Our key principles for workshops:
This approach draws on the work of Nancy Kline in her work ‘Time to Think’:
Real help, professionally or personally, consists of listening to people, of paying respectful attention to people so that they can access their own ideas first. Usually the brain that contains the problem also contains the solution – often the best one. When you keep that in mind, you become more effective with people. And people around you end up with better ideas. This is not to say that advice is never a good thing or that your ideas are never needed. Sometimes your suggestions are exactly what the person wants or needs…But don’t rush into it. Give people a chance to find their own ideas first.
The ground-rules we try to design for:
We also like the following clear principles developed by Mary Parker Follett:
Follett believed that meetings have four possible outcomes but only one is good:
Reference: Time Magazine article exploring Mary Parker Follett’s work
You can download and use this template to help you to design a workshop: Workshop design tool and template