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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.

We talk about the balance between structure and emergence, we find unexpected learnings in a Christian Andersen folktale and teachings from a Hindu goddess, we delve into embodiment, trust, costumes, language and neutrality, and how we can support neurodiversity in workshop settings. Phew, it’s a whistle-stop tour!

Find out about:

• How costumes can create a safe space to tap into our creativity
• The balance between structure and emergence that appears through co-creation, and how to navigate the two
• Why conflict isn’t necessarily a bad thing; when you lean into it, we can strengthen relationships
• Why as a facilitator, we are the ultimate source of energy, transferring our feelings and emotions to the group
• How to use embodiment to shift moods, develop new behaviours, and why observing a deeper connection with our body is a journey into self-discovery
• Why we can draw inspiration from Shiva and Kali in Hindu mythology, to find the balance between presence and action
• How facilitators can balance diverse needs and preferences to support neurodiversity 

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 to the guests on LinkedIn:
Becky Sawle
Sonja Sinz
Mirjam Leunissen
Célia Rene Corail
Etrit Shkreli
Marianne Oh

Support the show:

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

Support the show

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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.

Many, many rolls later, we are lucky enough to share in his art. In this episode, he generously offers his tips on how you too can become a facilitaper, and why tape is a versatile and expressive tool to add to your facilitation toolbox.

You’ll learn:

• How the physical space of the workshop rooms can become a Third Facilitator by establishing spatial boundaries, guiding participants and setting the atmosphere
• How the role of tape can transform workshops into creative, interactive playgrounds, by illustrating stories and ideas, and turning walls into immersive canvases
• How to use tape for team building exercises, such as The Triangle of Common Things
• Why tape can be a powerful tool for prototyping your own workshops

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 to Matthias Lenssen:

On LinkedIn

On Instagram

Explore Matthias' business

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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 all, it’s in the pivots, in the furrowed faces, in the zone of discomfort, that we grow. And the more we dare, the further we go!

She joins me in this episode as we explore the possibilities that unfurl when we test our perceived limits, the concept of innovation mashups, and why effective workshops are challenging, and dare I say, uncomfortable.

Find out about:

• How to become more daring as a facilitator by seeking out experimentation
• Where to find new inspiration, brave ideas, and facilitation techniques
• Why workshops can fail when participants feel too comfortable – often, the best facilitators know how to explore discomfort in fruitful ways
• Why adhering to rigid timelines, processes or schedules can stifle the organic, fluid nature of meaningful learning experiences
• Why workshops can produce a ripple effect of value – the true benefits manifesting themselves to participants weeks, months, or even years later

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 to Jenny:

Jenny’s studio

Jenny’s book

Instagram

Dare to Facilitate Instagram

LinkedIn

Support the show:

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

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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.

He joins me in this episode to explain and explore the changing face of leadership in the age of remote work, the new skills that are needed, and how we can facilitate teams and their leaders into happier, more productive remote working arrangements.

Find out about:

• Why leadership — and the work of those under leaders — is more habitual than we realise
• How to make a team gel because of (not in spite of) their different working styles
• Why traditional, ‘static’ teams are becoming outdated
• How remote work has made leadership easier and more fruitful, as well as its challenges
• What to do when ‘team building activities’ don’t appeal to individuals within a team
• Tools and tips for facilitating team conversations without in-person connections

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 to Stephan:

On LinkedIn.

Explore Stephan’s business

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

Support the show

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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:
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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 discover she’s been on, the most valuable tips and tricks she’s learned, and where she sees movement fitting in the wider world of facilitation. It’s a fascinating tool to add to one’s toolbox — don’t miss out.

Find out about:

• How Kate works to generate and amplify a sense of belonging in her facilitation
• Why building a workshop on foundations of humour, playfulness, and levity creates a more accepting environment
• How movement helps us access ourselves and others in a deeper way
• Why moving without feeling is an incomplete process
• How corporate work gets our brains and bodies out of balance
• What we can learn from our bodies that our brains can’t tell us

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.

The Movement of Belonging website.

Follow Movement of Belonging on Instagram.

Follow Kate on Facebook.

And find Kate's podcast, Movement of Belonging, anywhere you listen to podcasts. It offers movement recipes you can try at home or as a fresh way to start your meeting or class.

Connect to Kate:

On LinkedIn.

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

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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 out about:

• What Tony learned from a decade in Google’s People operations
• Why he set out to create People Playbook at the onset of the pandemic and how he grew the business
• How his qualification as a basketball coach has helped him grow as a facilitator and coach
• What facilitators can learn about sustainable performance and why financial incentives are never enough
• Why authenticity and humility are so important — for modelling to the group and as a principle of practice
• How to facilitate in the margins to help a successful, effective group continue developing

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.

