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The Workshop
Survival Guide
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So you need
to run a It could be for a conference,
to share a skill at work, or to
workshop. run a tutorial for your class.
And you
need to go
from
nothing to
teaching Don’t worry, creating a
workshop from scratch is
people fast. easier than you think.
First, don’t design any
slides — at least, not yet.
Step away from powerpoint and take
a deep breath. Beginning with your
slides makes the whole process so
much harder.

It’s hard to look at the big

picture while staring at a
single slide.
First, don’t design any
slides — at least, not yet.
Step away from powerpoint and take
a deep breath. Beginning with your
slides makes the whole process so
much harder.

A B

It’s hard to look at the big Designing slides is a time

picture while staring at a sponge — absorbing
single slide. every second you give.
First, don’t design any
slides — at least, not yet.
Step away from powerpoint and take
a deep breath. Beginning with your
slides makes the whole process so
much harder.

A B C

It’s hard to look at the big Designing slides is a time You may not even need
picture while staring at a sponge — absorbing those slides in the first
single slide. every second you give. place.
Instead, let’s create a
Workshop Skeleton
Much like a recipe, a Workshop
Skeleton is the raw structure and
purpose of your workshop. Starting
with one has several benefits:
Instead, let’s create a
Workshop Skeleton
Much like a recipe, a Workshop
Skeleton is the raw structure and
purpose of your workshop. Starting
with one has several benefits:

1 It fits on a piece of paper

Instead, let’s create a
Workshop Skeleton Wedding Planning Workshop

Why the budget spreadsheet is your

new best friend
a. The more common ways to go

Much like a recipe, a Workshop over budget

b. Fixed expenses vs. Per-
Skeleton is the raw structure and guest expenses

purpose of your workshop. Starting Coffee Break

with one has several benefits: Turning your big day into a no-
stress checklist
c. How the humble checklist
keeps hospitals running
d. How to create and use your
1 It fits on a piece of paper three crucial checklists

Wrap up and Q&A

2 It’s just text, so it’s easy to share for
feedback
Instead, let’s create a
Workshop Skeleton Wedding Planning Workshop

[0900 - 1030] Why the budget

spreadsheet is your new best friend
a. The more common ways to go

Much like a recipe, a Workshop over budget

b. Fixed expenses vs. Per-
Skeleton is the raw structure and guest expenses

purpose of your workshop. Starting [1030 - 1045] Coffee Break

with one has several benefits: [1045 - 1200] Turning your big day
into a no-stress checklist
c. How the humble checklist
keeps hospitals running
d. How to create and use your
1 It fits on a piece of paper three crucial checklists

[1200 - 1215] Wrap up and Q&A

2 It’s just text, so it’s easy to share for
feedback
3 It gives a complete overview of
your workshop at a single glance
A Workshop Skeleton has
three key ingredients
A Audience Profile Who’s in the room
B Learning Outcomes What they'll leave with
C Schedule Chunks When they'll get their breaks

Once you gather all three, you can

quickly combine them to create a
Workshop Skeleton.
Let’s break
down each
part…
 A Audience Profile
It’s impossible to design a great workshop
if you don’t know who you’re teaching.
The Audience Profile captures that.

We need to answer a few basic

questions:

1 Who is in the audience?

2 How experienced are they?
3 Why are they bothering to show up?
4 What are their concerns & objections?
A Audience Profile
Let’s create a workshop for couples
planning their own wedding. We can
quickly answer each question:
A Audience Profile
Let’s create a workshop for couples
planning their own wedding. We can
quickly answer each question:
1 Who is the audience? Couples planning their own wedding
A Audience Profile
Let’s create a workshop for couples
planning their own wedding. We can
quickly answer each question:
1 Who is the audience? Couples planning their own wedding
2 How experienced are they? Little to no planning experience
A Audience Profile
Let’s create a workshop for couples
planning their own wedding. We can
quickly answer each question:
1 Who is the audience? Couples planning their own wedding
2 How experienced are they? Little to no planning experience
3 Why are they bothering showing up? Great wedding without the
expensive wedding planner
A Audience Profile
Let’s create a workshop for couples
planning their own wedding. We can
quickly answer each question:
1 Who is the audience? Couples planning their own wedding
2 How experienced are they? Little to no planning experience
3 Why are they bothering showing up? Great wedding without the
expensive wedding planner
4 What are their concerns & objections? Scared of spreadsheets & terrified
of omitting a key part of their
wedding!
 A Audience Profile
We can condense this data into a concise
description for the first ingredient:

Wedding Planning Workshop

Audience Profile —

Couples who are planning their own wedding

and looking to do it themselves to save
money and, hopefully, time.
 B Learning Outcomes
Next, we need to design the specific bits
of knowledge that your audience is
turning up for. These are the Learning
Outcomes. Learning Outcomes need to
sharp. What does sharp mean?

