Tips for Healthy Workshops and Idea Critique
I have the privilege of running workshops with my teams and clients over the past 20 years where we spend upwards of eight hours working through their problems at a high pace. I get energized when I have these opportunities to come together with my teams and clients to work through tough problems. I’ve been asked how we keep those meetings high energy and hyper-productive. That question prompted me to spend some time codifying some of the tricks that we have learned over the years.
The workshop process that we use sets the stage for everyone in the room to be in a state of what Daniel Goleman calls “open awareness” in his book “Focus”, so that we can produce a healthy set of ideas and come up with a product roadmap that everyone is motivated about in a single day.
We have developed some best practices for these workshops and for idea critique in general that I believe explains how we are able to sustain productivity in our 8+ hour meetings. Not only that, but we are able to do it across industries and across incredibly diverse teams.
Group facilitation is a performance art.
Great facilitators in these workshops help to extract and curate the best ideas from these diverse teams in ways that make the team feel ownership over the outcome. There are often a lot of personalities and opinions to juggle and inspire and problems will manifest. These tips are meant to help the facilitator to identify the symptoms of the problems listed below and jump in to work through them without offending anyone and while making certain that everyone feels heard.
While this list is far from complete, it is a good start. Here we go:
One constructive criticism at a time. When someone has constructive criticism about an idea or an opinion about how to optimize something that has been presented, others leaders sometimes need to chime in and add their two cents. Resist that. Allow the initial criticizer to express their thoughts and allow the group to move on. If you can improve it further, take a note and communicate it later. When everyone chimes in, it might feel like “ganging up” and the person might shut down. We need constructive criticism, but we never want people to shut down or feel demoralized. Decision fatigue might also set in early when these behaviors are allowed to persist.
Ignore the minutia. If you find small problems, typos or immaterial mistakes in someone’s work or ideas, take notes and communicate them in private — never in public. Pointing out the minutia interrupts everything and disrupts the groups flow. Focus on the big picture and focus on the goals.
Don’t solve the problem. When solutions are proposed, everyone’s creativity is limited by default. Instead, create bumpers for what might not be an acceptable solution, but expect the group to create the solutions. Ask clarifying questions with the intent to understand and learn. Don’t ask guiding questions. If you are asking a question that you know the answer to and you are not even open to other answers, you have a problem. Keeping everyone’s focus on the problem at hand keeps the energy high.
Resist Complexification. When you insert ideas that are unrelated to the goal, you derail the entire effort. Don’t propose edge cases that are unlikely to occur. When you detract everyone from the goal to chase the edge case squirrel, you waste everyone’s time and energy. This is especially a problem if you are a leader in your organization, because everyone will feel like they have to work through the ideas and issues that you present. Table edge cases quickly in a parking lot to keep the energy high and the focus strong.
Promote optimism. When your team is stuck and focusing on the negative, turn it around by having them rephrase and reframe their problem from a positive future result. Always remind your team how lucky we all are to have the opportunity to be solving these problems together. Allowing pessimism to take root in a meeting is the fastest way to reduce everyone’s energy.
Encourage idea breeding. The more diversity the better. Encourage everyone in the room to speak up and ask them to add their opinions, even if it feels a bit forced. The silent ones in workshops are often highly intelligent, yet their perspectives are often overshadowed by the influencers in the room. Purposefully create the space for more diversity in the ideas. The more diverse your idea set, the more you have to work with and the more powerful the result can be. The more ideas and perspectives that are heard, the more energy the room will have.
Every idea has something to add. It can be tempting to disregard the ideas that are obviously bad. However, it is more powerful to respond with authentic curiosity. There is something good in every proposed solution, no matter how bad it might seem to you. You also have to be open to the possibility that your perspective is the one that is broken. Use “Yes, and” vs. “Yes, but…” Shutting down ideas is quick way to drain energy from everyone. Don’t allow anyone to do it.
Let everyone finish. Meetings work best when everyone in the room is mindful of everyone else. If someone has an idea, let them finish with it before you insert your criticism or your ideas for improvement. Interruptions make people feel like you are not listening. They may have already thought through your criticisms, but you haven’t given them the full chance to explain. Make sure you are actively listening to the speaker with the intent to understand and not the intent to insert your response. When everyone “feels” heard, energy increases.
Focus on the goal. Try to frame your criticism in terms of how it will measurably impact the goal. When your criticism has no data to support it and no way to get data to support it, it is probably misguided. If you cannot find a way to tie your ideas to the goal at hand in a measurable way, you should probably jot down a note and do some homework. When people are taken down a rabbit hole, people will lose focus and energy will decline.
Like I said above, I see group facilitation as a performance art. It is really hard and takes empathy, intelligence and a lot of practice. Hopefully, these tips are helpful if you find yourself facilitating a group workshop.