People Playbook.

Connect to Tony:

On LinkedIn.

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

Support the show

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Changing behaviour is something of a holy grail in our line of work. It’s one thing to help a group see things in a new light, but to integrate it in a way that creates lasting change… that’s the ultimate goal.

As one might expect, its not the easiest task.

Shamir Joseph’s approach to this challenge is especially interesting to me — because he isn’t focused purely on one variable. He looks at the full picture of facilitation: frameworks, methodologies, inner game, repetitions. It’s refreshing and hugely informative. There’s a lot to learn in just one hour with Shamir.

Find out about:

• How the ‘knowing, doing, being’ framework relates to our work in the room, as well as our role
• What sustainable behavioural change looks like and how to avoid the fallible, ‘easy’ versions
• Why, sometimes, facilitators are well-advised to rein in their creative, experimental tendencies
• Differentiating the ways trainers, coaches, and facilitators are involved in behaviour change
• How adaptability is a symptom of empathy
• Why independent teams follow wherever effective leaders and facilitators go — and how to discern the impact of both
• How Shamir practices self-reflection and the framework he uses to do so

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.

Shamir’s Linktree.

The Leadership Through Facilitation course, co-created by Shamir and others in the NDB community.

Connect to Shamir:

On LinkedIn.

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

Support the show

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The corporate world can feel like a theme park — a place that’s recognisably ‘of our world’, with all the normal features (people, furniture, work), but an unshakeable feeling that something is… unreal.

People aren’t quite themselves, conversations and relationships don’t work the way they do elsewhere in life, and the coffee often tastes strange!

Göran Hielscher notices it, too, and his work in corporate workshops looks to undo this unrealness and bring something more authentic to the room. He explains his approach, experiences, and tactics in this value-packed episode.

Find out about:

• Why we can — and should — dream a little bigger with corporate workshops
• How to be ‘professionally human’ — and why it benefits everybody in corporate workshops
• What DJs and spiritual leaders can teach us about corporate transformation
• How to remain intentional in the design process, as well as the workshop itself
• Why corporate resistance to facilitation isn’t about facilitation, but a misunderstanding of it
• How to encourage embodiment, using body language as a primary communication tool

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.

Göran’s company, The Inspiracy Group.

Connect to Göran:

On LinkedIn.

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

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Workshops bring the best out of their participants when they are experiential. Which person wants to sit in a workshop that is indeterminable from a lecture? We do not enter these spaces for dictation, we enter them for learning and feeling and experience.

And so that has become Cate Czerwinski’s priority: to design memorable, unique, experiential workshops… and what a success she has found!

On the other side of memorable experiences are long-lasting learnings and change. Which, when we boil it down, must surely be the priority for facilitators of all kinds?

Join me and Cate for an invigorating conversation about experience, experiences, and how it all translates from facilitator to participants and back again.

Find out about:

• What Cate’s ‘failures’ have been and what she learned from them
• How to transform team dynamics — in a workshop and beyond your immediate reach
• Why Cate plans herself, in the persona role of ‘facilitator’, as part of her overall workshop plan
• How to work with the room practically, physically, and emotionally
• Why transforming energy has become one of Cate’s most-treasured and -used skills
• How to help teams integrate feelings and the language of emotion into their measure of success

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.

Cate’s website.

Connect to Cate:

On LinkedIn.

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

Support the show

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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:
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If you ever feel like facing a challenge as a facilitator, take on a large corporate client. Even better: work in-house as their facilitator!

Such environments present many challenges, from the practical logistics to the messy social elements. To dissect and understand the unique approach required in this situation, it makes sense to host a unique episode.

A fireside conversation, before a live audience of NeverDoneBefore community members, between three expert facilitators with varying backgrounds and a beautiful history between them.

So, join us for a deeper look at the art of facilitation in corporate settings. You stand to learn a lot!

Find out about:

• Why facilitators aren’t usually hired to ‘fix’ things, even if that’s the original purpose
• How to get an organisation ready to change, before any change process begins
• Why it can be valuable to enter the room as a clear ‘difference’ to its established norms
• How our physical environment impacts our presence, emotions, and activity
• Why groups inherently seek balance — and how to use this with awareness in your work
• How to play with emotional, physical, and mental ‘balance’ in a safe and agreeable way

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 to the guests:
Breeze on LinkedIn.
Gabor on LinkedIn.
Tobias on LinkedIn.

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

Support the show

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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:
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