Are you facilitating a workshop for the first time? Do you have experience with facilitating workshops but want learn other ways to hone your development or facilitation skills? There’s a lot that goes into a workshop, including logistics, anticipating what questions or insights may come up during your workshop, and how you will measure the workshop’s effectiveness based on participant feedback. This is Part One in a four part series on planning, facilitating, and evaluating a workshop, designed to assist you if you’re new to the world of workshop facilitation or want to find more ways to improve what you’re already doing. This week, let’s discuss some things to consider when planning your workshop.

Why workshops?

Workshops are a great way to share information with others in a short amount of time. They can be hands-on, full of discussion,  an ideas generator, connects like-minded and open-minded people, and what participants learn can be sent back to their offices, homes, campuses, or communities. The best part of facilitating workshops is seeing the “a-ha” moments participants can get, and most of the time these insights come from the participants themselves, rather than from the facilitator. I’ve been developing workshops and facilitating them for a while, and one thing is always constant:

Things probably won’t go as planned

There’s going to be some type of hiccup during your workshop. 35 participants are signed up, and only 6 are in attendance. Your workshop is tailored to participants who have a working knowledge of the topic, but when the workshop begins you see that most participants are being introduced to the topic for the first time. You were informed when you signed up that you’re allotted 90 minutes for your workshop, but on arrival to your venue, you discover that that it’s been shortened to 45 minutes. Things happen, and you need to be prepared. Here are some important things to consider: (more…)