105 - Facilitation beyond the Toolbox with Nadia von Holzen

Structure contains us and sets boundaries, it can’t make space for freedom or creativity… can it?

Liberating Structures says otherwise - and Nadia von Holzen joins me in this episode to discuss the benefits and practical applications of these methods.

Nadia is an independent facilitator and advocate for better meetings, collaboration, and creativity. I was taken aback by how many insights and great ideas she left in this episode, speaking with passion and conviction about a huge range of topics.

We danced from Liberating Structures and digital facilitation to thinking fast and slow and analysing the language we use to describe the people we work with. It was a wonderful conversation that I hope you will enjoy.

Find out about:

The importance of process thinking and why COVID has made it more urgent

• Why Nadia doesn’t like to call people “participants”
• Identifying a new zeitgeist of workshops, collaboration, and work
• Why facilitative skills are needed in every area of an organisation
• Why more content and inputs will rarely make a better meeting
• How to get started with Liberating Structures
• Finding the balance between fast and unhurried

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Questions and Answers

[01:09] When did you start calling yourself a facilitator?

[02:58] How does facilitation change when you focus on the “how”, not the “why”?

[04:18] How do you bring your experience in knowledge management into facilitation?

[07:25] How has the pandemic changed the way you prepare and deliver your workshops?

[13:09] Is everyone equally in charge of the process, not just the facilitator?

[14:35] How can we strengthen our ‘process muscles’?

[18:12] Nobody intends to host a bad meeting, so why do they happen?

[19:14] What’s the minimum facilitation skill people should learn that would have the biggest impact?

[22:42] Could Liberating Structures be the holy grail for helping organisations have better meetings?

[24:46] What is beyond the toolbox?

[27:21] Is four the magic number of people to have in a breakout room?

[29:30] What makes a workshop fail?

[32:15] How do you select a person within an organisation with whom you will co-facilitate?

[37:09] Can you share more about speed and pacing?

[44:15] How does quality conversation and communication contribute to sense-making?

[46:04] Why confidence matters so much – and why it’s a constant work in progress.

[48:21] What is the one thing you would like listeners to take away from this episode?

Links:

Nadia’s website

Liberating Structures

Unhurried conversations

Connect to Nadia:

LinkedIn

Twitter

Any thoughts? Share them with us!

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👉 What happens when being “professional” gets in the way of being human? My new podcast Unprofessionalism explores the rules we’re taught to follow at work, and what happens when we break them. Listen here: https://unprofessionalism.buzzsprout.com/  👈