Short corporate workshop ideas
April 10, 2015 5:43 PM Subscribe
Our team hosts a monthly forum get-together for team members at a similar stage of development. I'm hosting the next one (which is more informal), and I'm at a loss about what I should do. What are some 60 minute-ish corporate workshoppy things with general skills you have done that were actually useful?
This particular group encompasses mostly mid-career people (say 5-12 years experience), in a very large corporation. The group are Organisational Change Managers, though there are also a couple of communication people like me.
Do you have any ideas? I'm not looking for an MBA in 60 minutes, just a kind of trick or idea or technique that might enhance or work as facilitators of big projects and the business units they affect.
Things that might be useful:
- Project-type methodologies. For example, we often work in Agile environments The team is across most agile techniques, but something else in that space could be interesting. We recently did a workshop about "Change Canvasses" for example, that was quite good.
- human relationship stuff. Negotiating workshops, managing stakeholders and keeping your cool, etc etc
- open to a bit of role play or something.
We've already done things like basic communications skills, polling and metrics, communicating for web.
Got any other ideas or experience for this group that I can do in around an hour? Thanks!
This particular group encompasses mostly mid-career people (say 5-12 years experience), in a very large corporation. The group are Organisational Change Managers, though there are also a couple of communication people like me.
Do you have any ideas? I'm not looking for an MBA in 60 minutes, just a kind of trick or idea or technique that might enhance or work as facilitators of big projects and the business units they affect.
Things that might be useful:
- Project-type methodologies. For example, we often work in Agile environments The team is across most agile techniques, but something else in that space could be interesting. We recently did a workshop about "Change Canvasses" for example, that was quite good.
- human relationship stuff. Negotiating workshops, managing stakeholders and keeping your cool, etc etc
- open to a bit of role play or something.
We've already done things like basic communications skills, polling and metrics, communicating for web.
Got any other ideas or experience for this group that I can do in around an hour? Thanks!
This game was pretty useful for teaching my team about cultural differences, and 60 minutes is just about right.
posted by frumiousb at 10:23 PM on April 10, 2015
posted by frumiousb at 10:23 PM on April 10, 2015
Cover Meredith Belbin's work roles or DeBono's Six Thinking Hats. Both have been pretty helpful in team dynamics for me in the past. You can cover either of these within an hour.
posted by cross_impact at 4:37 PM on April 11, 2015
posted by cross_impact at 4:37 PM on April 11, 2015
Best answer: I do this fairly often in my work and I find that workshops that centre around gaining a connection to customers, users, or potential customer/users, can be both challenging (in a good way) and highly rewarding well after the end of the workshop.
One method that has been fantastic, although it requires some homework a few weeks prior, is using a camera study. I've written about it in more detail, so I'll just link to it here.
I'll also add a link to my tips on designing an effective workshop. Hopefully you'll find some useful tips.
posted by qwip at 5:29 AM on April 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
One method that has been fantastic, although it requires some homework a few weeks prior, is using a camera study. I've written about it in more detail, so I'll just link to it here.
I'll also add a link to my tips on designing an effective workshop. Hopefully you'll find some useful tips.
posted by qwip at 5:29 AM on April 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: I am running the camera study on Friday! I'll be sure to check back in and let you know how it went. Thanks very much for the idea qwip, it's perfect for this kind of thing and much more accessible/fun than the "how to run a pre-mortem" idea I was toying with!
posted by smoke at 3:16 PM on April 13, 2015
posted by smoke at 3:16 PM on April 13, 2015
Response by poster: Update: So I ran the camera studies session on Friday, and though I wasn't sure if it would be, it was received really well by the team. :)
I positioned is as an alternative for using personas, and as a way of embedding a [internal] "customer" mindset in projects and support functions - as they can sometimes get lost, or personas built to fit a solution not vice versa.
We did a mini, bastardised version with three of the change managers, with others interviewing. And even in that weakened version, it was intriguing to see the common themes emerge, and the photo takers themselves were surprised at some of the things they said when looking at their photos and thinking about them.
It was also a very powerful reminder to the team of how many important workplace things occur outside of work, or beside it. Great reminder of how work takes place in a complex ecosystem and in a business setting, our opportunities to influence or change those things may be limited.
Thanks again Qwip, that was a terrific activity.
posted by smoke at 2:29 AM on April 20, 2015
I positioned is as an alternative for using personas, and as a way of embedding a [internal] "customer" mindset in projects and support functions - as they can sometimes get lost, or personas built to fit a solution not vice versa.
We did a mini, bastardised version with three of the change managers, with others interviewing. And even in that weakened version, it was intriguing to see the common themes emerge, and the photo takers themselves were surprised at some of the things they said when looking at their photos and thinking about them.
It was also a very powerful reminder to the team of how many important workplace things occur outside of work, or beside it. Great reminder of how work takes place in a complex ecosystem and in a business setting, our opportunities to influence or change those things may be limited.
Thanks again Qwip, that was a terrific activity.
posted by smoke at 2:29 AM on April 20, 2015
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posted by Stewriffic at 6:09 PM on April 10, 2015