business planning workshop ideas

How to Facilitate a Business Strategy Workshop

Posted in Blog , Entrepreneurship , Facilitation , Innovation , Innovation , Intrapreneurship , Launch Your Business , Lead , Virtual Facilitation by Jo North

Business Strategy Workshops

This article gives you practical tips and advice for planning and delivering an awesome business strategy workshop.

I believe that business strategy sessions are one of the most important things that we do. The world around us is always changing. Businesses need to stay agile, make sure they’re ahead of the curve and in line with where the markets are going. 

It’s important to get everybody engaged and thinking differently in your business strategy workshop, and I’ll be sharing some ideas along the way about how you can do that.

What is Business Strategy and Who is it For?

A business strategy is really just an overarching plan for an organization.

Big or small, all businesses need a strategy, and the world is changing all the time. It’s important that we revisit the strategy frequently to make sure it’s on course, adjusting where necessary.

Some of the strategic plans that we make don’t actually play out over time. However, having a business strategy creates direction, helps with prioritization and gets everyone working towards achieving the same vision.  

Objectives of a Business Strategy Workshop

The objectives of a business strategy workshop are for the organization to think about what’s going on in the world outside in relation to the organization’s vision, mission and values. 

Where does the organization want to be in relation to the world around it? 

• How do you want to compete? 
• How do you want to deliver value? 
• How do you want to achieve your purpose? 

From there, realign with the customer elements.

• Who are you serving? 
• How have your customers’ needs changed? 
• How have your competitors’ activities changed over time?

This is really about setting a long-term view, but how long term depends on the industry that you’re in. 

The energy and utilities sectors, amongst others, have really long-range planning of at least 10-15 years ahead. However, if you’ve got a small business, you might be looking at just the next 1 to 5 years. 

The Opportunity

The world has never been in the place it’s in today, and I think we’re seeing a lot of unprecedented change at the moment with…

• Post COVID recovery . Organizations are working out what happens now, what the future may hold, and how we need to change in light of that. 
• Climate change . We have organizations thinking about how they can do things cleaner, better with net zero decarbonisation. 
• Technology . The availability of new technology means that customers’ expectations are changing. Digital technology also means that we can streamline internal processes for increased business efficiency.
• Social change . We are all in business to solve a problem, or problems, that our customers have. Because the world is always changing, our customers’ needs and aspirations are always changing too. We need to make sure that the business’ value proposition remains aligned with market requirements.

Sometimes organizations don’t think they need a strategy. They don’t believe they can plan for the future because of all the changes. 

However, having a strategy is about having a direction. It’s about knowing where the organization wants to be so that it can build appropriate plans that it can then flex and change on its journey to get there. 

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable. Dwight D Eisenhower

Getting Ready for Your Business Strategy Workshop

In preparing for a business strategy session, you’ll want to take the individual circumstances of each organization into account. I always establish objectives with clients ahead of time. 

• What do people need to know? 
• What pre-work is needed? 
• What information and inputs are needed for the strategy session? 
• Why are all those inputs needed? 
• Who can provide and deliver them? 
• When do we need to get them and from where? 
• What data or info needs to be shared? 

This helps delegates process the information in advance of the strategy workshop, so they come after having done some groundwork. It also means that you have any important information at your fingertips, ready to use.

Designing Your Business Strategy Workshop

Business strategy workshop activities, welcome and warm up.

There are many different icebreakers and energizers that you can do to warm people up.  My article here will give you loads of great activities that you can use. Also, you’ll find some brilliant icebreaker questions specifically for your business strategy workshop here .

Where Do We Want To Be, and Why?

I recommend that you dedicate a significant proportion of your workshop to exploring the answers to this question, using a combination of activities that I’ve shared below.

Horizon Scanning

Start off with an activity that I have created called ‘ H o rizon Scanning ’. 

Horizon Scanning is about looking forward and reading the signals of today’s significant trends and seeing how they might evolve going forward. 

When I’m working online, I ask delegates to use a virtual whiteboard in a tool such as Miro Online Whiteboard , and create an image with sticky notes for the things they think are going on in the future that will affect the organization’s strategy. 

If I’m facilitating in person, I like to have newspapers, industry publications or journals the delegates will use to find  things that they think are going to be relevant to the company strategy from outside the organization.

I have delegates break into small groups and look at the opportunities and challenges the business might have, for example, between now and the end of 2025. 

We have a discussion about what the social, technological, environmental, economic, political, legal and regulatory changes might mean for the organization in the years ahead.

Business mission, vision, values

We are still working on the question “Where do we want to be, and why?”

Now, you want to take a look at the organization’s vision, mission and values, and consider the organization’s intended place and role in the changing world.

• Where do you see your place in the world, amongst all of those things that are going on in the world outside? 
• Where do you see your  purpose, fit, place and contribution? 

If the organization you’re working with does not have a mission, vision and values , use the activities in my article here to create them.

Wouldn’t It Be Fantastic If…

Having established what’s going on in the world outside of your business and how that might impact your organization, the next stage of the business strategy workshop is to determine:

‘Given our vision, mission and values, where do we want to be and how does that relate to us?’

‘ What might a great future be like within the context of your vision, mission values and what’s going on in the world? ‘

A really simple and effective exercise is to ask delegates to do the WIFI (Wouldn’t It Be Fantastic If) activity. 

I ask delegates to complete the phrase, W ouldn’t I t be F antastic I f , as many times as they can for things that they could make happen. These need to be things they CAN make happen, not just wishful thinking! 

Once you are done with that, your strategy workshop participants select the top ones. This is where you’re really starting to envision where the organization wants to go. 

I like to use Wouldn’t it be fantastic if.. . because it’s all about possibility and imagination . It gives people the freedom and the permission to think differently, stretch themselves, and dream a little bit as well. 

Lightning Talks with Customers

Now look at how customer’s needs are changing. I’m defining customers in the loosest possible sense. If we do something for somebody else, that ‘somebody else’ is our customer.  So make sure that you’re specific about who your organization’s customers are. 

When I work with an organization, I often invite a selected number of the organization’s customers in to do something that I call a lightning talk. 

A lightning talk is designed to really spark creativity, insights and ideas. It’s fast and punchy, but it’s packed with value. The purpose is to get ideas sparking and delegates really thinking through the lens of their customers. 

I ask customers at this stage to share their thoughts, experiences and future priorities.

TIP: If you have a small business and you’re not sure how this would work for you, you can simply contact some customers and have conversations with them, get some input from them and feed that into your own strategy process.

Product /  Service Life Cycle

Next, explore the products or services that the organization is providing using the product / service lifecyle model . 

I ask delegates to plot out where each element of their offer is in the lifecycle. 

• Is it in a growth phase? 
• Are there some elements that are declining? 

This stage is important because you’re thinking through what’s working, what’s growing and what to get behind.

You may also focus on those products or services that may need another growth curve, or what you should turn off or let go in order for resources to be directed somewhere else. 

Using the product / service lifecycle tells us about customers’ behavior. It highlights what customers want, what they’re enjoying, what they’re benefiting from, and also what isn’t so popular and why. As an alternative, you can do this using the Boston Consulting Group matrix (pictured below). 

With the Boston Consulting Group matrix, you’re looking at sales and growth and plotting them in one of the four squares: Stars, Cash Cows, Dogs or Question Marks. 

• Stars – Fast growing products or services that might not be selling a huge amount of volume yet, but they’re showing some really fantastic promise.
• Dogs – Products or services that are not going anywhere and are probably not at all profitable. 
• Cash Cows – Products or services which aren’t growing a lot, but are steady and bringing in a nice profitable income. The cash cows provide the cash flow to fund innovations for stars and future cash cows.
• Question Marks – Products or services that do not seem to have a clear path for success. They could either succeed or fail. The question is do you get behind it, leave it a bit longer, or maybe put it to one side and focus on something else?

Mapping all of the business’ products and services out in this way helps to identify where the priorities might be, as well as understanding where customers are heading with their choices.

Competition

Next, explore competition with delegates to understand how well competitors are serving customers. Discuss how well competitors are showing that they might be serving customers going forward. 

I ask delegates to plot out how well competitors are performing versus themselves and give themselves a score using a visual template, such as in the image below. 

For more information and a detailed step-by-step guide on how to do competitor analysis , check out my article here and video below.

How it all Fits Together

So we’ve been divergent up to this point, and now we’re going to look at being more convergent. 

It is usually at this point that I’ll ask delegates to do a SOAR analysis. SOAR stands for Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations and Results. 

Related Article: Appreciative Inquiry for Facilitators

In a SOAR analysis, I’ll ask the team to think about and work through the following:

• The organization’s greatest assets – people, money, the brand, ways of working, products, services, networks, supply chain, and many more things. 
• Key opportunities coming from the outside world from the earlier horizon scanning activity.
• Internal weakness – these can be converted into a strength internally, so that could be an opportunity for growth.
• Mapping out and consolidating their aspirations from the WIFI activity above.
• Identify the measurable results that they want their strategy to achieve. 

This is where you are bringing everything together from all the activities that the team has done so far. Pull them into one place to create a consolidated SOAR analysis. 

Potential Solutions

We now know where we want to be, where we are and what we have to work with. But, how are we going to do that and create competitive differentiation? 

There are so many different tools that I use for this. One really good one is the Four Actions Framework from the Blue Ocean Strategy suite of tools. 

So the next activity is about asking the team to think through what they could: 

The idea is to eliminate or reduce things without negatively impacting the customer experience. 

These simple questions are really fantastic at prompting great strategic thinking and you get lots of ideas from that which you prioritize.  

Action Plan

The last thing is to create an action plan.  

• What’s the action?
• Who’s going to do it? 
• When does it need to be done by?

You want everybody to leave the business strategy workshop being superclear about where the organization’s heading. This includes what it means for customers and where the competitive differentiation is going to come from. Also, on what the organization needs to put in place and start doing in order to make that happen. It’s important too to have a clear segue into actually getting there. 

If you’d like our help with designing and facilitating your business strategy workshop , either virtually or in-person, please do get in touch. We’d love to help.

If you’re interested in facilitation and developing your professional practice as a facilitator, I’d love you to come and  join me in my free, private Facebook Group, Idea Time for Workshop Facilitators . As well as a fantastic community of likeminded people, you will get access to free facilitation trainings, tools, techniques and time savers.

If you’d like to book us to deliver some professional virtual facilitation for you and your team, or would like a one-to-one virtual facilitation training and coaching session,  find out more about what we do here . Contact me direct using the form below. I’ll get straight back to you.

Hope to hear from you soon 🙂

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How to Facilitate a Strategic Planning Session [2024 Strategic Planning Workshop]

By Ted Skinner

Annual & Quarterly Planning

At Rhythm Systems, our consultants are trained strategic facilitators who are crucial in strategic planning. They are planning experts who help you get the most ROI from your meeting with their expert facilitation skills. We have facilitated hundreds of successful Strategic Planning , Annual Planning , and Quarterly Planning sessions for our clients. In this blog post, we will share expert insights from these sessions so that you can scale up your company. Strategy planning (and expert facilitation) is vital as the longer-term strategic priorities drive the shorter-term goals, projects, and actions with complete organizational alignment .

Note to strategic CEOs: Along with our ability to educate, coach, and facilitate specific content and methodology during on-site sessions, one of the main reasons CEOs choose to bring us in to run their sessions is so that the CEO can fully participate and implement their 5 year plan template . It is impossible for a CEO to effectively facilitate a session with all the stakeholders and fully participate simultaneously. The CEO's contribution and participation is significant to reach the desired outcome. Session facilitation is an extra burden that is better placed on another team member or an expert facilitator. You should learn to be a good facilitator with tips and tricks or consult with us to see if hiring an expert makes sense.

Free Guide: How to Facilitate a Strategic Planning Session

Strategic planning facilitation step 1: think through the purpose and outcome of the meeting.

Stephen Covey advises us to "begin with the end in mind." What is the purpose of this meeting? What do we hope to accomplish? Who should attend? What are our strategic objectives for this workshop? What work should the meeting participants get done before the meeting (research and homework)? What are the specific outcomes or outputs we are looking for from this strategic planning session? What is the role of a facilitator in a strategic planning session? Do we need a plan B for a potential 2024 recession ?

Creating an Objective Statement that you can share with the rest of the team in advance is a great way to ensure everyone who attends the meeting has shared goals and expectations for your time together. It will also clarify you as you move into step 2 and begin planning for the session. Make sure that this aligns with your mission statement. This differs from  team meetings ; setting expectations upfront is critical for your strategic objectives. 

An Objective Statement consists of three parts:

Part 1: TO : (What is the action? What will you do? Start with a verb.)

Part 2. IN A WAY THAT : (How will you do it? List criteria, scope, involvement, success measures, specific tactics, side benefits, or any other relevant information. Use bullet points.)

Part 3. SO THAT : (Why are you doing this? Why is it essential? What is the main benefit?)

Sample Objective Statement for one company's Quarterly Planning Session

QUARTERLY PLANNING OBJECTIVE STATEMENT

TO : Conduct a practical strategic planning session

IN A WAY THAT:

• Brings the Senior Leadership Team together for two full days to develop an effective strategy
• Highlights the previous quarter's accomplishments
• Updates and advances our Annual Plan and long-term goal attainment
• It allows us to discuss-debate-agree critical topics as a team
• It prepares us to overcome any potential obstacles to hitting our year-end goals
• Identifies 3-5 Company Priorities, complete with owners and clear success criteria
• Identifies clear Individual Priorities for each member of the leadership team
• Prepares us to begin thinking about next year's Annual Plan
• It allows us to identify strengths and weaknesses
• Answers the key questions facing our company and industry
• It helps us clearly define and communicate our business strategy to the entire organization
• Fun ideas for strategic planning are always considered and change up the energy in the room

SO THAT : We finish this year strong and set ourselves up for a solid start to next year.

Professional Strategic Planning Facilitation Video

Strategic planning facilitation step 2: plan all the details in advance.

Anytime you bring your team together for a meeting, whether for a few hours or days, you invest time, energy, and money. The way to ensure you get the most out of your investment is to be adequately prepared. The preparation checklist below will help you.

Strategic Planning Process Meeting Preparation Checklist

• Set the date – You will want to determine and set the date as soon as possible so that everyone on your team can attend. The longer you wait, the harder it is to find a time that works. If this is an ongoing, standing meeting, ensure everyone has it on their calendar every time it occurs and actively works to protect the scheduled time with the team.
• Select the Facilitator – It is essential to pick the right person to facilitate your session. The facilitator is responsible for creating the agenda, preparing content material (slides/visuals), arriving early to ensure setup and materials, testing technology, and facilitating the session. If you must choose someone on your team who will be in attendance, remember to occasionally stop during the meeting and ask their opinion if not previously shared. If you choose someone who would not usually be in attendance, ensure they understand that their job is to facilitate, not offer opinions on discussions they would not typically be involved in. Role clarity is essential.
• Select a location – A meeting or planning session in your conference room can be ineffective. The opportunity to lose focus and be interrupted by operational issues increases exponentially. This is fine for short, weekly, routine meetings, but we recommend taking your team off-site for 1-2 day planning sessions. 
• Choose a Meeting Coordinator – This person is in charge of handling all of the logistics for the meeting, making sure participants have made travel arrangements, the conference room (on-site or off-site) is booked and set up for the session, and that all participants are aware of any homework/preparation that is needed for the session. Use someone on your team who is meticulous with details and have them build a strategic planning checklist for future meetings.
• Prepare the meeting material – You and the facilitator should refer to your Objective Statement when creating the agenda. Be careful not to overload your agenda. Be realistic about what you can accomplish in the time you have available. Create a basic time plan to accompany your agenda. This will help you know whether or not you are on track during the meeting. Less is more when it comes to slides. The old rule was no more than 6x6 (six words long by six bullets). In today's Twitter and drive-through world, you're better served to stick to 4x4 or, better yet, 3x3. Consider revealing information one bullet point at a time, especially if you must have more than 6x6 on a slide, and always ensure it is written for your target audience.   Use our AI Goal Coach if you have any questions!
• Email the meeting agenda and pre-work to the attendees - Communicate with all attendees at least two weeks before the session, sharing the objective statement, agenda, and any pre-work you want them to do. Realize that some people - even with proper instruction - may be in the habit of attending meetings unprepared. If you consider the pre-work essential, let the team know that it's mandatory and require them to return it in advance, or instruct them to bring copies to the meeting and build time to share the output into your agenda. This will allow people to think about the strategic goals for themselves and the company ahead of the meeting.
• Last minute details - Work with the meeting coordinator to ensure all the meeting details have been addressed: supplies ordered, lunch planned, technology arrangements made, attendance confirmed, action plans, etc.

Remember to be realistic about what you can accomplish in the available time and set the agenda appropriately. The strategic planning facilitator must also keep the team focused on having the proper discussions for your organization. Understanding and working with the group dynamics is essential, especially in a large group. This related article can read more details about a virtual strategic planning session .

Strategic Planning Facilitation Step 3: Do the Hard Work of Running the Strategy Session

Three definitions of the role of the facilitator:

• "An individual who enables groups and organizations to work more effectively; to collaborate and achieve synergy. He or she is a 'content neutral' party who by not taking sides or expressing or advocating a point of view during the meeting, can advocate for fair, open, and inclusive procedures to accomplish the group's work."
• "One who contributes structure and process to interactions so groups are able to function effectively and make high-quality decisions. A helper and enabler whose goal is to support others as they achieve exceptional performance."
• "The facilitator's job is to support everyone to do their best thinking and practice. To do this, the facilitator encourages full participation, promotes mutual understanding and cultivates shared responsibility. By supporting everyone to do their best thinking, a facilitator enables group members to search for inclusive solutions and build sustainable agreements."

The word facilitation means to make it easy. Too bad actually facilitating a group of people isn't. It takes a tremendous amount of energy, focus, quick thinking, and patience to facilitate a meeting. Following the first two steps in this blog post (Step 1: THINK and Step 2: PLAN), you are set up for a successful session. But there is still much work to do.

Here are 15 Tips to keep the strategy session moving positively.

15 Expert Tips for Facilitating a Great Zoom Strategy Meeting

Set ground rules at the beginning of the meeting . Let the team discuss their expectations for full participation, candor, sidebars, interruptions, tangents, and cell phone and computer use. This conversation upfront creates an environment of accountability and high commitment to the meeting. Ground rules will help reduce the stress of group interaction and make it easier to resolve problems when they arise. Capture your ground rules on a flip chart while discussing and post for reference throughout the meeting. To start with some energy, I suggest using one of our Zoom icebreakers to get things started.

Trust the process . Remember that you have put a great deal of time into steps 1 & and 2, so you are going into the day with a good game plan. Sometimes, things seem disjointed, or the team doesn't understand where you're going. Tell them there is a method to the madness, and ask them to trust the process with you. When utilizing a slide deck and agenda provided by Rhythm Systems, know that the function and content have been tested and proven to work many times. It may not all come together until the very end, but if you are going in with a clear objective and well-thought-out agenda, the results you're looking for will follow, and problem-solving will occur.

Give yourself permission to deviate from the time plan if a topic requires more time than you thought it would. As long as the additional time is used for good, healthy debates on important issues and not the beating of dead horses, it will be a good use of time. If you do deviate from the time plan, involve the team in deciding how you will make it up. You may choose to stay late or start early one day, or you may decide to cut or shorten the time allowed for another topic. Involving the team in this discussion and decision increases engagement, energy, and commitment.

Celebrate your progress as you move through the session . Reflect on lessons learned and breakthroughs. Acknowledge someone when they're brave enough to bring up a tricky subject. Check-in with each other to ensure you're all engaged. After breaks, consider restating what's been accomplished and where you are on the agenda.

Use icebreakers with purpose. Ice breakers are quick, interactive exercises designed to get the team's brain working and mouth moving. They are usually used at the beginning of a session, after breaks, and after lunch. They can also be great for raising the energy level late in the afternoon. A quick Google search will provide hundreds of ideas for icebreakers. One of our favorites is a quick round of victories or good news. This serves several purposes. It gives team members a chance to share information, allows them to get to know each other better, and starts the meeting positively. We recommend that you start every session with some version of good news.

Encourage full and equal participation. A team comprises many individuals, each with their own personality and preferred work style. Some are naturally more dominant and expressive, while others may be more thoughtful and reserved. One type is not better than another, and the fact that they're on your team means you value their input. The facilitator's job is to recognize these different styles and run the meeting in a way that gives each person a chance to contribute. This is a good discussion at the beginning of the session as you set the ground rules.

Set the expectation of full and equal participation clear and give the team a chance to discuss how they will do this. The facilitator may have to step in throughout the meeting, explicitly calling on individuals who have not spoken up. The facilitator may also design the meeting to include specific opportunities to hear from everyone. Examples of this would be small group breakout sessions or employing different brainstorming methods (see #8.)

Use visual aids effectively. Any combination of flip charts, whiteboards, sticky notes, posters, PowerPoint/Keynote, and handouts will do. We've all seen the person who used every animation tool within PowerPoint - wiggly jiggly icons, annoying animations, slides swiping in from 20 directions in 5 different ways. Don't overdo it; allow your visuals to distract from the meeting. People have different learning styles; Some are visual learners, some auditory, some kinesthetic, and some experiential, so mix it up and use all aids in moderation. Keep in mind that your body language is one of the most essential visual aids that you have; make sure that you make people feel like they are being heard.

Use different methods for brainstorming. Round robin, freewheeling, group pass, and silent reflection are all proven methods you may try. Brainstorming aims to produce a comprehensive list of potential ideas, solutions, or plans. When done well, brainstorming should increase participation, reduce inhibition, stimulate ideas, increase creativity, and be a group process.

