Facilitating in-person workshops is one of my most rewarding gigs. Our workshop design package is currently our most popular offering! We get contacted regularly by clients who are looking for engaging, educational content featuring topics such as diversity and inclusion, leadership and data storytelling.
For those of you who are curious about my approach, I thought I would share a few strategies I've learned along the way for leading engaging and effective workshops. So today, I’m sharing a sneak peek inside my workshop design process from start to finish.
1. Assess the landscape
Each client has a very specific set of needs and expectations when they reach out to us. The first step in creating an impactful, engaging session that participants will find valuable is to understand the client’s landscape.
I use input from the client that we collect either from a phone call, Skype conversation or their answers to our interest questionnaire. I listen and look for key words to gauge the climate of the group –- their openness and comfort with diversity and inclusion topics, their level of competency, their current issues or sources of conflict, etc.
This not only ensures that my client and I are on the same page, but it also serves as a backdrop for the design of the workshop and the activities that will be most relevant and impactful.
2. Create engaging material
In my early days as a student, I spent many days and nights designing PowerPoint slides for presentations. We’ve all seen articles proclaiming the evils of PowerPoint, so I won’t bore you with those arguments. In fact, I don’t have a problem with PowerPoint, as long as it’s used to create engaging slides.
One rule of thumb I live by when designing slides is “less is more,” especially when it comes to blocks of text.
When I first started giving presentations for academic audiences, it was not uncommon to have a full deck of slides filled to the brim with bullet points and lines of complete sentences. (WHAT?!) Who wants to read all of that?
I’ve learned that people can either listen to you speak or read what’s on the screen. They can’t do both at the same time.
There are so many things I do differently now, but one of the biggest strategies I use when preparing slides for a workshop is to focus on images that help tell a story. For example, I use the slide below to highlight the importance of personal narratives in overcoming unconscious bias when I share stories about my experiences as a black woman mathematician.
See? Much better than a slide filled with endless lines of text!
In addition to using personal stories to illustrate the relevant concepts, I also incorporate activities that allow workshop attendees to be active participants in the learning process. There's a distinct reason I structure my sessions as "workshops" instead of "lectures." These active learning strategies are a key ingredient for an engaging, impactful sessions.
3. Tailor the content
Over the years, I have developed a library of content and curricula for my most requested workshop topics. What you may not know is that much of my creative inspiration comes from my Twitter feed, which I use as a tool to curate new research and current events related to diversity and inclusion.
When a client contacts me to facilitate a workshop, I am intentional about infusing exercises and examples that relate to their specific field or industry.
For example, I recently led a workshop on unconscious bias for a group of non-profit professionals who make an impact in the community through their construction work. The focus of our discussion was the importance of cross-cultural interaction. So, I included a segment in the workshop to discuss the Worlds Apart commercial by Heineken.
The Heineken commercial features several pairs of strangers tasked with working together to build a bar. Each individual has been intentionally paired with someone else who has a strongly held opposing view. But, the pair doesn’t learn of each other’s perspective until the end of the commercial.
After successfully building the bar, they are encouraged to discuss their differences over a beer.
If you haven’t seen the commercial, I encourage you to check it out! It resonated with the client because it was such an impactful, relevant example for their work.
4. Stick around
What I enjoy almost as much as facilitating a workshop are the discussions that happen when the workshop is over.
It’s easy to overlook this step and rush off to the next thing on your to-do list for the day. But, sticking around after the workshop provides an opportunity to connect one-on-one with participants in a personal way.
More often than not, I’m approached by participants who want to share feedback or ask questions. Sometimes, they have questions that they didn’t feel comfortable bringing up in the large group. Or, they want to share a personal story that relates to the content in the workshop.
And sometimes, the client is so impressed by the workshop that they’re eager to discuss ways that you might work together in the future, before you even walk out the door!
5. Solicit feedback (and use it!)
Client feedback is an invaluable resource in so many ways. Whether it’s used for revising content, soliciting testimonials or quantifying the impact of my work, client feedback is an essential part of my workshop design process.
I’ve designed a feedback survey that I created using a form on my Squarespace website. In the survey, I ask about my clients’ level of knowledge before and after the workshop, their expectations and impressions of the workshop and the concrete ways they plan to apply their new knowledge.
In the form, I've included free response questions that allow participants to share testimonials about their experience. I also give my participants an opportunity to stay engaged by signing up for my newsletter.
Have you ever attended one of our workshops? If so, and you would like to give feedback, visit the form here.