Are brand workshops worth the effort? Or are they something that brand agencies facilitate, just because they’re kind of expected?
This year we’ve already facilitated a couple of brand workshops. And we’ve had some interesting conversations about them too. We’ve spoken to organisations and professionals who think they’re essential for involving stakeholders and getting their buy-in. We’ve also heard from people who think they’re an expensive waste of time.
The truth is, brand workshops can be brilliant – generating insight that’s less easy to glean through observation and interviews. They can also be extremely poor.
So how do you make sure your brand workshop gives you value?
Know what you want to get out of them
First off, you need objectives. Remember, the workshop is a means to an end, rather than an end in itself. Think carefully about what kinds of insight you need to get from the workshop – and then design it so it will give you everything you need.
Design them to deliver
If you think a workshop is just getting people to sit around a flipchart while you ask them questions, you probably aren’t going to get a lot out of the experience. So think about the kinds of activities that will get you to the insight and information you need. And don’t be afraid of being creative. We’ve incorporated all of the following exercises into corporate workshops, and they have gone down a storm:
- Getting people to talk to one another like Minions
- Asking participants to plan a garden that represents their company
- Choosing dog breeds that are most aligned with their organisation’s personality
Critically, these types of exercise come at things sideways. Because if you ask people head on: “What is the personality of your organisation?” There’s a good chance they either won’t know what you’re talking about. Or they’ll simply trot out the words they think they’re expected to say.
Plan, plan, plan
Once you’ve crafted your activities, you need to plan in minute detail. How long will it take to deliver each activity? How will you keep people’s attention? How will you make sure that participants know what you’re asking them to do?
Try to vary media (some exercises could be discussion based, others could involve making things, for example). And try to keep mixing up your groups and get people moving. We’ve found the most productive workshops are fast-moving, with a lot of variety.
But to pull this off, you have to be super-organised and detailed. Know how long it’s going to take to walk from the main room to a break-out room. Make sure people know who they’re meant to be working with, and where they’re meant to be. Print out posters beforehand, have a clipboard on you, use digital displays… anything to make sure the logistics run smoothly.
Make sure you give yourself enough time
Workshops take a surprising amount of time to plan, prepare, facilitate and report back on. Roughly, if you’re planning to run a two-hour creative workshop for 20 people, you’re going to need at least 25 hours to prepare – and perhaps another 15-20 hours to collate, rationalise and interpret all the information you gather in them.
They are extraordinarily labour-intensive things to do well. So don’t under-estimate how much time you’ll need.
Be prepared to roll your sleeves up
Facilitating workshops can involve carting a lot of heavy stuff around. And it can mean moving tables and setting out chairs. Some venues are more helpful and responsive than others – so make sure you give yourself time to set up rooms if necessary. And take a big bottle of water with you… you’ll need it.
Facilitate with patience and understanding
People have a lot going on in their work lives. And remember, they are nowhere near as familiar with the workshop content as you are. So be prepared to keep explaining, re-explaining and reframing. If people don’t understand, that’s on you, not them.
To get the most out of a workshop, you also need to be alert to strong personalities and loud voices. These people are great – and they contribute brilliantly. But as a facilitator, you need to make sure that they’re not crowding out quieter voices.
If you can see a slightly unbalanced group, step in. Ask people to contribute. And then rotate the bigger voices out into other groups, so that you’re mixing things up and giving everyone a chance to express their views, ideas and experiences.
Collate feedback
Your workshop has been delivered. Everyone took part and you think you’ve got some quality input. Yay!! Now you need to draw all of that information together and make sense of it.
At Wordtree, we like tables and frameworks. Use the tables to gather feedback by theme. Spreadsheets can help you to group similar sentiments or comments, so that you can build them into the work you’re doing.
We also create workshop reports – because our clients are usually really interested in hearing what their colleagues think, feel, want, fear – or feel excited by. Again, give yourself time to do this, because it takes ages.
Review and learn
It’s really worth carrying out a retrospective. What worked well? What did participants struggle with more? What kinds of activities elicited brilliant information? And which were fun, but didn’t really give as much as you thought they might?
Be honest. Document what could work even better next time. And keep raising the bar.
Want support with a workshop?
If you want workshops that involve your teams and give you quality insight, reach out. We’d love to hear all about what you want to achieve.