The act of naming something gives it presence, it makes it visible. So how then, do we navigate something as infinite and nameworthy as facilitation, when invisibility is so often its modus operandi?

Scrum-master, agile-coach and chief explorer of Exploration Labs, Charles-Louis de Maere joins me this week for a juicy, macro-to-micro exploration into facilitation as we toy with this question. We discuss the power of surrender: why stepping back, ditching the instructions, and detaching ourselves from the rigidity of the process, can help us to co-create a playground that prioritises the outcome.

We cover a lot of terrain in this episode! From the deeper purpose of the facilitator, to practical try-it-yourself exercises, facilitating in different cultures, and why we can sometimes be magicians in disguise…

Find out about:

• Why the art of invisible facilitation abandons agendas in favour of co-designing towards a shared outcome
• Why the strongest tool in our toolbox is the question, and why vague questions
• The power of playing with ambiguity
• A lack of instructions can facilitate trust in a group through the discomfort that emerges
• Finding the right level of appropriateness for exchanges in different cultures
• How to navigate the wants and needs of the group, with the expectations of the hiring client

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.

Links:

Watch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.

Connect to Charles-Louis de Maere:

LinkedIn

Website

Support the show: Make a one-off donation and contribute to the ongoing costs of running the podcast.

Check out the podcast map to see the overview of all podcast episodes: https://workshops.work/podcast-map

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 space
• What it means to lead with a Pride Leadership mindset
• Why inclusive leadership must go beyond the superficial celebration of the DEI acronym to foster belonging for all
• The five dimensions of diversity and what it means for leadership
• Why a feedback-rich culture is critical to creating belonging in the workplace
• Why learning in a group of 3 can have greater success than learning in pairs

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.

Put the episode's best takeaways into practice with Skillding. Visit skillding.com/workshop to begin your journey from learning to doing. Track your progress as you hone your new skills. Start now!

Links:

Watch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.

Connect to Steve Yacovelli:

LinkedIn

Website

Support the show: Make a one-off donation and contribute to the ongoing costs of running the podcast.

Check out the podcast map to see the overview of all podcast episodes: https://workshops.work/podcast-map

Can I get your attention? Because this week, I have none other than Colonel Walt Holmes with me on the show, Air Force Commander, author, and master facilitator of community-based education.

Walt has been helping individuals to progress through the ranks of military units – and of life – since the 1999s, designing the systems for success in both soldiers and students. His 5 levels of achievement offers a unique gamified approach to change: encouraging meaningful metric-based accountability, collaboration and autonomy in his squadron of students. His belief: if we can impact someone’s behaviour, we can change their attitude.

Walt’s passion is undeniable - it radiates through the airwaves of our conversation and I’m positive you will feel it too! Tune in to learn all about community, attitude, behaviour and the cogs of organisational change.

Find out about:

• Learnings from Walt’s military career as a cultural change facilitator
• What it takes to change an entire organisation through the introduction of structure, autonomy and collaboration
• Why the success to community-based education lies in a marriage of individual outcomes and metrics
• The inner-workings of community models: why people taking ownership creates a system that is self-enforcing
• What Walt’s book ‘Lead From The Middle, Lead From Behind’ can teach us about leading groups in disarray

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.

Skill ding 

Links:

Watch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.

Connect to Walt Holmes:

Website

Email

Website

Support the show:

Make a one-off donation and contribute to the ongoing costs of running the podcast.

Check out the podcast map to see the overview of all podcast episodes: https://workshops.work/podcast-map

Dominant, supportive. Immediate value, gradual value. Explicit, implicit. Scarcity, abundance. Consultant, Facilitator.

It might be tempting to view the roles of a consultant, and that of a facilitator, through these opposing dichotomies, but nothing is ever really that black and white. And as Benjamin Taylor and I speak about this week, there’s a great deal to be learnt from the intersection of the two!

This episode takes a look at facilitation through the meta-lens; from afar, we inspect it as a movement and dig up some uncomfortable clichéd truths, and up-close, we unravel the intricacies of manipulation, shallow vs deep facilitation, and the most daring tool of all in our toolkit.

Find out about:

• Where facilitation shows up in consulting and the interplay between the two disciplines
• What Benjamin has learnt from decades spent as a consultant in the public sector
• The distinction between shallow and deep facilitation and why it is critical for an effective outcome
• Why the key to impactful facilitation lies in fostering an environment of connection, collaboration and empowering each participant’s strengths
• Why consultants must resist the urge to prove instant value; instead taking a more measured, facilitative approach to 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.

Put the episode's best takeaways into practice with Skillding. Visit skillding.com/workshop to begin your journey from learning to doing. Track your progress as you hone your new skills. Start now!

Links:

Watch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.

Connect to Benjamin Taylor:

LinkedIn

RedQuadrant

Support the show:

Make a one-off donation and contribute to the ongoing costs of running the podcast.

Check out the podcast map to see the overview of all podcast episodes: https://workshops.work/podcast-map

Dialogue is a form of sense-making in motion. Thoughts become words become ideas, and ideas then enter reality splintering into fresh, new routes of discussion – a map begins to form, ready to be navigated.