Strategic Planning Brainstorming Methods:

• Focus on quantity first and capture as many ideas as possible.
• Encourage and welcome all ideas - ask the team to dig deep and think beyond the obvious - every idea submitted should be captured.
• Hold off on judgment, criticism, or reality checks - this should be a "safe time." Ideas will be discussed and debated later.
• Use short phrases and bullet points, not paragraphs and lengthy explanations.
• "Piggyback" on others' ideas. Outlandish ideas can be stepping stones to good, workable ideas.
• Although giving a brief overview of brainstorming rules can be helpful, there's no need to go into an elaborate explanation. "Let's brainstorm annual priorities that will move us toward our 3-5 year strategic plan . Remember, let's not judge the ideas but just capture and understand them first." Then, begin your chosen method of brainstorming. As you move through the process, anticipate that someone will break the rules - that's when the facilitator steps in and makes the correction.

Round Robin

Ask for a volunteer to start the brainstorming process with one idea. The facilitator captures the idea on a flip chart for all to see. Ask the volunteer to choose whether to go to the right or the left, allowing the person sitting next to them to offer one idea. The facilitator continues to chart the answers, going around the room until everyone can contribute at least one picture. You can then try to take a second pass around the room if the ideas are flowing freely, or you may open it up to anyone who has another idea not previously mentioned.

Freewheeling

Suppose you're working with a group where equal participation is not an issue. In that case, you may be able to open the brainstorming session up by asking for ideas and allowing people to offer suggestions in any order at all. Use the participants' words to chart all ideas with short bullet points. This method can go fast, so you may want to ask for a volunteer to help chart answers using a second flip chart.

Each person in the group starts with a piece of paper, writes down one idea, and then passes the piece of paper to the next person. The following person then builds on the original idea, adding a few thoughts. Continue around the room until the owner returns their original piece of paper. You can then ask each person to take a minute to review their original idea and share it with the team.

Silent Reflection

Some people need a little time to think and formulate their ideas. Instruct the team that you give them a certain amount of time (5-15 minutes, depending on the topic) to think and write down their ideas. You can ask them to write their thoughts on sticky notes, one idea per note, or list them on paper. If you use sticky notes, you can ask them to read one statement at a time and place them on the wall, grouping all similar ideas together. If they are written on notebook paper, you can use the round-robin method to share and chart the ideas.

Use a Parking Lot. Stay on track by creating a place to capture ideas that are inappropriate to the discussion at hand but that you don't want to lose. Make it visible to all using a whiteboard, tear sheet, etc. This helps you keep the meeting focused without chasing too many "rabbit trails." It is important to honor all ideas, questions, and concerns during a session, and by placing the item in your parking lot, you send the subtle message that all contributions are essential. Refer to the parking lot items while facilitating when appropriate and review any unresolved items at the end of your session, moving them to an action item list. In a strategy meeting, you must keep the team on task; using a parking lot can help you accomplish that.

Deal with difficult people ahead of time. Before your meeting, think about participants who tend to be outspoken, dominate, or argue in meetings. Think also about participants who may have felt bullied or intimidated or have a history of not participating openly. Have a conversation with these people before the session, explaining your concern and asking for their help in creating a healthy and productive environment. When talking to the dominant person, helpful language might include, "Jim, I'm trying to increase participation in this meeting. I appreciate your outspokenness and value your input. If it's ok with you, I'd like you to go last so I may first hear the rest of the team's thinking before you share yours." Be sure to reevaluate and give that participant a chance to share.

This is also an excellent topic to discuss while setting ground rules at the beginning of the session. Discuss the expectations for politeness and tone during the meeting, and ask the team for permission to point it out if things get off track. If a conflict arises during a meeting, the facilitator must be prepared to step in and take control of the meeting. Anytime the discussion becomes accusatory or personal, the facilitator can ask the participant to reword statements so that they are focused on solutions, facts, and business issues, not people and blame. An excellent technique for redirecting a heated discussion is to ask the team to discuss their learnings rather than their frustrations. Be sure to do this whenever the language becomes personal; before you know it, your team will police this behavior themselves. Conflict resolution is the central role of the facilitator.

Keep the energy high. Enthusiasm is contagious - and so is negativity. Some people need to doodle while they think, some need toys like a Koosh ball or rubber Gumby, others need talk time with other participants, and others need to stand up or walk around the room from time to time. Think through your meeting day and plan ways to keep the energy high for the entire time to keep the group paying attention.

Have participants work in pairs, write something down, work together on puzzles, make mini-presentations on topics assigned before and after breaks, schedule group breakout sessions, etc. Remember that the room's energy is often a notch or two below the facilitator's, so it is vital to keep your energy high. Try to get plenty of sleep the night before, eat well, have plenty of water on hand, and take breaks as needed, as group facilitation is challenging!

Get to a consensus. Many discussion topics require moving the group from several individuals, independent ideas to one agreed-upon group decision. Consensus can be defined professionally as an acceptable resolution everyone on the team can support. It does not mean that everyone on the team has to agree that this is their number one favorite resolution, just that they will support the decision in the future. Supporting a decision means that you will speak positively about the decision to others and do everything in your power to ensure the decision results in a positive outcome. You will not say," They decided."

Explaining the definition of consensus and support to the team at the beginning of the discussion can help resolve the issue. An essential step in reaching a consensus is ensuring that all ideas are evaluated, and everyone's perspective is heard. This is important in getting buy-in for the conclusion and generating the best ideas and solutions. Structuring a process for team decision-making is a critical facilitation skill.

Expert Tips for Strategic Planning Decision-Making:

• Use the brainstorming tips above to identify all viable solutions (see #8)
• Combine and link similar ideas
• Use structured methods, like The Six Thinking Hats, to help take the emotion out of the discussion.
• Set a time limit for discussion on each potential solution
• Make sure everyone is participating in the debate and, make sure everyone is actively listening and applying their listening skills
• Work to narrow the options down to as few as possible
• Don't be afraid to call for a vote to see how close the group is to completing the agreement
• If there are just one or two holdouts, seek to understand what and how firm their objections are
• Engage the group in troubleshooting to minimize the potential negative impact identified by any complaints or concerns raised
• Restate the most popular resolution, adding one or two points addressing the concerns raised, and ask the holdouts if they can support that decision
• Sometimes, people will get caught up in the moment and continue the debate just to argue. Ask the holdout if they will lose sleep if the group moves forward with the proposed resolution. Refer to the definition of support and ask if they will support the decision.
• With consensus, there is often compromise. Only some get everything they want out of the final decision. However, because you created an environment where everyone has had an opportunity for input, the conclusions reached will often be very successful and highly supported.
• If you are running a virtual strategic planning session,  visit the link to learn some additional tips to help you get the most out of your planning session.

Document and publish the Who-What-When. Who-What-When action items are leading indicators of successful meeting outcomes. How often do teams meet, discuss, and debate critical topics, then set the next meeting date only to discover that no progress has been made at the next meeting? As the facilitator, it is essential that you make sure that every critical discussion ends in a documented action captured in an action list of Who is accountable (one person only), What they will do, and When it will be completed. Create a habit of ending meetings with a review of the Who-What-When and beginning discussions with confirmation on completing the actions assigned.

Finish strong. People won't always remember what you do or say, but they will never forget how you made them feel. And what they will remember most is how they felt at the end of the meeting. Whether you completed every objective you laid out or worked through the agenda, it's essential to recognize the team's accomplishments and celebrate their focus, contribution, time invested, and hard work. Finish the meeting by recapping the decisions, reviewing the actions committed, and confirming the next steps. We also recommend allowing everyone to share how they feel as they leave. You can go around the room and ask each person to share a one-word/one-phrase closing statement or share one takeaway or breakthrough they gained during the meeting.

Ask for feedback . Great facilitators are not born overnight. They develop and improve over years of experience. And the most experienced facilitators know that asking for feedback is the best way to improve. You can ask the team before they leave to write down one bright spot from the meeting and one area to work on or do differently next time. Please feel free to email everyone after the session, asking for feedback. Or, you can ask for a quick one-on-one conversation with a few trusted advisors.

You would like to encourage feedback on the agenda, pre-session communication, design of the day, homework, and how you performed and handled difficult situations during the session. If you want to receive feedback, please take it seriously. Don't take it personally or complain to others about it. All feedback, even negative feedback, is a gift. Thank the person who shared with you, and I'd like to make every effort to incorporate all helpful suggestions into your next session. Stay encouraged and stick with it. You will improve every time you facilitate, so please volunteer and look for opportunities to practice. Over time, the tips in this blog post will become second nature. Good luck!

This blog post shares tips and tricks for facilitation from the Facilitator guide written by Chris Cosper and Barry Pruit and adapted to a blog post by Ted Skinner. If you'd like to download the strategic planning manual, please click here . We hope you enjoy the facilitation techniques outlined in this article to keep group discussions positive and productive. We hope this answers your question about how to lead a strategic planning session; if you want to get the best ROI on your investment of time and energy, please feel free to  drop us a line , and we'll see if it makes sense for you.

Need help getting your team aligned to achieve your growth goals? Rhythm systems software was ranked the #1 easiest software to use, with the highest ROI, fastest implementation, and highest adoption rate on G2.  

Read our other strategic planning and facilitation articles below:

Annual Planning: 9 Tips to Focus & Align Your Team with a Great Plan

Annual Planning Playbook: 5 Steps to Create a Winning Annual Plan

How CEOs Can Avoid High-Cost Mistakes in Annual Planning

Best Practices for Annual Planning

16 Strategic Planning Tips to Keep Your Strategic Plan Alive

The CEO Strategy-Execution Gap...And How To Fix It

Choose Your 3-Year Strategic Growth Initiatives Wisely With This 4-Step Process

5 Steps to Getting Started on 3-Year Strategic Plans with Winning Moves

Have you been able to validate your 3 Year Strategic Plan?

Robust 3 Year Strategic Plans to Grow Revenue and Stay Competitive

Don't Confuse Strategic Thinking And Strategy Execution Plans

9 Steps to a New Revenue Growth Strategy [Infographic]

Photo credit: iStock by Getty Images

Ted Skinner

Photo Credit: iStock by Getty Images

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How to run a successful planning workshop (even remotely)

“A goal without a plan is just a wish” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Whether you do it quarterly, annually, or even weekly, running a planning workshop can be challenging. You need to make sure everyone understands the big picture and vision. You also need to ensure each person has a voice in the planning process. Finally, you need to lead the group to alignment and verify that they’re clear on next steps.

These are the challenges I confronted while leading a goal-setting session at Miro’s recent Executive team offsite (virtual this year). I’m sharing my experience so you can see what worked for us and apply it to your own planning workshop!

Goals of the workshop

We follow a quarterly OKR process at Miro (you can find my OKR template in Miroverse ). But I don’t recommend jumping into quarterly planning without first discussing your longer-term goals.

So, this particular session focused on creating company-level objectives that we could use as a guideline for the entire year, revisiting the plan every three months to re-evaluate and re-align. A total of 12 execs across four timezones took part, so I wanted to make sure the time we spent together was productive and efficient.

Explore the workflows, projects, and frameworks of the Miro community

Step 1: assign prework.

Anyone who has run a remote or hybrid workshop knows that preparation and prework are key. Providing the opportunity to do at least some initial thinking asynchronously meant that we could focus on the essential collaborative work during the window of time when we were together.

Before the session, I asked the team to take a critical look at our existing objectives, as well as the state of the business. Each person added some stickies to the board reflecting some things they liked and didn’t like about the goals we’d been using.

I also asked them to review the company’s three-year vision and strategy, which had been created and documented in a previous meeting. This prework was essential for setting the stage for the live OKR meeting.

Step 2: Give context and set ground rules

Once we were all on the same Zoom call, looking at the same Miro board, I ran through some basics. I reminded them about what OKRs were and what they could help us achieve. We looked at examples of good OKRs, including resources from Gitlab and Google , and reviewed feedback from Mironeers about how they felt about the OKR process.

I also set up some ground rules. We would leave the workshop with no more than four OKRs. It’s very easy to get excited and want to achieve a long laundry list of things during the year. But excellent execution comes from focus.

I encouraged folks to assess goals using three criteria:

• Do they represent the most critical things Miro should be working on this year?
• Are they ambitious but focused?
• Are they clear and easy to grasp?

Step 3: Give time for personal reflection

Before I let the execs loose to discuss and debate, I asked them to each spend 10 minutes of personal brainstorming time thinking about what each of us thought our company objectives should be.

I wanted to make sure they were able to collect their own thoughts without being biased by the opinions of others. Groupthink is a real risk during brainstorming sessions, so I recommend including some private reflection time to ensure the group generates the most diverse and innovative ideas. Get more brainstorming ideas in our complete guide.

Step 4: Brainstorm objectives

Use breakout rooms to force prioritization (25 mins)

In my experience, prioritization is the single hardest part of the planning process. After all, we wanted to focus on three or four big things—not add everything to the list. I needed a way for everyone to present and defend their ideas, and to come to a reasonable consensus about which three or four big things we should focus on for the year.

Leveraging a small breakout group format was the single biggest element that made this stage of the planning session successful. For one thing, it would have been nearly impossible to have a productive discussion and make decisions as a group of 12.

Also, the tendency in large groups can be for the loudest voices to dominate, particularly when there is time pressure (say, finalizing draft OKRs within two hours). Having smaller groups helped create a balance where each person could fully express themselves, be heard, and reflect on others’ feedback.

To create this small-group dynamic, we broke the executive team into three four-person Zoom rooms, each with their own frame on the main Miro board. This setup enabled each person to present the ideas they’d jotted down individually, and for the smaller group to meaningfully discuss.

Looking at the image above, you can see that each group has a space to record what they’d decided as the single most important objective at the bottom as a “must-have.” On the second row, there’s space to record the two second-most important objectives. The third row is a dedicated space for “nice-to-haves.”

Step 5: Rank and discuss

Come back to the larger group (45 minutes)

Once each of the small groups had come to a consensus, it was time for everyone to reconvene and present their thoughts to the larger group. On our Miro board, we copied and pasted each of the group’s three levels of objectives, so we could see all ideas as a whole.

This made it easy to see where groups were aligned, and where there were slight differences in opinion. We found that by that point, most of the themes were generally similar. We also gave the opportunity for our CEO, who is the final decision-maker, to weigh in.

Step 6: Brainstorm metrics and key results

With a working idea of our most important goals, it was time to discuss how we’d assess our progress. There are so many options for defining key results, but they should always be specific and measurable.

For this phase of the workshop, I asked each person to add as many potential metrics as they could think of into the column under each objective.

Then, returning to the larger group, I set the Miro timer for 15 minutes for each objective, grouped the metrics, and stack ranked them. From there, we cut down the list to three metrics per objective. These became our key results for the entire year. For each quarter, we will update the number associated with the key result to where we’d like to be at that point in time.

Step 7: Finalize draft objectives

By this stage, we had three objectives and key results the executive group was happy with!

But what about the rest of the company? As a next step, we follow a “W” model for OKR planning, where we share our draft with our functional leaders for bottoms-up feedback, then adjust as necessary, then share with the broader company so each department can set their own goals. For these next steps of org-wide OKR planning with all departments represented, you can use my OKR template .

Planning is an iterative process

While we don’t expect our objectives to change much during the course of the year, we still start every quarter by reviewing our objectives and checking in—based on what we know today, are these still the most important things we could be working on? Are these objectives clear?

Once we have the objectives in place, we assess the key results (KRs), where most of the quarterly changes take place. We’ll make sure the metrics we’ve chosen are still the right ones and then update the numerical value for each one.

OKRs are a directional tool—they aren’t written in stone, you’re meant to make tweaks to them based on what you learn each quarter. That means the framework is working!

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How to Run Strategy Workshops in 5 Steps

Leaders all agree that strategy is critical to success, but are sometimes unclear on the how to bring stakeholders together to create one through a series of strategy workshop. Running a smooth set of strategy workshops is critical to strategy planning and to arriving at a strategy that leadership can be confident in.

Motivation for strategy workshops

Across all the definitions from management consultancies, academia, and business journals, strategy is defined as a communicable plan to maximize and sustain the most important outcomes . What's critical in that definition? Outcomes , maximization , planning , communication . For more information about what makes a good strategy, see the video "Elements of Good Strategy."

Because forming a strategy requires alignment across many stakeholders, it is impossible to arrive at a defensible, cohesive strategy without performing working sessions or workshops with relevant senior stakeholders. And (while it goes without saying) it is impossible to "not have a strategy" as this paradoxically is a strategy in and of itself.

Any strategy workshop process must contain the following 5 steps, often in the following order:

• Defining outcomes
• Research and diagnosis
• Prioritization
• Vetting and approval

These 5 steps are occurring, explicitly or implicitly, in every strategy planning process . If these steps are not observably occurring, they actually are occurring but in fragmented, disjointed and unaligned ways across stakeholders.

Each of these steps may be a workshop or a working session, or several may be combined into a single workshop, depending on availability of stakeholders. These steps may occur in a cycle, for instance every year, in the case of annual strategy planning.

Step 1: Defining outcomes

Outcomes are the measures of success in an organization, and are the cornerstone of strategy planning. For example, hit $100M in annual runrate revenue, or reach a $50M valuation. Some tech leaders call these "audacious goals."

Outcomes define how big our strategy needs to be. For example, a company targeting $10M in revenue will have a vastly different strategy to one targeting $10B within the same timeframe. For that reason, outcomes do not need to have a strict timeline, but rather a time horizon, for instance 2-5 years. Outcomes are a reflection of the goals of the shareholders, board, or mission stakeholders (in the case of a non-profit). For a public C-Corporation, the owner goals are clear-cut: maximal valuation. For other organizations, you might need more nuance and consideration to arrive at the right outcomes.

A repeatable method for arriving at outcomes can be to perform 2 activities:

• Shareholder / Stakeholder Goals and Needs (a) What are the needs of the shareholders/stakeholders of the organization, in the very long-term? (b) How much progress has already been made? (c) What are "80-20" methods to realize these goals and needs in the short/medium term? ‍
• Organizational Outcomes Mapped to Shareholder / Stakeholder Needs (a) Choose primary metric(s), driven by shareholder/stakeholder goals (b) Layer in comparisons and benchmarks for this metric (c) Choose secondary metric(s) (d) Iterate to refine the outcomes

Participants

Owners, board directors, and/or shareholders with 20%+ equity. For non-profits: the executive director, board/trustees, and any key stakeholders of the organization's Mission.

Number of sessions

Step 2: research and diagnosis.

A good strategy is an informed strategy. That's why the second step of a strategy workshop process is research and diagnosis

For a strategy to be holistic, research and diagnosis must cast the net wide, covering:

• Internal strengths and weaknesses, for instance from customer insights or organizational maturity assessments
• External trends, opportunities, and threats, for instance from competitor research, market reports, or expert calls

The purpose of research is to help identify ideas for new strategic initiatives—and to understand how big or feasible they may be. For instance, if competitors have expanded to China and seen China sales make up 20% of their business, an idea for your organization is to do the same.

During this phase of strategy planning, leadership will both collect the insights and research conducted since the last strategy planning session, and request any new research and diagnosis necessary.

Research may be happening continuously (for instance if there is a dedicated Strategy or Research function), or may happen solely during strategy planning.

Executive team, research departments (eg User Research), Strategy department, Biz Ops, CX/Sales/Business Development, Corporate Development

No workshop sessions (this step requires research, surveys, analysis, etc, which can take place offline).

Step 3: Ideating initiatives

A common mistake is to prioritize a strategic idea as soon as you have it. This is not optimal, as in the heat of the moment, you won't have the necessary context to understand the quantitative priority of an idea. That's why the third discrete step of strategy planning is ideation.

What is it that is being "ideated"? We can call them opportunities or initiatives , depending on whatever resonates best with the organization. Initiatives are the ways to achieve our strategic outcomes. For instance, different initiatives and maneuvers to reach $100M in revenue. Roger Martin puts it nicely: " where to play, how to win ."

Good initiative ideas must big enough to make "meaningful progress" against the outcomes you need. At top organizations, only a small number of cohesive, interlinked initiatives are selected and meshed into a strategy. As initiatives are driven by the outcomes, they must also have the same time horizon as the outcomes. If your outcome demands an additional $50M in annual revenue, then each initiative should contribute $10-20M.

Some potential categories for initiative ideas:

• Product and experience
• Channels and go-to-market
• Expansion (eg geo)
• Contraction (eg cost cutting)
• Operations, support, delivery, customer success
• Governance and regulatory

In the ideation step, leaders pull in the initiative ideas uncovered in research, and, in an unrestrained way, add new ones. Remember to cast the net wide—it's better to capture an idea and later deprioritize it than to ignore the idea and have it gnaw it you later. If an idea seems small, ask yourselves: is this part of an existing idea? Or is there a generalization of this idea that is bigger?

Ideation can often happen in 1-2 whiteboard working sessions with some offline pre-work. Once a strategy is in place, however, ideation can occur freely—for instance, through addition of new initiative ideas to a spreadsheet shared among an executive team.

Owners, board directors, and/or primary shareholders. For non-profits: the executive director, board/trustees, and any key stakeholders of the organization's Mission.

1-2 (and later, continuous )

Step 4: Prioritizing initiatives

In the previous step, ideation, we said that strategic initiatives are high-level tactics and approaches to make meaningful progress against our desired outcomes. We also talked about why ideation and prioritization have to be separated—ideation must be unrestrained and creative while prioritization must be analytical. With ideation handled, we now tackle the prioritization and selection of strategic ideas.

Defensible prioritization is critical to a good strategy plan, otherwise getting (and maintaining) buy-in will be hard.

There are many frameworks for ranking and prioritizing, so we'll share a simple one here: impact and feasibility .

