Tip 4: Starting questions

When you want participants to provide information, begin with great starting questions.

Great starting questions typically begin with an image-building phrase such as: think about, imagine, if, consider, and pretend. Test your questions on someone before the workshop to see if they can picture what you are looking for.

Tip 5: Managing workshop behaviour

Part of the facilitator’s responsibility is to maximize productive behaviour in a workshop. The facilitator must detect disruptive behaviour early and resolve it.

• Approach privately or generally
  • Make the decision whether you will talk privately with the person at a break, or address your comment to the group as a whole. If you choose to address your comment to the group make sure you avoid calling the person out.
• Empathize with the symptom
  • Find something to praise about the behaviour you observe. If a person is continually pointing out that things won’t work you could praise their desire to find workable solutions.
• Address the root cause
  • At this point you attempt to address the reason for the negative behaviour. This may require a guess on your part. The participant’s response to your comments will confirm or disprove your hypothesis as to the problem.
• Get agreement on a solution

Tip 6: Review, evaluate, close

When ending a workshop:

• Review the activities and participant’s objectives
• Have the participants fill out an evaluation/feedback form
• Close the workshop by discussing next steps