In the world of workshops, success is often synonymous with preparation. As an experienced facilitator or a first-time organizer, you understand that selecting the right supplies for your upcoming workshop is not just about ticking items off a checklist. It’s about creating an environment that fosters engagement, learning, and productivity. In this blog post, we delve into the critical components of a well-stocked workshop and explore how choosing the appropriate materials can make all the difference in your event’s outcome. We’ll provide insights, tips, and recommendations on what to include in your workshop toolkit to ensure you and your participants are equipped to excel. So, let’s get started and set the stage for a memorable and fruitful workshop experience!

Each product listed is paired with an Amazon link so that you can purchase the item. If you like to purchase them all at the same time, you can purchase all the supplies from Amazon using the Voltage Control Workshop Supplies list.

Time Timer

Everybody loves the time timer. If you are like me, once you use it during your workshop, you’ll start using it for all types of meetings. I especially find it helpful for timeboxing broad discussions, and for creating time for individual work prior to making an important decision. There are a few different models and it is worth discussing the differences. The classic Time Timer has a hard plastic exterior and is available in 3″, 8″, & 12″ sizes. The 12″ is quite large and is best suited for larger workshops. If you are considering going smaller I would recommend the silicone exterior “mod” model. It is much more durable and it’s small size means that it is a bit more portable. None of the Time Timers come with batteries, so remember to buy batteries. Get 2 Time Timers; one to keep track of your current activity, and one to remind you
when to take a break

Post-it Notes

The 3×5 Post-it notes are the number one tool for capturing your thoughts during the workshop. Make sure to get the canary yellow as they provide the best contrast when reading from across the room. Make sure you buy the standard Post-its and not the “Pop-Up” that are arranged in an accordion pattern. If you get the “Pop-Up” variety you will end up writing upside down and they will flop down when you put them on the wall. Size matters, as the landscape perspective works perfectly when capturing big ideas with the larger markers. This combination helps you write just the right amount. Also, when sketching, the 3×5 Post-its work well as either a desktop display in landscape orientation or a mobile screen in portrait orientation.

Sometimes you may find that the 3 x 3 Post-it notes are needed in addition so you can get a little more playful with the colors.

Felt Tip Pens

These felt tips pens are a bit magical. Since people aren’t accustomed to using them, they seem to immediately illicit creativity. Perhaps this is also because we used pens like this early in our school days, when we were in art class. Regardless, these pens are great for the sketches, as they provide better contrast than ballpoint pens or pencils, allowing you to read from further away. They are also the ideal size, so you don’t write too much or too little.

Dry Erase Markers (Black, Red, & Green)

Dry Erase markers are used by the Facilitator or graphic recorder, if you have one, throughout the workshop to capture what’s happening in the room. The black ones are used for checklists and capturing main points. The red and green markers are handy when you want to embellish your map and other graphics. They can also be used in tallying votes, when not using the dot stickers, such as voting on your top workshop questions, or when conducting a note-and-vote.

Highlighters

After running numerous workshops, I’ve found highlighters to be a facilitator’s friend. I often have someone highlight copy that resonates with the team when we are reviewing sketches. This is handy during prototyping, as we can use this copy. I also recommend that new facilitators highlight relevant sections of the book that will help them remember critical elements in the heat of the moment. The highlighters can also be handy during sketching to help bring focus to specific notes you are most excited about, including in your sketch.

Sharpies

Sharpie markers are an indispensable tool in any workshop setting. Their vibrant, bold ink make them perfect for capturing participants’ attention and ensuring that key points or ideas stand out on flip charts or whiteboards. Additionally, Sharpie markers have a long-lasting, quick-drying formula that minimizes smudging, allowing for clear and legible notes throughout the session. By providing a versatile writing instrument that’s easy to see and read, even from a distance, Sharpie markers facilitate seamless communication, encourage collaboration, and help create a visually engaging learning environment for all participants.

ChromaLabels

Dot voting is probably my favorite thing about workshops. Whether it is the smaller dots and the team is marking the pieces that are compelling and exciting to them or the larger binding votings, the energy level in the room is elevating and infectious. Stick with the ChromaLabels. The Averys are tempting as they are less expensive, however, the ChromaLabels are easier to move, because the dispenser makes handling much easier, and the Avery stickers are difficult to remove from glass. You will need 3/4” (0.75) pink dots and 1/4″ (0.25) blue dots.

Printer Paper

Printer paper is mainly used for note-taking and for assembling your sketch. It’s always handy to have scratch paper around anyway, so make sure your printer isn’t running low or simply stock up.

Masking Tape

Get 1 roll of masking or painters tape for posting solution sketches on the walls. Some walls don’t play nice with post-it notes, so having this tape around to hold up notes can prove helpful.

Flip Charts

If you have limited whiteboard or wall space for post-its & sketches, flip charts can save the day. Consider getting 1 or 2 pads just in case you need them, they always seem to come in handy, especially if you can’t reserve the same room for the full week.

Webcam

If you are running remote interviews and need your candidate to see you, or running an in-person interview and need your observers to see your tester and the actions they are taking, don’t forget to get a webcam.

Rolling Dry Erase Board

If you are short on dry erase boards and wall space, consider a rolling dry erase board. Even when I have plenty of wall space, I love having a few of these boards on hand. It’s great to have the ability to move them from room to room or team to team. They also rotate, so you can have 2 different sets of content handy in the same place.

Dry erase paint can be handy if you don’t want to hang actual whiteboards, or want to cover more space without buying tons of whiteboards. Turn your wall into the whiteboard!

Pipe Cleaners

Pipe cleaners, though seemingly simple, can be a surprisingly effective tool for prototyping in a workshop setting. Their flexible, bendable nature allows participants to quickly create and manipulate shapes, representing various concepts or components of a design. By encouraging hands-on experimentation and iterative thinking, pipe cleaners promote a low-pressure environment for brainstorming, problem-solving, and visualizing ideas. As an inexpensive and readily available material, pipe cleaners enable facilitators to engage participants in a tactile, interactive way, fostering a creative and collaborative atmosphere that drives innovation and encourages out-of-the-box thinking.

Popsicle Sticks

Popsicle sticks are a versatile and cost-effective resource for prototyping in a workshop setting. Their sturdy, flat structure lends itself well to creating two-dimensional and three-dimensional models, allowing participants to rapidly test and iterate their ideas. Popsicle sticks can be easily cut, glued, or stacked, enabling a wide range of design possibilities for both structural and functional prototypes. By incorporating these unassuming materials into your workshop, you empower participants to engage in hands-on exploration, collaboration, and problem-solving. As they transform simple popsicle sticks into tangible representations of their ideas, workshop attendees can better communicate their concepts and refine their designs, ultimately enhancing the quality of their prototypes and the overall workshop experience.

Glue

Holding those prototypes together will need a little help from our old elementary school friend. The glue will assist participants in using their creativity. Glue sticks can also be a great alternative or add one.

3 x 5 Index Cards

Index cards play an indispensable role in prototyping and workshop innovation. They offer a flexible and tangible medium that encourages creative thinking, brainstorming, and collaboration. With their uniform size and shape, they are ideal for categorizing and organizing ideas, allowing participants to easily rearrange, group, and visualize thoughts in a dynamic and spatial way.

Rulers

When designing physical prototypes, rulers can provide accurate measurements to ensure elements are properly scaled and aligned, which is vital for functionality, usability, and aesthetic appeal.

Healthy Snacks

Last but not least, make sure that you have ordered snacks. You have to take care of the humans! In addition to making sure you have planned for daily lunches to arrive on time, have some snacks on hand so that the team can avoid becoming hangry. It is best to avoid sugar and excess carbs, instead, focus on protein and fiber. You may be tempted to get donuts, pastries, bagels, or other sweet treats to celebrate this great work you are doing, however, this will undermine your creativity and zap your energy. Instead, consider low sugar, protein-rich foods such as nuts, jerky, vegetables & hummus, fruit, low-fat yogurt, and protein bars (check the sugar content). Use these same guidelines when ordering lunch; consider salads or some other light fare.

