Creating, maintaining, and growing a community is not for the faint-hearted. It’s an ongoing process of trial and error that requires a huge amount of commitment.But, if you can get it right, you will see the value and joy it can bring.As the curator of NeverDoneBefore - a relatively new community - I’ve started to geek out on all things community-based. This episode is the culmination of this obsessive interest, as I speak with Anamaria Dorgo - Head of Community for Butter and founder of L&D Shakers - about what it takes to curate a true community.Find out about:Why your definition of community will determine its successHow great community practice and behaviour emerge from great modellingHow to choose the right platform for your communityWhy engagement is the holy grail - and how to avoid chasing it into extinctionWhat happens when you focus on members’ motivations for joining, not your vision of the communityWhy a community that’s started purely for financial reasons will never succeedDon’t miss the next episode: subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.And download the free 1-page summary, so you can always have the key points of this episode to hand.Thanks to our sponsor Deckhive. Click here to find out more about the new platform for using card decks in online facilitation. Use the code workshopswork to get the first month for free.Exclusive offer from Facilitator Cards for workshops.work listeners you can get 15% off your entire purchase at shop.facilitator.cards by using code workshopswork.Questions and AnswersPart one [01:55] When did you start calling yourself a facilitator - if you do? [06:04] What's the difference between a trainer who delivers training and a trainer who facilitates? [11:51] Can one be a 'manager' for a community? [13:29] What was the secret sauce that made your community take off? [15:23] Can you give an example of when your actions didn't align with your words? [21:30] How to balance creating a community with leaving space for things to emerge. [27:10] Is there a difference between a community manager and a community facilitator[28:05] Creating community engagement. [31:14] What was your experience of creating that initial engagement between members[35:17] Do you have a specific onboarding process or team? [39:38] What are the differences you've noticed between your voluntary community of L&D Shakers vs. the commercial community of Butter? [44:36] How do you handle the fact that every member of the Butter community is a potential client?LinksConnect to Anamaria:On LinkedInOn TwitterSupport the show✨✨✨Subscribe to our newsletter to receive a free 1-page summary of each upcoming episode directly to your inbox, or explore our eBooks featuring 50-episode compilations for even more facilitation insights. Find out more:https://workshops.work/podcast✨✨✨Did you know? You can search all episodes by keyword to find exactly what you need via our Buzzsprout page!

We all hope to facilitate breakthroughs - those “a-ha” moments when participants have a lightbulb over their heads, ideas synthesise, and new ideas emerge.But we can’t legislate and plan for them, can we?Of course, there are no guarantees... but Kimberly Wiefling (and her approach to facilitation) is as close to a guarantee as you can get!Join us in this episode as we discuss failure, emergence, workshop design, behavioural economics, language, and many more topics by way of some deeply personal reflections and storytelling. It’s a wondrous episode!Find out about:How to facilitate for breakthroughs to occur, rather than leaving it to chanceWhere physics and facilitation intersectWhat a workshop of breakthroughs looks like - before, during, and afterWhy sharing a space and experience is critical to a workshop’s successHow to use clothing to influence your creativity (and mindset in general)How using contracts (signed by employee and manager) can codify workshop outcomesDon’t miss the next episode: subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.And download the free 1-page summary, so you can always have the key points of this episode to hand.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!And if the idea of NeverDoneBefore 2021, the community of facilitators, caught your attention; click here to explore it in more detail!Questions and AnswersPart one [01:13] When did you start calling yourself a facilitator - if you do? [02:00] When was the moment that you realised you are a facilitator, not a trainer? [05:05] What have you learned from physics about facilitation?# [09:55] How can we detach our own expectations and open our minds up to new possibilities and different realities within a group? [11:13] Can you tell us the story of the Chinese horse farmer? [14:10] Can we re-engineer confirmation bias to help us find silver linings?[16:25] Using first-person narrativisation to reframe our experiences as positive. [19:07] How can we use negatives as fuel to change the narrative?[22:40] Kimberly shares a perspective-shifting exercise. [25:38] What makes a workshop fail? [28:53] How can a facilitator turn up, do nothing, and still make things happen?[36:35] What is the one step we can take to make the impossible possible in organisations plagued by 'learned helplessness? LinksKimberly’s websiteKimberly’s teamKimberly’s businessTwo pages full of Kimberly’s free videos, articles, and templatesKimberly’s Support the show✨✨✨Subscribe to our newsletter to receive a free 1-page summary of each upcoming episode directly to your inbox, or explore our eBooks featuring 50-episode compilations for even more facilitation insights. Find out more:https://workshops.work/podcast✨✨✨Did you know? You can search all episodes by keyword to find exactly what you need via our Buzzsprout page!

