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This week we take a look through the iridescent, rainbow lens of leadership, with Dr Steve Yacovelli, aka ‘The Gay Leadership Dude™’, to ask the question: what does it mean to be a truly inclusive leader?Well beyond the DEI acronym and its all too often tick-box allyship mentality, we explore the essence of inclusive leadership and what every impactful leader can learn from the six competencies that naturally show up in the LGBTQ+ community: being authentic, leading with courage, having empathy, effective communication, building relationships, and influencing organisational culture.We talk all things pronouns, bringing your full self to work, managing your unconscious bias, and finally, we pull at the seams of diversity, to reveal a single beautiful truth: every single human on this planet is diverse!Find out about:Learnings from Steve’s 25 years in the leadership, development, change management, and diversity and inclusion consulting spaceWhat it means to lead with a Pride Leadership mindsetWhy inclusive leadership must go beyond the superficial celebration of the DEI acronym to foster belonging for allThe five dimensions of diversity and what it means for leadershipWhy a feedback-rich culture is critical to creating belonging in the workplaceWhy learning in a group of 3 can have greater success than learning in pairsDon’t miss the next episode: subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.Links:Watch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.Connect to Steve Yacovelli:LinkedInWebsiteShare your thoughts about our conversation!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!

Colonel Walt Holmes shares insights on community-based education, gamified approach to change, and leading groups effectively. Learn about fostering teamwork, accountability, and empowerment in military units. Explore the impact of collaborative problem-solving and empowering students through community-based education.

Explore the blurred lines between facilitation and consulting, dive into powerful facilitation techniques and participant reactions, navigate cliches in facilitation, balance trust and manipulation in facilitation, and discuss passion and detachment in facilitation

Amanda Harding, a Curator of Conversation, specializes in crafting spaces for meaningful dialogue around complex issues. She discusses why the right mix of participants is essential for productive discussions, especially when tackling wicked problems. Amanda emphasizes the importance of clear power dynamics and how thoughtful question crafting can lead to impactful conversations. Additionally, she explores the balance between embracing discomfort and achieving alignment with shared ambitions, rather than compromising on ideas.

Is there an art to creating human connection? My guest this week Yaniv Rose, would certainly say so. As an Authentic Relator, his craft lies in facilitating deeper, more meaningful connections - transforming the relationship we have with ourselves, and the one we have with others.It’s a tool for life: a grounding practice that asks us to consciously observe, fine-tune, and recalibrate our human interactions by showing up unequivocally as our truest selves. And when we rewire ourselves to honour authenticity? We can seek out new depths of intimacy, and ultimately, we learn how to be more human.Find out about:The five core practices within Authentic RelatingWhy Authentic Relating is a transformational foundation for how you approach connections with yourself and others, and how you can start practising it todayHow to connect participants to an organisation’s core values through roleplayWhy Authentic Relating as a facilitation tool can create a safe space for participants to feel seen and heardWhy workshops can fail if we stay within the realm of safety, and don’t try to make the implicit explicitDon’t miss the next episode: subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.Links:Watch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.Connect to Yaniv Rose:WebsiteInstagramLinkedInShare your thoughts about our conversation!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!

Master-manipulator, con-artist… facilitator? When we think of manipulation, facilitation is probably the last thing that springs to mind. We are neutral, we are trusted shepherds, we encourage emergence! So where does the line between manipulation and facilitation start, and where does it end?This week, my brilliant colleagues Thomas Lahnthaler, Cate Czerwinski, Shamir Joseph and Florentine Versteeg sat down with me to examine this ethically grey, but endlessly fascinating area.We explore manipulation in its many, inconspicuous guises: mysterious agendas, influencing the process, the facilitation tools we deploy, practising self-awareness, power dynamics and navigating participant consent.Find out about:Where manipulation and facilitation meet, overlap, and the ethical danger zones to be cautious of when facilitatingWhy manipulation in a facilitation context becomes a causal sequence of: purpose, presence, power, process, participants and play.Why practicing self-awareness and presence is crucial to be able to navigate the needs of the group, the client, and yourselfThe power we possess as facilitators, and why obtaining consent at the beginning of a workshop is crucial to earning trustWhy the predefined roles that participants adopt can stifle the process and prevent new perspectives from being explored.Don’t miss the next episode: subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.Links:Watch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.Connect with the guests:Thomas LahnthalerCate CzerwinskiShamir JosephFlorentine VersteegShare your thoughts about our conversation!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!

