Unprofessionalism

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 o...

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 t...

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...

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 i...

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 Verst...

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 wonde...

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...

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 facilitato...

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 tr...

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 fasci...

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, an...

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 too...

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 tha...

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 t...

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 exp...

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...

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 c...

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 th...

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 au...

Joost de Leij has delivered over one thousand workshops, from informal group sessions to extensive work with the largest businesses worldwide. In that time, he’s learned a thing or two about effective facilitation. This episode looks at the micro and macro of effective facilitation and how we can design workshops to deliver maximum impact. Sometimes, that can mean negotiating complicated power str...

How can we make an informal brainstorming session, full of possibilities and quick thinking, into something more formal… without squeezing the life from it? Alexandre Eisenchteter believes deeply in the power of brainstorming sessions — and that most of us undervalue them. It’s a fair point: the prevailing view does seem to be that brainstorming is a chaotic and unstructured process. But, when Ale...

Joe Weston has been helping individuals, teams, and companies look deeper within themselves for 30+ years. His unique mind-body approach — prioritising empowerment and resilience, but also great empathy and inclusivity —  has taken him around the world and back again. And, now, it brings him to this podcast! There is so much to ask Joe, it was a struggle to keep this to just one episode. Thankfull...

Learning is a lifetime’s adventure, but, for many adults, a few bad experiences or a little bit of overconfidence can see them set in their ways and losing their love for learning. In fact, this can be one of the greatest challenges we face as facilitators — entering professional environments in which participants are not primed or prepared for learning. Joyce Matthews joins me in this episode to...

Want to turn your passion for facilitation into a full-time, thriving, scalable business? Or are you already facilitating as your main job, but want to take it to a new level? Michael Zipursky is one of the best people to turn to, if that’s the case. As a coach for consultants, bestselling author, and prolific writer and podcaster, Michael is at the top of the game when it comes to practical, acti...

You leave school and enter the ‘real world’ of work. That’s the process, that’s the plan. But who’s to say that they should be so distinct? What if we brought knowledge from educational systems, such as Montessori, into corporate settings? Benedikt Schmaus joins me in this episode to discuss how can take the best of education and use it to improve work. We explore what it takes to keep facilitatio...