Why do we facilitate? Who are we, as facilitators? Is shared understanding a goal?Dov Tsal - Tao-inspired coach, mentor, and facilitator - is not one to shy away from the deep and challenging philosophical questions of our craft.In fact, he’s usually the one asking them!This was certainly the case in this episode - which is more of a conversation than an interview. We examine the role, purpose, and objectives of facilitators and explore the boundaries of our work and being.An unmissable, unique episode for enquiring minds of facilitation.Find out about:Why acceptance of all outcomes grants us space to facilitate as the group requiresHow a workshop’s success or failure is predetermined by our expectations of its purposeWhat it means to be a passive facilitatorFacilitating the group as an ecosystem, not individualsWhy avoiding interference is the hallmark of great facilitationHow to train your brain to see multiple perspectives on the same objectDon’t miss the next episode: subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.And download the free 1-page summary, so you can always have the key points of this episode to hand.And if the idea of NeverDoneBefore 2021, the community of facilitators, caught your attention; click here to explore it in more detail!Thanks to our sponsor Deckhive. Click here to find out more about the new platform for using card decks in online facilitation. Use the code workshopswork to get the first month for free.Questions and AnswersPart one [01:37] You were clear that you didn't want this to be an interview. What would you like it to be instead? [03:15] Is there anything we cannot facilitate? [05:53] The issue of assuming a specific goal for a workshop. [09:15] Is facilitation only possible around a purpose? [11:14] Passive facilitation. [13:16] When we act in service of something bigger than us, how can we be sure it's right or working or correct? [15:38] The Catch 22 of seeking perfection. [20:54] Responsibility - of facilitators, in facilitation. [25:31] Where does the limit of our responsibility sit? For how many factors out from our original act do we hold responsibility? [28:03] Can we go back to defining responsibility? [32:37] Are we responsible for someone's inner reaction to outer circumstances? LinksConnect to Dov:On LinkedInSupport the show✨✨✨Subscribe to our newsletter to receive a free 1-page summary of each upcoming episode directly to your inbox, or explore our eBooks featuring 50-episode compilations for even more facilitation insights. Find out more:https://workshops.work/podcast✨✨✨Did you know? You can search all episodes by keyword to find exactly what you need via our Buzzsprout page!

Supporting employee self-development isn’t a sacrifice for organisations. In fact, it is often a precursor to the organisation’s own growth and progress.In Kristiaan Hartman and Wouter Smeets, we have two of the best people possible to discuss self-development in the workplace - and its impacts throughout organisations.As the founders of Prototype You, Kristiaan and Wouter have been facilitating self-development programmes within organisations since 2018. Safe to say, they have plenty of insights to share about how facilitation can help us design better (perfect?) roles, workspaces, and even careers!Find out about:Why employees’ personal growth so often generates organisational growthHow to create a culture of shared development, based on inner valuesThe story of Kristiaan and Wouter’s business - Prototype You - and why they started itWhy skillset and mindset are equally important in personal developmentHow the duo recruit facilitators to deliver the programme - and what they’ve learned through the processDon’t miss the next episode: subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.And download the free 1-page summary, so you can always have the key points of this episode to hand.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!Exclusive offer from Facilitator Cards for workshops.work listeners! You can get 15% off your entire purchase at shop.facilitator.cards by using code workshopswork.Questions and AnswersPart one [01:43] When did you start calling yourselves facilitators? [02:46] What's the difference between a coach and a facilitator? [07:52] Why did you call your company Prototype You? And why not Perfect You? [11:41] Is prototyping a skill to learn or a mindset to adopt?[14:42] What is Prototype You, then? What is the process behind it? [17:05] This sounds reminiscent of a retrospective in Scrum? [23:57] Do you focus on our self-responsibility for our work experience? [29:07] Could the next step be to develop a version of Prototype You for families? [31:01] Discussing failure and different perspectives on it. [34:55] What role do managers play in the Prototype You process? [41:51] How would you deal with a manager realising that they've overpromised something as part of an employee's prototyping? [45:10] Do you have a checklist or a process to vet companies? How do you spot red flags?LinksConnect to Kristiaan and Wouter:Wouter on LinkedInKristiaan on LinkedInSupport the show✨✨✨Subscribe to our newsletter to receive a free 1-page summary of each upcoming episode directly to your inbox, or explore our eBooks featuring 50-episode compilations for even more facilitation insights. Find out more:https://workshops.work/podcast✨✨✨Did you know? You can search all episodes by keyword to find exactly what you need via our Buzzsprout page!