• Score an idea's expected impact low, medium, or high—1, 2 or 3—based on the risk-adjusted impact it would have on your desired outcomes. Be quantitative—if your desired outcome is an additional $10M in annual revenue, then "high impact" should be $5M+ of revenue, "medium" should be $2-5M, and "low" should be under $2M]
• Score feasibility low, medium, or high—1, 2 or 3. For simplicity, feasibility scores can be relative to each other, but in complex setups, you may calculate this using time and cost drilldowns
• Adding impact to feasibility gives you Priority
• Look at your 2-5 highest priority initiatives. If they cohesive, achievable, communicable, and obey the other elements of good strategy we talked about earlier, then you're looking at the components of your organization's new strategy. If not, you may need to adjust your initiative ideas, splitting and splicing them and then re-prioritizing.

Prioritization can often happen in 1-2 working sessions with some offline pre-work. Sometimes, to get more precise and quantitative, teams may need to conduct more research before reconvening.

Step 5: Vetting and approval

The top priority initiatives that comprise your strategy should be combined into a single cohesive Strategic Statement, and then all relevant stakeholders should hold a working session to review and adjust it if necessary.

The Strategic Statement, along with the backup prioritization table, should be presented to the board, ownership, or both, to get final ratification and approval.

Let's take an example. Let's say we defined a multi-year outcome of $100M annual runrate revenue. And our top strategic initiatives ended up as:

• Triple inventory through third party products
• Significantly reduce expense per product launch to increase product launched per quarter
• Expand to China with existing/new portfolio

This could imply a 2-5 year strategic statement of:

Scale Our Reach—rapidly grow our marketplace with third party products and adopt a repeatable launch model to expand to China while improving efficiency in the US

Vetting is critical to a good strategy. Read more about about communicating strategic plans and getting buy-in .

1 workshop session for Strategic Statement, followed by numerous conversations with stakeholders for vetting and approval.

After the workshops: Execution

We walked through the first 5 interlinked steps to strategizing—defining outcomes, research, ideation, prioritization, and approval.

But it's meaningless to build an approved strategy deck in PowerPoint and let it rot on your shared drive. Strategy must go hand in hand with execution.

A cohesive strategy must be broken down into lower level initiatives and outcomes that teams can execute against and be held accountable to. For instance, a multi-year strategy may concretely define the outcomes of an annual strategy, and an annual strategy may define the outcomes required for the next quarter

Let's take our example. We've defined a multi-year outcome of $100M annual runrate revenue.

We have a 2-5 year strategic statement of "Scale Our Reach—rapidly grow our marketplace with third party products and adopt a repeatable launch model to expand to China while improving efficiency in the US".

This may break down into multiple lower level outcomes we need to hit within the next year—for instance:

• Onboard 1 new third party product vendor
• Achieve $1M in revenue from China from existing product portfolio
• Reduce average design-to-launch time to 3 months

Each of these outcomes could have one or more initiatives, such as "hire dedicated business development team."

By having this connectivity from your strategic outcomes all the way to the initiatives that your teams are working on, you can massively improve transparency, confidence in the strategy, and performance against your multi-year objectives.

By following this sequence of workshops, your leadership team can construct a bold yet defensible strategy plan that will align teams over multiple years while remaining executable. For teams that have more intricate, multi-stakeholder needs, learn more about Gaussian's advisory services and growth strategy workshop facilitation .

Photo by FORTYTWO .

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• What is Strategy?
• Business Models
• Developing a Strategy
• Strategic Planning
• Competitive Advantage
• Growth Strategy
• Market Strategy
• Customer Strategy
• Geographic Strategy
• Product Strategy
• Service Strategy
• Pricing Strategy
• Distribution Strategy
• Sales Strategy
• Marketing Strategy
• Digital Marketing Strategy
• Organizational Strategy
• HR Strategy – Organizational Design
• HR Strategy – Employee Journey & Culture
• Process Strategy
• Procurement Strategy
• Cost and Capital Strategy
• Business Value
• Market Analysis
• Problem Solving Skills
• Strategic Options
• Business Analytics
• Strategic Decision Making
• Process Improvement
• Project Planning
• Team Leadership
• Personal Development
• Leadership Maturity Model
• Leadership Team Strategy
• The Leadership Team
• Leadership Mindset
• Communication & Collaboration
• Problem Solving
• Decision Making
• People Leadership
• Strategic Execution
• Executive Coaching
• Strategy Coaching
• Business Transformation
• Strategy Workshops
• Leadership Strategy Survey
• Leadership Training
• Who’s Joe?

STRATEGY WORKSHOP

Strategy workshops are very effective in driving collaborative solutions and decisions . Yet, they can also be a big waste of time if the prework and facilitation aren't up to par. The key to effective and efficient strategy workshops is getting the prework right, strong facilitation, and action-oriented follow-up. If you have these three elements of a strategy workshop covered, you'll elevate collaborative  problem solving  and  decision-making .

For over 25 years, I've been working with clients, preparing for and conducting successful strategy workshops on many topics. I did my fair share of workshops at McKinsey and Oliver Wyman and have taken it to the next level with my Stratechi clients. I collaborate with my clients to understand the decisions and solutions they seek in a workshop, develop the necessary pre-workshop materials, facilitate a productive, engaging, and insightful workshop, synthesize the results and follow-up action items, and ensure the team realizes the impact.

If you are looking for an experienced partner to help with the prework, facilitation, and follow-up needed for a successful workshop, email me at  [email protected] , and we'll collaborate on scoping out your strategy workshop.

Strategy Workshop Prework

The first phase of a strategy workshop is the prework to create the foundation for a successful workshop. During this phase, we will work closely to define the desired outcomes and output of the workshop. Next, we will talk through the dynamics and strategies to make a productive and positive workshop. We may conduct structured interviews and deploy  Stratechi's leadership strategy survey  to understand the participants' perspectives better and generate ideas. We will then start developing the agenda and material and brainstorm the activities to maximize the workshop's collaboration, focus, and results. If needed, we will assign pre-workshop homework to participants to get them thinking about the workshop topics.

Strategy Workshop Facilitation

Given my experience, objectivity, and being a neutral party, I often facilitate the actual workshop. We will strategize on the best format and location for the workshop. Workshops are typically 6-8 hours long, some two days. I focus on increasing engagement, creativity, and collaboration during the workshop through prompts, exercises, and questions . I have an effective skill set in getting everyone to contribute and creating a fun environment while driving insights and efficiently progressing through the agenda. Given today's environment, I do a fair number of virtual workshops, though the results are typically better with in-person workshops.

Strategy Workshop Follow-up

The key to driving impact from a workshop is the follow-up. I work with the team to synthesize the workshop findings and results. Then, we prioritize and assign the action items to participants and drive to the next steps. I typically help facilitate follow-up meetings and  governance  to ensure accountability, results, and continued momentum.

Frequently Asked Questions about Strategy Workshops

What topics can you cover in a workshop.

I cover most strategy and strategic planning topics, including corporate strategy,  marketing ,  sales , operations,  growth ,  organizational design  and strategy,  business model design ,  mission  and  values , annual planning , and more. I also do situational workshops when a problem needs to be solved, or an opportunity needs to be better defined and actioned.

What are the typical fees charged for a workshop?

Every workshop is slightly different in terms of necessary prework, length, and follow-up effort, so I simply charge clients by the hour.

How much lead time do you need?

I've done workshops with less than a week's notice, but typically prefer at least a few weeks to do the proper prework to ensure a successful workshop.

How do I get started?

You can schedule an hour with me above. If you have some questions about workshop facilitation, you can email me at [email protected] .

I appreciate the consideration and I hope I can support you in creating and running an impactful workshop!

Are sessions confidential?

Of course. I am bound to this confidentiality agreement with every paying Stratechi.com client.

How do clients pay for services?

For strategy workshop clients, we typically start with a block of hours paid by credit card and then move to an invoice for services rendered.

2024 Guide To Run A Strategy Workshop: Preparation, Structure, And Best Tools.

Strategy workshops are pivotal in steering businesses or a new product toward success. ‍

It is such the trust we have in this type of session that we are balancing our model from full long-term consulting engagements to strategic workshops.

A strategy session offers much-needed clarity and direction for teams by discovering market insights and gaps preventing your company, product, or innovation from growing with concrete decisions and a plan and steps.

And what's best is that it is conducted in fun and engaging sessions that won't take months but hours or days to drive outcomes.

Embarking on the journey of strategic problem-solving through a workshop is more than an exercise; it's a transformative experience for your team and business!

In this article, I will drive you through the next content:

What Is A Strategy Workshop?

• What Are The Benefits Of Hosting A Strategy Meeting?

How To Prepare For A Strategy Workshop? 10 Steps To Run It Effectively

What are the top strategy workshop exercises, what are the best tools to conduct a business strategy workshop, how to successfully run remote working sessions.

• Case Study:  Digital Smile Design

Strategy workshops are a powerful tool to get teams unstuck and move from problem to action in days or hours instead of months.

The primary objective of these workshops is to move quickly into solving a specific strategic problem, creating a shared vision, and having team buy-in and a coherent plan that can be effectively executed. This includes setting clear goals and developing a roadmap.

It's a convergence point where your team, senior leadership, key stakeholders, and external experts come together to discover market dynamics, customer needs, and competition and decide strategic priorities to win.

In these sessions, the agenda is carefully structured to extract the maximum creative and strategic input from all participants. Exercises can involve analyzing industry trends, identifying market opportunities, discovering company or product strengths, and discovering what customers want.

What Are The Benefits Of Hosting A Strategy Workshop?

Here are the top benefits we've heard from our clients:

• Quick Problem Solving / "Getting unstuck": Problem-solve a strategic issue that otherwise would take months to solve or move the needle in hours or days with your team.
• Team Alignment of Vision and Objectives: These workshops bring together various departments and levels of management, fostering a unified understanding and alignment of the company's vision and objectives.
• Enhanced Innovation and Creativity: The collaborative environment encourages exchanging ideas and perspectives. Workshops can spark new ideas for products, services, or market approaches that might not emerge in a typical office setting.
• Market and Competitive Insights: High-tech markets are rapidly evolving. A strategy meeting provides a dedicated space to conduct thorough market and competitor discovery, ensuring that the company's strategies are robust and well-informed.
• Identification of New Opportunities and Risks:  enable teams to proactively assess opportunities and risks and develop strategies to capitalize on new trends or mitigate risks.
• Building a Roadmap for Execution: Beyond brainstorming and planning, these working sessions are instrumental in creating actionable roadmaps. They help set realistic timelines, define key performance indicators (KPIs), and assign responsibilities, ensuring the new strategy is effectively translated into action.
• Adaptability to Market Changes: Given the volatile nature of the tech industry, strategies must be adaptable. The nature of these sessions makes them agile, quick to prepare, and action-oriented, helping companies quickly adjust strategies in response to new technological advancements or market shifts.
• Team building: Every time we run one of these workshops, we listen to the team saying to the CEO, "We should do more like this!!".

Effective preparation is critical to maximizing the benefits of a strategy meeting. This preparation is even more critical for B2B high-tech companies and innovations, where the markets and competition rapidly evolve. Here's how to get ready:

• Set clear objectives (THE WHY): Define the problem you want to solve and the desired outcomes. Whether developing a new product strategy, exploring emerging technologies, or refining go-to-market tactics, having clear objectives sets the tone for the workshop. This ensures that discussions are focused and productive, leading to tangible outcomes. Objectives might include defining a new product go-to-market strategy, exploring new market opportunities, or refining the company's positioning strategy.
• Write an agenda (THE WHAT AND HOW): Create a detailed agenda that allocates time for each topic or activity. Ensure a balance between structured discussions, creative brainstorming sessions, and practical planning. Allocate time for discovering ideas/insights (divergence) and decision-making or prioritization (convergence) for each theme you cover.
• Select the right workshop participants (THE WHO): The session's success depends heavily on who attends. Include a mix of company participants from different departments and levels to ensure diverse perspectives from people whose knowledge is crucial for the workshop's outcomes. Also, consider including external experts or stakeholders for additional insights.
• Communicate expectations: Successful workshops rely on communicating their objectives, agenda, and expected outcomes to all participants.
• Pre-workshop research: In the best scenario, the workshop should leverage market research, customer feedback, competitive analysis, and trends to inform discussions and strategies. This can be done with previous preparation or by hiring an external coach who brings an external, unbiased perspective to the workshop.
• Set the stage: Choose a conducive environment for the workshop. The setting should encourage open communication and creative thinking, whether it's an off-site location or a dedicated space within your office. Also, ensure all necessary materials and technological tools are available. You can also conduct an online session with the tools we recommend below.
• Expert strategy workshop facilitation: An experienced facilitator who can guide discussions, ensure all voices are heard, and keep the workshop on track is crucial. This might be an internal leader or an external coach with expertise in the high-tech industry and strategic planning.
• Strategic thinking & discovery techniques to help unlock new ideas and perspectives and encourage participation.
• Action points: The end goal of the workshop should be a set of actionable steps. This includes defining specific initiatives, assigning responsibilities, setting timelines, and determining how progress will be measured and reported.
• Follow-up and implementation plan: The workshop is just the beginning. Effective strategy requires a successful implementation. A follow-up plan to implement the strategies and monitor progress is essential to ensure that the insights and decisions from the workshop translate into real-world results.

Preparation differentiates between a mere discussion and a working session that leads to actionable and impactful strategic initiatives.

A well-prepared workshop is the first step towards transforming strategic ideas into real-world business successes.

Selecting the most suitable agenda for your specific problem is a decision that can significantly impact your strategic direction. Here are the typical workshops we're asked to conduct:

• Positioning Strategy : this workshop is focused on strengthening how the market perceives your business, product, or brand. Identify your target market versus who it should be, your unique selling proposition (USP), and your competitive strengths to design a unique positioning to become the go-to solution in your market.
• Market Opportunity Analysis : identify and evaluate potential market opportunities to grow your business. Explore segments, use cases, and industries and score them against our model to find your best business growth opportunities.
• Crossing The Chasm Workshop : solve sales stagnation periods for high-tech businesses or innovations. Firstly, find out where you are in the technology adoption lifecycle regarding the type of buyers you're attracting. With this, diagnose what in your current strategy (positioning, messaging, sales approach, distribution) is out of alignment. Then, ideate a strategy to re-align your business with the market to accelerate your traction. This session is based on our unique understanding of the Crossing The Chasm framework .
• Go-to-market workshop : define your strategy to enter new markets or launch a new product into an existing one.  Identify your target audience, discover their problems and pains, ideate how your product fits those problems, select the best positioning, align your offering to meet customer needs, and ideate the best distribution channels and launch sequence.
• Product Launch or Brand Awareness: With the help of our Ecosystem Map Framework, it's an opportunity to analyze your market ecosystem, looking at all types of organizations and players in your industry, like analysts, thought leaders, consultants, industry associations, suppliers, customers, and competitors. Then, you'll define a sequence of marketing and relationship-building activities to drive word-of-mouth across those 3rd party players. This strategy can be used to validate an idea with external players, find who to partner with to strengthen your go-to-market strategy , build a marketing program to improve awareness or position your product/brand.
• Business strategy: Discover the gaps preventing your high-tech business from becoming the go-to solution by assessing the 12 elements we've found to be the ones to build long-term success and competitive advantage in high-tech markets. This session follows our proprietary framework, refined in over 200+ B2B high-tech projects to asses your overall business strategy gaps and find solutions to solve them: The Brand Differentiation Wheel™ .
• Value Proposition Design: This session helps discover what your best-fit customers care about and hone in on what differentiates your business or product from competitors. ‍
• Butter.us provides an all-in-one platform for practical remote workshops with features like collaborative whiteboards, real-time polling, and customizable breakout rooms, ensuring seamless engagement and increased productivity.
• Miro is a digital workspace tool offering interactive features for remote strategic workshops, including versatile whiteboards, project boards, and dynamic mapping tools - all designed to stimulate engagement and collaboration.
• Fathom.video facilitates efficient remote workshops by offering real-time document editing, collaborative brainstorming capabilities, and seamless video communication, ensuring productivity and interactive engagement, irrespective of geographical boundaries.
• ChatGPT will help you summarize and group the ideas and solutions by themes after the workshop by uploading the transcript. It can also assist you in strategizing new angles after the workshop ends by prompting the workshop insights.
• If you're running an in-person workshop, ensure you have a big room, a whiteboard, sticky notes, and a place for everyone to pick their notes, write their ideas, and introduce them to everyone.

The image below is an example of a remote workshop agenda for value and offering design with Butter.

• All ideas count. There are no bad ideas. Everyone talks.
• One idea at a time. Ideas must be presented in less than 30 seconds to spark creativity and new insights.
• Everyone has cameras on. Have a problem with the camera? You're out.
• Use a whiteboard with sticky notes. If running it online, white boarding tools like Miro, Mural, or Microsoft Whiteboard can facilitate collaboration and visual representation of ideas.
• Run the workshop with authority. Stick with the agenda and allocated time. Otherwise, you'll run out of time, not make decisions, and fail to achieve your desired workshop outcomes.
• Build on the ideas of others.
• No small talk or whispering.
• No cell phones or tablets. 100% focus on the session.
• There are no bosses or roles besides the facilitator and one decision-maker in the room.
• The facilitator can not be one of the stakeholders. Facilitating the workshop is about asking the right questions at the right time, engaging people, ensuring everyone participates, and working towards the expected outcomes. A stakeholder can't do the facilitator because they must focus on participating, listening, and learning.
• The session can not be a monologue to avoid just having the perspective of a limited number of people. Also, the session must stick with the times to ensure all the outcomes are achieved.
• Criticize or judge other's ideas. Do you want to know what people think about the ideas? Allocate time for voting anonymously in absolute silence.

Strategy Workshop Case Study: Digital Smile Design

Instead of reading to me, listen to Brendon McDonald's, the CEO at Digital Smile Design , talk about their experience with the Positioning Strategy Workshop of this case study.

Planning Process

1 month before the strategy workshop:

• We had a diagnosis meeting with Brendon to define the problem to solve and pick the right strategy workshop to run.
• The initial definition of the problem was to "build the messaging". However, we discovered that we needed to "define the positioning strategy" before the messaging.
• We agreed with Brendon to define the specific goals as
• Get the team to discover and agree on the proper context of who we serve and what problem we solve.
• Set the foundations to define product-level positioning clearly.
• Get the messaging process up to speed.

2 weeks before the workshop:

• We delivered and agreed on the workshop agenda with Brendon to achieve the desired goals.
• We agreed that the team members should get involved. In this case, we selected 15 experienced members from marketing, sales, customer success, head of client ops, and CEO.
• We communicated the structure and preparation required to the team.
• We booked the team agendas for 1 full day.
• The team involved in the workshop conducted their own research with specific questions and exercises we provided.
• I conducted my own market and industry research to offer an external, unbiased perspective, acting not only as a workshop facilitator but also as a coach and strategist.

Workshop Agenda

This is typically a 3-day workshop when planned to make decisions and build a plan of action.

However, we needed to condense the sessions into 1 day, so we sacrificed the decision-making time (convergence). Thus, the workshop was about discovery rather than discovery -> decision -> action item definition. ‍ ‍

The day was structured into 7 short discovery workshop sessions. They were planned to help the brain think strategically and in a structured way: from a broad point of view (market) to a narrow one (PROBLEM). ‍

1. MARKET Context DISCOVERY session

• Discover what's wrong with the market in our POV. What's something my market does not see but we do?
• WHAT IS THIS FOR: This will help us understand "the enemy" and build our Point of View to start our narrative. Also, clarify if we're creating a category.
• TIME: 1 hour

2. WHO do we HELP THE MOST session

• Define clearly our best-fit customer: Job Titles, Sizes, and Geographies.
• WHAT IS THIS FOR: This will help us understand who the specific target market or ICP is.
• TIME: 30 minutes

3. What is the end-user workflow or customer journey of the best-fit customer right now

• Design the step-by-step workflow.
• WHAT IS THIS FOR: Understand the overall workflow of end-users to see how we are changing their approach. Then, pick the steps we're helping improve to move into the next step.

4. WHAT PROBLEM do we solve session

• Uncover pains/struggles/frustrations
• Uncover goals/jobs to be done
• Uncover the penalties
• Uncover how they are solving it right now (status quo or competition)

5. How do we SOLVE the problem now session (our product)

• Discover how our solution solves the pains/struggles/frustrations to achieve the job to be done.
• Discover the business impact (outcomes).

6. WHAT IF… session

• Discover what can go wrong in the customer's mind. What are the risks, hesitations, and frictions associated with hiring our product/service?

7. WHY US session?

• Discover internal strengths and weaknesses that can drive credibility toward our brand and product.

Right after the workshop

• I'd record all the sticky notes with my cell phone camera and describe them loudly.
• I'd transcribe those notes by uploading the recording to Grain.
• I'd upload the transcriptions to ChatGPT and ask for summarizations and data aggregation to get a list of key themes by each session analyzed.

Post-Workshop Work

Summarizing the discoveries by theme would become the key to designing and delivering the new positioning strategy and messages.

Because this was a single workshop day without time to strategize but to discover, we had to create the strategy and the roadmap and communicate it afterward.

Workshop Outcomes

A clear understanding for the business to differentiate and become the go-to provider with concrete definitions of:

• A clear understanding of strategic problems to solve
• Who should we serve (best fit customers).
• What problem or use case to focus on to stand out
• How do their product/service capabilities help to solve the problem / use case in a way that competitors don't
• Understanding of the motivations of today's buyers versus the motivations of tomorrow's buyers. A plan to adapt to tomorrow's motivations (forward-thinking strategy).
• Market objections to buy the product and strategy to overcome those objections
• Intangible differentiation attributes

Strategy workshops are a fascinating tool in strategic planning. You can quickly problem-solve a specific challenge, get team buy-in, drive collaboration, and get unstuck by running one of these workshops, selecting the right participants, and implementing effective techniques.

