Dispelling the top 5 myths I hear from clients about facilitator-led sessions (in defence of the 'workshop')

I had to think carefully about using the word ‘workshop’ in the title of this article as I hear it can be a trigger for some of you! If you shudder at the mere mention of a workshop, do any of these sound familiar?

“I’m still playing catch up from Tuesday, when I spent all day in a workshop”?

“Not another workshop?”?

“Did we actually do anything with the outputs from the last workshop?”?

Well, I've heard a few arguments recently for?not?having somebody external support teams to reach a conclusion, set out their Company, Brand or launch strategy or co-create their project plan. Designing and running (let’s call them ‘facilitator led sessions’ for now!) to achieve a specific objective is one of our favourite things to do here at Inspiros, and we get great feedback afterwards.??So, as we are according to our clients, ‘really good at it!”??I want to share some of the myths I’ve heard about these sessions and dispel them, as it might just be that you’re not having the sessions run in the optimum way for you, to generate the best results.?

Myth number 1: “There aren’t very many of us, it’s a small team so we’ll be OK to run this one ourselves”?

Well, yes this is an option.?However even if there are only 4 of you in the room, only 3 of you will ever be contributing at any one time.??One of you will be keeping an eye on the agenda, the time, or making notes. You won’t have anyone keeping you focused on your objectives and if you are an established team with a good relationship, the temptation to cover tangential topics will be?HUGE. Additionally, it’s difficult to document the outputs from a group session objectively when you already know what your personal ideal outcome would be. Equally, it's difficult to speak up and challenge the way someone documents a decision in a workshop when they have the power of the writing implement in their hand! This is especially true if there is a hierarchy in the room and the most senior person is scribe.??If you want to truly reach alignment, get the ‘buy in’ of the whole team and an outcome that everyone is invested in, an objective facilitator works best to allow you all to contribute.??A skilled facilitator will draw everyone into the discussion, including those who take a little longer to process their thoughts before articulating them.??These are often the most valuable opinions in the room to source.??As an introvert myself, I can assure you we don’t waste airtime on words that haven’t been thought through, and the various scenarios mapped in our heads before sharing them.

Myth number 2: An external facilitator won’t add as much value because they don’t really know our company / product /launch.??They will use a ‘cookie cutter’ approach.

This is also a myth, actually the beauty of using an independent facilitator is that they have no pre-conceived ideas about the strategy / direction / outcome.??There’s no bias in the way we facilitate you as a group.??We frequently don’t have the history of how you've worked before, or the views that you hold on this topic. We add even greater value as you get an external objective perspective, and learnings from our library of client projects worked on previously.???Our role is to ask, probe, challenge and draw all of the information out of the whole team so that you can align on the right decision.??A great facilitator will also make sure that they meet with you before the session to understand exactly what you need,??and design the workshop around your requirements.??They will ask for background info so that they can know as much as they need to about your topic. We don’t need to be total subject matter experts but we do ensure we familiarise ourselves with your progress to date and your key competitors, opportunities, challenges amongst other things. We always bring energy, and fun to the challenges we are solving in the workshop which helps to keep people focused and engaged.

Myth number 3: We don’t have everyone we need, there are a couple of people who can’t make it but we can still go ahead with the session and update them afterwards

Oh yes, we’ve all made this mistake haven’t we?! There are a few reasons why this is a?really?bad idea. It’s human nature not to want decisions made for you, your team, product or function in your absence.??If a key person can’t attend, offer them the chance to send a delegate.??If a delegate can’t attend, consider how fundamental the missing person is to the outcome of the session. It may well save you a good few days of discussion and circling back if you reschedule the workshop for a time that the whole team can make. The same principle applies if you are invited to a workshop and accept the invitation knowing that you can’t attend for the whole session.??If you are planning to ‘dip in and out’ and squeeze another meeting into the middle of the workshop, don’t be surprised if you step out during the time that a crucial decision is made that impacts you or your team. It’s unfair to then expect the attendees who have been present for the whole session to eat into the rest of the agenda time bringing you up to speed with what you missed. Commit to the process if you are invited and dedicate the full time.??The best idea is therefore to check everyone can attend and reschedule if necessary. If you have culprits who neither accept or decline calendar invitations and leave you guessing – prod them!

Myth number 4.??Workshops take up too much time, I’m too busy to attend

Our clients are often surprised when we tell them that not all facilitated sessions have to take a whole day out of their diaries.??Especially if there has been pre-work / pre-read sent out many sessions can be completed in 2 or 3 hours.??However, the time that you will SAVE by getting all of you together in a room is immense.??Think of the number of emails, Teams/Slack/Zoom messages that you will save once you know you have agreed upon a course of action and have it documented.??The emails and 1:1s will reduce as you will get consensus from the whole cross functional team and can now focus on execution. If you aren’t sure what your role is in a workshop, do get clarity with the meeting owner. However, if it’s decided your input is needed and you don’t have time to attend a workshop that provides a solution to a current priority, it’s possible you are operating on a ‘false economy’ with your calendar time e.g. not giving yourself sufficient focus time on one topic to save you more time in the future !???Other symptoms of ineffective use of calendar time include having numerous 1:1s with different people to get their opinions rather than including everyone that’s needed in one meeting and covering it all in one go, or being too busy to squeeze in a meeting that will actually help you complete the work more quickly!

Myth number 5: We don’t do anything with the outputs of our workshops

Not on our watch! If you lose momentum after your workshop and don’t refer back to the outputs, the chances are you probably didn’t all ‘buy in’ to needing the session in the first place and weren’t clear on the problem you were trying to solve. Or perhaps you didn’t capture the narrative from the workshop sufficiently in a format that everyone could follow easily. Summary outputs in a few succinct slides and a plan of how to complete the deliverables / execute the strategy, are an essential part of the gig for us. Even if we no longer have a live work order with you, we will always check in with you after the event to ensure you are executing your strategy, tracking your project plan, or sticking to ways of working that you agreed to in your workshop. Alternatively, we can offer retained support to help you deliver the outputs from your workshop whether that be a launch plan, a project plan, or a total company 3- year strategy being executed by a Leadership Team

So, what’s your next challenge that you need to get the whole team behind???From process improvement to brand / business planning, launch strategy, or a total Organisation roadmap for growth we have tackled them all ! If you would like an independent objective experienced facilitator to run your session or (whisper it quietly…) a workshop - leaving you free to fully participate in the discussion with your team get in touch we'd love to hear from you !

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www.inspirosconsulting.com