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When Dr. Isabeau Iqbal appeared on Episode 74 of the GradBlogger Podcast, she talked about how she transitioned from academia to being a professional coach. In this episode, she discusses the process of setting up and running an online workshop.
As an educational developer, Isabeau understood what was involved in designing group training workshops. She was initially trained through the Clifton Strengths Assessment, which is focused not only on individual strengths but also team strengths and team collaboration. Working with groups has enabled her to increase revenue by serving more than one client at a time.
She has eight suggestions for planning effective workshops.
1. Learn more about your client’s needs
When a potential client contacts her about a group workshop, Isabeau requests a phone meeting that allows her to better understand their needs. Who are the participants? How old are they? What are their backgrounds? Do they know each other already? And how involved does the client want to be with organizing the workshop?
2. Create learning objectives for the workshop
“As someone who is going to be designing and facilitating the workshop, having learning objectives is helpful,” Isabeau says. These objectives can be identified after the client identifies the workshop goals.
3. Create a detailed session plan
Isabeau uses an approach that she calls backwards design, which is essentially planning and designing your workshop with the end in mind.
“When I do my planning, I have a detailed session plan that outlines what’s going to be going on for the various sections of the workshop, what resources I need, what the timing will be, what the participants will be doing, what I’ll be doing,” she says. “I know not everybody works like this, and probably for some folks, it might drive them a little bit nuts. For me, this is really helpful when I’m facilitating and when I’m planning.”
4. Have an accordion plan
In Isabeau’s experience, things always change the day of the workshop. The organizer may ask you to start a few minutes late or an especially well-received discussion runs overtime. Having an ‘accordion plan’ where you can either stretch things out or compress as needed saves a lot of stress.
5. Create supporting resources
What resources will be used to support the workshop. Will there be PowerPoint slides or a handout? Isabeau also sends out a message before and after the workshop, to connect with the audience and follow up with them afterward.
6. Create an evaluation sheet
Evaluation sheets are sent to the participants and sometimes the organizers after the workshop. This feedback lets you know what you’re doing right and what should be improved.
7. Take notes
Take notes during the sessions or after. How did things go? Is there anything you learned that should be integrated into a future workshop?
8. Give yourself enough time
“My last tip for planning is to give yourself enough time, because there are so many details and it can be stressful if you’re trying to do this under a real time crunch,” Isabeau says. “So give yourself enough time. It’s a gift you’re giving yourself.”
She believes that these eight suggestions can result in a more engaging workshop because you can plan it with the needs and goals of the organizers and audience in mind.
“To a large extent, your ability to engage a group depends on whether you’ve planned for them or whether you’re planning for a generic audience. And as is probably very obvious through this conversation, I am in favour of planning for the people who will actually be there.”
Engagement will also depend on the rapport you built with the organizer and participants during the workshop. Isabeau recommends taking a personable approach, using relevant content, and finding ways to get the audience to participate.
“A workshop is not a presentation. There has to be an exchange, and that exchange is between you and the participants and it’s also participant to participant. So finding ways to build that in also is helpful for engagement.”
If you’re not super-comfortable with technology, she recommends hiring a co-facilitator who can make sure that everything works on the tech end of your online workshop. This type of professional support can result in greater peace of mind and let you focus more on delivering the quality experience that the participants expect.
Conclusion
What if you’re more comfortable with one-on-one coaching sessions? Not a problem!
“(Online workshops) are not for everybody,” Isabeau says. “So it’s not a matter of thinking you should be doing workshops, but seeing whether this is something that you want to try out, whether this is something that gives you energy and spark. And if it is, great. There are many ways to build your skills as a workshop facilitator. And if it’s not, that’s okay too.”
Have you been thinking about expanding your coaching practice to online workshops? If so, and you have questions, you can contact Isabeau at isabeauiqbal.com or on LinkedIn and Twitter. If you have feedback about this episode or would like to recommend a topic for a future one, leave us a comment below and we’ll get back to you!
