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Salmaan Sana

@salmaansana

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🔆 Father - Facilitator - Board Member
🌍 @moralambition @bouncespace @tedxamsterdam @treesistance
✋🏽 Leadership & Team Collaboration

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The other day, I was asked, “What is it that you actually do?”

Fair question, since you can see my updates and it may seem confusing: a mix of personal reflections about my life, fatherhood, leadership sessions, and the impact work I so much believe in.

The honest answer is: it depends on where and how I can serve.
- By sitting with an MT/leadership team, trying to figure out why things feel stuck.
- Designing and running a multi-day team/organisation offsite that shifts something in the room
- Guiding others to become Master Facilitators and learn this amazing craft.
- On stage, being the Master of the Ceremony and moderating a large/global conferences
- Giving a Keynote talk at a conference on Inclusive Leadership and high-performing teams.
- And the one-on-ones with a CEO who just needs a space to slow down and think.

(Allow me to reintroduce myself, if I may)

My name is Salmaan, and I work with leaders, teams, and organisations who are navigating real complexity. Culture shifts, team friction, leadership transitions, moments where the old way of leading simply stops working. I show up as a leadership consultant, facilitator, coach, speaker, moderator, and, especially, the person holding the ‘space’, which is what I love to do the most

My throughline is to connect with the people I work with. I genuinely care and step inside the organisation/team with both feet, understand what is actually happening, and help build the clarity, trust, and direction the individual or team needs to move forward together.

My work feels honest yet practical, and I try to build something that echoes long after we’ve worked together, leaving footprints that last beyond our collaborative time together.

I think what drives me most is the deep belief that we, as human beings, have something to do here, and to do so with each other. With so much polarity and division, even within a team, I’ve seen the power of being able to see one another, to feel understood, and to tap into something much deeper, where we can constructively create a positive future together.

Photo made by Aafke de Groot during a PM Bootcamp program for @iamhatchglobal by @salmaansana

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5 months ago

Exciting news! 🌟 Our upcoming Cohort kicks off in March/April 2024.

@dariaofman and I have poured our hearts into creating a masterpiece - a transformative journey for those aspiring to become Facilitators and Agents of Change.

For a sneak peek into the magic, check the video and the link in the bio for details on our immersive 4-day program. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or want more information.

I eagerly look forward to collaborating with the amazing individuals in our next Cohort. Let the journey begin! 🚀

A big shout out to Joe Eshuis for the captivating video. And a heartfelt gratitude to our first Cohort for openly sharing their transformative experiences.

#Facilitators #AgentsOfChange #TransformationalJourney #ArtofFacilitation by @salmaansana

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3 years ago

Meet @salmaansana, an inspiring entrepreneur and community leader at BS. Growing up in the heart of the city, Salmaan’s journey has been shaped by international and medical schooling and a passion for creating supportive communities.
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Join us as we delve into his life, exploring his unique leadership style and his vision for BS as a “third space” for like-minded individuals.
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✍️: @janna_ster
📸: @madebysem_studio
💄: @muahbyjor
📍: @parqstudios
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Link in bio for the full story. 🔗
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#bouncespace #overtoom141 #coworking #onwateronland #amsterdam #journal #interview #art #guitar #creativity taken in Amsterdam, Netherlands by @salmaansana

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2 years ago

Why does the world need better facilitators? Joris Van Heukelom asked me this big question on the @iamhatchglobal Experiential Interventions podcast.

My answer was something I stand by and believe in with every fibre of my body

“Every good leader is also a good facilitator.”

In essence, that’s my mission. I help facilitators get better at their craft, help leaders learn to facilitate, and help them guide change within or outside an organisation.

What I’m seeing more and more is that we are being pulled apart. Whatever channel you follow tells you this is your side, and you need to chant harder for it. These echo chambers are getting worse since AI and social media make it even easier to pick a camp and stay there.

Facilitators, in essence, hold space. A space where differences of opinion are allowed, not just tolerated, but welcome. Not so we all sing Kumbaya. More like, I don’t agree with you, but at least I understand you. Anecdotally, I believe that Rumi had a way to describe it with his words

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
There is a field. I’ll meet you there.”

What if we could meet somewhere it’s not about who is right or wrong, but about your perspective and mine? I love a story inspired by the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:
A man sits in a cafe with his head in his hands while his kids run around. A woman goes over and asks him to teach them some manners. He looks up with tears in his eyes and says their mom passed away a few hours ago, and he hasn’t been able to tell them yet. She goes back to her table and says to her friend, I wonder what people say about us, two old women complaining.

And that’s what we, facilitators, do. We create perspective, change paradigms and find ways to guide processes.

As Joris says so pointedly, it comes back to connection. In a room, we can say everything; we only need to be mindful of one thing: we cannot lose the connection.

Thank you, Joris, for the conversation, and for making me say this out loud. And to confirm the work I love to do and the work Hatch is doing. by @salmaansana

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6 days ago

Trust is a fickle topic: Continuing from this topic I was talking about last week, here’s a short excerpt from my conversation with Joris Van Heukelom for the @iamhatchglobal - Experiential Interventions podcast:

If I trust you and I disagree with you, we can still have a healthy conflict. Confrontation can be good, positive, even constructive. But it needs to come from a place of: can we walk out of here, grab a cup of coffee (or a drink), and still see each other eye to eye, human to human.

