Wicked Workshops

2006-10-05T15:09:00.000-07:00

What makes a GOOD workshop:

Clear purpose and objectives
Strong facilitator
Engagement of participants
Clear process and structure
Good use of physical space
Collaboration between participants
Short burst sessions
Strong and quick follow-up
Good time management
Effective planning and preparation

2006-10-05T15:08:00.000-07:00

What makes a BAD workshop:

Unclear objectives
Lack of structure and preparation
Lack of participant involvement
Poor facilitator
Slide presentations / lecture
Poor time management
Not fun
Egos
Inflexibility of process
No follow-up

2006-10-05T15:07:00.000-07:00

Moderated Comments on this Blog.

So, for some reason, even though the setting for moderating comments is 'off', they are still being sent to the moderator - me.

I don't want to do that - I hate moderation, this is an open discussion and I'll rectify as soon as possible.

Bear with - but keep it going!

2006-10-04T02:58:00.000-07:00

Fun is self-explanatory

Wicked Workshops should:

be original to differentiate from other meetings
be physical to get people more active
be memorable so participants remember you and what was discussed, so that they can evangelise the output
take risks to get the creative juices flowing but plan for what might go wrong and mitigate against this

At the Euro IA conference we tried to make the workshop session fun by:

taking a huge risk by running a workshop of this size, but we mitigated this with lots of prep
getting more poeple to move around and get away from their desks
getting everybody to stand up and make a teapot
having a bit of pressure music to encourage focus and give more of an atmosphere

2006-10-04T02:56:00.000-07:00

C is for Credible

Wicked Workshops must:

ensure that the process is clear to the particpants
ensure that participants have faith in the facilitator and the process
ensure that people trust the output
ensure buy-in from the particpants

At the Euro IA conference, we tried to ensure the process was credible by:

explaining the objectives and goals within the handouts and in our "What this session is and isn't" intro ramble
explaining the process for sessions verbally and written on the sheets
keeping the partcipation sessions relatively simple
using multiple facilitators to help explain the process and keep people on track

2006-10-04T02:53:00.000-07:00

I is for inclusive

Wicked Workshops must:

limit the effects of hierarchy
handle difficult people
encourage particpation from all
break the ice between participants

At the Euro IA conference we tried to ensure that the workshop sesison was inclusive by:

breaking people into smaller groups and using muleiple facilitators
encouraging everyone to contribute
asking people at the back to swap with people at the front
allowing people to add post-it notes if they didn't want to shout out
setting up this blog to get more feedback from those not present or less comfortable with talking in the group

2006-10-04T02:52:00.000-07:00

P is for Practical

Wicked Workshops must:

be focused on practical tasks that produce actionable output
develop solutions for relevant problems
have tangible outputs

At the Euro IA conference, we tried to make the workshop session practical in the following ways:

gathering data on what makes a bad and good workshop with the sheets of paper to supplement the survey we are conducting
broke people off into different groups to generate ideas of hjow to make workshops epic fun so that we could share the data with the wider community
got people talking about workshops in breakout groups

2006-10-04T01:43:00.000-07:00

E is for Engaging

All workshops should engage all participants involved for the duration of the session. In fact, they should be engaged before during and after the session.

People should know why they are there
People should know what their contribution should be
Time Pressured
Participants should be well prepared

In our workshop at the EuroIA we attempted to do this in a number of ways:

We framed the session with a small piece of pre-thought
We tried to inject some energy into proceedings
Two of us facilitated to keep it fresh
We had break out exercises
We used music
We used NO powerpoint slides
We attempted to involve people who were quiet
We drew out content from as many people as we could
We prepared
We prepared
We prepared

2006-10-02T03:33:00.000-07:00

So - What did you think of our session and the framework of EPIC-Fun?

We captured the audio if you want it, just let us know and we'll stick it up on the LBi ftp server.

/Warren

2006-10-02T03:19:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Wicked Workshops blog.

This blog has been created to encourage others to build on our thinking around wicked workshops and the content we exposed on Sunday at the Euro IA conference.

We shall be launching this blog and doing our first presentation on Wicked Workshops at the Euro IA conference in Berlin on October 1st 2006.

The idea is that everyone joins in and adds content, but to do so you need to be added as an author. To do so please email either Warren or Jason and they'll add you to the list.

In the meantime everyone can add comments.

Our intention is to start adding posts on different techniques we've used, as well as add more content about EPIC-Fun.

We hope you enjoyed the workshop we ran, we did. We'll share the content with you soon - just as soon as we get home from Berlin - our flight was cancelled you see!

2006-09-30T02:35:00.000-07:00

Please take part in our survey about Wicked Workshops - this will run for the next few weeks so contribute now