The following facilitator activities are required when preparing for a workshop:
Identify the Workshop Owner – Each workshop must have an owner; the person who needs the group decisions. For example, for a requirements gathering workshop, the owner would most likely be the Product Owner.
Establish the Workshop Objectives – You can treat a workshop like a mini product development; the Vision is the overall reason for the workshop; the Objectives are the first decomposition of the Vision. For example:
The Vision: To decide which products to promote
The Objectives:
Decide the products in scope
Evaluate the relative value of the products
Establish a prioritized list of products to promote
Establish the Participants – The Workshop Owner should give a list of required workshop participants and/or direct the facilitator to a person who can provide that information
Establish by when the workshop must be run – All decisions are time sensitive. It may be that some proposed participants may not be available at specific times. The date and time of the workshop must be chosen to be within the cut-off date and to maximize the number of proposed participants
Establish the type of workshop to be run – Workshops can be run as participants sitting around a horseshoe-shaped table to an ‘Open Space’ where participants are free to roam a room with separate areas for discussion on specific topics.
Arrange the workshop venue – A workshop venue must be chosen and booked to suit the number of proposed participants and the workshop type
Establish any pre-workshop participant reading materials – It may be useful for proposed participants to have some information pertinent to the workshop before the workshop begins. Although you, as a facilitator, will give them access to these materials, do not expect every participant to have read them!
Invite the participants to the workshop – Send invitations to the proposed participants with the following details:
The reason for the workshop
The Workshop Owner
The workshop Objectives
The date, time and venue for the workshop
The proposed participants; this may be the distribution list on the email; it gives proposed participants to suggest other participants and/or to suggest replacements for themselves
Arrange for refreshments to be available
Prepare the workshop space
Point of Process
As a facilitator, how do I prepare for a workshop
If a participant feels that the group discussion is not following the correct procedure or a discussion has gotten off topic, they may make this hand gesture and say out loud “Point of Process.”
The Stack Keeper allows them to speak before the next person at the top of the stack. They must then say how they think the discussion has gotten off topic or is not following procedure.
Example 1: “I’m not sure why we’re talking about shifts when the agenda says we’re supposed to be talking about salaries.”
Example 2: “There’s a proposal on the table, and I think we should resolve that before we move on to anything else.”