I think we miss the human part. In this world of typing, texting, and commenting, it’s easy to say, “You suck,” “I hate you,” “I disagree with you.” All the vile stuff people comments.

If I see you eye to eye, stay in connection, and build trust and rapport, I can still disagree with you, and we can still see each other as humans. by @salmaansana

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9 days ago

What if trust doesn’t have to come first, and a good conflict is what builds it?

Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team starts with trust, then conflict, then commitment, accountability and results. I have used it with many teams and I still love it.

The premise is that if I trust you, I can have a healthy conflict with you. But I have also seen it the other way around. We had a real conflict, we got through to the other side, and only then did I trust that person.

I was part of a leadership journey we were organising with the municipality of Amsterdam.
One colleague kept blocking me. Criticising everything, disagreeing with everything.
At some point I was so annoyed I just said it, in front of seven or eight people.
“I’m confused. I’m trying every angle to take you on board and it’s not working.
Your opinion means a lot to me, and I want this to work. What am I getting wrong?”
I looked him dead in the eye, and I meant it. He paused and said he hadn’t realised the impact he was having. From that moment we were on a completely different path.

Erin Meyer helps here. She separates task-based trust, built through reliable work, from relationship-based trust, built through personal connection. Which one comes first depends on the culture and on the relationship. So maybe conflict is not a right you earn after trust. Sometimes it is how trust gets built.
Kim Scott’s radical candour says to care personally and challenge directly. The hard part is that the challenge has to come from care and not from ego, even with the person who annoys you most.

The trust you build is often the size of the confrontations you were willing to have.

I’m curious how others build trust with your teams and organizations

#trust #team #lencioni #kimscott #erinmeyer by @salmaansana

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13 days ago

There’s an old story about buffalo on the plains.

When a storm is approaching, most animals try to run away from it.

But buffalo do the exact opposite.

They turn
and run straight into the storm.

Because by running toward it, they actually pass through the storm much faster.

Makes sense right?

While other animals that run away from the storm often stay in it much longer.

And I think there’s a lesson in that for us as well.

When we try to avoid things in our lives,
sometimes the act of avoiding actually prolongs the problem.

But when we face something directly,
the suffering we feel often becomes shorter.

It takes courage to move toward the things that scare us.

A difficult conversation.
A decision we’ve been postponing.
A situation we keep trying to avoid.

And this connects to something else I shared earlier.

The quote: “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”

Sometimes we have to walk into the cave.

Sometimes we have to run into the storm.

Because if you run away from difficulty,
you may stay in it longer.

But if you face it head-on,
you often move through it faster.

So here’s a question I sometimes ask myself.

What is the storm I am currently trying to avoid?
And why?

And what might happen if I turned toward it instead and face it head on? by @salmaansana

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5 months ago

“Every 2 minutes, you are interrupted”

I was sitting with a coffee just now, and even with most of my notifications turned off, the pings and reminders keep coming in.

It got me thinking about an article Microsoft put out that I reflected on: trillions of data points on how we actually work, and it was genuinely good inspiration (frighteningly insightful too) to unpack what it means for the kind of world we are creating right now.

So I wrote it up. I hope you can read it with a cup of coffee too.

And maybe, just maybe, you can have more than two minutes uninterrupted.

Link in Bio/Substack & my stories today taken in BounceSpace by @salmaansana

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16 days ago

About being Human First and Facilitator second by @salmaansana

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22 days ago

My AI is talking to your AI.

I noticed it the other day. A few emails deep into negotiations, going back-and-forth about event logistics, I checked in every round to say, "Yes, that sounds about right", and let my AI do the rest.

At that moment I had to pause. This wasn't really (only) me negotiating with someone anymore. My AI was slowly taking the lead, and I was slipping into a mode where I let it take the wheel.

I wrote a longer piece on Substack about where I (try to) draw the line with AI, how fickle that line is, and why a phone call or an in-person conversation matters more than ever.

Link in bio (Substack) for the full read, or check my stories. by @salmaansana

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a month ago

When I was a kid, I took the train from Amsterdam to school in Bergen. Every single day. I did that for about thirteen years.

There was a stretch of the walk from Bergenplein to school lined with horse chestnut trees. Every autumn the ground would be covered in them.

While the grounds would be wet from morning dew around 8 a.m., we’d be taking our daily stroll through parts of Bergen, gathering the chestnuts on the way to school.

What we mostly did with them was play conkers. You make a hole through the chestnut, thread a shoelace through it, and tie a knot at the end so it can’t slip out. Then you take turns swinging your chestnut at someone else’s, trying to smash theirs to pieces before they smash yours. As a kid, it made complete sense 😂 Looking back now, I have no idea why it was so satisfying.

The other day I was in the park right outside our house, and there’d been a huge drop of horse chestnuts. My daughter Indi was out there running around, and I watched her get completely absorbed. Cracking them open, collecting them in the basket of her bike, getting thrilled every time she found one.

And just like that I was back on that walk from the bus station, years of autumns compressed into one moment of watching my kid get so excited.

Maybe the lesson isn’t complicated. Pay attention to what’s already there. The good stuff doesn’t always need to be built or designed, it’s waiting to be uncovered and found.

Full story on Substack, link in bio. by @salmaansana

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a month ago

A conversation with @justme.oscar on Humanity & Facilitation by @salmaansana

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2 months ago