050 - What happens when you get 11 facilitators into an organised but unstructured group conversation?

50 episodes of Workshops Work – wow! What a joy every episode has been. Thank you for joining me on this journey – whether this is your first or fiftieth time listening. To mark this milestone, I brought together ten Workshops Work alumni for a fishbowl discussion about facilitation. We covered a range of topics in such detail, it’s a struggle to summarise it in these show notes. If you are interested in hearing what a room of facilitators has to say about the complexities, joys, and novelties of our profession, I am very happy to present to you this episode. Thank you again for helping me on my journey to 50 episodes. Here’s to the next milestone… In this episode, we discuss:The different roles in workshops Why it’s so important to give participants and their discussions space Whether neutrality should be the facilitator’s goal – and whether it is even possible How best to tease out conflict in a safe and healthy manner Our experiences of our discussion – from excitement to discomfort Don’t miss the next show: Subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player. 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 [03:23] How do you ensure everyone in the room has the same understanding? Do you do so before or during a workshop?  [08:08] How do you make sure everyone has a role?  [11:51] What is your experience of wanting to act as a facilitator but knowing that you should not?  [13:10] How do you deal with having assumptions about participants?  [14:41] Neutrality and conflict  [21:52] How do you make space for people in a fair and balanced way?  [25:39] Neutrality, readiness, and being present  [30:51] Reflecting on the experience of the fishbowl  [40:54] What brings you the most joy from the transformation in the room of your workshops?  [41:56] Coming back to discomfort  [49:21] What do you do to limit yourself and avoid taking too much space when speaking?  [51:54] Do you have any short lines you use to transfer power in the room?  [53:11] Checking in on the participant’s experiences of the discussion Links to Check007 – Mindset Management – with Jeremy Akers 011 – How to design brainstorming sessions for huge groups – with Frans Scheepens 020 – Create experiences for your audience to achieve results – with Rein Sevenstern 021 – How to use Liberating Structures to translate the purpose into a process – with Max Brouwer 030 – The day after! How to effectively document to achieve results – with Mireille Beumer 037 – How to facilitate group decisions in 4 easy steps – with Marjolijn de Graaf 041 – Presence, Mindfulness and Facilitation – with Amaranatho Robey Any thoughts? Share them with us! Support the show ✨✨✨ If you miss the "workshops work" podcast, join us on Substack, where Myriam builds a Podcast Club with monthly gatherings around old episodes: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/