Clear communication and documenting outcomes are essential to drive action after the workshop, whether on-site or remote.

Talk to me to ensure a successful strategy workshop tailored to your business needs. I'm ready to guide you through the process and help you achieve your strategic objectives!

Thanks for reading my thoughts! I bring 16 years of experience selling and marketing B2B tech products. I'm a thinker on the impact of human behavior on innovation adoption, marketing strategy, go-to-market, and business leadership in B2B high-tech. Armed with this knowledge, I help B2B high-tech leaders accelerate traction by aligning their strategy with what buyers want as coach, speaker, and workshop leader.

Related Articles

How To Run a Small Business Annual Planning Workshop

Navigating the intricate path of small business ownership requires more than just a vision; it demands a well-crafted plan. As a passionate advocate for small business success, I understand the pivotal role annual planning plays in steering the ship towards prosperity. In this guide, I'll share insights, strategies, and personal reflections to help Aussie small business owners master the art of annual planning workshops. So, fasten your seatbelts and embark on a journey towards sustainable growth and success.

What is Annual Planning?

Running a small business is akin to orchestrating a symphony of moving parts. Without a conductor, chaos ensues. In this case, the conductor is an annual plan - a detailed document outlining the business's objectives, strategies, and tactics for the upcoming year. This plan is the guiding force, aligning the team's efforts with the overarching vision.

Annual planning is not a mere administrative task; it's a strategic exercise that propels the business forward. It involves envisioning where the company should be in the future and devising a roadmap to get there. This forward-thinking approach ensures every decision and action contributes to the business's long-term success.

Key Terms: Understanding Goals, Targets, and Projects

To navigate the annual plan process, it's crucial to understand the key terms that form its foundation. Goals are the overarching aspirations -where you want to be. Targets are the specific, measurable milestones that mark your progress. Projects are the actionable steps and initiatives that bring your goals to life. Together, they form the trifecta that transforms visions into realities.

Benefits of Annual Planning

The benefits of annual planning extend far beyond the drafting of a document. It's about elevating the performance of your small business. By setting clear objectives and delineating strategies, you create a framework for excellence. This structured approach enhances efficiency, accountability, and the bottom line.

• Business Alignment:  Annual planning is not confined to the boardroom; it's a tool for aligning personal and business aspirations. When individual goals align with the overarching business objectives, roadblocks are removed, and team members are motivated. This alignment fosters a sense of purpose among team members, propelling them to contribute wholeheartedly to the business's success.
• Success Measurement:  In the fast-paced world of business, outcomes matter. Annual planning provides a tangible framework for measuring success. Whether achieving revenue targets, completing key projects, or surpassing customer satisfaction goals, the yearly plan becomes a benchmark against which you can evaluate your business's performance. It transforms aspirations into measurable achievements.

How to Prepare for an Annual Planning Workshop

Assess the current business landscape.

Before diving into an annual planning workshop, take stock of your business's current state and analyse financial performance, market trends, and internal strengths and weaknesses. This preliminary assessment forms the foundation for informed decision-making during the workshop.

Identifying Key Focus Areas

Effective annual planning hinges on prioritisation. Identify the critical focus areas that align with your business goals. Whether expanding market share, enhancing customer experience, or launching new products, prioritise initiatives that will significantly impact your business's success.

Ensure Team Cohesion for Effective Planning

An annual planning workshop involves your entire team; achieving alignment is paramount. Communicate the purpose and importance of the workshop, fostering a collaborative mindset. When every team member understands their role in the broader business strategy, the workshop becomes a collective effort towards shared success.

What You Need for an Annual Planning Workshop

Equip yourself with the essential tools for a productive workshop. Consider using digital planning platforms for collaborative document creation and real-time updates. Whiteboards and flip charts are valuable for visualising ideas. Ensure everyone can access the necessary documents and materials beforehand to streamline the process.

Creating the Right Environment: A Workshop-Friendly Space

Choose a conducive environment for your annual planning workshop. Opt for a space that encourages creativity and collaboration. Ensure there are ample breaks and refreshments to maintain energy levels. A comfortable and focused atmosphere enhances engagement and productivity during the workshop.

Team Involvement: Fostering Collaboration and Contribution

The success of your annual planning workshop relies on active team involvement. Encourage open communication and create a platform for team members to share ideas and concerns. By fostering a collaborative atmosphere, you tap into the collective intelligence of your team, leading to more robust and innovative planning outcomes.

The Agenda for an Annual Planning Workshop

Session 1: reflecting on the previous year.

Kick off the workshop by reflecting on the past year's achievements and challenges. Analyse what worked well and where improvements can be made. This retrospective sets the stage for informed decision-making and ensures that past learnings contribute to future success.

Session 2: Setting SMART Goals and Targets

Move on to defining specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals and targets. Encourage participants to think strategically and align these goals with the overarching business objectives. Clarity in goal-setting is the cornerstone of effective annual planning.

Session 3: Project Prioritisation and Resource Allocation

Once goals are established, shift focus to prioritising projects. Assess the resources required for each initiative and allocate them judiciously. This session ensures that your team's efforts are concentrated on projects directly contributing to achieving your business goals.

Session 4: Crafting Actionable Plans

With goals, targets, and projects in place, delve into the specifics. Craft actionable plans for each project, outlining the steps, timelines, and responsible parties. This granular approach transforms high-level objectives into a roadmap that guides day-to-day operations throughout the year.

Session 5: Aligning Individual Roles with Business Objectives

Conclude the workshop by aligning individual roles with the broader business objectives. Each team member should understand how their contributions fit into the larger picture. This alignment fosters a sense of ownership and accountability, ensuring everyone is committed to the successful execution of the annual plan.

Session 6: Recap of the Annual Planning Workshop Journey

As the annual planning workshop concludes, take a moment to recap the journey. Celebrate the collaborative effort, acknowledge the insights gained, and emphasise the importance of the yearly plan as a living document that guides the business throughout the year.

Tools for Annual Planning

Digital planning platforms, such as project management software and collaboration tools, streamline the annual planning process. Platforms like Trello, Asana, or Thriday offer features like document sharing, real-time updates, and task tracking, enhancing collaboration and efficiency.

While technology is invaluable, take into account the power of traditional methods. Whiteboards and flip charts provide a visual canvas for brainstorming and idea generation. These tangible tools facilitate dynamic discussions and engage participants more hands-only.

The most crucial tool for an annual planning workshop is the human touch. A skilled facilitator can guide the team through discussions, manage dynamics, and extract valuable insights. Develop facilitation skills or consider bringing in an external facilitator to ensure the workshop's success.

Ensuring Continued Success

The real work begins after the workshop. Implement the plans crafted during the workshop with diligence and adapt as needed. Regularly review progress, adjust to changing circumstances, and remain agile. Annual planning is not a one-time event; it's a continuous journey towards business excellence. Small business owners set the stage for sustained growth and success by fostering a culture of strategic thinking and planning. The journey may have started with a workshop, but the commitment to planning propels the business forward.

Key Takeaways

When running a small business, where each decision holds weight and every action shapes the trajectory, an annual planning workshop emerges as the compass guiding your entrepreneurial journey.

As the planner and architect of your business's future, remember that the annual plan is not a rigid set of rules but a flexible guide. Embrace change, remain adaptable, and view obstacles as opportunities for innovation. Success is not merely achieving the goals set in the plan; it's about growth, learning, and evolution throughout the journey.

The annual planning workshop is not just a corporate exercise; it's a testament to your dedication to the success of your venture. So, as you navigate the ever-evolving landscape of small business ownership, let planning be your guiding light, illuminating the path to sustained growth, meaningful achievements, and unparalleled success. Here's to a year of strategic triumphs and outstanding milestones.

DISCLAIMER: Team Thrive Pty Ltd ABN 15 637 676 496 (Thriday) is an authorised representative (No.1297601) of Regional Australia Bank ABN 21 087 650 360  AFSL 241167 (Regional Australia Bank).  Regional Australia Bank is the issuer of the transaction account and debit card available through Thriday. Any information provided by Thriday is general in nature and does not take into account your personal situation. You should consider whether Thriday is appropriate for you.

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Table of Contents

What is a workshop event, why is a workshop event valuable, 19 workshop event ideas, key takeaways: master the art of workshop events, 19 high-impact workshop event ideas.

Workshops have long been a great way to communicate ideas, bring people together, or get closer to accomplishing business goals. But as events have moved online, the status quo doesn’t work anymore.

After too many Zoom calls and webinars, we’re tired. We need something new. So we started digging into how we could make virtual or hybrid workshop ideas more engaging and productive. What surprised us was that, even though the human connection might feel different online (or just awkward at times), there are many benefits to virtual workshops.

So whether you’re preparing for in-person workshops again or if you plan on running virtual breakout sessions this year, we’ve put this list of workshop ideas together to inspire your next event.

A workshop — often used in B2B event marketing   — is an event that gives attendees hands-on experience with the subject matter. Workshop topics or themes are often specific to a certain industry or niche. Attendees participate in workshops to acquire a new skill or specialized knowledge that they can apply to their day-to-day life or profession.

Workshop events are valuable because they enable attendees to learn new skills and work toward their goals. This can include certification courses or unique networking opportunities. Workshops also provide opportunities to break up larger events — virtual or in-person — into smaller sessions with more hands-on and interactive activities.

It can be overwhelming to start planning an engaging workshop from scratch. After you’ve identified the goals and desired outcomes for your workshop, read this list of ideas to inspire your next event.

1. Get Personal

Nike has gone all-in by offering personalized experiences and workshops to its large fanbase. After downloading the Nike app, fans don’t only have access to personalized promotions or new products. They also receive personalized invites to upcoming events and workshops. Nike’s workshops are both online and in-person, depending on the purpose of the workshop.

Source: Nike

For one virtual event, Nike created personalized welcome pages for its attendees with tailored messaging from keynote speaker and tennis pro Serena Williams.

Source: Nike News

For one of its biggest events of the year, Air Max Day 2021 , Nike hosts an immersive virtual experience with keynote speakers, musical performances, product drops, and creative workshops. Attendees will get the opportunity to learn from Nike collaborators and designers in smaller groups even though the event is global and all-virtual.

2. Blend the Physical and Virtual

Virtual reality (VR) used to be an expensive idea for workshops, but over the years the sticker price has gone down. For marketing teams using account-based marketing , sending a VR set to a list of top accounts could be a great way to impress and interact virtually with key decision-makers.

VR still might be slightly obscure, but it won’t be that way forever. About 20% of Facebook’s employees now work on VR and AR technology. The social media company plans on greatly accelerating the technology over the next few years.

Source: Youtube

The use cases for VR are vast and vary greatly across industries. For B2B companies working across manufacturing, energy, or complex fields, the technology could be used for improving training workshops. VR will help workshop organizers train attendees in a safer environment while lowering costs.

3. Teach By Doing

Source: Facebook for Business

The best way to learn new skills is often by doing them. At Facebook Blueprint Live workshops , Facebook leaders teach agency leaders how to best leverage Facebook for their clients. Together, they engage in interactive experiences and build media plans for theoretical clients. There is no sitting back in these invite-only, one-day workshops. Participants are expected to collaborate and apply their learning in real-time.

4. Leverage Social Media

If your workshop is designed for marketing purposes on some level, remember to tie it together with your other channels. Social media skills are extremely helpful when it comes to promoting your workshop, but they also are beneficial for creating engagement and participation opportunities during the workshop.

Add interactivity to the workshop by enabling Live Q&A on your streaming platform, offering rewards and incentives for sharing content or hashtags, polling your audience, or more.

5. Build Connections

In a similar fashion to networking, B2B businesses can provide clients with direct access to new leads or prospects by bringing together individuals in their network. Base your workshop on a common interest they share and coordinate scheduling so that businesses and potential customers have plenty of time to meet.

The premise behind Wine Pleasures: Buyer Meets Cellar  is to bring together boutique wine producers and serious wine importers. To facilitate personal discussions, the organizers behind Buyer Meets Cellar set up one-on-one business meetings between attendees according to mutual interests. Post-workshop networking events serve as an additional opportunity for attendees to expand their networks within the industry.

6. Add to Your Conference

If you’re hosting a conference or summit, consider implementing a few workshops into your schedule. Workshops serve to fill slow event times with high-value content, and as an event type, these are completely flexible to any space. This strategy works as part of a broader multi-touch event marketing plan or the idea that a variation of event types can be strategically placed throughout the multi-touch funnel for each one to be most effective.

The Adobe Max Conference for instance continuously hosts a “Community Pavilion” outside their main event. This space showcased a variety of vendors, interactive technology booths, and creative workshops for attendees to choose from.

7. Make Networking Natural

Using a dedicated networking platform or  event app , workshop attendees can upload their business headshots, bios, and interests into a LinkedIn-esque website. From there, participants can easily message and interact with each other before and after the event. Bringing together like-minded people is a great goal, but helping them stay in touch after the workshop ends is an even more challenging task.

Nanotexnology 2019’s B2B Matchmaking Event lets attendees upload their cooperation profiles. Through their system, users can request meetings and finalize agendas with help from event coordinators. Because their workshop participants are located all over the world, a dedicated communication tool helps overcome the barrier of costly international cell phone plans.

8. Champion Collaboration

People are tired of online meetings where the conversation is dominated by one or two people. Project development is optimized when multiple participants chime in. The challenge is that not everyone can contribute at once — especially using a video conferencing tool.

One solution is to use sticky notes. This is common practice in traditional workshops, but can also be applied virtually. Tools like Miro enable participants to create, organize, store, and export sticky notes created in a workshop.

Source: Miro

If you’re running internal workshops to build and develop projects, sticky notes are great because they add an asynchronous element to the meeting. Participants can add notes before or after the workshop to optimize the development process. Digital product agency Crema uses sticky notes to collaborate on projects , such as its webinar series, “Collaboration after COVID-19.”

9. Provide One-of-a-Kind Resources

One of the most important tools for any business regardless of their niche is real-world data and case studies. This information is often difficult to obtain. Hosting a workshop that offers these materials plus expert analysis on the given topics creates a truly unique experience for attendees and can easily be added to any of your corporate event ideas .

SmartCities’s Clean Air Through IoT Networks Workshop is dedicated to improving air quality with statistical data and examples of success stories they’ve personally witnessed. Part informational meeting, part brainstorm session, this workshop is a great example of just how important events of this kind can be.

10. Explore New Technologies

Not only is new technology incredibly interesting, but it’s also a lot of fun to use. Give workshop attendees firsthand experience with gadgets and software not yet on the market or newly launched. Once they’ve had a chance to experience it for themselves you can use the workshop to further explain how these tools can be integrated with their business practices shortly.

KneeVR’s Workshop on Virtual Reality in Healthcare helps professionals understand that VR is not just for gamers. Their workshop gives attendees a glimpse into the many practical uses for VR through speakers, inspiring cases, and live demos. This is just another example of how VR can be used in live events .

11. Foster Partnerships

Partnerships are a popular way to increase reach and revenue for any business type. At partnership workshops, attendees with similar interests and business goals have an opportunity to meet through these industry-specific events. Knowing who to invite will largely depend on your larger business goals. For instance, if you’re targeting specific accounts in a specific industry through an  account-based event marketing strategy, you may want to bring in a specific partner. As you’ll see in this next example, there are lots of ways to facilitate interactions with this goal in mind.

The Euregional B2B Brokerage Workshop uses speed dating to help entrepreneurs, SMEs, and institutions spark potential relationships. They also offer matchmaking services in the form of small-group workshops.

12. Get Educational

Your product or service can be the main theme for a series of workshop events. If your business is constantly updating or improving its offers, hosting educational workshops helps keep users engaged for the long term. Bonus points if you offer insider tips that will only be shared during the sessions.

13. Answer Burning Questions

No matter what profession you choose, they probably have a set of questions around their most challenging stumbling blocks that require advanced training. Workshops are a great way to give them the answers they so desire. ImpactHub’s Sales Workshop keeps this fact in mind as they walk participants through their biggest pain points and present a variety of solutions, tools, and tips. They even invite a panel of experts to weigh in on the issues.

14. Offer Mini-Workshop Sprints

Sometimes a topic will be important enough to do a workshop on, but so specific that it doesn’t fit into the standard 1 hour to 90 minute session time we’re all so accustomed to. The good news is you can offer a series of niche interest workshops in 20-30 minutes sprints in a single day. Covering a lot of topics in a short amount of time will be extra appealing to attendees who can cherry-pick the lessons most pertinent to them.

15. Make It Quirky

B2B workshops don’t have to be all business, all the time. Whether you choose a playful twist on a well-known topic or bring a fresh perspective to an old issue, there are no limits to how creative you can get with your workshop topics. For creativity exercises and other prompts, Dave Birss has developed plenty of resources to get you started.

Source: Dave Birss

16. Target the Right Prospects

Instead of telling your prospects how much you know about a topic, you can show them through a workshop. If you choose a specific need of theirs to address and combine that with an impactful set of tools, you’ll have a greater chance of converting them later on.

NASSCOM’s Deep Insights Workshop is mostly interested in improving brand awareness among top-of-funnel clients like entrepreneurs with a certain level of funding. They help answer the top two questions every customer in this category has at this stage of growth. This approach helps NASSCOM build lifelong relationships through their workshops.

17. Provide a Free Evaluation

Sometimes it’s hard to determine the success of a business when you’re working inside of it. Businesses with lots of clients in a particular niche have a broader view of the industry. Based on observations from real customers over time, you may have a better idea of a company’s relative health than even they do.

The Place Berlin’s B2B Prospection Workshop offers a free diagnostic of each participant’s lead generation process and gives specific advice on how to make improvements. Attendees also enjoy lectures on broader topics so that they can get both big-picture knowledge and personal recommendations from the same event.

18. Think Big … and Small

Regardless of your current audience reach, workshops are an opportunity to introduce your brand to international or local markets. Whether you’re a small-town company spreading its wings to other countries, or a globally recognized business reconnecting with its roots, there are lots of ways to target specific communities through workshops.

Hoteliers European Marketplace (HEM) 2019 caters to a niche audience: hoteliers in Europe. And although their name might imply they stick to a single region of the globe, the one-day B2B workshop invites international wholesalers, tour operators, and online intermediaries. In doing so they are helping their European clients reach newer markets and form partnerships they might not have otherwise had access to.

19. Use the Best Tools

If there’s one thing we know by now, it’s that online versions of live events have the potential to be very successful. They’re highly measurable: you can track the number of views, participants, and CTAs. They are also very accessible so audiences don’t have to travel to join in on the fun.

Now that virtual events, breakout sessions, and workshops have become normal, you need to be using the tools that can help you give the best experience to your participants.

Tools like Zoom, Miro, and Dropbox Paper are great for collaboration. If your workshops are part of a larger event, you’ll also want a modern end-to-end event success platform that can support in-person, virtual, or hybrid events.

Here are some big ideas to keep in mind when planning your next business workshop:

• Make workshops fun by choosing cool themes and cutting-edge tools and tips.
• Provide a high-value experience with useful extras and a curated guest list.
• Foster relationships between participants who can benefit from doing business with each other.

No matter what your event strategy   is, focus on helping your attendees accomplish their goals and you can’t go wrong.

Editor’s Note: This blog was originally published in January 2019 and has been updated for relevance.

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12 Strategic Planning Exercises to Help You Get Amazing Results Next Year

by Greg Head | Dec 28, 2016

If you are like most early-stage entrepreneurs, you set aggressive goals. You probably got a lot done this year, but you still came up short on achieving everything on your plan. Now it’s time to assess how you did this year and determine what needs to happen next year.

When you fell short, did you under-execute or did you set your goals too high? It was probably a little of both.

Great execution requires serious planning, especially as your team grows. Making clear strategic decisions and aligning everyone to the same goals are powerful “force multipliers” for your business. Strategy is simply the answer to the bigger questions, and what your execution depends on.

If you’re not taking time every quarter to ask deep questions and create goals for your company, you’re in a state of MSU (“Making Sh#% Up”). MSU creates misalignment, confusion, frustration, and the bad habit of missed commitments. This problem multiplies as your business grows.

Here are 12 powerful strategy exercises to help you think differently, set strategic priorities, align your plans, and get better results.

Strategic Planning Basics

These are the simple, time-tested strategic planning questions that are widely used in goal-setting, prioritization, and execution:

• Strategic Planning – What’s the current situation? What are we trying to accomplish? What do we need to do to get there from here in the next quarter, year, or 3 years? (see Strategic Planning for Dummies)
• SWOT Analysis – What are our internal Strengths and Weaknesses?  What are our external Opportunities and Threats? ( SWOT  explained)
• Continuous Improvement – What is working? What’s not working and needs to be improved? What lessons have we learned? ( Continuous Improvement  explained)
• People & Organization – Do we have the right people in the right roles? (Jim Collins calls this “A-players in key seats.”) Are all the major functions and priorities of the business “owned” by responsible leaders? How does our organization, staff, and culture need to change to accomplish our goals?

Check out Verne Harnish’s One-Page Strategic Plan and checklist for some simple tools to guide your discussion and final result.

