Shows
workshops work311 - Facilitating Courage: A Deeper Look at Psychological Safety with Myriam HadnesShare your thoughts about our conversation!It’s an art form, but it’s not rocket science. It’s courageous, but it’s not not cushy or comforting. And it’s saying no in meaningful ways, rather than saying yes to everything.Psychological safety is as much about what it’s not, as what it is. It’s a phenomenon that’s nuanced, ephemeral and often misconceived, asking all of us - facilitator and participant - to hold out our arms to discomfort, take risks, make mistakes and dance in our humanness.But to achieve it, a...2025-03-0553 min
Leanne on Demand Daily with Leanne Hughes🌴63. Unprofessionalism feat. Dr Myriam Hadnes (1/2)I’m so excited to bring you this conversation with Myriam Hadnes, host of the Workshops Work podcast. Between us, we probably run the most popular workshop-related podcasts in the world (which is an easy claim to make… because it's such a niche!).This episode is part one of our chat on the couch at my place, where we reflect on our past 24 hours together. If you’ve ever questioned what it really means to be "professional" – you’re going to love this.Myriam is writing a book called Unprofessionalism (yes, it’s as bold as i...2025-03-0313 min
Facilitating on PurposeLetting Go and Saying Yes with Myriam HadnesIn this episode, host Beth Cougler Blom talks with facilitator and business owner Myriam Hadnes about making bold decisions in business, setting boundaries, and the power of saying no. Myriam shares her journey from academia to facilitation, the evolution of her NeverDoneBefore community, and why she ultimately chose to close it in favour of new opportunities. Beth and Myriam also talk about: Recognizing when to pivot and let go of a project, even when it’s loved by a community How Myriam gamified the process of setting boundaries more consistently The importance of doing our own in...2025-02-2647 min
workshops work310 - Listening Deeper: Finding the Questions That Need to Be Asked with Akshay KapurShare your thoughts about our conversation!As executive coach Akshay Kapur will tell you, silence isn’t just a pause - but spaciousness that allows for someone to jump into its still, shiny waters.And our conversation this week was a celebration of these gorgeous, ripe spaces in between. The moments before asking the right question, the invitation that comes before an answer, and the needs that reveal themselves when we listen deeply, and lean in with full, unbridled curiosity.Akshay brings beautiful, articulate thoughts to some facilitation truths, sharing how he steps fr...2025-02-261h 10
workshops work309 - Resourcing the Room: The Art of Holding Space for Healing with Louise MarraShare your thoughts about our conversation!Bringing beautiful indigenous wisdom to the complexities of trauma-resolution is Louise Marra. A facilitator and occasional human-fielder, Louise joins me for a conversation about finding our way back: to a healed state, to the earth, to ourselves. Louise opens up her trauma first aid kit in episode 309: what to do when trauma arises in group dynamics, how to resource yourself, how to reroot the fields of organisational trauma, and what to do in a state of freeze.Once we can unlearn our patterns, we can begin to r...2025-02-191h 14
workshops work308 - Navigating the Emotional Landscape of Facilitation with Kerri PriceShare your thoughts about our conversation!The journey of the facilitator is rarely linear. It’s often happily accidental, a little squiggly, and punctuated with moments of imposter as we take it from the side-hustle shadows, to big centre-stage business.And Kerri Price can attest to this - after facilitating for what felt like a lifetime, she found herself pressing pause - only to return to the facilitation world with fresh, mindful clarity.Kerri joins us to generously share her facilitation story, the lessons she’s learnt in business, and the beauty she foun...2025-02-121h 04
workshops work307 - From Sober Raves to Corporate Joy: Facilitating Connection Across Contexts with Jacques The Party ScientistShare your thoughts about our conversation!If joy was an episode, then it would be episode 307. Welcome back, for the third time, to Jacques The Party Scientist, sober rave host, and social norm disruptor!I’ve witnessed Jacques’ journey for quite some years now as he’s facilitated joy, spread his natural antidepressants, and created experiences that unite people through the hedonism of human connection.He joins us with a party bag of life-affirming, inspiring ideas; from the natural forces of neuroscience, to taking social risks, and being misunderstood - but doing it anyway...2025-02-051h 16
workshops work306 - Creating Psychological Safety in Psychedelic Work with Kacey CardinShare your thoughts about our conversation!This week we take a hiatus from the ‘usual’ facilitation content, to journey into the wonders of the psychedelic with Kacey Cardin, as she introduces us to its sacred, healing powers.Working with LSD, psilocybin, MDMA and Ketamine as her co-facilitators, Kacey safely guides people - from public figures to leaders - into a state of therapeutic self-discovery, where the unconscious mind becomes conscious, and deep expansion can start to take place.Step into this fascinating world with us, as Kacey shares the miraculous possibilities of neuroplasticity, soma...2025-01-291h 09
workshops work305 - From Limiting Beliefs to Inclusive Leadership with Aim-on WongsaparnShare your thoughts about our conversation!How often do you tell yourself that you can’t do something? We all have a habit of collecting self-fulfilling prophecies in our pockets, that’s just human nature - but what might happen if we dared to say ‘I can’?Joining us for a beautiful, inward-facing episode about the self, the power of the mind, and how to lead in more inclusive ways, is Aim-on Wongsaparn. As a coach and facilitator, a liberator of limiting beliefs, and someone who shares a rather unexpected similarity with Barack Obama, Aim-on is a fer...2025-01-221h 08
