WORKSHOPS & GATHERINGS
My gentle yet organized approach to facilitation is attuned to creating a welcoming environment where participants notice, reflect, and care for one another.
How this Works
Grounded in the ethics of human worth and dignity, workshops and gatherings are:
Dynamic, highly interactive, mixed modality learning opportunities
Conducted one-to-one or in small, medium, or large-group settings
A mix of fun, light-hearted games and prompts/activities inviting deeper reflections
Delivered in real life or virtually
1.5+ hours in length
Available as a one-time stand-alone session(s) or multi-session programs
Supplemented by optional takeaway prompts for further reflection and connection
Workshop Listings
Workshops have strong, clear structure and impactful content in four thematic categories — Being (BEI), Believing (BEL), Building (BLD), and Belonging (BLG).
Custom programs for your specific needs can be designed by combining multiple workshops into one longer session (e.g. leadership retreat) or multiple sessions over many weeks (e.g. ongoing leadership or team-building programs).
Given the distinctive nature of activities, all workshops begin at the same level whether for a newly formed group of strangers or well established teams.
BEING WORKSHOPS
BEING OURSELVES:
OUR MULTITUDES
How might getting curious about who we are create greater self-awareness and also improve our understanding of and interactions with others? In this workshop we will explore the multiplicity of our identities, which ones most inform who we are, and how these influences impact our interaction with others. We will also consider the idea that identities carry currency which can be leveraged to create environments and cultures of greater Belonging. At the end of this workshop, you will have a better appreciation of the multifaceted nature of identity, including your identity-based blind spots and sources of power.
BELIEVING WORKSHOPS
Most people and businesses feel skeptical about the value of values. Many of us picture framed wall hangings that fail to deliver reliable or substantive benefits. But when done right, core values are a powerful tool for better living and business decision making.
The step by step approach in the Believing series will help you uncover, define, and live your core values as a leader or team in a way that feels relevant, inspiring, and highly doable.
Note: Believing 1-3 workshops can be done in one (3-4 hours), two, or more sessions, but must be done sequentially.
BELIEVING 1: UNCOVERING
YOUR
CORE VALUES
How might getting curious about what we believe create greater self-awareness, clarity in living, and improve our relationships with colleagues, friends, and family? This workshop is for individuals, entrepreneurs, and leaders of all kinds who want to live with more clarity themselves, in their business ventures, and in their teams, communities and family relationships. In business, core values are one of many foundational aspects of sound strategy and can serve as a compass and critical decision making tool. By the end of this workshop, you will have a list of one-word values that you can prioritize and define as actionable guideposts for living in the Believing 2 workshop.
BELIEVING 2: DEFINING YOUR CORE VALUES
How might getting curious about what we believe create greater self-awareness, clarity in living, and improve our relationships with colleagues, friends, and family? This workshop is for individuals, entrepreneurs, and leaders of all kinds who want to live with more clarity themselves, in their business ventures, and in their teams, communities and family relationships. In business, core values are one of many foundational aspects of sound strategy and can serve as a compass and critical decision making tool. By the end of this workshop, you will have a list of one-word values that you can prioritize and define as actionable guideposts for living in the Believing 2 workshop.
BELIEVING 3: LIVING YOUR CORE VALUES
In this workshop that builds on Believing 2, we will define specifics about the how of your values. Creating this level of specificity is key to ensuring that you can put your core values to work. Without this critical last step, people and businesses will find it difficult to live and operationalize their values clearly and consistently or to create a values-centered culture. By the end of this workshop, you will have a list of value statements that you can use to guide your everyday living and decision making at work, home, or anywhere.
BELIEVING 4: CONNECTING THROUGH CORE VALUES
In this workshop that builds on Believing 1, we explore how personal core values can be leveraged as a tool to create meaningful connections with one another, at work and beyond. Whether you’re an executive wanting to build tighter company culture, a team leader seeking to rally your team for a specific purpose, a community leader needing to build bridges across differences, or life partners wishing to unify your family, this workshop will help you find consistent, predictable, inspiring ways to do so.
BUILDING WORKSHOPS
These workshops develop essential relational skills that are rarely taught or practiced, yet required to engage effectively with fellow colleagues, friends, and family in virtually every work and living situation.
Many of these tools are simple in theory, but a source of struggle for most people who don’t consider their importance in defining the quality of their professional and personal interactions on a daily basis.
DEEP LISTENING
Listening is one, if not the, most underused and undervalued human tool. In our shift to digital communication methods, the practice of skilled listening has been all but abandoned. We believe, falsely, that short and sweet is always, automatically enough. There’s good news: listening is a habit that, like any other, we can improve with some awareness, skill, and practice. Many of us are familiar with active listening: it requires conscious engagement to understand. Deep listening takes active listening further by inviting us to understand deeply enough that we feel changed by what we hear. By the end of this workshop, you will have tools and practices to help develop your deep listening practice into a powerful ally for relationships at home, play, and work.
