Virtual Facilitation

25Virtual Workshops

This deep dive is about how to facilitate highly effective virtual workshops. When we run a virtual workshop, we're bringing people together to do work. This is a space where we want them to be mentally switched on and engaged most of the time. We might be working on a project, consulting with the participants, testing some assumptions, or asking for the input of our participants and co-creating with them.

Virtual workshops can be highly effective if they are executed correctly. Using virtual formats gives you the option of running more frequent but shorter sessions, because you don't have to worry about travelling to a venue or altering your setup to allow for different locations. Using virtual workshops also allows you to have time between sessions where the participants can complete homework or practical training. This all gives you greater flexibility.

Virtual workshops are usually between an hour and a half and three to four hours long. Five hours is the absolute maximum length we recommend for a virtual workshop.

In this chapter, we'll talk about facilitating workshops for between 4 and 20 participants. If you have more participants than this, move to Chapter 27 about virtual large-scale events. The key thing to remember with workshops is that they need to be highly engaging and interactive. You need to remove all the barriers to participation to encourage everyone in the workshop to share their input.

Workshops aren't about you delivering information. ...