Getting the Big Things Right

These questions will keep you out of the weeds and focus you on the real reasons you are in business:

• Serving Stakeholders  How well did we serve our stakeholders–employees, customers, partners, owners/investors, and our community? Which of these did we serve best and worst? How can we improve? (see  Shareholders First? ,  Harvard Business Review)
• Purpose and Values – Did we stay true to our stated Purpose (our larger cause)? Did we live up to (or fall short of) our stated Values? Are we hiring and firing to our Purpose and Values?
• The Dan Sullivan Question – If we were having this discussion 3 years from today, and we were looking back over those 3 years, what has to have happened for us to feel happy with our progress? ( The Dan Sullivan Question, Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach)
• Hedgehog Concept – Three questions: 1) What are we deeply passionate about? 2) What can we be the best at?  3) What drives our economic or resource engine? Where do these three intersect (our hedgehog focus)? ( Hedgehog Concept , in “Good to Great,” by Jim Collins)

New Thinking Creates Different Results

These questions will help you expand your thinking and see things differently. You can make room for more productive actions when you let go of bad habits, unproductive beliefs, and outdated processes:

• New Possibilities – What would we do if we could not fail? What would we do if we had no fear and no excuses? What would be possible if we had no limits on our resources, staff, or time?
• Stop Doing List – What thoughts, beliefs, and habits are no longer useful and should be left in the past? What types of customers and employees should we stop pursuing/hiring? Which initiatives should be stopped so we can use the resources more productively?
• Fire Your Old Self – If you fired yourself and hired the best candidate in the world to replace you, what would they do differently to get better results? How can you start doing that immediately? Who do you need to be to create the results you want?
• The One Thing – What’s the ONE Thing we can do right now, and by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary? (see Gary Keller’s “ The One Thing”)

Even disciplined entrepreneurs who take planning seriously don’t accomplish all of their big goals. They face unexpected internal challenges, external forces they can’t control, and massive “learning opportunities.” No problem, just keep moving and start again.

The growth game is won by the leaders and teams who keep their eyes on the big goals and continually adjust to make progress. Keep moving forward.

80 Fun Strategic Planning Activities and Ideas!

Ebook , Compilations , Strategy , Tools , Creativity , Performance , Fun Strategic Planning , Strategic Planning , Strategic Thinking , Collaboration

Do you dread strategy meetings, especially the ones without any fun strategic planning activities ?

Really, we’re among friends, so you can be completely truthful in your answer: Do you REALLY, REALLY DREAD strategy meetings?

Of course, you dread them. Every executive dreads strategic planning. I know I do.

The reason is while it is important for organizations, participants hardly ever see the connection between participation and positive changes for brands and customers.

While a strategic planning process may promise to deliver real objectives and tactics, it often never happens as promised. Senior executives may say they want disruptive ideas, but they really want ideas that are easy to grasp and fit the current system. And who wants to waste precious time on trying to imagine and plan things an organization should pursue but ultimately never will?

That is why wrapping strategy meetings in creative thinking exercises and the appropriate amount of fun and diversion is optimum.

80+ Fun Strategic Planning Activities and Ideas!

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We’ve been facilitating fun strategic planning activities for years, so it's good to define how we think about it. 

Fun strategic planning is an experience that :

• Is highly collaborative among engaged groups
• Is mentally stimulating for everyone who participates
• Fosters people who are eager to participate in future strategic planning initiatives
• Leads to action and results 

While that definition may sound impossible, it's absolutely a reality when you approach strategic planning in a new way.  Across our client engagements , here are links to 80+ activities and ideas for making strategy more fun!

10 Moments Begging for Fun Strategic Planning

11 boring details for making strategy planning fun, 4 things to always have ready for fun strategic planning activities, 11 things about toys during strategy planning meetings, 3 stuffed toys that are ideal for strategy activities, 4 times to avoid toys, 6 last-minute creative ideas for fun strategy exercises, 9 ways to keep strategy meetings fresh, 12 ideas for spicing up strategy meetings in the boardroom via the bedroom, 11 ideas for fun strategic planning activities, 8 icebreaker activities, 5 fun strategic planning activities, 3 short, funny strategy questions, 7 types of strategy planning fun, 11 fun strategic planning approaches that are not stuffy for work, 7 ways groups can collaborate on fun strategic planning, new ways to productively translate fun strategic planning activities into virtual and hybrid meetings.

Even though fun strategy meetings seem elusive, we routinely make them productive, enjoyable, and fun for the organizations, senior executives, and teams with which we work. Enjoy this dive into our most successful approaches.

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Date published: 03/31/22

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• A step-by-step guide to planning a workshop

Going from a mere idea to a workshop that delivers results for your clients can feel like a daunting task. In this piece, we will shine a light on all the work behind the scenes and help you learn how to plan a workshop from start to finish.

On a good day, facilitation can feel like effortless magic, but that is mostly the result of backstage work, foresight, and a lot of careful planning. Read on to learn a step-by-step approach to breaking the process of planning a workshop into small, manageable chunks. 

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The flow starts with the first meeting with a client to define the purposes of a workshop. In other words, we are working on the assumption that the facilitator has already been chosen and hired for a job. 

It’s also possible that you are designing a workshop agenda you have ideated yourself. You have a topic to share with your audience, and potential participants in mind… great! You can still use the same process, although not all steps may be relevant to your case.

How to plan a workshop in four phases

We have divided the process of designing a workshop step-by-step into four sections. This structure is inspired by the insightful design methodology known as Dragon Dreaming, as codified by John Croft. The framework is an invitation to move in a structured way from dreaming to designing, from designing to doing, and from doing to celebrating and learning. In this workflow, we will go through similar steps, albeit much simplified and adapted to this specific example. If you find this categorization intriguing and you’d like to learn more, here is a page about Dragon Dreaming project design . The methodology originated in Australia, and you can see a wink to its origin in how the design turns counterclockwise! 

Each phase (vision, design, action and learning) is divided into subsections defining specific actions you need to take in planning your workshop. Each also includes a checkpoint with the client . These four meetings, plus a facilitation team meeting to draft the agenda, are described in detail in the accompanying Workshop Planning Template . In the template, you will find ideas and inspiration for five one-hour meetings in which to:

• draw out the overall vision and desired outcomes;
• define a draft schedule;
• get buy-in for the workshop agenda;
• check-in for a briefing before the actual workshop;
• run a retrospective after the event is over.

I see this process as a dance between working alone and co-designing with a client. In this dance, two different ways of working interact, from being alone at the desk surrounded by sticky notes, to talking things over and getting feedback, into a new iteration of the design, and so on. Successful workshops all start, as most things do, with a vision, and a conversation. Let’s take the first step! 

Phase 1 – Vision

Every project begins as an idea in somebody’s mind, which really starts to take shape once it’s shared with someone else. In the first part of the process, we cover how to lead conversations that will move the idea from the abstract to a more concrete realm. This process starts with a kick-off meeting attended by the facilitator, the client and, if applicable, other members of the team. To help you set it up, we have prepared a dedicated template complete with a workshop structure you can use to collect all the information from this visioning stage!

What are the desired outcomes of the workshop? Who will be the participants or what is your target audience? Once you have some initial answers to these questions, you can use them to shape a concept note, sign agreements, contracts and/or an MoU (memorandum of understanding). 

Sharing intentions

According to the State of Facilitation in 2023 report, a majority of facilitators find negotiating with clients and stakeholders quite the challenge. In the survey on which the report is based, we asked over 1100 professionals what was hard for them in the previous year. While the top challenge reported was “keeping up with the trends”, a series of matters more related to difficulties negotiating, designing and getting buy-in from stakeholders emerged as well. We hope the following workshop planning tips can help you overcome such obstacles. Learn more about trends in facilitation in 2023 and the art of running workshops in the State of Facilitation report!

Designing based on the “why” is a necessary premise to design workshops that will prove meaningful to participants and clients. Often, though, this “why” is not entirely clear from the get-go. A skilled facilitator will use a range of communication skills such as probing questions, active listening, and appreciative inquiry to clarify intentions. In most cases, it’s a matter of slowing the client down, and gently inquiring into their motivations. Run a mini-workshop with your client and transparently share what you are looking for. Time spent on this now will save time and resources by minimizing the risk of misunderstandings and re-writes later! There are four key elements I check for when looking for desired outcomes with the client at this very early stage:

(1) Non-negotiables. These are the boundaries for your design, the things that are set and cannot be changed. This might be, for example, the duration of the workshop, the location, or the list of participants.

(2) Tangible outcomes (aka deliverables). What needs to be produced, concretely, by the end of the workshop? Is it an action plan? A set of decisions? A report? Try to get as many details as possible on this requirement. If this point is not initially clear, invite your client to explore the future with their foresight and imagination: at the end of the workshop, what do they want to have that was not there before the start?

(3) Intangible outcomes. What intentions are connected to the workshop in the immaterial world of communications, connections and emotions? Mark down the keywords you hear your client use. Is it a matter of increasing networking opportunities and connections? Deepening trust? These “soft” outcomes can inspire and direct your choices of activities, setting and style.

(4) Levels of participation. If you are planning a workshop rather than a training event, I have found it very useful to introduce the concept of the ladder of participation to clients, early on in the design stage ( here is a version relating to citizen engagement ). This involves probing how much power is allocated to participants into shaping future choices. Will proposals selected by participants in your workshop be adopted directly? Is this a consultation process someone else will turn into a decision later? Or, perhaps, the workshop is meant to inform and get buy-in on choices that have already been made? All these scenarios are possible and valid, but it’s important to know which one your workshop falls into, so as to minimize the risk of disappointment or confusion.

Once you have collected this information, you probably have an idea of where you want your workshop to focus. All you need now is to figure out who is it for before drafting a concept note and initial agenda.

Defining the target audience

Once you have clarity about the desired outcomes, it’s time to focus on your hypothetical participants and your target audience. You may already have a list provided by the client, or it may be a completely open invitation. In any case, it’s a good idea to spend some time focussing, after the “why”, on the important question: “who?” Things that can be useful to consider doing at this stage, depending on the specific situation, include:

• Creating a “persona” for the workshop. Who will benefit? What are their needs, pain points, interests? Why will they come? This work will initially be based on your assumptions only, but it could lead to an exchange of information with your client to learn more. Here is a canvas from MediaLAB Amsterdam that can help you create a persona for your event.

Design persona   #frame insights   #create   #design   #issue analysis   Following a similar structure of the Persona method, give your design personality by creating a design persona. This can be through visual design, copy, and interactions. To be used w hen it is time to focus on product experience.

• Having interviews with potential participants that match your target audience to collect more information on their wants, needs and expectations. If you are able to contact participants before the workshop, aim to talk to a few. If key decision-makers will be in the room, it’s definitely a good idea to ask for a half-hour chat with them! 

Start by clarifying that you are talking to a few people in order to better prepare your workshop. Next, kick-start your exploration by asking them what their motivation for attending the workshop is. Listen carefully and take notes! It’s good practice to have a list of questions that will be the same for all your interviewees, but also let the conversation flow naturally. 

End the conversation by asking your interviewee whether they know of someone who should definitely be at the workshop, and add them to the list of potential invites!If time does not allow for 1:1 interviews, you can also consider sending your questions out via email. Finally, check back in with the client to ensure they have considered who should be there and whether any important stakeholders or potential workshop participants are being overlooked. 

In my personal practice, I do hold a commitment to widening representation and will often reach out to my clients with questions, for example, on gender balance or including underrepresented groups. Can we get more women’s voices in a conversation about the future of logistics and mobility? (The answer turned out to be yes!). In this urban planning process, will someone be speaking with the interests of elderly citizens in mind? And what about the children’s? At this stage, it’s also important to start making notes of any special needs. Does your persona include, for example, families with small children? Or people with mobility concerns? These considerations have a bearing on such key planning elements as your choice of venue, location, and timing. Successful workshops are those in which the needs of target attendees are considered and steps are taken to ensure participants can take part.

Drafting the initial concept 

Once you know the “why” and something around the “who” of a workshop, it’s time to start designing the “what”. What is needed at first is some clarity as to the main points of the agenda, not a detailed run-through. The client will probably have more feedback once things start to look concrete, and it’s not particularly fun to have to revisit the entire thing and do work twice. That is why I have found it good practice to keep the agenda still quite open at this stage. An initial concept draft for a successful workshop should contain:

• A summary of the desired outcomes;
• A list of benefits for participants (what are their pain points that this workshop will solve?);
• A list of learning/key objectives;
• A description of the main activities or building blocks of the workshop.

At this point, you’ll need to circle back to your client, share the draft with them and ask for feedback. In my experience, it’s a good idea to approach this step lightly, with curiosity, knowing you have done your homework but ready if necessary to change your entire concept around and pivot to something different. And if you still feel yourself having rigidity towards feedback, check out some useful feedback tips by learning expert Skye Suttie . 

Signing agreements

By the end of the vision phase, facilitators and clients should share a feeling of commitment and alignment. This is made visible and concrete through signing agreements, contracts and/or a memorandum of understanding (MoU). What exactly these contain varies greatly depending on circumstances and location, but here is a useful summary, complete with template examples of what your MoU might look like, from Malia Josephine over at the startup Facilitation Jobs . 

Phase 2 – Design

So now you have a draft outline of the workshop and an idea of who will participate. The next section is all about the nitty-gritty details of planning. Think of any other event, such as a family gathering or a wedding: there are a lot of things to consider so that everything will be ready when attendees arrive in the space you have designed and set up for them. It can be a very creative phase, if a bit solitary at times for the workshop leader! 

In the design stage, we are aiming to answer the question: how will this happen? This includes choosing dates and venues, drafting an agenda, creating a communication plan so that your workshop attendees will get the invite and join, populating a participant list, and refining your draft agenda into a detailed script. 

Establishing time and place

A workshop begins to feel like it’s really going to happen once the date and location are decided upon.

Whether you are scouting for a location yourself or not, you still need to clarify and communicate a list of requirements clearly. Don’t give anything for granted! List any needs such as accessibility, type of space, and equipment such as tables or presentation equipment. No location is going to be perfect, but the clearer your request, the closer to ideal you might get. 

If you’re running a virtual workshop, you still need to put it in the calendar and arrange for a virtual space to hold it in, such as a Zoom account and a whiteboard space. And if it’s hybrid, you’ll need to do both: scout for a location (with great wifi and acoustics, here you can read more about why that’s important ) and set up online resources as well. If you don’t know yet what kind of room setup you will need, take a look at our detailed guide here.

Once the location has been chosen and booked, make sure you have an understanding with the location manager of how your session will work and what they can expect. Will you be using masking tape to hang posters on the wall? Is that ok? How early do you expect to be at the location, and who will be there to open the doors? Will you need breakout spaces for smaller groups to work in? Will participants be milling around using outside spaces, which, and when? What about wifi use, passwords, and other tech needs? 

Having a persona in mind might help establish a schedule. Is this a personal development workshop that people sign up for as individuals (that will probably mean running it in the evening or on weekends?) Or is it going on at the workplace? When are employees free to attend, and what will not clash with previous engagements? Will it be a one-off thing or a series? Successful workshops take all this into account to ensure workshop participants can actually be there! If you are working on a series of meetings for participatory planning and would like to encourage a diverse attendance , it could be a good idea to switch times and dates around quite often, so that people with different jobs and schedules can fit at least one meeting in. And get a babysitting service, or have someone who works with youth set up a related workshop with the young ones.

Drafting the workshop agenda 

So now the word is out, and there is probably some time to wait before the workshop kick-off. This is the moment to sit down with yourself and work on the facilitation design. For many trainers and facilitators, this is a favorite part of the process. Here is where we create a detailed schedule, choose activities and methods and assemble them into a coherent flow. You’ll seek to create a workflow flow that balances group discussions, experiential activities and different learning styles in order to meet your workshop’s purpose. Proper planning and a structured process is a proven way of turning a workshop idea into a reality.

Using a workshop planning tool like SessionLab can make the task much easier and save you time in your process. A successful workshop is one with a clear structure that supports the learning process. With the Session Planner , you can easily drag and drop your content blocks to quickly build an effective flow.

I like to start by creating a skeleton of each item in the workshop agenda and then adding additional content once I feel confident in the flow.

SessionLab also ensures you stay in control of time while creating your workshop agenda. Add timing to each block to confidently plan for the time you have available. And when you make changes, SessionLab will automatically calculate your timing. It’s easy to iterate and plan the most effective workshop flow for your participants.

Need inspiration? Research and exploration into the methods library can help you find suitable activities for your session, as well as other online repositories of ideas such as this one by Untools.  

The actual process of creating a draft agenda is quite personal. You may be working on it completely alone (hopefully, with a hot or cold beverage of your choice, and plenty of time!) or with a co-facilitator.

Results from the State of Facilitation report indicate that facilitators like to work directly with online tools, such as SessionLab, others, me included, prefer to start with pen and paper… or by taking voice notes while taking a walk!

However you approach the matter, you are likely to do all of these things (and more!), while not necessarily in this order:

• Create a timeline, showing when your workshop starts, ends, and how long each section will last;
• Check your notes from meeting with the client, refer back to desired outcomes both tangible and intangible;
• Refer back to your interviews with participants, or any other information you may have collected from them, to pinpoint main needs and expectations;
• Brainstorm activities you believe will meet the client’s and the participants’ needs;
• Pick among those activities: which are “must-haves” and which are optional?
• Assess how much time each activity will take, and add a bit of buffer to account for the unexpected;
• Check that your activities are diverse enough to include people with different styles and approaches (e.g. by having both individual and group activities);
• Add essential opening and closing activities such as icebreakers and introductions at the beginning and feedback and drawing conclusions at the end
• Arrange them in a timeline;

And whatever you do, don’t forget to schedule some breaks! A successful workshop ensures that the workshop facilitator and all participants are able to participate and maintain their energy levels will learning new skills.

Refining the agenda

Once you have a solid agenda, it’s time once more to check in with the client. Run through the agenda together, checking that you share an understanding of what is going to happen, and making any needed tweaks and changes as you go. I always aim to share my reasoning with clients and share tidbits of facilitation along the way. 

If you’re using SessionLab, you can invite clients and stakeholders directly to your agenda so you discuss and co-create in real-time or asynchronously. Collaborating in one-place can really help ensure your workshop preparation is smooth and that your session will meet your goals.

Refining the agenda is the subject of the third client/facilitator meeting detailed in the template that goes with this piece. The first thing to do is restate the high-level purpose and objectives of the workshop, before going into a review of details. This process encourages clarity and alignment, as well as enabling the facilitator to check whether the proposed agenda is fit for purpose. 

This is also the stage in which, if I am facilitating a group discussions on a topic I am not familiar with, I’ll be doing research into that topic. Opinions about how knowledgeable, if at all, a facilitator should be about the topic under discussion vary greatly. Personally, my attention is on the dynamics of their conversation rather than on the content. Because of this, I don’t mind working with groups or companies who are talking about something I am not informed about. 

At the same time, I find it useful to have at least a beginner’s understanding of the discussion. To enable this, I will ask clients to send me some papers or links to study. Mainly, I will be looking for jargon and terminology: I want to have at least a sense of what people are talking about and what terms to use myself. I also try and get a sense of what in the field is clear, and what is contested or up for debate. Research can lead to changes to the agenda: in a recent workshop I chaired, reading some documentation led me to assume that terminology being used in the field was still not well-defined. Different stakeholders were using different terms to indicate the same things, or the same term to indicate different things! I checked in with the client to verify if this was indeed the case and we decided to add a section discussing terminology at the beginning of the workshop. We did not aim to settle the argument once and for all, but rather to share with participants the current state of the art in this particular industry and agree on what terms we would use for the duration of the workshop.  This is also a great time to reconsider the implications of your setting. If you’re running a virtual workshop, how will you encourage participants to take part and explore ideas in such an environment?

Creating a communications plan 

Whether you are opening the workshop for participants to enroll or whether it’s the host preparing a list of attendees, it’s likely someone will be working to create a buzz around the event.

Often this is not handled by the facilitator directly but rather by a communication agency or office. That said, do your part by preparing material for dissemination and helping make sure the news reaches the right ears. If you are not doing communication and enrollment yourself, avoid missteps (such as the advertising sending a message that is not aligned with your intention and design) by preparing such a brief well in advance. A basic communication plan for your workshop should include:

• How will people find out about the workshop? Where will it be advertised? Are there networks, groups or individuals that should be reached out to? 
• What should people know about the workshop in advance? Create a one or two-sentence description of the workshop to go out in communication channels and invitations. What is the workshop’s unique value? How can you entice people to be excited to join?
• How will people enroll in the workshop? And how can they find out more? Who should they contact to register, is it you, or the client, or should you set up an automatic registration service (such as Eventbrite )? What information do you need to collect upon registration? Do participants need to sign authorizations (e.g. for audio-video use)? Will they get a confirmation email? Automatically or through you/the client?

Establishing who will be there 

Many hands make light work: now that you have your detail agenda or script set out, you should have a clear sense of whether other people are needed to make it work. Will you need a tech host? An assistant to help with the practicalities? A video-maker? Photographer? Visual practitioner?  If you need to assemble a team, it makes sense to onboard them once you know the agenda and tasks they will take on.

The other aspect of establishing who will be there is having a final (or “almost final”… there are usually last-minute surprises!) participant list. Registration can also be an interesting opportunity to collect information on your workshop attendees that might inspire some final details of the design. When registering participants for a short (3-hour) leadership workshop for the international organization C40, besides asking for basic information such as names and emails, I added three optional questions concerning people’s motivation for joining, interesting initiatives they might like to share, and a blank space for “any other communications”. This process was useful for me to start to get a sense of who was going to be in the room and adapt my choices and language to the audience. Furthermore, these questions can kick-start the workshop long before it begins by asking participants to start reflecting on a certain topic.

Phase 3 – Running the workshop!

As the moment of running a workshop draws closer, there are some tasks to do that are very practical, having to do with implementing what has, up to now, existed in words only. This is the phase for getting things done : assembling materials, briefing your team and any speakers, taking care of your inner work and preparation and then, in a leap of faith…Trusting that all you’ve done is enough, finally doing away with plans, and going with the flow! 

Running workshops can be tough work, so in this section we’ve collected some tips for managing workshop attendees (and yourself) that should help running the workshop easier!

