Workshop checklist What to think of before, during, after the workshop

Workshop checklist...... 1 What to think of before, during, after the workshop...... 1 Preparatory considerations...... 1 Before the workshop...... 1 During the workshop...... 2 Ice-breakers...... 3 Evaluation methods...... 6 After the workshop (1-2 days’ work)...... 8 After Action Review / Lessons learnt...... 8 Roles needed...... 9

To organise for facilitation overview pages - To collect ideas / brainstorm; - To analyse; - To assess / criticise; - To plan; - To address / sort out / action plan. - To improve;

Think of your own experience and expertise. What do you do or know that, if adopted by others would benefit their organisation? What are your gems that others don’t always see?

Preparatory considerations o Funding: o What requires funding? o Who funds what? o Contract required? To be signed by who? o Approval by any MT or management member? o Who is the communication counterpart? o Get an exact description of list of participants to assess if homogeneous or heterogeneous group. Ideally name, org, function;

Before the workshop o Send a personal letter of invitation to all participants, brief them on the topic of the workshop and ask them to work on a couple of exercises so they know what it’s about + get them to send their rationale for attending this workshop. o Get template of certificates. If signature of others needed, get it as scanned files. o List all props and equipment required o Flipcharts, markers, colour cards etc. o Notebook + pen; o Colour pencils; o Beamer; o PCs for participants o PC for all presentations in the central room o Internet access? o Video / audio equipment? o Data sticks / USB keys? o Prepare sessions with a mixture of interactive exercises and tools from Facilitator’s notes. o Prepare official programme with rationale (background info), objectives, outputs expected and overview of programme (with time, session, facilitator) + potential preparatory work to do. o Prepare overview sessions for facilitators with: time, session, facilitator, work form, result. o State objectives of workshop on a sheet of paper; o Check acoustics of the venue to find out if it needs microphones or not. o Plan some relaxed team-building events in the evening; o Get contact details (including Skype idea, MSN, organisation and personal website, email address etc.) + rationale statement from each participant. o Prepare an exercise around respect, sharing, some theme-pounding session to put people in the right mental atmosphere. o Propose preparatory work to participants so there is some matter to use for the workshop. o Ask them to bring concrete products that can be discussed or peer reviewed

During the workshop o Logistical (and other) aspects to mention: o Welcome all; o Reasons for this meeting etc.; o Role of coordinator – who does it; o Who can you contact for content, for process, for logistics. o Programme, objectives, outputs expected; o Time for coffee break(s) and lunch/dinner o Reporting every day: one person / pair / team to be appointed; o Name PET teams; o Picture taking for the list of participants? o Where to leave contact details / how to keep track of them? o What materials will be handed out to them (at the beginning, during and after the workshop) o How the results will be presented to the participants (CD-Rom, Intranet, file transfer by USB key etc., including pictures, handing out USB key) o All outputs to be typed up; o Get back to the assignment they had to prepare and what will happen with it; o Any volunteer for anything? o Time keeper in the groups; o Reporting person / team (and how they are selected); o Go through contents of binder with all materials? o Evaluation: daily evaluation? Final evaluation? How to do it, where? Who to do it? o Traveling cloth or similar artifact to use / update; o Social events o Have a great workshop, get engaged, get serious but keep it fun! o Fire exit/ fire alarm, toilets, badges to get access to the building, location meeting rooms, safety equipment; o Internet access: Each gets it own log in for the period they are here (incl. Website meeting) o Ground rules (ecological meeting, mutual respect, slogan for the week) o Type up all outputs (draft or final) prepared by participants; o For group work, make sure that one person goes around the table to answer questions and asks them proactively too; o To break into buzz groups, hand out cards to all participants with 3-4 keywords (as many as buzz group exercises planned in the session), one on each corner of the card.

o The keywords can be colours, animals, rock stars, numbers etc.

o Whenever a buzz group exercise starts, the facilitator calls the keywords (colour groups, animal groups etc.) and buzz groups of 2-4 people form. o Speak clearly and slowly (draw gestures to use to speak louder / go slower); o After presentations: ask presenters to come up with questions instead of being asked/challenged; o

Ice-breakers

General information about ice-breakers

I think it's important that you consider carefully, what you want to create as foundation of the workshop to come. In my experience - and that of others - you have the first 30-60 minutes to establish a "culture" and set the tone for the entire rest of the workshop. Ie. if you want people to carefully listen to each other, you have to make them doing that in the beginning. If you want them to interact and create networks of relationships, they should have a first opportunity to do so. This is why conventional openings with key notes are so detrimental - they immediately create a climate of talking heads, disengagement, boredom - and afterwards organisers are surprised if participants don't listen, don't participate, don't engage...

