What is a workshop?

In the world of design, innovation and creativity, workshop "are a rather effective tool or dynamic. Throughout my career, I have had to facilitate and participate in many workshops, and I can assure that they are a key tool when solving problems, generating innovative ideas and aligning teams around a common vision.

Whether you have problems in the alignment of work teams in terms of a unified vision, that you need to detect new ideas to boost your business, detect problems that make a project do not advance I invite you to read this post in which you will learnWhat is a workshop and why you should integrate it as a fundamental part of your work dynamics.

A workshop is an active collaboration space

A workshop is, in essence, a collaborative session in which a group of people meet to work on a specific topic. Unlike a traditional meeting, where discussions can be more passive, the workshop focuses on the active participation of attendees. All expose the problems, provide ideas for solving problems and pose solutions during the session itself.

This type of dynamics encourages co-creation, which means that all participants are part of the creative process. For a workshop to be effective, there should be no strict hierarchy;Each voice is important and each opinion counts.

It doesn't matter if you are the company's CEO, the head of your team or the scholar on duty. The key of a workshop is in the exchange of ideas and to take advantage of the diversity of opinions in order to provide solutions to problems.

What is a workshop for?

Workshops are especially useful in situations where it is necessary to explore new ideas, define strategies or solve complex problems. They are also ideal for aligning a team around an objective or to facilitate decision making when there are multiple opinions on the table.

This is why, the most common reasons to make a workshop include:

Generar nuevas ideas

Workshops are a particularly useful dynamic when there are creative blockages or new visions and perspectives are required to face the solution to a problem.

There are many techniques that help in the generation of ideas although one of the best known is the brainstorming that allows the mind to open and explore new creative solutions.

Definition of strategies

Sometimes, the problem that teams or organizations have is that the strategy is not clear. This is usually given because each of the team members or the organization has its particular vision and interpretation on how to carry out the vision.

A workshop raises a space in which all team members can expose their opinions with the aim of understanding the nuances in the different visions of each team member for aligning all those involved with a clear vision and a few steps ofwell -defined action.

Problem solving

A workshop helps to lift the problems that make, for example, a project does not advance. The meetings in which I have been involved in my professional career in which there are endless discussions about possible solutions to problems are innumerable.

In a workshop, the working group can devote a space of time to work actively for prototypes or in the identification of critical points to address in order to solve the problems that prevent the project from progressing.

Equipment construction

One of the roles that the workshops fulfill is cohesion and knowledge of team members. On many occasions each one is working on their things and there are no collaboration spaces that make us understand who we work with and what is the role of each of the team members.

The workshops strengthen cohesion among all team members, since when they are all involved in the joint creation process, the motivations and expectations of each of the team members are understood more clearly.

What is the role of the facilitator of a workshop?

One of the key aspects of a workshop is effective is the figure of the facilitator. This role is not to direct or control the conversation, but in guiding the process to ensure that the objectives of the dynamics and the workshop are productive.

The facilitator establishes the rules of the game, introduces the work dynamics and guarantees that all participants have the opportunity to contribute. In my experience, being a facilitator requires not only technical knowledge, but also leadership, communication and empathy skills that promote equitable participation and collaboration.

The facilitator of a workshop has to understand what the role and way of being of each of the participants in it and pave the road. There are few occasions when you find reserved people and that, to top it off, they have their boss in the session which prevents them from expressing their sincere opinion or their possible solution to the problem that arises.

What makes a workshop effective?

That a workshop is effective depends on a multitude of variables and factors but, if it had to recommend a few points would be these four.

Clear objectives

Like almost everything in life, if there is no clarity in the objectives the workshop will become chaos so, before starting, it is essential that you feel to define what you want to achieve with the session. A workshop without a well -defined purpose can quickly become a loss of time and energy for all team members.

Structured dynamics

The dynamics of a workshop have to fulfill a purpose for the defined objective. The activities that are carried out must be well designed to guide the participants logically through the problem solving process or generation of ideas.

Limited time

Workshops are usually intense and are designed to obtain rapid results. Time is limited and should be used to the fullest. Depending on the workshop you can find definitive solutions in the session itself . . . or not. In cases that are not usually because solutions that raise challenges are raised.

If you detect that the dynamics have generated challenges to take them to one side to be able to work them in another session or outside the workshop but try that the workshop does not extend over time until infinity.

Trust atmosphere

It is essential that participants feel comfortable sharing their ideas without fear of judgment. Creativity blooms in environments where people feel safe to explore new ideas.

The solutions to problems occur when there is an environment of trust to honestly lift the problems so, it is totally necessary.

A workshop is not a meeting

A workshop is not a meeting, it is a dynamic that goes much further. Workshops are a creative, dynamic and collaborative space where ideas flow, problems are solved and teams align.

Workshops are a powerful tool that, well executed and dynamized, can generate surprising results and accelerate innovation processes, problem solving and decision making.