198: Igniting the genius in the room with Shannon Dean Hughes

Something I'm pondering right now is how often our ideas are cemented in reality ("How would this actually work?") which can limit our capacity to dream big.

My guest today inspires her guests to go against that inclination, and to start exploring possibilities. We often go through a live role-play on this call to see how we can bring this approach to exploration in our workshops.

My guest today is Shannon Hughes. Yes, you can never have enough Hughes’ in your life!

In this conversation, Shannon shares how she incorporates improv techniques into her work to enliven creativity and collaboration - I like her ideas around making your partner look good. She shares some activities she’s delivered on virtual calls as well - listen in for the activity she delivers using SILENCE.

Shannon’s also offering her free download to you: Tips and Tricks to Enlivened your Virtual Gatherings

About our guest: Shannon Dean Hughes

Shannon  is an experiential trainer with a calling to enliven the innate genius, creative resourcefulness and easeful collaboration in businesses of all shapes and sizes. In her practice, Enlivened Studios, she brings strategic business mentorship and experiential teaching practices to break down cross-team silos and embolden transformational leadership.

With 20+ years of corporate marketing and HR strategy experience, plus a lifetime of proven leadership, performance and creative devotion, her work combines skill + heart into every Enlivened Studios session. Through this work, she’s on a mission to help people live fully, lead consciously and impact the world with joy and collective aliveness.

In this episode you will learn:

  • The value of using AND instead of BUT

  • How you can design your workshop to build psychological safety (and avoid resistance)

  • How to create exercises for workshops that energise and connect your participants quickly

Questions Leanne asked Shannon during the interview

  • How did you discover and bring in your performance side in the facilitation space?

  • How do you get that thinking going, your improvisation?

  • How do you deal with some type of resistance?

  • Have you had those moments where you feel you’re being tested?

Resources mentioned:

Watch the episode here!

About your host: Leanne Hughes

Leanne Hughes is an international facilitator, speaker and coach who loves creating unpredictable workshop experiences, that predictably work.

She combines her experience in Marketing, with her education in Human Resources and Psychology, to help leaders create engaging everyday experiences - that are so contagious they scale across teams, functions and regions.

Leanne has facilitated leadership, onboarding and team-development workshops across Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, and Singapore and believes in a strengths-centred approach to learning and development.  She has over 14 years’ of experience across a range of industries including mining, government and tourism sectors.

She’s the host of the First Time Facilitator podcast and is the Winner (External) in the 2021 Australian Learning Impact awards for Learning Professional of the Year.

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Facilitating audio only sessions to give your thoughts an audience with Ronsley Vaz (Episode 199)

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197: A reflection extravaganza: What happens when you’re no longer a First Time Facilitator? Jan Szmanda interviews Leanne Hughes