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.
Inclusion means Courage || 🎙️ Episode 345 : From Borders to Bridges: A Chaplain’s Journey
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Dear Reader, I thought my podcast was diverse… until I actually looked at the guest list: Most of them looked like me, spoke like me, came from the same cultural bubble. What a confronting realisation! Not because I’d done something wrong, but because I hadn’t even noticed. If I’m perfectly honest, I wasn’t aware of the reason behind my unconscious bias until an upcoming guest asked whether I’d hosted other Indigenous facilitators. I surprised both of us with my very honest: I may have avoided these conversations because I worried about saying the wrong thing, revealing ignorance, exposing what I didn’t know. So here I am after 350 episodes, realising that my default image of a “professional facilitator” might have been narrower than I realised. It’s uncomfortable to admit this here. And I trust I'm not the only one. Inclusion sounds like a moral stance, but we forget that it starts with something as simple as curiosity. The willingness to ask questions when we notice something is different from what we are used to. The courage to risk a clumsy first draft of a conversation. Inclusion begins by noticing the edges of our bubble and choosing curiosity over comfort. And now, I am excited to bring new perspectives and voices onto workshops work and even more so on Unprofessionalism. As I've started being more vulnerable about my insecurities, I've been met with generosity. Everyone I speak with is willing to take me along, forgive naïve questions, and help me learn. And that's why Unprofessionalism feels so timely. The more I explore it, the more I see how our ideas of “(un)professionalism” are shaped by culture — and how much gets lost when we treat one version as the standard. What does professionalism look like across continents, histories, and generations? From January, I’ll be exploring these questions on the podcast. For now, I have more questions than answers. Lucky me — I chose to be a podcaster and a facilitator 🤷♀️ 🎙 Meanwhile, on the podcast…Reverend Deb Hansen received a metaphorical message in a bottle, urging her to go to the US-Mexico border – a life calling that she followed all the way to El Paso. As a facilitator-chaplain and quilter of the human experience, Deb has been there for people at the most painful and tender times of their lives – helping to understand their stories, and stitch back together the fragments of a broken, polarised world. She brings beautiful stories about migration, spirituality, identity, and historical trauma with life-affirming reverence, she reads us a passage from her book Borderlands, and shows us all how to navigate vulnerability with grace. A rich and important conversation about what it means to be human. Find out about:
🎧 Click here to listen to the interview📥 Check out my 1-page summary 👀 Watch the unedited interview on Youtube 💖 Smells like Community....As workshops work moves toward retirement, I realised it would be a shame to let the episodes gather dust in the basement — that’s the mental image that comes up. Isn’t this, instead, a great opportunity to remove the constant fear of missing out on new episodes piling up on the “to-be-listened-to-sometime-maybe” list… and create a podcast-listening community around what already exists? A space where we can follow each other’s suggestions, share reflections, and maybe even meet once in a while to discuss podcast-related ideas. Well, that’s what I’m currently experimenting with. I’ve moved all 350+ episodes to Substack — a platform that feels closest to what I’ve always dreamed of: a true podcast-listening community. If that sounds like your kind of thing, you can join me on Substack — I’ll keep you posted as this next chapter unfolds. *** That’s it from my side! I hope you enjoy the content and find inspiration in the stories and the podcast. I wish you the curiosity to stay open when comfort tempts you to close. 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, When was the last time you started from scratch? For me it was last week, and I almost cheated. I'd just joined Substack—a platform where writers share their thoughts without the pressure of personal branding or selling. It seemed like the perfect home for my podcast archive and this newsletter. As a way of making myself comfortable, I imported not only my full podcast archive but also my subscriber list. And it was with pride that I looked at the number of 6,000 next to my name....
Dear Reader, On Sunday, I almost missed my first marathon 😳 After sixteen weeks of training, I nearly missed the start because I arrived five minutes late. I’d adjusted my schedule, diet, sleep — everything. Yet there I was, begging the security guard to let me through with another late runner from the US. He eventually waved us in. Crossing that starting line already felt like we’d made it 🏆 and back then I wasn't aware of all the lessons I'd learn that had nothing to do with the run. For...
Dear Reader, Do you know this voice in your head second guessing your behaviour in the last meeting?? Last week, I joined my first team meeting with a new collaborator. I knew they were good with boundaries, the kind of person who states clearly what doesn't work for them. So I showed up as myself. I added ideas, asked questions, even challenged one of theirs. The meeting went well. We got things done. And then I left the call and my monkey-mind kicked in. Did I take up too much space? Was I...