I ran 500 workshops - this is what I learnt so far
let's just say it's somewhere between manny and 500. Who is counting? Some went great and some went, well, let's call them learning experiences.
"Before my list of six tips—not in any particular order—on what can make the difference.
Workshops, on a more philosophical note: a forum where thoughts and feelings are cared for and listened to. Don’t underestimate this part; it’s actual human needs. And if everyone feels safe and comfortable sharing their thoughts and feels heard, we have a pretty good foundation for achieving great things together. Imagine if we all felt this after every meeting. yes Imagine!
Workshops are also outcome-oriented and democratic; ideas and decision-making can be made both fast and democratically with just one well-structured exercise. whaat? yes, it can.
Lastly, workshops are fun, and if we have fun, work is fun. And we keep coming back to it.
Selling done—now learnings:
01: Prepare attendees a day before
The workshop you are having tomorrow—and were invited to a month ago—isn’t exactly top of mind for your fellow coworkers. I usually send out a short, friendly reminder the day before. This includes a brief agenda and underlines why it’s important to participate and prepare everyone for an awesome event. This increases participant levels quite a lot. In times of hybrid working, I would say this is necessary to make people show up to an on-site workshop.
This message often results in people asking questions and getting the engagement going. And more importantly—showing up at the actual workshop!
02: Music is more than mood
I like to fill the room with a mood before the workshop starts—set the stage and move people out of their regular, busy-running-between-meetings persona. Music works great to tell people that we’re doing something else than the regular Monday meeting here. It can create this calm coffee shop vibe or spa feeling or even ‘Friday at 3 PM’ energy—whatever mood you’re looking for—Spotify’s got your back.
Plus, music is golden during focus time. When notes are written—when iframes are drawn—when ideas are… ideated. Music keeps everyone in the zone.
It also usually makes people shut up and focus on the task; if not, you can always drop the ‘music means silence’ rule.
03: Prep the room
You are probably familiar with the guy who likes to spend the first eight minutes of a meeting connecting cables, trying screen-sharing settings while also moving furniture around, mumbling curse words. Don’t be this guy please.
These first minutes are likely better spent on greeting everyone welcome and having them enjoy the elevator bossa nova your Spotify DJ gently plays in the background. To achieve this, you just have to book the conference room 15 minutes ahead in a separate booking. This way, you’ll have time to sort out the tech—hand out post-it notes and rearrange the furniture however you need without stealing time from your participants. You’ll also come across more like Leonardo DiCaprio at a cocktail party instead of George Costanza in a conference room when people arrive.
04: Names by heart
If you're running a workshop with people you don't know—remembering everyone's names is my nightmare. To combat this, I draw a super-simple, probably-not-to-scale map of the room on a post-it. Then, during the ‘introduce yourself round,’ I scribble down names. I have a better chance of actually learning the names, and I have a cheat sheet if my brain decides to forget anyway.
If no one knows each other, having everyone write their own name tag can be surprisingly effective.
If you all know each other—that's great! Maybe skip the ‘who are you?’ introductions and spend time learning something actually interesting about each other instead.
05: Format is important—but purpose is key
Whether you’re running a lightning decision jam or a design studio or trying to survive a full-blown design sprint, my take is: formats are more like guidelines than actual rules. They need a good ol' twist to match what you're trying to get done. I’ve tried a lot of different formats over the years, building a toolbox of exercises and sneaky tricks to pull from. I’m not afraid to create new formats and mock together workshops based on what outcome we are looking for. The purpose of the workshop is way more important than sticking to a strict format.
If you are new to running workshops, I recommend you try out a couple of standard formats and learn running them by heart. When you do, you will have plenty of thoughts on what might work and not in any given situation.
06: Feedback. Always.
Learning is never-ending, right? And even after running many workshops, I still have a lot to learn and improve with my workshops. Asking for feedback is one way of improving and learning over time. I usually build feedback into the actual workshop—to make sure it happens, and that everyone shares their experience with the workshop.
One way of doing it is to save five minutes for a last exercise with the group—have everyone write a note or two and leave it on the door as they leave. Ask for specific feedback if you have specific questions; ask for general feedback if you don’t know what to ask for.
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Yeah, that’s what I pulled from my brain for now. I also thought about: time boxing, planning a workshop, remote, on-site, and hybrid setups, and dealing with people.
Maybe that makes up for a part two on the topic?
Keep shipping,
Gunnar