workshops work Podcast
This is a podcast about facilitation: the practice of creating conditions for people to think better together.
Whether you’re leading strategy, navigating change or developing leaders, the quality of your conversations shapes the quality of your decisions.
Hosted by Dr Myriam Hadnes, behavioural economist, facilitator and founder of workshops.work, each episode explores the human dynamics of working together: how psychological safety is built, why some conversations lead to action while others stall, how leaders foster genuine participation, and what behavioural science can teach us about collaboration. Alongside these conversations, Dr Hadnes shares reflections from her own client work, offering practical insights from the realities of designing and facilitating workshops in organisations.
Recognised as the facilitation community’s most-recommended podcast in SessionLab’s State of Facilitation reports from 2024 to 2026, the show has grown into an archive of more than 350 conversations spanning the craft, the inner work, and the unexpected edges of facilitation. Whether you’re a facilitator, leader, consultant or L&D professional, you'll come away with sharper questions and a few ideas worth borrowing.
workshops work Podcast
349 - Facilitation in Japan: Silence, Safety, and Subtlety with Yuko Gendo
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Silence is a virtue, and nowhere is this more deeply understood than in Japan. A pause rich with meaning, where thoughts are carefully explored, emotions are quiet, and things are said, without any words at all.
So, how do facilitators hold space amidst the subtlety? Facilitator, workshop designer, and coach, Yuko Gendo invites us into the beautifully unique world of Japanese facilitation this week, as a practice shaped by deep respect, harmony, and quiet reflection.
She shares how non-verbal cues can soften emotional expression, how consensus forms through alignment, not debate, and together we compare our cultural experiences as two facilitators from opposite sides of the world. Join us!
Find out about:
- The cultural values of silence, hierarchy and emotional restraint, and their role in Japanese facilitation
- How Yuko navigates the tension between group harmony and individual expression
- The use of indirect expressions through cards, visuals and metaphor, in place of direct speach
- What Western facilitators can learn from their Japanese counterparts
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Links:
Watch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.
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