Unprofessionalism

Benjamin Taylor was once brought in to help eleven chief executives navigate a merger that would cost the job of some. Before the meeting, a more senior colleague on his team pushed back on touching that topic. It would embarrass them, he said. It was better to keep things “professional”. Benjamin thought the opposite. That staying professional in that room was going to make it impossible for anyone to have an honest conversation. What happened next? An awkward silence and the topic remained ...

Jon Berghoff walked into a room of C-level executives from billion-dollar companies and noticed they'd all filled the back rows first. He spent two hours debating whether to say something. Then he got on stage and asked them to move to the front. The looks he got said: nobody has ever told us where to sit. Three Fortune 50 companies in that room ended up hiring him. Jon is the founder of Xchange and one of the most in-demand facilitators in the world. He also spent five years running global c...

A software engineer fired a test missile and watched it cartwheel into the ocean. He looked at the code and thought: that looks like what would happen if I hadn't loaded all the microcode. Did I load the microcode? Oh God. Did he tell anyone? No. So they fired three more. Same result. He was too afraid to speak up. That, says Mike Parker, is what professionalism encodes: fear dressed up as competence. Mike spent 35 years in consultancy before founding his liminal coaching practice, and he's b...

Welcome to Unprofessionalism! My shiny new podcast, a provocation in the making, and the place to challenge everything we’ve been taught about being professional. Together, we’ll be peeling back the limitations of professionalism, on a mission to restore our humanness and bring joy, defiantly, back to work. You’ll hear stories from scientists, artists, entrepreneurs, and true masters of their craft as we question the very construct of professionalism, its silent expectations, how we can break...

Brave work is messy work. It’s an invitation into the dōjō – to be humbled, to get vulnerable, and leave behind what you thought you knew. Life-long learner, executive coach, culture consultant and facilitator, Dr. Dauv Evans joins me this week to journey beyond safety into the brave space arena. Together, we explore what it takes to build these spaces: the intentionality, the rules of engagement, and the assumptions we must leave at the door to have courageous conversations. From power imbal...

From a childhood imaginary classroom, to the moments before a traffic light turns green, Shireen Naqvi has been viewing the world as a beautiful facilitation opportunity her whole life. Guided by the divine belief that humans are the best creatures in the universe, Shireen has made it her mission to help others realise the power that lies within them. She joins me this week to share stories from her life in Pakistan, her strategies for enabling self-empowerment in others, and why anger is the...

Silence is a virtue, and nowhere is this more deeply understood than in Japan. A pause rich with meaning, where thoughts are carefully explored, emotions are quiet, and things are said, without any words at all. So, how do facilitators hold space amidst the subtlety? Facilitator, workshop designer, and coach, Yuko Gendo invites us into the beautifully unique world of Japanese facilitation this week, as a practice shaped by deep respect, harmony, and quiet reflection. She shares how non-verbal...