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
266 - The Alchemy of Group Facilitation Crafting Harmony and Tension with Jason Fox
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A constant, unchoreographed dance of tension and harmony, of structure and emergence, of psychological safety and sincerity, of client and group: facilitation is an artful balancing act.
And my guest this week Dr Jason Fox, is a master of equilibrium. A wise and mercurial keynote speaker and facilitator, he straddles the opposing realms of speaker presence and facilitator invisibility with shapeshifting ability, fusing deep philosophical thinking with meaningful future action.
We ride the facilitation see-saw in episode 266, exploring the alchemic balance of the facilitator, soaring from beautiful philosophies and the ideal conditions for achieving progress, dipping into Vipassana learnings and the potential of a spacious agenda.
Jason fills our conversation with such wisdom, charm and intrigue, I hope an hour with him leaves you feeling as inspired as I was.
Find out about:
- Why the alchemy of cooking is like that of facilitation, both requiring acuity, synthesis, and intuition
- The difference between meaningful progress vs. delusional progress
- Psychological safety: is there such a thing as too much? Can it lead the group into a state of toxic sincerity?
- The importance of seeking healthy conflict from a place of psychological safety
- Striking the balance of imperfection and friction, from the tools we use, to the environment we choose
- Jason’s teachings from meta-modernism, meta-rationality, Vipassana, and Indigenous Australian philosophy
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.
Connect to Jason Fox:
On LinkedIn
https://foxwizard.com
https://drjasonfox.com/
Any thoughts? Share them with us!
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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/
