What is a workshop?
“A cooking workshop means [participants] cook things. A writing workshop means [participants] write things. If most of your “workshop” is people not actually making anything, you should perhaps call it a class, a lecture, or a mistake.” – Scott Berkun
(Ternay, 2017)
To me, a workshop is a means of learning in a fun and innovative way. It is something that is heavily practical and ends with a product of learning.
According to the Oxford Lexico dictionary, a workshop is “A meeting at which a group of people engage in intensive discussion and activity on a particular subject or project.” (Workshop | Meaning of Workshop by Lexico, n.d.)
Preparing for a workshop:
There are five key phases in preparing a great workshop:
- Analysing
- Planning
- Developing
- Rehearsing
- Evaluating
(Ternay, 2017)
First of all, analysing involves asking yourself a few questions. To me, the most important ones are What do we want to achieve? and What is the ideal outcome? Answering these questions will get us to our first step, creating and understanding our objective.
Secondly, planning is very important. This helps to build a clear structure for the workshop. Once we have determined the objective, we can work backwards to build the workshop and ultimately reach that objective. In order to do this, we must be aware of timing. This is crucial to ensure that the workshops run on time and run well. We must also be aware of the clientele and be clear to them about the state we would like them to be in by developing a way to ensure that happens. This will be done by using an effective introduction, using ice breakers to help the clients feel included, settled and it helps us to get to know them too.
Next is development. This is where the actual content is created, along with scripts and a solid outline using the PURPOSE, PROCESS, PAYOFF method. Purpose is the why, the reason we are doing the activity/workshop as a whole. Process is the how, the way someone carries out a task within a certain time scale and the payoff is the what, the expectation of what will be produced at the end of the workshop/activity. This will be more effective if we explain this clearly to the clients.
After that, we must rehearse. This is important because it helps to reduce the amount f problems and mistakes that we may make and also build our confidence as public speakers. We will be delivering a tester workshop in college as part of this step.
Finally, it is crucial that we carry out evaluations. This helps us to both improve our workshop and the delivery of it as it highlights key issues and gives us a opportunity to prevent further problems by creating good solutions. (Ternay, 2017)
A few other things to consider:
mindtools.com says “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.” This is important for improvement and assessment. I think that this will be good to use so that we can write effective evaluations and improve on our workshop accordingly.
Remember, the more detailed your plan, the more you’ll ensure that your workshop will run to schedule – and be successful.
It also draws us to the attention of people who may be ‘nervous about speaking in public, or in an unfamiliar group’. This applies to our clients as they suffer with difficulties such as autism and Down syndrome. Therefore If we plan any group activities, it may be helpful to keep the size of each group small. (Planning a Workshop: Organizing and Running a Successful Event, 2018)
Bibliography:
Ternay, G. (2017). This Is How You Plan & Run a Great Workshop. [online] Guerric. Available at: https://guerric.co.uk/plan-run-great-workshop/ [Accessed 2 Mar. 2020].
Lexico Dictionaries | English. n.d. Workshop | Meaning Of Workshop By Lexico. [online] Available at: <https://www.lexico.com/definition/workshop> [Accessed 12 March 2020].
Mindtools.com. 2018. Planning A Workshop: Organizing And Running A Successful Event. [online] Available at: <https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/PlanningAWorkshop.htm> [Accessed 12 March 2020].