Motivation is a complex, elusive creature. We either have it, or we don’t, right?But what if I told you, there is a science to motivation, after all? And motivation mogul Ahmet Tamtekin has cracked its code! His passion project for coaching led him to discover his life’s purpose: motivation, how we experience it, how to read it as a language, and how to inspire it in others. He now uses the wonders of neuroscience to tap into our wildly differing motivators, to boost team performance and get the best out of people.In this episode, Ahmet brings his passion and charisma into every corner of our conversation, sharing curious new tricks, tools and avenues to explore in both our facilitation practice and everyday lives. I promise that episode 253 will be a real treat for your mind!Find out about:Where motivation fits within the practice of facilitationWhy a good facilitator can both read and feed the nuances of motivations in the room for the greatest impactPersonality tests can reveal how you naturally behave, while motivation uncovers why you behave that way, giving us the power to change our behavioursMotivation can be an expression, or a language, that we speak to our loved ones – and sometimes, we must look beyond to understand their languageDon’t miss the next episode: subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.Links:Watch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.Connect to Ahmet Tamtekin:LinkedInWebsiteShare your thoughts about our conversation!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!

And, action! This week, Stoyan Yankov takes us on a journey from behind the clapperboard to discuss the fascinating symmetries between movie production and facilitation.The world of cinema can be unpredictable, filled with plot twists, creative agendas and diverse characters, and when the metaphorical smoke-machine breaks, it requires a sixth sense for when to keep the camera rolling, and when to end scene.Stoyan joins us with all the learnings, stories and curiosities he’s collected in his back pocket from his career to date - from movie producer, to facilitator and talented TedX speaker. Sit back and enjoy!Find out about:What a movie producer can teach us about facilitation – from managing a diverse array of personalities, to mastering adaptation, and being vehicles of transformationThe best movie productions – and workshops – are often the ones when the producer is most invisible, giving everyone else a platform to feel seen and heardJust like move producers, master facilitators should sense when a tangent is worth pursuing, and when to redirect the conversationWhy the early stages of our career are rich playgrounds for learning, growth and experimentationAs facilitators, circumstances will always lie beyond our control, but it’s our attitude towards what is within our control, that countsHow a 1-hour speech can transform someone’s life, giving them new perspectives to considerDon’t miss the next episode: subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.Links:Watch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.Connect to Stoyan Yankov:LinkedInWebsite Share your thoughts about our conversation!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!

We all speak the language of music. It’s life’s medicine, a beautiful escape when we need one, and it feeds our soul in ways that feel, somehow, inexplicable.But there is of course method to the magic. Musician, vocalist, singer, and songwriter Sam McNeill has been singing all his life – from the Sydney Opera House, to the heavyweight headquarters of Spotify - he now works as a musical facilitator for SongDivision, bonding teams all over the world through the science of music.In their songwriting workshops, deep reflections take place, honesty emerges in the lyrics, and teams are given a new voice to creatively express values and reveal the unspoken.Press play and treat your ears to this fascinating episode with Sam as he shares his personal experiences as a performer, offering a unique platform for us to examine the intersection of music and facilitation. You’ll learn:Why songwriting is a powerful tool for teams to express themselves, encourage discussion and strengthen bondsHow music can remove hierarchy, putting employees on a level playing field in a workshop settingThe science behind music: how activating the prefrontal cortex can enhance creativity and set the scene for fruitful collaborationWhy failure is a better outcome than impartiality, offering us learnings for improvementThe parallels that lie between an artist’s performance and that of a facilitatorWhy a lack of clarity around what success looks like in a workshop can cause failureHow musical genres can help teams or organisations to better define themselvesDon’t miss the next episode: subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.Links:Watch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.The episode with Rich Goidel we referred to on the show.Connect to Sam McNeill:LinkedInSongDivisionShare your thoughts about our conversation!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!

From the US Military, to the world of professional coaching, my guest this week is not only an ex-army officer, but an executive coach, leadership mentor, facilitator, and an inexorably passionate learner.At aged 17, Pat D’Amico was enlisted into Valley Forge Military Academy where he went on to serve in multiple humanitarian and combat deployments around the world. But it was here in military training, that his personal leadership journey began. It shaped him into the exceptional facilitator that he is today, teaching him the lifelong discipline of continuous learning, the importance of being passionate, and why knowing your stuff should be approached with military precision.Pat takes us on a fascinating expedition this week into powerful course design, the world of leadership training, why practical training will always triumph over classroom learning – and much, much more!Find out about:Pat’s learnings from his time in the military and how army training has helped him to become a better facilitator, mentor and coachThe importance of mastering your content, and how facilitation mastery and content quality complement each other Why it’s important to listen to the high performers, instead of the low performers to understand organisational challengesLearn practical tips on how participants can retain and apply key learnings after a workshop has concludedWhy creating a safe environment for participants to make mistakes is so valuablePassion, content customisation, and relatability are crucial for a workshop to succeedDon’t miss the next episode: subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.Links:Watch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.Connect to Pat D’Amico:LinkedInShare your thoughts about our conversation!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!