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Michelle Minnikin leading Good Girl Deprogramming workshop for women’s leadership and inclusion

Gendered Conditioning @ Work Workshops

Understanding, Unlearning & Rebuilding Culture
 

Explore how gendered expectations quietly shape behaviour, leadership, and wellbeing at work – and learn how to create psychologically safe, human workplaces where everyone can thrive.
 
These workshops unpack the invisible rules that hold people back - from over-functioning and silence to stoicism and self-sacrifice - and invite new, more human ways of leading and working.

Workshops

1

Good Girl Deprogramming at Work

A deep, practical exploration of the unspoken rules that keep women performing instead of leading.
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Focus:

How internalised “Good Girl” rules (people pleasing, perfectionism, over-responsibility) limit confidence, voice, and leadership potential.

 

Key outcomes:

  • Recognise Good Girl patterns and their workplace impact

  • Reclaim boundaries, confidence, and self-trust

  • Create cultures that reward authenticity over compliance

2

Model Man Deprogramming at Work

A compassionate unpacking of how masculine conditioning limits connection, wellbeing, and leadership.
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Focus:

The unspoken scripts men inherit - be strong, fix everything, never show weakness, and how these expectations harm wellbeing, connection, and leadership.

 

Key outcomes:

  • Understand how patriarchy shapes male behaviour and emotional repression

  • Explore the Drama and Empowerment Triangles

  • Build emotional fluency and psychologically safe leadership

3

Challenging Gendered Workplace Norms

A powerful, systems-level look at how gender scripts shape culture - and how to rewrite them.
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Focus:

Bringing it all together - exploring how gender norms shape workplace communication, confidence, workload, and inclusion.

 

 

Key outcomes:

  • Recognise systemic patterns and bias

  • Build inclusive, balanced teams

  • Learn practical allyship tools for everyone

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Good Girl Deprogramming Workshop Overview

This 90-minute (or half-day/full-day) workshop unpacks the “invisible rules” we’ve been trained to follow, especially women, neurodivergent people, and anyone whose leadership has been shaped by performance over authenticity.

 

We explore:

  • Why high-performing women are often stuck in people-pleasing, perfectionism and burnout

  • How internalised “Good Girl” expectations are baked into workplace culture

  • The parallel pressures of “Model Man“ conditioning (stoicism, control, emotional suppression) and how these limit healthy leadership, too

  • What it takes to shift from performing leadership to embodying it, without guilt

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Who it’s for:

  • Women’s networks and employee resource groups

  • Emerging and senior women leaders

  • Neurodivergent professionals navigating people-pleasing or burnout

  • HR and L&D teams wanting to tackle systemic overwork and perfectionism

 

Delivered with warmth, humour and challenge.
Includes interactive exercises, reflection, and real-time shifts.
Suitable for in-person or virtual delivery.

Inclusive leadership workshops exploring gendered conditioning and psychological safety

Model Man Deprogramming Workshop Overview

This 90-minute (or half-day/full-day) workshop unpacks the invisible rules that shape how men lead, connect, and cope - and how these same scripts impact teams, culture, and wellbeing across the organisation.

 

We explore:

  • Why many men feel pressure to be strong, stoic, and self-sufficient, even when it hurts

  • How “Model Man” expectations (fixing, performing, never showing weakness) drive burnout, disconnection, and poor psychological safety

  • The hidden cost of emotional suppression on communication, empathy, and leadership

  • How these patterns intersect with “Good Girl” conditioning, and what happens when we unlearn both sides of the story

  • What it takes to move from performing strength to embodying wholeness - leading with courage, care, and honesty

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Who it’s for:

  • Male leaders and managers balancing pressure with authenticity

  • Men’s wellbeing or inclusion networks

  • Mixed-gender leadership teams exploring emotional safety

  • Organisations wanting to deepen empathy, trust, and communication across all genders

 

Delivered with honesty, humour, and compassion.

