bring together unlikely allies to think, learn, and act wisely together. A certified trainer in Nonviolent Communication, she enjoys the energy behind people’s passions — especially when those passions collide. That’s where her NVC-based framework helps transform tension into understanding and creative movement. Originally from Slovenia, Marjeta now lives in the US and brings over two decades of international facilitation experience across four continents.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/marjetanovak/
www.humus.si/en
www.voicesthatcount.net
marjeta.novak@humus.si

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NOVA Scribes has entered into a partnership with the IFVP: the International Forum of Visual Practitioners! This workshop is an IFVP Learning Lab. All IFVP members have access to Learning Labs at https://ifvpforum.circle.so/c/learning-hub/

This workshop will be recorded and posted on YouTube for anyone who cannot attend. You can find the YouTube link in the Comments section of this NOVA Scribes Meetup event once the workshop video has been uploaded to YouTube.
You can find previously recorded videos at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJfInZHmS8prj2_DUaJ35CYY8n7SzoPMJ

We’re not charging for this workshop, but we will be asking for donations! Donations cover the costs of hosting events on Meetup, to honorariums for new graphic recorders, and scholarships.

Please be sure you are registered on Meetup! If your Zoom name doesn’t match your name on Meetup, you will not be admitted. (We’ve had Zoom bombers.)

🎉 NOVA Scribes 10-Year Anniversary Celebration! 🎉
Friday, January 16 • 5 PM to 6 PM ET • Online (Zoom)

NOVA Scribes is turning TEN, and you are officially invited to help us celebrate a full decade of creativity, community, and visual magic! ✨🖍️🎨

Grab your favorite snacks and drinks, put on your virtual party hat, and join us for a fun, festive hour packed with nostalgia, laughter, and surprises. 🎈🥳

We will kick things off with a look back at our biggest milestones, starting with Heather Martinez’s very first “Basics of Lettering” workshop in January 2016: fifteen people, a handful of markers, and the beginning of something extraordinary. Fast-forward to today: 250+ events, 2,300 members, and a community that continues to spark ideas and friendships every single week. 🚀💚

To celebrate in true NOVA Scribes style, we have lined up:
✨ Our favorite visual games and energizers to get everyone drawing and smiling
✨ A virtual gallery walk featuring more than 100 standout events from the past decade
✨ Plenty of time to toast, connect, and share memories from the journey 🎊

Whether you have been part of NOVA Scribes since the early days or you just joined last week, this celebration is for you. Come raise a glass, relive the highlights, and help us kick off the next ten years with joy and creativity. 🍾🎉

We cannot wait to celebrate with you! 🎆