workshops work Podcast
This is a podcast about facilitation: the practice of creating conditions for people to think better together.
Whether you’re leading strategy, navigating change or developing leaders, the quality of your conversations shapes the quality of your decisions.
Hosted by Dr Myriam Hadnes, behavioural economist, facilitator and founder of workshops.work, each episode explores the human dynamics of working together: how psychological safety is built, why some conversations lead to action while others stall, how leaders foster genuine participation, and what behavioural science can teach us about collaboration. Alongside these conversations, Dr Hadnes shares reflections from her own client work, offering practical insights from the realities of designing and facilitating workshops in organisations.
Recognised as the facilitation community’s most-recommended podcast in SessionLab’s State of Facilitation reports from 2024 to 2026, the show has grown into an archive of more than 350 conversations spanning the craft, the inner work, and the unexpected edges of facilitation. Whether you’re a facilitator, leader, consultant or L&D professional, you'll come away with sharper questions and a few ideas worth borrowing.
workshops work Podcast
320 - Facilitating with the Brain in Mind with Amanda Cookson
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Helping people to do their best thinking, is Amanda Cookson. A coach, facilitator and all-round neuroscience whizz, she’s made it her mission to help leaders better understand what it means to be human.
And it all starts with our own thinking-feeling, wildly brilliant, untamed brain! She guides us through its inner workings with effervescence and passion, showing us how to work with it – rather than against it – steer pulse-quickening conversations towards oxytocin, and design experiences that help rewire the brain for real, lasting change.
An energising, thoughtful conversation, full of golden mind-training nuggets to try in both facilitation, and life!
Find out about:
- Why the discomfort of cognitive dissonance can lead to richer learnings
- The power of asking great questions in search of answers that ignite deep thinking
- Amanda’s feelings-based ground rules of presence, curiosity and generosity
- Friends vs Foe: how to turn self-fulfilling prophecies into human connection
- How to facilitate with the brain in mind, for insight, rather than information
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Links:
Watch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.
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