workshops work

Send us a textThis is my first solo show and I speak about the science behind workshop design and facilitation. Namely, I share how I use evidence from behavioural economics to come up with ideas that will help participants to experience meaningful progress during their working session. Before founding idayz I had a career in higher education – as a researcher, lecturer and strategic advisor. From all these roles I learned about human behaviour and how to best facilitate their collaboration.   In the show, I share the rationale behind my workshop design and some of my favourite exercises and I answer my own questions: How can we help participants to open up and engage despite hierarchical differences? How can we use the energy of nay-sayers for creative ideation and is courage one of the most important skills of a successful facilitator? Don’t miss the part when I explain why I bring M&Ms to every meeting Questions and Answers[1:59] What would I be if I was a hashtag?[3:30] Why do I call myself a “behavioural economist” and what does that mean?[6:33] What’s my story? How did I get from a career in higher education to become a facilitator? [10:59] Why did I call my business idayz?[15:21] What have I learned from my previous roles in workshop design and facilitation?[22:13] How do I use insights from behavioural economics to design workshops?[29:22] What’s my favourite exercise and how do I use behavioural insights to design exercises?[30:55] Why do I bring M&Ms to every meeting and workshop?[32:54] What are the most powerful check-in exercises I use and why do they work from a behavioural perspective?[41:45] Why do I brainstorm failures instead of successes?[43:00] How do I help participants to cluster their ideas after ideation?[45:41] Why do workshops fail?[46:26] What shall my listener who missed the entire show remember? Related links you may want to check out:My business page: www.idayz.nlDaniel Kahnemann: “Thinking fast and slow”Cognitive BiasesVipassana silent meditation retreatPat Flynn’s concept of “unfair advantage”Patrick CowdenJean Marc FandelMy blog post on check-in exercisesTeresa Amabile: The progress principleDan Ariely’s Lego experimentDixit board gameOur sponsor Session Lab (affiliate link)  Connect and follow me:LinkedIn @myriamhadnes on Instagram or 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 textIn this episode, I talk to Derek Bruce. He is a Leadership Development Director, and has worked in HR, Learning & Development and is also an expert keynote speaker and event moderator and host.Derek and I speak about the importance of engaging the audience - whether it is in a workshop, meeting or at a conference. When our audience feels engaged, they will listen to us and interact, they will feel enabled to act upon the content we try to bring across.  Besides engaging the audience, Derek and I touch on a million other topics: the skillset of managers to survive the “future of work”, the impact of preparation on our mindset and the workshop atmosphere, and: why you may want to ask your audience to take a selfie. Don’t miss the part when Derek shares his lessons learned from facilitating a workshop where half the participants were physically present and the other half joined via video call. Tune in to learn how to assure that the virtual participants are as engaged as if they sat in the same room…. Questions and Answers[1:32] If you were a hashtag, what would it be?[1:53] What is your story? Where does your energy and your skill to engage the audience come from? [2:56] What have you learned from your roles in HR and Learning & Development about facilitation? [4:34] Where do you see the challenges and benefits of being a corporate versus an external facilitator?[8:02] What is your experience in collaborating with an external facilitator?[8:52] How do you measure success?[10:32] What does it take to engage an audience? [12:54] To what extent does seating matter and how do you set up the room?[14:06] Do you use different approaches to engage the audience depending on whether it is a meeting, workshop or conference? [19:50] When you say that engagement starts within the first minute and you often use humour. What have you learned from improv or stand-up comedy about engagement? [22:59] Stand-up is scripted whereas improv is not. Would you script your first joke when coming on stage?[24:41] So, does “humour” boil down to “authenticity”? [25:35] What makes for you a good facilitator? [28:26] Do facilitators of e.g. Design Sprints need different skills than facilitators who teach groups?  [31:18] How did you connect the virtual and physical participants in the beginning? What were the exercises? [33:41] For anyone who hasn’t facilitated a partly virtual workshop – what would you advise? [35:40] What is your opinion on the statement that in the future of work, every manager must develop facilitation skills?[38:22] What’s the difference between soft and emotional skills?