workshops work

Send us a textFacilitation is a system that gives groups space to make sense — it’s not about guiding them towards something, nor is it about leading them.But what is ‘deliberate sensemaking’ all about? To the uninitiated, it may sound a little simplistic — is it just about helping people understand stuff that they’re working on?Michael Hamman, one of the foremost voices in Agile coaching and training, explains all in this episode and reveals the complexity behind seemingly simple sense-making. We discuss the facilitator’s role as a mirror for the group, the work before the work of sensemaking, and how our incessant and instinctive need to categorise is the last great barrier to topple if we want things to make more sense.Find out about:How sensemaking and categorisation help groups make progressWhy, once we understand categorisation, we shall dismantle itHow to create deeper insight by leaving some questions unanswered Why facilitation is about being a mirror, rather than a paintingHow to design workshops that prioritise sensemakingWhat happens when we break ourselves free from the categories we’ve createdThe common theme that emerges when Michael prioritises inner beauty in his workshop designDon’t miss the next episode: subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.LinksWatch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.Centre for Inner Agility website.Connect to Michael:On LinkedInSupport the show✨✨✨You can now find the podcast on Substack, where your host Dr. Myriam Hadnes is building a club for you to find fellow listeners and peers: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/

Send us a textMeg Bolger is one of a few returning guests to this show, originally featured in episode 133 (’The conversation I wish I heard when I started facilitating’).Our conversation this time was a far cry from discussing what we wished we’d heard at the start of our careers. Instead, we focused on Meg’s area of expertise after 12+ years of development and practice: facilitating diversity, equity, and inclusion workshops and processes.We stripped things back to their basics in search of universal language, juggled with contradictions, and explored the wider aims and outcomes of committing to a DEI process.I learned a great deal in this episode and I hope you will, too!Find out about:Why language is holding back progress in the DEI spaceHow to bypass buzzwords and reach a place of unity and understandingHow to facilitate DEI processesHow to consider DEI in your facilitationWhy exclusivity can sometimes be used effectively to create inclusivityWhat to do when you feel friction or dissent against the workshop’s goalsDon’t miss the next episode: subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.LinksWatch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.Meg’s wonderful Facilitator CardsEpisode 133 (Meg’s previous appearance on the show)Connect to Meg:On LinkedInOn TwitterSupport the show✨✨✨You can now find the podcast on Substack, where your host Dr. Myriam Hadnes is building a club for you to find fellow listeners and peers: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/

Send us a textWhen you’re facilitating, where are you? In your head, your body, a role? There are no wrong answers, but there are plenty of interesting questions you can ask to better understand how you facilitate.Anna Momber-Heers can share a lot of interesting insights, as her background is as a performance and communication coach. She helps professionals use tools and ideas from acting to get into their bodies and into a more settled place in their minds.The closer we can get to our bodies, the clearer we can get in our minds. And, in fact, the more we can start to use one to influence the other. Learn about embodied facilitation and how to act like the facilitator you want to be in this episode.Find out about:Why creating a facilitator ‘role’ for yourself can make it easier to focus on your jobHow we can use acting tools to connect us to our minds, bodies, and emotionsWhat changes when facilitators have a stronger connection to their physical and mental experiencesWhy trust is irreplaceable in workshop settingsDifferentiating between our private selves and our present selves in the roomHow to handle the tension between encouraging improvisation and managing timeHow to train your body to prompt and support your mind in different statesDon’t miss the next episode: subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.LinksWatch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.Anna’s websiteConnect to Anna:On LinkedInOn TwitterSupport the show✨✨✨You can now find the podcast on Substack, where your host Dr. Myriam Hadnes is building a club for you to find fellow listeners and peers: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/