Assembling materials

Shopping time! The stationery shop is like a second home to most facilitators: it’s time to get your gear together and fill up boxes of sticky notes, posters, and marker pens. Now things are getting real! (And if you used SessionLab to plan your session, you’ll find a handy list of materials consolidated on the information page !) As the date of the workshop approaches, make sure you have all the materials you need ready at hand. This might include your presentations, virtual whiteboards, or physical goodies. I have found myself roaming Rome at dawn to get photocopies of materials in a neighborhood with no such services. Not fun! 

I often wonder how important is it to give participants printed handouts. On the one hand, let’s admit it, such materials don’t often get read. Printing is a waste of energy and paper and my sustainable-minded self would rather avoid it. 

On the other hand, printed materials might be a useful reference a long time after the workshop is over, and many people like to have something physical to hold onto and take notes on. You can also consider the option of having digital-format handouts to send to everyone before or after the workshop. 

Briefing team and speakers 

A few days before the workshop, set a briefing call with the client, your team and, if applicable, speakers or other guests. I have sometimes avoided doing this for the sake of efficiency… and usually regretted it. Even though it seems like everything is clear and smooth, by talking a workshop through, even in a brief 30 min meeting, something might emerge that needs attention.

If you have external speakers joining, e.g. for a keynote or presentation, remember they have not dedicated the amount of time and attention to this event that you have! Brief them on the intention behind the workshop and on the participants in the room, and discuss what will happen before and after their speech. As your star guests, they should feel welcome and well prepared. This will improve alignment and the overall experience for participants. When running a workshop with a team, it’s very important to know who will take care of what. Take the time to clearly define roles and responsibilities and add to the script the name of the people who will be, for example, presenting or tech hosting at a given time.

You might also have pre-workshop communication you want to send out to participants, perhaps to remind them of logistics or do some prep work. Always include a way to contact you (or someone from your team) if something happens at the last minute! 

Personal energy management

Once all the design and preparation are done, so much rests on the facilitator’s personal stance and attention. Here are some examples of things facilitators I know, or myself, do in terms of personal energy management:

• No work the day before and/or after an important event;
• Meditation and focussing activities;
• Spending time in nature, taking walks;
• Coaching session with trusted colleagues or a professional coach;
• Taking time to reflect on possible biases and on personal intentions. 

What do you do to prepare yourself before a workshop? Do you take time and space before the start to tend to your own needs? We’ve also been sharing this conversation in SessionLab’s community space: join us here.  

Going with the flow

Step by step, you have now reached this exceptional threshold. People have assembled in a physical or online space, which is equipped with all they need to learn and grow together. The workshop is about to begin! 

This is what all the preparation work was for: take a deep breath and delve into the agenda. Skilled facilitators know how to read the room, trust their instincts, and stick by the plan, or change it, depending on what is needed in the moment, here and now. 

Phase 4 – Learn

The workshop may be over but the work is not! Learning, celebrating and reflecting should take just as much of your time, energy and commitment as any one of the other phases. This is the step where we truly grow and become, with time and experience, wise and excellent facilitators! In this learning phase, we aim to close a cycle mirroring how it was opened. This means continuing a dialogue with our client and making time to think back together. Such reflections are too often swept aside in the hustle of business cycles. Yet, the more space we can make for them, the better. As we learn together, we consolidate trust and strengthen partnerships. Furthermore, reflecting and celebrating builds momentum for the next workshop cycle, which is often just around the corner! 

Agreements taken with your client might include your contribution to drafting a final report. And even if they don’t, it’s still a great idea, for your own records, to take some time to look back and write up a summary of what happened. It will be invaluable in time, e.g. when two years down the line a client calls you back to know: “Could you do that workshop again?” “What made this a successful workshop and what would you change in any future workshops?” A workshop report generally includes two main parts: one is about information, the other is focussed on learnings.

Report Part 1  – information on the workshop

The first is a collection of data about the workshop: when and where was the workshop held? How many people attended? What was the schedule? 

• Workshop concept 
• Agenda (you can use SessionLab to include a handy printout of the session agenda!)
• Data on attendees (e.g. how many people attended, and whatever data about them is relevant and can be shared)
• Pictures from the event

Report Part 2 – learnings from the workshop

The second part of the workshop report is more subjective. This is the place in which to include reflections on how it went , a summary of key conversations and discussions, recommendations, notes on methodology

• Reflections on the methodologies chosen
• Facilitator’s notes and observations
• Feedback received
• Key recommendations or decisions taken. 

Following-up

Presenting a report, and opening it for final revisions, is a great excuse to set up that precious follow-up meeting with your client. 

Reserve a chunk of time to look back at your work together and reflect: what went well? What would you change next time? This is a time for constructive feedback, expressing appreciation, and really taking care of the relationship. You can find some inspiration on what to include in such a meeting in the last part of our Planning a Workshop template . 

Besides following up with your client, you also may have some follow-up actions to take towards participants. Here are some ideas of what that may include:

• Sending certificates of attendance with the number of hours spent at the workshop and the main topics covered;
• Sending lists of extra materials, bibliographies, and resources ;
• Collecting feedback through a questionnaire;
• Inviting people to subscribe to your mailing list, follow you on social media, or in any case providing ways for them to stay in touch. 

And of course, if you haven’t done it yet, it’s also time to do that bit of life admin and send an invoice! 

Collecting learnings

The follow-up and reporting steps are mostly outward-facing, that is, you are writing for others . While you do that, probably some ideas and learnings will emerge that are about your work and practice. A collection of personal learnings can be the outcome of your own reflection or, if you are part of a community of practice or professional development program, of time spent debriefing the workshop with your peers, coach, or mentor.

I don’t always have as much time as I would like to properly debrief and collect learnings. At the very least, I take 15 minutes to think through this quick “Regret, Celebrate, Learn” process I learned from the Mediate your Life program. To do that, I quickly jot down some notes or a mental map in response to the following three questions:

• Regret – what happened at the workshop that I regret, am worried or sad about? How did I feel about that? Do I know why I did it (what needs was I trying to satisfy?) 
• Celebrate – what happened at the workshop that I really celebrate and am glad about? How did that feel? What needs of mine were met? 
• Learn – with those things in mind, are there any learning points I want to draw and remember? 

I might, for example, regret answering a participant’s question rather brusquely, and realize I did that because I was feeling rushed for time. At the same time, I might celebrate that I did take that person aside to check in with them during the break. This may lead me to remind myself to invite people who have off-topic questions to “park” them on a poster to answer at a later time. 

You may want to add some notes next to certain tools or methodologies you used: most workshops present an opportunity to do something slightly different next time. If you are using SessionLab, you can add these to a certain activity’s card, so you’ll find them waiting for you next time you pick the same method from your personal library . 

Celebrating

Celebrating can mean different things to different people. If I am traveling to/from the workshop, I consider that time spent on the train on my way back, taking notes on my diary, part of celebration. 

Plenty of other actions might help you feel like the circle is closed: taking a relaxing break, going out for dinner with your team members, buying yourself a little gift… whatever helps you keep your energy level high and integrate the experience into the flow of your life. Processing your reflections and giving them some time to settle is likely to lead straight to the next great idea. How about we took this learning from this workshop and did that with it? Time to start taking notes, because these thoughts are the sign that a new cycle of ideation is about to begin! 

Processing your reflections and giving them some time to settle is likely to lead straight to the next great idea.

In closing 

When I asked our in-house designer to come up with the illustration on the top of this article, it felt very appropriate to summarize the complicated process of designing a workshop into a single, perfect circle.

Now that it’s done, I realize it’s really not a circle at all, because once all the work is complete nobody, neither client nor facilitator nor participants, is in the same place they began from. The process of designing a workshop is actually like a spiral , that widens and opens each time we go around. By the end of all these steps, everyone will have changed in some way. Relationships will have formed, new ideas defined, and lessons learned.

At the start of the spiral, there is only an idea, which becomes a design as it is shared, consolidated and refined. The facilitator’s job is to turn it into an agenda, and go through all these steps, alone or with a team, to make it happen. By learning from all that took place, the flow will, in time, become more natural, fluid, almost second nature. My hope in setting it down in this piece is that it will help you along the journey.

Want to see an entire workshop journey in action and get help in putting together a water-tight agenda? Explore our workshop planning template to go through a proven agenda design process that will help you dazzle potential attendees.

Does this process describe how you have been designing your workshops? Did it give you new ideas? Leave a note in the comments, and join the discussion in our Community !

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Planning a Workshop

Organizing and running a successful event.

By the Mind Tools Content Team

Anyone who has ever planned a workshop will tell you that it's a big job. And planning a good one? Well, that takes organization, focus, and a lot of creativity. So how do you prepare for a workshop that will be not only relevant and productive, but memorable?

Some people hate going to workshops. Done wrong, they can be a huge waste of time and money. However, if they're planned well, they can be incredibly valuable for everyone involved. Workshops are great for brainstorming, interactive learning, building relationships, and problem-solving. This is why advance planning is critical.

Before the Workshop

Follow these steps to make sure your workshop is a valuable experience for everyone:

1. Define the Goals

Every workshop must have a goal. Do you need to improve your company's hiring procedures? Do you want to teach managers how to be better organizers? Do you need to do some team building with a newly formed team?

Many workshops are a waste of time because there's no clear goal kept at the center of the discussion. Without this clear goal, there's really no point in getting people together.

2. Decide Who Will Attend

Knowing who will attend directly relates to your objective. For example, if your workshop's goal is to develop a detailed solution to a problem, then you probably want 10 or fewer key attendees. If your goal is centered on education, then you might be happy with a much larger group, which divides into smaller groups for discussion.

Make a list of who needs to be there. Try to be as specific as possible, but leave a few openings for last-minute additions.

3. Choose the Right Location

If you have 10 attendees, then the conference room down the hall will probably be just fine. But if you have 50 people, you may have to find an outside location that's large enough.

Think about the logistics and practical details of your workshop when you choose the location. Will everyone be able to see your visual aids? If you need a certain technology, like teleconferencing, will the location support it? Are there appropriate facilities for breakout sessions? Will everyone be able to reach the venue? Will you need to organize accommodation for people who are coming from a long way away? And what catering facilities does the venue provide?

4. Create an Agenda

Now that you know your primary objective and who will attend, you can start to develop an outline of how you'll achieve the workshop's goal.

• Main points – Create a list of main points to discuss, and then break down each larger point into details that you want to communicate to your audience.
• Visual aids – List the visual aids, if any, you'll use for each point. If you need technical support, this helps the people providing it to determine where they need to focus their efforts.
• Discussions and activities – Take time to list exactly which group discussions and activities you'll have at which point in the workshop. How much time will you allow for each exercise? Make sure your activities are appropriate for the size of the group, and ensure that your venue has the resources (for example, seminar rooms) needed to run sessions.

Remember, the more detailed your plan, the more you'll ensure that your workshop will run to schedule – and be successful.

5. Develop a Follow-up Plan

The only way to find out if your workshop was a success is to have an effective follow-up plan. Create a questionnaire to give to all participants at the end of the event, and give them plenty of opportunities to share their opinions on how well it went. Although this can be a bit scary, it's the only way to learn – and improve – for the next time.

It's also important to have a plan to communicate the decisions that were reached during the workshop. Will you send out a mass email to everyone with the details? Will you put it on your company's intranet? People need to know that their hard work actually resulted in a decision or action, so keep them informed about what's happening after the workshop has ended.

During the Workshop – Getting People Involved

Once you have a solid advance plan, figure out how to bring some excitement into your event. You know the topics that you want to cover, but how will you make the information fun and memorable for your team?

Getting everyone involved is key to a successful workshop. If you stand up and talk for three hours, you're just giving a lecture – not facilitating a workshop. Everyone needs to participate.

Creating group exercises is different for each workshop. Keep these tips in mind:

• Many people are nervous about speaking in public , or in an unfamiliar group. If you plan group exercises, keep the size of each group small, so people are more comfortable talking and interacting.
• Mix up different types of people in each group. For example, if several departments participate in your workshop, don't put members of the same department in their own group. By encouraging people to interact with other departments, they can learn to look at things from different perspectives.
• Determine how you'll record the ideas from each group. Will participants shout them out while you write them down? Or will they write down their own ideas and then give them to you? This is a small, but important, detail that's often overlooked.
• If you have five or fewer groups, spend time allowing the entire team to evaluate the ideas from each smaller group. This is a great way to narrow down your list of ideas, and let the good ones really shine.

Remember, spend as much time as you can creating fun and interesting group exercises. These will likely keep everyone interested and participating.

Overall Workshop Tips

Here are some more ideas for running a successful workshop:

• If you plan the meeting, you may want to facilitate it as well. Learn how to do this effectively in The Role of a Facilitator .
• Be sure to establish the objective of your meeting or session. Read our article, Running Effective Meetings , for more on this.
• Start the meeting with a few ice breakers to get everyone relaxed and comfortable.
• If your workshop's goal is to address a difficult or sensitive topic, it's especially important to get the group comfortable before starting. One way is to tell a story that's loosely related to the topic before you begin discussing the difficult issue.
• Sometimes, not everyone has to stay for the entire workshop. For instance, the CEO might be too busy to attend the whole session. Identify which sections your busiest participants need to attend, and suggest in advance when they might want to arrive and leave. They'll appreciate your consideration.
• Where possible, avoid holding your workshop after lunch, between 2:00 and 3:00 in the afternoon. For many people, this is their slowest, most unproductive time of day. Your group will probably be more energetic if you schedule the event in the morning or late afternoon. (If you have to run the workshop in the early afternoon, make sure there's plenty of strong coffee available!)
• If your workshop's ultimate goal is to make a decision about something, the more people who attend, the less likely it is that you'll reach a decision. Here, try to keep the number of people attending to a minimum (for example, by issuing minutes after the event to people who are just interested.) It's also important to become familiar with the different strategies for team decision making. See our article on Organizing Team Decision Making to learn more.

There's no doubt that planning a great workshop is a lot of work. But if you spend time thinking through the details, everyone will get full value from the event.

The workshop's goal should be at the center of all your planning. Creative exercises will get everyone relaxed and involved, and don't forget to follow up afterward: although it can be scary to hear what people really thought of all your hard work, it's the only way you'll improve your next event.

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14 Corporate Workshop Ideas for the Office in 2024

You found our list of the best corporate office workshop ideas for the workplace.

Corporate workshops are instructor-led activities aimed at educating workers. Although these workshops benefit the business, they also help employees acquire and develop the information and skills to advance professionally and personally. You can offer a productive yet entertaining business event with corporate workshop ideas that encourage learning, networking, and team bonding. These events are also known as “office workshops”, “company workshops” and “business workshops.”

These seminars are a type of professional development activity and share similarities with virtual lunch and learns . These concepts often appear in books on employee training and development .

This article contains:

• team building workshops for employees
• mindfulness workshops for employees
• training workshops for employees
• fun workshop ideas for employees
• HR workshops for employees

Let’s get right into it!

The importance of corporate office workshops

Training workshops for employees play an important role in fostering the growth and success of organizations. These sessions are essential ways for employees to develop skills. These events equip employees with the latest tools and techniques in their respective fields. In a time of fast-paced technology advancement and evolving industry standards, workshops help staff stay competitive and relevant. Further, hosting these workshops clearly conveys that the organization values its workforce. This care fosters a culture of continuous learning and professional growth. When employees feel supported in their development, they are more likely to be motivated, engaged, and loyal.

Corporate workshops also foster effective teamwork and collaboration. By bringing together employees from different departments and backgrounds, these sessions help colleagues exchange ideas and develop strong connections. Team building workshops, in particular, help employees strengthen their communication skills and forge deeper bonds. These events ultimately lead to improved team dynamics and problem-solving capabilities. In a connected business landscape, these soft skills help teams achieve goals and overcome challenges.

In addition to enhancing individual and team capabilities, workshops offer an environment for innovation and adaptability. In brainstorming sessions and problem-solving workshops, employees think creatively and explore unconventional solutions. This attitude fosters a culture of innovation within the organization, essential for staying ahead in competitive markets. Moreover, workshops can strategically address specific challenges, from adapting to industry changes to tackling internal issues. Thus, corporate workshops are a proactive tool for organizations to respond to evolving business landscapes.

Corporate office workshop ideas

In the section below, you will find fun workshop ideas for employees that might suit your company’s values. You could pick a few to include in your company calendar to spice up your company’s regular brainstorming sessions and project-focused meetings.

1. The Art of Storytelling (Top Choice)

With The Art of Storytelling, you can enhance your storytelling skills and boost your confidence. Teams will master the art of sharing personal narratives that both captivate and inform their audiences.

Key features of The Art of Storytelling include:

• a 120-minute session facilitated by an expert guide
• the five essential elements of a captivating story
• strategies and techniques to keep audience interest
• dedicated practice time for participants to hone their storytelling skills
• detailed feedback provided by the hosts

For your convenience, we will come to your preferred venue with all the necessary materials. Companies looking to help their staff tell engaging narratives should check out The Art of Storytelling!

Learn more about The Art of Storytelling .

2. Conflict resolution workshop

When searching for mindfulness workshops for employees, consider discussing conflict resolution. Conflict resolution workshops teach employees effective techniques for resolving disputes in the workplace. Participants learn to identify the causes of conflicts, develop active listening skills, and explore problem-solving methods. These workshops help employees learn to address conflicts effectively. This skill can lead to improved relationships, increased team cohesion, and a more harmonious work environment. By cultivating these skills, individuals are better equipped to handle disagreements professionally. In addition, this technique reduces the negative impact of conflicts on productivity and morale.

Get our free team building toolbox

• icebreaker games
• bingo cards

3. Company culture workshop

Many developing companies throughout the globe are putting a lot of effort into refining and improving their company’s culture and values. HR professionals and executives may help build a healthy business culture by organizing frequent seminars and reflections.

During a discussion about the company’s values, workers can provide feedback and express their thoughts about embodying those principles daily. It is much simpler to generate conversation topics when participants can express their thoughts and ideas in real-time.

Check out this list of books on company culture .

4. Mental health workshop

Considering the stress of deadlines, workloads, and adult obligations, a staff session on mental health would also be an excellent corporate office workshop idea. As an HR professional, you may take advantage of this chance to learn more about your workers’ feelings and how they deal with stress.

You may use insights from this workshop to help yourself and your coworkers. Participant introspection on work style and work-life balance will be a crucial aspect of the program for every employee who attends. The workshop will include topics like mental health awareness, managing mental wellbeing, and skills to manage mental health illness at work.

For more inspiration, check out this list of Mental Health Awareness Month ideas .

5. Customer service excellence workshop

Customer service excellence workshops enhance the skills and attitudes needed to provide exceptional customer experiences. Participants learn the art of active listening, empathy, and effective customer communication. These workshops often include scenario-based training to help employees navigate difficult customer interactions and find solutions to customer issues. By emphasizing customer-centric approaches and service standards, organizations can improve customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention. These skills ultimately contribute to business growth and success.

6. Cybersecurity awareness workshop

Cybersecurity awareness workshops educate employees about the importance of cybersecurity. In addition, cybersecurity can equip employees with knowledge about common cyber threats and best practices for online safety. Participants learn to recognize phishing attempts, protect sensitive information, and follow cybersecurity protocols. These workshops are crucial in today’s digital age to safeguard an organization’s data and reputation. By raising awareness and promoting a cybersecurity-conscious culture, businesses can reduce the risk of data breaches and cyberattacks.

7. Ethics and compliance workshop

Ethics and compliance workshops focus on promoting ethical behavior, following company policies, and complying with legal standards. Participants explore ethical dilemmas, discuss the organization’s code of conduct, and learn about the consequences of ethical violations. These workshops reinforce the importance of integrity, honesty, and ethical decision-making in the workplace. By fostering a strong ethical and compliance culture, organizations can maintain their reputation and reduce legal risks. These workshops also ensure that employees uphold the highest standards of conduct in their professional roles.

8. Teaching social workshop

A teaching social is one of the most effective team building workshops for employees. This workshop can be helpful for employees who signify interest in learning more about a particular subject. The workshop can happen during breaks and can be less formal.

This corporate workshop entails setting up an hour a month for your whole team to “network” with one another. For example, you could organize a potluck or order lunch from a nearby restaurant to create a more memorable occasion. During the workshop, employees can share an important project they are working on as a team or individually. The rest of the team can then provide helpful criticism and new suggestions.

This open discussion can promote the spirit of camaraderie and a degree of cooperation among teams in the firm. Working in a segregated company may be convenient, but it is detrimental to your business and staff. Your monthly teaching social should be an avenue to remind your employees that their coworkers are vital resources.

9. Self-defense workshop

It is advisable to have some seminars that are not work-related to ensure employees’ interests. HR workshops for employees like self-defense seminars can help show workers that you care about their well-being both in and out of the workplace. For firms that care about their employees, particularly those whose employees often travel to their vehicles at night or alone, self-defense training classes for workers can be highly beneficial. It is advisable to choose an experienced trainer with a proven track record for this seminar.

10. Vision board workshop

Employees may create their vision boards in a conference room that doubles as a creative environment. Vision boards provide a visual depiction of your dreams and aspirations or how you want to feel. The goal is to visualize those goals and create action plans for execution. The vision board workshop is an exercise in abstract thinking. This session is a great approach to help your employees discover new ideas and inspiration for personal development, both inside the company and in their personal lives.

You will need markers, whiteboards, pen or pencil, magazines, sticky notes, and scissors for this workshop. You could have a maximum of five employees for each month’s class. Participants can share their favorite portion of the finished vision board with their coworkers after the program. Every participant, including those who did not participate, could find this inspiring and enlightening.

