Conduct a Workshop: Plan for Success
Planning a thoughtful workshop is a difference between your participants engaging or being checked out. Use this step-by-step guide to deliver creative and collaborative sessions that unite diverse viewpoints and multi-disciplinary teams. We cover in-person and online workshops, so you are ready for any format.
This Article’s Learning Goals:
🔎 Discover
Learn our Framework for Successful workshops
Explore the components of a thoughtful session plan
📋 Prepare
Explore preparation tips for facilitators
Resources to engage participants in productive working sessions
🙌 Try
Browse free templates to add to your own workshops
Explore our free and favourite free collaboration tools
“It’s all right to have butterflies in your stomach. Just get them to fly in formation.”
🔎 Discover How to Facilitate Workshops
Learn our Framework for Successful workshops.
A session plan is your framework for a successful workshop. Let's walk through the essential components of a workshop Session Plan. This sequence is not always a linear process; we recommend that you clarify these items before you send out your invitation.
Check out this article's "Prepare" section for step-by-step preparation instructions for the components.
Objective
Define your goals and ensure they are realistic and appropriate for the attendees you want to invite and, inline with the allotted timeframe.
Use our goal template:
Having a clear objective will give your workshop purpose and is a north star to guide you as your plan the rest of your workshop components.
Format
Decide if your workshop is in-person, virtual, or hybrid. If unsure, jump to whom you want to attend the meeting and your budget, then revisit once you understand these components.
Pro Tip: If renting a location, ditch the boardroom and try an art gallery. A creative space stimulates participants and is energizing.
Participants
Identify your ideal audience based on your desired outcomes of the exercise. Depending on the workshop's goal, you will want to know who the ideal attendees are. This could be a broad mix of people from various departments or a smaller group whose expertise matches a particular challenge your team is trying to solve.
Open to Everyone:
Ideal for a workshop to give your employees a chance to learn something new or share experiences.
For example, you might want to invite everyone to participate in a product preview before launch.
Limited Group:
Ideal for a workshop focused on improving teamwork and communication.
For example, you might ask a group of front-line managers to participate in shared learning regarding a new process.
Space & Tools
Outline where you plan to host the events and what tools you will need to succeed.
Online:
Whiteboard Tool
Video Platform (chat & breakout room)
If using a free service, verify participant & time limits.
In Person:
Event Space
Seating capacity
Audio
Video
Budget
Start a budget and list the items you'll need to run the workshop. This list will grow based on the scale of your workshop. Here is a simple budget format:
Workshop materials (printouts, post-its, pens, and materials)
Staff (volunteers, internal teams, hired help)
Venue (rental and license)
Refreshments (coffee and a snack)
Pro Tip: Online, consider sending an uber eats gift card or a pre-workshop snack.
Co-facilitator
The value of a co-facilitator:
Planning and facilitating a workshop is significant, so pick a few trusted team members to help.
Consider the following when selecting a co-facilitator:
What experience do they have in workshops and leading people?
Can they commit the time you need for the workshop?
Will they be available throughout the workshop to take notes?
Are they comfortable speaking in front of large groups?
Activities & Exercise
The activities and exercises are engagement tools you will use to extract knowledge and insight from the participants. Make sure you validate that the activities you select fit your objective, budget, format, and number of attendees. A workshop session has four types of activities.
Ice Breaker: An opportunity for facilitators and participants to introduce themselves.
Warm Up: A quick exercise to engage participants and shift their focus to the workshop.
Main Activity: The primary activity or sequence of activities.
Wrap-up: Review learnings from activities/workshops.
Retrospective: Reflect on the participants’ experience and workshop format.
Agenda
An agenda articulates to attendees that you will run the meeting orderly.
Kick-off (Introduce Objective)
Warm-up (Raise participant's energy levels)
Ice Breaker (Familiarize participants with each other)
Activity (The main exercise)
Wrap-up (key learnings and takeaways)
Make sure you have a break every 90-minutes or after the main activity. Then, when returning from a beak, do a quick warm-up to refocus the group. Next, we provide a sample agenda in this article's "Prepare" section.
Safe Space
Physiological safety makes all the difference.
For deeper learning to take place in your workshop, you must create a safe space for participants to engage in discussion and interact with each other—an intentional plan to create a safe space and a level-playing field.
Follow us on Instagram for simple tips on facilitating engaging workshops. Every day we share workshop ideas, practitioner tips, and design inspiration.
📋 Prepare a Workshop
Facilitating workshops is more art than science, so finding your rhythm can take time and practice. This section will bring the session plan a step forth and prepare the workshop for the facilitator and the participants.
