Making the Most of Virtual Workshops

Zoom workshops are hard. Here are a few ways to make them a little easier — and dare we say, fun.

A few weeks ago, my sister participated in a week-long train-the-trainer session for the U.S. Army’s Strong Bonds Program, which she’ll be leading alongside her husband, who serves as a chaplain. To no one’s surprise, the training was on Zoom. “I don’t know how you do this all day,” she said. “I’m exhausted.” Between virtual school, virtual baby showers, and virtual holiday gatherings, we’ve all spent much of the last 12 months staring at people inside boxes, on our screens.

But this experience isn’t new to me. Pre-pandemic, Friday was established as a 100% remote team, so we’ve been perfecting the art of virtual collaboration since our inception. Although we miss in-person inflection points of a project — covering a wall with Post-its to map out opportunities and huddling in a room for hours to solve big problems — we’ve identified our best practices to make the most of a virtual workshop.

1. Share your goals.

The first step in setting up your working session for success is to name what you are hoping to get out of it: your session goals. Zoom reports that only 8% of meetings have a clearly identified agenda and a clear goal — which means the other 92% are a project manager’s nightmare. An agenda determines what you’ll talk about, which is important, but your goals determine what you hope to walk away with in the end. By defining the outcomes you aim to achieve, participants can individually visualize the outcome, and show up prepared to get there.

Keep your goals simple. There’s a time and place for SMART goals and OKRs — but this isn’t it. Try to limit your goals to three or four bullet points that answer “This workshop will be successful if ______”.

Embrace the opportunity to crowd-source your goals. Whether in a pre-workshop conversation or a short Google Form, workshop facilitators should survey attendees to surface questions or challenges that might present a roadblock if they aren’t addressed. Their responses give you an opportunity to “read the (virtual) room” and make sure your team is aligned coming into the working session.

For a recent team retreat we named the following goals:

• Build upon a vision for increasing the diversity of our clients in 2021
• Celebrate what’s working and acknowledge breakdowns; recommit to best practices
• Build our relationships with one another and inspire hope and possibility for the year ahead (a.k.a. The Friday feeling!)

2. Invite with intention.

When preparing for a workshop meant to brainstorm strategies or creative ideas, aim to include attendees who will offer a variety of perspectives. This includes a mix of roles and expertise areas, relatively new hires and long-time staff, and folks with varying professional and life experiences that offer unique points of view; at small organizations, this may mean that everyone attends. In a workshop with environmental health and justice nonprofit Coming Clean, the client team invited members of their key audiences including grassroots leaders, scientific experts, and partner organizations like NRDC and the Sierra Club. Their “outsider” perspective helped us all examine challenges and opportunities with a new lens, bringing added depth and nuance to the conversation.

By establishing a clear reason for everyone’s participation, the facilitator has a better understanding of the group dynamics and how to meaningfully engage each person. At the same time, attendees will know that you value their time and participation, and are more likely to show up with a collaborative mindset. After the workshop, you want participants to feel it was worth their time and energy.

3. Create a space for people to step outside their comfort zone.

You’ve probably heard that great ideas don’t come from comfort zones. Getting people outside their comfort zones while meeting virtually can be tough. Doing so requires trust and vulnerability, which is why we

begin workshops with a few grounding activities. First, we agree on our working norms, which as we’ve shared before, are an important part of organizational culture. Norms are “the expectations that guide our behaviors, interactions, and communication practices — from internal team meetings, informal brainstorms, to one-on-ones, and client engagements.” In a workshop setting, these norms form our intentions for how we’ll work together during that session. Revisit the norms throughout the workshop and acknowledge when you notice a norm in practice. A few examples of norms include:

• Try it on (have a growth mindset)
• Practice radical candor
• Avoid multitasking, be present
• Voice what you need
• Respect processing time; “I don’t know” is an acceptable answer

Second, we warm up with an icebreaker. If you’ve participated in a workshop with Friday, this comes as no surprise. Experts say an icebreaker can help to foster a sense of “psychological safety,” or atmosphere in which people feel free to speak up — to question, criticize, say something out-there — without fear of being ostracized. While icebreakers get a bad rep for being awkward and cringey, they don’t have to be. A few of our favorite virtual ice breakers:

• What song describes your mood today? (Share your answer in the Zoom chat)
• Change your Zoom background to the vacation you dream of taking post-pandemic
• Take a note from the Playworks’ Work Play Balance playbook — Cheesemaster, I Love My Neighbor, or Zen Counting are sure to get people moving, laughing, and ready to jump into the work.

4. Recreate that in-person feeling.

Believe it or not, we can’t wait to be back in a conference room together, covering the wall with flip charts help up with painters tape, bonding over the right way to peel a Post-it so its edges don’t curl, and sharing stories over dinner at the end of the day. But until then, we use digital tools that help recreate the feeling of workshopping together.

Miro: We use this digital whiteboard to capture concepts and conversations, complete with sticky notes, voting, commenting and mapping features. Each user can log in to Miro on their own computer and see updates in real-time (no screen-sharing required!). Miro offers a free plan and paid options. Pro Tip: Encourage participants to get oriented with Miro before the workshop.

Interactive Agendas: Maybe you’re Google Doc-obsessed like me, or maybe you’re looking for more of a lower-tech way to engage your virtual workshop team. Either way, an interactive agenda is always a good idea. We build out our interactive agendas to include typical items — topics, facilitators, and timing — and also add space for participants to jot down notes, together. For example, we’ve carved out a section in the agenda to brainstorm new marketing opportunities, followed by a virtual “gallery walk” copying and pasting emojis reactions (👍 ⭐️ 🤔 ) to flag the ideas that resonate. We also recommend a parking lot section — or a bike rack 🚲 — to capture ideas we may not have time to dive into, but want to revisit later. Make a copy of our sample Interactive Agenda here.

SnackMagic: Everyone knows that workshops require brainfood. Our latest team obsession is customized snack boxes delivered to your doorstep. Every participant can select the snacks they like, which removes the need to ask for dietary preferences. You can even buy items from products from minority-owned businesses, and bond over the snacks that were a hit or a flop. (Shipping can take days or even weeks, so plan ahead.)

5. Spend some time off-camera.

Our final step for a successful virtual workshop is to turn off your video and step away from the computer. The truth is, the best way to curb Zoom fatigue in a workshop is to make time for everyone to go off-screen. Virtual workshops need more break time than in-person workshops, especially since your standard 15-minute stretch break is too easily spent catching up on email. Skip the catered working lunch, and set aside a one-hour lunch break and stick to it, even if you’re a little behind on your agenda.

Then, plan ahead for the 2 o’clock energy slump with activities that switch up the pace. We’ve made a point to spend the afternoon sessions of our team retreats getting outside to meet in pairs with a walk-and-talk on our phones. If it’s a cold February day and going outside is a chore, find other opportunities to go off-Zoom: Ask participants to turn off their cameras for 10 or 15 minutes for an individual reflection. The more people can have time alone to recharge, the more they’ll bring back to the group, and the more successful your virtual workshop will be.

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