What are some effective ways to structure your workshop content and activities?

I usually start with some warmup exercises to get people into their "creative zone" and help them relax. At that point, we discuss individual and group goals and start a conversation around the similarities between their goals and the other people in the group to build constructive collaboration. I "read the room" and determine what type of activities or exercises blend well with the group's style. We try on different approaches and stay in the big picture later drilling down to specific actionable steps.

It’s important to have people element in slides to evoke emotions, inspiration in the audience, in addition to vision, logic, and details in the content. Secondly, to have activities that participants can’t wait to try out after learning of the new framework in the workshop is essential.

Each agenda item will have a topic. And each agenda item will likely have a desired outcome. i.e., we are going to spend an hour on Topic A. Why? Because we expect an outcome of that hour on Topic A. The challenge is to know what activity will result in the desired outcome. We can stand in front of a group and talk about “A”, but what is the activity that leads us to that outcome? A SWOT, pairwise comparison, brainstorming, etc.? In a workshop there is likely a series of topics that need activities to lead to a series of outcomes for the total workshop outcome to be reached. This is the mastery of setting up an effective workshop.

From my experience I found that the experience of knowledge co-creation creates the best engagement and learning, both for you as the facilitator and for the participants. Therefore each segment of the presentation I make sure that there is an interactive part - such as a question to the public through discussion, or writing down their ideas, or writing down on a board. Today these elements are made super easy with tools such as vevox or online boards (miro, jamboard, etc.).

I love this idea of being both creative and cerebral and translating vision into practical steps to take. Thereafter we memorialize their experience into a practical physical series of reminders to guide their goals into reality.

One of the things I have found helpful in delivering engaging workshops is tailoring the workshop to a variety of learning styles. Every individual is unique and everyone brings with them a unique way they learn. Learning styles can be visual, auditory and kinesthetic. Workhops can be designed to meet those diverse learning needs. Visual learners enjoy pictures, images, and handouts. Auditory learners enjoy presentations and dialogue. Kinesthetic learners enjoy hands-on activities and working with objects. I have found when I address these learning styles, the workshop is more meaningful to the participants.

Too much text on each slide kills engagement and slows down the learning process. Try using the 5/5/5 rule when creating your slides. → No more than 5 WORDS per line of text → No more than 5 LINES of text per slide → No more than 5 text-heavy SLIDES in a row This way, participants can focus on what you are saying. And they won't be tasked with trying to read while listening. 🧠 Engagement and learning increases. ⬆️ 😔 Frustration and disengagement decreases. ⬇️ 🎉 And everyone wins!

Consider your container. Is your workshop virtual? In person? Will the participants know each other beforehand? Is it a group of strangers? Establishing a container in which everyone feels valued and emotionally safe will make all of the difference for participation. You might think about adding a co-created agreement to the front of your workshop establishing guidelines for how participants will interact with one another.

Something that can often make a huge difference and overall impact is space! How does it look like? Is it dark or well lit? Also, including all the senses of the participants can be a huge added bonus that can make the content stay in their heads for longer - placing a nice smell with candles or insent sticks, or putting on good music has for me been a huge influence.