You might have an “Equity Mirage” in your workshops.

You might have an Equity Mirage in your workshop.

An equity mirage happens when a workshop or space looks inclusive and collaborative on the surface, but in reality, the power dynamics are still hella lopsided. Maybe participants are speaking up, but it’s just background vocals behind you singing the lead—or it does feel like a conversation, but you’re still the one calling all the shots.

You may have “equity” as one of your listed values… but equity is about sharing power.

When is that happening?

It’s not that you’re intentionally hoarding power! It’s just that without clear frameworks to guide how power is shared, it’s easy to slip back into familiar roles where you hold most of it—even when you don’t mean to.

(And I see this in most of my new clients, and approximately 98.6% of workshops I attend, so it’s not just you.)

You’re probably already doing a solid job of trying to make everyone feel welcomed and invited to contribute, which is *inclusion*, (and maaaybe belonging). That’s important! But now, let’s think about how to move beyond being “inclusive” to truly *equitable*, shall we?

Let’s think about how we can create spaces where everyone has influence over the workshop and its outcomes.

Here are 4 signs to help you see through an Equity Mirage:

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You’re unquestionably doing *most* of the talking.

If your transcription service could tell on you, it would whisper to me a number much higher than Shaq’s free-throw percentage back in the day. Well over 50% of the airtime – more like 70% or maybe even 80-90% is yours.

And you might feel torn – you know you have valuable expertise that can REALLY help people, and you want to share as much of it as you can. But you also remember how it feels to be on the other side – you’ve sat through many a lecture yourself. You know the mental effort required to stay focused and process the flurry of words and ideas.

When you dominate the floor, there’s little room for participants to actively shape their learning. They leave as passive listeners, not engaged collaborators—and that means less transformation for them and more pressure on you.

Implementation is left as homework.

You’ve laid out the steps. The plan is clear, and you’re confident it’s a good one. But instead of diving into the work together, participants leave with a task list and an “I’ll get to this later” mindset. Or, if you *do* guide them through a process, only a few bold participants have a chance to speak up afterward while the rest are silent. There’s potential for people to be compleeetely lost and you’d never know.

You might think to yourself: This makes sense, right? They’ll totally do it when they’re ready. Probably.

People don’t get to discuss how they’re approaching it with their peers. They also lose the chance to handle snags in real time with your support. And if they came expecting to finish the thing during the workshop? They leave feeling deflated and frustrated that they now have to carve out more time later—without the structure or guidance you provided.

If time runs short, *you* make an “executive decision”

You glance at the clock and realize you’re behind schedule—again. 😬So, you make the call: a lightning-fast overview of what’s left, or cutting the last two sections altogether. It’s your decision, and the group just rolls with it.

You feel a mix of relief and regret: Well, at least we’ll finish on time… but it sucks we didn’t get to all of it! It was pretty important. Are they leaving with gaps in their understanding?

Without a say in prioritizing what’s most valuable to *them*, guests might leave without the tools or insights they came for. You miss the chance to model collaborative decision-making, and show you care about what they think. Plus, that overview you gave at the end? It’s likely to get lost in the shuffle—it’s hard to drink from a firehose of information.

You’re exhausted afterward.

You’re the one always in the spotlight. Answering questions, steering discussions, and filling the silence. It’s like hosting a marathon talk show where you’re the host, the guest, and the audience hype person all at once.

The pressure you place on yourself to “perform” is intense. You are “on” the whole time, and feel a mix of both proud and drained when it’s over.

You might need to block off a whole day beforehand to gear up for hosting. And the “extroverting hangover” you get when it’s over (where you need hours – or days! – to recover) means you can’t sustainably do workshops very often. Plus, when you’re the main source of energy and ideas, participants rely on you instead of on each other. That centralization limits the shared energy, creativity, and community that could make your workshops richer for everyone involved.

So, how do you fix it?

In order to shift toward collaboration and equity in your workshops, here’s what you’d need to address:

Get clear on what you’re currently doing—how is power shared or not shared?
Move away from being the expert or authority figure and start seeing yourself as a co-creator. (No small shift, right?)
Think of people less as your “audience” and more as “guests”
Share decision-making with your people (while figuring out how to still cover the things you said you would).
Explore how to support a variety of people with different access needs
Learn how to navigate the balance between structure and complete freedom—because different groups, topics, and goals may call for different styles.
Set clear expectations on your marketing materials, sales pages, and pre-event communications
Release perfectionism and be okay with not having all the answers and creating space for messiness and creativity.

Easy, right? Just a casual reimagining of your entire approach to workshops.

