50 episodes of Workshops Work – wow! What a joy every episode has been. Thank you for joining me on this journey – whether this is your first or fiftieth time listening.

To mark this milestone, I brought together ten Workshops Work alumni for a fishbowl discussion about facilitation.

We covered a range of topics in such detail, it’s a struggle to summarise it in these show notes. If you are interested in hearing what a room of facilitators has to say about the complexities, joys, and novelties of our profession, I am very happy to present to you this episode.

Thank you again for helping me on my journey to 50 episodes. Here’s to the next milestone…

In this episode, we discuss:

The different roles in workshops
Why it’s so important to give participants and their discussions space
Whether neutrality should be the facilitator’s goal – and whether it is even possible
How best to tease out conflict in a safe and healthy manner
Our experiences of our discussion – from excitement to discomfort

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Feeling inspired by the conversation in this episode? We can have our own - take a seat at my virtual table as part of a Mastermind Group.

A huge thank you must go to SessionLab, the sponsor of Workshops Work. Claim your free two months of SessionLab Pro now – this deal is exclusive to Workshops Work listeners!

Questions and Answers

[03:23] How do you ensure everyone in the room has the same understanding? Do you do so before or during a workshop?

[08:08] How do you make sure everyone has a role?

[11:51] What is your experience of wanting to act as a facilitator but knowing that you should not?

[13:10] How do you deal with having assumptions about participants?

[14:41] Neutrality and conflict

[21:52] How do you make space for people in a fair and balanced way?

[25:39] Neutrality, readiness, and being present

[30:51] Reflecting on the experience of the fishbowl

[40:54] What brings you the most joy from the transformation in the room of your workshops?

[41:56] Coming back to discomfort

[49:21] What do you do to limit yourself and avoid taking too much space when speaking?

[51:54] Do you have any short lines you use to transfer power in the room?

[53:11] Checking in on the participant’s experiences of the discussion

Links to Check

007 – Mindset Management – with Jeremy Akers

011 – How to design brainstorming sessions for huge groups – with Frans Scheepens

020 – Create experiences for your audience to achieve results – with Rein Sevenstern

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