How to Run a Great Workshop: 37 Tips and Ideas How To
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Published on BuildingGreen (https://www.buildinggreen.com (https://www.buildinggreen.com)) How To Run a Great Workshop: 37 Tips and Ideas FEATURE ARTICLE Whether you call it a charrette, a workshop, or simply a meeting, these suggestions from experts will make your next event more fun and productive. by Tristan Roberts (https://www.buildinggreen.com/author/tristan-roberts) [1] May 3, 2016 A design team can enable real progress by setting aside a day or longer for a focused workshop. Or it could just waste a lot of high-priced time. You can break down barriers and build a functioning team if you bring together people in different roles who don’t usually get to talk with one another. Or you might just reinforce existing stereotypes. Get the right kind of discussion going, and you can move as a team toward innovative solutions. Or you can squeeze the life out of a room with an agenda that feels like a forced march. This article is about design workshops: who, what, where, when, and why. My hope is that in reading it, you’ll pick up at least three ideas that you can’t wait to apply in your next workshop—whether it’s a short internal meeting, a half-day design exercise, or a long charrette with dozens of people. If this article had an agenda, it would be a pretty loose one. We’ll start off talking about what kind of mindset to bring into a workshop, then move to: how to plan one what kinds of exercises to do some ideas for follow-up You can read it from start to finish, or skip around and pick out what’s useful. Whatever ideas or thoughts it sparks, or whatever feedback you have, please consider sharing. There’s a flipchart and marker (actually just a comment form) down at the bottom of the page, and you can email me (mailto:[email protected]? subject=I%20read%20the%20article%20on%20workshops) [2]. I read every message. How to Get into the Right Mindset Choreographing the project process includes designing key components, clarifying the role of workshops in a healthy process, and identifying what you call them and who should attend, among other things. 1. Think big, together An early design workshop and a collaborative design process go hand in hand. While this article doesn’t go into the value of integrative design (see How to Make Integrated Project Delivery Work for Your Project (https://www.buildinggreen.com/feature/how-make-integrated-project-delivery-work-your-project) [3] (http://How to Make Integrated Project Delivery Work for Your Project) [4]and I (https://www2.buildinggreen.com/article/integrated-design-meets- real-world) [5]ntegrated Design Meets the Real World (https://www.buildinggreen.com/feature/integrated-design-meets-real- world) [6]), let’s take a minute to talk about the value of a day-long (or longer) workshop with a large group of stakeholders. The Oregon Sustainability Center didn’t get built, but its five- day design charrette led to numerous design breakthroughs, PEOPLE IN THIS ARTICLE including at least one that has been used on other projects, BuildingGreen thanks the following for speaking with us for according to Lisa Petterson, AIA, senior associate at SRG this article. Partnership. Part of the workshop was focused on structure, and Petterson says that the structural engineer wanted to use Clark Brockman, AIA – Principal, SERA Architects a box beam. “It wasn’t so terribly revolutionary,” she says, but Moshe Cohen – The Negotiating Table it would be applied on a relatively large scale, opening up new possibilities. “Everyone got excited,” says Petterson. The Richard Crespin – CollaborateUp mechanical engineer and the plumbing engineer had a place Ralph DiNola – CEO, New Buildings Institute for ducts and pipes inside the beam. The lighting designer was happy at the prospect of a clean ceiling. “Everyone had a Rand Ekman, AIA – Chief Sustainability Officer, HKS place in this structural system for their discipline.” Nadav Malin – President, BuildingGreen, Inc. That idea didn’t last, however. The site was constrained by Lisa Petterson, AIA – Senior Associate, SRG Partnership transit on three sides, and there wouldn’t have been room for cranes to safely erect the structure. The design moved to a Josie Plaut – Associate Director, Institute for the Built more conventional solution for Portland: a post-tensioned Environment slab. But the idea of integrated HVAC and structure stuck around. According to Petterson, the team asked, “Why Jennifer Preston – Sustainable Design Director, BKSK shouldn’t we put radiant heating and cooling in the post- Architects tension structure?” It hadn’t been done, but the group, Z Smith, AIA – Principal, Eskew+Dumez+Ripple already functioning well as a team, took the time to coordinate on the design and embed hangers in the slab. Phaedra Svec – Associate, BNIM Jacob Werner, AIA – Director of Sustainable Design, In the end, the whole project was shelved, but the viability of Wilson Architects Inc. the solution has been proven out on other projects that have used it, according to Petterson. 