What is a discussion group?

Small, peer-led conversations. Not lectures, webinars, or chaotic video meetups. A trained leader brings a prompt, and a small group shares real experiences. Speak or just listen. No pressure, just thoughtful peer conversation with clear club rules to keep everyone safe.
Every weekday at 2 PM ET, our members gather for a one-hour peer discussion based around a prompt that is shared ahead. There is no outcome, or goal of consensus. Just a trained peer leader or two, and a small group of smart people questioning the big stuff together. No one has to be an expert. We share experience, compare notes, and leave clearer than we came. Our unique approach gives members energy back instead of draining it. Most members attend 2-3 times per month.
Check out our schedule grid to see how groups are sequenced, as well as what holidays we observe.
Every six months we refresh the schedule and invite new discussion leaders to step-up. This keeps topics current, prevents burnover by sharing leadership across the community, and gives members new voices to learn from.
Why is "people-ing" so exhausting? And why do teams and communities often feel like they're working against each other instead of toward something meaningful? This discussion group helps you navigate the messiness of working with humans. Instead of putting all the weight on your individual shoulders, we'll also explore how to read collective dynamics and relationships—so we can get the help you need, create the alliances that matter, and foster work relationships where we can thrive. We'll help each other answer questions like: How do you translate complaints into something constructive? How do you navigate conflict toward something productive? How do you work with people who operate completely differently than you? How do you make a meaningful contribution without burning out? How do you help people work better together—whether you're officially in charge or not? Bring your observations, your bafflement, your "what is even happening here?" moments from teams, communities, or organizations. We'll workshop challenges, test frameworks, and build capacity together—with some venting and validation on the side.
Ready to break out of the digital box? This sequence is a fun rebellion against the hype over GenAI (and Figma ;-). We'll explore various methods of visual making by engaging directly with paper, pen, and collaging. The goal: to free up your creativity, engage a childlike sense of wonder, and cultivate an experimentalist attitude—where every sketch, scribble, and smudge expands your ability to see, express, and hopefully make sense! Each session is meant to be stand alone, so no worries if you skip a few or just want to give one a try. We'll explore emotive letterforms, abstract symbols, zoom-in on details, and simple stick figures. Much of it inspired by "Back of the Napkin", "The Doodle Revolution", and even "Understanding Comics". Basic materials needed: something for mark-making (pen, pencil, marker, crayon, whatever you can grab), some kind of paper (stickies, envelopes, torn notebook sheets, or even brown paper bags). We’ll have a Mural board for voluntary posting/sharing your creations, if you’d like. And I shall be using an IPEVO document camera for live broadcast demonstrations of drawing.
Using constraint-driven fiction as a low-stakes way to surface professional blind spots & build strategies to create the future we want. In this interactive workshop, we'll write a 200-word plan and then a 15-minute fiction piece based on a prompt, compare what appears in each, identify what our analytical minds censored, then commit to one action by the following month.
A hands-on design jam for members and leaders to co-create the next chapter of the Sensemakers Club. This is a working session—not a presentation—focused on exploration, iteration, and shared ownership of what comes next.
Money is a complex system, often taboo, yet understanding it is essential for achieving personal empowerment leading to global equity. We will tackle financial complexity through open discussion and mutual support. We aim to foster genuine connections and dismantle financial isolation. We explore money through behavioral psychology as a social system, examining its influence in the workplace, from salary negotiation to compensation strategy. All perspectives are welcome.
AI Field Notes is an investigative, participatory space where sensemakers bring real experiments, observations, and questions from their work with AI. Together we’ll document patterns, compare notes, and grow our skills alongside AI’s evolution, treating each session like a field report from the front lines of designing with, using, and living alongside AI.
Change is inevitable but understanding and managing it well isn’t. This group will explore how change works across scales, domains, tempos, and goals. Along the way, we’ll develop frameworks for creating, embracing, or managing it more effectively.
Systems Lab is a collaborative workshop for real-life problem solving, from managing your time and energy to planning a major life transition. Together, we will approach problems with curiosity, identify constraints, and explore practical and sustainable systems that reduce everyday friction.
This group provides a safe place for neurodiverse folks to talk about being neurodiverse and how that looks in their work and lives. We welcome people of all neurotypes to join to build or improve your own neuroinclusion toolkit.
There seem to be parallels between a practice of mindfulness and a practice of modeling. The importance of mind and body, working together. Not focusing on output/outcomes, but on showing up well. The need to have patterns that help us remember what is important. This discussion seeks to explore these parallels and more as we seek to improve our modeling and mindfulness practices, and become more whole, integrated people in all that we do.
Join us for a discussion on the challenges and