Instead of Make it focused & sharp

“Sales negotiation” “How to de-escalate a tense negotiation

when you’re in too deep”

“Wedding planning” “A beautiful (and cheap!) solution to the

wedding ‘flower problem’ ”

“How to write a CV” “What to delete from your CV to make it better”

 B Learning Outcomes
Let’s add two Learning Outcomes to our
ingredient list: Wedding Planning Workshop

Audience Profile —

Couples who are planning their own wedding

and looking to do it themselves to save
money and, hopefully, time.

Learning Outcomes —

One about effective use of 1. Why the budget spreadsheet is your new
a spreadsheet as a best friend

planning tool 2. Turning your big day into a no-stress

checklist

And another about using

checklists for execution
 B Learning Outcomes
Learning Outcomes rarely capture
everything you want to cover on a subject.
You use Supporting Arguments to expand
each one.

In general, you should identify 2-4

Supporting Arguments for each Learning
Outcome. Supporting Arguments often
translate directly into slides and exercises
as well, so win-win!
 B Learning Outcomes
Wedding Planning Workshop

Audience Profile —

Couples who are planning their own wedding

and looking to do it themselves to save
money and, hopefully, time.

Learning Outcomes —

Returning to our 1. Why the budget spreadsheet is your new

best friend
skeleton-in-progress, we a. The most common ways to go over
can add supporting budget
b. Fixed expenses vs. Per-guest
arguments to clarify each expenses

Learning Outcome 2. Turning your big day into a no-stress

checklist
a. How the humble checklist keeps
hospitals running
b. How to create and use your three
crucial checklists
 B Learning Outcomes
Wedding Planning Workshop

Audience Profile —

Couples who are planning their own wedding

and looking to do it themselves to save
money and, hopefully, time.

Learning Outcomes —

1. Why the budget spreadsheet is your new

best friend
a. The more common ways to go over
Each supporting argument budget
is a key idea to explore in the b. Fixed expenses vs. Per-guest
expenses
workshop. 2. Turning your big day into a no-stress
checklist
They’re basically the a. How the humble checklist keeps
hospitals running
exercises and sections of b. How to create and use your three
crucial checklists
your workshop which build
up to the Learning Outcome.
 C Schedule Chunks
Now that you know what you’re going to
teach, it’s time to figure out the when
you’re going to teach it.

Before deciding which Learning

Outcomes go where, first segment your
time by placing breaks.
 C Schedule Chunks
Now that you know what you’re going to
teach, it’s time to figure out the when
you’re going to teach it.

Before deciding which Learning

Outcomes go where, first segment your
time by placing breaks.

Huh, breaks? Why?

Breaks act to divide up the day (or half day,
or whatever) into manageable chunks that
won’t exhaust your audience.
 C Schedule Chunks
Now that you know what you’re going to
teach, it’s time to figure out the when
you’re going to teach it.

Before deciding which Learning

Outcomes go where, first segment your
time by placing breaks.

Huh, breaks? Why? Also,

Breaks act to divide up the day (or half day, By slicing the day into manageable chunks,
or whatever) into manageable chunks that you can quickly slot in Learning Outcomes
won’t exhaust your audience. for a quick scheduling win.
 C Schedule Chunks
60-90 minute chunks are a great starting point

Here’s a generic day, split up by hour Workshop Breaks

0900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700

 C Schedule Chunks
A large, full-day workshop can be divided up into a series 60-90
minute chunks with breaks Workshop Breaks

0900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700

Arrival & Coffee Coffee Lunch & Chat Coffee Party!

