I promised to give my tips on how to bring out the best in teams with diverse styles. That is probably a book, not just a blog post. But I’ll start with effective workshops. I’ve been in many poorly-run ones that leave all feeling like it was a waste of time. But I’ve learned from a few people, in particular Miles Hanson, at the Collaboration Company, how to run workshops that make everyone feel like they contributed.
Before you start, you have to ask yourself “What is the point of getting all these people in a room?” Is it worth the £xxxx of people’s time (add up their daily salaries) to take time out to discuss this? Is the point to..
- to agree on next steps?
- to inform or teach?
- to build a new team?
- to establish common ground between members of the group?
- to create a vision?
- to execute an agreed vision?
As a facilitator, you have to think “what will success look like at the end of this workshop?” Be realistic. My advice: only run workshops when you need people around the table to change their thinking or behaviour.
Agree Next Steps
I’ve been in so many workshops where the stated aim is “to agree next steps.” Next steps to what? Agreeing next steps usually assumes that…
- Everyone in the room currently agrees that the project/business/strategy is “here” on the map of progress. If you poll people in the room, you may find wild differences of opinion on where “here” is on progress map.
- Everyone in the room understands the underlying objective of this piece of work. Usually, people have very different motivations for buying into a project or product and those might not be in line with the publicly stated aim.
- Everyone in the room knows and accepts their roles and responsibilities towards meeting the goals of this project/product. You will find that each person may have very different perceptions of what each member of the team is contributing, including themselves.
So, my advice – never, ever, ever say that the stated aim of a workshop is to agree next steps. It is so filled with assumptions that you are bound to fail if those assumptions aren’t tested initially. Agreeing next steps should be the output of every workshop, but it shouldn’t be its “aim.”
Inform or Teach
Workshops aren’t necessary just to inform. Have a meeting, as short and punchy as possible, to make everyone aware of what you need to say. Don’t run a workshop when it isn’t necessary.
Teaching is different. Introducing a new technique or a new process can often be done very well in a workshop setting. In fact, I think it is often more effective to teach through practice then through lecturing. So, I would recommend workshops when you need to get a group of people operating or thinking in a different way.
Build a New Team
Workshops are excellent ways to build a new team. I think there is some thinking in the British culture that a team identity can be created just from going to the pub regularly together. While I became a British citizen a few years back, building teams by drinking at pubs excludes so many people that I can’t say I condone it as the sole way to build rapport. It is certainly an important element in the mix, but I don’t think it should be the primary way a team identity is forged. It leaves out sole working parents, non-drinkers, care-takers, those taking classes or going to the gym after work, long-distance commuters, or those with second jobs, to name a few.
If you are using a workshop to build a team identity, it is absolutely vital that you make it…
- fun and out of the ordinary
- physically active – gets people off their seat
- create a common sense of purpose in whatever activity you are doing
- figure out ways to strip away any hierarchy that exists in the group so everyone feels comfortable contributing
- give the team a sense of accomplishment at the end
Remember that, according to behavioural economists, most people remember the middle and the very end of a journey. So, have the new team work on building or creating something that can be completed during the session so they can feel proud of what they have done. It doesn’t necessarily have to have anything to do with your project. You could go team bowling, play rounders, cook a meal, dig a garden for charity – anything to make the team feel like they did more together than they could do alone.
Establish Common Ground
It is a good idea to have a workshop to establish common ground when those around the table are open to the idea. If you are trying to establish common ground, the unstated assumption is that the workshop participants have very different views of what is happening. There may be some anger, anxiety, and tension between various people at the table. Unless each person is prepared to listen, reflect and seek out common ground without blame, then the session may cause more harm than good.
The old adage of “we just need to bang heads together” to solve a problem often works when the core problem is siloed thinking. Do you know the parable of the blind men and the elephant? One blind man feels the elephant’s tusk and declares it to be a spear, a second feels the trunk and declares it to be a snake, a third says the knee is a tree, etc. But none see the elephant as a whole. If you have different people only seeing part of the problem, getting them together to “find the elephant in the room” is usually very productive.
But, if you are dealing with senior stakeholders who all can “see the elephant” so to speak, but have very different intentions about what direction this project or product ought to take, then be careful. Do your homework. Talk to every stakeholder individually days or weeks before the workshop, preferably face-to-face in a quiet, trusted space. Try to bring out the underlying concerns and motivations of each stakeholder. Seek to establish common ground between them before you walk into the room. Your aim should be to confirm those areas of common ground and highlight where the group agrees to disagree. Decide if the areas of disagreement are showstoppers to the project or if it can proceed. It is best to have these discussions early and often so you don’t get caught in the sunk investment trap.
Create a Vision
Workshops about creating a vision are usually called “brainstorming.” Brainstorming has been written about extensively, and there are thousands of resources online that can point you to tools and techniques that can help you create a vision for a strategy, a product, a business, etc. I’m not going to try to reinvent the wheel here. But I will make a few observations on the people front…
- Make sure that you have the right mix of people in the room – sometimes the domain experts aren’t the ones who can think laterally and pull in ideas from other sources.
- Don’t restrict yourself to internal teams. Think about inviting customers and big clients who use your services. You may feel squeamish about “exposing company secrets” but on the other hand, if they help you unlock a concept that appeals to a large swath of customers, then the up side is much greater than the downside.
- Use data but don’t be a slave to it. Data tells you what happened, not why it happened. It usually tells you what happened in the past with your current customers. It doesn’t tell you what might happen in the future with your next generation of customers.
- Don’t expect your vision to be set in stone at the end of a brainstorming session. Visions should adapt as the information changes. You should consider the vision as a pointer to help you get started on your journey. The final destination may change way the closer you get to your end point.
Executing a Vision
A workshop is a very practical way to get all key parties in a room (from development to marketing, sales, PR and customer service) to sort out who is going to do what to build, launch and manage a new product. This is often about clarifying roles, responsibilities, commitment levels and timings of each person in the room.
It is easy to miss this step and just involve the development and product teams initially because everyone else in other departments are busy with their day jobs. But, I’ve seen the difference between a product that has had buy-in and backing from all parties from inception, versus those that make their way down the product line conveyor belt and appear without due warning to operational teams. Without a doubt, getting buy-in from inception is worth the time and hassle of a few meetings and workshops.
After the initial workshop, the group usually needs to meet regularly to check status, insure that everyone is still on board, engaged and pulling their weight. If you hit a glitch where there is a significant change to expected progress or direction, then you could have another workshop if necessary to “establish common ground.”