In the final episode of the Workshops Work podcast, host Miriam Hadnes reflects on the series' 355‑plus episodes and explains why she is ending the brand. She traces the show’s evolution—from focusing on workshop formats and facilitation tools, to the inner work of facilitators, and finally to the humanity of participants. Hadnes announces her new podcast, Unprofessionalism, which will explore vulnerability, authenticity, and moments when professionals drop the script at work. She critiques AI‑driven sameness in professional communication and shares personal anecdotes illustrating the power of honest, imperfect exchanges. Practical transition details are provided: the RSS feed will remain the same, the artwork and jingle will change, and listeners can continue by subscribing to the new show. To keep the existing content alive, she launches a free monthly Podcast Club hosted on Substack, featuring curated episode themes, newsletters, and live Zoom discussions. Listeners are invited to join the club, support the work financially if they wish, and become part of her broader community, Never Done Before. The episode ends with gratitude and a call to action for continued learning and community engagement.
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What does it take to make workshops work, and how can we facilitate collaboration that sticks and leads to results? My name is Miriam Hadnes, and with the Workshops Work podcast, I'm on the mission to find the magic ingredients that make workshops work. Today with me on the show is just myself, because this is the very final Workshops Work podcast episode. And I wanted to take the time to reflect a little bit on the change, because to get this out of the way first, it is rather a semicolon or a hyphen instead of a full stop, which means that I will continue to podcast, and it is only the workshops work. brand or title container that will be replaced. It's been 355 episodes that I have been recording the show, showing up every week, writing a one-page summary for each and every episode myself. And actually, there were maybe more than 355 episodes Because here and there I sneaked in a so-called bonus episode that was released outside of the regular schedule. So there's a little bit over that. And if you have listened to the very first episodes, you might have noticed that a lot has changed. A lot has evolved. I have evolved. I think my business my understanding of facilitation, my life wouldn't have been the same without the Workshops Work podcast. It's been a beautiful journey. And I also learned that sometimes when the calling is getting louder, it's worth listening. And the calling for something else became louder. When I started workshops work, it was all about the format. For me, a facilitator was someone who was doing activities, who was designing the process of business meetings or gatherings mostly. And throughout the show, the focus has shifted a little bit to Facilitation, the art and the craft of what we are doing beyond the activities, beyond the frameworks, the process. It was also about the inner journey of the facilitator. It was about the complexities of holding space and building the container. And for me, it was a journey of learning all of these jargon words. And then in the last phase, I focused more on the being of a facilitator. So it went from the activities to the tools to the person and what it actually takes as an inner growth process to hold space for participants without judging, without projecting our own understanding, our own triggers and traumas and judgments onto the group. And if you have listened to the recent shows, then, um, well, recent, maybe the last 100 shows, uh, you will have noticed that this has been And the focus. And why am I stopping now? And why am I stopping after all? So as I mentioned, the focus has shifted. And I think over the past maybe 50 episodes, it has even shifted from the being of a facilitator to the being of the participants. Mm-hmm. I have realized that I became more and more intrigued by the fact that as facilitators, we are inviting the participants to show up as their most human, unguarded selves. And this is highly vulnerable. And in many areas, And this is where I'm landing now. This might be seen as even unprofessional, unprofessional to speak about emotions, unprofessional to admit that we don't know, so unprofessional to ask a question, or even to invite the others to provide answers and to think further, to challenge the status quo. Many of these things. are created within the safe container of a workshop, of a facilitated space. And the big question mark, the big challenge for the groups we facilitate actually happens the morning after, once we have left, once the container has been closed, once everyone has checked out and reflected on what they are taking away and what they want to take forward, how can they continue to show up in the same way as they did when we created the space and held the space for them? And this is where my current curiosity is leading me, has led me over the past year. And this is where we'll go. And so this means that the new podcast that will follow Afterworkshops Work will be called Unprofessionalism. Yes, it is a provocation. No, I don't mean that we shall be reckless. We shall not focus on quality, on care, on punctuality, on respect, and all these kind of things. Rather the opposite. For me, unprofessionalism is the provocation and the invitation and hopefully the inspiration to show up as who we are as humans, with our flaws, with our imperfections, with our questions, with our humanity, with our care, with with our emotions. It does not mean immature. It does not mean that we share all of our emotions, that we start cursing when it's inappropriate, or insulting, or neglecting. It rather means owning our own shadows and being open about them. whenever it supports the process, the cause. I am curious, and that's what I will explore on the new podcast, about the moments when air quotes professionals— and these can be entrepreneurs, artists, these can be managers, these can be corporate rebels— I'm curious about their stories when they have dropped the script, when they have lowered the guard, when they have decided to do the thing that might be considered unprofessional. They've done that, and then what? I'm curious in the stories when they have done that and succeeded. They have dared to cry in front of the board. And received support and understanding. I am curious about the stories when we have asked the question and received answers, admitted that we don't know, and have everyone support, when we have shown emotions and created vulnerability, trust, and bonding. These are the stories that I want to bring to you so that together we can all find more courage to show up as humans at work. Because I really believe that in a time of AI where I would say 90% of LinkedIn posts just sound the same, where most of the emails that we receive and that we send are at least drafted by an AI or reviewed by AI, where everything will more and more, if we continue like that, sound the same. And this is not where creativity emerges. This is not where our happy place is. This is not where connection happens. I think if we rely— and I only already know it for myself, If I rely too much on AI to write my emails, I suddenly lose the confidence that my emails are actually good enough. And personally, I came now to really value and appreciate and actually be happy when I receive an email with incomplete sentences, with typos, with a little bit of emotions. And