Feeling guilt around delivering less content?

Feel a pang of guilt around delivering less content?

It’s a concern I’ve heard from numerous clients and friends:

“If I share less content… Won’t people get less value?”

They’re excited by the ideas I share around crafting more engaging workshops (with less lecturing!), but they hesitate to actually do it.

I can understand that – you actually care about people and want to do right by them.

You aren’t just out to make a quick buck – you want to make sure you’re doing a great job with people who have trusted you with their time (and probably also money).

You want to HELP them. And you feel guilt when you don’t share as much information as you could.

One client of mine, after running a more interactive workshop, confessed:

“I feel guilty, almost. I feel bad.
There’s a whole HOUR where it’s just them doing stuff...”

Can you relate?

Maybe it feels like you’re being lazy by letting your people “just” journal or “just” talk to each other.

It might even feel like a cop-out to decrease your speaking time and cut back on the amount of information you share. Kinda like you’re shortchanging them and taking a break, leaving participants to “pick up the slack”.

Sidenote: isn’t it interesting that we use the term ‘cop out’ to describe someone avoiding responsibility or taking the easy way out? 👮🏻‍♂️🤔👀

But here’s what I think the truth is:

I think you simply refuse to hoard power, stifle other voices, and cling to control.

You are NOT “slacking off” by intentionally inviting in more perspectives. Listening to one person talk the entiiiiiire time is NOT the best way to learn.

Our society trains us to believe it is the best way through a decade+ in an education system where lecturing = teaching.

Our society trains us to believe it is the best way through corporate meetings where the person who falls asleep is seen as the problem – and not the passive meeting format that puts us to sleep.

We’ve been conditioned to do a boring, less-helpful thing.

We've been taught to equate teaching and expertness with monologuing.

It helps people in power to KEEP their power if noone else is supposed to speak in meetings.

It’s a mild and socially acceptable form of censorship.

It’s no accident if you’re unsure, or feel guilt when you actually do things in a way that feels in line with your values.

Hello, social programming. 👋🏽

Feeling guilty or “lazy”? Society has trained you to feel that way.

Can I offer a reframe ?

When people aren’t including other voices because they truly feel like they have the one and only, absolute best solution to a problem – that’s a belief worth examining, no?

Is there NO benefit to hearing from other people’s experiences with a topic?

If someone thinks that it’s best for them to be the only one to speak, and other people have little value to add, that sounds like a giant ego talking.

And I don’t think you’d have read this far if you really believe that.

Of COURSE you have brilliant insights.
So do others. (More on that in a moment.)

There are serious benefits to lecturing less, beyond just keeping our egos in check.

Look what my client said next.

“I feel guilty, almost. I feel bad.
There’s a whole HOUR where it’s just them doing stuff...

And the feedback is:
the workshop's stronger than ever.
Even though I’m talking less.”

I’ve seen this pattern again, and again.

Less lecture = more valuable workshop

People like it better when you shut up for a bit. Magic happens when there’s less emphasis on information, and more space to think, process, connect, and play. It’s immensely helpful to:

Hear the same thing said differently by several people
Hear different views on one topic
Crystallize your own previously unexamined beliefs
Share your experiences with kindred spirits
Play games and connect seemingly disparate threads

and on and on…

We need more workshop hosts creating communal, collaborative, transformative experiences.

Not just talking at people.

I absolve you of your guilt. Be free.

Feeling guilt around delivering less content?

Feel a pang of guilt around delivering less content?

“I feel guilty, almost. I feel bad. There’s a whole HOUR where it’s just them doing stuff...”

Sidenote: isn’t it interesting that we use the term ‘cop out’ to describe someone avoiding responsibility or taking the easy way out? 👮🏻‍♂️🤔👀

We've been taught to equate teaching and expertness with monologuing.

Can I offer a reframe ?

“I feel guilty, almost. I feel bad. There’s a whole HOUR where it’s just them doing stuff...

And the feedback is: the workshop's stronger than ever. Even though I’m talking less.”

send me a message!

Whatcha thinkin'?

“I feel guilty, almost. I feel bad.
There’s a whole HOUR where it’s just them doing stuff...”

“I feel guilty, almost. I feel bad.
There’s a whole HOUR where it’s just them doing stuff...

And the feedback is:
the workshop's stronger than ever.
Even though I’m talking less.”