The Human Side of Facilitation

Intuition? Reading the room? Picking up on cues? What’s that ‘thing’… when you just know something is happening in the room, before you can explain it. Before anyone has said anything. Before there’s any obvious signal. Your body somehow got there first. That’s something I’ve been looking into a lot lately, and working with my clients on… with new group leaders and trainers developing their own se...

Here is part 2 of the conversation I had with Matthew Morris, course creator for Emotional First Aid. We carry on where the last episode left off (obviously!), with Matthew’s take on the ‘layers of humanity that exist within groups’, stories and meaning making, and how we take our own strengths for granted (I love this, I’ve used almost word for word what Matthew says in so many of my own courses,...

I’ve only worked with today’s guest a few times, but I had been thinking for a while that a combination of things would make a conversation with him interesting for many listeners. Partly his own experience of becoming a trainer (something that wasn’t really in his plan as a course and content writer!) and how he’s been navigating himself in that new world, and then also the course he wrote (Emoti...

What skills do introverted trainers bring to the room? In this episode I’m joined by Susan Baird, Executive Career Coach, Facilitator and founder of Advantage Coaching and Training Ltd. Susan has spent 25 years working in HR across multiple sectors and countries, and brings a lot of hard-won experience to how she thinks about working with groups. We talk about why discussion and debate can do thin...

Being human contains moments of immense joy… and moments of profound sadness and challenge. This episode sits in that second space. I’m joined by Gareth Vaughan, a counsellor, psychotherapist and clinical supervisor who I’ve known since attending some training together as learners, many, many years ago. Gareth has spent his career working alongside people navigating some of life’s biggest moments...

What if joy wasn’t just a nice-to-have, but a core part of how we design and deliver learning, even on the heaviest topics? In this episode I’m joined by Becky Hawke, Senior Workplace Wellbeing Trainer at Solent Mind. Becky’s passion for bringing joy, play and creativity into training spaces is genuinely infectious, and this conversation left me smiling. We get into why joy became one of Becky’s c...

We talk a lot about the challenges of working with groups. The nerves, handling potential conflicts, the things that can go wrong. But what about the benefits? Why do we do it? That’s what this episode is about. Drawing on recent experiences and some of the research out there, I explore what we actually get from working with groups. As facilitators, trainers, managers, or anyone who holds space fo...

Are you like most of us and money ‘stuff’ shows up somewhere in your work? Maybe worrying if you’ve overquoted for a job. Gone for a role because it paid more, but you didn’t really want it. Questioned if saying ‘no’ to some work would mean you wouldn’t get more… and then the catastrophising starts… how will I pay the bills?! So many facilitators have this, including me. When I was starting out as...

Not everyone who ends up working with groups planned to. Many of us took quite circuitous routes! In this guest episode I’m joined by Mandy Wiltshire, Workplace Wellbeing Training Team Manager at Solent Mind, a leading independent mental health charity supporting people across Hampshire, Southampton, Portsmouth, and the Isle of Wight. Mandy is someone I’ve worked alongside for many years, and she...

Just so you know - this episode mentions suicide, bereavement and trauma, in the context of facilitating these topics with groups. If you’re in the middle of any of that personally right now, it’s worth thinking about when you listen to this one. If you’ve ever been part of (as facilitator or participant) a session on a ‘heavier’ topic… you may well have felt that ‘heaviness’ in the room. People s...

What does it really take to look after yourself when your job is to hold space for other people’s emotions? In this first guest episode, we explore this topic… and a few more. I’m joined by Ali Grady from The Thrive Team, talent acquisition and people development specialists with a genuine passion for helping people thrive in work and in life. Ali is an Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) instructor, a...

Why is tomorrow’s Spanish lesson making me reflect on my work as a facilitator? Join me as I go down what is partly a self-reflective rabbit hole… and partly an exploration of what it’s like to swap roles from facilitator to participant. We look at: * The Affective Filter - why anxiety doesn’t just make learning harder, it can block it almost entirely * Self-Determination Theory and what happens t...

Do you ever finish working with a group feeling completely drained…even when it went well? Find yourself fighting through brain fog or voice issues but still needing to show up professionally? Or carry the weight of difficult sessions home with you? These are all things that people who regularly run groups have to face at some point. Whether you’re training, facilitating, managing teams, or runnin...

Do you ever worry that AI might make your work obsolete? It’s the question that’s been discussed by several people I work with recently. Others are excited about the possibilities and embracing AI in their own work, not as a replacement, but as a powerful tool. And some tell me they’re trying to ignore the whole thing and hoping it goes away! If you train people, run workshops, or work with groups...

Do you run team meetings? Deliver training? Navigate difficult conversations? Bring people together to think through problems or make decisions? Have you moved from 1:1 coaching or HR work into running groups? If so, you're probably already facilitating - even if you've never called yourself a facilitator, never trained as one, or don't think of yourself that way. In this episode, I explore what f...

Do you love feedback or dread it? For many of us working with groups, feedback can feel like judgment rather than information - especially when we care deeply about our work. In this episode, I explore the complicated relationship we have with feedback: why some of us avoid it entirely, why others refresh the feedback link almost obsessively on the journey home, and how our need for validation can...

Drawing in group sessions can be great fun! ... Or sometimes feel intimidating - both for facilitators who "can't draw" and participants who panic at the thought. But the research is clear: drawing supports learning, memory, and understanding in ways that text alone doesn't. And the quality of the 'artwork'? Completely irrelevant. In this episode, I explore why drawing works so well in training an...

We all have moments when working with groups that throw us - awkward silences, unexpected challenges, times when our usual approach just doesn't work and you just want to get back to solid ground. Most of us try to escape them. But research on reflective practice suggests these are exactly the moments where real professional learning happens. The question is whether we're willing to stay in them l...

Most people hate CPD. I used to as well - it was just admin, ticking boxes, not actually helping me get better at work. Now I've found a way to make it genuinely useful - something that actually interrogates whether I've embedded what I think I know, not just whether I've read an article and hoped it stuck. This episode is about what works for me, and why I got genuinely (sadly?) excited about pro...

An exploration of psychological safety in learning - what it really means, common misconceptions, and what it looks like in practice. I share stories from my early career and reflect on how we create the conditions where people can take interpersonal risks. Whether you're new to training and facilitation or have been doing this for years, this episode explores how psychological safety shapes what'...

Welcome to The Human Side of Facilitation. An introduction to the podcast, me, and what we'll explore together in future episodes. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tomclearyuk.substack.com