Hopefully, this list of supplies helped you get a handle of the purpose and reasoning behind the recommended supplies. I’m confident that your workshops will run better if you buy the proper supplies, as I’ve seen it make it a difference in all of the workshops I’ve facilitated.

If you are interested in expanding your facilitation skills and gaining confidence needed to transform meetings, inspire innovation, drive collaboration, and lead change you may be interested in our Facilitation Certification Program.

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Are you interested in facilitating a design thinking session at your workplace or for another organization? Have you learned about design thinking and want to get started or deepen your skills? If you are a newbie to design thinking facilitation, this is the guide for you. We’ve highlighted the basics you need to know to lead a design thinking or innovation workshop. Facilitation skills are essential to navigating complex business problems, and a skilled facilitator can supercharge the team’s performance. We encourage you to attend our Facilitation Lab, a weekly virtual meetup to support effective implementation.

Read this design thinking facilitator guide, and you’ll have solid tools to be successful from start to finish.

What is Design Thinking?

To start, let’s define some key terms. First, design thinking. Design thinking is a process used for creative problem-solving; a methodology that puts the end-user or customer at the center of decision-making. Design thinking is also characterized by an emphasis on prototyping and testing ideas and working in a highly collaborative manner with a cross-disciplinary team. Design thinking isn’t a passing business trend. It’s a powerful and widely-implemented approach to strategic work adopted by both startups and major corporations to tackle business challenges. Here are a few of our favorite design thinking books we recommend adding to your library for an in depth background.

What is a Design Thinking Facilitator?

A design thinking facilitator leads collaborative working sessions that utilize design thinking practices to reinvigorate creative growth. The gatherings include brainstorms, innovation workshops, executive summits, design springs, multi-day workshops, and long-term projects.

A design thinking facilitator is a coach to innovative, productive group think and work.

Design thinking facilitators help teams focus on the customer throughout the process and uncover new insights and ideas typically aren’t revealed during business as usual (ex. the boss has an epiphany in the shower and tells the team to execute). In a nutshell, a design thinking facilitator is a conduit to innovative productive group discovery and creation. Facilitation skills are key to maximizing these outcomes.

Want to learn the basics of how to facilitate a design thinking workshop? Read our 7-step guide below, then consider our Workshop Design Course to help you get started.

Step 1: Get Focused

Your first task as a design thinking facilitator is to clarify and define what you need to accomplish through your workshop or meeting. You want to determine the focus based on team needs or challenges. Record the primary goal and high-level questions to answer, and make sure participants are aligned on defined objectives.

Pro-tip: Before planning the workshop, consider 30-60-minute conversations with each stakeholder before the design thinking session to make sure objectives are clear.

Step 2: Make the Guest List

Now that you’ve defined objectives, you and the key stakeholder(s) need to determine fitting participants. Who’s taking part in the workshop? Your client will likely have a strong hand in building the guest list. As the design thinking facilitator, it’s crucial that you advise here.

Too many people leads to chaos. Too few people means too few ideas.

Diversity in skillset, expertise, attitude, tenure, etc. is essential to an informed perspective. The more points-of-view that are represented, the more applicable your solutions. In terms of number of participants, somewhere between 7 to 15 is ideal. Too many people leads to chaos. Too few people means too few ideas.

Step 3: Make Your Agenda

With the objective and participants determined, the next step of facilitating a design thinking workshop is the agenda. A wise way to plan your agenda is to start at the end: With what tools do you need to leave the design thinking session? Are you prioritizing alignment? A system or process in place? A collection of novel ideas? Are you looking for a prioritized roadmap or a paper prototype of a new experience? When you clearly define your goals, you can plan the design thinking activities to build toward the conclusion.

The individual activities you will implement varies greatly based on the challenge. Need inspiration to kick off your Design Thinking activities? There are many free resources to help guide you and your team on your journey. . We’ve also outlined exercises for virtual workshops here.) No matter your timeline, prioritize time for introductions, icebreakers, and short breaks to check inboxes.

Pro tip: Be generous when time-boxing your design thinking activities. Everything will take longer than you think. A good rule of thumb is to double the time you imagine an individual activity will take.

Step 4: Get Your Space

Next up: Where are you going to host your design thinking workshop? While it might sound like a minor detail, the space affects the day’s success.

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We recommend getting participants out of their workspace(s) to inspire fresh thinking and distance from day-to-day work. Whether you need to offer a hybrid option, have the budget for an offsite space, or need to use the office, consider the following to enhance the experience:

• Look for good natural light and character. (A windowless hotel conference room is not ideal.)
• Provide comfortable seating for all. (Simple, but we’ve seen it happen.)
• Guarantee wall space or boards for pinning materials and capturing ideas.
• Don’t forget AV needs: a projector for presenting, a screen if someone needs to collaborate remotely, etc.

Want more information on choosing a space? Check out 7 Things to Consider When Choosing a Workshop Venue here.

Step 5: Gather Supplies

With space, participants, and a solid agenda, you now need supplies to execute your workshop. Your exact supplies will be driven by your activities, agenda, and chosen space. Here are some basics to get you started:

• Plain 8.5×11 paper
• Large easel-style Post-its
• Small Post-its notes
• Pens
• Black Sharpies
• A Time Timer
• An HDMI cable

If you want to dive deeper into the specific supplies that are recommended for a design sprint (which are helpful for any workshop), read here.

Pro-Tip: If possible, bring a filling breakfast and lunch so you don’t have to leave to eat. Also, healthy snacks, water, and coffee will keep people engaged as the day goes on.

Step 6: Be the Leader

It’s the big day! It’s time for you to lead the group through the agenda and activities you worked so hard on. The more you facilitate, the more skilled you become. 

Make sure to be yourself and keep the following things in mind as you lead the team in design thinking:

• You’re the boss: People are looking for you to guide them. You’re prepared and are the expert. Establish your authority early and feel confident making decisions and telling the group when it’s time to move forward in the agenda.
• Establish rules: Let the group know the rules of the day. Encourage people to stay off their phones and to fully participate in the session. Let them know that there are designated breaks.

Give everyone a voice: As the facilitator, you are responsible for making sure everyone is heard. If you notice someone being quiet, pull them into the conversation. You designed the guest list with their contribution in mind.

Step 7: Wrap It Up & Play It Back

After the workshop has come to a close, recognize your role as a design thinking facilitator to equip the group with tools for long-term success. Consider these in the days afterward::

• Photograph and document: Make sure you photograph important output from the meeting: Post-its, diagrams, or worksheets that may have been created.
• Synthesize the learnings: Take time to reflect on the session and the ideas that came of it. Create a MURAL board or a short presentation to share with participants and their teammates.

Get the group back together: Schedule time to share back your learnings with the participants and make plans together for how to implement thinking and learnings into daily work.

Looking to become a Design Thinking Facilitator?

What’s the importance of bringing in a professional to lead the session? A design thinking facilitator positively disrupts the team dynamic. Read up on why professional facilitation can make a difference.

We hope you’re excited to become a Design Thinking facilitator. Voltage Control has expert design-thinking facilitators who run innovation workshops and design sprints. Our innovation training for teams and design thinking facilitator training will maximize your facilitation skills. Our Facilitation Certification programs will guide you through key facilitation skills and provide you with ample opportunities to practice. We also invite you to explore our workshop design course to learn the foundational learning science and experience design principles you can apply to maximize engagement and effectiveness as a facilitator.