Includes storytelling, interactive discussion, reflection, and practical tools for change.

Suitable for in-person or virtual delivery.

Organisational workshop on gendered expectations and authentic leadership

Challenging Gendered Workplace Norms Workshop Overview

This 90-minute (or half-day/full-day) workshop explores how gendered expectations quietly shape communication, confidence, leadership, and inclusion at work - and what it takes to build cultures where everyone can show up whole.

 

We explore:

  • How social conditioning influences behaviour - from Good Girl compliance to Model Man control

  • The impact of gender norms on leadership styles, decision-making, and psychological safety

  • Why “professionalism” often rewards perfectionism and performance over authenticity

  • The hidden costs of bias, emotional labour, and silence in mixed-gender teams

  • Practical ways to create more balanced, human workplaces through allyship, awareness, and everyday action

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Who it’s for:

  • Inclusion and culture leads

  • HR, DEI, and leadership development professionals

  • Mixed-gender teams wanting to understand bias and behaviour patterns

  • Organisations ready to shift from awareness to action on gender and inclusion

 

Delivered with warmth, humour, and challenge.

Includes discussion, interactive exercises, reflection, and real-time mindset shifts.

Suitable for in-person or virtual delivery.

Michelle Minnikin leading Good Girl Deprogramming workshop for women’s leadership and inclusion

What participants walk away with
 

By the end of these workshops, your people will:

  • ​Name and challenge the internalised workplace scripts that drive overworking, over-apologising, and overcompensating - from Good Girl compliance to Model Man control

  • Recognise how those patterns show up in their leadership, communication, and relationships at work

  • Learn how to set clear, compassionate boundaries that protect energy and integrity

  • Build the confidence and language to speak up with clarity, courage, and care

  • Feel seen, validated, and supported - by themselves and each other

  • This is leadership development with a feminist lens and a fire in its belly and space for everyone to lead more truthfully.

Who are these for?

This workshop is ideal for:

  • Women’s networks and employee resource groups wanting to go beyond surface-level empowerment

  • Emerging and established women leaders ready to step into authentic authority

  • Neurodivergent professionals navigating people-pleasing, masking, or burnout

  • Mixed-gender leadership teams exploring how gendered conditioning shapes culture and communication

  • Anyone ready to stop performing a role they never chose and start leading from truth

 

Let’s be honest:

You don’t fix burnout with yoga sessions and branded water bottles.

You fix it by shifting the system - starting with the one inside us.

Format & Delivery

Workshop length: 90 minutes · Half-day · Full-day options available

Delivery: In-house or virtual - both work brilliantly

Participants: Ideal for 6–40 people (larger groups by arrangement)

Facilitator: Michelle Minnikin – Chartered Psychologist, coach, and author of Good Girl Deprogramming, known for her bold, human approach to leadership development

Next steps - let's make it happen

These workshops are already creating cultural shifts in workplaces that want better leadership, braver conversations, and more honest human connection.

 

Ready to build a more inclusive and human workplace?

 
Book one of Michelle’s gendered conditioning workshops – or combine all three for a full-spectrum culture reset.
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Email Michelle at michelle@workpirates.com

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Gemma Robinson, People and Culture Director 

"I attended a Good Girl Deprogramming session a few weeks ago with Michelle and to be honest I haven’t stopped thinking about since.
It’s difficult to find the right words to describe the session. I could say it was fun, interesting, challenging, informative, and it was all of those things, but I’m not sure any of those descriptions really do it justice.
The concepts that Michelle introduces both in the book and the session, are at times difficult to face, but they are important and I left feeling like I’d been walking around with blinkers on most of my life and now I see the things that Michelle talks about everyday.
I’m still reflecting on it all and I think I will be for some time to come. But one thing is certain, somethings started, awoken, changed for me. If you’ve read the book or attended the sessions you’ll know what I’m talking about and if you haven’t then I would highly recommend it."
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