How to handle derailing questions during workshops

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On day two of a recent workshop, one of the participants challenged me with the question, “why aren’t we thinking bigger?”

It was an ambiguous prompt. One that called into question the validity of all the work we had been doing. And without giving a clear reply, it certainly had the potential to derail our entire session, confuse the group, and jeopardize any progress we had made.

Now, to clarify, when I say “derailing questions,” I’m not talking about simple exploratory inquiries. In fact, I believe that some element of meandering and curiosity is necessary to uncover great ideas (which I talked about in a recent post).

What I’m talking about here are the big, road-blocking questions that require an entirely different workshop than the one the group agreed on.

So, how can facilitators tackle derailing questions that open up the dialogue to something unproductive?

By always starting our workshops with alignment exercises that require the group to agree on the purpose and outcomes that are key to the workshop.

In the example of my recent workshop, I was able to address my participant’s question by pointing back to the problem statement and success criteria the group created together at the onset of our work (which was conveniently written up on the board for all to see). I even acknowledged that this person wasn’t wrong for wanting to think big picture, but reminded them that the group agreed they needed to focus on a different problem before they were ready to tackle that endeavor.

Because the group agreed on a problem statement and success criteria first and foremost, I was able to easily steer us back toward the work at hand. Even if you’re exploring a space that is a little more broad, that’s okay. The important thing is that you’ve created boundaries around the space you’re going to play in. As the facilitator, it’s your job to protect these boundaries. You may squiggle, explore and go off course within the defined and agreed-upon territory, but that’s totally different than heading off toward another territory entirely.

Participants may consciously or subconsciously derail things. Oftentimes, it’s simply because they have a big question or forgot about decisions that were made. The key is not to take it personally or let it derail you. When you keep the group oriented around the agreements you made up front, it’s a lot easier to keep the train on the track.

Want to try this approach? Here’s the template I use to help my teams draft their problem statement and evaluation criteria. Feel free to make a copy and use it in your own work!