The Unmute Your Team Workshop

Training overview

An interactive workshop for teams, leaders, movers & shakers Speaking up doesn’t require confidence; it requires courage. We can’t afford to wait until we have the confidence to speak up; we build confidence by doing it. Some people are naturally inclined to voice their opinions; others aren’t. And while personality and experience factor in, gender plays a significant role.

In the 2019 Women in the Workplace Report, McKinsey and LeanIn.org surveyed 329 companies and more than 68,000 employees and found that half the women surveyed have been interrupted or talked over in meetings. Around 40 percent watched other people take credit for their ideas. The massive shift in 2020 to an all-virtual environment didn’t help. 

Research shows that the virtual environment has exacerbated gender disparities, making it harder for female executives, leaders, and underrepresented contributors of all backgrounds to be heard. When members of your team stay muted, it not only hurts them, it can hurt the organization overall. You can certainly tell people to speak up. But while it’s one thing to encourage people, its another to give them the experience of doing it—and have their contribution matter.

The Unmute Your Team Workshop is a unique, interactive 90-minute experience inspired and informed by best practices drawn from neuroscience and creativity research, public speaking, media training, creative writing, improv and even stand-up comedy. And it draws on an approach to idea generation and feedback that you’ve likely read in the pages of Harvard Business Review. 

We’ll spend the first part of the workshop reframing the discussion around speaking up and sharing tactics and strategies for finding your way into the conversation, including how to: 

• Defuse fears around “interrupting”
• Compel attention with authority and assertiveness—not aggression
• Eliminate bad habits that undercut your own contributions
• Support women and other underrepresented team members, without coddling, caving, or putting people on the spot 

For the second part of the workshop, I’ll lead you through a process based on what’s called The Gateless Method designed to quiet the critic and tap your creative insights and ingenuity—all while cultivating an atmosphere of positivity and trust. I’ll give you a set of rules and a timed writing exercise specifically geared to tap memory, imagination, and story. What follows is a dynamic, engaging round of feedback that lets your team members feel seen and heard, all of which: 

• Teaches an approach to interaction and feedback that isn’t focused on flaws
• Frees up your team’s most intuitive, creative inclinations
• Gives them a safe container in which to share them
• Builds morale and trust
• Empowers your team to explore their own voices in a judgment-free zone.