Our Story
Why we started No Umbrellas.
After countless conversations across industries about the struggles of how teams can work better together especially across generations, we sat down and looked at how to rethink team collaboration. Many of the issues stemmed from siloed conversations in teams and not having the space or opportunity to unpack challenges and voice ideas to optimise working together. Our first solution was designing a team session around improving the collaboration intergenerational teams (Baby Boomers to Gen Z).
We like many had sat through “workshops” that didn’t unite instead went more like this…people talking over each other, clichéd icebreakers, pre-set outcomes, big egos drowning out the quieter voices, sleepy slides and coffee breaks that feel like salvation!
We decided to focus No Umbrellas on delivering great workshops by creating space for change driven by teams. We don’t pretend to know your business better than you but we do know people and how to create great spaces to collaborate.
We work with teams to build our sessions to ask better questions to understand teams and gain experts from the experts (your team) to drive team understanding of others and ownable outcomes.
Our Approach
All our work comes from increased understanding between colleagues and with managers. Both sides (managers and team members) have very valid frustrations, but the problem we’ve found is that the frustrations remain within the individual groups instead of being shared and actioned. Which is where our programs come in, bringing your teams together to better understand how individuals want to be managed and supported.
We work with teams to identify problems, understand differences using the latest research and facilitate interactive workshops that spark curious discussions, meaningful connections and team-led solutions to better ways of working.
Our workshops are:
Expertly facilitated — we create open space for honesty, curiosity and bold conversations. Where discomfort is welcomed but never weaponised.
Open‑space by design — Inspired by Open Space Technology we run team-led sessions, empowering your team to find changes.
Insight‑driven — we bring the latest research and gather real‑time participant input to drive discussions.
Team‑first — no heavy slides, no scripts, no corporate theatre.
Adaptive — no two teams are the same, so no two sessions are either.
All our workshops, keynotes and sessions are backed by research and data from:
Post program feedback…
Why No Umbrellas?
Don’t get us wrong, we love an umbrella the problem is they close you off, stop you interacting with the environment, looking up and seeing the beauty of the day.
Our name comes from the idea of people bringing an “Umbrella to a Brainstorm”. No Umbrellas is about leaving yourself exposed, to being vulnerable and available to new ideas – after all you can’t grow anything without some rainfall.
Our Team
FOUNDING DIRECTOR
Florence Potter
Experienced working with teams in not-for-profit, big 4 corporate and start ups in fundraising, consulting and for a creative agency.
Florence is an expert workshop facilitator and keynote speaker. She is a leading voice in Australia’s intergenerational conversation. She collaborates with researchers, authors and facilitators internationally on optimising diverse teams. She has first hand experience as a Gen Z/Millennial team member. Passionate about bringing teams together to bridge divides and optimise teams with charisma, authenticity and inclusivity.
Looking forward to meeting your team, any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out. Always up for a chat or a coffee!
Contact:
+61 498 826 179
florence@noumbrellas.com
linkedin.com/in/florence-potter/