FAQ Section

How does design thinking facilitate creative solutions?
Design thinking promotes creative solutions by encouraging design thinkers to explore a wide range of possibilities. Through structured activities like brainstorming sessions, the design team generates potential solutions that are human-centered and focused on improving the user experience. This methodology is ideal for fostering innovation and addressing complex challenges in the business model and product development.

What are the key attributes of a successful design thinking project?
A successful design thinking project is characterized by human-centered design, active collaboration, and iterative testing. Key attributes include clear objectives, a focus on the end-user, and the ability to adapt and refine ideas based on feedback. In this project, design thinking skills like creative thinking, empathy, and prototyping are essential to generating effective solutions that lead to actual products.

What are the phases of the design thinking process?
The key phases of design thinking include empathizing with users, defining the problem, ideating potential solutions, prototyping, and testing. Each phase builds on the last to create effective solutions tailored to the user’s needs. This cyclical process encourages continuous improvement and innovation throughout the innovation process.

What skills are needed to be a successful design thinker?
Successful design thinkers need a range of skills, including creative thinking, empathy, collaboration, and problem-solving. They must also have strong design thinking skills to guide teams through the design process and facilitate workshops. These skills enable the team to generate innovative solutions and ensure that the final product aligns with user needs.

How does design thinking contribute to business success?
Design thinking contributes to business success by fostering a culture of innovation and user experience focus. By emphasizing human-centered approaches and iterative testing, businesses can develop products and services that better meet the needs of their customers. The methodology also helps businesses explore new ideas, refine their business model, and stay competitive in the market.

How can design thinking improve the user experience?
Design thinking enhances the user experience by prioritizing the needs, preferences, and pain points of users throughout the design process. By involving users in testing and iterating on prototypes, design teams can create actual products that offer better usability, functionality, and satisfaction. This approach ensures that solutions are not only innovative but also practical and user-friendly.

What are the applications of design thinking across industries?
Applications of design thinking are vast, spanning industries like healthcare, education, technology, and retail. In each sector, design thinking helps organizations develop innovative solutions by focusing on the user’s experience and testing ideas through rapid prototyping. Whether designing new products or improving services, the design thinking process is key to driving innovation and improving outcomes.

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The unknowns of COVID-19 pose a concern for how to continue business as usual and many facilitators have found themselves wondering how to navigate this transition. So last week, Voltage Control hosted a virtual workshop to discuss the future of facilitation. 120 participants from coast to coast, as well as Canada, Europe, Asia, and Africa, joined in a live Zoom gathering to explore what is possible and how together we can shape a new virtual space and learn from one another.

“As facilitators, we should be always be adapting to what’s happening around us and looking for ways to apply our skills to challenges beyond our workplace to help our communities during challenging times.” –Anthony Sanchez, Experience Lead at Funsize

We have curated the important findings and takeaways from the workshop in the following recap.

Introduction

Voltage Control President Douglas Ferguson was the event Leader and Events Manager Tara Weghorst was the Minder.

After a welcome and intro, Douglas encouraged all participants to turn on their video feature to foster more connection with the group. Doing so, he explained to attendees, is a better way to show empathy to each other and bring the human element to virtual meetings–a vital component for successful virtual meetings and virtual facilitation overall, so we might as well start now!

Breakout Session #1: Conversation Cafe

Participants were randomly assigned to breakout room chats in groups of four to discuss the question, “What’s the Future of Facilitation?” in a Conversation Cafe.

Participants voiced their concerns and ideas about the future with one another in each breakout room, from how to foster human connection virtually, to questions of how to effectively transition in-person facilitation to the internet and the best tools and resources to utilize. Participants were alerted by a timer and pop-up notifications at the top of their screens when it was time to move to each round.

After completing the session’s four rounds, all participants were automatically re-routed to the main event screen for the second activity.

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Stickie Time using MURAL

Douglas then introduced a massive stickie session using MURAL, a virtual workspace that helps teams collaborate. The app allows participants to create and share “stickie notes” much like a real-life brainstorm session.

All participants were asked to answer the following four prompts per each quadrant in regards to their hopes and fears of the future of facilitation. Participants were given three minutes to work per each quadrant:

1. One thing I’m optimistic about is…
2. What scares me is…
3. Something I want to learn more about is…
4. I am going to commit to…

There were many results–a true Stickie Storm! Below is an overview of the results per quadrant, as synthesized by Voltage Control President Douglas Ferguson, Voltage Control Content Manager Frankie Francis, MURAL Project Manager Megan Landes, Managing Director of MG RUSH Facilitation Training and Coaching Terrence Metz, Conversation Designer at The Conversation Factory Daniel Stillman, and Founder of SLC Human-centered Design Chris Federer.

Quadrant 1: What Facilitators are optimistic about

There was great optimism about the future of facilitation across the board. Many participants saw major opportunities in this transitional time to enhance connection with their teams and clients, acquire a new virtual skillset, teach others, and collaborate on a global scale, to name a few.

“Facilitation is more important than ever. Going online is harder, and in times of stress it’s hard to think straight…and that’s our job as facilitators. So it’s great to get together with our community and build our future together.” –Daniel Stillman, Conversation Designer at The Conversation Factory

Quadrant #2: What facilitators fear

Common fears included losing personal connection with others, the inability to properly navigate and encourage the “energy in the room” during virtual meetings and workshops, and how to mitigate distractions in a virtual space.

“Our biggest fear is also our biggest opportunity. Human connection. The paradox is around wherever we can become excellent at virtual human connection without the expense of in-person experiences.”  -Douglas Ferguson

Quadrant 3: What facilitators want to learn

Overall, facilitators said they want to learn the best practices and effective tools for online meetings, workshops, and events in order to successfully facilitate.

“It’s amazing that it took a global pandemic for us to truly embrace these tools on a mass scale.” -Douglas Ferguson

This includes ways to encourage and maintain participant connection, smoothly navigate and lead discussions, and how to employ virtual practices to make the innovation industry better and effective in this unique time.

Quadrant 4: What Facilitators are committing to

This is an exciting time for the world of facilitation, and participants said they are looking forward to making commitments for future success. This includes remaining positive and present, learning and growing in the role of a facilitator, expanding their skills and capabilities to connect with and help others, and exploring the new possibilities of virtual connection and collaboration.

Breakout Session #2 & #3

After the MURAL activity, participants were again randomly sorted into breakout rooms in groups of two, followed by groups of four, to discuss their Stickie experience as well as final thoughts about the future of facilitation and how they are preparing for it.

Eva Kaniasty, a UX Consultant at Slipper Studios, was among the workshop participants and shared why she decided to log in and join the workshop:

“As a user experience consultant, I’ve done a lot of one-on-one, remote user research, but have found remote group facilitation challenging. Given the current coronavirus crisis, I believe that we are about to see a surge in demand for online facilitation of design workshops, so I am looking to prepare to meet that challenge.”

Future Virtual Workshops

Voltage Control will be hosting weekly virtual workshops of varying topics to help facilitators navigate the future of facilitation and provide an online community space for people to gather and learn from one another.

Douglas said he is excited about hosting these virtual workshops every week and continuing the conversation with the global community. He also spoke to his personal excitement about the future of facilitation for Voltage Control and the industry as a whole:

“What’s fascinating to me is how this unlocked a new possibility for me. Even though we are a distributed team and are skilled at virtual collaboration, I always preferred in-person gatherings. I never even tried to sell virtual. Now that I’m forced to do it, I can see some interesting elements that we can play with that are not available in person.”

Want to learn more about virtual facilitation? 

Voltage Control offers virtual services including Virtual Facilitation, Virtual Transitions, and Virtual Meeting Design. Please reach out at info@voltagecontrol.com for a consultation.

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I was working with a group recently and afterward, someone told me it was one of the most powerful experiences they’ve ever had.

I asked them to explain which tools and activities were most helpful, but they said more important than the tools or workshop design was the human connections made during the event.

