Unprofessionalism
Most career advice tells you to hide uncertainty, perform confidence, and never let them see you sweat.
This podcast is about what happens when you ignore that advice.
Unprofessionalism is a series of conversations with people who broke professional conventions and discovered something better on the other side: the designer who ignored the 'approved tools' and saved thousands of hours. The founder who built a practice by openly admitting gaps in expertise. The consultant who called out dysfunction everyone else had learnt to work around. The people who recognised that professionalism had become performance theatre: a mask hiding the messy, human work that actually creates value.
Hosted by Dr Myriam Hadnes—behavioural economist and founder of a global leadership training practice—each conversation dissects a specific moment where someone chose effectiveness over appearance, then reverse-engineers what made it work.
You'll hear the friction before the decision, the immediate aftermath, and what changed months later. The pattern recognition across these moments becomes your playbook.
If you've ever sat in a meeting thinking 'this is broken but I can't say it', this podcast tells you what happened to the people who did.
New episode every week.
Unprofessionalism
027 - Beyond the spreadsheet-brain: How to invoke participants' brains, hearts and bellies? - with Tenneson Woolf
On episode 027, I talk to Tenneson Woolf, a facilitator, workshop leader, teacher, blogger, and coach. Tenneson is committed to improving the quality of collaboration and imagination for groups, teams, and organizations. And, you can hear that and learn from that on the podcast.
Tenneson and I speak about the art of facilitation in general and what it takes to help individuals to collectively imagine and collaborate. We also spend time clarifying semantics, such as the differences between being a facilitator and a host and the meaning of “honest meetings”.
I particularly enjoyed our conversation about different art forms and how to use them to stimulate creative brains. Throughout the show, you will learn how to help participants to turn off their spreadsheet-brain to invoke their hearts and bellies.
Don’t miss the part when Tenneson reads out a poem and guides us through the steps on how to use it as an insightful ice-breaker. His multiple examples that will inspire you to deliver workshops that work.
Don’t miss the next show: Subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.
Questions and Answers
[2:27] When did you start calling yourself a "facilitator"?
[5:15] If you were a hashtag, what would you be?
[5:56] What makes a meeting "honest"?
[8:42] What would be a "dishonest" meeting?
[16:33] How does a facilitator help the group to fully explore a topic without derailing?
[20:37] How do you assure that everyone is aligned on the workshop purpose and topic?
[23:51] What does it take to help people to be "smarter together"?
[31:26] You use poems to start business meetings/ workshops - Can you share how you do that and why?
[40:35] What's your favourite exercise?
[46:44] What shall a listener remember from our conversation?
Related links for you to check out
- Tenneson's business page: www.tennesonwoolf.com
- Glimpses: 50 Poems by Jim Quigley (Amazon)
- Our sponsor SessionLab
Connect to Tenneson
on LinkedIn
follow on Twitter @tennesonwoolf
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You can now find the podcast on Substack, where your host Dr. Myriam Hadnes is building a club for you to find fellow listeners and peers: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/
