Leading a workshop

In this article, we go through how to lead a workshop successfully.

1. Creating a workshop

Before holding a workshop, you need to create your own workshop.

💡Read about creating a workshop here: Creating a workshop

2. Give a brief about the workshop to the participants

Explain the main question and goal of the workshop to the participants. Participants may also ask questions.

💡 First time workshop participants can read this: Guide for participating in a workshop

3. Start your workshop

You can start your workshop by pressing on the Start phase in the lower right corner of the green Brief button.

4. Ideation phase

The goal of the Ideation phase is to get the participants to submit as many ideas as possible, which serve as a starting point for the more thorough proposals to be produced later. Here are the principles of ideation that you can tell the participants:

No self-criticism, the words “No” and “But” have disappeared from the vocabulary. All ideas are appreciated, so don’t leave out ideas that you think are not good enough.
Write down a lot of ideas. In ideation quantity produces quality. First participants will write down familiar ideas -> this leads to pinching -> thoughts are forced to new areas -> totally new unique ideas are created
Consciously produce funny, unusual, and even radical ideas as seeds for new ideas.
Use existing ideas as stimuli for new thoughts.

⚠️ Be aware that running out of time doesn’t end the phase automatically. End the phase and start the next by pressing the Complete & start next button. Tell participants out loud what you're doing.

💡If necessary, adjust the duration of the phase before starting. You can modify it also during the phase. More about doing modifications here: Creating a workshop

5. Idea selection

In Idea selection phase, the goal is to get participants to choose the ideas they consider best. The participants' choices form the order of popularity for the ideas for the next step. Here are some tips for success:

Instruct the participants to choose the best ideas by clicking on them.
Explain that the participants’ choices will form the order of popularity which is revealed in the next phase.
The order of popularity highlights the ideas in which participants see the greatest potential. This will help participant’s to identify which of their ideas should be built to thorough proposal in the next phase.
Change the setting to how many ideas each participant can choose. A good ratio is 1: 5, i.e. you can choose 10 of the 50 ideas produced. You can change the Max idea selection count for each user by pressing and opening the Settings tab.
Follow the number of selections per participant in this page and give more time if necessary or end the phase earlier if participants are ready.
Finally, press the Complete & start next button to allow participants to move on to the next phase. Tell participants out loud what you're doing.

6. Proposal collection

In Proposal collection phase, the goal is to produce more thorough proposals of the most popular ideas. Here are some tips for the proposal collection phase:

Instruct each participant to create a proposal based on one of their popular ideas. Ask them to develop and refine the idea into a more profound proposal. They can also use insights from other ideas.
If you want to get several proposals from everyone, you can ask them to create proposals based on other popular ideas.
If necessary modify the proposal collection form. You can do it by clicking on Edit form on the right side of the form.
Adjust the phase duration if you want more proposals. You can create two proposals in 10 minutes. Add 4-5 extra minutes for each new proposal you request.
Finally, press the Complete & start next button to allow participants to move on to the next phase. Tell participants out loud what you're doing.

7. Voting

The goal of the Voting and development phase is to highlight the most potential proposals by voting and refine them with the participant's comments.

Ask participants to read the proposals and give their likes to the best proposals
If necessary, change the maximum number of likes. A good number of likes is about 20 - 30% of the number of proposals.
If needed, adjust the phase duration before starting, but you can also change it while working.
Finally, press the Complete & start next button to allow participants to move on to the next phase. Tell participants out loud what you're doing.

8. Development

The goal of the Development phase is to refine the most potential proposals with the participant's comments.

While you moved to this phase, the proposal list on the left was sorted based on the number of likes.
Ask participants to add their development comments on the most voted proposals at the top of the proposal list.
If needed, adjust the phase duration before starting, but you can also change it while working.
End the session by clicking Complete phase button.

9. Result of the Workshop

When the workshop has come to an end, you can export the proposals to a Word file or transfer them to another workshop, challenge, or channel.

This is how you export your proposals to a word file:

Go to the Result phase.
Click on in the upper right corner to get to the list view of the workshop proposals.
Check off all the proposals that you want to export.
Press on to finish your exporting.

result of workshop list view export

This is how you can move a proposal to another channel:

Go to the Result phase.
Press on the name of the proposal that you want to move.
Click on the in the upper right corner of the proposal.
From the opening menu pick Move.
Press on the name of the channel/challenge/workshop where you want to move it.
Click Yes to confirm the move.

💡 When you're done with the workshop, you can archive it. Read more about archiving a workshop here: Archiving a workshop