workshops work304 - Authenticity and Creativity: Elevating Workshops with Visual Techniques with Patti DobrowolskiShare your thoughts about our conversation!From Broadway actor, to drama therapist for county jails, a four-times Tedx speaker and now a Live Illustrator, Patti Dobrowolski is a rare, creative talent that has befriended reinvention…And she now helps others to do the same, designing memorable, interactive workshops using illustration to visualise new realities, aspirations and futures. Because when you draw your dreams? That is where the magic starts to happen.This is a wise, worldly conversation that explores the depths of authentic creativity in its many guises, filled with golden aha moments an...2025-01-151h 13
workshops work303 - Nonviolent Communication in Practice with Ranjitha JeurkarShare your thoughts about our conversation!When we tell someone how we feel, we expect to feel understood, don’t we? But as Ranjitha Jeurkar will tell you - it’s often not that simple. Empathy can be a complex tapestry: there’s needs to be met, paradigms at play, forefeelings that can stir confusion, and words that can all too easily get lost, heated, or misinterpreted.So how do we make sense of it all? How do we speak a language that we can all understand, that connects us, and makes us feel seen?R...2025-01-081h 02
workshops work302 - Facilitating the Future: Architecture, Collaboration, and Innovation with Benjamin NottShare your thoughts about our conversation!We live an incredible 80% of our lives indoors. In houses, workplaces, schools and vehicles - spaces that become the backdrop to our time on this earth.But behind the permanence of bricks and the mortar, the making of our interior worlds requires considered collaboration, innovation, and perhaps unexpectedly, facilitation! From the creative cement that binds projects, to the collective energy that sustains it and the trust that holds it all up: this is facilitation on a grand scale.Step inside with myself and Ben Nott, architect, storyteller...2025-01-011h 10
workshops work301 - Facilitating High-Stakes Multi-Stakeholder Climate Conversations with Barbara OliveiraShare your thoughts about our conversation!When an island is sinking, whose responsibility is it to save? What approach do we take, and who foots the bill?Big, high-stakes climate conversations always share the same goal: to save the planet. But when a diverse group of stakeholders bring their own interests to the table, tensions naturally arise between the polarity of priorities - and that’s when things start to get a little complicated.Thankfully, Barbara Oliveira is a master at helping everyone to win. As a lawyer in a past life, she no...2024-12-251h 08
workshops work300 - 300 Episodes of Curiosity and Connection: Lessons from workshops work with Myriam HadnesShare your thoughts about our conversation!Listeners, what an adventure it’s been! 300 episodes. 300 guests. 300 soulful, wise, curious, facilitation-affirming conversations - each one, a gift! To celebrate my podcast tercentenary, I sit down with my microphone for an introspective, behind-the-scenes episode, just me, myself and I, to reflect on the years as a podcast host and facilitator.Episode 300 is a celebration - of facilitation, of journeys, and of learnings. I share my story, the things I’d tell my younger podcast-self, and the wisdom nuggets I’ve collected along the way.Thank y...2024-12-1843 min
workshops work299 - Navigating our Edges Through Inclusion-Based and Trauma-Informed Facilitation with Maggie CoulterShare your thoughts about our conversation!What does it *really* mean to meet people where they’re at? What can happen when we surrender to the serendipity of life? And how do we become aware of our own edges?This episode is punctuated with some big, beautiful questions that Maggie Coulter so eruditely explores with me through the lens of trauma-informed, inclusion-based facilitation.Join us as Maggie shares her life’s experiences, unravelling everything from boundaries to blindspots, and the inner work we must do to not only avoid stepping on emotional landmines - bu...2024-12-111h 09
workshops work298 - Unlocking Creativity Through Trust and Adaptability with Mark TippinShare your thoughts about our conversation!What does it mean to unbuckle ourselves from certainty and step with both feet into the space between question and answer? It means to be a facilitator, of course! To trust in the process, to find structure in the spaciousness, and to shapeshift as new technologies emerge.It’s something Mark Tippin has learnt over years: the answers come when we accept that we don’t need them all to begin. It’s a commitment to curiosity that he’s nurtured along the way.Join us for a macro...2024-12-041h 03
workshops work297 - Breaking Down Complexity with the Co- Founder of Liberating Structures with Henri LipmanowiczShare your thoughts about our conversation!The author of the indomitable Liberating Structures joins me in the podcast chair this week - a book that has offered wisdom to facilitators from all four corners of the world, and built organisations from the ground up - the one, the only Henri Lipmanowicz!So simple they feel alchemic, Henri’s 33 microstructures are a field guide for transformation. Small, no-nonsense shifts in how we work together, his methods set free ideas, build trust, and enable creativity and collective intelligence - so often stifled by conventional complexity.He...2024-11-271h 26
workshops work296 - The Power of Trauma Awareness in Design and Facilitation with Rachael DietkusShare your thoughts about our conversation!Everyone who steps into our workshop room brings their own experience. An emotional backpack of mosaic stories, hardships and histories - some, more traumatic than others.But the weight of trauma demands a special kind of care: far beyond empathy, we must show up with a deep sensitivity and respect that fosters non-triggering, inclusive spaces.Rachael Dietkus knows this better than most. As a social worker-designer and the first trauma-informed subject matter expert at the White House, she’s been at the helm of understanding some big, co...2024-11-201h 08
