Connection Labs
Team facilitation, strategic planning, and retreats that give your team space to step back, have a different conversation, and think together.
Our Collaboration Labs bring teams together to strengthen relationships, work through challenges, and plan what comes next. We combine experienced facilitation with creative, hands-on learning that gets people involved and draws on the knowledge in the room. Each session is tailored to your team, your culture, and your priorities.
Explore the details below.
Play for Purpose
Play can reveal a lot about how we work together. An improv exercise can help people practise listening and responding to the unexpected. Exploring art can uncover assumptions and invite different perspectives. A shared challenge can bring a team’s strengths—and familiar habits—into view.
We call this play for purpose. Activities are chosen with your objectives in mind and followed by facilitated discussion: What happened? What did we notice? How does this show up at work? What could we do differently?
Through that combination of experience, reflection, and practice, teams work on skills such as communication, feedback, collaboration, and decision-making. There’s room for humour and discovery, with a clear connection to the work ahead.
Every Lab starts with a conversation about your team and what you want to accomplish. We design the right mix of facilitated discussion, strategic reflection, and practical activities—from a focused workshop to a full planning day or retreat.
Explore the examples below. Each can stand alone, be adapted to your needs, or become part of a broader program.
What could your Collaboration Lab look like?
Explore our Labs
See Differently — Perspective, Listening & Connection
Using art as a starting point, teams explore how they observe, interpret, and respond to different perspectives. Guided discussion helps participants practise listening closely, questioning assumptions, and navigating ambiguity—skills they can bring back to everyday decisions and collaboration.
Finding Our Why — Shared Purpose & Direction
A chance to step back from daily demands and explore what gives your team’s work meaning. Through guided reflection and discussion, participants identify their strengths, the contributions they want to make, and how these connect to the organization’s mission. Together, they build a clearer sense of purpose to guide their work.
Planning What Comes Next — Strategy, Priorities & Action
A facilitated working session for teams and boards ready to take stock and plan ahead. We help participants explore challenges and opportunities, work through different perspectives, and agree on priorities—with clear next steps and responsibilities.
Unscripted — Listening, Adaptability & Collaboration
Through playful improv exercises, participants practise thinking on their feet, listening closely, and responding to the unexpected. We explore how status and group dynamics influence interactions—and how teams can make room for different voices. No performance experience required.
Connection at Work — Trust, Participation & Engagement
What helps people feel comfortable contributing? Through interactive exercises and guided discussion, teams explore how everyday interactions shape trust and participation. Participants leave with practical ways to build relationships, encourage involvement, and make meetings more engaging.
A Setting that Supports the Work
As part of the Ivy & Stone Collective, we have access to turnkey event spaces in Ottawa’s Sandy Hill neighbourhood for team workshops and retreats.
We can bring the setting and programming together, incorporating the neighbourhood’s cultural spaces, history, and natural surroundings into your experience. We can also facilitate at your workplace or another venue of your choice.
Let’s Collaborate
Tell us what you’re working toward—or where you’re feeling stuck. We’ll help you design a Connection Lab with a clear purpose and an approach that fits your team.