Send us a textHow often do you walk away from a conversation feeling heard, like you put across the things you wanted to? Feeling relaxed, not frantic?And how often do you workshops produce those same sensations?If it’s less often than you’d like, Johnnie Moore can help, with his Unhurried model for conversation (and more).As facilitators, we can learn a lot — directly and indirectly — from this approach. Unhurried might make you think ‘slow’, but it’s not necessarily so. Rather than purely slowing down, Johnnie explores what happens when we add layers and awareness to our interactions. When we take time to share, listen, and reflect, the conversation sounds very different.In an increasingly demanding and results-oriented professional space, this is becoming a rare skill. And, as it becomes rarer, it will become vital that we reclaim the time and space to be unhurried.Find out about:How Johnnie developed the concept of unhurried conversations to what it is todayWhy slowness isn’t necessarily the goal of being unhurriedHow to use props and models as guides to ease your way into unhurried conversationWhy Johnnie’s reflective practice uses a sliding scale of satisfaction, rather than failure vs. successHow to own your role in the conversation and step into honest relating about your experienceWhat ‘airtime’ in conversation is and why it is often the root of frustrationsHow to have an effective conversation while speaking gibberishDon’t miss the next episode: subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.LinksWatch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.Johnnie’s websiteThe Unhurried websiteConnect to Johnnie:On LinkedInSupport the show✨✨✨You can now find the podcast on Substack, where your host Dr. Myriam Hadnes is building a club for you to find fellow listeners and peers: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/

Send us a textLanguage is messy. It comes with assumptions, uncertainties, and contradictions — but what else can we use to facilitate?Florentine Versteeg would never claim to have all the answer, but she is certainly asking all the right questions. Her thoughts on facilitation and the inherent privileges in our language take us on a fascinating journey in this episode.We challenge our ideas about communication, inclusivity, and bias — and what we aim to achieve by challenging them in the first place!If you’re a facilitator who enjoys questioning things you’d never think to question, stepping into big challenges, and learning new ways to see things… this might be the perfect episode.Find out about:How to overcome bias towards articulation and adopt new ways to listenUnlocking a broader conversation by including non-verbal communication stylesWhy facilitation is not democratic (nor should it be our goal)Why universal representation is a greater priority than universal agreementWhether defaulting to English is always a positive choiceWhy inclusion leads to expression, and why expression can lead us anywhereDon’t miss the next episode: subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.LinksWatch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.Connect to Florentine:On LinkedInSupport the show✨✨✨You can now find the podcast on Substack, where your host Dr. Myriam Hadnes is building a club for you to find fellow listeners and peers: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/

Send us a textAs facilitation has grown in popularity and awareness over the last decade. And, as markets grow, dilution and variance begins to naturally occur. Marcus Crow has been pondering this issue for a while — chewing over formalization, authentication, and accreditation in our profession.An idea he wanted to explore more (and what better stage than this podcast?) is what a degree in facilitation might look like.Is facilitation something you can teach in an academic space? What disciplines and related fields would inform the curriculum? Where would our field trips take us?Head back to school with us in this curious and joyful episode!Find out about:Why Marcus keeps questioning whether formalization will help or hinder facilitationThe disciplines and ideas that might inform a Bachelor’s-style programmeWhether facilitation is static or context-independent enough to be academizedHow facilitation might become a constant feature of CPD plans in the near-futureWhy Marcus would take his class to a military barracksWhat the common threads and techniques are between different types of facilitators Don’t miss the next episode: subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.Links10,000 Hours — Marcus’ companyConnect to Marcus:On LinkedInSupport the show✨✨✨You can now find the podcast on Substack, where your host Dr. Myriam Hadnes is building a club for you to find fellow listeners and peers: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/

Send us a textFacilitation might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of courage — we do not charge valiantly into battle or wrestle wild animals! — but the closer one looks at it, the more the connection becomes visible.It takes courage to bring a group of people together and challenge them to grow and make progress. It takes courage to stand up and say “I will do this”. It takes courage to ask difficult questions.And it takes courage to get out of our own way — and the group’s.Roi Ben-Yehuda joins me in this episode to dissect what it means to facilitate with courage, why questions are the currency of the courageous, and what he’d plan to say if zombies attacked.Find out about:Why courage has nothing to do with escaping fear, but everything to do with contextualising itWhy open vs. closed questions is an outdated binary — and Roi’s more qualitative alternativeHow collectivism operates as a shortcut to courageHow the magic of workshops isn’t in the content, but in how the group interact with the contentWhat you can do to prevent being triggered out of courageWhere leadership and facilitation intersect — and why collaboration and cocreation are critical to bothDon’t miss the next episode: subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.LinksWatch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.Next Arrow, Roi’s companyConnect to Roi:On LinkedInOn TwitterSupport the show✨✨✨You can now find the podcast on Substack, where your host Dr. Myriam Hadnes is building a club for you to find fellow listeners and peers: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/