WORKING WITH FEELINGS
Human emotions are unconscious drivers of virtually every choice we make as we move through the world, including the manner in which we show up, how we treat one another, what decisions are made, and how we process decisions that affect us, including in the workplace. Unfortunately, in most work and public environments, feelings are considered fluff or, worse, inappropriate to express. Yet a refusal to acknowledge them doesn’t make them disappear. To the contrary, dismissal often makes them worse. What if we could recognize and harness our feelings and those of others when they manifest? In this workshop, we’ll explore the nature and spectrum of feelings, plus how we might categorize and acknowledge them as useful data that can guide, rather than hinder, the work that we do together.
DEEP QUESTIONING
Asking the right question can clarify, sharpen, and even redirect a team’s objective. It can uncover root causes of problems. It can also connect us to people who we may have previously considered unfavorably or not considered at all, opening the door to better working relationships and outcomes. How might you harness the power of curiosity as a mindset in work meetings and interpersonal exchanges to improve your experience of the people you live and work with? In this workshop we’ll examine different categories of questions and which ones are most conducive to building interpersonal relationships regardless of context or setting. We’ll also practice the art of posing questions that induce people to feel welcome and contribute more meaningfully.
HEART-CENTERED STORYTELLING
We are all storytellers. From childhood, stories organize our thoughts and experiences into narratives that shape our sense of the world. Stories can certainly entertain, but they also connect us, be it to work colleagues, friends, or family. They can educate, guide, motivate behaviours, promote core values, justify decisions, and inspire collaborative work toward our highest aspirations. Daily, we tell ourselves and one another stories.Yet how many of us have ever learned how to tell in a way that inspires, connects, moves, or changes hearts and minds? How might we bring the joy and impact of storytelling in our personal and professional lives? In this workshop we’ll learn about internal vs. external storytelling, examine a tool to unearth meaning-filled stories, learn frameworks to facilitate the work of creating impactful stories, and practice story sharing as a tool to highlight, uplift, and engage the diverse people and talents of our teams and communities. Note: This workshop is a great complement to the Believing series.
DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS
Psychological safety enables teams to take risks, learn from failure, and perform better, and it can’t happen unless people can have difficult yet direct conversations with one another to repair strained or fractured connections, when needed. In this workshop, we’ll discuss how difficult conversations work (and don’t). We will also apply what we’ve learned in prior sessions to get through difficult situations toward shared ends while still maintaining the quality of relationships that we’ve nurtured, forward.
BELONGING WORKSHOPS
Though all workshops are designed to strengthen interpersonal connections (by bridging, bonding, and deepening a sense of belonging), the following workshops are designed for groups to enjoy without the need for any prior work.
Belonging workshops build connections among people within a given team or across different teams. They are especially well suited as openers for retreats or general team building opportunities for both newly formed or existing teams and communities.
BUILDING EMPATHY, CONNECTION, AND BELONGING 1
Each of us has an innate desire to belong to something larger than ourselves. Yet many workplaces give this fundamental human need short shrift even in onboarding. How might a different kind of interpersonal engagement help people feel more connected to one another and create a more cohesive team? In this workshop, we’ll consider the case for Belonging and engage in a series of interactive activities to practice empathy and connectedness as stepping stones for a tighter, more inclusive team and community.
BUILDING EMPATHY, CONNECTION, AND BELONGING 2
This workshop builds on earlier work (esp. Building Empathy, Connection, and Belonging 1) to practice meaningful and empathic connection as stepping stones for tighter, more inclusive one-to-one relationships and teams. In this workshop, we will consider the different ways we understand concepts of ‘trust’ and ‘connection’, examine popular ideas of connection and what’s often missing, learn 3 keys to connection, and develop our skills for connection through meaningful conversations about distinct moments from our lives. By the end of this workshop, you will feel better connected with the people who journey on this dynamic learning experience with you.
In this workshop, we will employ multiple modalities (visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic) to deepen one-to-one and whole group connections. We will begin by engaging in a series of activities to demonstrate three tools to facilitate interpersonal connections (presencing, noticing, and disclosing). From there, we will move to building team connection, using both small and whole group engagement while also beginning to create two tools that your team can use going forward. By the end of this workshop, you will feel better connected to your teammates, have a start on creating a ‘me manual’ for each team member as well as a ‘recipe’ for a great team and a process to help you develop a team manifesto. * requires 3-4+ hours * better suited for in-person gatherings
BUILDING EMPATHY, CONNECTION, AND BELONGING 3