In a follow up survey, someone else commented:

I felt safe to share my thoughts and feelings. I felt my unique perspective was celebrated in a way I don’t always feel on a day-to-day basis.

When we have the opportunity to facilitate a workshop or a gathering of people, we have a great responsibility. The gift of escaping a normal work schedule to discover new ways of creating and thinking together certainly begins with protecting time and space to work and learn.

But perhaps more important, and often missed, is the opportunity to be together in a new way. Working together differently is difficult enough, but learning to be together differently is an art the most intentional facilitators are able to master.

As you’re planning workshops or meetings asking yourself, “Can we do something different together to accomplish our goals?” is a great starting place — but we can take it further.

Asking yourself, “Can we be together in a new and meaningful way?” is how we create transformative and life changing gatherings.

A mentor of mine says all business and work really is is an excuse to be with one another — and we get distracted by the doing.

So how do we ensure everyone’s voice is heard and recognized so we can create a productive and powerful meeting? How do we make sure people feel seen and respected for who they are and what they bring?

This is the real work.

Google made some powerful and important discoveries in their search for what makes the most effective teams in what was dubbed Project Aristotle. They now host a conversation called re:Work about the principles they discovered.

Chief amongst the most important principles for healthy and productive teams is a sense of Psychological Safety — which is best summarized by ensuring each member of the team feels safe to take risks, ask questions, challenge authority and admit mistakes.

They then identified three key behaviors practiced by the most Psychologically Safe, and thus, most effective teams. They are simply:

Equality in Conversational Turn-Taking

If each person speaks roughly the same amount, that team is more likely to succeed.

Ostentatious Listening

Show team members you’re listening by repeating what was just said, or closing your laptop to pay attention.

Average Social Sensitivity

The ability to intuit how others felt based on their tone of voice, their expressions and other nonverbal cues.

How common sense are those? Your grandmother told you these things.

But we humans like to do what we humans like to do — which is overcomplicate priorities and optimize the heck out of human interactions in order to acquire with the idolized feelings of predictability, certainty and control.

Though certainty is alluring, I like what Craig Groeschel says about leading people:

You can have control or you can have growth, but you can’t have both.

If ensuring Psychological Safety matters on our dedicated teams, it’s equally if not more imperative as facilitators to ensure we’re creating workshops and experiences where people feel OK being themselves so they don’t feel compelled to prove or hide out of fear (hat tip to Chris McAlister).

When leading a session we’re not only asking people to do work in ways unusual to them, we’re asking them to do it in a rapid and high pressure environment. The tactics are sexy, but we must remember our chief responsibility as facilitators is to cast a vision for a temporary place where we’ll co-create something together using methods we’ve never used before.

This can be intimidating and scary.

Safety is our responsibility.

Including everyone is our responsibility.

As you’re gearing up for your next workshop, here are a few guiding principles you can use to implement the wisdom from Google’s re:Work research to create Psychological Safety so everyone can get the two things we most need (in order of importance):

1. A chance to feel safe, included, valued and integral
2. Real traction on an idea or initiative that will have real results on their work after the session is over

What do do before:

Prep yourself internally- Remember the workshop isn’t about you doing something to a group of people — it’s about you being with them and helping them get what they need. Success is not adhering to a structure, but as our Liberating Structures friends like to say, unleashing the potential inside of each person.

Survey the group- Use a Google form to ask a few questions about the work to be done and ask a few questions about how people are doing like:

• In a word or short phrase, please describe how you feel about your work right now…
• What contributions are you proud of in your work?
• Where do you feel stuck in your work?
• When you’re doing your best work, what do you feel like?
• What makes you feel validated by your team?
• What makes you feel under appreciated by your team?

How to begin:

Have an activity in the beginning of your session to ground everyone in the room in gratitude where each person shares something going well in their work or lives. This sets the stage by letting everyone share and puts the principle of Equality in Conversational Turn-Taking front and center.

Remember we must have an emotional connection before we can have an intellectual connection. My friend Chad Littlefield calls this Connection before Content.

Lay out the plan for the day, and then pause and allow others to offer their insights on what else might be important to cover. Make sure the whole group is invested in where you’re going.

During the workshop:

Allow for different ways of participating- Prepare activities that vary from between individual reflection, small group reflection and large group conversation to ensure people who process differently have opportunity to digest and share throughout the workshop.

Notice the energy of the room- If folks are discouraged or lethargic, pause and take a walk around the building, or circle everyone up for one of my favorite improv games, Stretch and Reflect. To do this, get everyone in a circle and have each person lead the group in a new stretch, while in the stretch, invite them to share a reflection on the day so far. Make it around the whole room to get everyone’s blood flowing and refocus the group on the task at hand. Beware of experienced yogis in the group! We don’t need an injury due to poorly executed Crow Poses!

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Another way of shaking things up throughout the day is to pause for a period of personal connection. Have people share personal stories about their lives in small groups they’ve never shared. I like to use the We! Connect cards to prompt meaningful conversations to deepen relationships.

Affirm dissenting opinions- Be willing to pause if the group seems stuck on an idea or it seems the meeting would be better served if you veered from your initial plan. This gathering is less about you getting your agenda right and more about giving the team what they need. Sometimes this means attending to thoughts or emotions that arise. Shutting them down reinforces the negative idea not all opinions are valued.

Interventions:

• Throughout the session be sure to monitor the contributions from participants. Are there a few folks who speak more than others? Thank them for their contributions and announce to the room you want to hear from everyone equally — this is Equality in Conversational Turn-Taking at work.
• When individuals are speaking make sure you’re listening intently and be an example for others in the room. It’s OK to ask folks to put devices away — I like what Jake Knapp says: “When we’re distracted by our devices, the whole room gets dumber — we need everyone’s attention to make progress today.” If there are side conversations, guide the room toward Ostentatious Listening by inviting them to give the floor to whoever is speaking.
• Notice if individuals are quiet or reserved by practicing Average Social Sensitivity. If someone seems down or unengaged, the greatest insult would be to ignore it. Perhaps it’s not best to call them out in front of the group, but chat with them during a break to let them know their contributions matter and you’d love to hear from them.

How to close:

Give everyone a chance to call out what mattered most to them from the day. I like to say, “Let’s go around the room and have everyone share something they want to make sure we don’t miss — a thought or insight you believe is important for everyone to remember from our time together.” Document what everyone says in front of the room — this ensures minority opinions have equal weight as popular opinions.

Another way of closing is to have each person write down their responses on sticky notes to the following prompts:

• I liked…
• I wish…
• What if…

These prompts are also powerful:

• I saw/heard…
• That made me think/feel/wonder…
• Now I want to…

Have each person read their responses aloud and place sticky notes on the wall so everyone’s reflections are seen and heard.

How to follow up:

When you send outputs from the meeting, be sure to include all opinions expressed throughout the day. Offer your own insights to leadership about your honest assessment of the culture of the group and what they might try as a team to continue including everyone. Don’t be afraid to be a bit polarizing — they enlisted you for your unique perspective!

If possible, ask if you can write a follow up email to all participants thanking them for participating, acknowledge their commitment to the work (this stuff isn’t easy!), and remind them how continuing Psychological Safety on their team will enable them to accomplish the work you began together.

If you can send a follow up survey, keep it simple. Ask questions like this:

• On a scale of 1–10, did you feel like your ideas and opinions were heard?
• On a scale of 1–10, how confident do you feel about momentum continuing after our workshop?
• Have you or will you change anything about the way you do your work? If so, what?
• Have you or will you change anything about the way you interact with your colleagues? If so, what?

What a great task ahead of us to create new and inclusive spaces for people. For us to create such spaces, it’s important for us to remember what Bill O’Brien says about the responsibility of leading a group:

The success of an intervention depends on the interior condition of the intervenor.

When we take the time to align ourselves with the larger purpose of belonging, we’re able to share that with others. And by remembering the importance of Psychological Safety in our workshops we get what we were after all along: A more inclusive and a more effective experience.

