198 - The Difficulty of Crafting the Simple with Gabor Bittera

“Keep it simple, stupid” is a popular refrain which might be better translated as “make it harder, stupid”!

One of the most common misunderstandings Gabor Bittera encounters in his mission towards simplicity is the belief that simple = easy. Far from it, in fact. Sometimes, creating simplicity is the hardest task in a workshop.

Thankfully, Gabor has done the hard miles and has advice that can save you from complicating the process of simplifying your workshops… leaving you just with the fact that it isn’t always easy!

We explore what it means to facilitate simplicity, with simplicity, and for simplicity in this episode—jumping from practical advice and templates to deeper questions around purpose and effectiveness. It was a joyful conversation and I hope you will get as much from it as I did.

Find out about:

• Why Gabor prioritises simplicity over ease — no matter how complex it can be to simplify
• How to facilitate using principles from Scrum, linguistics and storytelling
• Why simple facilitation requires more of our attention and care
• Which part of the workshop process Gabor believes is hardest to simplify
• Why the art of facilitation includes designing constraints and restrictions
• What the perfect group size is for both subgroup and whole-group work
• How to use specific accountability to create more impactful workshops

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Links

Watch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.

Subscribe to Gabor’s Substack — Scrum Times

Read or subscribe to Gabor’s Medium

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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/  👈