150 - Re-Thinking Facilitation: A Means of Corporate Therapy with Jordan Bower

Is ‘facilitation’ the wrong word for what we do with corporate clients? Jordan Bower thinks it might be and proposes a new terminology to better suit our work…

Welcome to ‘corporate therapy’!

Jordan and I discuss some big questions in this episode, including the future of facilitation, how to focus on individuals when working with a corporate, and whether one-off workshops are a waste of everyone’s time.

You might expect a conversation full of intense curiosity and deep questioning might be hard work – in fact, the conversation was full of light and laughter.

So, sit back, relax, and let’s dive into some of the big questions of facilitation, its future, and how we can take the profession to another level.

Find out about:

• Why facilitation is better understood as an infinite process, rather than linear progress
• How story theory relates to workshops, and why the things we want and the things we need aren’t always the same
• Why the quickest route to failure is to worry about failing
• How abundance and sharing have become the hallmarks of true power
• Sage advice on the process of pitching facilitation services to a new client
• How to help clients lean into their emotions when it doesn’t come naturally

Don’t miss the next show: Subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player. 

Exclusive offer from Facilitator Cards for workshops.work listeners you can get 15% off your entire purchase at shop.facilitator.cards by using code workshopswork.

Questions and Answers

Part one

[00:56] When did you start calling yourself a facilitator?

[07:31] What changed in your mindset and skillset, as you went through this challenge?

[09:49] What have you learned about storytelling – and what is something that people continue to get wrong about it?

[13:23] How do you help people break out of the vicious circle of shallow ‘wants’ and into deeper ‘needs’?

[15:13] How does (what sounds like) a very one-on-one practice translate to work at an organisational level?

[17:58] What strategies do you use to get your finger on the pulse of a company? And how do you help them see the stories they tell themselves?

[21:48] What do you think has caused this great shift in the function and purpose of organisations?

[26:07] Do you think the collective experience of uncertainty with the pandemic has driven companies to look to facilitators rather than consultants?

[28:36] Do you think ‘one-off’ facilitation is over? Can we achieve meaningful results in a single workshop?

[31:51] What’s the inner game for facilitators in this future of ‘corporate therapy’?

[38:10] How do you know when to step into authoritative facilitation and when to step back?

Links

Website

Connect to Jordan:

On LinkedIn
 

Any thoughts? Share them with us!

Support the show

✨✨✨

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/