workshops work295 - Doing the Inner Work: Learnings from Vipassana Meditation with Myriam HadnesShare your thoughts about our conversation!What can we learn about ourselves when we silence the world outside, quieten our voices, and make peace with discomfort, in the knowledge that everything in life is impermanent?At the end of October, I stepped into my fifth silent Vipassana retreat to ask myself that question once more. I left my voice, my phone, my negativities, and my niggling thoughts at the door for 10 days, committing my mind and body to the ancient Indian practice of ‘seeing things as they really are’.Come with me for a sp...2024-11-1332 min
workshops work294 - Learning From Burning Man About Transformative Experience Design with Rob BlakemoreShare your thoughts about our conversation!Burning Man is the ultimate expression of radical, creative trust. As 80,000 people from all over the world gather in the Nevada Desert, they join together on a blank canvas to co-create a utopia of art, community, culture and human spirit - leaving no trace that the event ever happened.In this sprawling temporary city of interactive installations, music, dance and expression, how do you grant creative freedom with the trust that everyone will keep the cultural essence of Burning Man alive?Rob Blakemore, the regional contact for...2024-11-061h 10
workshops work293 - Facilitation as Salesmanship: Building Trust and Buy-In with Alan VersteegShare your thoughts about our conversation!Are facilitators just salespeople in disguise? We’re not on commission, we’re not driven by a desired outcome, we don’t have a product, and nor are we in a numbers game… and yet, the longer I spoke to Alan Versteeg this week, the more I realised just how much we have in common.And if you still don’t believe me, Alan is here to change your mind - after all, this is where he shines! Alan has been selling perspectives to people for many, many years, inviting t...2024-10-301h 04
workshops work292 - Facilitation Beyond Methodology: Healing, Connection, and Commitment with Jutta WeimarShare your thoughts about our conversation!What is your inner calling? For many facilitators, it’s to build spaces of deep, life-affirming connection. After all, facilitation is more than just its methodologies and its tools; it’s about doing the soul-searching inner work to understand ourselves better, for participants and facilitators alike!For Jutta Weimar, founder of the Berlin-based Facilitation Academy, her calling was a gift. She joins me for a big, warm hearted episode brimming with self-awareness, healing and connection, as she shares the inner game that has defined her outer facilitation game.A...2024-10-231h 03
workshops work291 - Building Trust through Facilitation with Maria ArpaShare your thoughts about our conversation!There is great richness to be found in human connection - when we know how. To truly see others, to step into vulnerability and to find hidden reflections in ourselves.Maria Arpa is an absolute powerhouse of inspiration. From mediation to facilitation, she’s made it her life’s purpose to change the path of others for the better: working with people in extreme poverty, areas of knife crime, and social deprivation to overcome conflict, seek peaceful dialogue, and find connection they never knew possible.Guiding us thro...2024-10-161h 17
workshops work290 - Facilitating Through Structure: From Gamestorming to Community Building with Dave GrayShare your thoughts about our conversation!How can you create the life of your dreams, where your work not only pays the bills, but brings you daily joy, creative fulfilment and purpose?Possibilitarian, artist and author Dave Gray joins me in this episode to introduce us to the art of the possible. He generously shares his life’s lessons in business and creativity; from building his $10 million agency, to becoming an accidental author of 3 books, and his creative community brainchild, the School of the Possible.A rich, expansive conversation, filled with inspiration, with lo...2024-10-091h 25
workshops work289 - Unlocking Play: The Power of Presence and Letting Go with Minna TaylorShare your thoughts about our conversation!Have we forgotten how to play? Applied play theorist, strategist, and consultant Minna Taylor, certainly thinks so!As an actor and theatrical voice coach in a past life, Minna has made it her life’s purpose to invite creative expression, deliberate play, and the power of surrender into people’s lives. She now helps organisations to excel in the infinite game of work, showing them that play is not the pursuit of frivolity, but the spaciousness to think, to create, to adapt, and exist with ease.Minna brin...2024-10-021h 06
workshops work288 - How to Master the Art of Great Conversations with Myriam HadnesShare your thoughts about our conversation!A conversation is a delicate dance between two people. From one to the other, stories slowly unravel, surprises are met, ideas come to life, and life is learnt as words flow freely between us. But to make a conversation great, we must relish the silences, the questions, and the spaces in between - because it is only with curiosity and presence that we can take the conversation to places we never imagined.This week, I am in conversation with me, myself, and I for a special solo episode on...2024-09-2529 min
workshops work287 - Here & Now is the Future of Learning with Simon Edwards and Ian ByrneShare your thoughts about our conversation!Corporate training doesn’t have to be boring. In fact, it can be playful, curious, a little bit magical, and dare I say it - fun. And this week I am joined by the creative magic of not one, but two brilliant guests who are here to tell you how: Simon Edwards and Ian Byrne.Hailing from the worlds of game design and facilitation, we delve deep into the wondrous realm of learning in all of its curious, human forms. Together, they share the eureka moments of their immersive ex...2024-09-181h 16
