The Heart of Business
"The Heart of Business" podcast, hosted by Mo Fathelbab, is an authentic and insightful exploration of the human side of leadership and professional growth. Through candid conversations with accomplished business leaders, thought leaders, and peer group facilitators, Mo will delve deep into the personal journeys, challenges, and triumphs that have shaped their careers. Mo Fathelbab's skillful and empathetic approach creates a safe space for guests to share their truths and vulnerabilities, revealing the emotional and often unseen dimensions of success in the corporate world. Each episode offers listeners a chance to glean practical wisdom, heartfelt advice, and a profound understanding of the intricate interplay between leadership, authenticity, and personal growth.
The "Heart of Business" is the official podcast of International Facilitators Organization, LLC and hosted by IFO's founder and CEO, Mo Fathelbab. To learn more, please visit www.internationalfacilitatorsorganization.com.
The Heart of Business
Building Community in the Digital Age: Leah Litman's Vision for College Peer Groups
Leah Litman, the youngest certified facilitator with the International Facilitators Organization (IFO), is on a mission to transform the college experience through structured peer forums. In this thought-provoking conversation with host Mo Fatalbab, Leah reveals how her psychology background at Tulane University intersects perfectly with her passion for creating authentic connection among students.
The digital generation faces a unique paradox – constantly connected yet profoundly isolated. As Leah observes, "Everyone's communicated and connected online, but not necessarily in real life." This disconnection has left many students feeling lost, especially in the wake of the pandemic. Drawing on neuroscience insights, she explains how the college years represent a critical developmental window when the prefrontal cortex is still forming. The leadership and vulnerability skills taught in forum groups can literally shape students' brain development during this formative period.
What makes Leah's vision so compelling is its practicality. She identifies the gap between theoretical classroom learning and real-world application, noting that while universities provide counselors for classes and study abroad, students "aren't told what comes next." Forum groups fill this void, creating not just community but developing the exact skills employers seek. As she prepares to launch at Tulane with interactive demonstrations, Leah's pioneering approach could revolutionize campus support systems nationwide – providing what so many students desperately need: a safe space to be vulnerable, practice leadership, and form meaningful connections that extend far beyond graduation.
Have you experienced the power of peer groups in your own development? Leave a review sharing your thoughts, and visit internationalfacilitatorsorganization.com to learn more about bringing forums to your organization.
Please visit www.internationalfacilitatorsorganization.com to learn more about Mo Fathelbab and International Facilitators Organization (IFO), a leading provider of facilitators and related group facilitation services, providing training, certification, marketing services, education, and community for peer group facilitators at all stages of their career.
Welcome to the Heart of Business podcast sponsored by International Facilitators Organization, IFO. I'm your host, Mo Fatalbab, founder and president of IFO. Today, our guest is Leah Littman, our youngest IFO certified facilitator, and she's focusing on building forum peer groups in the college market, starting with Tulane University where she is studying psychology. Welcome, Leah.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm excited.
Speaker 1:Great to have you with us. So, leah, how did you choose psychology in the first place, and what made that interesting for you?
Speaker 2:I actually was interested in veterinary science previously. I always wanted to be in a field where I could help someone or something. I felt like that was more fulfilling. I sadly developed allergies a couple of years ago. But I started attending different neuroscience conferences. I attended one at American University and it really just sparked my interest in psychology. I took a couple classes in high school and I decided to make it my major here at Tulane and I've done lots of coursework that have only built my interest in psychology, so I've stuck with it.
Speaker 1:I love it, and you obviously heard about our IFO certification program and it piqued your interest. What was it that was interesting for you?
Speaker 2:Yes, well, what IFO does, I really feel as though it shares lots of similarities with what I'm studying in psychology. You really do have to deal with all types of people in order to help them, and IFO would really be able to give me this leadership skills that I needed for to do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, it is true, we work with so many incredible people in such vulnerable spaces and, while we're not psychologists, obviously it's really supportive and helpful and when you know you're not doing something alone, it just feels better and you get tips and tricks and tools and other people's experiences, and I found that to be invaluable myself in my own life. So, leah, I'm curious when you attended the certification, what was your impression? What were your takeaways?
Speaker 2:It was definitely nothing like I had done ever before. Lots of the time when I go to these conferences, it's really just sitting and listening to other people. There's never that interaction or that fostering a connection with other people, and IFO really gave us a safe community and I was able to create connections with people that I never would have met in my life if it weren't for IFO. And just like psychology, you have to deal with hard topics and hard questions and IFO really made me embrace these hard questions and embrace being vulnerable and put everything head on.
Speaker 1:I love that. I love that. Really, it's just amazing. Gosh, I wish I felt that way when you're a junior or senior. Yeah Well, I didn't feel that way as a junior or senior. So I'm just so inspired and so excited for you because I wish I started this journey just a little bit earlier. So what was most meaningful to you in the program, in addition to the things you've just said, like what, what stuck, what stood out, maybe?
Speaker 2:What stood out to me was that I really never truly felt like I was in a safe space with people that I didn't quite know yet, where everyone put in their own individual efforts to engage and be open and vulnerable, was a shoulder to lean on within the community, and it was just very personally enriching to be able to also see these other people and how they interacted in the community as well. They were like inspiring to me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it. I love it. And so then, what? What inspired you to to think this would be valuable for students and to want to bring this to students at Tulane?
