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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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 a