The Facilitation Studio

Before you say yes
A leader has made a decision and wants the team involved. You design a proper workshop. Then you ask the sponsor what will actually change based on what people say, and they pause — "we're fairly committed to the direction, we just want the team to feel heard." You've just been handed a brief to perform a workshop, not run one.
This episode looks at the hidden cost of running workshops that shouldn't have been workshops — the slow draining of what I call collaborative capital, and how it shows up as consultation fatigue. I name three signals that a brief is already decided (a sponsor advocating for a specific outcome, a timeline that doesn't leave room for the workshop to matter, and the word validate). Then a way out: reframing the brief around the questions that are genuinely still open — what would need to be true for this to work, what's the impact on your team, where are the gaps only you would know about — so you can give the sponsor something more valuable than the workshop they originally asked for.
Chapters
- Opening — the brief that's already decided- Collaborative capital and consultation fatigue- Three signals: outcome advocates, impossible timelines, the word "validate"- Finding the real question- What you protect when you reframe


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Mapping is how you get all of your collaborators on the same page, speaking the same language and ready to work together productively. It's how you build the shared picture that the rest of the workshop runs on top of.
This is the first of four deep-dives into the workshop activity types — Dream, Map, Distil, Prioritise — picking up from issue #7 (the four types) and issue #22 (the Butterfly that links them).
I get into why mapping has to be an active thing the group does together rather than something presented at them, what the spectrum of mapping tools actually looks like (from immersive service safaris at one end to a quietly-handled empathy map template at the other), the three ways it most often goes sideways (rabbit-holing, treating an outlier as gospel, and pretending the gaps in the map don't exist), and how you know when you've done enough. There's a pre-mapping checklist at the end you can steal.
We cover:
[~00:00] Opening — what Map is actually for
[~02:00] Why you do it together — cognition, memory, and the collective notebook
[~04:30] What it looks like in practice — the spectrum from service safari to empathy map
[~07:00] Three things to watch out for — rabbit-holing, mole-hills into mountains, missing gaps
[~09:30] Doing just enough mapping — knowing when to stop, and the playback ritual
[~11:30] A checklist to take into your next mapping phase
Links
Service safari — https://servicedesigntools.org/tools/service-safari
Empathy mapping (Nielsen Norman Group) — https://www.nngroup.com/articles/empathy-mapping/
issue #7 — The four things you can do in a workshop
issue #22 — The Butterfly Process [paste Substack URL at publish]


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit facilitationstudio.substack.com

The Butterfly is the mental model I use to understand how workshops actually move. Two wings, active work and reflective work, and a single point at the centre that every transition passes through without exception.
In this episode I walk through what that centre point actually looks, sounds, and feels like in practice. I also explain why the Butterfly and the Double Diamond aren't competing frameworks, they're doing different jobs. One is your compass. One is your collaborators' map.
Sections
[~00:00] Opening — the blur vs. the purposeful workshop
[~02:30] Introducing the Butterfly
[~05:00] What a Reflect point actually looks like
[~10:00] Where the Butterfly came from — the Double Diamond and its cousins
[~13:30] Working with the Butterfly in practice
Links mentioned
The Double Diamond — The Design Council's framework for design and innovation
Issue #7: Dream, Map, Distil, Prioritise
Issue #21: The whisk, the recipe, and knowing how to cook


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit facilitationstudio.substack.com

Ever watched someone run a Design Sprint on a three-year strategy question? Every step executed perfectly. Entirely wrong outcome. That's not a facilitation problem — that's a vocabulary problem.
In this episode I'm unpacking a distinction that I think sits at the heart of getting better at this work: the difference between a tool, a method, and a process. They're not the same thing, they don't do the same jobs, and mixing them up is one of the most common reasons workshops fail to deliver.
We use a kitchen analogy to work it out. A whisk is a tool. A Victoria sponge recipe is a method. Knowing how to cook is a process. And — crucially — no amount of perfect recipe-following will get you an omelette.
In this episode:
Why tools are only powerful in combination, and in the right moment
What makes a method brilliant — and when it becomes a liability
The difference between following a process and understanding one
Why two facilitators with identical tools and methods will still run completely different sessions (that's the seasoning)
Whether you actually need to understand process at all — or whether mastering one good method is entirely the right ambition
Resources mentioned:
Hyper Island Toolbox
Interaction Design Foundation
FigJam Community Templates
Liberating Structures
Sprint by Jake Knapp
Practical Facilitation by Dr Christine Hogan
Gamestorming by Dave Gray
Read the full article at facilitationstudio.substack.com
What's in your toolkit? And is there a method you swear by, or one you've seen spectacularly misapplied? I'd love to hear — drop me a message or leave a comment on the Substack.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit facilitationstudio.substack.com

Most people start planning a workshop by dropping activities onto a board. An icebreaker here, a brainstorm there, a How Might We and some dot-voting to tidy things up. Two hours, looks solid. The problem is, you've just picked the words before you know what you want to say.
In this episode, I'm talking about the step that sits between your intent and your agenda — the one most facilitators skip entirely. Critical questions are the scaffolding that holds your activities in place, and without them, you're building on hope rather than structure. I'll walk you through the five steps I use to find, test, and sequence them so that by the time you're thinking about activities, every single one has a job to do.
If you've ever stood in front of a room wondering whether the pieces are actually going to connect, this one's for you.
In this episode:
- Why choosing activities first gives you an agenda with very weak foundations
- How to find the questions that only your collaborators can answer
- Why not every question belongs in the room — and how to figure out which ones do
- How to stress-test your questions against the people you've invited
- Why the right sequence isn't always the tidy one
Links and resources mentioned:
Issue #9 — The road to a valuable workshop
Find out more about facilitation coaching


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit facilitationstudio.substack.com