workshops work
Welcome to “workshops work,” the podcast that transforms how professionals engage, inspire, and lead groups. Hosted by Dr Myriam Hadnes, a behavioural economist and facilitation evangelist, each episode dives into facilitation techniques and mindsets that make workshops successful.
Join us every week as we sit down with world-renowned facilitators and uncover their secrets to creating psychological safety, fostering collaboration, and sparking innovation. Whether you’re a Facilitator, L&D professional, HR leader, manager, coach or trainer, you’ll find practical tips, inspiring stories, and actionable insights to elevate your group dynamics.
From navigating conflict to unlocking creativity, “workshops work” blends theory with practice, ensuring you walk away with tools you can immediately apply. Dr Myriam Hadnes doesn’t just interview; she facilitates enriching conversations that shift perspectives and deepen understanding.
Let’s democratise facilitation, one workshop at a time.
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Visit https://workshops.work/podcast for a free 1-page summary of each episode.
workshops work
010 - Design and facilitate successful strategy workshops - with Dirk Verburg
In this episode, I talk to Dirk Verburg, a management consultant and executive coach who has the mission to help leaders and management teams to implement their business strategies, business plans and strategic initiatives (such as important projects). We talk about how facilitators can structure workshops that enable participants to execute what they have committed to. We discuss how management teams can keep momentum when being back in their daily routines. In the show, Dirk shares interventions that will help the management team to follow through decided strategies and the role of leaders in that process.
Don’t miss the part when Dirk explains how he handles the double role of being a consultant and a facilitator of strategic projects. This conversation will inspire you to design strategy workshops which participants will feel motivated to carry on.
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Questions and Answers
[2:05] What is your story?
[3:20] What makes strategies and business plans fail?
[3:49] Do participants in your workshops usually have a clear idea already how the strategy looks like?
[5:47] How would you approach such a discussion? Would it be a guided discussion with all team members around a table?
[6:34] How often does it happen that the team hears the same words but understands something different?
[7:12] If there is disagreement, how do you deal with the tension?
[8:03] How do you secure the buy-in?
[10:00] After you clarified disagreement and achieved buy-in, what is the next step to assure the follow-up after the workshop?
[11:52] What are the next steps toward execution?
[13:06] How do you collect the participants’ ideas regarding the specific translations of the strategy? And how do you make sure that everyone is contributing?
[15:08] When participants work in pairs: how do you build these and will they remain the same over the duration of the workshop?
[15:45] How do you get introverts to voice their opinions?
[16:45] How do you deal with the bunch of action items?
[19:28] How do you get the team to prioritize action items?
[21:04] How do you then divide the tasks for execution?
[22:16] Would that mean that the person who has an idea is in charge of the realization?
[27:06] How do you get the team members to follow through with their responsibilities?
[28:42] This sounds so easy in theory but the reality is that many managers have competing commitments. How do you coach the leader to assure progress?
[34:22] How can you as a facilitator help the team to follow through and to make it fun to stick to the commitments?
[37:06] How do you walk the line between being a facilitator and being a consultant?
[38:49] How do you assure that the CEO doesn’t lose face in such situations?
[39:33] I like to ask my podcast guests for a
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