Are your project workshops an energizing boost or a giant yawn for your team? They can be either. But, at their best, a workshop can be an engine for creation, problem-solving, robust decisions, and deep engagement with your project.
There are so many aspects of the project process that can benefit from a good workshop. Yet workshop design and delivery is not a part of most Project Management courses, books, and methods. Some may say that it is an advanced skill – and doing it exceptionally well is. But, I suggest that running a good workshop is a core skill.
So, in this article, we’ll review the key elements of delivering an engaging workshop. My goal is to give you a step-by-step guide to creating a highly effective and engaging workshop. So, we’ll look at:
- Setting the Purpose and Objectives of the Workshop
- Planning and Preparation: Create a Blueprint for Success
- Facilitating an Engaging Workshop: Capture and Sustain Interest
- Managing Common Workshop Challenges and Difficult Situations
- Wrapping up Your Workshop to Ensure it Delivers Outcomes
- How Did It Go? Post-Workshop Evaluation
Step 1. Setting the Purpose and Objectives of the Workshop
It’s simple. If you do not have a clear purpose and a set of defined objectives for your workshop, it will fail.
- People won’t know why they are there
- When people don’t know the why, they will not be motivated to participate
- There will be no guidance for designing the content
- You will therefore fail to deliver some or all of the potential value
- And, you’ll have no basis to evaluate success
Start by Knowing Your Why
Begin the workshop design process by completing the following sentences:
- ‘We need to hold this workshop because…’
- ‘The value this workshop will deliver to the project is…’
- ‘Each participant we invite will be there because…’
A great approach to this is to consider the purpose and goal of your project. Ask yourself how your workshop will contribute to these. Then…
Set Objectives and Outcomes for Your Workshop
Workshop Objectives
How will you know your workshop has been a success? The answer to this question will lead you to your objectives. So, think about the different ways in which you want to assess success. Examples might include:
- Finding and developing ideas
- Unifying and aligning a team
- Solving a problem
- Crafting a plan
- Identifying and assessing risks, issues, constraints, or dependencies
- Making one or more decisions
A way I like to think about this question is to answer the question:
‘If the workshop goes really well, what do I want to hear people saying about it, as they leave and when they discuss it in the days that follow?’
Think about this question from a ‘fly on the wall’ perspective. This is not what people would say to you, as an organizer. Rather, it is what they might say to each other, in private, at the coffee machine. That’s a far tougher test!
Workshop Outcomes
And, related to this (but different) is the question:
‘What do you want to happen, as a result of running the workshop?’
Outcomes are about what happens after the event.
[Link to Outcomes video – embed?]
Time Commitment
One objective should always be to finish on time. So, think carefully about how long you need. What is the right amount of time to allocate to these objectives and outcomes? You’ll need to balance your desire to do this well with your priority to use people’s valuable time well – and not overstretch their commitment and attention.
My tip is to fix a time that:
- Says you are planning carefully
- Respects people’s need to get to their next commitment on time, with time for a comfort stop
Set workshop ties for 50 minutes or 1 hour 20 minutes, or 1 hour and 50 minutes. One, 1½, or 2-hour workshop slots are lazy. They give no time for getting to the next meeting and they say you are working in approximations.
If you want to show you are a meticulous planner, set the meeting time for 51 minutes, and finish bang on time!
Understanding Your Workshop Participants
As important as purpose, objectives, and outcomes is an understanding of who should attend, what each person can gain and contribute, and how best to engage them. You need to think carefully about your invite list. And then, conduct a participant analysis.
Identifying the needs, interests, roles, and knowledge levels of the participants you invite. Then, tailor your workshop content and design to allow your audience to most easily deliver your objectives.
Securing Attendance at the Workshop
In the longer term, it is your reputation for defining, designing, and delivering good workshops that will leave people eager to attend and participate in your workshops. They will know that the event will be worth their time.
In the short term, create an agenda that is clear and leads with the ‘because’ – that is, the answer to the ‘why?’ they will be asking themselves. Make sure each person knows why you have invited them; this may need personal, one-to-one communication. And be sure to deliver on making the workshop worthwhile.
Set Expectations for the Workshop
Finally, people need to feel they know what they can expect. And also, that what they can expect is going to be interesting, worth their time, and maybe fun. Your workshop agenda should show them that you have thought carefully about what you need to achieve and how you will go about it.
