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Episode 143

December 15th, 2021

143: Why Facilitators are Crisis Managers with Thomas Lahnthaler

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    Intro

    From reframing problems to taking tips from MacGyver, Thomas Lahnthaler is full of great advice for anyone who has to manage a crisis.

    And as our conversation in this episode revealed, facilitators are never far from a crisis – and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

    Thomas’ second time on the podcast brought just as much value as his first (episode 39), as we dive into the depths of crisis management, resourcefulness, reframing, creative activities, and why it’s so important to keep things person-centred rather than problem-centred.

    Enjoy this exploration of facilitation and crisis management, you might be surprised by how much is relevant to you and your work!

    Find out about

    • What we fatally misunderstand about the order of importance in our crisis management
    • Why crises are, before anything else, a human issue
    • How to bring a group back from the brink of crisis
    • Why resourcefulness is the superpower of the crisis manager
    • Why knowing what the opposite of a crisis feels like will help us prevent future crises
    • How we can use playful, creative activities to talk about difficult or personal issues

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    Questions and Answers

    01:12Are you still calling yourself a facilitator? 01:55What has changed over the past two years? 03:01Are there one or two learnings in particular that you feel are especially important? 06:29When we experience a crisis, do we tend to hold onto harmful behaviours we presume will help? 11:51Why is resourcefulness so important – and why does it seem to appear so often – in a crisis? 17:01Why is there such power in letting go of certain mental models? 19:19 How do you communicate that crisis can be a good thing – and how do you even define ‘crisis’? 23:12 You said that, in the pandemic, you started writing more? 26:50 Do Crisis Managers and Change Managers have a lot in common? 28:43 How can we use our creative energy in a moment with what’s actually serious? 33:52What is the impact of culture and expectations from the outside world on our mental models? 39:32How do we get a group to slow down and think creatively? 00:44Picking up on the previous question about the importance of pausing and slowing down. 03:33The habits that contribute to a ‘MacGyver Mindset’. 09:22What else can facilitators learn from MacGyver? 14:23What makes a workshop fail? 16:12What room is there for learning when everything goes to plan? 18:11Is there anything you wanted to share but haven’t had the chance to touch upon yet? 20:24What are the creative facilitation skills that Crisis Managers could learn to expand their toolbox? 22:42What can we learn about crisis management from a book and what can we learn from experience?

    Links

    Thomas’ company (Crisis Compass) blog

    Thomas’ Medium

    Connect to Thomas

    On LinkedIn

    On Twitter