Speaker 2:Yes, well, it was so meaningful to me and I feel like it opened my eyes up into some of what is truly important in the world. And I feel like students at Tulane, as well as just students in general, don't really like have their eye on the prize. They are a little bit lost, I would say, and especially after everything with COVID and all of that, a lot of students have become very dependent on their phones and everyone's communicated and like connected online, but not necessarily in real life, and they don't have these like valuable lessons yet. And to bring it back to psychology, I think it's so important to bring IFO to the youth because, like, we're still learning, as everyone's learning, but in like a scientific matter of things, our brains are still developing and the prefrontal cortex is like executive functioning, so what ifo teaches can really be implemented into our brains and we can bring this into, you know, as we go into the real world and we would learn how to network and all of these different things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, I love that and I love your awareness. You know, my kid is 17 and I watch him and I watch his friends and I watch, honestly, a lot of, you know, teenagers. I sometimes see them sitting next to each other on their own devices and I'm thinking are they talking to each other through the device or are they just doing their own thing, but feeling good sitting next to each other? I find it interesting.
Speaker 2:It's a lot of like digital connection. Because of that, we feel as though it's hard to open up myself included, where I tend to go towards my family as opposed to my peers, because I feel as though we aren't ready to be vulnerable yet. And that's what IFO can bring to us and where we could all be a community where we'll feel seen and heard and valued all of those things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know it's interesting to think about. You know, for me personally, my first experience with a peer group probably was before I even knew the concept existed, and it was a turning point for me. You know, I was in college, at University of Maryland, and I started out in pre-engineering and I really struggled and then I switched to business. But when I got to be a business major, one of the things that happened is I had a group of friends that I studied with and somehow, by having this group to study with, we had a different way to reflect on the content. We had a different way to learn it by learning from each other, by reciting it with each other, memorizing with each other. And that was a turning point for me.
Speaker 1:It kind of was you know how I went from being on academic probation to being on Nadine's list, and I think about that. And so I joined my very first peer group when I was a couple of years out of college. It was an EO group and we gosh, it was 1991, believe it or not and we're still together. That group is still together and I think about how much of an impact it's had on my life and that's why I really love what you're doing, because I wish I started sooner. The fact that I started a couple of years out of college is just pure luck.
Speaker 2:But now I think, wow, we're going to start this, think college kids would do this, or you know, just because it gives you that business aspect without being in the B school. It's strategic leadership and management, and it's all about networking and forming connections. And I'm in a couple of the classes, but I enjoy my classes, I enjoy my teachers, but I still feel as though it could benefit from IFO, because IFO would help students develop the critical skills that are valued by employers, and that's all about what SLAM is about. Yet we aren't applying anything hands-on, yet it's a lot of reading, answering a quiz, but we aren't going through group dynamics in real time.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I think that it just could spark interest in any type of student, whether it's a student that's interested in business and they want psychology, but there's still a business aspect to it of. Oh, maybe I want to open my own practice just managing a group dynamic and wherever you choose to practice work I have felt give kids a benefit to it.
Speaker 1:I love that. And how will you get it started? Like, so what's your marketing strategy to get this going at Tulane? What do you? Maybe you haven't thought of it, but what's just off the top of your mind, of your head? What do you think? What do you think will be your kind of first couple of steps?
Speaker 2:I feel like it would have to be an event that we could hold at Tulane, which Nancy and I have been looking into, of how to be able to just like, plan and rent out a space at the school. But I think it would have to be able to just like, plan and rent out a space at the school.
Speaker 2:But I think it would have to be like an informational session that students could interact in in order to see the benefits, some sort of like student audience interaction, just so they can form like their own mini groups and talk to one another and just get like a little taste of what it would be in order to spark their interest. Because I talk about IFO at school but no one really understands what is a forum, what is a peer group, what is the goal of it, and it's hard to explain if someone isn't ready to sit down with me and talk about it. So I think if we had enough time to sit down and have kids practice with it, it would be beneficial and that's what would spark their interest.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Nancy's our VP at IFO and it sounds like you've been talking to her. So that is great and you know what. You're absolutely right. So, as you know, we've done this with CEOs and entrepreneurs for 30 years, and with Harvard Business School alumni and with underrepresented minorities at Google, just to name a few. So lots of different audiences and lots of different applications.
Speaker 1:But again, I'm just so inspired by you doing this and being so entrepreneurial to say you know what I'm going to get this going and even, as you know, as young as you are, you're just light years ahead again of where I was at your age, and so I think you're not only going to make a difference in a lot of students' lives, but certainly this could be something that changes how colleges really help students feel part of a community and get support from day one. Because you know, I know, when I went to college, certainly there was a lot of discomfort for me. I had anxieties, I had all sorts of questions and felt, you know, worried about how I'm going to fit in and all those little details that I'm sure you're well aware of. Yes, but to provide this right away, I think would just help so many people.
Speaker 2:I think for it to be an option as soon as you get to a university would be helpful, because you truly are just thrown into a big group of people. You're lucky if you know someone beforehand going in and you aren't with your family anymore. There's a lot of different external pressures that are causing anxiety and IFO can create a secure community for these kids, and also out of school once, like they can have this forum and this like sense of belonging while at university. But another thing that I think would be beneficial for the kids is we have our counselors for classes. We have our counselors for if we want to study abroad, but we really aren't told what comes next. And that's especially like the big talk right now for junior senior year is what are your plans after? Where do you want to work? Are you going to continue to study? And IFO will give us those skills that employers want. It's a leadership that will make us stand out and will just make it all easier for us.
Speaker 1:Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Leah. You're really an inspiration and I'm so grateful for you. And you know what we're starting with Tulane, but that's just the beginning, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and maybe, maybe, maybe this will be your business, who knows?
Speaker 2:Maybe, maybe I want to have a business, so we'll see what it is, but this is truly inspiring. Why would I not continue it?
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it Well, Leah. Thank you so much for this incredible conversation and thank you to our audience for listening. As a reminder, podcast reviews have a real impact on podcast visibility, so please leave a review to help others find the show. Finally, you could find all our episodes on our website at internationalfacilitatorsorganizationcom. Thank you for listening and have a great day.