2. Hold a workshop, not a charrette The term “charrette” isn’t going away anytime soon. However, a number of people we spoke to for this article prefer to call an extended design meeting simply that—a meeting, or, more often, a workshop. “Charrette” refers to the cart that would come around to the design studio in 19th-century France, picking up student work for review. “As the cart made its way by, you would likely be rushing to get every last line on the drawing or piece of wood in the model,” says Jennifer Preston, sustainable design director at BKSK Architects. The frenzy and anxiety of that scene, as well as the focus on the realm of the designer, is not what we need when we bring together project teams, she argues. “What our process needs is less speed for speed’s sake and more thoughtful decision-making.” Clark Brockman, AIA, principal at SERA Architects, agrees, adding, “Clients are more comfortable investing in a workshop” than a charrette. Even if you prefer the word “charrette,” don’t call it an “eco-charrette.” That term feels dated—for a couple reasons. One is that the “eco-charrette” has become associated with a dry exercise of dragging team members down a checklist. Also, treating sustainability as a separate topic in its own silo simply doesn’t support an integrative process; it allows those concerns to be marginalized and green features to be value-engineered out. None of this is to suggest that having a multi-day workshop isn’t worth it. If anything, the evidence is that having a workshop moves a project along quickly and to a high level of performance. And there is a trend of projects that do multi-day events to dedicate day-long workshops to sustainability-related topics like daylighting and biophilia. As discussed throughout this article, the time invested in building a team and exploring key issues pays off over and over again. 3. Call in a facilitator from outside the team The professionals we spoke to for this article agreed universally on the importance of dedicated facilitation in a design workshop or charrette. An architect at a firm can be a skilled facilitator, but there are advantages to bringing in a third party, says Josie Plaut, associate director at the Institute for the Built Environment, which provides facilitation services. Without a facilitator, the emotional intelligence and inclusiveness in the room drop, says Plaut, or the conversation gets centered around the person who is most powerful but who might not contribute the most. “Without a facilitator, you can still have all the same people in the room but be playing a different game.” A 2015 white paper, The Social Network of Integrative Design (http://www.ibe.colostate.edu/news/item.aspx/?ID=131951) [7], from the Institute for the Built Environment, argues that a third-party facilitator is in the best position to create an effective team environment because that is their sole agenda. The paper defines a third-party facilitator as either someone from outside the design firm, who may be a consultant on high- performance buildings, or a member of the design firm but without design responsibilities. They may have specialized training or tools. According to the paper, dedicated facilitators offer three key benefits to design teams: They foster a safe environment where everyone can freely express opinions. They help increase the interaction among architects and other team members. When architects are participating rather than facilitating, they learn more and build stronger relationships with the participants. Other experts note that it’s valuable for the facilitator to have a designated point person in the group, such as a lead architect, to check in with. The facilitator can only read the room so much while also running a meeting. They benefit from having a second perspective, and someone to huddle and strategize with as the day moves along. The same person, possibly as part of a core group of participants, can help the facilitator plan the event. 4. Pick a champion to nurture the group’s vision Referring to research contained in the white paper, Josie Plaut also emphasizes the need for a champion to support the kind of integrative design process found in workshops. “You need someone who is a champion on the design side,” she says, to ensure the integrative workshop process is supported and its value maximized. “Preferably you need the owner and the architect. If either one is opposed, then nothing’s going to happen,” but she says you can still move forward with having an integrative process if one is ambivalent about it.