Although, that map might not always have the right people reading it, it may even have dead-ends along the way, or the wrong starting point entirely. This is where Amanda Harding comes in! As a Curator of Conversation, she designs a third space for deliberate dialogue to be held between a blend of actors, so that entangled, wicked problems can be unravelled with purpose, made malleable, and actionable.

As you’d guess, mine and Amanda’s own dialogue surfaced some big, juicy themes, considerations and musings for the facilitation process.

Find out about:

• Why dialogue can fail when it lacks the right blend of participants – often, those with conflicting opinions have the best conversations
• The importance of making power dynamics explicit to achieve inclusive participation
• How tension can be embraced and managed within a space by ensuring all participants can constructively engage
• How to craft questions, or conversation-starters, for impactful dialogue
• Why dialogue can achieve alignment on a higher common ground, in contrast to a shared consensus, which can lead to diluted, compromised ambitions

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.

Put the episode's best takeaways into practice with Skillding. Visit skillding.com/workshop to begin your journey from learning to doing. Track your progress as you hone your new skills. Start now!

Links:

Watch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.

Connect to Amanda Harding:

LinkedIn

Website

Support the show:

Make a one-off donation and contribute to the ongoing costs of running the podcast.

Check out the podcast map to see the overview of all podcast episodes: https://workshops.work/podcast-map

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 Relating
• Why Authentic Relating is a transformational foundation for how you approach connections with yourself and others, and how you can start practising it today
• How to connect participants to an organisation’s core values through roleplay
• Why Authentic Relating as a facilitation tool can create a safe space for participants to feel seen and heard
• Why workshops can fail if we stay within the realm of safety, and don’t try to make the implicit explicit

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.

Put the episode's best takeaways into practice with Skillding. Visit skillding.com/workshop to begin your journey from learning to doing. Track your progress as you hone your new skills. Start now!

Links:

Watch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.

Connect to Yaniv Rose:

Website

Instagram

LinkedIn

Support the show:

Make a one-off donation and contribute to the ongoing costs of running the podcast.

Check out the podcast map to see the overview of all podcast episodes: https://workshops.work/podcast-map

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 facilitating
• Why 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 yourself
• The power we possess as facilitators, and why obtaining consent at the beginning of a workshop is crucial to earning trust
• Why 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.

And download the free 1-page summary, so you can always have the key points of this episode to hand.

Put the episode's best takeaways into practice with Skillding. Visit skillding.com/workshop to begin your journey from learning to doing. Track your progress as you hone your new skills. Start now!

Links:

Watch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.

Connect with the guests:

Thomas Lahnthaler

Cate Czerwinski

Shamir Joseph

Florentine Versteeg

Support the show:

Make a one-off donation and contribute to the ongoing costs of running the podcast.

Check out the podcast map to see the overview of all podcast episodes: https://workshops.work/podcast-map

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 facilitation
• Why a good facilitator can both read and feed the nuances of motivations in the room for the greatest impact
• Personality tests can reveal how you naturally behave, while motivation uncovers why you behave that way, giving us the power to change our behaviours
• Motivation can be an expression, or a language, that we speak to our loved ones – and sometimes, we must look beyond to understand their language

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.

Put the episode's best takeaways into practice with Skillding. Visit skillding.com/workshop to begin your journey from learning to doing. Track your progress as you hone your new skills. Start now!

Links:

Watch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.

Connect to Ahmet Tamtekin:

LinkedIn

Website

Support the show:

Make a one-off donation and contribute to the ongoing costs of running the podcast.

Check out the podcast map to see the overview of all podcast episodes: https://workshops.work/podcast-map

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 transformation
• The best movie productions – and workshops – are often the ones when the producer is most invisible, giving everyone else a platform to feel seen and heard
• Just like move producers, master facilitators should sense when a tangent is worth pursuing, and when to redirect the conversation
• Why the early stages of our career are rich playgrounds for learning, growth and experimentation
• As facilitators, circumstances will always lie beyond our control, but it’s our attitude towards what is within our control, that counts
• How a 1-hour speech can transform someone’s life, giving them new perspectives to consider

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.

Put the episode's best takeaways into practice with Skillding. Visit http://skillding.com/workshop to begin your journey from learning to doing. Track your progress as you hone your new skills. Start now!

Links:

Watch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.

Connect to Stoyan Yankov:

LinkedIn

Website 

Support the show:

Make a one-off donation and contribute to the ongoing costs of running the podcast.

Check out the podcast map to see the overview of all podcast episodes: https://workshops.work/podcast-map

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 bonds
• How music can remove hierarchy, putting employees on a level playing field in a workshop setting
• The science behind music: how activating the prefrontal cortex can enhance creativity and set the scene for fruitful collaboration
• Why failure is a better outcome than impartiality, offering us learnings for improvement
• The parallels that lie between an artist’s performance and that of a facilitator
• Why a lack of clarity around what success looks like in a workshop can cause failure
• How musical genres can help teams or organisations to better define themselves

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.

Put the episode's best takeaways into practice with Skillding. Visit skillding.com/workshop to begin your journey from learning to doing. Track your progress as you hone your new skills. Start now!

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:

LinkedIn

SongDivision

Check out the podcast map to see the overview of all podcast episodes: https://workshops.work/podcast-map