How to Run a Killer Workshop

Ok, overstatement.

This weekend I'm running an event on Starting a Business worth Building and Taking it Somewhere worth Going. I know practically nothing about the subject. But I know how to put an event on, and I know people who know the subject backwards.

As part of the program, four wonderful people are running workshops. They're all (in my opinion) pretty brilliant at what they do, but they're not all confident with actually chairing a discussion--running a workshop. So here's (some of) the advice I've just emailed to them.

• Think of a specific “who”. It helps to prepare with a specific person/case in mind. Describe to yourself how they’ll benefit from your workshop, what problem they’ll be equipped to overcome.
• ...or two.It may help to specifically think of two/three different kinds of folks: the beginner, the expert. Again, think of specific people in those shoes and imagine what they’ll be looking for from the workshop.
• Beyond “knowing”. Aim for more than your attendees just “knowing more about…”. Aim for their “gaining confidence to…”, “developing enthusiasm for…”, “becoming relaxed about…”, “feeling prepared to…”
• I'm no expert... If you don’t feel like the expert, in a workshop (especially) that’s actually fine. It can help disarm fears and get conversation rolling to make your icebreaker, “The challenge I’m facing in my business right now is…” 
• Decide in advance what's essential. The ‘body’ of your workshop will need to be elastic enough to adapt to varying levels of contributions on different topics. The key thing here is usually knowing which topics you feel you must cover, and when to simply stop conversation on topic A and move to topic B with that purpose in mind.
• Plan to use specific, prepared questions. Questions can function very well as topic-changers. e.g. “Ok, I’m going to change topic now to talk about handling criticism. Here’s a question for you: “A visibly-irritated customer walks back into your cafe and slams their take-away cup down on the counter, loudly complaining about the ‘tide being low’.” What would a bad way to handle that situation look like? What would a great way to handle that look like? Ideas?”
• For each topic, come armed with at least:
• a clear question to get the group discussing it
• your top bits of advice on the topic
• the very best example of it you’ve seen (what you aspire to)
• the pitfalls to avoid, the beginner mistakes.
• If you’re armed with those, then you’ve probably got enough for your folks to seriously grapple with.
• Which topics to include? There are two contributing factors here: 
• the needs of the workshop group (you’ll figure this out on the day). 
• the overall goal of the workshop from your point of view. This latter factor means being able to say, “Let’s talk about topic X now, because this workshop is all about W, X, Y, Z."
• Drawing a blank? Can’t think of memorable ways to put that idea? Call on your heroes. We all have our favourite people on a given topic or in a given field. Refresh your memory on how they say it and grab yourself a quote from them that you can share on the day. If your heroes live locally and you know them personally, pick up the phone. Seriously.

What have I missed? (Apart from, "Coffee").