Resources:

• re:Work by Google — the research behind Psychological Safety and effective teams
• Liberating Structures — a fantastic treasure chest of easy to use activities
• Improv Wisdom — a wonderful book about the power of improv and play in business
• We! Connect Cards — a great tool to help participants have meaningful conversations and connect on a personal level

The post Creating Psychological Safety in Workshops appeared first on Voltage Control.

We tend to think of the spirited debates and lively group conversations that happen during a Design Sprint or design thinking workshop. Certainly, there are plenty of conversational moments. But, something you may not think about is how much individual work there is throughout a Sprint week or innovation workshop.

Pens scratching, papers shuffling, and chairs squeaking are some of the common sounds you’ll hear during a workshop or Sprint. While it will vary depending on your agenda and specific activities, creative collaborative working sessions often include significant time for individual work.

For that reason, we’ve created Spotify playlists that build the right mood and vibe for those quiet working moments.

Introducing Voltage Control Spotify Playlists

When Voltage Control facilitates sessions, we use a small speaker to play music during silent work. This keeps the team’s energy high during these moments. This is a two-fold tool. First, it keeps the atmosphere upbeat. Second, it helps “calm” team members who might want to break any silence and distract others.

We understand that music tastes may vary and that when music is forced upon people it can be distracting or frustrating. But, the following playlists work for us during our workshops. Pay attention to the attendees and respond to requests for songs. Remember, read the room and keep the environment inclusive.

Ready to listen? Find our Spotify playlists here.

Playlist #1: Design Sprints

Our first Spotify playlist is “Design Sprints.” With over 109 songs and counting, we consider it the master playlist to rule them all. No matter if you are running a Sprint, or another type of innovation session, this is a crowd-pleasing playlist to turn on when you need some background sounds.

It’s playlist is ideal for note-taking and ideation during sketching. Lofi hip-hop is growing in our rotation alongside some adult rock. (We’re growing fans of Lofi, or low-fidelity, hip-hop music. There are now 24/7 streaming channels have racked up millions of views on YouTube.)

We’re always looking to be better DJs, so let us know if there’s a song that should be included on this list.

“Happy music significantly and positively influences cooperative behavior… We also find a significant positive association between mood and cooperative behavior.” — Kevin Kniffin, applied behavioral scientist at the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University

Playlist #2: Crazy 8s Playlist

The purpose of the Crazy 8s activity is to spend 1 minute on an idea and then move to another. After 8 minutes, each team member has generated something unique in each rectangle of their sheet.

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This playlist has some fun songs that can help people laugh and remain calm during the short time frame. Our facilitators love to throw in the Jeopardy theme song to get people laughing for one of the eight sections.

Pro tip: Make sure that your timer volume is louder than your music so that the attendees know when to move on to the next section of their Crazy 8s.

Playlist #3: 25/10 Crowdsourcing Playlist

Think musical chairs but with ideas on notecards. This Liberating Structure is a high energy way to crowdsource the best ideas from a large gathering of people. The crowd receives a prompt such as, “If we were our as bold as possible, how can we increase revenue at the company tomorrow?” After that, every person writes down an idea that comes to mind on a single notecard. After writing down their idea, attendees mill about the room and exchange cards with every person that crosses their path.

The facilitator plays music to signal the start of the exchanges. Once the music stops each attendee reads the card currently in their hands and then scores that idea. The scores are on a scale from 1–5 (1 being a terrible idea and 5 being the best idea). This is repeated for a total of 5 rounds. After the last round of scoring, each person adds up all the scores with the highest total being 25. Then you share out the highest ranking ideas.

Bonus: Spotify Organize Your Music

This is our favorite way to analyze and view our music listening habits. This tool helps you graph your music to find that one pump-up song in your library.

Simply log in with your Spotify account and try it out with all your music. Here’s an example of a comparison of my own hip-hop, modern rock, and rock songs in my library. You can do your entire library of Spotify songs if you’d like!

http://organizeyourmusic.playlistmachinery.com/

Happy listening. Happy sprinting!

The post Perfect Playlists for Your Design Sprint or Design Thinking Workshop appeared first on Voltage Control.

Keith will be speaking at our upcoming event — Control the Room: The 1st Annual Austin Facilitator Summit! Taking place at Austin’s Capital Factory on May 23, 2019, learn more and get your tickets here.

Keith McCandless spent the first 20 years of his career trying to transform healthcare. When a group of health, business, and academic leaders formed an institute to study complexity science, he started to hope and believe a more fundamental transformation was possible. After meeting, Henri Lipmanowicz, his business partner and founder of the Plexus Institute, the two transversed the globe applying the study of complexity to develop a series of tiny methods called Liberating Structures (LS). LS help groups and organizations solve a wide array of complex challenges.

Liberating Structures

Through their work with academic innovators and scientists, Keith and Henri realized that people were searching for a new way to explain phenomena, do research, and organize. The traditional practices of organizational development and process improvement were not enough, so Keith and Henri looked for a more distributed approach. Learning from their past experience, they made the decision to forego setting up a formal organization around LS.

“We wanted Liberating Structures to be in everybody’s hands for everyday use. We wanted it to have a creative commons — virtually free for anybody who cares.”

“Henri had just finished a long, very successful business career. I’m more of a methods-and-design guy than a organization-building guy. We wanted Liberating Structures to be in everybody’s hands for everyday use. We wanted it to have a creative commons — virtually free for anybody who cares.”

Despite many opportunities for exclusive rights to the approach, Keith and Henri were determined for LS to be accessible as a way for it to spread across disciplines. “The use of Liberating Structures is fully self-organized, person-to-person, and widely distributed. This seems to help dissolve boundaries across domains, disciplines, and geography.”

As the microstructures have been used by more organizations over the years, Keith has noticed that the lack of formal boundaries in LS is often paralleled in the breaking down of boundaries within the organizations where the methods are practiced.

“Within a company, there’ll be six different groups that are working on the development of people and innovation to move the company forward. When people start using Liberating Structures, they find that the boundaries between their functions start to disappear.”

“When they start using Liberating Structures they find that the boundaries between their functions start to disappear.”

The beauty of LS is that the ideas inherent in the structures themselves are also what help perpetuate and spread them throughout the world. “There’s no formal governance but us, people connected, who really know the repertoire and deeply understand how microstructure maintains the fidelity of reliably-surprising results.”

Keith refers to the loose structure of people promoting Liberating Structures as a core periphery network. That network consists of people who write, catalog, share, and facilitate the spread of the work through a social network. “A lot is going on where people find each other, develop material, and then distribute it to others. There are people who will pop in, get help, and share their experience. And then there is a smaller group of practitioners who are developing new LS for the repertoire.”

This approach to structure provides a contrast to a typical organization. “There’s no budgeting. There’s a little bit of a strategic plan to boost spread. Nobody has a formal position. No one is hired to do a single thing. Everybody is doing it because they’re interested in developing themselves or developing the body of work.”

Keith views LS as an innovation that spreads itself. “It has some attributes of a complex adaptive system, the way it grows and expands. It’s moving around person to person at a rapid rate, and it doesn’t require centralized control to do that.”

Letting go

Letting go of formal organizational structure and stale business practices is a key aspect of Liberating Structures. Through his consulting, Keith finds that much of the work in innovation today is blocked by the unwillingness or lack of focus on letting go to allow for new ideas to take shape.

“There is very little effort to let go of anything before adding something new. Many innovative ideas have no room to take root. Everyone’s plate is full. The discipline of individual and collective creative destruction is much neglected. While it may feel like heresy, LS employs a variety of seriously fun methods (e.g., TRIZ, Ecocycle, Talking with Pixies) to help people productively let go.”

“Liberating Structures employ a variety of seriously fun methods to help people productively let go.”