workshops work286 - The Art of Slowing Down: Thoughtful Facilitation with Marike Groenewald & Clinton du PreezShare your thoughts about our conversation!Defiant slowness: it’s a salve, a rebellion, and a lifelong endeavour when we have been taught to live fast, 100mph lives. Because only when we turn down the speedometer, can we be present enough to think deeply, connect to ourselves, bond with others, and experience the joys of simply being.It’s why Marike and Clinton relish slowness in their facilitation practice, carving out interludes that delight in the details, welcome appreciation into the room, nurture real relationships, and create the breathing space for intention.We expl...2024-09-111h 10
workshops work285 - Creating Safe Spaces for Conflict, Resilience and Recovery with Scott WinterShare your thoughts about our conversation!As the old adage goes, failing to prepare, is preparing to fail. But how do you prepare for something as catastrophic as a natural disaster?Scott Winter helps people, teams and organisations to struggle more effectively and step into their greatness. He’s done so for communities in California to recover from the devastation of wildfires, as well as countless others, showing up with life-affirming purpose, humanity and presence as a facilitator, to re-mould stress into hardy resilience for the future.In this brilliant and vulnerable conversation, he...2024-09-041h 20
workshops work284 - Reimagining Company Culture with Play and Connection with Emily HinksShare your thoughts about our conversation!The relationships in our life are a lot like gardens: they need watering, a little pruning here and there, some de-weeding, and a whole lot of love! But what about the people we spend most of our time with?Our co-workers are often overlooked in the garden of relationships, but it’s one that requires just as much time, care and attention as any other. Enter: the biggest mischief maker, Emily Hinks!Firm in the belief that the world of work could do with more joy, she he...2024-08-281h 15
workshops work283 - Playing Other People’s Game by our Rules with Dan NewmanShare your thoughts about our conversation!In the autumn of 1996 in Palo Alto, Dan Newman had a career-defining epiphany: facilitation is playing other people’s games with your own rules. It’s something that has stayed with him on his journey from consultant to facilitator, as he solves complex organisational problems by asking: how are their rules preventing them from winning?We cover a lot of ground from Dan’s storied career in this brilliant conversation, dancing from the debate of the neutral facilitator, to cultural communication traits, the psychology of music, and why he will h...2024-08-211h 12
Strategy and Leadership PodcastThe art of effective facilitation with Dr Myriam Hadnes 281Myriam Hadnes,is a facilitation evangelist with a PhD in behavioral economics, shares insights on the art of facilitation and its impact on organizational dynamics. She emphasizes the importance of psychological safety, vulnerability, and authenticity in creating a conducive environment for collaboration and breakthrough moments. Miriam also highlights the role of facilitation in transforming organizational culture and leadership mindset.
Takeaways
Facilitation is not limited to those with the title of a facilitator; it is a mindset that can be adopted by managers to transition from micromanaging to leadership.
Psychological safety, vulnerability, and authenticity are crucial in creating an environment where i...2024-08-1431 min
workshops work282 - Unlocking Embodiment: The Hidden Key to Effective Facilitation with Mark WalshShare your thoughts about our conversation!We are all bodily beings. You do not have a body, you are your wise, sense-making, intuitive, feeling body! And yet, modernity has found itself in a disembodied state; we live in the mind and merely exist in a body.Mark Walsh, the embodiment anti-guru, is here to reconnect the mind-body divide and bring us back home. He’s trained local NGOs in conflict zones, taught meditation to soldiers, and even has a black belt in aikido, helping organisations and coaches to work with the body to rediscover its in...2024-08-141h 13
Talent Empowerment with Tom FinnPreview: Myriam HadnesNext Thursday, Dr. Myriam Hadnes, Founder of Workshops Work, shares her journey from academia to entrepreneurship and the creation of her companies NeverDoneBefore.org and Workshops.Work. She discusses the challenges she faced in transitioning to entrepreneurship and the importance of building a community and creating a safe space for collaboration. Myriam also explains her facilitation agency model and the value of investing in branding and design. She emphasizes the power of understanding human behavior and communication in facilitating workshops and building successful businesses.This podcast is powered by LeggUP, the only accelerated platform...2024-08-0802 min
workshops work281 - Mastering Difficult Conversations: Insights on Effective Leadership with Paul FalconeShare your thoughts about our conversation!As my guest this week will tell you: to avoid a difficult conversation, is to choose the path of least resistance. But when leaders choose the easy way out? Nothing good ever comes from it; only rising frustrations, anxieties, and eventually, resignations.Luckily for us, Paul Falcone has had every difficult conversation in the book - and he’s written 17 of them! A three-decade career in HR, a stint as a Universal Studios tour guide grappling with grumpy guests, and now a workplace leadership consultant, Paul has learnt to ma...2024-08-071h 19
Leadership Launchpad ProjectHow to Become an Expert Facilitator & Run a Great Workshop with Myriam HadnesHow do we facilitate a workshop that actually works? What are some key facilitation strategies that turn your meetings from boring to extraordinary?