Send us a textFacilitation might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of courage — we do not charge valiantly into battle or wrestle wild animals! — but the closer one looks at it, the more the connection becomes visible.It takes courage to bring a group of people together and challenge them to grow and make progress. It takes courage to stand up and say “I will do this”. It takes courage to ask difficult questions.And it takes courage to get out of our own way — and the group’s.Roi Ben-Yehuda joins me in this episode to dissect what it means to facilitate with courage, why questions are the currency of the courageous, and what he’d plan to say if zombies attacked.Find out about:Why courage has nothing to do with escaping fear, but everything to do with contextualising itWhy open vs. closed questions is an outdated binary — and Roi’s more qualitative alternativeHow collectivism operates as a shortcut to courageHow the magic of workshops isn’t in the content, but in how the group interact with the contentWhat you can do to prevent being triggered out of courageWhere leadership and facilitation intersect — and why collaboration and cocreation are critical to bothDon’t miss the next episode: subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.LinksWatch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.Next Arrow, Roi’s companyConnect to Roi:On LinkedInOn TwitterSupport the show✨✨✨You can now find the podcast on Substack, where your host Dr. Myriam Hadnes is building a club for you to find fellow listeners and peers: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/

Send us a textImprovisation seems to have an inescapable connection with facilitation. It’s a topic we’ve touched on many times in this podcast but, to really dig into its depths, it made sense to speak with the man who — quite literally — wrote the book on it!Robert Poynton is the multi-talented author of Do Improvise and Do Pause, creator of Yellow (a unique online learning programme), and the fabled On Your Feet experiential workshop studio.In this episode, we explore what it means to improvise — by saying no as much as yes, by learning to trust our embodied instinct and responsiveness, and by trusting that there are no wrong roads in the journey towards facilitating change.Find out about:Why the unpredictable flow of a workshop is the only flow it can realistically takeHow to facilitate with instinct, as well as intellectHow to embrace ideas, challenges, and interruptions in your workshops as creative inputs Why a workshop that meets your expectations may not be so successfulHow to pan for golden nuggets in a stream of silenceWhy Robert disagrees that improv is all about saying ‘yes’What acceptance, rather than agreement, does to transform the roomDon’t miss the next episode: subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.LinksWatch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.Robert’s websiteThe Everyday Improviser (online course)The Do Books: Do Improvise and Do PauseYellow, Robert’s online learning programmeConnect to Robert:On LinkedInOn InstagramOn TwitterSupport the show✨✨✨You can now find the podcast on Substack, where your host Dr. Myriam Hadnes is building a club for you to find fellow listeners and peers: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/

Send us a textAccessibility — ensuring the spaces we create are open, welcoming, and easy for everyone to join — is a critical, but often neglected, issue in facilitation. It took the rise of online workshops to take accessibility from an afterthought to a main event.But this increased focus on accessibility, long overdue as it was, has proven to be to everyone’s benefit. A rising tide lifts all boats and more accessible workshops help everybody feel included.Marie Dubost has been shouting for accessibility in facilitated spaces for many years and it’s a joy to know that her voice is now being heard. In this episode, we focus on the specifics of how we can make our online workshops more accessible, whilst also touching on some broader reflections on facilitation and inclusivity.Find out about:What percentage of internet users have access needsHow much variation there is in access needs, from colour-blindness to traumasHow to become a proactively inclusive facilitatorWhy accessibility starts long before the workshop beginsThe quick wins you can start practicing today to create greater accessibility in your workshopsWhy accessibility in workshops is more about mindfulness than deep expertise  Don’t miss the next episode: subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.LinksWatch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.UX Facilitation Hub Connect to Marie:On LinkedInOn TwitterSupport the show✨✨✨You can now find the podcast on Substack, where your host Dr. Myriam Hadnes is building a club for you to find fellow listeners and peers: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/