%% date:: [[2024-02-18]] parent:: %% # [[Workshop Facilitation]] [site](https://courses.polaine.com/view/courses/workshop-facilitation) instructor:: "[[Andy Polaine]]" ## Summary > [!summary] The gist > ## Introduction - This is *not* going to cover methods comprehensively, though he'll cover his favourites. - This is about intent, theories behind them, and how to run them effectively. ## Why run workshops? - What's a workshop? - A place to analyse, understand, repair, collaborate, create, explore, test, focus - Reasons - Generation: [[Idea Generation]], creating business models - Alignment: getting towards a shared understanding, [[Storytelling]] - Evaluation: exploring concepts, iteration, co-design, testing > Make every meeting a workshop. - Workshops have a structure and clear intent. Meetings often don't. Divergent or convergent? - Divergence: exploring options - Convergence: get back together and narrow scope again after exploring ## The Facilitator role - Sometimes the facilitator is someone from the team. Sometimes they're an external person who is a professional facilitator. - Jobs - *Reading the room*: who's engaged and who's not engaged? Are there teams that are not making any progress? - Sending out invitations and deciding whom should be excluded - Setting up space (and food) - Digital: Andy's preference: [[Zoom]], not Google Meet, not Teams. - Physical: Breaks, structure of the room, biological needs - Setting, maintaining, breaking [[Cadence]] (of work, of energy, of communication, of information) - Get people to make something when people's energy starts to fail. - Establishing or abolishing structure - Process leadership and process expertise: manage the process, not the end result - Conflict resolution - Holding the [[Projection]]: People will think you're there to perform, even if you're not. Rise to the projection. Run the room confidently and then gradually build up confidence for the participants too. > [!question] Activity: The Ask > A university asks you to do a co-design workshop with staff and students to re-imagine the student onboarding experience. What do you think the ask here is? How would you structure it, and what outcomes and outputs would you hope for? ## Who participates? - Diversity: race, gender, background, but also experience and areas - >= 6 participants is ideal (less than that is more like a working team) - [[Good Talk]]: Conversation OS Canvas - Consider politics around who comes. - Invite key decisionmakers who are going to need to sign off on the next actions from the workshop > [!warning] The Golden Rule: No passengers > Make sure everyone's getting involved, and no senior people are just hanging around the edges and watching. %% ![[ap-workshop-attendees.png]] %% If you have a list of 40 possible people, and you can only invite 20, whom do you invite and why? - Diversity - Break out the possible attendees into roles: core team, executive team, extended team, partners, other. - Use physical constraints (space and time) as convenient excuses why some people are not invited. ## Planning Recommendation: [[Gamestorming]] book [and site](https://gamestorming.com). How do you structure the workshop? - Gamestorming structures - Opening (Divergent) - Exploring (Emergent) - Closing (Convergent) - [[Storytelling]] - Story arcs with climaxes and denouement - Establish arcs through reveals and cadence - Think in terms of chapters - Define objectives. - Remember that project objectives can often be different from the workshop objective. - Define desired outcomes - What's the emotional journey for the participants? - Fit activities to time - 2.5 activities within an hour-- more if everyone knows each other and you don't need to do some sort of warm-up - Start with breaks, then fill in things around it - Consider closure and reflections (at the end of each day and one at the end for everything) - Don't plan absolutely everything - be prepared to improvise. - Build in buffer time so you have the flexibility to let things run long if you need to. - Create an overflow time of 30 minutes at the end of the day - you can always end it early if you don't need it. ## Roles Recommendation: [Hybrid Work Guide](https://voltagecontrol.com/hybrid-work-guide/) - Lead facilitator - Co-facilitator (necessary for hybrid sessions - part physical, part online) - Table facilitator? - Documenter - Time keeper - Executive lead (optional): someone who can manage external stakeholders ## Methods | Method | Good for | Description | | ------------------------------------ | ---------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Drawing from film | icebreaker | Pause movie every scene, draw it in 20 seconds x 20 | | Meaningful object | icebreaker | Tell the story of a meaningful object to partner, partner tells the story to group | | Territory mapping | kick-off, perspectives | Cluster post-it notes: Loves, hates, hopes, fears; people; processes; performance | | Touchpoint reframing | ideation | Pick [[Touchpoint]]s. If we only had this thing, how would our service work? | | How Might We? | ideation, divergence | Create questions starting with "How might we..." | | Creative Matrix | divergence, ideation | Structured brainstorming. Header row is "How might we" questions (~5) where the last four are sub-questions of the first, first column is different enablers (events, apps, culture, etc), then fill out-- *in silence* | | Round Robin | ideation | | | Concept Cards | | | | Value/Effort 2x2 Matrix | | | | Crazy 8s | | | | Concept Poster | | | | Business Model & Value Prop Canvases | | | | The Hand | | | | Ambition/Purpose Statements | | |