A workshop facilitator explains why jumping into exercises without a clear purpose backfires. Step 1 of her 12-step checklist: define what participants should feel and do after, not what you assume they need. Plan for how they'll talk about it afterward.
Chapters
When I get to design a new workshop agenda for a client, I usually get super excited and I just want to dive right into creative mode. I want to test out new exercises that I thought of, or I just want to use the ones that I usually use. It's so tempting to just fall back on my assumptions, what I think that the purpose of the workshop is and what the group needs. So I needed a really clear structure just to help myself not to dive into creativity too fast. I developed this 12-step checklist just to control myself, as a nudge to keep me focused to deliver workshops that work. So step number 1 is having a clear understanding of the purpose. Not of your assumptions. No, the purpose of the workshop and the needs of the participants so that they can develop the outcomes That they need to work with after the workshop. Because let's be honest, the real work usually starts after the workshop is finished. So I usually start with a clear end in mind. What is the result I want to achieve in my workshop that actually the team can work with? And we remember better with feelings than with learnings. So how do you want the participants to feel in the workshop? Do you want to feel them informed, enabled, motivated, creative? This feeling will remind them of the workshop outcomes and help them also to talk about it and to keep the momentum. Finally, you want them to talk about the workshops because you want them to continue to follow up. So what do you want them to say about the workshop when it's done, when they meet another colleague? How do you want them to reflect on it? So step number 1, have a clear understanding of the purpose and your goal of the workshop to make them work.