[40:40] Are these emotional skills then also the ingredients you need to engage the audience? [47:59] What’s your silver bullet exercise? Related links you may want to check out:Our sponsor Session Lab (affiliate link) Other shows we mentioned:Episode 016 with Tamar Broadbent: Why every facilitator should take improv classes” Episode 007 with Jeremy Akers: Mindset Management Connect to Derek:Support 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 textIn this episode, I talk to Tamar Broadbent, a comedian, writer, improviser, award-winning musical songwriter, and: my first improvisation theatre teacher! In our super fun talk, we speak about improvisation theatre and what facilitators can learn from improvisers. I claim that every facilitator who is serious about getting to the next level should take improv classes! In the show, Tamar shares the ground rules of improv and how they apply to live off-stage, we talk about listening, connection, and creating safe space through authentic positivity. Don’t miss the part when Tamar shares her experience working with teams in a business setting and how she prepares for these. Along our conversation, we draw analogies between on- and off-stage scenarios that will surely inspire you to design a new setting for fun workshops that work by delivering results. Don’t miss the next show: Subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.Questions and Answers[1:33] Let’s start with your story. Where did you pick up all of these skills? [3:21] As not everyone in the audience might be familiar with improv and long-form Chicago style. Can you give us the nutshell of what all of that means? [5:17] Can you share with us the ground rules of improv and why they are so important?[7:45] What makes a good scene partner in terms of shared responsibility?[11:41] What did you learn for off-stage life? Do you still ask people how they are doing?[13:13] Has improv helped you to become a better listener off-stage?[17:33] Can you explain how we can say “no” in an improv scene without compromising on the rule of “yes and”? [25:02] How important is authenticity for you as an improviser on stage? Can you be authentic or is it just a role you play?[27:19] Playing improv is extremely vulnerable in the beginning, as a teacher, how do you create a safe space for your students?[36:02] What’s your favourite game/ ice-breaker?[38:05] When you do workshops with business teams where participants might not have signed up for improv voluntarily, how do you get them to “warm up”? [41:47] Your classes were always incredibly structured. What was your approach to link the exercises to the general topic and goal of the class? [46:03] What makes a workshop fail?[47:50] What transformation do you observe in students who enrol in your improv course?Related links you may want to check out:Tamar’s website: https://www.mynameistamar.comImprov theatre glossaryOur sponsor Session Lab (affiliate link) Connect to Tamar:On LinkedInFollow Tamar: @tamarbroadbent Support 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 textIn episode 015, I talk to Wouter Smeets, a rocket scientist, former innovation manager and (co-) founder of two companies, Glimpse and Prototype You, Wouter has worked on human-machine interaction and now focuses on human-human interaction to help individuals to pursue their dreams and change-makers to realise their vision of a better world. In this episode, Wouter shares how we can use workshops as a framework to apply innovation principles for solution development. Don’t miss the part when Wouter praises the role of facilitators and emphasizes their importance in the solution development process! This will give you the right arguments at hand to get the budget and deliver workshops that work. Questions and Answers[1:49] I tend to say that workshop design and facilitation is no “rocket science”. What is your view as a rocket scientist? [2:43] What’s your journey from being an innovation manager to becoming a founder?[7:03] What have you learned from your time working on human-machine interaction for the work on human-human interaction that you are doing today? [9:35] What makes the use of templates on workshops so powerful?[11:47] How do you make sure that the groups solve the right problem?[16:26] Can templates be too narrow in the sense that they don’t leave enough room for creativity?[20:41] How do you deal with the situation when participants rank all ideas high in importance and urgency? [23:14] How do you prioritize ideas?[28:51] Who needs to be in the workshop room to drive solution development?[30:32] What is so important about the facilitator?[32:52] How do you make sure that the decision maker [aka workshop sponsor] doesn’t invite “yes-sayers” to the workshop? [34:28] Who decides on the way to vote (whether it’s democratic or the leader who decides)? And, how do groups react to different scenarios?[36:59] How do we know that the group arrived in developing “the” solution? [39:47] When you run several workshops to develop the solution, what is the responsibility of the facilitator that the group does “their homework” in following up?[42:20] What information must be present on the final template to make sure the team can work on the next steps?[45:06] Do you have a better way of reading the room and guiding the group than gut-feeling? Related links you may want to check out:Wouter’s business pages: www.glimpse.nl and www.prototypeyou.nlThe Mom TestEisenhower MatrixWSJF (Weighted Shortest Job First) Ikea EffectOur sponsor Session Lab (affiliate link) Connect to Wouter on LinkedIn Support 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 textIn this very-early morning and truly authentic show, I speak with Lily Gros, a facilitator, entrepreneur and youtuber. Lily started La Minute Facilitation, her business with which she facilitates workshops for (mostly non-profit) clients, trains facilitators on their mindset and runs her own workshops on authenticity and perfectionism.  