“We need to have a workshop.”

We hear it a lot. And our first question is usually pretty simple: “What do you hope to accomplish?”

That answer matters because a workshop should start with the outcome. Maybe a team needs to solve a problem, align around a shared understanding or make a decision that moves work forward. Whatever the goal, getting people in a room, virtual or otherwise, is only the beginning.

At Simantel, workshops help us connect dots, uncover ideas and align stakeholders around where we’re going next. And after facilitating plenty of them, we’ve learned that productive collaboration requires structure, preparation and a clear purpose.

So, before sending that calendar invite, consider these five things.

  1. Pre-work is critical. If the leader of a meeting isn’t willing to “do the work” in advance of the meeting, don’t have the meeting. Period. What does this mean? Well, it can mean talking to participants to get perspective, reviewing past research or work to date, organizing a PowerPoint deck structured around key conversations, planning exercises and break-out groups, creating a detailed and timed agenda, etc. In general, we say that every hour of workshop time takes three hours of prep time. Plan ahead for this and engage the right team to support this work.
  2. Stock exercises only go so far. Have you ever hired a consultant and thought that maybe they opened a book of icebreaker exercises and picked one? The best workshop activities serve the people in the room and the problem they’re there to solve. Some groups need space to explore. Others need to make decisions quickly. A team with deep subject matter expertise doesn’t need an exercise that covers concepts they already know. Be cautious and know your audience. Then build an experience around both. Too many “off the shelf” activities can cause teams to shut down — the exact opposite feeling of energy you want in a room full of smart people!
  3. Don’t be scared to show current state thinking. Starting with a blank page sounds freeing. Sometimes it is. Other times, it creates an hour of blue-sky conversation without enough substance to move forward. A skilled facilitator should bring ideas to the meeting. That doesn’t mean they should be “presented” as the only or best solution, but rather there should be visual aids to support the critical conversations. The key here is that there has to be time to poke holes in these solutions. If there’s not, it can seem as though it’s more of a “presentation” than a “workshop”. A skilled facilitator creates enough space for the group to question, challenge and build on what’s presented. That’s often where the strongest ideas emerge.
  4. Make a plan together in the room. A workshop should create momentum. Before everyone leaves, identify what happens next. Assign action items. Set deadlines. Clarify ownership. Make sure the people responsible for moving the work forward understand what they’ve committed to. If this doesn’t happen, the workshop attendees can feel frustrated that they’ve invested all of their time but have no clear conclusions or outcomes. This exercise alone creates great buy-in, as all the players are vested in the plan. Tell participants up front that the session will end this way. Make sure they are willing before they get a seat at the table.
  5. Pull in the expert facilitator. Let’s face it, not everyone is good at running a workshop. The skill set you’re looking for needs to include someone who can quickly aggregate and organize information as the group is reporting out their ideas while at the same time “pointing” the group’s feedback to the ultimate end goal of the workshop. It requires a person who can “hold a lot in their head” at one time. Look for the drivers in your organization, as they are usually best at this and when urgency is key, they will get it done. Sometimes, there is a tendency to think that detail oriented planners are the best at this. Fact is, they are better at running a “meeting” but may get too lost in the weeds to run a workshop. If you have someone who can both “drive” and “see details” that’s your person. Help them grow this skill!

Make the Workshop Worth It

There are many other best practices to consider around workshops such as structuring a sound agenda, asking for feedback about how the meeting is going, learning to prioritize ideas and more. Over time, having an organizational “tool box” of exercises/agendas that can be used for meetings and workshops is an awesome goal. But you don’t need all of it figured out on day one.

Start with a clear outcome. Do the prep. Bring the right people together. Create space for productive conversation. Then leave with a plan.

Good luck – and happy workshopping.