Mixed business

When I was a kid, the milk bar was the place to go for treats.

You knew you could get ice creams, milkshakes, lollies and soft drink. That’s Australian (loosely) for gelato, thick shakes, candy and soda).

You avoided the stores with the sign ‘mixed business’. They were a milk bar’s dusty cousin.

Lollies were past their use-by date, no milkshakes on offer and the soft drinks were unrecognisable brands.

Treats were a tiny part of their stock. They had a little bit of everything for those emergency after hours dashes. Yep, shops used to be closed after 5pm during the week, after 12 on Saturdays and all day on Sunday. Imagine!

A workshop with a mixed purpose feels a bit the same. There’s too much on the agenda and we get distracted and don’t have time to explore any of the ‘purposes’ in a meaningful way.

We leave dissatisfied and with half-baked outcomes. A bit like leaving those old ‘mixed business’ stores with dusty products.

I’ve lost count of the number of client briefs that have a purpose that fills up a page. It’s nobody’s fault – they are often designed by committee.

It’s why I allocate plenty of time for ‘discovery’.

Teasing out the real purpose of their engagement with community, stakeholders, partners or their staff, is a bit like finding what you’re looking for in one of those mixed business shops.

Sometimes you have to hunt around in the back. Sometimes it’s right in front of you, at the counter.

Purpose can be hidden in the ‘background’ or ‘context’ section.

It might be disguised as the third objective in a long list of ten.

Sometimes it’s stated as the outcome.

It can take time to uncover and you need tenacity, patience and sometimes courage to find it.

I sift through the brief like a miner panning for gold. Sometimes it would be easier to give up and just go with the gold dust you’ve gleaned. ‘We can work with that’, I reason to myself, and my client.

But it results in a half-baked workshop that feels as second-rate as the products in an old mixed business store.

If the briefs you write as a project team or that you get as a facilitator don’t seem to have a clear purpose, don’t give up.

First step? Put the written brief to one side and talk. On screen or in person. You will uncover purpose.

By the way, a café took over the last ‘mixed business’ shop in my area about 8 years ago. Its single minded in what it offers - breakfast and lunch. It’s been a thriving concern ever since.

If you’d like to know how to uncover purpose – from your leaders or your clients – join me at my Backstage Masterclass on workshop design.

Next one is Tuesday 20 April – Tuesday 11 May, 12pm – 1.15pm.

All the details and to register, are here.