Step 2. Planning and Preparation: Create a Blueprint for Success
In looking at your preparation for your workshop, we will cover the format, agenda, activities, and materials.
Select the Right Workshop Format
These days, the first question you are going to ask is whether to run an in-person or virtual workshop. This is obviously a trade-off between the cost savings and convenience of a virtual meet against the social and effectiveness benefits of gathering people in one place.
However, with good workshop design and effective use of good tools, a virtual workshop can deliver excellent results. But don’t see this as a ‘cheap’ option. Invest in the best software for you and your team, and take the time to learn to use it properly.
The other option is a hybrid model. This is problematic, because it instantly creates a two-tier membership of the workshop. I have a strong preference against this and have yet to find a way to make everyone feel equally engaged. This is not to say that there are not solutions, and especially that there will not one day be good solutions, like telepresence. But, I have yet to see a good solution. So, think carefully if this is your preferred option.
For real-world meetings, carefully consider:
- Room layout
- Audio-visual equipment
- Seating arrangements and physical set-up
For virtual meetings, think about:
- Which platform
- What features to use
- How to monitor engagement
Create a Compelling Workshop Agenda
The keys to a good agenda are:
- Chunking: Split your workshop up, so no part becomes tedious
- Variety: make each part different from the last, in some significant way (beyond just the content)
- Balance: think about time allocation and the range of different types of activity, like presentation and discussion, sitting and standing, thinking and doing.
- Pace: keep things moving, but give people time to breathe and reflect. Each activity needs enough time, but not too much. And between them…
- Breaks: this is critical for energy levels and informal networking
- Signposting: keep people aware of what they have done, where they are on the agenda, what’s coming up, and the ‘because’ of what they are doing
Design Engaging Workshop Activities
If people spend too much time in ‘receive’ mode, their minds will slow down and their thoughts will wander. So balance input with output activities where people do things like:
- Discuss (issues, case studies, information)
- Organize
- Brainstorm
- Role-play
- Solve problems
Once you have designed an activity, consider how you will give a clear briefing for what you expect people to do. My favorite briefing format is OARR:
- Outcome: what should a group deliver from the exercise? This must usually make the ‘because’ obvious. If you do not, you must explicitly promise that you will address this later.
- Activity: what do they need to do? Set out the process.
- Roles: what different roles people in a group will play? For example, will there be a facilitator, leader, observer, note-taker, contrarian…?
- Rules: This can be as simple as a time limit and as complex as a literal set of rules. But each rule must either make sense to the groups or you must again explicitly promise that you will address this later.
Prepare Your Workshop Materials
When you know what you are going to do, make sure you prepare materials and gather equipment. As I prepare a workshop, I keep a sheet of paper, notebook page, or document ready so I can compile an ongoing ‘packing list’ of things I need to prepare and pack to take with me to the workshop. This becomes my checklist when getting myself ready.
The kinds of things it contains may include:
- Pre-reading or pre-work
- Presentations
- Case studies
- Document handouts and download links
- Visual aids
- Pre-prepared flipchart, whiteboard, or interactive content
- Polls, quizzes, or puzzles
Step 3. Facilitating an Engaging Workshop: Capture and Sustain Interest
Central to getting and keeping people interested is good facilitation. Clear instructions, respectful listening, and maintaining a positive environment. The mood needs to be appropriate to the people and the task. So, you may need to change it at different parts of the workshop.
The Role of the Workshop Facilitator
There is a lot I could say about facilitation. But, to keep this article to a reasonable length, I’ll recommend this video…
And then, if you want more, take a look also at How to Facilitate Productive Project Meetings – with Rich Maltzman
To summarize, however, the key facilitator skills include
- Building rapport
- Encouraging participation
- Questioning
- Active listening
- Time management
- Managing egos
- Adapting to circumstances
Creating a Positive Workshop Environment
The value of a workshop is in the people who attend. So one of your top priorities will be to create a sense of physical and psychological comfort.
Get to the venue or room early and do everything you can to make it vibrant, comfortable, and functional. As people arrive, welcoming them becomes your top priority. If you weren’t there early enough to finish preparing, then suck it up. Because the people come first. Your demeanor will set the tone for the workshop.
