workshops work Podcast
This is a podcast about facilitation: the practice of creating conditions for people to think better together.
Whether you’re leading strategy, navigating change or developing leaders, the quality of your conversations shapes the quality of your decisions.
Hosted by Dr Myriam Hadnes, behavioural economist, facilitator and founder of workshops.work, each episode explores the human dynamics of working together: how psychological safety is built, why some conversations lead to action while others stall, how leaders foster genuine participation, and what behavioural science can teach us about collaboration. Alongside these conversations, Dr Hadnes shares reflections from her own client work, offering practical insights from the realities of designing and facilitating workshops in organisations.
Recognised as the facilitation community’s most-recommended podcast in SessionLab’s State of Facilitation reports from 2024 to 2026, the show has grown into an archive of more than 350 conversations spanning the craft, the inner work, and the unexpected edges of facilitation. Whether you’re a facilitator, leader, consultant or L&D professional, you'll come away with sharper questions and a few ideas worth borrowing.
workshops work Podcast
228 - Leading Through Facilitation: Unpacking the Complexity of Group Dynamics with Rob Evans
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The prevailing view in organisations (and among their leaders) is that change processes are rational challenges — a question of getting from A to B with efficiency and minimal interruption.
After 30+ years of facilitating change processes and training others to do the same, Rob Evans has learned that a great deal of the work to be done is anything but rational.
The emotional and political contexts in which groups exist matter. The decision-making structure around the team matter. The restrictions and fears matter.
Join us for a discussion in the depth and detail of group dynamics, participant empowerment, and the deeply human sides of facilitation.
Find out about:
- Why prioritising participants learning and growth is an ever-reliable foundation for workshop planning
- How to account for emotional and political contexts in your workshop and avoid over-rationalisation
- Why Rob believes successful workshops hinge on having a large enough group
- How to approach a problem that is too big for the group to fix
- Why it’s worth asking why a change hasn’t happened yet, before we ask how to make the change
- What Rob has learned form helping drug users to rehabilitate from their addictions
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 Collaboration Code website.
Connect to Rob:
On LinkedIn.
Support the show:
Make a one-off donation and contribute to the ongoing costs of running the podcast.
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👉 Are you looking for the Unprofessionalism podcast? https://unprofessionalism.buzzsprout.com/ 👈