In the show, we talk about “authenticity 360 degrees” which includes the facilitator and the participants. And, we talk about mindful facilitation which becomes crucial as soon as challenges come up. Don’t miss our very honest exchange on how we dealt with challenging situations. These lessons we learned will surely inspire you to anticipate problems so that you can make your workshops work.  Questions and Answers[1:37] What are your different roles as a facilitator? [7:36] Authenticity became quite a buzzword. How do you define it and what does it mean to you? [10:54] How did you learn to be authentic?  [12:43] How did you come up with this topic?[15:16] How do get your groups to be more authentic? [16:27] You get to know your participants before the workshop? [17:30] What would be an icebreaker for a “cold” group of participants?[21:35] Why does it feel so scary to be authentic? [24:21] How do you approach the puzzle that a team might accept imperfection and vulnerability and still show high performance? [31:34] How do you test the water in terms of openness of your participants?[34:20] How did you manage to create the safe space after this tricky situation? [41:02] What is your way in dealing with such a difficult participant? [45:05] What makes a workshop work?[47:55] What shall the audience remember from the show?Related links you may want to check out:Lily’s business page: https://lilygros.co/The white paper (book) Lily wrote with Ze Change Makers (in French)Brené Brown’s TED talkLily’s interview with Peter Krishnan (summary)Jim Tamm on Radical Collaboration The five keys to a successful Google teamOur sponsor Session Lab (affiliate link) Shows we mentioned:Mindset Management – with Jeremy AckersGetting it right by starting it right – with Patrick CowdenConnect to Lily on LinkedIn Follow Lily: @laminutefacilitation  Support 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 textIn episode 013, I talk to Alison Coward, a founder, facilitator, book author and keynote speaker. Alison runs Bracket, a consulting agency that helps teams work better together. We talk about “workshop culture” and the fact that not every professional gathering must turn into a workshop. Instead, we can use workshop elements that will help boost team collaboration and creativity in meetings and everyday business. In the show, Alison shares how to create a workshops culture with groups who are not used to post-it notes and sharpie markers. Alison’s reflections on creativity at work will inspire you to design and deliver workshops that work.  Questions and Answers[1:11] What’s the story behind your company name “Bracket”?[5:15] What did you learn from your time working with creatives about the facilitation of business meetings and workshops?[6:43] How do you get management teams to become more “creative”? [7:48] How do you facilitate creativity without getting into the “touchy-feely” zone and how do you turn the outcomes into something productive? [9:45] What will you then do with these ideas to get to the productive bit?[11:53] What is the timeframe you advise your clients to take for a workshop to tackle a specific problem?[13:21] What is the difference between a workshop, a group discussion and a meeting? [15:48] How can we bring the dynamic part of a workshop into a meeting? [19:30] How would you initiate this transformative process of introducing workshop culture into a team? [26:08] Do you have ground rules that come along with what you call “workshop culture”?[28:05] What are the ingredients you need to bring workshop culture into a “normal meeting”?[28:36] With what kind of exercises would you use for that?[29:38] Not every team can afford hiring a facilitator for a “normal” meeting. Could a team member take on this facilitation role? [34:33] Do you believe in taking mindfulness into meetings?[35:50] How do you deal with a situation where a check-in comment risks to take the meeting somewhere else? [36:54] What’s the magic that gets work done in a workshop?[38:06] To what extent is the facilitator responsible for the follow-through of workshop outcomes? [40:37] How can we bring the energy back up in a full day workshop – especially after everyone comes back from lunch? [45:03] Why are organisations today so much more aware of the benefits of collaboration compared to 10 years ago when you first started? What has changed?Related links you may want to check out:Alison’s business page: https://www.bracketcreative.co.ukHer book: “A pocket guide to effective workshops”Alison’s blog post on the creative process of workshop design New York Times article on 36 questionsOur sponsor Session Lab (affiliate link) Support 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 textIn this episode, I talk to Mathias Weitbrecht, a visual facilitator and book author. When he started, 15 years ago, Mathias was one of the co-founders of visual facilitation in Germany. Mathias runs Visual Facilitators, a company that brings forth people’s potential by adding a new dimension to the process of collaboration – through visuals. We talk about the skillset facilitators need to use visuals in their workshops. And, you will learn that being artistic is not amongst them.    Don’t miss the part when Mathias explains the breakthrough visual facilitation can bring to the group by giving introverts and shy participants a voice. Tune in to learn how to use pen and paper to deliver workshops that work. Questions and Answers[1:24] What brought you to the field of visual facilitation?[3:17] How can someone become a visual facilitator who cannot draw?