7 great books to facilitate effective workshops
Planning and facilitating productive and interactive workshops with your team seem harder than ever. Chances are high that all members are fully remote and participating via a screen. No one likes to spend hours in Zoom trying to follow what's happening on the other side. Depending on your role, facilitating workshops is part of your job. Whether it's working on OKRs with your team, running ideation or brainstorming session with stakeholders or team members. The list of reasons to use a workshop as a formate to align, get input and be creative is long. We've collected the best books for you that help make workshops engaging, interactive and a success for all participants.
The Art of Gathering
Why read?
In The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker argues that the gatherings in our lives are lackluster and unproductive—which they don’t have to be. We rely too much on routine and the conventions of gatherings when we should focus on distinctiveness and the people involved. At a time when coming together is more important than ever, Parker sets forth a human-centered approach to gathering that will help everyone create meaningful, memorable experiences, large and small, for work and for play.
Drawing on her expertise as a facilitator of high-powered gatherings around the world, Parker takes us inside events of all kinds to show what works, what doesn’t, and why. She investigates a wide array of gatherings—conferences, meetings, a courtroom, a flash-mob party, an Arab-Israeli summer camp—and explains how simple, specific changes can invigorate any group experience.
The result is a book that’s both journey and guide, full of exciting ideas with real-world applications. The Art of Gathering will forever alter the way you look at your next meeting, industry conference, dinner party, and backyard barbecue—and how you host and attend them.
320 pages, 2018
Meeting Design
Why read?
Meetings don’t have to be painfully inefficient snoozefests—if you design them. Meeting Design will teach you the design principles and innovative approaches you’ll need to transform meetings from boring to creative, from wasteful to productive. Meetings can and should be indispensable to your organization; Kevin Hoffman will show you how to design them for success.
240 pages, 2018
Virtual Facilitation
Why read?
The covid-19 crisis accelerated virtual collaboration exponentially, creating an instant need for virtual facilitation skills. People and organizations have started on this journey, but do not yet have the experience and competencies to use this medium for effective and energetic collaboration.
352 pages,
Lemons to Lemonade
Why read?
The complete guide to getting the most out of every gathering of educators! Prevent meetings from descending into aimless rambling or counterproductive conflicts that end up wasting everybody’s valuable time. This resource gives you a playbook to help anyone confidently lead group discussions so that problems get solved, not created. The authors, both veteran educators and experts in group dynamics, detail: How to prepare yourself to facilitate the discussion and keep it on task Best practices for squashing conflict without wounding pride Methods for dealing with “interrupters,” “subject-changers,” disputes, personal attacks, and other time-waster events
200 pages, 2013
The Workshop Survival Guide
Why read?
Need to run a workshop? Your attendees are trusting you with their time and attention. What are you giving them in return? Most workshops don’t work. They fail to deliver real results and they fail to keep the audience energetic and engaged. They’re stressful to run and painful to attend. Designing and running a brilliant workshop is easier than you think.
219 pages, 2019
Where the Action Is
Why read?
When you ask leaders in a high performing organization about the key to their success, the answers are all over the place: failing fast, radical transparency, operational excellence, strong core values… so many different North Stars to follow. Then, if you ask them for an example-to tell you what that looks like in practice-they will all describe a meeting. Leaders at these organizations have learned to design a sequence of tailored meetings that create a healthy organizational culture and drive forward momentum. They know that meetings are where the action is.
412 pages, 2018
Meeting Success Habits
Why read?
Business professionals aren’t happy with meetings, and you probably feel the same. They perceive most meetings as inefficient and a waste of valuable time. In fact, a Udemy study found that six out of ten US workers think that business meetings are simply another distraction from work. The problem is that most meetings are ineffective, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
71 pages, 2021