NOVA Scribes

Red Team Facilitation

Learning facilitation methods for better decisions under complexity
Wednesday, February 4 | 6:00–7:00 PM

What does the U.S. Army know about facilitation? A lot, actually. When groups face uncertainty, pressure, or high stakes, they often default to familiar patterns of thinking. Those patterns can produce speed, but they can also produce blind spots.

This session introduces Red Team Facilitation, a set of facilitation methods adapted from the U.S. Army’s Red Teaming discipline. These methods were developed to help teams surface assumptions, disrupt groupthink, and improve decision quality in complex environments.

Red Teaming was formalized through the work of the University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The program trained Army, joint, and government personnel to improve decision-making through critical thinking, cultural awareness, and bias mitigation. In this workshop, we translate those approaches into tools facilitators can use with civilian teams, organizations, and communities.

What we will explore and practice
Participants will be introduced to and actively practice several core Red Team facilitation methods, including:

• Think–Write–Share A structured alternative to brainstorming that slows thinking, increases participation, and reduces anchoring and dominance effects.
• Circular Response A disciplined dialogue structure that ensures every voice is heard and ideas are explored before evaluation begins.
• Exchange Emissaries A method for temporarily swapping representatives between groups to surface perspective shifts and challenge entrenched positions.
• Four Ways of Seeing A framework for examining an issue from multiple vantage points, including self, others, systems, and environment.
• Outside-In Thinking Techniques that deliberately reframe problems by starting from external actors, constraints, and forces rather than internal preferences.
• Alternative Futures Analysis A structured way to explore multiple plausible futures and stress-test current strategies against uncertainty.
• Deception Detection Practical approaches for noticing inconsistencies, gaps, and overconfidence in narratives and assumptions, without turning facilitation into interrogation.

Why this matters for facilitators
As facilitators, consultants, and coaches, we are often asked to help groups make sense of messy problems and arrive at sound decisions. Red Team Facilitation offers:

• Practical tools to surface hidden assumptions
• Methods to reduce groupthink without creating defensiveness
• Structures that support dissent, reflection, and insight
• Approaches that work especially well in high-stakes or politically complex settings

Learning objectives
By the end of the session, participants will:

• Understand the purpose and mindset behind Red Team Facilitation
• Experience multiple Red Team methods firsthand
• Learn when and how to apply these tools in civilian facilitation contexts
• Leave with concrete techniques they can integrate into their own facilitation practice

This workshop is designed for facilitators, coaches, consultants, and anyone responsible for guiding groups through complex decisions.

No military background required. Just curiosity, openness, and a willingness to challenge how we think together.

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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.)