Intersectionality is a fundamental part of facilitation - and a common topic on this podcast - but, usually, we discuss it in relation to other professional disciplines.It’s high time we looked at how facilitation can influence our personal lives, in our deepest and dearest relationships.Ez Bridgman, creative experience designer and playful vitality proponent, joins this episode to discuss playfulness, vulnerability, and conflict. And, of course, how facilitation can be a guiding light through all those complexities in our relationships.Find out about:How Ez has curated a “garden of life” and how it’s helped him and those around himWhy play isn’t always laughing, exuberance, and high energyWhy sticking with your plan and ignoring the energy in the room can be disastrousHow to use conflict to strengthen your relationships, not harm themWhat it means to make an agreement and why it’s critical to prove you’ll stick to itHow to use ‘Theoretical Speed Dating’ to prepare a group for collaboration Don’t miss the next episode: subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.And download the free 1-page summary, so you can always have the key points of this episode to hand.And if the idea of NeverDoneBefore 2021, the community of facilitators, caught your attention; click here to explore it in more detail!Thanks to our sponsor Deckhive. Click here to find out more about the new platform for using card decks in online facilitation. Use the code workshopswork to get the first month for free.Questions and AnswersPart one[01:19]When did you start calling yourself a facilitator? [03:53] What was your measure of success, that allowed you to feel comfortable with the label of facilitator?[04:57] What would make a workshop fail? [07:10] In corporate settings, does following energy, rather than a plan, feel like freedom? [10:08] How do you use play as a tool or method in facilitation? [13:51] How do you create an environment in which people feel comfortable coming out of their shells?[15:57] How do you encourage people in a corporate setting to open up when they fear being judged? [22:47] How does clowning incorporate in your facilitation? [24:16] Can you share your journey of 'interior expansion'?[26:50] After your own journey of breaking out of your shell, do you find you have more empathy for hesitant or uncomfortable participants? [30:01] How do you hold space to act in a facilitative way with your family? Is there a tension between facilitation and participation? [35:09] What would be your advice to anyone who wants to try a 'family roasting', but wants to avoid it spiralling or becoming hurtful?LinksConnect to Ez:On LinkedInSupport the show✨✨✨Subscribe to our newsletter to receive a free 1-page summary of each upcoming episode directly to your inbox, or explore our eBooks featuring 50-episode compilations for even more facilitation insights. Find out more:https://workshops.work/podcast✨✨✨Did you know? You can search all episodes by keyword to find exactly what you need via our Buzzsprout page!

Facilitation is a lot of things: we’d all agree on and understand it as a verb. Many of us would identify it as a profession. But how many of us understand it as a business?Mireille Beumer wasn’t always in the business of facilitation. Yes, she was a freelancer offering facilitation services, but it took a little while longer for her to step into entrepreneurship and create her facilitation business.It might seem like pedantic semantics, but it’s a crucial difference.Learn what it means to create a facilitation business, rather than being a solo facilitator in this episode... and learn how Mireille did it herself! Find out about:●       Mireille's journey of turning facilitation from a verb to a profession to a business●       The building blocks for creating a facilitation business●       Why asking for help brings success, but uncritically accepting advice doesn’t●       How a freelance facilitator operates differently to a facilitation business●       Why it is a folly to try and sell your 'human' services to businesses●       What Mireille recommends if you aren’t sure where to start with entrepreneurship Don’t miss the next show: Subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player. Click here to download the free 1-page summary.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!Exclusive offer from Facilitator Cards for workshops.work listeners you can get 15% off your entire purchase at shop.facilitator.cards by using code workshopswork. Questions and AnswersPart one[01:46] What has happened since you were last on the show, late in 2019, and how have you navigated the pandemic?[05:05] How did you come to build your facilitation business? What comes next?[06:56] Would you consider LinkedIn as the main source of your work?[11:36] Who are the clients you attract? And how did this shift in the pandemic?[17:05] How did you first get started as a facilitation business owner? It can seem so huge and impossible to begin, from the outside.[21:44] Did you purposefully create your personal brand and niche, or did it emerge naturally over time?[26:41] Staying consistent and coherent with your branding.[28:20] The need for education, innovation, and evolution rather than revolution.LinksEpisode 30 - featuring Mireille!Mireille’s websiteConnect to Mireille:On LinkedInOn Instagram Support the show✨✨✨Subscribe to our newsletter to receive a free 1-page summary of each upcoming episode directly to your inbox, or explore our eBooks featuring 50-episode compilations for even more facilitation insights. Find out more:https://workshops.work/podcast✨✨✨Did you know? You can search all episodes by keyword to find exactly what you need via our Buzzsprout page!