Another idea for the vision board workshop is to invite a life coach to the workplace. A life coach will meet with the group of five participants for 30 minutes to help them think creatively about their professional and personal development. Employees can get some inspiration from this discussion.

For similar exercises, check out office bulletin board ideas  and virtual vision board workshop ideas .

11. New employee onboarding workshop

Helping new workers find their footing in their new roles is essential for a successful HR strategy. In this workshop, employees can learn important details about the company’s working methods, its ideals, organizational structure, and staff bios. The workshop will also include a Q&A session to ensure no worker lags behind and that no one leaves the meeting with unanswered questions.

An interactive and engaging presentation can help workers feel at ease and home in the firm right away. You may also include some fun quiz components to help participants remember what they have learned and have fun learning about their position and place in the company.

Check out this list of employee onboarding books .

12. Equality and diversity workshop

It is impossible to overstate the importance of equality and diversity in the workplace. A diverse, equal, and inclusive workplace records more productivity, less employee turnover, and attracts talent. An interactive course on workplace equality and diversity is necessary for every HR worker. During the workshop, you can try to get every participant on the same page by asking them questions or letting them share their personal experiences with the group. It is also advisable to bring in an expert to educate employees on best practices for creating an inclusive and unbiased workplace. The training helps employees better understand their role in supporting workplace equality and diversity, avoiding discrimination, and promoting a fairer and diverse workplace.

Check out this list of diversity and inclusion activities for work .

13. Time management and productivity workshop

Time management and productivity workshops help employees optimize their work processes, prioritize tasks, and efficiently use their time. Participants explore various time management techniques and productivity tools to increase effectiveness and reduce time-wasting habits. Workshops may cover goal setting, task delegation, and eliminating distractions. By mastering time management, employees can boost their productivity, reduce stress, and achieve a better work-life balance. Proper time management can lead to greater job satisfaction and overall success.

14. Comedy Workshops

teambuilding.com’s Comedy Workshop is a fun, skill-building workshop where participants learn the basics of comedy and collaborate to create hilarious jokes. Stand-up comedians who have performed in front of a large audience are the instructors of this 90-minute comedy workshop. This innovative workshop incorporates virtual team building and skill development to get your team interested, smiling, and thinking creatively.

The host will highlight some of the best jokes from some of the world’s best comedians. Then, you and your coworkers will have a great time debating why such jokes work. Your team will work together to create a late-night comedy joke using the joke-writing methods they learn. This corporate workshop is a great way to bring everyone together and have fun.

Note — This event is bookable by special request, and is not available in December. Plan a call with our Client Advisors to learn more.

Tips for creating an impactful corporate workshop

Regardless of the size or focus of your organization, enthusiastic and motivated staff is essential to its success. A company’s ability to recruit and retain top-tier talent depends on providing workshops that professionally and emotionally benefit workers. You can boost your team’s productivity by appreciating and recognizing them.

1. Facilitate networking opportunities

Giving workshop attendees a chance to network can make the workshop more memorable. Humans like socializing and engaging in a group. To get the most from a workshop, participants should have the opportunity to interact with one another, acquire new skills, and meet new people. Also, collaborations between firms may result from networking, which can be advantageous to both parties.

2. Teach with methodologies

As the proverb goes, “It is better to teach a man how to fish rather than give him a boat full of fish.” Teaching the task itself is not as effective as teaching the methodology. Workshops, for example, often include demonstrations of various techniques. Facilitators should give attendees the technique or systematic examination of each phase and hands-on instruction. This method helps participants better understand the approach, which they may apply to other aspects of their work or lives.

3. Include games

Workshops may get tedious at times, and participants will do their best to stay engaged. However, you should take a break and play some games before they lose focus. Participants get the opportunity to re-energize during these activities. These games can pique attendees’ competitive natures without getting physical. You can include puzzles, riddles, and memory games and enforce a time restriction to up the excitement.

The use of quick games after each session may help maintain participants’ attention and happiness throughout the corporate workshop. This tip will aid in their retention and ensure that they have a great workshop experience.

Here are lists of energizing team building games and morning meeting games .

4. Tell a story

Storytelling is one of the earliest forms of human culture and serves to teach. When we hear a story, we may learn a lot about ourselves and our world. Therefore, workshops may benefit from storytelling as it is an excellent way to connect what you are teaching to the real world. If folks can sit for hours watching a movie, they can spare a few minutes to hear your story.

Narratives fascinate humans, and we seek them out in our everyday lives. By telling a narrative with the information you will provide, you can engage your audience and retain their attention.

5. Incorporate real-world examples

Incorporating real-world examples into a corporate workshop brings the content to life, making it relatable and memorable. Consider showing practical situations, challenges, and success stories from the business world. Thus, participants can better grasp the relevance and applicability of the workshop’s concepts. These examples can show how outlined strategies turn into actionable solutions. This perspective offers valuable insights into the complexities of real work environments. Ultimately, using real-world examples gives participants the knowledge and confidence to navigate similar situations.

For workshops, it is vital to establish a fun topic or employ cutting-edge technology to increase participation and retention. Participants should have a positive experience at a seminar to have confidence in the usefulness of the information presented. Attendees and companies alike may benefit from creating strong bonds between them via networking events.

For more guidance, check out these guides on the best practices of professional development and employee engagement theory .

Book wildly fun team building events with expert hosts

FAQ: Corporate workshops

Here are some frequently asked questions about corporate office workshops.

What are corporate office workshops?

Corporate office workshops are training sessions to improve employees’ knowledge, abilities, and productivity. Companies provide various training options to their employees depending on their demands, urgency, and available resources.

What are some good ideas for office workshops?

Some good ideas for office workshops include diversity and equality, comedy, and storytelling.

How do you run corporate workshops?

You can run corporate workshops by performing an office poll, using games, and telling stories.

Why are company workshops important?

Company workshops are important to increase workplace productivity, lower employee turnover, and boost employee engagement.

Author: Grace He

People & Culture Director at teambuilding.com. Grace is the Director of People & Culture at TeamBuilding. She studied Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, Information Science at East China Normal University and earned an MBA at Washington State University.

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Practical business planning workshop, making business plans that really work to transform your business.

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Course description, introduction.

Business planning is an essential management tool enabling an enterprise both to succeed in a global marketplace and to be accountable to its shareholders, but the process must be supported by effective project management to ensure that plans do not become merely decorative “shelfware”.

Too often, business planning is an onerous annual chore driven by financial numbers alone, instead of a powerful method of defining and delivering profitable change for the organization.

This short Practical Business Planning Workshop, demonstrates a practical and robust method to produce a business vision, based on analysis and debate, which is then delivered through a coherent programme of projects delivered by engaged and accountable managers. The emphasis here is on practical hands-on training in use of the methodology.

This Practical Business Planning Workshop will feature:

• What does a good plan look like?
• What is the practical payoff for the organization?
• Organizing and Resourcing a regular annual time-bound exercise
• Demonstration of a simple and robust process to generate a powerful plan
• Getting the right people around the table in the right setting with the right mind-set

By the end of this Practical Business Planning Workshop, participants will be able to:

• Design and deliver a business planning process which suits their business
• Mobilize the resources and information required to produce a robust business plan
• Analyze their business environment to develop a plan which will deliver the “business vision”
• Finalize and communicate a business plan to the stakeholders affected by the plan
• Direct and manage the delivery of the plan through a coherent PRINCE2 programme

Training Methodology

This Practical Business Planning workshop will use a variety of proven adult learning techniques to ensure maximum understanding, comprehension and retention of the information presented. This includes classroom based learning with a competitive practical team element. Case studies and practical simulations of the business plan processes producing outline plans for a case study client. Production of a plan for an imaginary company with role-play exercises using the proven methodology.

Who should Attend?

This Practical Business Planning workshop is designed for senior and middle managers who are aspiring to general management positions and individuals seeking an understanding of this key element of the top manager’s tool kit. It is also relevant to C-level leaders looking to expand their businesses.

This Practical Business Planning Workshop is suitable to a wide range of professionals but will greatly benefit:

• Senior Leaders in Marketing, Finance, Operations and HR functions
• Headquarters staff in complex organizations across all business sectors and public administration
• Departmental Heads responsible for components of the business plan
• Senior Programme and Project Management Staff
• Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) leaders aiming to grow their businesses

Course Outline

The Planning Workshop – Walk-through of the “Fishbone”© Method

• Using the Fishbone © approach to shape the problem for an imaginary client described in student case study material
• Appraisal of the Plan Start Point
• Formulation of the desired end-state
• Analysis of the “terrain of travel”
• Planning for Effectiveness
• Planning for Efficiency

The worked example

• Working up a business plan for “Planco Incorporated” using the “Fishbone” © Method
• Course members analyse the Planco Business Brief /case study – preparing their roles as Business Directors Preparing the Planco Business Plan
• Integrating Standard Analytical (Porter, Ansoff, Boston, PESTLE) tools in the process
•  Considering the Delivery of the Plan – roles and responsibilities
• The Importance of Practical Delivery and Feedback Loops – “where the rubber meets the road!”
• The “proof of the pudding” - managing the delivery through a PRINCE 2 programme

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• On successful completion of this training course, GLOMACS Certificate will be awarded to the delegates
• Continuing Professional Education credits (CPE) : In accordance with the standards of the National Registry of CPE Sponsor, one CPE credit is granted per 50 minutes of attendance

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40 Workshop Ideas and Examples For Your Next Event

Posted by Chinny Verana on Friday, July 14th, 2023

Hosting a workshop is an efficient way to impart value to your community. There is an art to creating and facilitating successful workshops. If you’re a brand or organization or an expert, this blog offers a complete list of workshop ideas and examples you can use for your workshop event planning.

Article Outline

What is a workshop?

Benefits of a workshop, photography workshops, 2. coding class, team building event, public speaking or presentation skills training, product demonstrations as a workshop, data science training, career development workshops, painting workshops, performing arts workshop, jewelry making workshop, poetry making workshop, pottery making workshop, woodwork workshop, storytelling workshop, ai workshop , financial literacy workshop, mastermind workshop, problem-solving activity, parents workshop , copywriting workshop, sales pitch workshop, social media marketing workshop, product development workshops, business taxes 101, business planning sessions, event marketing, creating a marketing plan workshop, brand development training, mindfulness workshop, goal setting workshop, stress management, self talk management, managing productivity workshop, strengths finder assessment, leadership development training, cooking and baking workshops, sport clinics, reading clinic workshops, virtual hackathons, speed networking, step #1 – identify the target audience for your workshop, step #2 – choose a workshop topic , step #3 – define your expected outcomes, step #4 – create your event program, step #5 – send invites and get registration, step #6 – host your workshop, step #7 – get feedback from survey forms, set up a successful workshop with event espresso.

First, let us define what a workshop is. A workshop is a structured meeting or learning environment where ideas are exchanged and new skills are developed among people with similar interests or goals. Workshops are usually led or facilitated by an expert in the topic. 

Workshops often involve a combination of theoretical instruction, practical exercises, group discussions, and hands-on activities to enhance participants’ knowledge, skills, and understanding of a particular field or topic. 

With people’s shortening attention spans, creating an engaging workshop provides a solution to keep participants engaged and involved while taking in information.

Organizing workshops can bring several benefits:

Interactive learning – Workshops mostly involve hands-on interactive activities among participants which can help retain knowledge better. Training workshops are often tailored to the participant’s needs for an enriching experience.

Networking opportunities – In-person attendees participate in events to meet new people and expand their network. Participants of a workshop have more opportunities for interaction because of the activities in a workshop. 

Collaborative experiences – Collaborative experiences leave a mark on attendees because it involves teamwork and active engagement. 

Expert guidance – Workshops are usually led by an industry expert on the topic of discussion. Compared to textbook learning, a workshop allows participants to learn firsthand from industry experts and ask practical and relevant questions to the speakers. 

Immediate application – Some workshops require a final output or presentation to culminate the participant’s learning. An immediate application from the workshop empowers participants and builds their confidence about the topic discussed. 

Whatever business industry you’re in, you can take inspiration from one of the creative ideas for your workshop here:

Different Types of Workshop Events with Ideas and Examples

Corporate workshop ideas.

Businesses are starting to recognize the importance of providing value to employees outside their daily tasks. By investing in these workshops, organizations demonstrate their commitment to the growth of new skills and the success of their employees. 

Corporate workshops vary from upskilling to employee wellness, employee engagement, and more. Depending on the company culture, human resources managers can organize workshops that fit what employees appreciate. 

In today’s digital world, creating content and taking clear photos are important skills to learn. A photography workshop event can cover a range of topics to cater to different skill levels and interests. These may include understanding camera settings, exposure and lighting techniques, composition and framing, color theory, post-processing and editing, portrait photography, landscape photography, street photography, studio lighting, and more. The classes often focus on both technical aspects (such as aperture, shutter speed, and ISO) and artistic elements (such as composition and storytelling).

Learning photography is conducive to being conducted in a workshop because of the hands-on experience. A great idea for the exercises can be creating photoshoot layouts with the company’s products.

Another valuable new skill to learn in business is coding because a strong online presence is crucial for businesses today. 

Event organizers can offer coding boot camps for corporate settings that focus on technologies and languages relevant to the organization’s needs and objectives.

For example, workshops might cover languages like Python, JavaScript, or SQL, which are commonly used in web development, data analysis, or automation. 

Coding is best learned in a workshop setting because information is better understood when applied in action.

Participating in a team building activity builds better harmony and meaningful connections among team members. Team building workshops for corporate teams include building skills necessary for an effective team like active listening, conflict resolution, effective communication, problem-solving, decision-making, and goal setting.

Examples of team-building workshops are escape rooms, scavenger hunts, team Olympics, strengths-based activities, problem-solving scenarios, etc. 

Team building activities are ideal to be conducted in a workshop format because it involves a lot of interaction and collaboration with colleagues. 

Employees often need to engage with different stakeholders, clients, and colleagues. Organizing a series of workshop events targeted to these skills can help build employees’ skills and confidence. 

Gaining effective presentation skills enable them to communicate ideas, updates, or project plans in a manner that captures attention, maintains interest, and fosters engagement. 

The public speaking workshop can include practical exercises like short impromptu speeches, prepared presentations, or role-playing scenarios.

Public speaking is ideal for a workshop setting for recital purposes. There is an instant audience for participants to practice on. 

Your product or service applied can be made into a workshop event. The workshop aims to provide participants with a comprehensive understanding of the product, its capabilities, and how it can address their needs or solve their problems.

For example, if you are in the food industry, you can create a cooking or baking demonstration using your product. If you’re offering a service, you can create a class or tutorial that incorporates your service to demonstrate it in action. 

Understanding the benefits of a product or service is best experienced in a workshop setting because workshops have ample time for a comprehensive product demonstration. Participants can explore various features, functionalities, and use cases, gaining a deeper understanding of the product’s capabilities.

Upskill your employees with an important business skill – data science. Learning data analysis gives knowledge on turning data into insights that can be used for business decisions. 

Data Science workshops often introduce participants to popular tools and technologies used in the field, such as Python, R, or SQL. Participants learn how to use these tools to manipulate data, perform statistical analysis, implement machine learning algorithms, and visualize results. 

Having data science training gives opportunities for participants to have immediate feedback and real time problem solving among peers. 

Career development workshops provide individuals with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to navigate their career paths effectively. Workshop activities can include self-assessment, professional branding and online presence, resume building, career exploration, and interview preparation skills. 

A workshop format is conducive for career development because of the networking and collaboration participants can experience attending. 

Creative Workshop Ideas

Hosting creative workshops is a great way to engage participants in an interactive and fun way. These workshops provide participants an opportunity to tap their inner creativity or discover their artistic interests.

Here are some great creative workshop ideas you can try:

Organize a painting workshop for a relaxing and therapeutic time. There are products now that make hosting a painting workshop more convenient like DIY painting kits, Paint by Numbers, etc. Go the extra mile by serving some snacks like wine and cheese to keep your workshop attendees happy.

A performing arts workshop provides options for a participant to explore their interests such as acting, dancing, singing, and theater. Performing arts are ideal in a workshop format because it encourages collaborative experiences and recognizes the specific skills of the participant.

The workshop can be multiple repeating events with different categories of performing arts. Attendees can also do a culminating performance or recital after the workshop schedules.

Jewelry making is not only a creative workshop but also a profitable small business idea. This activity is idea for a workshop event because it can feature hands-on instruction on basic jewelry making such as bead stringing, wirework, and basic metalworking. 

A workshop for word artisans. Teach participants how to express their thoughts, feelings, and insights into creative words of poetry. Facilitators for this workshop can be professors or experienced writers. 

The workshop event can help participants overcome writer’s block and build a community of writers. The event can conclude with a memorable activity like participants reciting their poetry pieces. 

Pottery Making is a great experiential workshop with a souvenir for attendees after. Having this in a workshop setting encourages creativity and fun connection among participants. Create mugs, saucers, pots, bowls, and plates from the workshop, and add a painting session to decorate their creations. Attending this workshop can be a fundraiser event or a fun activity among family and friends. 

Woodwork classes are another good workshop idea that is ideal for all ages. Workshops about woodwork is an in-person workshop that teaches new skills like wood shaping and carving, sanding and finishing, and understanding wood grain and selection. 

Having it in a workshop format allows safety and supervision by experts since the practice requires the use of tools. 

A storytelling workshop is an exciting way to foster a sense of community and interaction. Event attendees can learn various storytelling techniques to craft engaging narratives that they can use for their professions or their leisure. 

Storytelling workshops offer diverse perspectives which can benefit the skills of the participants. Having it in a workshop format can also build connection and empathy among participants. 

Storytelling workshops can include elements such as plot development, character building, setting description, dialogue, and creating emotional connections with the audience.

Educational Workshop Ideas

Educational workshops provide valuable benefits for a participant’s personal and professional development. Attendees can enhance their knowledge, skills, and competencies in the latest research, trends, and best practices in different industries. Here are some educational workshop ideas you can take inspiration from:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a trending topic that has gained a lot of attention. The workshop can tackle the different types of AI, machine learning, deep learning, applications, and the future of AI.

Workshops often involve building AI projects from scratch or using pre-built templates. Participants can add these projects to their portfolios to showcase their AI capabilities.

Because AI applies to different industries, the workshop can cater to a wide range of audiences in different professions or people who have an interest in the topic. 

Money is an important aspect in everyone’s life so a financial literacy workshop can draw an interest from a crowd. The topic of finance is very broad. From saving, investing, debt management, and risk assessment, you can create a workshop series surrounding these topics. 

Finances and numbers can be boring so hosting it in a workshop setting can get active participation from your audience members. Add fun hands-on activities like budgeting games, investment simulation, money management board games, financial quizzes, and more. 

A mastermind workshop, also known as a mastermind group or mastermind session, is a collaborative learning and problem-solving format that brings together a small group of individuals with similar interests or goals. 

Mastermind sessions offer a platform for brainstorming and ideation – similar to a roundtable discussion . Participants can freely share ideas, seek feedback, and collectively explore creative solutions to challenges.

A problem-solving session can be a workshop segment from a larger event. Attendees can bring in a specific problem or challenge they are facing currently and other participants will try to brainstorm solutions to the problem. 

Workshops provide a safe and supportive learning environment for participants to experiment with different problem-solving strategies and learn from mistakes.

After the workshop, each participant can leave with new insights into the problem they initially brought into the discussion. A problem-solving activity can take the form of team challenges, brainstorming sessions, design thinking exercises, hackathons, etc.

Being a parent is one of the hardest jobs that need training, especially for first-time parents. Parenting workshops can serve as a support group for parents and can offer a nurturing and inclusive space for parents to come together, share experiences, and gain valuable insights from expert facilitators and fellow parents.

Workshops encourage open communication and dialogue between parents, fostering a sense of community and shared learning.

Marketing Workshop Ideas

Marketing is an essential arm of any business. Every professional in business would find a marketing workshop useful in their role. Marketing workshops are valuable in driving professional development, marketing performance, and sales. 

The heart of your marketing strategy is in your messaging. Copywriting is harnessing the power of words to create on-point, persuasive, and impactful messaging. 

A Copywriting workshop can focus on specific niches like email copy, sales page copy, website copy, social media, and sales scripts.

Workshops enable participants to participate in hands-on practice and give access to expert guidance on writing techniques, tone and voice, editing and proofreading, etc. 

A quote by William Stone says, “Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman, not the attitude of the prospect.” Because sales are heavily influenced by the salesman, proper training can enable aspiring salespeople to succeed in their craft. 

A sales workshop provides role-playing exercises and can help train salespeople to identify the needs and pain points of customers, craft a clear and concise value proposition, structure the sales pitch for maximum engagement, and many more. 

Every business and organization today can benefit from social media or digital marketing. Event organizers can conduct a social media marketing workshop for marketing professionals or entrepreneurs on the latest trends and valuable principles of social media. 

Workshops are a safe space for participants to share tips and tricks on what may have worked for them.

Small Business Workshop Ideas

These small business workshop ideas are ideal for participants who want to start their own business or for those who are simply curious about entrepreneurship. Given the extensive scope of a business, event organizers have the opportunity to initiate a series of workshops, providing the audience with comprehensive training on various relevant topics.

Having a winning product is the most important aspect of a business. Without a good product – whether it’s a physical product or a service – the business will not exist. 

Product development ideation thrives best when feedback and critique are available which happens on a workshop setting.

A few ideas for a product development workshop are brainstorming sessions, market research and analysis,  defining product goals, defining product goals, etc. 

Taxes are a staple in every business. The process might be overwhelming for first-time entrepreneurs so organizing a workshop for your specific niche or industry is best. 

A subject matter expert conducting the workshop helps participants get their questions answered immediately and clarify their confusion if any. A workshop about business taxes can give a breakdown of the tax requirements a business needs, deductions and credits, tax resources, and an understanding of tax basics. Every start-up business needs to be knowledgeable about this. 

