Remote workshops: prototype a new way to collaborate
How to make an engaging remote work session the catalyst for ongoing co-creation
In the last few weeks, we’ve received more questions than usual around crafting impactful, remote design thinking workshops.
We have mixed feelings about this; design thinkers have long fought the perception that design thinking only happens in workshops. Part of what makes them so transformative is that they offer a form of alternate reality, where an entire team is focused in intense collaboration, around a specific problem — and nothing else. When teams leave the workshop, elements of that model of co-creation should continue on an ongoing basis, even without everyone huddled around the same physical whiteboard.
This ongoing collaboration — rather than sticky notes and a catered lunch — is what truly allows teams to deliver impactful outcomes for the people they serve.
That being said, there’s no denying that workshops can be a powerful tool in a team’s human-centered way of working. A great workshop can act as a catalyst for real behavior change, and we have some guidance on how to do them well based on IBM’s years of experience collaborating as a globally-distributed company.
Transitioning from in-person to remote workshops
The workshop fundamentals don’t change
The 2 most important aspects of a design thinking workshop still hold true: the problem to be solved and the people you’re bringing together to solve it.
These 2 aspects — the problem and the team — are foundational to any workshop. It is even more important to have them clearly defined when conducting a remote workshop. People need to understand why they’re there and what problem they are solving. As the facilitator, project manager, or leader planning the session, make sure you align everyone around a shared goal in advance of the session.
You still follow many of the same working patterns and facilitation considerations as an in-person session. How is the team diverging and converging? How are you building moments to observe, reflect, and make? Where should the team pause and dig deeper?
Prepare, prepare, prepare — because everything else is different
In an in-person workshop, you have flexibility to pivot and change your approach if something goes sideways. You naturally have a more captive audience when everyone is in the same physical space. In a remote workshop, it’s much easier to “lose the room”. Attendees can easily go on mute, start checking email, generally disengage, or even leave the session altogether.
As you prepare, focus on these 3 foundational elements:
1. Tools and technology
In remote sessions, your tools can make or break your workshop. As a facilitator, it’s important to consider the technology you and the workshop team have access to, as well as what technology participants are familiar with. If you’re introducing new tools, you’ll need to build in plenty of extra time to account for the learning curve as well as backup options if the tech doesn’t work for any reason (access issues, cloud-based tool outage, connectivity, participants joining only from a land line, etc.). Accounting for technology access and back up plans is even more important if you’re collaborating with people outside of your own organization.
For instance, one IBM team found while preparing for a client workshop that many participants worked in an area where power outages occurred frequently. The team planned to switch to mobile devices and mobile hotspots if they needed to.
For ideal engagement, you’d have your group seamlessly blend the use of video conferencing, live visual collaboration tools (Mural, Box, Google Drive, etc.), and a central text conversation space (Slack, Microsoft Teams, video conferencing chat box, etc.). Make sure everyone confirms they can access the tools you plan to use beforehand.
Nothing is more frustrating for participants in a remote setup than if things fall apart. If clients and colleagues have a negative first experience, you probably won’t get a second chance.
Tips:
· Plan a brief pre-meeting to discuss expectations and onboard participants to the tools and technologies, so when your actual session starts, everyone can jump right in.
· Use video conferencing whenever possible. It helps you engage in real conversation using non-verbal communication cues that get lost in voice-only interactions.
· Set up all of your activities and workspaces ahead of time. Include clear, step-by-step instructions as well as illustrative examples of what to do. Assume that participants won’t remember anything you say.
· Bring in 2 facilitators — at least. Assign 1 facilitator or leader per breakout group to help keep the team on task. Assign a “technical coordinator” to support logistics, questions, and challenges around technology.
2. Approach and agenda
For all workshops, you need to carefully craft the agenda to achieve the intended outcome and create an engaging experience for participants. Your agenda becomes even more important when you’re remote; it’s more difficult, but not impossible to pivot.
Unlike with in-person workshops, we strongly discourage full-day sessions. No one wants to sit on a conference call for 8 hours. Instead, break up the session over multiple days, especially if you have participants from different time zones. For example, you could break up two full days over 5 days with 3-hours each. However, as you make time estimations, expect that each activity will take 2–3 times longer than it would if you did it in-person.
That said, remote workshops give you more flexibility. You’re not constrained to the 2–3 days when everyone is physically there, and it’s more logistically feasible for real users to participate. We recommend you only spend a few hours total in full group session and have smaller breakout groups for deeper ideation, prototyping, or synthesizing. State clear directions before you break out, and to come back together as a full group to align on where the breakout groups arrived.
Communicate more than you think you should. Reiterate the agenda, how and why each activity builds on the last, any “ground rules,” details of each activity, incremental insights the group comes to, what’s expected next and by when — all of it.
Tips:
· Clearly distinguish between silent ideation time, group breakout discussions, and full group Playbacks.
· Build in time for breaks. Don’t just assume you’ll squeeze them in.
· Plan workshop hours with everyone’s time zone in mind.
3. Engagement
So, once you’ve tested out all the technology and planned the perfect approach, the only thing that’s left is to keep people engaged.
Make no mistake, it’s harder for individuals to focus for long periods of time on digital mediums. There are numerous distractions on their laptops, and unlike in an in-person session, you obviously can’t just ask people to put their devices away.
At the start of the session, remind everyone of the goals, the agenda, and how this differs from a usual video conference.
When you’re physically in a room together, there is a natural energy the group feeds off of, and it’s easy to glance around to “read the room.” If you have the ability to use video conferencing, encourage people to keep their camera on. Also, if you’re on a video conference, establish a visual cue like a thumbs up or down for agreement or disagreement. That way, you can tell when people start to get distracted. This also builds in more non-verbal communication — which helps keep quieter voices seen and heard.
Encourage movement and walking away from the screen. Don’t go more than an hour without at least a 5–10-minute break.
Be intentional about the interactions you plan during the day. Don’t make any presentations more than 15 minutes or Playbacks more than 2–3 minutes. Spend most of the time asking open questions and running activities. In general, don’t spend longer than 15 minutes on each next interaction, question, or activity step.
Make it clear from the beginning that participants will leave the workshop with clear next steps. Nothing keeps people more engaged than knowing why their work matters.
Tips:
· Write down how often people speak to ensure that a single voice doesn’t dominate the discussion.
· Create a back channel where you can communicate with the other facilitators to coordinate facilitation.
· Create a chat space for people who may not feel as comfortable speaking out loud where they can contribute to the workshop and ask questions. Assign one co-facilitator to monitor the chat and raise any relevant points to the full group.
Bringing remote co-creation to your day-to-day work
As you’re transitioning to fully remote work, it’s an opportune time to use the unique benefits of a remote workshop to make this way of working stick.
When working face-to-face, the intensity of engagement and co-creation during a workshop is extremely high. However, this energy struggles to sustain itself when you go back to day-to-day work.
In contrast, a remote workshop better integrates design thinking with the team’s way of working. In order for a remote workshop to succeed, a lot of the true design thinking “work” has to happen in between sessions. Instead of magical moment, this is a prototype for how a team can work on an ongoing basis.
As you plan the workshop, consider how this way of working extends into your team’s regular operations. Take time at the end of the workshop to discuss how to weave the cadence of observing, reflecting, and making into your work. Finally, make someone responsible for keeping a human-centered focus going forward.
In reality, no one is perfect the first time they start collaborating remotely. We’ve been working at this for a long time at IBM and still continue to learn along the way.
If you want to discuss how you might help your teams innovate and collaborate in a suddenly remote environment, email us at designthinking@us.ibm.com.
