5 STEPS FOR AN AWESOME ANALOG WORKSHOP

Team Antoni Explains

Facilitating a workshop is an artform in itself. A good workshop becomes an opportunity for insights, consensus, and action plans.

The right Question + the right Instruction + the right Atmosphere = a Great Workshop

Here are 5 tips for you

Have a clear goal and purpose for the workshop that you can explain.
Invite the right people. Include the goal and the purpose. This way, the participants’ subconscious minds can get to work.
Create an agenda but fill it only to 80%, so you’ll have a margin if you need to adapt.
Create clear instructions for each step. In a workshop, the goal is set but the result is created by the group. It is your task to support that process.
Use larger rooms than normal meetings. Furnish it to support dialogue.

Make sure that everything works (pens, post-its, projector, whiteboard, flipchart, etc.)
Flip charts are great. Use them.
Greet the participants. Put on some music.
Group the participants with up to a maximum of 6 people around each table.

Start with an icebreaker. For example, you let the participants around each table share two truths and a lie about themselves. The others will guess which statement was a lie and which ones were true. Before a creative workshop, you can ask each group to come up with as many applications they can think of for an object like a book, toothpicks, a brick, etc.
Get them to share something that got them happy the last week or so. It also creates a nice buzz.

Use the IPA method for idea generation (first Individual, then Pair, then All.) That way, you get the introvert’s views because they will otherwise be shadowed by the extroverts.
Give attention to everyone. Encourage and praise the participants. Notice if someone is shying away or becoming disengaged.
Vary your methods so that it doesn’t become monotonous and tedious.
Signal control and comfort. That you are on top of things. They should not worry that the process does not lead somewhere.
Let them present, reflect and discuss along the way. It can be done in several ways. The most common is that one group at a time presents their findings. Just keep an eye on the clock since time can go really fast here.

At the end of the workshop, you or the participants summarize what results/ideas/agreements, etc. the group has achieved.
If there are action points, highlight them a bit more. Who does what and when?
Reflect on the process: What was good about the workshop? What could be better.

Thank them all for investing their time, mind, and heart into the workshop.