Any aspiring business owner and entrepreneur must learn the basics of proper business planning. As the famous quote by Alan Lakein says, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” Topics can tackle research and analysis, setting goals and objectives, developing strategies, financial projections, and more. 

Workshops provide a sense of accountability, as participants commit to their business plans and timelines with the support of the group.

Event Marketing is a new way of marketing that involves the gathering of audiences to create memorable and interactive experiences that resonate with attendees. These events can range from trade shows, conferences, and product launches to promotional events, experiential activations, and community gatherings. 

An Event Planning workshop opens access to a network of contacts which is very valuable in event planning. 

Topics can cover the event planning fundamentals like event conceptualization, logistics and venue management, budgeting and cost management, vendor and supplier coordination, event marketing, and event execution. 

Marketing is one of the most critical aspects of a business. A marketing plan workshop can guide participants through the process of developing a comprehensive marketing plan that aligns with their business goals and budget.

Marketing plan workshops encourage a collaborative approach, bringing together various stakeholders from marketing, sales, and other departments to align their efforts.

Strong branding is important to stand out among competitors. A workshop on branding and storytelling can involve activities such as storytelling through visuals, customer journey storyboarding, and brand identity exploration. 

Participants learn strategies to build trust and credibility through branding, increasing customer loyalty, and advocacy.

Personal Development Workshop

A personal development workshop is a training program designed to help individuals enhance their self-awareness, acquire new skills, and achieve personal growth and self-improvement. 

Personal development workshops focus on various aspects of an individual’s life, including emotional well-being, communication skills, goal setting, time management, confidence-building, and overall personal effectiveness. 

Mindfulness is the art of living in the present moment. Through guided meditation and mindfulness practices, participants can cultivate a deeper awareness of their thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations. 

Workshops explore ways to incorporate mindfulness into everyday activities, making it a practical and accessible practice.

Having a mindful awareness is an important personal development skill because it can equip an individual to face any challenge with confidence and better mental health. 

Setting goals for personal growth is the first step to turning ideas into action. A goal-setting workshop trains participants to set specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely results they want to achieve. 

The workshop setting can help attendees focus on their priorities and reflect on their personal goals and desired achievements. People looking to advance their careers, improve relationships or simply reach personal fulfillment goals will find this workshop beneficial. 

Stress is something that every person will encounter in one way or another. Learning to handle it is a personal development milestone. 

The facilitator can engage attendees in person with relaxation techniques, breathing exercises, and time management strategies that can build resilience for participants. 

Your inner dialogue shapes your self-perception and influences your actions. In this workshop, organizers can help workshop participants identify and transform negative self-talk into positive affirmations. By nurturing self-compassion and self-encouragement, they can develop a more empowering mindset to achieve their goals.

A self-talk management workshop can help attendees dive deeper into their limiting beliefs and help in their cognitive restructuring. 

Time is a precious resource, and in a Managing Productivity Workshop, participants will learn to optimize it for maximum efficiency.

The workshop can help attendees explore helpful strategies for prioritization, time blocking, and eliminating distractions that can leave them empowered to accomplish more while maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

Incorporating the Strengths Finder Assessment by Gallup , this workshop will help participants identify their unique strengths and talents. By leveraging their innate abilities, they can enhance their self-awareness and gain a competitive edge in personal and professional endeavors.

Assessing strengths through a workshop brings more retention and impact to attendees because of its collaborative and customized approach. 

Leadership Development Classes can be designed for aspiring and established leaders alike.  Interactive sessions create an environment where participants can share their experiences and insights. This knowledge exchange fosters a sense of collaboration and learning from peers, which can be valuable in a leadership workshop.

Kids Workshop Ideas

Kids can benefit a lot from hands-on workshop activities. Attending workshops provide children with hands-on activities, creative experiences, and opportunities to learn important skills while having fun. 

Here are some fun workshop ideas that kids can enjoy:

Cooking and baking are essential life skills that are helpful for kids to develop. Workshops offer a hands-on experience that allows children to explore the magic of the kitchen, experiment with ingredients, and whip up delectable delights under the guidance of experienced instructors. 

Ending the workshop with a taste test of the different recipes can foster a fun way for face-to-face feedback and an enjoyable snack time for kids. 

Sports clinics are a helpful way to develop kids’ motor skills and a productive way for kids to stay active. These clinics provide a nurturing environment where aspiring athletes can refine their techniques, master new skills, and learn the values of teamwork and discipline. 

Interactive sessions allow coaches to design progressive drills and activities that build upon each other. Athletes can gradually develop their skills and advance at their own pace.

Led by experienced coaches and athletes, the workshops cover a wide array of sports, from soccer and basketball to tennis and swimming.

Expand children’s thinking with reading workshops. Developing readers at an early age can help in kids’ language development, critical thinking, cognitive development, and more. 

Reading workshops can take many creative forms like interactive storytelling, reader’s theater, poetry recitation, book clubs, creative writing workshops, and more. 

Workshops can be designed as a series of sessions, allowing for sustained learning over time. Participants have the opportunity to reinforce reading skills and apply new knowledge progressively.

Online Workshop Ideas

Virtual workshops are increasing in popularity ever since the world has adapted to being fully online. Anyone can now enjoy a virtual workshop of their choice at the convenience of a few clicks on their devices. 

Organizers can take advantage of hosting a virtual workshop because it is cost-effective and easier in terms of logistics. The challenge lies in keeping virtual participants engaged. 

The benefit of hosting a fully virtual event is the potentially wide reach you can get. 

The workshop format facilitates remote collaboration among participants regardless of their geographic location. Virtual hackathons allow teams to connect, communicate, and work together seamlessly through digital platforms.

As participants gather in virtual spaces, they embark on an exhilarating journey of innovation, tackling real-world challenges and seeking ingenious solutions.

With everything going digital, people crave connections and desire to meet new people. Events can organize a speed networking session into their event to connect like-minded people and spark engagement. 

Like other workshops, speed networking events offer participants the opportunity to develop and refine their networking skills, such as effective communication and active listening.

Steps on How to Organize Your Workshops

The type of workshop you will create should be aligned with your target audience. Ask yourself what knowledge or skills you want participants to gain from the event. Establishing clear objectives will help you tailor the workshop content and activities to meet the attendees’ needs effectively. Additionally, identify your target audience to ensure that your workshop resonates with the right people.

Choose a workshop topic that is timely for your audience. Whatever industry you’re in, it is the topic of your workshop that will get people’s attention. Choose industry experts (yourself or others) on the topic of your choice to attract attendees to sign up for the workshop. 

People will choose to attend a workshop based on the value that they will be getting from attending. Clearly define the changes, effects, benefits, or impacts that occur as a result of the workshop. Use this as a marketing positioning tool as you promote your workshop. 

Crafting a thoughtful and well-structured event program will not only keep your participants motivated and focused but also ensure that they leave the workshop with valuable knowledge and experiences. 

Include interactive elements in your event program such as group discussions, brainstorming sessions, role-playing, or hands-on activities that can keep your attendees engaged. 

Sending invites for your workshop is now done digitally. That is why it’s important to choose a reliable event registration. Getting registration for your event is made more convenient by ticket-selling registration platforms like Event Espresso or Event Smart. 

These platforms enable you to sell an unlimited number of tickets and registrations at $0 commission fees . You are also able to create different event registration forms and sell multiple event ticket types. 

Having a good facilitator greatly impacts the flow of your workshop. As the event organizer, apply proper time management skills to your event program and ensure engaging presentation skills. Encourage interactive learning among participants to make it memorable. 

Create effective workshops by constantly improving your event. Collect feedback from your participants through event survey questionnaires . 

Measure attendee satisfaction, identify areas of improvement, collect data for future planning, and gauge interest for future workshops. 

Execute a successful workshop now with ticket-selling and registration platforms like Event Espresso and Event Smart. 

Event Espresso is a plugin for WordPress users that allows unlimited ticket selling at $0 commission fees. Event Smart is also the platform for event planners who wish to have their custom event website landing page. 

Start planning for your event workshop now. 

Filed under Event Planning , Event Engagement and tagged Workshop Ideas , workshop event planning , Corporate Workshop Ideas , Creative Workshop Ideas , Educational Workshop Ideas , Marketing Workshop Ideas , Small Business Workshop Ideas , Personal Development Workshop , Kids Workshop Ideas , Online Workshop Ideas

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Business Plan Workshops

 At some point, most businesses will need a business plan [1]. One of my core services is the preparation of professional business plans for startup promoters and SMEs.  I also deliver training on Business Plan Preparation.

1. One Day Business Plan Preparation Workshop

This workshop will outline how to write a business plan to secure investment, apply for funding such as a bank loan or enterprise agency support in order to exploit an identified business opportunity. The one day (six hours) programme will be of benefit to established businesses wishing to introduce new products and business promoters who are actively planning to set up a new business to include those considering Self Employment and/or applying for the Short Term Enterprise Allowance.

Course Objectives

– To provide a recognised template for investor ready business plans

– To discuss the principal reasons why business plans are prepared

– To address each section of the business plan in an integrated and comprehensive fashion

– To outline an approach to writing a Business Plan

– To provide a template for creating Financial Projections

– To discuss how investors and bank view Business Plans

On completion of this one day programme, the participants will have:

·  A greater understanding of the importance of the business plan

·  Completed an Executive Summary for their Business

·  Have points for each section of their Business Plan

The workshop is structured into two major sections:

The first part of the workshop concentrates on the Business Plan template – an example business plan concerning a fictitious business will be sent to all participants by email.

Each section of the Business Plan will be discussed. Participants will be facilitated to compile a list of points for each section of their business plan.

•       Executive Summary

•       Promoters and other information

•       Background Information + Reason for Writing the Plan

•       The Product / Service

•       Market Opportunity

•       Marketing Strategy

•       Management Team

•       Operations

•       Strategy for future growth

•       Financing

•       Action Plan

•       Financial Schedules

•       Appendices

The second part of the workshop discusses how to take a Business Plan to the next level. It firstly addresses how an investor will assess a business plan. The key part of this session is to provide a template for developing financial projections.

I aim to ensure that my workshops are both rewarding and enjoyable i.e. challenging, informative, creative and act as a stimulus for proactive change. I will be available to follow up with participants by email and/or by phone for several weeks after each programme.

^ Footnote 1 : In this blogpost for Tweak Your Biz on ‘Running Lean’ by Ash Maurya, I outline my view that a very early stage startup does NOT need to prepare a business plan. I would strongly recommend that they use the Lean Canvas tool as business planning is critical.

 in january 2020, i published an online training course entitled, ‘writing your business plan’ click on the button below to check it out.

Workshop Business Plan Template & Guidebook

A solid business plan is crucial for the success of any small business, but it can be challenging to know where to start. That's why the #1 Workshop Business Plan Template & Guidebook is such a valuable resource. It provides entrepreneurs with the guidance they need to create a comprehensive and effective business plan that will help them reach their goals and realize their dreams. With easy-to-follow templates, practical advice, and helpful tips, this workshop guidebook equips small business owners with the tools necessary to confidently create a successful business plan.

Get worry-free services and support to launch your business starting at $0 plus state fees.

How to Write a Workshop Business Plan in 7 Steps:

1. describe the purpose of your workshop business..

The first step to writing your business plan is to describe the purpose of your workshop business. This includes describing why you are starting this type of business, and what problems it will solve for customers. This is a quick way to get your mind thinking about the customers’ problems. It also helps you identify what makes your business different from others in its industry.

It also helps to include a vision statement so that readers can understand what type of company you want to build.

Here is an example of a purpose mission statement for a workshop business:

Our mission is to provide an interactive, creative environment for learning, growth and understanding in our workshops, classes, and other educational experiences. We strive to bring together diverse participants from different backgrounds and perspectives in order to create a vibrant setting for learning. We are committed to providing key insights and knowledge through skills-based instruction to ensure maximum benefit for all attendees. Ultimately, we strive to equip our participants with the knowledge, resources, and skills they need to lead successful lives.

2. Products & Services Offered by Your Workshop Business.

The next step is to outline your products and services for your workshop business. 

When you think about the products and services that you offer, it's helpful to ask yourself the following questions:

• What is my business?
• What are the products and/or services that I offer?
• Why am I offering these particular products and/or services?
• How do I differentiate myself from competitors with similar offerings?
• How will I market my products and services?

You may want to do a comparison of your business plan against those of other competitors in the area, or even with online reviews. This way, you can find out what people like about them and what they don’t like, so that you can either improve upon their offerings or avoid doing so altogether.

3. Build a Creative Marketing Stratgey.

If you don't have a marketing plan for your workshop business, it's time to write one. Your marketing plan should be part of your business plan and be a roadmap to your goals. 

A good marketing plan for your workshop business includes the following elements:

Target market

• Who is your target market?
• What do these customers have in common?
• How many of them are there?
• How can you best reach them with your message or product?

Customer base 

• Who are your current customers? 
• Where did they come from (i.e., referrals)?
• How can their experience with your workshop business help make them repeat customers, consumers, visitors, subscribers, or advocates for other people in their network or industry who might also benefit from using this service, product, or brand?

Product or service description

• How does it work, what features does it have, and what are its benefits?
• Can anyone use this product or service regardless of age or gender?
• Can anyone visually see themselves using this product or service?
• How will they feel when they do so? If so, how long will the feeling last after purchasing (or trying) the product/service for the first time?

Competitive analysis

• Which companies are competing with yours today (and why)? 
• Which ones may enter into competition with yours tomorrow if they find out about it now through word-of-mouth advertising; social media networks; friends' recommendations; etc.)
• What specific advantages does each competitor offer over yours currently?

Marketing channels

• Which marketing channel do you intend to leverage to attract new customers?
• What is your estimated marketing budget needed?
• What is the projected cost to acquire a new customer?
• How many of your customers do you instead will return?

Form an LLC in your state!

4. Write Your Operational Plan.

Next, you'll need to build your operational plan. This section describes the type of business you'll be running, and includes the steps involved in your operations. 

In it, you should list:

• The equipment and facilities needed
• Who will be involved in the business (employees, contractors)
• Financial requirements for each step
• Milestones & KPIs
• Location of your business
• Zoning & permits required for the business

What equipment, supplies, or permits are needed to run a workshop business?

• Equipment: Computers, printer, scanner, phone system, internet connection
• Supplies: Printer paper, office supplies such as pens and paper clips, cleaning supplies
• Permits: Business license issued by local authority

5. Management & Organization of Your Workshop Business.

The second part of your workshop business plan is to develop a management and organization section.

This section will cover all of the following:

• How many employees you need in order to run your workshop business. This should include the roles they will play (for example, one person may be responsible for managing administrative duties while another might be in charge of customer service).
• The structure of your management team. The higher-ups like yourself should be able to delegate tasks through lower-level managers who are directly responsible for their given department (inventory and sales, etc.).
• How you’re going to make sure that everyone on board is doing their job well. You’ll want check-ins with employees regularly so they have time to ask questions or voice concerns if needed; this also gives you time to offer support where necessary while staying informed on how things are going within individual departments too!

6. Workshop Business Startup Expenses & Captial Needed.

This section should be broken down by month and year. If you are still in the planning stage of your business, it may be helpful to estimate how much money will be needed each month until you reach profitability.

Typically, expenses for your business can be broken into a few basic categories:

Startup Costs

Startup costs are typically the first expenses you will incur when beginning an enterprise. These include legal fees, accounting expenses, and other costs associated with getting your business off the ground. The amount of money needed to start a workshop business varies based on many different variables, but below are a few different types of startup costs for a workshop business.

Running & Operating Costs

Running costs refer to ongoing expenses related directly with operating your business over time like electricity bills or salaries paid out each month. These types of expenses will vary greatly depending on multiple variables such as location, team size, utility costs, etc.

Marketing & Sales Expenses

You should include any costs associated with marketing and sales, such as advertising and promotions, website design or maintenance. Also, consider any additional expenses that may be incurred if you decide to launch a new product or service line. For example, if your workshop business has an existing website that needs an upgrade in order to sell more products or services, then this should be listed here.

7. Financial Plan & Projections

A financial plan is an important part of any business plan, as it outlines how the business will generate revenue and profit, and how it will use that profit to grow and sustain itself. To devise a financial plan for your workshop business, you will need to consider a number of factors, including your start-up costs, operating costs, projected revenue, and expenses. 

Here are some steps you can follow to devise a financial plan for your workshop business plan:

• Determine your start-up costs: This will include the cost of purchasing or leasing the space where you will operate your business, as well as the cost of buying or leasing any equipment or supplies that you need to start the business.
• Estimate your operating costs: Operating costs will include utilities, such as electricity, gas, and water, as well as labor costs for employees, if any, and the cost of purchasing any materials or supplies that you will need to run your business.
• Project your revenue: To project your revenue, you will need to consider the number of customers you expect to have and the average amount they will spend on each visit. You can use this information to estimate how much money you will make from selling your products or services.
• Estimate your expenses: In addition to your operating costs, you will need to consider other expenses, such as insurance, marketing, and maintenance. You will also need to set aside money for taxes and other fees.
• Create a budget: Once you have estimated your start-up costs, operating costs, revenue, and expenses, you can use this information to create a budget for your business. This will help you to see how much money you will need to start the business, and how much profit you can expect to make.
• Develop a plan for using your profit: Finally, you will need to decide how you will use your profit to grow and sustain your business. This might include investing in new equipment, expanding the business, or saving for a rainy day.

Frequently Asked Questions About Workshop Business Plans:

Why do you need a business plan for a workshop business.

A business plan is essential for any business, and a workshop business is no exception. The business plan helps you establish your goals, create an action plan, explore potential sources of funding, assess the competition in your industry, develop a pricing strategy, analyze market trends and make realistic estimates of the financial performance of your business. Additionally, having a well-crafted business plan can help you secure financing from potential investors.

Who should you ask for help with your workshop business plan?

You should ask a qualified business consultant or a financial advisor to help you with your workshop business plan.

Can you write a workshop business plan yourself?

Yes, it is possible to write a workshop business plan yourself. It is important to consider the necessary elements of a sound business plan including market analysis, operational planning and financial projections. You may also wish to consult other resources such as books, online resources and professionals who specialize in writing business plans.

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I'm Nick, co-founder of newfoundr.com, dedicated to helping aspiring entrepreneurs succeed. As a small business owner with over five years of experience, I have garnered valuable knowledge and insights across a diverse range of industries. My passion for entrepreneurship drives me to share my expertise with aspiring entrepreneurs, empowering them to turn their business dreams into reality.

Through meticulous research and firsthand experience, I uncover the essential steps, software, tools, and costs associated with launching and maintaining a successful business. By demystifying the complexities of entrepreneurship, I provide the guidance and support needed for others to embark on their journey with confidence.

From assessing market viability and formulating business plans to selecting the right technology and navigating the financial landscape, I am dedicated to helping fellow entrepreneurs overcome challenges and unlock their full potential. As a steadfast advocate for small business success, my mission is to pave the way for a new generation of innovative and driven entrepreneurs who are ready to make their mark on the world.

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Free Webinar | May 7: How to Write Your One-Page Business Plan Workshop Did you know entrepreneurs with business plans are 260% more likely to launch? Join our workshop on May 7th and learn how to create a one-page business plan that will help you get your business off the ground. Register now!

By Entrepreneur Staff • Apr 16, 2024

Do you wish you could run a business that would make the most of your skills, experience and earn you the money that you're really worth?

Or perhaps you've already started your own business but it seems like no matter how hard you work you're no closer to the dream that inspired you to start your company in the first place.

If you're not hitting your goals, it's not due to a lack of ambition, you just need a better plan to make it happen.

Specifically, a business plan.

Related: Join our workshop on May 7th and learn how to create a one-page business plan that will help you get your business off the ground. Register now!

A study from BusinessDIT revealed that:

Entrepreneurs with business plans are 260% more likely to launch

71% of fast-growing businesses have plans

With the right business plan, you'll be more likely to launch and grow faster once you do.

So, why don't you have an updated plan? There are a few common reasons.

"I'm too busy"

"It's too confusing"

"I have too much else going on"

It's time to end the excuses so you can achieve predictable revenue growth without going back to school for an MBA.

Join Our Free How to Write Your Business Plan Workshop

During this workshop, you'll learn how to create a one-page business plan that will help you perfect your strategy, marketing and business processes.

You're just one hour away from having the clarity needed to reduce confusion, improve your offer and maximize your revenue potential.

You'll also receive a customizable one-page business plan so you can immediately apply what you've learned.

Now is the time to work on your business so the time you spend working in your business will be more efficient and rewarding.

Imagine knowing that at any given time, you're taking the right actions that are directly aligned with the vision you had when you first started your business.

There's no need to imagine. Just sign up for the workshop and then commit to applying what you've learned.

All registered attendees will get a recording of the presentation and a copy of the one-page business plan template. And if you know of anyone else who should attend, share this with them so they can hold you accountable.

Sign up now and turn your business idea into action.

About the Speaker:

Terry Rice is a high-performance coach to entrepreneurs, keynote speaker and journalist at Entrepreneur magazine. He's also the host of Reclaim + Advance, a podcast that helps entrepreneurs overcome setbacks and perform at their highest level.

Prior to becoming a creator-entrepreneur, Terry's previous experience includes internal consulting roles at Adobe and Meta.

In addition to his role as Director of Growth and Partnerships at Good People Digital, Terry is an instructor at New York University, speaks at events for leading companies - including Amazon and Google - and has been featured as a subject matter expert by Good Morning America, Fast Company and the Wall Street Journal.

Based in Brooklyn, he is a husband, father of five children, and is an advocate for mental and physical fitness.

Entrepreneur Staff

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

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