In times of strife - whether it’s a global health crisis or our neighbours at war - what role does facilitation play? Can we hope to change the world one workshop at a time? These are challenging questions with wide-ranging consequences, but I can think of few facilitators better equipped to answer them than Quanita Roberson and Tenneson Woolf.Both have been guests on this show previously, but never together. Quanita and Tenneson’s Fire and Water Leadership Journey is a programme that shapes wise leaders, prioritising emotional healing and practices including Being the Circle Way, Story, Art of Hosting, Life Coaching, and Presentations of Learnings.Join us as we explore the ever-increasing need for inner work, what it means to lead, and how we can use facilitation to serve our communities in troubled times. Find out about:●       Understanding the role of facilitation in times of crisis●       How to handle leadership in times of crisis - and how to handle bullies●       Why turning to each other might feel nice, but turning to ourselves matters more●       The dangers of inviting a group to a place that we have not been to ourselves●       Why facilitation tools will always be secondary to presence and inner work●       What happens when we prioritise witnessing, rather than discussing Don’t miss the next show: Subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player. Click here to download the free 1-page summary.Thanks to our sponsor Deckhive. Click here to find out more about the new platform for using card decks in online facilitation. Use the code workshopswork to get the first month for free. Questions and Answers[02:57] What is the role of facilitation in such troubled times?[05:57] Tenneson contributes his perspective on the same question.[13:57] How much is the global crisis of escalation a reflection of inner strife?[17:54] Does having more comfort in our values and belief systems make us less inclined to explode at things?[19:11] Tenneson responds to the same question.[24:04] Almost nobody wakes up in the morning with a plan to be a bully or an asshole. So how do we facilitate the conversation when it happens accidentally?[34:24] In our daily encounters, we have the choice to avoid escalation - but how do we know when to do so or not?[37:37] What do you rely on to invite a group to turn to themselves before each other?[44:32] How do we get each other to open up and be vulnerable, so we can experience that magical connective power of intimate trust?[49:48] How do we hold and balance space for big topics that might affect some participants more than others?[55:38] What would you say to the audience, as a final reflection of this conversation?[57:10] Quanita answers the same question.[1:00:33] What question would you like the audience to ask themselves as this episode ends?LinksQuanita’s websiteTenneson’s websiteThe Support the show✨✨✨Subscribe to our newsletter to receive a free 1-page summary of each upcoming episode directly to your inbox, or explore our eBooks featuring 50-episode compilations for even more facilitation insights. Find out more:https://workshops.work/podcast✨✨✨Did you know? You can search all episodes by keyword to find exactly what you need via our Buzzsprout page!