Myriam Hadnes, facilitation expert and the host of Workshops Work podcast, joins Rob Kalwarowsky from Elite High Performance to answer these questions and more.
Check out Rob Kalwarowsky’s TEDx talk - How to Handle a Bad Boss
Have you ever had a bad boss? Are you working for an a**hole? Check out, executive coach and mental health advocate. Rob Kalwarowsky's brand new TEDx talk, How to Handle a Bad Bo...2024-08-0537 min
workshops work280 - Beyond Advice: The Coaching Habit for Facilitative Leaders with Michael Bungay StanierShare your thoughts about our conversation!Every leader has it in them to be a coach, if only they could stay curious a little longer. This was something Michael Bungay Stanier learnt early on as a youth crisis telephone hotline operator: the first answer is rarely the only answer.Better known for penning the #1 bestseller The Coaching Habit, a book that has found its way into the lives of over 1 million people, Michael’s coaching work is deeply considered, with a reverence for the gloriously messy complexities of human behaviour. It’s a delicate dance of p...2024-07-311h 06
workshops work279 - Facilitation with More Doing and Less Talking with Adam StJohn LawrenceShare your thoughts about our conversation!Words: they are abundantly, inescapably, everywhere in the world of work. Emails, documents, post-its, briefs, meetings, hushed whispers across the office. So why is it that so many organisations still find themselves on the wrong page from one another?Ask the multi-talented master of service design thinking, stand-up comedy, theatrical design and psychology-zoology, Adam StJohn Lawrence, and he will tell you that words, actually, get in the way of true collaboration and understanding.Intrigued? Spend an hour and a half with Adam’s fascinating anecdotes, knowledge and in...2024-07-241h 27
workshops work278 - Understanding the Difference between a Facilitator and a Trainer with The NDB Course FacultyShare your thoughts about our conversation!Over the years, I’ve had many magnificent facilitators in the podcast chair who identify as trainers, and many talented trainers who identify as facilitators. Where does the line blur? Is there a line? Dare I ask, should there be?We settle it once and for all in this special LinkedIn Live conversation with my NDB Course Faculty! We discuss why Facilitation and Training exist on a spectrum with fluctuating frequencies of knowledge sharing, leadership, emergence and ownership - ultimately both trying to achieve change from differing angles....2024-07-1747 min
workshops work277 - Facilitating Stress Reduction with Liminal Coaching and Metaphor Mapping with Mike ParkerShare your thoughts about our conversation!Imagine a landscape. Perhaps a snow-capped mountain top, studded with pine trees and whispers of clouds. Maybe a bird flutters past. Are there people there, or are you alone with the birds?If only daydreaming from your desk was seen as something to be revered - encouraged even, free from judgement. Well, Mike Parker is here to tell you why it should be! For when we let our minds wander from our day, it can be a potent balm for burnout, stress, and anxiety, and a cure for creative...2024-07-101h 16
Lead with LevityThe Magic of Facilitation: Unveiling the Art and Science with Dr. Myriam HadnesSend us a textIn this episode, Dr. Heather Walker delves into the fascinating world of facilitation with Dr. Myriam Hadnes—a behavioral economist and self-proclaimed facilitation evangelist. This conversation uncovers the essence of facilitation, its impact in various environments, and practical strategies to enhance group interactions. If you're a leader, project manager, or simply someone interested in understanding the dynamics of group facilitation, read on as we pull back the curtain on this 'Wizard of Oz’ of workplace skills.The Core Skills of FacilitationFacilitation requires a strategic blend of skills:...2024-07-0843 min
workshops work276 - Challenges and triumphs in creating anti-racist environments with Letesia GibsonShare your thoughts about our conversation!Everyone wants to feel like they belong - to places, purpose and people. But how many workplaces can say that they are truly inclusive and anti-racist places that people choose to belong?That is where Letesia Gibson comes in. As a navigator of systemic world views on issues such as race and misogyny, her work exists in the sphere of unlearning, helping organisations to rebuild themselves as places of belonging - for everyone.Letesia introduces us to a new language with which to embrace the intricacies of...2024-07-031h 15
workshops work275 - The Honest Truth About Organizational Dishonesty with Shiao-yin KuikShare your thoughts about our conversation!The daily exchange of messages, ideas, beliefs, hopes and thoughts, from the mundane to the magical, is what makes the world spin round. Conversations are everywhere! But sometimes, just sometimes, we don’t know how to have the conversations that need to happen - the conversations that can change everything.That’s where Shiao-yin Kuik comes in! As a cultural change strategist, she is a master at guiding people to have more effective, empathetic communication - using the simple power of intentional and honest dialogue to navigate organisational flaws.2024-06-261h 10
workshops work274 - From solo reading to social learning with Theresa DestrebecqShare your thoughts about our conversation!An extraordinarily curious mind that lives within the pages of books, Theresa Destrebecq has taken the joy of book club and twisted it into a circle of deep, experiential learning: welcome to Emerge Book Circles.In her circles, books become the ultimate impartial co-facilitator. She invites readers to move from the often solitary activity of reading, into a shared space where ideas bloom, shapeshift and expand through the collective, connective wisdom of the circle - helping us to better understand ourselves, our teams and organisations.We talk...2024-06-191h 18