Plan the workshop kick-off
Make a great first impression by preparing for a kick-off for your workshop. Starting without a kick-off puts your goals and objectives at risk while creating an unsatisfactory experience for stakeholders.
Check our our blog post on how to throw an effective workshop kick-off meeting.
Step 1. Facilitator Prep:
It’s essential to have a clear objective and goals for the workshop.
What is the business challenge?
What are you trying to improve or change?
Who or what is your goal for? (e.g., product, service, team)
How will you know you're successful?
Write out an introduction script. We provide a script example below.
Script from DesignACE’s ebook Vision Setting Facilitation Guide
This is one of 4 scripts included in our eBook to help you engage your participants like a pro.
Step 2. Prepare Participants
Make a great impression by preparing your participants with a pre-read for your workshop that covers objectives, sample agendas, who will be at the meeting and details for their arrival.
Pro Tip: Keep it simple, less than a page or 500 words and stick to bullet points.
Learn about the audience.
Step 1. Facilitator Prep
Learn about the participants’ backgrounds and general interests. You can perform this by looking at LinkedIn or sending personal emails or messages ahead of time to set up interviews.
Step 2. Prepare with Participants
Book 15-minute interviews with your participants to get to know their goals, areas of expertise, and work styles. Building rapport before your session helps you better plan breakout groups, identify subject matter experts, and make you a better partner.
Prep the Co-Facilitator
Step 1. Define Roles
Is one facilitator the headliner, or are you co-leads? Determine who will facilitate each section and what help the co-facilitator requires throughout the schedule.
Step 2. Feedback Signals
Create a couple of subtle signals for:
Slow down
Watch your time
I have something to add
Plan the Invite
Using an agenda in your invitation allows your participants to prepare. The more prepared participants feel, the more likely they will engage on the day of your kick-off. In addition, asking for feedback ahead of time ensures essential topics are covered and keeps the group accountable to a format during the kick-off.
Sample Workshop and Agenda Template
Step 1. Identify the subject.
This workshop is for: (participant group)
To collaborate on: (product or service)
For: (user/customer)
Step 2. State the objective:
The impact for you: (the facilitator)
The value for the user: (your customer)
Step 3. Agenda
The sequence of events for the workshop session.
Objective example:
This is a workshop for our customer service team to collaborate on building a new team vision. Our new vision aims to inspire our customer service team to help users find their needed products more easily.
Helps Us Work Smarter: A bold vision clarifies what matters most to our team.
Drives Performance and result: A bold vision clarifies how a team can contribute to our organization’s success.
Agenda Example:
Immediately before the workshop: get ready.
Set up (15-20 min). Set up the whiteboard and room.
During the workshop:
Kick-off (10 mins) Introduce participants, discuss the approach, and level-set goals.
Warm-up (10 min Assess the strengths and weaknesses of the participants.
Ice Breaker (10-min) Build rapport and trust.
Empathy Map ( 30 mins) Helps teams identify and reflect on a user’s behaviours and attitudes.
Break (20 mins)
Warm-up (10 mins) - Reestablish focus.
Fast Forward Team Activity (30 mins) This activity builds empathy across your team.
What will sink our ship? (15 min)Retrospective.
Wrap-up and next steps (15 min Align on next steps.
Immediately after the workshop: debrief with key stakeholders
Initial Thoughts (15 min) Align on what went well and what could be improved.
Plan for success (15 min) Ensure ownership of the next steps.
Space & Tools
Step 1. Facilitator Prep:
Take 30-min before the workshop to ensure you know your tools and the space. You do not want to be the person struggling to send everyone into a virtual breakout room. It kills the energy.
Physical Space: Visit the location and walk around so you know the room.
Virtual Space: Set up a 15-min demo and practice the features you'll use for your workshop.
Step 2. Prepare Participant
Physical Space: Include details on transit, parking, and finding the room.
Virtual Space: Communicate any software, licenses or software required for the meeting.
Practice your Activities
I recommend you practice twice; both times, act as if you are in the workshops. There is no "start over" or "reset button.". Extra points if you and the co-facilitator can perform these practice runs together.
Step1. Personal Practice
Run through the activities with a friend or family. This run-through is an excellent opportunity to explain an activity to someone with limited knowledge of your topic.
Step 2 - Professional Practice
Now that you've refined the talk track, try again with a coworker and get their feedback on how you can make this activity legendary.
Prepare a Psychologically Safe Environment.
