Learning Amidst Chaos: Building Resilient Spaces

At a recent workshop, we opened with a word cloud as I often do. People shared one word for how they were arriving. There were the usual answers—curious, tired, hopeful. And then one caught me off guard: resistant.

It was the first time I’d ever seen that word surface in this activity. I paused, named it, and said aloud: “Your resistance is welcome here.”

Because resistance often points to fear. And fear is natural when we’re being stretched by new ideas or unfamiliar ways of working. When we acknowledge it, we make space for learning and growth.

This moment came back to me when I looked at the results of a recent LinkedIn poll I shared. Out of 450 facilitators, 57% named resistant or hostile participants as their biggest fear. (You can see the results below.)

That data confirms what I’ve seen again and again in decades of facilitating and training facilitators: resistance is a shared challenge, even for the most experienced among us.

What makes the difference is preparation. It’s what allows us to meet resistance not with fear, but with curiosity and compassion.

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If you’d like to deepen your thinking here, I encourage you to listen to our Coaching Resistance podcast series.

If fears like resistance or losing control of a group sound familiar, The PD Workshop will give you the tools to handle them with skill and ease.

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