Book review: The Workshop Survival Guide
March 2023
Recommended: Yes
Why read it? Short, quick read, but thorough. Whatever issues you might have as a facilitator, thereâs a straightforward model for how to improve them in this book. Also, great stories.
Notes:
Donât do icebreakers, they can feel like work. Design an educational activity that accomplishes the same purpose (help people get comfortable with each other).
Except where necessary, donât ask the class to do things that donât benefit them, e.g. âRaise your hand if you âŚâ Over time these requests erode goodwill.
Workshop design starts with âwhoââwhat are your studentsâ roles, experience levels, motivation (or compulsion) for attending, concerns, and potential objections?
(Just ask the event organizer to answer these questions :)
Breaks conserve energy. Schedule them first.
Secretly plan for an early ending if the workshop is longer than ~2 hours.
You can typically fit 2-3 learning outcomes in a 90-minute chunk, ~6 in a half day, ~12 in a full day. But ⌠you might not need 12 learning outcomes, so maybe spend more time on fewer :)
Teaching formats! Lecture, small group/pair discussions, âtry it nowâ (hands on exercises), scenario challenges, Q&A
- Change format at least every 20 minutesâtoo long in any one format starts to drag
- Match format to what youâre teaching (donât lecture yoga)
Typical workshop is several lectures alternated with other, more engaging formats.
Lectures are good for delivering book knowledge, examples, theories, and for preparing for / synthesizing after an exercise.
Every lecture should be paired with an exercise on the same topic.
Small group discussion questions should be clear, and clearly postedâbut with no single right answer. 2-5 minutes of discussion is right, but the total exercise will take more like 10-15 minutes total.
Groups are good for exposure to new perspectives, pairs are good for coming up with ideas and working through problems.
Q&A is slow paced, and only interactive for the one person asking a question. So it can drag. Use it as a buffer so you can delete it if you need extra time. Schedule one ~5min Q&A per learning outcome.
If youâre going to poll the class, use a dot vote or post-up (so everyone gets a voice). Dot vote: put options on the wall, everyone gets X dots to allocate.
Post-up: ask a question, everyone writes an answer on a post-it and puts it on the wall. (Good for âWhat are you hoping to get out of this session?â at the very beginningâthen come back to unanswered questions during Q&A.)
âTry it nowâ exercises are for building skills related to the knowledge shared in lectures. Break them up into small, atomic tasks that help students move confidently toward mastery. (They will not reach mastery in a single workshop, donât try.)
Scenario challenges are for building judgement. Give them a scenario, then 1 or more challenges that require making a judgement call, documenting it, possibly sharing it. Note that a multi-challenge exercise actually goes from lecture to small group, to class discussion.
Planning your workshop:
- Schedule breaks
- List learning outcomes
- Check for any learning outcomes that must be taught in a specific format; plan that first
Tag each learning outcome and supporting element as âK/S/Wââknowledge (lecture), skill (âtry it nowâ), wisdom (scenario challenge).
Plan on 5-15 minutes per exercise.
Variables to consider when designing an exercise:
- Prompt/task
- Group size
- Task time limit
- Facilitation extras (stand and share, class discussion)
- Supporting materials
- Total exercise time
Be minimalist af with slides. Spend < 1hr building the deck. All you need are:
- Summaries of learning outcomes & supporting elements
- Exercise prompts (at least 1 per exercise)
- Resource lists (ppl love these)
Re: slides, put the message in the title (not the topic).
On attendee count: Think of yourself as a party host. <= 12 ppl is a dinner party, youâll talk to everyone (but not all the time). 12-20 is a birthday dinner, youâve got to stand up and yell to get everyoneâs attention. 20-50 is a house party, not much personal contact but youâre creating an experience. 50+ is a wedding, needs way more structure, stage + microphone, hard to get individual attention.
Crowd control: for <= 30 attendees, deal with each issue at the individual level.
E.g. if class is doing group work and misunderstanding the prompt, you can just walk from group to group and clarify. (Assuming < 10 groups)
Same thing âď¸ for âa few ppl ignored the instructions.â Just go talk to them.
âGo individualâ during every exercise. Walk the room, watch and listen.
Breaking people into groups: set up the venue with cabaret seating with six people per table, and find a home for anybody whoâs isolatedâbefore telling anybody what to work on.
Avoid lecture hall seating if at all possible.
For > 2 hour-long workshops, consider rearranging groups at each break. (But be sure to warn everybody about switching seats.)
To deal with alpha âtalk over everybodyâ type, sit down with the group and cut them off as necessary to make space for others to talk.
For stand and share, just call on two or three groups. Start with someone you know is happy to share and has something to say. This sets the tone.
Ask them to stand up and face the class.
If somethingâs personal or touchy, you can ask âDid you hear anything interesting?â and prompt with âTell us about it (you donât have to tell us who said it).â
Questions about the experience of the exercise are good too (âHow did that feel? Kind of awkward? Totally normal.â)
Eloquent answers come from preparing a list of stories OMG
Just write a list of unusual case studies, funny anecdotes, heroic struggles, fuckups, wins, etc. When someone asks you a question, pick a story and tell it.
More crowd control: If theyâre noisy and distracted, just start. Go up to the front of the room and start talking in circles until they tune in.
Another possibility: Call for a stand and share. This grants you the moral high ground to tell everyone to STFU.
Set expectations for âď¸, e.g. âIâll give a 3 minute warning when breakâs almost over, and at 11:15 Iâm gonna start talking.â
Talk to individuals when corralling people back from a break.
Never harrass someone for being late.
The solution for most workshop problems is âtalk to individuals.â
When placing an isolated participant in a group, make sure not to walk away until theyâre accepted and contributing.
If someone is hostile, put them on a pedestal and highlight their expertise.
When running late, delete a Q&A. If thatâs not possible, you can recover 5 minutes by deleting an anecdote, or an exercise followup discussion. You can recover 10-15 minutes by deleteing a whole exercise (bad), or 20-30 minutes by deleting a whole learning outcome.
Do not stand behind your laptop. Come stand in front of it.
Getting help: Co-teachers run a chunk of the workshop, expert guests do Q&A or lectures, facilitation helpers assist during exercises, operational helpers fix tech & facility stuff.
If co-teaching, make it clear whoâs teaching what section so you donât get in each otherâs way.
If you have an expert guest, donât count on them to deliver a learning outcome. They should complement the learning outcome instead. If they get way off track, turn their lecture into an interview.
When disaster strikes: If you stay calm, let the class know how they can keep moving forward, and manage to deliver learning outcomes, itâs fine. Nobody cares.
Reduce workshop fragility:
- Simplify facilitation requirements wherever you can
- Bring what you need (donât rely on the venue for stuff you can carry in yourself)
- Be proactive about verifying the stuff-you-canât-carry, and/or be prepared to go without it