Many organizations seeking to innovate fall for the myth that a better idea is what’s needed and making space for it will be the natural next step. In Keith’s experience, the opposite happens. As soon as there is space made and room to breathe, innovative solutions rush in.

Distributed capabilities

“That capability to stop doing things should be fully distributed throughout the organization. It’s not a managerial or a leadership task. It’s everybody’s work. Because the TRIZ and Eco-Cycle are pretty simple, everybody can do it. That’s part of cultural change.”

As the pace of change and the need to adapt increases, Keith sees the distribution of capabilities to be a key distinction in an organization’s ability to remain competitive and nimble.

“A bunch of very large organization’s innovation work hangs by a string. It’s not at the center. They talk as though it’s the center of what they’re doing, but it’s a relatively small group of expert innovators. Their skillfulness in design and innovation is not distributed across the organization. It’s not working fast or deep enough because it isn’t part of everyday work.”

“Every person in the organization should be involved and can be involved in shaping what happens next. That includes stopping things and starting things.”

One way to identify opportunities to stop and start certain activities is through Ecocycle Planning.

Through this LS, participants identify the activities they perform in their job individually and then prioritize them in groups based on four developmental stages: birth, maturity, creative destruction, and renewal.

Involving everyone in this activity allows individuals to understand where their contributions have an impact in the larger context of company operations while also identifying ways to remove bottlenecks and reinvigorate team performance. Ecocycle also encourages leaders to focus on activities no longer serving the company purpose so they can be stopped to free up space to birth new ideas.

“I have a hypothesis: the velocity at which you move your products and services around the Ecocycle — in comparison to your competitors — is linked to your performance in the marketplace.”

In addition to benefiting the company planning process, going through the Ecocycle on an individual basis creates opportunities for innovation to fill the gaps left by creative destruction.

In Keith’s experience, many companies are supporting “a lot of old clunky stuff” that they aren’t ready to release. The unwillingness to let go results in a thin pipeline of offerings and ties up resources so they’re unable to invest quickly in new ideas.

Metrics focused on challenges and possibilities explored

In the face of limited resources, reliance on metrics and measurement to ensure a good ROI on investments is common for many innovation programs. Keith suggests two measures: The number of worthy-yet-elusive challenges explored, and, as challenges are tackled, the frequency of participants asking, “What is possible now?”

“These measures generate multiple options and a continuous exploration of the adjacent possible. Each experiment opens a neighboring door and another adjacent door. Most combinations fail, but they reveal the next possibility. And, a few of the new ideas will astonish and delight.”

With clients, Keith looks for the internal group that’s poised to invent an entirely new operating model… to ensure the organization can serve its purpose in the future. “You need an internal group that’s developing multiple new models to serve the purpose of the organization. It may have nothing to do with the current way that you’re operating or be so different that it’s hard to even imagine that it still serves the same purpose.”

That group needs leadership, longer term commitments, and incremental check-ins centered around his suggested metrics of challenges and new possibilities explored.

Formalizing innovation programs: Dont.

“Don’t make innovation a program. Surely, that will kill it. Innovation can and should be infused into routine work. Shifting from over and under controlling conventional patterns to liberating every voice is practical with Liberating Structures. Introducing LS from top to bottom in an organization infuses inventiveness, empathy, and more vitality into everyday work.”

“Innovation can and should be infused into routine work.”

When I asked Keith what it was that made programs fail, he shared that it’s often the areas that you’d assume would fully support improvements and increased capability.

“Early on we were trying to take the LS work directly to people who’d put it into play with their customers immediately. And the people that were hard to change were the head of marketing or the head of sales. If you went right to salespeople or closer to the customers, they were enthusiastically onboard. But the marketing people wanted to tell the salespeople what to do and would regularly underestimate them. There were power relations that totally slowed things down and diminished people.”

Developing people through purpose

For Keith, the innovation silver bullet lies in maintaining a focus on the development, purposefulness, and inventiveness of each person.

“LS have fractal qualities: shifting patterns and behaviors in an individual can repeat at multiple scales across teams, units, and entire organizations. Additionally, there are a small number of people who are very skilled in including and inspiring others. I offer them as much coaching and consulting support as possible.”

Specifically, purpose is a focus that can have ripple effects from the individual to the team and beyond. Keith encourages individuals to explore purpose and come up with a nine-word purpose statement.

“We want you to start with the thing that you want to stop or put an end to in the world. I don’t want to hear anything about the good you’re going to do or the beautiful thing. Tell me about the bad thing that you’re going to stop. For me with Liberating Structures, I’m going to stop the unwitting over control, stifling, and exclusion of people.”

Getting down to the core purpose and uncovering what each individual wants to stop from happening creates a drive that is palpable. Or in Keith’s words it “unleashes a beautiful wave that seems to influence everyone around you.”

Keith continues to be excited by the process of developing new LS. Currently, he is exploring ways to liberate more effective approaches to myth busting, grieving a loss, and distributing control.

• See Keith speak at Control the Room: The 1st Annual Austin Facilitator Summit on May 23, 2019. Get your tickets here.
• Check out Keith’s book, The Surprising Power of Liberating Structures: Simple Rules to Unleash A Culture of Innovation.
• If you want to read my other articles about innovation experts and practitioners, please check them all out here.

The post How to Create an Innovation Program: Don’t. appeared first on Voltage Control.

There’s no question that innovation is a key growth factor. Unfortunately, innovation isn’t easy.

Trying to develop new ideas when you have been doing something for a while can feel daunting. This is especially true if everyone on your team is already entrenched in the process you have created, as well as the brand, identity, tone, and voice you have spent years developing.

In these situations, organizing an innovation workshop can be extremely beneficial.

The purpose of innovation workshops is to come together for organized idea generation exercises. Put simply: they are moments to help your team uncover revolutionary ideas and to think boldly about the future.

Understanding the Innovation Workshop

An innovation workshop encourages ideation. Ideation is the creative process used to generate, develop, and communicate new ideas.

These ideas can be related to a wide array of business/company needs, such as:

• Inventive ways to talk about or market a current service or product
• New content
• New products
• Ideas for starting a new business

You may have been to brainstorming meetings in the past. The difference with an innovation workshop is that people aren’t just sitting around waiting for snacks — they are pushing themselves to “think outside the box.”

1. Explore Capabilities

Each organization is made up of talented people, all at different executive levels. Over time, people often fall into a routine when it comes to work and their jobs.

They do what they have to, without trying to be innovative. When you utilize innovation training activities, you can help your team members foster the skills they need to perform their jobs in a more creative manner.

2. Quality Assurance

Creating and then selling a product or service isn’t enough. There are several companies offering the same thing. The question is — why are consumers going to choose you over the competition?

Consumers seek out quality and how “unique” a product is from the others. If you want to beat the competition, then innovation is the best path to this goal.

An innovation workshop is an investment that will help you reap these benefits. They ensure that you aren’t just sticking with the status quo, but that you’re thinking about your next big move to answer customer needs.

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3. Allow Participants to Build on One Another’s Ideas

When you gather a group of people with the intention of innovation, you have more than just one person’s idea. Instead, one person can introduce a new idea and then others can add to it, enhance it, and give it a life that can ultimately lead to success.

This helps everyone attending the workshop build on each other’s ideas, strengthening the overall value proposition. By doing this, you can raise additional questions, which are crucial to determining if the new idea is viable.

4. Hear Elevator Pitches

An elevator pitch is essential for any new idea. Put simply, this is a minimalist definition of your service, product or idea.

The term “elevator pitch” comes from the concept that you may only have an elevator ride’s worth of time to introduce yourself and your idea to a potential partner or investor.

During an innovation workshop, you can hear the elevator pitches developed by anyone with a new idea. This is a quick way to gather interest in ideas and explore whether a concept has “legs.”

