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
251 - Harmonizing Teams: Collective Song-Writing as a Workshop Tool with Sam McNeill
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
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 facilitator for SongDivision, bonding teams all over the world through the science of music.
In their songwriting workshops, deep reflections take place, honesty emerges in the lyrics, and teams are given a new voice to creatively express values and reveal the unspoken.
Press play and treat your ears to this fascinating episode with Sam as he shares his personal experiences as a performer, offering a unique platform for us to examine the intersection of music and facilitation.
You’ll learn:
- Why songwriting is a powerful tool for teams to express themselves, encourage discussion and strengthen bonds
- How music can remove hierarchy, putting employees on a level playing field in a workshop setting
- The science behind music: how activating the prefrontal cortex can enhance creativity and set the scene for fruitful collaboration
- Why failure is a better outcome than impartiality, offering us learnings for improvement
- The parallels that lie between an artist’s performance and that of a facilitator
- Why a lack of clarity around what success looks like in a workshop can cause failure
- How musical genres can help teams or organisations to better define themselves
Don’t miss the next episode: subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.
Links:
Watch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.
The episode with Rich Goidel we referred to on the show.
Connect to Sam McNeill:
Any thoughts? Share them with us!
✨✨✨
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/