15 mins 15 mins 1 hour 15 mins ∞ mins
 C Schedule Chunks

A shorter, half-day workshop can reuse the full-day template Workshop Breaks

0900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700

Arrival & Coffee Coffee Lunch & Chat

15 mins 15 mins 1 hour
 C Schedule Chunks

And a quick a 90 minute workshop could look like this Workshop Breaks

0900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700

Arrival & Coffee Coffee & Chat

15 mins 15 mins
 Wedding Planning Workshop

C Schedule Chunks Audience Profile —

Couples who are planning their own wedding

and looking to do it themselves to save
money and, hopefully, time.

Learning Outcomes —

1. Why the budget spreadsheet is your new

best friend
a. The more common ways to go over
budget
b. Fixed expenses vs. Per-guest
expenses

2. Turning your big day into a no-stress

checklist
a. How the humble checklist keeps
hospitals running
b. How to create and use your three
Our workshop is going to crucial checklists
last half a day, so let’s add Schedule Chunks —
that to our ingredients list. Half day workshop

We can just cram our two 90 mins 90 mins

learning outcome into 90 Coffee

minutes each.
Using these Wedding Planning Workshop

ingredients, [0900 - 1030] Why the budget spreadsheet is

your new best friend
a. The more common ways to go over
Learning Outcomes
are combined with
a complete
budget
b. Fixed expenses vs. Per-guest the Schedule Chunks
expenses
to create a timeline.
Workshop [1030 - 1045] Coffee Break

[1045 - 1200] Turning your big day into a

Skeleton is no-stress checklist

c. How the humble checklist keeps
hospitals running

created.
d. How to create and use your three
crucial checklists

[1200 - 1215] Wrap up and Q&A

It’s basically an
outline for the
entire workshop.
A quick Wedding Planning Workshop

footnote… [0900 - 1030] Why the budget spreadsheet is

your new best friend
a. The more common ways to go over
budget
b. Fixed expenses vs. Per-guest
expenses

It’s important to point out [1030 - 1045] Coffee Break

that one Schedule Chunk [1045 - 1200] Turning your big day into a
does not need to have just no-stress checklist
c. How the humble checklist keeps
one Learning Outcome. The hospitals running

example just worked out that d. How to create and use your three
crucial checklists
way.
[1200 - 1215] Wrap up and Q&A

Most Outcomes don’t need

90 minutes — you can easily
put 2+ Learning Outcomes
per Schedule Chunk.

Play around with it!

You now know
who & what
you’re going to
teach.
You now know
who & what Time to
you’re going to think about
teach. the how.
You now know
who & what Time to
you’re going to think about
teach. the how.

It’s time to talk about

Teaching Formats.
Teaching Formats
Teaching Formats are the “genres” of
teaching. They’re how you deliver Learning
Outcomes. The four essential Formats are:

1 Lectures 2 Small Group Discussion

3 “Try it now” exercises 4 Q&A

 1 Lectures

What is it? Great for

What most people think of when you say - Summarizing learnings
“workshop” or “talk”. A teacher speaking to - Buzzword busting
an audience. - Dumping knowledge that
doesn’t fit into exercises

Ideal Room Setup Energy Level Facilitation Tip

Keep keep lectures

focused and short. Long
lectures drain the
Any Low audience’s energy.
 2 Small Group Discussions

What is it? Great for

Small groups of students having a self-led - Tackling ambiguous
conversation about a focused topic. topics
- Engaging every student
- Boosting energy during a
long lecture
Ideal Room Setup Energy Level Facilitation Tip

Have students in groups of

2-4 from the start, removing
the need to organise them
Small groups at tables High for a specific exercise.
 3 “Try it now” exercises

What is it? Great for

Students practice a skill in a safe, - Skills that require
controlled environment. Most skills are practice
honed through doing: you can’t teach yoga - Experiential learning
through a lecture.

Ideal Room Setup Energy Level Facilitation Tip

Make the task specific

enough that students can
spend their time doing,
rather than figuring out
Small groups at tables High instructions.
 4 Q&A

What is it? Great for

Students ask questions, you answer them. - Adding a flexible buffer at
A flexible format that can fill time & create the end of exercises
interesting discussion. Use sparingly as it - Allowing students to
rarely delivers Learning Outcomes in and voice specific problems
of itself.
Ideal Room Setup Energy Level Facilitation Tip

Keep Q&A focused by

running one after each
Learning Outcome. Don’t
wait until the end of the day
Any Low to deal with all questions.
Teaching
Formats are
like legos.
Teaching
Formats are
like legos.

