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
123 - The Inner Work of Facilitation - with Quanita Roberson
It took me nearly one year to arrange this interview, due to just how popular, committed, and focused Quanita Roberson is.
But I would have happily waited a decade for the value, kindness, and wonder she imparts in conversation. Quanita is the founder of Nzuzu Consulting and focuses on the deep, fun, and easy flow of energy to address embedded trauma.
Her insights into the human condition, our experiences, and the role we play as facilitators are genuinely groundbreaking.
We talk about grief, faith, community, privilege, slowing down, divine order, and lots of things that aren’t technically to do with facilitation but, really, are fundamental to our work.
This is a special episode and one I hope will stay with you for a long time.
Find out about:
● Getting out of our own way so we can get out of our participants’ way
● Why we need to ‘clear the decks’ in the room before we begin a session
● How we can see fear as in invitation, not a warning
● Why grief underlies a lot of the ‘bad’ things we feel (e.g. shame or guilt)
● Learning to grieve – alone and together – and how we can facilitate this
● Understanding ourselves and our communities as part of nature and the divine
● Why, in the Information Age, embodiment is more important than ever
Don’t miss the next show: Subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.
Click here to download the free 1-page summary.
And if the idea of NeverDoneBefore 2021, the community of facilitators, caught your attention; click here to explore it in more detail!
Questions and Answers
[01:28] When did you start calling yourself a facilitator?
[03:47] What makes someone a facilitator and what makes someone a trainer?
[04:47] How can one be present and absent at the same time?
[06:13] Do you and Tenneson Woolf have a routine for ‘clearing the decks’ when you work together?
[09:39] What has your journey of inner work looked like?
[13:25] How do you translate and transfer the lessons from your own inner journey into a group setting, to help the participants in their own journey?
[15:59] What is the role of the group when you are guiding them through their journeys?
[18:55] To help a group through feelings of shame or guilt, then, do we first need to help them realise they’re actually dealing with grief?
[22:20] How do you open the space to discuss grief in a ‘professional’ environment?
[23:49] How can we learn to grieve?
[26:54] How do you think the pandemic affected us and our relationship with grief?
[35:00] What does it take to create a community for grieving in a professional space?
[41:22] What does the Circle practice mean for you and for groups?
[44:43] How do you catch yourself focusing on the methodology rather than the experience?
[47:11] Can we grow into embodiment?
[50:50] If somebody wanted to begin a journey towards the perspectives you’ve shared, how would you advise they start?
[52:15] What keeps you grounded and aware in times of crisis?
[55:11] Was there anything you wanted to discuss that we haven’t spoken about yet?
[57:45] What is the one thing you would like listeners to take away from this conversation?
Links
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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/