Unprofessionalism
Professional performance is exhausting. Maintaining the mask. Editing ourselves. Pretending we know when we don't.
This podcast is about people who dropped the performance. And what happened next.
Each episode features someone who broke professional conventions and found something better on the other side: the executive who disclosed grief in a corporate setting and found it opened new ways of relating; the coach who realised her authority came from integrity, not compliance; the designer who ignored the 'approved tools' and saved thousands of hours.
Conversations circle around three questions:
- What does it cost us to perform professionalism instead of showing up as ourselves?
- How do we create spaces where people can bring their full attention and humanity to work?
- When is the “unprofessional” move actually the most responsible one?
If you feel the tension between who you are and who you're expected to be at work, this podcast shows you what happens when people stop managing that tension and just stop performing.
Hosted by Dr Myriam Hadnes—behavioural economist and founder of workshops.work. New episode every week.
Unprofessionalism
055 - Bringing Beauty into Workshops with Eike Niclas Schmidt
Beauty appears in different ways – with our intention or entirely without provocation – but how can we purposefully create beauty in our workshops, and what effect can it have on the outcomes of our practice?
Eike Niclas Schmidt believes beauty is an essential component of a successful workshop, and that it can be encouraged and created in simpler ways than you might imagine.
As an Art of Hosting specialist, Eike is acutely aware of the impact our spaces and presence have on the people we share them with. The perfect person for me to speak to, then, in my investigation into beauty and its role in making workshops work.
In this episode, find out about:
- How the Art of Hosting and facilitation have combined perfectly for Eike’s practice
- What it takes to hold space as a facilitator
- How to make people shine
- Whether it is possible to facilitate beauty
- Where in our work it is most important to curate and encourage beauty
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A huge thank you must go to SessionLab, the sponsor of Workshops Work. Claim your free two months of SessionLab Pro now – this deal is exclusive to Workshops Work listeners!
Questions and Answers
[01:27] When did you start calling yourself a facilitator?
[02:42] Is there a difference between holding space for children and adults?
[03:20] Do you recall a mistake you made early on that taught you a lot?
[05:48] What was it that made you feel at home when you found the Art of Hosting tribe?
[07:24] What does it take to hold space as a facilitator?
[10:23] What does it mean to make people shine, and how do you facilitate that?
[13:00] Are there ways of creating connectedness, or shine, without physical contact?
[18:10] What does it mean to create a beautiful space to you?
[22:53] Is beauty something we can facilitate?
[24:36] What does the Art of Hosting mean?
[27:24] How do you make outcomes visible?
[31:06] How important is the beauty of the tangible materials we use (such as flip charts, notes, or recordings)?
[34:29] What is it about circles that makes magical connections?
[37:02] What makes a workshop fail?
[40:30] What is your favourite exercise?
[42:11] How do you think facilitation can contribute to planting seeds for the future?
[45:27] If someone fell asleep after the first minute of this podcast and has just awoken, what would you like them to take away?
Links to check
- Episode 047 with Tim Ferguson on Outputs and Outcomes
- Episode 049 with Sunny on the Third Facilitator in the Room
- Christina Baldwin and Ann Linnea: The circle Way: A Leader in Every Chair
Connect to Eike Niclas Schmidt
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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/
