I'm a recovering academic who uses her insights from behavioural economics to develop methods that facilitate collaboration. In my weekly newsletter, I share the summary of my latest interview on the "workshops work" podcast along with an application of facilitation as a life and leadership skill.
Getting Lost and Finding Freedom || 🎙️ Episode 318 on Deliberate Creativity for Teams
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Dear Reader, There is one thing only few people know about me: I have zero sense of direction. It’s not that sometimes I take the wrong turn. I mean really no internal compass. My first instinct is always to turn the wrong way. The problem is that this fear of getting lost is rather limiting for someone (me!) who loves long runs with no phone. It kept me stuck, running the same safe routes while missing out on serendipitous discoveries that come with getting lost in new places. This year, I decided to end this irrationality. I made it a personal quest to allow myself to get lost: To literally run into the unknown and build the muscle of finding comfort within uncertainty (trusting that I will find my way back). As I safely returned from a run into the “wild” of Southern France, without even feeling lost, I realise the connection to our work in facilitation (and leadership, really): When we guide groups through complexity or new territory, we ask them to trust the process - even when the destination isn’t clear. Staying with the discomfort of not knowing is a big ask and it’s easy to forget what we ask of others when we haven’t experienced it ourselves. If I can’t sit (or run) with being lost once in a while, how can we expect anyone else to? 🎙 Meanwhile, on the podcast…The greatest myth of creativity? It doesn’t fall from the sky into our laps like Isaac Newton’s apple! Creativity is far from that romantic, eureka moment, but rather it is messy, cultivated, and curiosity made manifest. Luckily for us, Amy Climer has created a system to go about finding this elusive, but valuable novelty with intention – consistently and at scale. A TEDx speaker, trainer and author of the book ‘Deliberate Creative Teams: How to Lead for Innovative Results’, Amy’s work is a creative panacea for leaders, managers and facilitators in search of better ideas. From positive feedback fertilisers, to creative learnings from Thomas Edison, she shares her process and the ingredients you’ll need to succeed. Find out about:
🎧 Click here to listen to the interview 📥 Check out my 1-page summary👀 Watch the unedited interview on Youtube 📌 Find podcast episodes that match your needsDid you know? You can search all episodes by keyword on our Buzzsprout page to find exactly what you need. Click here to find the episodes by keyword. 🔖 Inspiration at Your Fingertips: Get the Podcast Summary eBooksAre you looking for inspiration for your next workshop or guidance on which podcast episode to explore next? Discover the eBooks compiling summaries of all 300 “Workshops Work” podcast episodes—a rich collection of facilitation insights and practical tips. These digital coffee table books are perfect for sparking new ideas or delving deeper into workshop best practices. Click here to get your copies. That’s it from my side! I hope you enjoy the content and find inspiration in the stories and the podcast. I wish you a week full of bold steps — even if you don’t know exactly where they lead. I’ll see you next week! Myriam
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How can we facilitate collaboration?
I'm a recovering academic who uses her insights from behavioural economics to develop methods that facilitate collaboration. In my weekly newsletter, I share the summary of my latest interview on the "workshops work" podcast along with an application of facilitation as a life and leadership skill.
Dear Reader, Last week, I spontaneously moved in with my partner. This might sound normal, especially since we just got engaged. But for a long time, I believed that the best relationships lived in two separate homes. That the magic was in choosing time together, not defaulting into it. And I still think that matters. The choosing does. What I’d forgotten is that cohabiting doesn’t mean letting go of choice. It just means you have to design for it. Not once, but continuously. You don’t just...
Dear Reader, What do you do when they’re on their phones? In last week’s training I delivered, one of the participants shared how much it annoyed them when others used their phones during a session. It felt disrespectful, they said. We explored ways to handle it. One person suggested naming it in the ground rules. Someone offered a tactic to bring the group’s attention back. What stuck with me wasn’t the strategies — it was the phone itself. Or rather, the role it plays. Because I do it too....
Dear Reader, So much for breaking the rules 🤪 I thought I was writing a book about unprofessionalism. Turns out, I’ve been writing it like the most professional professional ever. Somewhere between the index cards and the imposter syndrome, I lost the thread and the soul. The tough love from my book coach (thank you, Jane!) came like a velvet slap. She didn’t say anything I didn’t already know. But hearing she expected more made me admit it to myself: I hadn’t actually broken out of the...