Herewith 10 tips for how to run amazing workshops, designed for workshops containing lots of people (50+). Although designed from experience running these kinds of large group sessions, the tips should be generalisable to any kind of workshop you may have to run.
Without further ado:
#1: Split the group into teams and select a captain per team.
Pre-brief the captain and make them responsible for outcomes. This is a secret weapon and distributes your workload massively. You can choose senior folk if you like, as people will naturally fall into line and focus on the workshop and the tasks at hand, but you can make a judgement call depending on the politics of the organisation you’re working for/within.
The key with captains is to pre-brief, walk them through your exercises and intended outcomes, and make them responsible for successful execution within their team. This is like going from one or two moderators, to a whole team of moderators, and is the secret sauce to effectively running large workshops.
#2: Have one team member that just does logistics.
Take someone on your team that has no moderation/facilitation responsibilities. They must know the agenda and materials inside out and just setup/breakdown every exercise. They set the time timers and generally problem solve. This is a key team member.
The pure logistics of managing large groups can be overwhelming, and one wrong move in terms of instruction or direction can lead to chaos and anarchy so, you need all your focus to be on making sure that doesn’t happen “front office”, and your runner makes sure everything “back office” runs like clockwork. Lessening the mental fatigue on you is another key ingredient to an awesome session.
#3: Time box within exercises.
This adds momentum to your workshop — “10 minutes to complete part one!”. Constant beeps of time running out keeps everyone aligned and gives the day energy. “50 minutes to do X” in a massive group is death, avoid this at all costs.
Pro tip: If you haven’t heard of time timers before, they’re something we discovered through Jake Knapp and his sprint process and haven’t stopped using since. They’re amazing because they provide an instant visual reference for time remaining (no fiddling around with your iPhone stopwatch and forgetting to stop/start it), and are super simple to use.
4: Play music during focused work times.
A small group can work well in silence but 50+ people can’t. Once they’re muttering and looking at phones you start to lose energy and momentum. Give them something to bop along to and the time flies much faster.
Pro tip: Massive bonus points if your choice of music matches the theme of the exercise (no-one will notice, but you and your team will, and you will smile knowingly at each other and feel happy and clever).
#5: Do use non-awkward icebreakers/energisers.
I’ve had 65 dour German engineers draw each other without looking at the paper in 30 seconds and they were rolling in the aisles and re-energised after lunch. Find something simple and go for it. It really works with big groups. Jake Knapp teaches the art of a really successful high five (look at the elbow not the hand), and then has teams high five each other after every exercise. Find something simple that works for you and use it.
Pro tip: Avoid at all costs anything like “let’s all be mimes” or “just shake it all out.” People won’t forgive you for forcing them to be uncomfortable.
#6: Ridiculously detailed preparation.
True of any workshop, but especially applicable to big groups of people, you need a by-the-minute detailed script for the day with who does what, when, both front and back stage. This takes a long time and is boring, but it will save lots of heartache and stress. Do the work to make it look effortless.
Pro tip: there is usually someone in the client organisation charged with delivering a successful workshop in concert with you, and they will probably be stressing TF out. Share them on your hyper-detailed agenda and watch the relief spread across their face.
#7: Tell people exactly what to do.
Tell people exactly what to do and how. If you want to have a good laugh tell 6 teams of 8 people to rotate one place clockwise. Chaos will unfold. Make your day and instructions explicit and very difficult to misinterpret. Try to avoid winging your instructions live, the chances of people not understanding are very high.
#8: Always be capturing
One advantage of a big group is the volume of output that can be quickly generated. Take every poster/worksheet/blind drawing and have your runner stick them on the wall as you go. When your group returns from lunch they’ll be astounded at the amount of material created. Same goes for the end of the workshop, attendees will be amazed that THEY created so many ideas/outputs, and will go around snapping photos to show their team/husband. This is a win for you.
Pro-tip: If budget allows, source an illustrator to make a live illustration of your workshop. We’ve seen it become a huge talking point, and the CEO often wants to scan it and put a massive copy up in the office somewhere — another win for you.
#9: Create an incentive.
A lot of corporates are getting sick of endless workshopping, so some sort of tangible next step or outcome can help a lot. EG “At the end of the session you will all vote for the best idea, and the winning idea gets $100k funding from the company” Whether this is appropriate is another judgement call for you based on the people you’re working with, but we have seen this do wonders for big workshops.
Pro tip: if you do this there will be someone that has to foot the bill/provide the incentive. Make sure they are fully briefed and into it. If the decision maker gets saddled with an idea she hates, she will blame you!
#10: Make it fun!
Find creative ways to add energy or a bit of the unexpected. You might deliver a hyper-buttoned up super innovative workshop, but attendees will remember the fun, unusual stuff, not the rigorous important stuff, so don’t forget to include it!
Pro-tip: You don’t have to overdo this, something as simple as getting logo-branded dot stickers made, instead of just using coloured ones, can sometimes be enough.
That’s it! We hope it’s useful. This is our first attempt at a Medium article, so let us know what you think in the comments! Or hit us up on tom@chopchopstudios.com Love, team chop chop x
