Understand Stress & Design For Success 😰 #177

Dear reader,

A good friend of mine suggested that I should share more personal stories on here, so let me start - with a confession:

Yes, even after running 100s of workshops, I still stress before facilitating content with a group.

In the situations I am in, there’s usually a lot riding on the workshop:

But really, I needn’t worry. Facilitation isn’t consultancy. Not the way I do it anyway. Facilitation is about making a process easy. Really, I’m not there to solve their problem. I’m there to help them solve their problem themselves, by giving them a framework, creating structure and coaching for engagement.

An hour into the workshop, my whole attitude changes. I start feeling fine. Afterwards, I feel good. Later, I feel great. It’s rarely as bad as I think. Dr Pepper had it right with “what’s the worst that could happen?”

I’m experimenting with ways to design this out. This week, I invited my good friend Dana to co-facilitate a sprint (check her out). Taking my own advice of having a co-facilitator, I’m starting to treat facilitation more as a team-sport and welcome different ways of solving problems. Growing isn’t easy and I think that’s the point.

Thanks for your attention reading this issue,

thanks, Ross

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