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High-stakes diplomatic missions, peacekeeping, and intergovernmental meetings are inherently protocolised spaces. So what happens when facilitation is invited to show up in all its newness, threatening the sensitivities, the power structures, and the familiar dynamics?

After a longstanding frustration with the way meetings were run, Tigist Hailu found her way to facilitation. As a regional diplomacy, peace and security, and strategic communications expert serving at the African Union, United Nations, and now IGAD, she discovered that it is possible for creativity to be invited into the room of diplomacy: softly, quietly, tweak by tweak.

She joins me for the final ever interview of the Workshops Works podcast, as we explore the conditions that allow people to get vulnerable, build trust, share their ideas freely, and return to their humanity.

Find out about:

• The role of facilitation in diplomatic spaces and intergovernmental meetings
• How to shift outcomes thoughtfully, despite the limitations of hierarchy and protocol
• How to bring humanity into these spaces through the use of questions, openings, tone, and pacing
• The importance of intuiting group dynamics to shift the room towards openness

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Links:

Watch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.

Connect to Tigist Hailu:

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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/