In summary

How can you make workshop exercises easier for the participants?

In this video, I'm gonna share two tips that make it easier for participants, especially when there are a lot of participants, to understand the workshop exercises that you will give.

Tip number one. Use a Canvas.

A canva is like a template that people can fill. There are many such canvases that already exist.

You might know the business model Canvas Empathy Map the value proposition design. These look like templates with clear questions and sections where you have to put the content in.

To explain the value of canvases, let me first go back a few years ago. When I was about 12 years old, we had a new drawing and arts teacher.

In his first class, he said, take a piece of paper, take a pen, close your eyes. And while you have your eyes closed, make some scribbles on that piece of paper.

Now you're done, and now open your eyes, look at your piece of paper.

This is your art project for the next four weeks. This teacher knew really well that there is the fear of starting when there is nothing yet there.

Canvases help a lot for that. They give you something already on the sheet of paper so that it is easier to get started.

Yes, there are a lot of canvases that already exist that you can take as a basis for your workshop exercises. But You can also create your own canvases. And this is something that I do more and more these days.

These canvases can be as simple as something that fits on an A4 sheet or as big as a poster where four different people or five people can work all together on the same idea.

A few months ago, I had to facilitate a workshop with 130 people. Yes, that's a lot of people. And for that occasion, we developed a custom made canvas that we printed on huge paper boards.

By having on this canvas each time the exercise title and the question that had to be answered at each moment. It was pretty easy to onboard 130 people at the same time and have them all focused on the one task that they had to do at the moment.

And if they got lost, they still have the canvas to help them because the information was written directly in there.

Tip number two. Use visual briefings.

Giving a clear assignment or briefing or explanation for the exercise that is to come is obviously really important.

But to make this even more easy for the workshop participants, It's important to have that explanation visible throughout the whole timing of that exercise.

This ensures that when, in the middle of an exercise, people slowly get a bit lost, they can look back at the slides and see: oh, but that was the goal that we had to pursue. So let's refocus on that.

But how do you create one of those very visual briefings?

Here is an example of a slide that I used within that number 30 people workshop that I did a few months ago.

First, there is a written description of the task that is given to the team.

Then I show where on the canvas people should take their notes to make that task happen.

Third, I show how much time people have for this task.

Of course, I show concrete examples of what I expect and what people shouldn't do.

And finally, I remind the ground rules that we have for this workshop.

To make workshop exercises easier for participants, especially when there are a lot of them, kill the blank sheet syndrome by using a canvas of your own or one that you have stolen.

In addition to your oral briefing, make sure you have a visual briefing that is very precise and that also shows what people should do and shouldn't do.