Today I have just opened the Inter-agency Conference on Local Economic Development. We have right away started with a World Café - no introduction, no welcome, no explanations - it clearly signalled that this is the participants' event, that they are important and they should hold conversations and share. Only after 2 hours, we did the formal opening.

Another way I enjoy to use is the "Sociometric Introduction". I prepare 3-4 sets of 4 signs. Each set contains 4 possible answers to a question. Eg.:

Question 1: What do you expect from this workshop? Answer 1a: I want to learn new things about xyz Answer 1b: I want to share my own experience on xyz Answer 1c: I want to meet like-minded people who work on similar issues Answer 1d: I want to have an interesting week away from my work place

Question 2: How do you feel in this moment? I am critical, sceptical I am curious, expectant I am cautious, neutral I am excited, fascinated

Obviously there are countless possibilities, adapted to the situation and the task.

Now you put 4 persons in the 4 corners of the room with the first set of answers, you ask the question and ask persons to position themselves next to the answer that applies most to them (they can obviously also stand in between). Then you go as a facilitator to each group and just pick 2-3 persons per group who quickly introduce themselves and then explain why they have chosen this answer. You repeat this with 3-4 rounds of questions and each time ask other persons, who in some way talk "on behalf" of the group they stand in.

There are other possibilities, for example once we had 6 pictures of different ships, from a race sailing boat to a container ship, from a tug to a fishing boat - and we asked to stand next to the picture that best represents their organisation.

People have a first opportunity to talk, to connect, to discover diversity and more. Everybody is involved and is in constant movement.

You can do that with groups between 15-500 persons (not everybody needs to talk) and always takes abou 30-45 minutes.

Think of asking participants to note who in the room they need to talk to over the next few days and capture info on post-it notes on a flip chart at the front room  this exercise shows how much knowledge is already available and easily accessible.  Tagging: describe yourself using words. One word to describe yourself in a working environment (meticulous, hard working etc.), cluster with people with a similar tag, then repeat with one word describing them personally (movies, fun-loving etc.)  Human spectrogram: place people along a line wwith 2 different ends.  Bingo: (groups of 15-25) with 5x5 grids and different kinds of information (hobbies, favourite food etc.)  Jumpstart storytelling: In the Story telling guide, the approach with the jumpstart story is explained (page 28). Have a look at it. It should be something you are not yet fed up. http://www.daretoshare.ch/en/Dare_To_Share/media/Story%20Telling/FINALE %20Broschüre%20Story%20Guide_englisch.pdf  Pairing up and coming up with an object  Axis: Open Everything retreat" they asked us to put ourselves on a line to describe how much we our organizations practice "open", and then to put ourselves on a graph representing how much we practice open in our personal lives (on one axis) and our work environment (on the other).  Triangulation: Pick 3 different reasons people might be there (e.g. funding, philanthropy... something else) and have participants align themselves physically in a triangle, with their distance/closeness to each corner representing the relative priorities.  River of life:  Secret coach: http://www.thiagi.com/game-coaches.html  Alternative job title: Ask people to come up with their alternative job title (that represents their function).  Animal sounds: (for people from different languages), use papers with a picture/image of an animal. People have to imitate the sound and find each other. Energisers  Don’t let our partners down!  Go in a circle, count in turn around the circle. For 5 or every multiple, clap hands, for 7 or every multiple turn around instead. If people fail they get out of the circle  Mirror each other’s actions: one actor one mirror  Write your name with your left finger, with your right elbow, with your left big toe, with your nose, with your hips  Guess the noise: every one in turn does a noise and everyone else tries to recognize the sound, it can be an animal or machine or food preparation or anything…  Do the game of taking one person as a reference and find out who that is.  Clap your hands after ‘chauffé’  Grab the finger: form a circle, put your left finger in the right hand of your neighbor, try to grab the finger before you’re having yours grabbed.  2 truths and a lie: everyone writes 2 truths and one lie on their card and reveals it to others. Others have to guess what the lie is.  Jacadi a dit (come up with a name in English) – do this, do that (see if people are following) and at some point say a quick succession of moves that cannot be followed.  All move who Sit in a circle with one person standing in the middle. Say: ‘All move who…’ ‘are wearing something blue’ ‘can speak two or more languages’ ‘got up this morning before 6am’ ‘had egg/bread/fruit etc for breakfast’ ‘have the letter s in their name’ …etc. Those concerned (which will usually include the person in the middle) move quickly to a space left by someone else. The person left in the middle makes the next choice.  Teacher reads sentence to class. Have students act out each sentence for 30 seconds.: Jog in place as if a big scary bear is chasing you - Walk forwards as if you’re walking through chocolate pudding - Jump in place as if you are popcorn popping - Reach up as if grabbing balloons out of the air - March in place and play the drums as if you are in a marching band - Paint as if the paint brush is attached to your head - Swim as if you are in a giant pool of Jell-O - Move your feet on the floor as if you are ice skating - Shake your body as if you are a wet dog.  Teacher will call out various farm animals: Pig – Cow - Chicken – Horse - Rooster – Sheep – Dogs. Students will mimic the farm animal (sounds and movement) until teacher calls out a new farm animal.  Fruit salad: each person chooses a fruit between banana, peach and apple; have as many seats (- one) as participants in one circle. One person at the centre calls either of the fruit or ‘fruit salad’ and every fruit concerned (or all when calling up fruit salad) stands up and moves to another chair. There is always one person that ends without seat and calls up other fruits until s/he finds a seat. 