[6:03] How can you make sure that the images you draw represent the content participants hear?[8:06] Can you facilitate and visualize at the same time?[11:09] Does the group you facilitate require specific skills, such as speaking in metaphors?[12:14] What is the skillset a visual facilitator needs?[14:38] How much background knowledge about the specific workshop topic do you need to visualize the minutes in real-time?[15:47] Are there specific workshop types that (dis-)qualify from visual facilitation?[16:40] Would you use this technique in your private environment? And, how do your counterparts react?[21:27] In an earlier conversation you mentioned that we cannot reduce complexity but only make it more digestible. Can you elaborate on that?[22:41] Is there a risk of over-simplifying? What are potential drawbacks of visual facilitation? [24:53] Does it happen that a group finds a completely new perspective on their issue through the visualization? [26:48] What are the exercises you would incorporate in your workshop design?[31:54] What is your advice to someone who wants to test the field of visual facilitation? [29:30] How do you perceive the risk of interpreting the content instead of translating it? How can the visual facilitator remain neutral?[32:43] What makes workshops work?[33:37] How do introverts react to visual facilitation?[34:42] What are you doing in workshops to get the energy back?[35:53] Do you use pen and paper or an iPad/ digital tools for visualization?[37:38] What shall the listener take away from our conversation?[38:42] How can we find you, reach out and hire you?         Related links you may want to check out:Mathias’ business page: www.visualfacilitators.com Our sponsor Session Lab (affiliate link) Other shows we mentioned: How to facilitate huge brainstorming sessions – with Frans Scheepens  Connect to Mathias on LinkedIn  Support 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 textIn this episode, I talk to Frans Scheepens, a brainstorm designer, entrepreneur and certified facilitator. We talk about conducting brainstorming sessions with very large groups as he has designed and facilitated groups with up to 650 participants. Frans founded Brainfuel a company that helps groups to generate many ideas that will solve important problems.   In the show, Frans shares hands-on advice on how to design and facilitate large group brainstorming sessions. He shares suitable ice-breaker exercises, voting techniques and best practices on how to deal with upcoming challenges and distractions. You will learn how to make sure that all ideas count and how you would have to instruct facilitators to support the sub-groups in the process.Don’t miss the part when Frans explains why brainstorming sessions have such a bad reputation and what you can do to deliver brainstorming workshops that work.  Questions and Answers[1:16] If you were a hashtag, what would it be?[1:28] How do you define ‘brainstorming’?[2:08] Is a brainstorming just a nice concept for a meeting without agenda?[2:59] Where does the bad reputation of brainstorming come from?[4:05] What questions qualify for a brainstorm?[6:25] When you advice to include ‘people from the outside’ in the session, who do you mean?[7:28] Is there an optimum number of people to include in a brainstorming session? [8:47] How do you avoid outsiders to create resistance regarding their ideas?[9:43] Would you give participants homework for the preparation of the brainstorm?[11:25] What is your favourite icebreaker/ check-in exercise? [13:00] How much time would you consider for such an exercise? [14:23] What is a ‘daring brainstorm’? [14:46] What’s the maximum size of a brainstorm session you did?[15:18] Who would facilitate these sub-teams?[17:00] How do you manage distraction for such a large group?[18:30] What would you advise on how to deal with distraction or side-talk during a session? [22:39] What is the perspective that you need to empathize with when designing such brainstorming sessions?[25:55] What is a ‘brain-dump’? [27:33] What is your method of brainstorming?[28:18] Can you walk us through the superhero method?[32:06] In a very operational way, what is your approach to brainstorming? [39:46] How do you choose the best ideas? [44:37] How do the sub-groups then share their results with each other?  [45:59] To what extent does the facilitator has a responsibility on the follow-up of the brainstorming session?[47:02] Would you also engage in the follow-up?[51:00] What makes workshops work?[51:38] What shall someone, who missed the last 50 minutes, takeaway from the show? [52:32] How can interested listeners get in touch with you?  Related links you may want to check out:Frans business page: www.brainfuel.nlA short video about Frans' sessionsOur sponsor Session Lab (affiliate link)  Connect to Guest on Support 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 textIn this episode, I talk to Dirk Verburg, a management consultant and executive coach who has the mission to help leaders and management teams to implement their business strategies, business plans and strategic initiatives (such as important projects). We talk about how facilitators can structure workshops that enable participants to execute what they have committed to. We discuss how management teams can keep momentum when being back in their daily routines. In the show, Dirk shares interventions that will help the management team to follow through decided strategies and the role of leaders in that process. Don’t miss the part when Dirk explains how he handles the double role of being a consultant and a facilitator of strategic projects. This conversation will inspire you to design strategy workshops which participants will feel motivated to carry on.  