Workshops: what’s at stake

Workshops are a huge investment.

Planning. Communicating. Promoting. Facilitation. Reporting. Evaluating.

What do you reckon a 3-hour workshop costs you?

I’ve calculated about $30,000 – and I think that’s conservative.

It covers me and the team I usually work with at an organisation to scope, design, plan, facilitate, report and evaluate. I’ve averaged out my client’s salaries from executive, to manager to team member. Add venue, catering and other logistics - it all adds up.

And that doesn’t count the participants time – assuming that they are community members. It’s more if it’s a staff or stakeholder workshop. I reckon their salaries add another $5K or so.

The financial cost of a workshop is one thing. If a workshop is disengaging, unproductive and ineffective, add the costs of having to do it again.

Then there are the longer-term costs of delayed decisions, undermined trust and damaged reputation.

There is a lot at stake with workshops and good design is key to their effectiveness.

So, I was thrilled with the turnout at my first Backstage 'lunch and learn' about workshop design last week. Hats off to a group of people who made the time to share the challenges they have with workshop design, what’s worked for them and what could be better.

There seemed to be a general sense that most of their workshops need a ‘service’. None are broken down or beyond repair. But left much longer, they could be.

I like a fun workshop as much as anyone, but we don’t run them for entertainment. They are for making decisions, debating solutions to problems and collaborating on ideas.

Even after my years of experience designing and facilitating them, there is not an ‘off the shelf’ package that works. Each workshop needs its own design. That can take 1 hour, 1 day or 1 week – depending on complexity and the shared understanding in an organisation.

There’s not one solution, but there’s a framework, a model if you like, that has worked consistently well for me and my diverse clients over the years. Getting the design right is the foundation for an engaging AND productive workshop that delivers the outcomes you need.

It's my focus for 2021. I want to help my clients, my blog readers – my community - nail their workshop design.

So I’m offering a Backstage Masterclass series. The first one kicks off on 23 February. Every Tuesday for 4 weeks, 12pm – 1.15pm. We’ll unpack the four key areas of workshop design: why, who, where and what.

If you’re ready to design workshops that hum, here’s the link to register.

You may have to move quickly. It’s only for 8 people. I want to be able to deep dive into your particular challenges. Early bird offer closes 9 February.

I’d love to have you there.