workshops work Podcast

Sometimes the best decisions only reveal themselves after we’ve made them.
Six months ago, I merged my new podcast, Unprofessionalism, with the existing Workshops Work feed. It felt like the right move at the time. But the download statistics told a different story.
Many listeners searching for Workshops Work kept finding only the episode titled “The Final Episode of Workshops Work” and understandably assumed the podcast had disappeared.
In this short episode, I share why I decided to separate the two podcasts again—and why both shows now have their own dedicated homes.
If you’re interested in facilitation, workshop design, group dynamics, and the philosophy behind meaningful conversations, you’re in the right place.
If you’re looking for the Unprofessionalism podcast, you’ll find it here: https://unprofessionalism.buzzsprout.com/
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This week's professional risk
Questioning the professional rules we’ve always followed, without ever choosing them.
Description
Every now and then, a conversation comes along that completely breaks my understanding of unprofessionalism. This episode starts with one of those moments. I realised that simply breaking professional norms isn’t enough. Some people challenge conventions to gain attention, power or status. Others do it because they’re trying to make work more human, more honest or more courageous. The difference matters.
But perhaps the most interesting part isn’t what my guests do. It’s what happens inside us when we hear their stories. That little voice saying, “You can’t do that.” Where does it come from? Is it protecting something you deeply value? Or is it repeating a rule you inherited without ever questioning it?
If this podcast has ever made you uncomfortable, this episode explains why.
This episode invites you to reflect on:
Why feeling uncomfortable doesn’t necessarily mean someone crossed a line.
How to tell the difference between breaking a rule that’s outdated and one that’s worth protecting.
Why most of us follow professional norms that nobody ever explicitly taught us.
Over to you!
The next time you catch yourself thinking, “You can’t do that,” ask yourself: What professional rule did they just break? And do I still believe that rule deserves to exist?
About the guest
Myriam is a facilitator, behavioural economist and the host of Unprofessionalism. After interviewing dozens of leaders, entrepreneurs and creatives, she has realised that every time she thinks she understands unprofessionalism, a new conversation stretches its boundaries.
This episode is one of those moments.
Links to learn more about Myriam Hadnes:
LinkedIn 
Website 
Myriam’s personal newsletter
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This week's professional risk - inspired by Charlie
Make the thing you've always kept furthest from work the centre of it.
Description
Charlie Robertson spent years keeping two lives carefully apart: the consultant at a well-respected firm, and Charlene Coco, the drag persona he performed in nightlife and mentioned to almost no one at work. Then he left the consulting career, went freelance as a facilitator, and — only about a year ago — did the thing that still makes him flinch when he posts about it on LinkedIn: he brought Charlene into the boardroom.
What follows isn't a coming-out story so much as a working theory of costumes. Charlie's argument, borrowed from RuPaul: we're all in drag, every day — the suit, the meeting voice, the confidence we perform. Most of us just never chose ours. Drag queens choose everything: the wig, the makeup, the walk, the reaction they want from the room. So what happens when you bring that level of intention to how you show up at work?
Along the way: why Charlene was once braver than Charlie in gay bars and is now more nervous than him in offices; the workshop participant who paces her flat in her highest heels before big video calls; what Charlie's dad means when he calls all of this "my Britney thing"; and a discovery neither of us saw coming until it happened mid-conversation — why an audience wills a drag queen to succeed, and what that reveals about which leaders we're actually willing to get behind.
This episode invites you to reflect on:
Where the line sits between adapting to a room and disappearing into it
What your version of the high heels is — the small, deliberate thing that switches your confidence on before you walk in
Over to you!
What's the one part of yourself you edit out before every meeting — and what would it take to wear it on purpose instead?
About Charlie
Charlie Robertson is the co-founder of Make it Werk, a consultancy helping organisations build teams worth being part of — and cultures worth staying for. He and his best friend Safiya started it after realising the inclusive spaces they created in nightlife were exactly what companies were missing. He facilitates trainings, offsites and workshops — sometimes in full drag, as Charlene Coco.
Links to learn more about Charlie:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertsoncharles/
instagram.com/thecharlenecoco
https://www.makeitwerk.co/
Any thoughts? Share them with us!
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👉 Are you looking for an old "workshops work" podcast episode? You can search and find all 355 episodes by keyword here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/267818/episodes 👈

This week's professional risk - inspired by Mariam Halfhide
Telling someone honestly how their behaviour affected you, instead of hiding behind professionalism, blame or silence.
This episode invites you to reflect on:
Why do we suppress a difficult emotion although we know that it makes it even stronger?
Why feedback falls flat when we can't name what a behaviour actually did to us.
Why the leaders people trust most build the conditions for others to grow, rather than solving every problem for them.
Most of us were trained how to behave professionally. Almost none of us were trained in how to handle frustration, disappointment, or hurt. So we hold it in, stay composed, and let it surface later as a clipped reply, a quiet withdrawal, or blame aimed at someone who never heard from us the true impact of their behaviour. The more "professional" we try to look, the harder an honest conversation becomes.
Mariam Halfhide does the opposite, on purpose. When something gets to her, she doesn't swallow it, and she doesn't fire back — she steps away, settles herself, then goes to the person and tells them plainly how their behaviour landed on her, without assuming they meant harm. She's found that these conversations end with more trust than they started. Across feedback, leadership, altered states and emotional regulation, she keeps returning to one question: how do you become more honest without becoming less trustworthy?
Would you dare?
The next time someone's behaviour unsettles you, could you tell them how it landed on you — as a person, not a process — instead of letting it leak out as a rant or complaint?
About the guest
Mariam Halfhide works at the intersection of AI strategy and human connection. Having lived and worked across many cultures, she brings a sharp perspective on adaptation, belonging, and the courage it takes to choose a workplace where more of yourself is welcome.
Links to learn more about Mariam Halfhide:
LinkedIn
Watch on YouTube: The Projection Exercise
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Jamell Crouthers has held a full-time job the entire time he's been writing. Sixty books in eight years, a podcast, blog posts, all of it built in the hours around his day work. He writes fiction about social issues — race, workaholism, homelessness, addiction — the kind of conversations most workplaces won't touch directly.
When he worked at a medical office, he used to sit in the break room before his shift with his laptop and coworkers walking past started asking what he was writing. Some began buying his books. His supervisor became a regular listener of his podcast.
At his current job in banking, almost nobody knows. The difference, Jamell says, has less to do with courage of opening up or wanting to remain professional but more about whether the environment makes curiosity possible at all and how fast a numbers-driven, fully remote workplace can make that kind of connection feel like effort.
We talked about what happens when work becomes only about hitting targets, and what it takes to bring the parts of yourself that don't fit the job description into the room anyway.
Links to learn more about Jamell Crouthers:
eBook
Paperback
Audiobook
Blog
Podcast
Any thoughts? Share them with us!
Support the show
👉 Are you looking for an old "workshops work" podcast episode? You can search and find all 355 episodes by keyword here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/267818/episodes 👈