Questions and Answers[2:05] What is your story?[3:20] What makes strategies and business plans fail? [3:49] Do participants in your workshops usually have a clear idea already how the strategy looks like?[5:47] How would you approach such a discussion? Would it be a guided discussion with all team members around a table?[6:34] How often does it happen that the team hears the same words but understands something different?[7:12] If there is disagreement, how do you deal with the tension?[8:03] How do you secure the buy-in?[10:00] After you clarified disagreement and achieved buy-in, what is the next step to assure the follow-up after the workshop?[11:52] What are the next steps toward execution?[13:06] How do you collect the participants’ ideas regarding the specific translations of the strategy? And how do you make sure that everyone is contributing?[15:08] When participants work in pairs: how do you build these and will they remain the same over the duration of the workshop?[15:45] How do you get introverts to voice their opinions?[16:45] How do you deal with the bunch of action items?[19:28] How do you get the team to prioritize action items?[21:04] How do you then divide the tasks for execution?[22:16] Would that mean that the person who has an idea is in charge of the realization?[27:06] How do you get the team members to follow through with their responsibilities?[28:42] This sounds so easy in theory but the reality is that many managers have competing commitments. How do you coach the leader to assure progress? [34:22] How can you as a facilitator help the team to follow through and to make it fun to stick to the commitments?[37:06] How do you walk the line between being a facilitator and being a consultant?[38:49] How do you assure that the CEO doesn’t lose face in such situations?[39:33] I like to ask my podcast guests for a DIY exercise that always works, no matter what. What would be your contribution?[40:40] How do you finish the sentence: “Workshops fail if…”? [41:13] So what is a “sound facilitator”?[42:37] If a listener fell asleep after a few minutes, how would you summarize our conversation?   Related links you may want to check out:Dirk's business page: www.dirkverburg.com Our sponsor Session Lab (affiliate link) Episodes mentioned in the conversation:Support 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 textIn this episode, I talk to Megan Mateer, former corporate strategy consultant and now founder, facilitator, and changemaker. She founded Empatiko, a movement that aims to be a catalyst for human connection in the workplace and therefore accompanies organizations through that cultural transformation. Meg and I talk about conflict in group settings and how to use conflict as an opportunity for insight, clarity and connection in the context of workshops. You will hear about the difference between healthy and unhealthy conflict and how to deal with the latter when it arises in different shapes. Also, we speak about another form of conflict in the workshop space: a conflict between the facilitator and the group. Don’t miss the part where Meg runs us through the process of avoiding conflict by using the example of someone coming late to a meeting. Tune in to learn tools to make healthy conflict your ally and avoid unhealthy conflict from derailing so that your workshops work. Questions and Answers[1:20] How did you get from being a corporate strategy consultant to becoming the founder of Empatiko.[6:55] When you say that conflict can create a connection, what do you mean by that? [7:51] What are the elements that trigger conflict?[9:00] Would you say that we most often ignore conflict to then deny it when it comes up?[10:41] Since conflict is triggered by differences in assumptions, values and needs, how do you deal with conflict once it comes up?[11:53] Would you explicitly ask self-reflection questions in the workshop space when you feel that there is conflict?[16:52] At the moment you feel “an elephant in the room”, how would you deal with it? [19:28] Why don’t you walk us through the concept of non-violent communication? [24:45] As this doesn’t sound like “conflict” anymore to me, how would you actually define conflict and how do you avoid conflict to derail into something unhealthy? [27:32] How do you deal with what you call “explosive conflict”?[30:21] Would you then call a break when conflict arises and how would you then continue? [31:56] How can we deal with a situation when the conflict is about us as facilitators?[37:14] Coming back to the resolution of conflict among participants, how can you use the energy created by the conflict?[41:46] What is your favourite exercise that usually works?[43:17] For what kind of topic would you use the framework of the fishbowl?[44:34] How would you finish the sentence: “Workshops fail if…” [45:17] What would you like the listener to remember who fell asleep after minute one?[46:42] If someone wants to reach out, connect to or work with you, how can they find you?Related links you may want to check out:Meg’s business page: www.empatiko.orgNon-violent communication (Wikipedia)Liberating StructuresOur sponsor Session Lab (affiliate link) Support 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/