For deeper learning to take place in your workshop, you must create a safe space for participants to engage in discussion and interact with each other. So many great ideas are lost because people fear what will happen if they open up and share. Psychological safety is operating without fear of damaging your self-image, status, or career. Creating a safe space for group creativity is essential. Consider these suggestions to cultivate group discussion and nurture innovation.
Step 1. Facilitator Prep - Set-Ground Rules
It is frustrating when everyone speaks over you. But, on the other hand, a room full of people agreeing accomplishes very little. So the goal is to create rules that establish a safe space to share where creativity can brew and ideas happen.
Step 2. Prepare Participants - Deconstruct Hierarchy
Forget the titles and who the boss is in the room. Instead, for participants' imaginations to run wild, senior coach participants to step off the soap box and listen more than they speak.
Follow us on Instagram for simple tips on facilitating engaging workshops. Every day we share workshop ideas, practitioner tips, and design inspiration.
🙌 Try to Facilitate a Workshop
Workshop Kick-off Activities
Like a runner before a marathon, it's essential to loosen up. So start your workshop session with an:
Ice-breakers get people energized and build rapport as a group.
Warm-up game focuses this energy on the session and sometimes set-up the main activity.
Ice Breakers
Alternate Uses? (in person/online)
Use this to establish commonalities among stakeholders.
Choose an everyday object, like a hairbrush.
The group writes down as many ideas as possible of alternate ways to use that object.
Then, go around the room, and everyone shares their favourite examples.
Warm-ups
The warm-up is an opportunity for the facilitator to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the participants before aligning on responsibilities. For example, you can identify leaders and wallflowers.
Squiggle Birds (in-person)
Prepare: Fold the paper 4 times to make 8 quadrants.
1. Ask everyone to draw a squiggle line in each one of the quadrants (8 in total)
2. Next, have everyone turn their lines into a bird
3. Take turns sharing how your lines have taken shape!
Trading Cards (in person/online)
Ask attendees to create a "trading card" that includes a self-portrait, nickname, and fact about themselves that the other attendees aren't likely to know.
Have them share their trading cards in small groups or the entire workshop.
Workshop Main Activity
Pro Tip: The main activity should take up 60% of your schedule.
Empathy Mapping (in person/online)
Envisioning user perspectives and behaviours in an empathy map allows your team to align on an in-depth understanding of end users and make informed decisions about how to enhance their experience with your brand.
Check out our blog post on how to run an empathy mapping workshop.
Bold Vision (in person/online)
In our eBook, Vision Setting Facilitation Guide, you'll learn 3-easy workshops to build a bold vision. Here are a few scenarios where vision setting is highly beneficial:
before starting a new project
initiate a rebrand
the onset of solving a challenging problem
attract new investors to your business
Workshop Retrospective
As your Team looks back on the workshop, there are bound to be some successes and failures. So take an honest look to learn and improve for workshops.
Rose, Bud, Thorn's. (in person/online)
This activity uncovers hidden values and builds on success while airing concerns.
Step1: Instruct participants to write down:
Rose: what do we like?
Bud: Any new ideas?
Thorns: what needs improvement?
Step 2: Record Feedback
Ask participants to share a rose/bud/thorn
Step 3: Debrief
Discuss similarities/differences of participants’ rose/bud/thorn feedback
Create new 'buds' by translating your 'thorns' into opportunities and actions
Prioritize the 'roses' and work them into your product,
Free Workshop Collaboration Tools
Free Video Conferencing
Commit to a free video tool and use it consistently for all your kick-off meetings.
Our top pick is Hangouts
Online Whiteboards.
Get hands-on to inspire meaningful collaboration. Use a whiteboard to brainstorm, share ideas and run workshop games.
Our top picks are Canva
Online Workshops Tools.
Pick one (you hear me, ONE) tool that allows your stakeholders to stay connected and communicate.
Our top pick is Hangouts
Note-taking Apps.
The main advantage of note-taking applications is that stakeholders can share notes between the group. In addition, these notes can serve as reminders of what was shared and learned during a workshop.
Our top pick is Google Docs
Online Design Tools.
Make your first impression POP by going the extra mile on your workshop design. You do not need to be a graphic designer to use these tools; they are easy and, best of all, FREE!
Our top pick is Canva
Online Survey Tool
Always follow up and a couple of questions on the workshop format and your facilitation approach.
Our top pick is Typeform
Good Luck, and Thank you!
We hope you enjoyed our workshop guide. Follow us on Instagram for more simple tips on facilitating engaging workshops. Every day we share workshop ideas, practitioner tips, and design inspiration.