workshops work273 - Creating a Culture of Feedback and Safety with David KlineShare your thoughts about our conversation!If you were to create a formula for a high-performing team, what would it look like?Dave Kline, executive coach and trainer, accomplished writer, and co-founder of The MGMT Accelerator, a program designed to level-up the next cohort of leaders, has the code. And it’s one that he’s perfected over two decades, 250 group diagnostic sessions, 1000 performance evaluations, and many, many talented leaders later.Learn from the master himself, as we dissect the composition of an effective feedback culture, as we explore the power of bitesize expe...2024-06-121h 13
workshops work272 - Creative Leadership Means Facilitation with Arne van OosteromShare your thoughts about our conversation!Arne van Oosterom shapeshifted from the creative coal face of consultancy life, selling beautiful shiny ideas, into the problem-oriented domain of design thinking, as a creative facilitator, leadership coach, trainer, and community architect. But swapping aesthetic idea generation, for meaningful problem-solving that helps people to cultivate growth, demands a special duty of care for the most human things of all: for feelings, emotions, connections - and all that good stuff.This episode is a gorgeous exploration into the creativity of being human, of fine-tuning your feelings in l...2024-06-051h 16
workshops work271 - Value Meets Price: Unpacking Business Models in FacilitationShare your thoughts about our conversation!Starting your own facilitation brand can be daunting business. Thankfully, Jenny Millar, Kirsty Lewis and Michael Zipursky - three exceptionally wise and established founders - are here to teach you everything they wish they’d known sooner. The mistakes, the models, the pricing strategies, and all of the rich learning opportunities they’ve collected along the way.As you might have guessed, our special fireside conversation this week is all about the business of facilitation! Around the fire, we dissect our own journeys in the hope of guiding you conf...2024-05-291h 20
workshops work270 - Mastering the Art of Group Coaching with Dominique MasShare your thoughts about our conversation!Even as fully-fledged adults, there are many things about ourselves that we have yet to discover. Unexplored ideas, hidden pools of potential, and uncharted spaces we have yet to step into.That is why coaching exists; to become aware of what we didn’t know, to move from a state of unconscious incompetence, into one of conscious incompetence, realising our blindspots and delving bravely, unreservedly into them.Coaching mastermind and leader in education Dominique Mas has trained over 200 coaches, helping them to explore their blindspots, on a mi...2024-05-221h 13
People Business w/ O'Brien McMahonThe Art of Facilitation w/ Myriam HadnesWith a PhD in Behavioral Economics and a Master's in Sociology, Myriam Hadnes combines academic knowledge with practical experience in group collaboration and facilitation. She is the host of the "workshops work" podcast, where she engages in weekly conversations with global facilitation experts. She has also built NeverDoneBefore (NDB), a global online community of facilitators who share a common goal: to spark fresh trends in group collaboration. With her business workshops.work, Myriam follows the vision to create an ecosystem for facilitators, helping them to leverage the impact of their work through community, collaboration, and co-creation....2024-05-2159 min
Habits of Leadership095: How to Facilitate Workshops with Myriam HadnesIn this episode, Dan chats with Myriam Hadnes. Myriam holds a PhD in Behavioural Economics and is the creator of Workshop Works.
In this conversation they explore what factors and make or break a workshop and how this can be applied to a meeting, classroom or boardroom.
You can connect with Myriam on LinkedIn
Or via her website & podcast.
If you'd like to learn more about our work or the Habits of Leadership Academy, you can do so by going to: https://habitsofleadership.com/
You can also leave us a que...2024-05-1950 min
workshops work269 - Designing Change: The Art of Service Design and Facilitation with Gerry ScullionShare your thoughts about our conversation!Fellow power-podcaster and community creator, founder of The Human-Centered Design Network, and teacher of the next generation of thinkers and doers, Gerry Scullion’s impressive list of founding projects is a true testament to his 21-year mastery of ‘service’.Episode 269 is an education into this world; Gerry introduces us to the principles, theories and practices of Service Design, where it intertwines with facilitation, and why design and facilitation are in fact, one and the same.We talk about ageism in design, bakery role-play, getting comfortable with uncertainty - and...2024-05-151h 09
workshops work268 - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Co-FacilitationShare your thoughts about our conversation!Have you ever found yourself stepping on a dance partner's toes? That's a bit what co-facilitation can feel like without the right rhythm and rapport. Together with Cate Czerwinski and Florentine Versteeg, felllow faculty members from our leadership through facilitation course and peers from the NeverDoneBefore community, we unpack the symphony of co-facilitation, from the powerful duets of mutual support and blending ideas to the occasional missteps of clashing perspectives. It's more than just sharing a stage; it's about creating a performance that uplifts every participant, and in this episode, we...2024-05-0855 min
Superpowers School - Human Skills to Thrive in the Age of AIFacilitation makes workshops work - Myriam Hadnes - E142A deep and insightful conversation with Myriam Hadnes, a self-described facilitation evangelist and the host of the 'Workshops Work' podcast. Myriam shares her journey from an academic background in behavioral economics to embracing facilitation as her superpower, aiming to help others learn and apply it effectively. She highlights her experiences living and working in different parts of the world, emphasizing the role of travel in gaining insights into diverse cultures, which she finds crucial in her work. The conversation delves into the essence of facilitation, contrasting it with coaching, and explores its application in making...2024-05-0740 min