But I’ve got a lifeline for ya:

I’ve been using something I call ‘The Governance Gradient’ with clients to shift from looking equitable to being equitable.

I dive into this while exploring the Worldbuilding Element of Politics & Power in the first module of my course Workshops as Worldbuilding,

Here's an overview:

The Governance Gradient:
Broadcast – Consultation – Guidance – Collaboration

Equity lives at the “Collaboration” end of the gradient, so the more you move in that direction, the more you’re sharing power with your participants. It’s not easy to do 100% of the time, especially if you’re newer to it and have been relying on Broadcasting.

But… let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

First, I should probably introduce you to each Governance style:

Broadcast

Broadcasting is where you’re delivering your ideas with clarity and control. Think lectures or keynotes. It’s powerful when the goal is delivering information efficiently, but relying on it too much can leave the audience disengaged.

Consultation

Consulting is about responding to attendees’ questions and offering them advice. Think Q&A sessions or panels. It’s slightly more interactive but still leans heavily on your expertise, which can dominate the space if overused.

Guidance

Guidance is where you give participants instructions, ask them questions, and lead the group through interactive processes. They contribute more while you steer the ship. This is where participants begin to feel ownership of the process.

Collaboration

Collaborating positions you and your guests as equals, co-creating the experience. You’ll focus less on speaking, and more on creating space for conversations to happen between them. Decisions are democratic. Power is shared.

That’s probably enough information for you to already map where on the gradient you spend most of your workshop.

Be honest with yourself:

Are you in a codependent relationship with Broadcasting because it feels familiar?
Are you secretly in love with Collaboration but don’t know how to make your move?
Are you intimidated by Collaboration and don’t know if it things would work between you?

Once you identify your comfort zone… what to do next?

Think of a workshop you have coming up and pick one small chunk of it you can slide along the gradient to something that’s more equitable. Like, a 10-20 minute section – no need to overhaul everything all at once. Iteration is our homie .

Remember: it’s not necessarily about abandoning Broadcasting or Consulting altogether. It’s about shifting your default toward being more equitable. Find a balance that serves your workshop’s purpose and your participants’ needs.

What happens when you actually try this?

Let me share some stories about how it’s gone for clients since trying this idea out.

I have a client that usually lives in the Guiding and Collaborating regions. She was planning a daylong retreat and wanted to share a framework around energy and intuition.

She came to me saying: “I’ve struggled to figure out how to make this vibe with what I’m already doing. All of a sudden, I’m broadcasting and I don’t want to be.”

When I walked her through The Governance Gradient, she realized instead of lecturing, she could share the essence of the framework by leading her guests through a series of reflective questions.

That way, they have space to process and think through it for themselves. And she gets to feel aligned with her values.

Instead of being frustrated with another Q&A overflowing with things he was sure he had addressed, another client decided to see if he could encourage folks to use the resources they already had.

Before doing Q&A, he first put students into breakout groups on their own to see if they could help each other out. (We love decentering the workshop host!)

When those rooms closed, the gallery view showed a collection of beaming smiles, and the chat was full of gratitude. And contact info being exchanged between the guests!

Connections made, questions answered, resources shared. Win. Win. Win.

There were only a handful of questions for him to address – all very specific and interesting to answer.

How do your workshops reflect your values about power and equity?

Are there moments where you thought collaboration was happening, but you were still holding all the control?

What’s one small change you could make right now to give more power to the people in your workshops?

Because if we’re being really real: equity isn’t just an idea, or word to be written in a list of values—it’s a practice.

And the ripple effects can change everything.

I’ve seen many would-be-facilitators who think they’re Collaborating (and market their “workshops” as collaborative), but actually spend the whole time Broadcasting and Consulting. Their sessions are stuck in the same cycle—sharing valuable ideas but never quite letting go of control.

People learn things, but they don’t leave having done anything.

(And also, maybe don’t feel like they can fully trust that person’s marketing or take them at their word anymore?)

If you’re not intentional, it’s easy to keep defaulting to systems that aren’t equitable.

Without consistent effort, the status quo will remain in place:
Participants stay partially engaged.
Power dynamics remain unchallenged.

But when an Equity Mirage becomes Equity-for-Realsies? That’s when the magic happens.

Your workshops don’t have to stay the same. You can create spaces where power is shared, collaboration is real, and participants leave inspired AND feeling like they’ve already made a difference.

Workshops as Worldbuilding

Explore the ‘Workshops as Worldbuilding’ course- where your workshops become a portal into a new, more equitable world, and a tool for transformation.

Head to this link to join and take the next step toward co-creating a better future in your sessions.

Currently a $250 CAD investment.