Jacob Green built a facilitation firm of 30 leaders after a career in local government — but his earliest facilitation training started at 14, helping run retreats aimed at reducing hate and conflict on a public high school campus. In this episode, Jacob shares what makes facilitators effective (curiosity, language, listening), how public-sector retreats really work, and why “cognitive diversity” is one of the biggest levers for high-performing teams. He also makes the case that environment isn’t a nice-to-have — it’s the container that determines what’s possible.
Episode Themes
- Jacob’s origin story: brain injury, rehab, and the leadership lessons that became his book
- Building a facilitation firm of 30: structure, quality control, and learning from each other
- Facilitation fundamentals: ask better questions, listen more, stop “performing”
- How to break into public sector retreats: conferences, niches, relationships, and language
- Public vs. private sector: different constraints, same human problems
- Cognitive diversity: what it is, why it matters, and how to work with gaps on a team
- Why environment matters more than people think — and why facilitators should own the venue decision
Chapters
00:00 — Welcome + what this show is about
00:40 — Jacob’s background and why Dan starts with the book
01:15 — “See Change Clearly”: brain injury, rehab, and leadership lessons
03:20 — Building a company: why Jacob didn’t want to be a solopreneur
05:40 — Facilitation at 14: retreats, conflict, and learning the craft early
08:10 — What good facilitators actually do: curiosity, questions, listening
10:00 — Training experienced execs to stop telling war stories
12:00 — Landing public-sector clients: where to speak and who to target
16:10 — Language that works (and fails) in government environments
18:05 — What public-sector retreats look like in reality
20:00 — The AEM Cube + cognitive diversity (and how to handle gaps)
23:40 — What happens when facilitation scales (and why it improves quality)
26:40 — The environment argument: space, memory, trauma, and why venue matters
29:10 — Closing thoughts
About the Guest – Jacob Green
Jacob Green is a nationally recognized leadership and organizational development expert, bestselling author, and master facilitator with nearly two decades of executive experience across local government and the private sector. As President and CEO of Jacob Green & Associates, he leads a nationwide team of 30 facilitators who work with public agencies and Fortune 500 organizations to help teams improve alignment, communication, and performance. Jacob’s work is deeply informed by his personal recovery from a traumatic brain injury, which shaped his approach to facilitation, curiosity-driven leadership, and cognitive diversity in teams.
About the Assemble Podcast
Welcome to the Assemble Podcast. I’m Dan Berger, founder of Assemble Hospitality Group.
We build purpose-designed spaces for small team offsites and retreats, because the biggest things happen in the smallest rooms.
This show explores retreats in all forms—corporate, lifestyle, wellness, and endurance training—and the culture shifts that happen when people step away from the everyday. You’ll hear lessons from operators, facilitators, and leaders who design experiences that move the needle.
Our goal: give you the playbook for building clarity, trust, and belonging on your team—or in your community.