The Workshop Survival Guide: How to design and teach educational workshops that work every time

If you feel that the discussion topic is so large that folks will need more than five minutes to get into it, then it’s probably too vague and should be broken into pieces.

Instead, you need to instruct your participants—explicitly and specifically—what they’re supposed to be talking about. And just saying it out loud isn’t enough, because they’ll inevitably forget and go off track. You need to write it somewhere visible (usually a slide) and leave it there for the duration of the exercise. Prompts don’t need to be co

This guideline means that a 90-minute chunk can fit 2-3 Learning Outcomes, which gives you 3ish big takeaways in a 90-minute session, 6ish in a half day, and up to 12 in a full-day. That being said, my personal preference with longer workshops is to spend more time per Learning Outcome as opposed to trying to squeeze in more of them.

you’ll be taking responsibility for their energy and attention by designing the session in a way which continually renews and refreshes them. By

30-45 minutes per Learning Outcome, and then modify it as needed.

You lose goodwill whenever you make the audience sit through boring stuff (like a long intro) or participate in low-value exercises (like an off-topic icebreaker[4]) You gain goodwill whenever you deliver a nugget of value (usually in the form of a valuable “a‑ha” moment or takeaway)

Every workshop lives or dies by two factors: What the audience learns How the audience feels (i.e. energy and attention)

“Try it now” is both incredibly powerful and tragically underused. The idea is simple. After introducing any concept which is even slightly skill-based, give the students a small task which allows them to immediately put it into practice in a safe, controlled environment, and under enough supportive restrictions that they can’t get too far off trac

the three crucial foundations of every good workshop: Audience Profile — Who it’s for Schedule Chunks — When they get their coffee breaks Learning Outcomes — What they’ll take away Or even more simply: who/when/what.