5. Achieve Your Full Potential

Brainstorming is no longer as effective as it was in the past. Today’s extremely competitive market requires much more powerful idea-generation. You need something that’s future-focused and one-of-a-kind.

Through the activities in an innovation workshop, it’s possible to elicit maximum creativity, by tapping into the full imagination of the team.

6. Create an Ongoing Flow

One of the biggest reasons that innovative workshops are considered a smart investment is because innovation isn’t a one-time phenomenon. Instead, it’s a continuing process that comes into play in all types of day-to-day activities.

One important aspect that innovation workshops stress is that the innovation process is something that should always be at play. It’s not something that happens in a special meeting and then never again. These type of workshops actually help team members learn new ways of working that extend beyond and into their typical 9-to-5 lives.

The Innovation Workshop: Is It Right for Your Company?

Supporting a successful and innovative organization is challenging. An innovative workshop can help you be better prepared for sudden changes, regardless of internal and external changes.

If you think that an innovation workshop may be right for you, please get in touch! Our team is dedicated to helping you achieve success, regardless of the size of your business or what industry you work in.

Contact Douglas at douglas@voltagecontrol.com to find out more.

The post Need to Innovate at Work? 6 Reasons You Should Host an Innovation Workshop at Work appeared first on Voltage Control.

“It’s tempting, but dangerous and sometimes ineffective to turn passion for a topic into a desire to facilitate a discussion around that topic. It’s difficult to stay nuetral about something you care about deeply. However, when the group detects bias, they can no longer trust your faciliatation.” — Kevin M. Hoffman

Do your office meetings seem to produce the same outcomes time after time? Are they disorganized and unengaging to your employees? Meetings, trainings, and workshops aren’t always associated with engagement and productivity, but these qualities are exactly what we should be striving for. Meetings should, and can, be a time when all employees get a chance to be heard and to contribute.

A workshop facilitator can produce better outcomes at your next company meeting or working session.

So, how can we produce the best outcome for meetings and workshops? One simple way is by hiring a workshop facilitator; it can help your company reap better outcomes from your next team session.

Why You Should Hire a Workshop Facilitator

For some, meetings are a time to contribute and socialize with coworkers. For others (let’s be honest), they can be opportunities to catch up on email or tune out. But, when you have a professional workshop facilitator at the helm, you can get the whole group engaged and participating.

1. A Non-Biased Leader

Meetings and workshops need to have structure. But, if there’s too much structure, employees may not get a chance to speak. To balance these two needs, ground rules should be implemented.

Workshop facilitators are responsible for ensuring that the team adheres to the ground rules that lead to a successful working session. For example, the facilitator keeps your meeting on task and makes sure that everyone participates.

A workshop facilitator is a non-biased and neutral figure at your meeting. They are removed from office politics, making it easier to enforce good behavior from everyone. When ground rules are enforced, less time is wasted. Your employees will be impressed that the meeting ended on-time and that everyone was heard.

2. Greater Engagement

Meetings and work cultures generally take on a routine. People usually know what to expect on a day-to-day basis. They also know how most meetings will go.

Depending on your meeting history and feedback, this could either be good or bad. If you’ve heard more negative reviews than positive, it might be time to hire a workshop facilitator.

A workshop facilitator is a fresh new face and personality at the meeting. They can help to break old patterns and create new ones, too. When your employees walk in and notice someone else is running the meeting, they will be more excited or curious to see if the meeting pans out differently.

When your employees walk in and notice someone else is running the meeting, they will be more excited or curious to see if the meeting pans out differently.

This curiosity and excitement can lay the foundation for innovation. Your employees will feel at ease expressing new thoughts, skills, and solutions when a new approach is presented.

Workshop facilitators are trained to increase engagement. They know a variety of engagement strategies and feel confident in leading a group. Also, workshop facilitators aren’t invested in the content of the meeting, which makes room for more opposing opinions.

When outside facilitators lead, the team will be more comfortable expressing new ideas.

For example, if you are leading a meeting and your employees know that you have a certain point of view on an issue, they may not speak freely. This doesn’t produce innovation or contribution; it reinforces the company’s current structure and beliefs. When outside facilitators lead, the team will be more comfortable expressing new ideas.

3. Increased Positivity

When differing opinions emerge in a meeting, tensions can rise. Two employees may be very passionate about their stance, leaving you to manage the conversation without damaging any relationships. A workshop facilitator can seamlessly manage these potentially-negative interactions by remaining a positive and unbiased presence.

Hiring a workshop facilitator can also increase positivity at meetings by creating sharing and brainstorming opportunities. Workshop facilitators employ a number of strategies that help teams work well together.

They also know how to balance extroverted and introverted personalities, allowing both the chance to share and be heard. By using a variety of group sharing strategies and techniques, a workshop facilitator can successfully get individuals to open up and express their opinions with ease.

Workshop facilitators will also help keep team members energized throughout the meeting. They do so by assessing the group’s current engagement level, minimizing distractions, and sticking to the schedule.

Hiring a Workshop Facilitator

Hiring a workshop facilitator will offer your organization a chance to grow. When your employees are given the chance to contribute, everyone benefits. Hiring a workshop facilitator is recommended for large groups, complicated meetings, project kickoffs or even corporate off-sites.

If you’d like to hire a workshop facilitator for your next meeting or training, consider our services at Voltage Control. We offer a range of facilitation and innovation workshops that can help your company to get to the next level of employee engagement, growth, and innovation.

The post Should Your Organization Hire a Workshop Facilitator? appeared first on Voltage Control.

My AI Readiness Canvas and Workshop was inspired by the many conversations I’ve had with CEOs who are excited about the potential of AI. Sometimes, I leave these moments feeling like I’ve just witnessed something I call “technology FOMO.” No one wants to be left behind if they don’t jump on the AI bandwagon. But, just because there is some overexcitement around AI, doesn’t mean it is completely unwarranted.

Often there is a real need underneath the excitement. My goal was to build a tool that would allow teams to discover genuine opportunities and to move forward quickly, without endless debate and circular conversations.

For those who are new to the concept, a canvas is essentially a strategic worksheet. Our AI Readiness Canvas is based on a basic canvas model but includes AI and Machine Learning criteria as well as business sections. (Never fear, though, I’ve removed AI jargon to make it accessible to anyone in the organization.) The intention is that cross-functional teams use this worksheet in a structured workshop to have a time-boxed conversation that allows them to align their thinking and make rapid decisions.

The Canvas

You can download the AI Readiness Canvas here. Before you do, I recommend that you read the instructions below so you know how to incorporate it into a productive working session.

Planning Your AI Readiness Workshop

For this Canvas to “work,” you have to workshop it! Set aside the time to get the right stakeholders in the room together. This takes some planning. I’ve written extensively about planning workshops, so definitely check out some of those articles. But, in addition to my standard recommendations, there are a few specifics to consider.

The current state

First, make sure you’ve done some upfront research into where the team is headed and what they’ve already done. Don’t drill in so much that you could fill in the worksheet for them, but you want to understand the general direction they are headed. This will allow you to double check the attendees and make sure that you’ve got the requisite diversity.

Understand the problem space

It’s also helpful to do a bit of research around the problem space. Are there any existing AI solutions in the space or adjacent to the problem? These analogous problems and solutions are extremely inspiring and will be helpful when you kick off the workshop.

Who should be there

Based on what you’ve learned, make sure all the stakeholders are in the room for the workshop. You may want to consider doing a quick stakeholder mapping exercise to identify anyone who should be there.

Decision-making style

Lastly, decide what style of decision-making is best for your group. Some tools are better suited for smaller groups and others for larger groups. Two of my favorites are “Note and Vote” and “1–2–4-all.” I recommend “Note and Vote” for groups of 10 or less. For larger groups, consider “1–2–4–all.”