workshops work267 - Elevating Corporate Gatherings with Empathy and Engagement Strategies with Lindsey CaplanShare your thoughts about our conversation!Gather around my podcast airwaves for a special hour of meaningful moments and messages, as Lindsey Caplan brings us into her world of gathering.A Hollywood screenwriter for Malcolm in the Middle, a Silicon Valley Organisational Psychologist and an educator for Dreamworks Animation, Lindsey is a miraculous mind with a showstopper of an oeuvre.Along the way, she’s gathered a collection of learnings in her back pocket from these three disciplines, teaching her the simple power of bringing people together over a purpose. Her company The Ga...2024-05-011h 04
workshops work266 - The Alchemy of Group Facilitation Crafting Harmony and Tension with Jason FoxShare your thoughts about our conversation!A constant, unchoreographed dance of tension and harmony, of structure and emergence, of psychological safety and sincerity, of client and group: facilitation is an artful balancing act.And my guest this week Dr Jason Fox, is a master of equilibrium. A wise and mercurial keynote speaker and facilitator, he straddles the opposing realms of speaker presence and facilitator invisibility with shapeshifting ability, fusing deep philosophical thinking with meaningful future action.We ride the facilitation see-saw in episode 266, exploring the alchemic balance of the facilitator, soaring from beautiful...2024-04-241h 18
workshops work265 - In the Rhythm of Leadership: Learnings from Music Thinking with Christof ZürnShare your thoughts about our conversation!From free jazz and the musical echelons of piano concerto, to indigenous beats and the didgeridoo, this week’s episode is an invitation into the wondrous world of Music Thinking.Christof Zürn is the inventor of this mindset; his storied background in musicology, creative direction and service design became the symphony to his brainchild. He now helps organisations to apply the principles of music to their daily lives, offering a new lexicon with which to interpret and understand business, leadership - and of course, facilitation!Hear all...2024-04-171h 16
workshops work264 - Play as a Prism: Exploring Group Work, Conflict, and Human ConnectionShare your thoughts about our conversation!It is wonder, curiosity and imagination wrapped up in one. It is both a suspension from reality and way of navigating the world, a problem solver, a flow of creativity, a creative outlet, a language and a state of mind. It is: play!And true to its nature, we cannot possibly box play into one definition. Lily Higgins, Pauline McNaulty and Jules Gilleland join me in my digital playground this week to unpeel the many layers of play: purposeful play, play without agenda, play as the essence of human...2024-04-101h 13
workshops work263 - From Water to Metal: Exploring Elemental Archetypes for Enhanced Facilitation with Alice InoueShare your thoughts about our conversation!We are all made of stars. The elements of our bodies were first forged in celestial matter across the cosmos billions of years ago. As humans, we tend to think of ourselves as separate from nature, but we are of course, nature itself.So when Life Guide, astrologist and founder of Happiness U, Alice Inoue introduced me to her fascinating psychometric assessment based on the five elements of ancient traditional Chinese medicine - water, wood, fire, earth and metal – I knew this conversation was going to be filled with ea...2024-04-031h 06
workshops work262 - Navigating the Facilitation Landscape with Community PerspectivesShare your thoughts about our conversation!Earlier this year, SessionLab published the second edition of their State of Facilitation report, surveying the ever-evolving landscape of our profession. 93 countries, 372 hours spent answering the survey and a generous 975 respondents later, and the NeverDoneBefore community joins together with the SessionLab community to put the 2024 report findings under a facilitation magnifying glass in our very first fishbowl conversation!Together, we dissect three juicy and provocative, yet important questions: Do accreditations, or a lack of, harm or expand our profession? Do facilitators hide behind their tools? And how valuable is...2024-03-271h 11
workshops work261 - The Unseen Dynamics of Effective Facilitation with Tanja Murphy-IlibasicShare your thoughts about our conversation!From her debut in episode 53, to episode 261 many years later, my guest this week Tanja Murphy-Ilibasic makes her return to the podcast this week! Tanja is a corporate coach, facilitator and communications specialist - and a master at manifesting potential.But potential, the capacity for future success, is only possible with the right conditions at play and the energy to propel it forward. We unravel the dynamics of effective facilitation, the necessary conditions and questions we must ask, to design workshops that will outlive the confines of the workshop...2024-03-191h 05
workshops work260 - Exploring the Art of Invisible Facilitation with Charles-Louis de MaereShare your thoughts about our conversation!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...2024-03-121h 15
workshops work259 - Leading with a Rainbow Lens: Enhancing Inclusive Leadership Practices with Dr Steve YacovelliShare your thoughts about our conversation!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 cultur...2024-03-051h 08
workshops work258 - Community-based Education Supporting Community-based Enterprise with Colonel Walter HolmesShare your thoughts about our conversation!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 some...2024-02-271h 10
workshops work257 - Exploring the Ethical Lines between Facilitation and Consulting with Benjamin TaylorShare your thoughts about our conversation!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 un...2024-02-2158 min
