A few learnings from a five-day workshop

It is rare to run a workshop that lasts five days, but sometimes it is necessary – and that was the case last week. With participants coming from multiple countries anywhere between Argentina and Vietnam, it is obvious that the group cannot meet every day, and a maximum must be drawn from the time together.

Given that our focus is to run participative multi-stakeholder strategy projects with future foresight included, five-day team workshops may seem an odd fit. But the reality is they also require careful preparation, and dynamic facilitation. Moreover, for the client, the largest cost is (the salaries of) having so many people in one room. It is therefore worth investing in moderators who ensure that every moment is well used.

A few learnings that I draw from this:

• Both planning and flexibility are vital. We had started the planning three months before hand, but then a major strategic change hit the group a week and a half before the event. As a result, we had to change the agenda from top to bottom in the last week. Fortunately, the client was completely able to handle such a rapid change around, as we suggested an alternative dramaturgy.
• Both repetition and variety are important. A group will struggle to concentrate for 8 hours a day over five days. Hence it is useful to have some standard operating features that repeat, as participants know what is expected of them (for instance, at the end of every day, we had a session where different operating units would write up key learnings from the day), but also variety (for instance on the Wednesday, the group visited a local factory to see how they implemented the type of activities they are promoting elsewhere in the world).
• It is vital to remind everybody regularly how any given theme fits into the bigger picture. Naturally we had tried to plan the workshop so as this is obvious, but what is clear to one person, may not be self-evident to another. Stating why this particular slot is important (be it for only 30 minutes or a full afternoon) and how it fits into the bigger picture, is essential. It both motivates and frames expectations of what should be delivered.