Running the workshop

Setup the conversation

To get started, it is important to set some context. Share a few stories around what is possible with AI. If you’ve done some research into analogous inspiration, share these finding now.

There’s a lot of confusion around the term AI. (As you’re likely aware, we haven’t achieved Artificial General Intelligence, or something akin to a sentient being.) As most commonly used, AI refers to a broad range of intelligent algorithms and mathematical approaches to problem-solving.

Given the fuzziness around the space and a general lack of understanding, try to avoid jargon. Instead, talk about a few things that AI can do for us, while making sure you don’t get into the weeds around solutions or algorithms. With all the excitement and hype about AI that’s “just around the corner” — self-driving cars, instant machine translation, etc. — it can be difficult to see how AI is affecting the lives of regular people from moment to moment.

To simplify the discussion, think of AI as the broader goal of autonomous machine intelligence, and machine learning as the specific scientific methods currently in vogue for building AI. All machine learning is AI, but not all AI is machine learning.

What are examples of artificial intelligence that people are already using? Here are a few of my favorites: song recommendations on Spotify or Pandora, banks detecting anomalies in behavior and spending patterns, Siri and Alexa voice commands, Chatbots for automated conversations, Uber’s ETA for rides, and Facebook auto-tagging photos. (I’m sure there are many more you can think of!)

Pro-Tip: Don’t forget about Augmented Intelligence — you don’t have to always build fully autonomous systems. Many AIs are built to improve human capabilities. My favorite story is Fin.com They have built AI tools to make the humans executive assistants more efficient and more effective. Similarly, early medical diagnostic AIs will likely require doctors to relay the results as it may take a while before humans want to accept a diagnosis from a machine.

Use the Canvas

After introductions and getting the group in the AI “headspace,” it’s time to dive into using the Canvas. Each square of the worksheet represents a collaborative discussion topic for the team.

1. Business Problem

Start with your business challenge. How is the company or division currently focused? It is important to stay strategic and high level at this point. Engineers are especially tempted to dive straight to a solution here; if you already have a solution in mind, bubble up to a higher perspective. Also, don’t limit yourself to thinking about AI strategy — stay general. If your company isn’t already using OKRs, SMART goals, or EOS, these are good frameworks for thinking about objectives. If you are already using one of these frameworks, think about the objective or goal that is most likely to benefit from AI.

While it is not critical, some teams already have KPIs in mind or are interested in discussing KPIs at this point. If this happens, I encourage them to keep the conversation brief as you will go deeper on benefits and KPIs once you’ve selected a concept to pursue.

PRO-TIP: If you already have a solution in mind, take a step back and define your problem or challenge more broadly, to provide more room for exploration and other potential solutions

2. Challenges

Once you identify the problem you are solving, articulate it in a way that everyone understands, you are set up to begin crafting a solution. The first step is to outline the obstacles, uncertainties, and fears that are holding you back today. This can include siloed data, resources, capital constraints, lack of tooling, political constraints, lack of trust, etc.

3. Phenomenon

In this portion of the Canvas, answer this question: What thing does the AI need to understand and/or predict to help us solve our business problem? Encourage the team to think both broadly and narrowly to explore different ways to frame the focus. Zoom in and zoom out. Exploring different perspectives exposes new areas of experimentation during the proof of concept.

4. Detection

Now that we have determined the phenomenon that we are interested in building a solution around, explore your current experience with detecting that phenomenon. Do you just have a general hunch that it is happening? Have you randomly observed it on occasion? Do you have a business analyst spending weeks to assemble SQL queries and spreadsheets by hand? Is there an automated report? Or, a real-time alert system that is detecting it? Encourage the team to think about who is involved in this process, what manual steps are involved, and what is automated.

5. Data

Next, begin to list out all the data needed to understand the problem. Imagine you put together a task force to better understand the phenomenon. What data would they need to become experts in the phenomenon? How would they learn about historic behaviors? What systems and data would they need to observe the phenomenon in real time? Who are the current experts and the best sources of detail on the phenomenon?

Data Worksheet

Before moving to Step 6 of the AI Readiness Canvas, complete a Data Worksheet for each item in the Data section.

The Data Worksheet is intended to help you discover gaps, identify stakeholders, and locate sources of data that might inspire new ideas and context for your proof of concept.

Some teams want to divide and conquer. Some even adjourn so team members can investigate and research worksheet answers. I’m usually running the workshop as a group and believe that you can simply identify the gaps and save the research as a follow-on activity. Having the partially filled-in worksheets provides a foundation to build from, which will create momentum for your project.

PRO-TIP: Make sure your workshop includes at least one person with deep understanding of your data model and various sources of data. If you have various 3rd party data systems, you may need to include the owner or administrator of these systems.

6. Gaps

Now that you’ve done your Data Worksheets, you’re ready to dive back in. Start by copying over any gaps that you identified during the Data Worksheet exercise. Think about your problem, challenges, and existing gaps. What else may need to be addressed before you can start building the solutions? Perhaps you haven’t been able to manually detect the phenomenon yet? Maybe you don’t have a data pipeline in place or haven’t signed a partnership with a critical source of data? Sometimes it’s a simple as knowing that your data needs to be enriched.

PRO-TIP: Don’t forget that some data will have multiple sources and may need to be deduplicated or disambiguated. You may also need to determine which data source is more robust and/or more reliable.

7. Risk

In all the excitement that develops as a result of pursuing adventurous and innovative technology, it can be easy to lose sight of the pitfalls or risk of implementing the solution. Explore the potential negative consequences of the project. Think through assumptions and what might go wrong if any of them are incorrect. What biases are not accounted for? Are you potentially displacing jobs? Will the user trust this system?

8. Proof of Concept

Now it’s time to think about solutions. With a focus on crawling before running, explore small solutions that can help address gaps and mitigate risk. It is important to create an early win on a project and establish a rapid and reliable learning loop. Think through and develop a simple plan for that next step to move the project forward.

PRO-TIP: Your POC should be no longer than 3 months. The smaller the better! Can you build a spreadsheet model tomorrow to learn more about the phenomenon? Start there!

9. Stakeholders

Now that you’ve explored the problem space, the data, and next steps, it’s highly likely that the stakeholder list has grown. Take a moment to list out everyone that might be impacted by this work. Review your challenges, gaps, and Data Worksheets to see who needs to be involved going forward. Who is critical to success and should be part of the core team? Who needs to have regular updates so they can adapt to changing requirements? Who owns critical data or systems and will be needed at certain stages of the project?

PRO-TIP: Don’t forget about your external stakeholders!

10. Benefits

Finally, reflect on the business problem, the proof of concept, and where it might lead the organization. What are the outcomes for the organization as a whole? How might you sell this to other decision-makers? Consider your stakeholder list and what is important for them to know or how might they personally benefit if this project is successful. Begin to distill your thoughts into a list of ways this project will benefit the organization and the unique value proposition.

PRO-TIP: Consider KPIs to track and measure these benefits.

I hope you find our AI Readiness Canvas a helpful tool for your team. Please download it here.

If you are interested in having a facilitator lead you through an AI Readiness Workshop, please reach out at douglas@voltagecontrol.co! Read on for testimonials from clients we’ve worked with…

Testimonials

“The AI Canvas works! I’ve seen Douglas use it to lead a room of 100 CTOs through the challenge of matching their business needs with the possibilities that the new world of AI presents to their companies.”—Etienne de Bruin, CEO, 7CTOs

“Voltage Control’s AI Readiness Canvas and Workshop provides us with a rigorous and transparent process and framework to discuss how to infuse our solutions with AI and machine learning for decision advantage.” — Dr. Kuan Collins, VP Solutions, Analytics and Simulation, SAIC

“After working with Voltage Control’s AI Canvas, I realized that the only question left was, ‘Why have I not done this already?!?’ — Ken Cone, CTO, Radeus Labs

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