these are things that matter. I recently, when I got engaged— no, afterwards. I recently, when I had an important meeting with the municipality about, about my upcoming wedding, and I sent this in a side note to a client because it was a reason that I could not host a workshop at a time that they requested, and Before that email, we were professionally distant. We're very polite with each other, respectful, polite, distant. And this was maybe the first really personal thing that I shared. And I received a reply that was so overwhelmingly excited and happy. And kind of, I could read that my client sent the email spontaneously, just letting space to their emotions. Oh, that's amazing. Thank you. Thank you and congratulations, something along these lines. And literally since that moment, the tone in which we exchange emails and even that we speak on Zoom has changed. Suddenly we make space for personal updates. Suddenly there's a question, how the preparations of the wedding go. And this really brought a new level, a new level of depth to the professional relationship. And that's what I would like to promote, because we can only grow as humans and as professionals in our craft, in our expertise, in our humanity, if we make space for the real conversations. And the real conversations only happen when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable. And vulnerability for me is not about speaking about our childhood trauma. No, it's about Asking a question, admitting that we don't know, showing curiosity, right? Being willing to learn. And somehow in many workspaces, we have forgotten how to do that. So with the Unprofessionalism Podcast, I want to bring inspiration to the audience, to you, on how to do that and how to find— where to find the courage. to do it. This means that if you're curious to explore this new direction where I'm going and professionalism, I invite you to stay subscribed to this podcast. And if you haven't done yet, do it right now. Click on the subscribe button on your favorite podcast player, because this means that you will stay connected, as in January the artwork will change, the jingle will change. Believe it or not, I hired a composer to craft a jingle for Unprofessionalism, and I hope that you'll like it. I love it, and I'm very excited about it. And only if you've subscribed to the show, you will just continue listening over the same RSS feed. If you haven't subscribed, you will have to look for Unprofessionalism Instead of Workshops Work. This also means that all the past episodes will remain available. So I'm just removing the label Workshops Work, adding a new one, Unprofessionalism, and stack the new episodes on top. Might be unprofessional. But to be very honest, A, it helps you to really stay connected and to continue to follow the show without further action. And second of all, after 355 episodes, I was not ready to give up on my beautiful statistics because by now the show ranks amongst the top 5% globally amongst all 3 million podcasts out there. And the reason why we are there is the pure number. So it's a numbers game, and I was not willing to give that up. And if you're not curious or not interested in this new direction of unprofessionalism, and you rather want to focus on workshops work, I have something for you. I am hosting a podcast club. It is something that I always wanted to do. It was always on the back of my mind. And it never felt right because it's difficult to focus on old episodes and to re-listen and to have these deeper conversations if at the same time every week there's a new episode coming up. So what I did, I imported 355 episodes to Substack, and you'll find the link in the show notes. If you're familiar with Substack, Then look for my name, Miriam Hatnes, or for Workshops Work Substack. If you're unfamiliar, it's basically a social media platform mainly for writers, and they also have the option to host recordings and podcasts. So I imported everything to there, and I'm slowly but surely also adding the one-page summaries to each episode. And what I will do from January is every first of the month post a— or share newsletter with a theme and 2, maybe 3 podcast episodes from Workshops Work that I suggest to listen. And then on the last Thursday of the month, we will meet on Zoom in real time. And have a conversation about the theme, our experiences, our insights from the podcasts, and how we implement the learnings. So the podcast club for me is a way to not only keep the old content alive, but actually to deepen it and to bring the audience of Workshops Work facilitators together. So that you can build on each other's learnings. In my wildest dreams, I imagine that I will share some podcast episodes to find inspiration. You listen to it, you add a comment, maybe you add an insight or a way how you have applied the learnings from the podcast in your own work as a facilitator, and then someone else will read it and add their insight and Yes, and your comment, and add their experience or questions so that the Substack becomes more of a living archive of the old episodes so that we can, yeah, continue to learn. And for now, so for now, this might be another question. No, I'm not building another community. Although I was told that a podcast club is a kind of community, what I have in mind is to keep it very, very low profile, so everyone can join. It's one call per month. It's one email newsletter post per month, and you can join for free. You can also subscribe to my Substack. Well, you have to subscribe to my Substack, which is free. And you will get access to everything that's available. And if you want to support me, the project, the podcast, then you can also subscribe for a small fee of, I don't know, I think it's $6, €5 per month. Feel free to do that if you would like to support, support those who wouldn't be able to afford it. But I want to keep the Podcast Club free. to really enjoy the exchange and to bring the community— oh, I said it— to bring the audience together, because I just loved it so much. And I'm so grateful for everything that has emerged from my Through Workshops work. And I believe that the audience, you amazing people, and I think you should meet each other. So that's the aim, and I hope you'll be part of it. I hope that you'll be part of both, actually, the Podcast Club and Unprofessionalism. And that you continue learning together. So all the links are in the show notes. Don't forget to subscribe to the show to stay in the loop. And right now I just want to thank you for your time and attention. I'm very aware that these are your most precious resources that you will never get back. So if you invest them in listening to the show, That means a lot to me. There's so many other things you could be doing. And yeah, thank you for the work you do investing into facilitation, because I genuinely believe that facilitation makes our world a better place, one workshop, one conversation, one meeting at a time. And the world needs more facilitators with capital F or with a small f, or just one tiny facilitation skill. Thank you for now. Thank you for staying tuned and for listening to the show. I know how busy you are, and I appreciate that you're sharing your 2 most valuable resources with me and my guest, your time and your attention. If you're looking for more conversation with other facilitators and for a community of practice, Why don't you join Never Done Before, the community that I have built, and many of my podcast guests are already members? Visit neverdonebefore.org, and I wish to see you there.