What will the most successful teams look like in the future of work? How is consultancy changing? How can businesses improve their knowledge management and sharing?Believe it or not, Marilyn Zakhour and I manage to fit all of these topics (and several more) into this episode.Marilyn is a fascinating person - from her multi-hyphenate career to her ease of conversation.Since 2020, when she left her role as Head of Dubai Opera, she has been working with top executives to help them step into the future of work and prioritise collaboration over co-location.Our wide-ranging conversation about big ideas felt more like a casual chat with a friend - and there are plenty more seats at the table for you to join us.Find out about:●     Why consultancy is increasingly about change and project management●     How the best remote teams embrace newness, rather than replicate tradition●     Why context is an essential precursor to outcomes in a workshop●     What happens when participant hear you use buzzwords and acronyms●     How Marilyn designs her workshop debriefs to encourage long-lasting behavioural change●     What great information management looks like in businesses (including facilitation ones!)Don’t miss the next show: Subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player. Click here to download the free 1-page summary.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!Exclusive offer from Facilitator Cards for workshops.work listeners you can get 15% off your entire purchase at shop.facilitator.cards by using code workshopswork.Questions and AnswersPart one[01:35] When did you start calling yourself a facilitator - in fact, do you?[03:57] What's the switch been like between management and facilitation?[09:24] How do you help clients bridge that gap between knowing and doing after a workshop?[11:56] Do you find that all managers receive well the prompt that they've forgotten something?[17:11] When do you determine that a project is finished? And when did your consulting business become an 'interim management' business?[19:23] This sounds a lot like change management - would you say that's accurate?[22:22] How many people affected by the outcome of a workshop can you legitimately include in said workshop? Isn't there a tipping point?[25:44] What makes a workshop or project fail?[27:19] What's the cost of a failed workshop?[27:59] What would your advice be to a facilitator whose workshop has just failed?LinksCosmic Centaurs websiteCosmic Centaurs LinkedIn pageAion Teams websiteSupport the show✨✨✨Subscribe to our newsletter to receive a free 1-page summary of each upcoming episode directly to your inbox, or explore our eBooks featuring 50-episode compilations for even more facilitation insights. Find out more:https://workshops.work/podcast✨✨✨Did you know? You can search all episodes by keyword to find exactly what you need via our Buzzsprout page!

We meet online, we meet in-person, and sometimes we combine them to host hybrid meetings.But what happens when we bridge the gaps between physical and digital spaces and merge them together?Thomas de Ming is the person to ask - with his ongoing explorations of and research into 'phygital' meetings.The meteoric rise in popularity of the metaverse is plenty proof enough that more and more attention is being paid to what lies beyond 'hybrid'. It's an exciting space with huge potential, but plenty of question marks still to address.In this episode, we explore how to host workshops in liminal spaces, the costs and benefits of doing so, and the practicalities of making this nascent opportunity a common tool for facilitators to turn to. Find out about:●       Why 'phygital' is nothing to do with 'hybrid', despite their concurrent rise in popularity●       The practical realities and common trapdoors when combing digital and physical spaces●       What we're missing when we talk about 'remote' work and why language matters●       Easy introductory exercises to explore 'phygital' collaboration●       How to manage and mitigate a workshop with mandated attendance●       How Thomas uses tangible thinking tools to expand his groups' ranges of perception Don’t miss the next show: Subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.  Click here to download the free 1-page summary.And if the idea of NeverDoneBefore 2021, the community of facilitators, caught your attention; click here to explore it in more detail!Thanks to our sponsor Deckhive. Click here to find out more about the new platform for using card decks in online facilitation. Use the code workshopswork to get the first month for free. Questions and AnswersPart one[01:20] When did you start calling yourself a facilitator?[02:10] What have you learned from TV and radio that informs your work today?[08:03] I think of you as the person who comes up with new names - does that feel like you?[12:46] What changes when you facilitate a range process, rather than a change process?[15:32] That brings us to our topic for today: the 'phygital'.[17:58] Can you give an example of a phygital space in action?[21:24] It sounds like a great way to skill-share and to create new levels of abstraction?[23:19] How much syncing work is needed beforehand?[25:17] Could you do this tandem exercise with two people?[26:53] What's the difference here between remote, hybrid, and phygital spaces?[30:12] What is the benefit of bringing physical elements into our solely digital spaces?[35:03] What are we overestimating about hybrid and underestimatong about phygital?[40:45] What is the difference between a digital twin and a humatar?Links-Connect to Thomas:On LinkedInOn TwitterOn Support the show✨✨✨Subscribe to our newsletter to receive a free 1-page summary of each upcoming episode directly to your inbox, or explore our eBooks featuring 50-episode compilations for even more facilitation insights. Find out more:https://workshops.work/podcast✨✨✨Did you know? You can search all episodes by keyword to find exactly what you need via our Buzzsprout page!

Phil Brown, Lead Trainer at High 5 Adventure Learning Centre, specializes in adventure education focused on overcoming vulnerability. He discusses how true adventure education goes beyond physical challenges, emphasizing emotional and social exploration. Phil highlights the importance of fostering trust and risk-taking in shared experiences, and how individual growth is enhanced through collective vulnerability. He also touches on the vital role of play in learning and the facilitators' responsibility in creating safe spaces for deeper connections.