Once things get started, your job is, in large part, to manage the emotional state of the people at your workshop. Perhaps your greatest asset will be your sense of humor.
Interactive Techniques to Drive Engagement
However, another valuable asset is a toolbox of tools and exercises that encourage and harness interaction among your participants:
- Icebreakers and opening exercises
- Ideas generation
- Decision-making
- Consensus building
- Critical thinking and discussion.
- Relationship building
- Motivating and energizing.
Managing Group Dynamics
The last element we need to cover is managing the way the group interacts among themselves. The natural state of a group is a variety of different styles. But three stand out:
- Dominant style – people who like to push themselves to the front
- Quiet style – people who prefer not to be the focus
- Collaborative style – people who prefer to work with others
Your role is to bring out the collaboration in everyone, and harness everybody’s contributions. This means:
- Encouraging participation and active listening
- Managing group dynamics and conflict
- Moderating dominant voices
- Keeping everyone respectful
- Bringing out the participation and ideas from everyone
Step 4. Managing Common Workshop Challenges and Difficult Situations
In this section, I’ll make some suggestions for dealing with some typical challenges. However, for all of them, a little thinking in advance and a large dollop of adaptability will take you a long way. Have a backup plan ready and, if problems arise, stay calm and keep a positive attitude. Offer to help individuals and stay open to suggestions from others. Most of all, remain flexible.
Technical Issues with Virtual Workshops
Technical difficulties can disrupt virtual workshops, but with preparation and a calm approach, they can be minimized. However, prevention is better than cure.
First, ensure participants have clear instructions for joining and technical requirements. Second, conduct a thorough tech rehearsal beforehand to identify and resolve potential issues. Third, think about contingencies like alternative platforms or materials.
Technical glitches will happen, and an adaptable, understanding facilitator can turn a potential setback into a smooth learning experience.
Practical Strategies to Maintain Energy and Focus
Perhaps the most common challenge is keeping energy levels up. So, it’s critical that you incorporate breaks and time for reflection. You can also re-energize a group with short, sharp team-building activities, moving places, and even stretching exercises.
Make sure that sessions within the workshop are active, and keep people focused on the progress they are making, with things like:
- Record of decisions made
- Checking off the agenda
- A running task list
- Regular check-ins throughout and at the end
Using Visual Aids Effectively
Visual aids are an easy, familiar, and powerful way to strengthen engagement. They include presentations, whiteboards, flipcharts, and props. But note that bullet points are not visual. However, there is a range of great project management tools (like Trello, Asana, Miro, RAID logs, and Risk registers) that can help create interactive working sessions.
Dealing with Resistance or Conflict in a Workshop Context
From time to time, you will encounter objections and resistance. First of all, be curious and focus on finding the underlying concern or reason. This could be something like:
- Confusion or misunderstanding
- Conflicting priorities
- Disengagement
- Disagreement
We have two articles that, together, will give you all the information you will need:
- Managing Conflict: Do You Know the Foundations that Get Great Results?
- Conflict Management: Do You Know the Practical Steps to Make Things Better?
We also have two videos:
Step 5. Wrapping up Your Workshop to Ensure it Delivers Outcomes
Don’t overdo the end of your workshop. Yes, I know there is some important housekeeping, but no one wants to sit through long summaries. Keep your close to the things that really matter:
- Decisions that were made
- Key points for people to remember
- Person-by-person recap of commitments and actions
- Thanking participants for their attention and contribution
- Celebrating the successes you had
And then, of course….
Follow-up on the Commitments.
Issue a brief note covering the summary items, that includes a personalized To Do list for each participant – with committed milestones, if there are any.
And then follow up on those to-do items.
Step 6. How Did It Go? Post-Workshop Evaluation
If you want to improve your workshops (and you should want to), then there is great value in evaluating them through:
- Personal reflection
- Feedback from one or two trusted participants who can act as critical friends
- Gathering feedback through short surveys or polls
- Analyzing what you learn and determine how you can improve future workshops.
What are Your Thoughts on Creating an Engaging Project Workshop?
A good workshop can transform your project or just kick it off to a brilliant start. A bad workshop can also transform your project! What are your thoughts about creating an engaging project workshop?