workshops work256 - Deliberate Dialogue to Unlock Wicked Problems with Amanda HardingShare your thoughts about our conversation!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 th...2024-02-131h 23
workshops work255 - The Transformative Art of Authentic Relating and Facilitation with Yaniv RoseShare your thoughts about our conversation!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...2024-02-061h 07
workshops work254 - Are Facilitators Manipulators?Share your thoughts about our conversation!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 de...2024-01-3046 min
workshops work253 - Transforming Teams with the Science of Motivation with Ahmet TamtekinShare your thoughts about our conversation!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...2024-01-231h 03
workshops work252 - Lessons from a movie producer on facilitating events with Stoyan YankovShare your thoughts about our conversation!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 - fr...2024-01-171h 08
workshops work251 - Harmonizing Teams: Collective Song-Writing as a Workshop Tool with Sam McNeillShare your thoughts about our conversation!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 worksh...2024-01-101h 09
workshops work250 - Crafting Impactful Learning Experiences with Military Precision with Pat D’AmicoShare your thoughts about our conversation!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 co...2024-01-031h 15
workshops work249 - Facilitators in the Role of Participants – Insights from the NDB Festival 2023Share your thoughts about our conversation!This episode is a special one! You’re invited to time travel back to the NeverDoneBefore Festival, and join me in my virtual podcast boat where I speak to six of our talented facilitators over the 24-hour event: Becky Sawle, Sonja Sinz, Mirjam Leunissen, Célia Rene Corail, Etrit Shkreli and Marianne Oh. It’s a jam-packed journey, full of rich, multifaceted wisdom; each conversation offers a fascinating and thoughtful perspective, making the next hour and a half an exploration into facilitation as a whole, in its many wondrous forms...2023-12-271h 45
workshops work248 - Facilitape: Enhance Workshop Experiences using Tape with Matthias LenssenShare your thoughts about our conversation!My guest this week is not an artist, nor a designer, but a facilitaper. A self-confessed chaotic creative, Matthias Lenssen has honed his craft over the past 10 years, finding creative freedom and wonderous new ways to facilitate with a bare wall and simple rolls of coloured tape.His workshops spark curiosity among participants, encourage exploration of movement, illustrate stories and ideas, and establish creative parameters. In the process, Matthias transforms his spaces into an interactive playground that becomes a Third Facilitator, masterfully assisting him in his delivery....2023-12-2058 min
workshops work247 - Dare to Facilitate! with Jenny TheolinShare your thoughts about our conversation!Most of us live our lives in a natural, psychological state of comfort. It’s cushioned, it’s safe - it’s what we know. But what happens when we dare to seek out the unknown? When we raise our heads above the parapet of comfort?Jenny Theolin dares to live her life in this space. As a facilitator, she braves the difficult questions, has a sixth sense for when to change course, and has curated a toolkit of techniques that intuitively challenge participants to yield the greatest impact. After...2023-12-131h 18
workshops work246 - Navigating the New Normal: Challenges and Opportunities of Remote Leadership with Stephan DohrnShare your thoughts about our conversation!The fundamental skills of leadership have changed in the 2020s. Whether you’re brand-new to a leadership role or a seasoned veteran, the remote work boom has added a new layer of complexity to your work.What does it mean to lead in a virtual space and how can we connect, communicate, and inspire others without that face-to-face contact? Stephan Dohrn has been asking these questions for longer than most. In fact, they have been key to his work with Radical Inclusion, Remote-how, and his own consulting business....2023-12-061h 13
workshops work245 - Unleashing the Power of Movement in Facilitation with Kate SpacekShare your thoughts about our conversation!A sense of belonging is one of the incalculable elements of a healthy, happy team. It’s either there or it’s not, right?Not so, as Kate Spacek explains in this episode.Kate’s work, for many years, has been in the realm of belonging: how we feel it, generate it, and nurture it. That work has brought her closer and closer to a strong thesis: that movement, sensing, and awareness are foundational to the whole process.In this episode, she shares the journey of dis...2023-11-291h 04
workshops work244 - Building Bridges with Basketball: Learnings about Facilitation with Tony McGaharanShare your thoughts about our conversation!From the basketball courts of Northern Ireland to the C-suites of tech giants, Tony McGaharan just can’t stop coaching!After a decade at Google, Tony set up his own training and people development company, People Playbook. Calling on experience from Sweden to Singapore, Tony’s honed his skills worldwide and with a huge range of groups.In that time, he’s found some common truths and universal experiences. He shares them in this episode — dribbling between basketball and facilitation, coaching and learning design, and more.Find o...2023-11-221h 18
Engaging Virtual Meetings Podcast with John ChenThe Secrets Of Workshop Facilitation You Need To Know with Myriam HadnesDr. Myriam Hadnes is the founder of NeverDoneBefore, a global online facilitation community and festival, and this is her podcast. 'workshops work' is 50% sandbox and 50% classroom, a safe space for anyone interested in facilitation to learn more about the craft.Myriam’s background and PhD in behavioural economics has helped her to understand what it is that gets in our way. And she has developed a toolbox to remove these obstacles through micro-interventions.The time she has spent both living and working in Europe, Asia and Africa ha...2023-11-1554 min