Whether you’re a facilitator or a business leader, here you’ll find resources, tools and how-to guides aimed at helping your teams — and your business objectives — achieve their potential.
3 workshop methods to dissolve resistance among teams and foster better collaboration
Use these facilitation methods to unify, empower, and activate teams that are dispersed, fragmented, remote, or disengaged. You can copy/paste these activities into your next worksop to get your team out of the weeds, dissolve or soften resistance, and re-energize the group.
4 tips to level up your facilitation skills
If you lead meetings or workshops regularly, you know things are going well when sessions feel productive, seamless, and collaborative. So, how do you access more of that and minimize the hard stuff, like disengaged or disruptive participants? And how do you ensure you’re unlocking the most potential from everyone, reducing friction and resistance along the way? Here are my favorite tips to help you do just that!
Icebreakers for remote meetings and virtual workshops
It’s more important than ever to kick off meetings, workshops, and strategic sessions on a positive note, especially when we’re not all in the same physical location. These icebreakers are appropriate for almost any team, but I find them to be extra helpful when working with remote or distributed groups who might require a little nudge to access a place of connectedness and optimism.
How to cultivate workshop culture for better innovation
What does it take to stitch an innovation mindset into the very way teams operate? This article is about shifting our perspective on when to workshop and makes the case for cultivating a workshop practice within organizational culture as a necessary stepping stone to building a culture of innovation.
The dos and don'ts of a successful workshop
Here are my facilitator-approved dos and don'ts for running a successful strategic workshop, whether you’re leading a planning session, collaborative brainstorm, or facilitating another type of strategic gathering. These tips will help you turn the momentum you generate into tangible results.
The secret to getting the most out of your small or fractional team
Small and fractional teams need to collaborate differently than their counterparts in order to be effective. In this article, I share the secret to setting your teams up to do their best work and build momentum, along with an exercise you can replicate with your own team to unify the group.
5 tips for leaders who want to get more out of team collaboration
If you’re a leader kicking off a new project with your team, or ideating on a new product your company could launch, it’s essential to be intentional about how you plan for and guide collaborative sessions to make them a success. Apply these five facilitation learnings to your work to ramp up the effectiveness of your collaborative sessions, and have a more powerful impact on the teams you lead.
5 reasons leaders should love Design Sprints (and use them!)
Design Sprints have the incredible ability to unlock the full potential of a team’s creativity and push innovation to new heights – that’s why they’re such a powerful leadership tool. After nearly eight years of facilitating Design Sprints, I can confidently say they’re just as effective now as they ever were. If you’re having a hard time getting over the commitment hump, here are 5 reasons why you really can’t afford not to Sprint with your team.
How to design a winning workshop: Step 4 of 5
In today’s installment of my series on intelligent workshop design, I’ll be sharing my favorite facilitation activities for idea generation – the ones that elevate brainstorming sessions from mere discussions to the kind of collaboration that produces actionable, viable possibilities.
How to name a product: From brainstorm to buzzworthy
Naming a new product isn’t easy, but it doesn’t have to be painful. It can be tempting to slap an acronym on it and call it a day, but taking time to come up with the perfect name is truly worth the effort. Here are my tips for picking a great product name, and a guide to get you get started on the naming process with your team.
What do workshop facilitators do?
Most workshops and complex problem-solving endeavors are far more successful with a facilitator present. So, what is it about a great facilitator that unlocks this potential? Check out the three key abilities that a great facilitator brings to the table – think of them as the ingredients that, when present, make a workshop feel fruitful and satisfying.
How to design a winning workshop: Step 3 of 5
Have you ever experienced a moment in a workshop or meeting when it became abundantly clear that your participants weren’t on the same page about the objective for your time together? It’s mostly avoidable if you make time for one very important aspect of workshop design. In today’s installment of this series on intelligent workshop design, I’ll be sharing methods and activities you can borrow to nail this part of the process.
The art of naming: How to overcome challenges in naming products, services, and companies
If your team has been spinning out on naming for many weeks or even months, I’m guessing at least one of four factors is at play. I cover them in this article, along with 7 facilitation methods from my own experience leading workshops that will get the group back on track.
3 prototyping hacks you can steal for your next workshop
Today, I’m sharing my prototyping hacks to help your team create the best initial, simplified version of their design – one that’s ready to be tested, iterated on, and validated. See why getting it right is so important, and lift these activities to streamline the next session you facilitate for your team.
How to design a winning workshop: Step 2 of 5
Part 2 of this series on workshop design is all about understanding the customer and their needs. This article includes some resources and sample activities you can leverage as you design your workshop flow — they’re activities I use in my own work as a facilitator.
The best way to understand user needs and pain points without a big research budget
Understanding user needs and pain points is essential for building successful products and services, but that doesn’t mean we need to get stuck going down a multi-month research hole in order to be “ready” to collaborate, innovate, or prototype. Learn how to overcome research analysis paralysis with some actionable methods for gathering and applying insights – all without a big research budget.
How to design a winning workshop: Step 1 of 5
In this five-part series, I’ll break down the arc of a winning workshop from beginning to end, with guidance around how the session might flow and sample activities you can copy/paste into your own plans. Part 1 of this series and today’s focus is all about grounding and expectation setting: the foundation of any workshop.
A workshop guide to define a more purposeful return-to-office protocol for your team
The return-to-office conversation has been top of mind for many as more and more companies call employees back to work in person. Rather than simply telling people to return to the office without any structure or intention, let’s instead think about the best way to accomplish the work to be done. Here’s a workshop format for team leaders and managers who want to handle this next chapter with intention.
3 facilitation techniques for effective group decision making
Helping teams make decisions can be a complex process when there are various group dynamics, cultural quirks, and political intricacies at play. But it doesn't have to be. Let’s explore a few essential facilitation techniques that empower groups to harness their collective wisdom, navigate challenges, and arrive at well-informed decisions.
3 workshop formats to help spark innovation with your team
Want to cultivate a more dynamic, engaged, and successful organization? Who doesn’t! One of the most impactful ways to achieve this goal is to take a more intentional approach to innovation. Learn the benefits of doing so, and three different workshops formats that will jumpstart the process for you team.