Evaluation methods If some reflection moments have already been discussed/organised during the day, the evaluation should avoid touching upon these and focus on other points. Idea: use the motto of the workshop and come up with a spectrum from bad to good (e.g. measure to misery to measure with pleasure) and ask participants to indicate their mood on the scale).

When designing an evaluation, one can decide to focus on:  Content / Process / logistics And s/he can decide to focus on:  The overall experience  Each separate part of the workshop / each session S/he may want to assess participants:  Thoughts / reflections  Feelings  Decisions for action And finally s/he can decide to use:  A written form (form handed, table/grid to write on)  An oral form (asking for feedback)  A drawing form or another creative one (a sound, a movement etc.) Here are some ideas:  After Action Review  One positive point / one negative point:  One word to describe your state of mind / to describe the workshop (can use a scrabble grid)  Grid: if you had to do it again... what session would you do... In the same way More in depth In less depth Differently  Grid: Aspect    Contenu du séminaire Qualité des échanges Animation et methods Résultats par rapport aux attentes Organisation et conditions matérielles Durée des séances  Rating grid: 1= non satisfait ; 2 = satisfait ; 3 = très satisfait

Atteinte des objectifs 1. 2. 3.

Contenu du séminaire 1. 2. 3.

Qualité des échanges 1. 2. 3.

Animation et méthodes 1. 2. 3.

Acquisition a la fin de l’atelier 1. 2. 3. Résultats par rapport aux atteintes 1. 2. 3.

Organisation et conditions matérielles 1. 2. 3.

Durée du séminaire 1. 2. 3.  Two cards handed out: On first card write what you liked and on the other side what was clear; On the second card, write what was unclear and what you would recommend.

After the workshop (1-2 days’ work) o Sort out virtual files o Keep all documents in the relevant Q-drive folder / Intranet; o Gather lessons learnt, facilitation notes etc. in my documents ; o Create CD-Rom if need be ; o Zip handout CD-Rom to avoid taking too much space; o Put relevant outputs in folder of ‘outputs to show/share’ o Put relevant conceptual stuff in resources; o Put templates etc. in templates’ folder o Put Pictures on the Q-drive [how?]. o Sort out physical files: o archive only what’s necessary o type up remaining sheets and include in appropriate documents. o Write travel report; o Write travel cost declaration; o Provide hotel contact details to travel; o Provide contact details to PrAss/reception; o Provide documents received to documentation centre; o Write short article about the mission for publication on the Internet; o Write workshop report with elements such as: o Intro o Description o Evaluation o Appendixes o Send a short mission report to partner organisation; o Update facilitator notes from exercises collected / updated methodology; o Update overview of facilitation techniques;

After Action Review / Lessons learnt o Look into issues of: o My learning curve; o Learning curve for IRC’s programmes; o Institutional linkages; o Information about the country/place; o Process-contents; o External factors (political climate, elections etc.) o Preparation – implementation – follow up o

Roles needed o Logistic facilitator; o Facilitator for each session; o Chair / reflector? o Time keeper (using a prop to bring everybody)

Time flow (see Excel chart below) Activity Wk1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

o RCD: concept, presentation, application in RCN Kerala, RCD in general, RCN Kerala. o KM: concept, KM plans, o Methodology of workshop + preparation o Facilitation: before, during, after o Venue and logistics o Trip and lodging o Participants (and briefing) - Always propose to help with making Powerpoint presentations. - Get IRC’s vision, mission, activities ready - Smart KM plans: horizon = 6 months; - Steer on people (delegate: just mention the issue and ask them to organise it) or steer on tasks (execution)