Stack a few
together to
flesh out the
skeleton.
Fleshing out the Skeleton
We can stick a few Teaching Formats
together to quickly design how we’ll deliver
our Learning Outcomes.
Our Workshop Skeleton currently looks like this:

Coffee
15 mins
Why the budget spreadsheet Turning your big day into
is your new best friend a no-stress checklist
90 mins 90 mins
Fleshing out the Skeleton
We can stick a few Teaching Formats
together to quickly design how we’ll deliver
our Learning Outcomes.
Our Workshop Skeleton currently looks like this:

Coffee
15 mins
But how are we going Why the budget spreadsheet Turning your big day into
to deliver this is your new best friend a no-stress checklist
Learning Outcome? 90 mins 90 mins
Fleshing out the Skeleton
Let’s focus on our first Learning Outcome.
We can stack a few formats together to
tackle the entire section.
Fleshing out the Skeleton
Let’s focus on our first Learning Outcome.
We can stack a few formats together to
tackle the entire section.

Lecture introducing
budget spreadsheets
15 mins
Fleshing out the Skeleton
Let’s focus on our first Learning Outcome.
We can stack a few formats together to
tackle the entire section.

Lecture introducing
budget spreadsheets
15 mins

Group discussion
on hidden costs
15 mins
Fleshing out the Skeleton
Let’s focus on our first Learning Outcome.
We can stack a few formats together to
tackle the entire section.

Lecture introducing “Try it now” creating

budget spreadsheets a basic budget
15 mins 30 mins

Group discussion
on hidden costs
15 mins
Fleshing out the Skeleton
Let’s focus on our first Learning Outcome.
We can stack a few formats together to
tackle the entire section.

Lecture introducing “Try it now” creating

budget spreadsheets a basic budget
15 mins 30 mins

Group discussion Lecture highlighting

on hidden costs per-guest expenses
15 mins 15 mins
Fleshing out the Skeleton
Let’s focus on our first Learning Outcome.
We can stack a few formats together to
tackle the entire section.

Lecture introducing “Try it now” creating Q&A Buffer

budget spreadsheets a basic budget 15 mins
15 mins 30 mins

Group discussion Lecture highlighting

on hidden costs per-guest expenses
15 mins 15 mins
Fleshing out the Skeleton
Let’s focus on our first Learning Outcome.
We can stack a few formats together to
tackle the entire section.

If you plan on creating

Z slides for your workshop,
each of these exercises
is a slide!
Lecture introducing “Try it now” creating Q&A Buffer
budget spreadsheets a basic budget 15 mins
15 mins 30 mins

Group discussion Lecture highlighting

on hidden costs per-guest expenses
15 mins 15 mins
Fleshing out the Skeleton
Let’s focus on our first Learning Outcome.
We can stack a few formats together to
tackle the entire section.

If you plan on creating

Z slides for your workshop,
each of these exercises
is a slide!
Lecture introducing “Try it now” creating Q&A Buffer
budget spreadsheets
15 mins
a basic budget
30 mins
15 mins Also, this is a default
workshop template.
Group discussion
on hidden costs
Lecture highlighting
per-guest expenses
Remix as needed!
15 mins 15 mins
So that’s the basics
You now know how to 1 Create a workshop skeleton
So that’s the basics
You now know how to 1 Create a workshop skeleton
2 How different Teaching Formats work
So that’s the basics
You now know how to 1 Create a workshop skeleton
2 How different Teaching Formats work
3 How to use Formats to create a good
rhythm of exercises
So that’s the basics
You now know how to 1 Create a workshop skeleton
2 How different Teaching Formats work
3 How to use Formats to create a good
rhythm of exercises

But there's so much more!

What about…
Advanced teaching Designing great Dealing with a
formats? workshop slides? hostile crowd?

Facilitating Picking the What do when an

complex perfect exercise falls
exercises? venue? apart?

Handling large Consistently …and other

(or small) delivering great workshop
audiences? workshops? conundrums?
For answers to all those questions, check out

The Workshop
Survival Guide
For more articles on creating & teaching great
workshops — and where you can buy the book —
visit workshopsurvival.com