Inspiring Team Workshops

Workshops

There’s something wonderful about the buzz of meeting up as a team or group. Taking time away from your desks and day jobs to think differently about a challenge, plan or how you work together means tapping into team talents, listening and learning from each other and creating something more than the sum of your parts.

There is a lot of value in coming together as a team in a structured setting to make use of your collective knowledge and expertise. Meeting in this way could mean in person or online, and AskRIGHT have run many successful team sessions remotely that get outcomes as positive as those held in person. What is important is utilising the time you are working with efficiently to focus on the outputs needed, whichever forum you choose for your meeting.

More often than not an external facilitator, such as an AskRIGHT consultant, plays a key role in moving the group through an agenda and a series of exercises to test, stretch and play with the stimulus you are using. It can be a big commitment to take multiple team members out of their day to day roles for a half day, full day or even a multi-day workshop, and so to make sure you make the most of this time spent away from the office, we’ve shared our favourite types of workshops to inspire you for your next team away time.

Our favourite types of workshops to run with teams
Problem solving session

There’s nothing better than getting a group together to help crack a problem. Think about who to have in the room – it’s great to get someone with an external perspective who will see things in a different way. If there is a problem that sits across multiple teams then bringing these teams together to collaboratively work through solutions can help change ways of working or delivering for the better.

There are a number of techniques AskRIGHT use in workshops to keep teams on track with the conversation and ensure they are focusing on the problem in hand. Problem solving sessions should always be solution focused and steer clear of the blame game. A positive mindset and creation of a safe space to explore challenges is important for this type of meeting.

Our top tip – make sure you identify the root cause of the problem and stick to solving it. Treat the cause and not the symptoms.

Forward planning workshop

Planning for your next financial year and the activity that needs to be delivered can be a mammoth task. By pulling this into a team workshop session you are not only dividing and conquering the work, but also creating an inclusive and collaborative way to get your team to contribute to your annual plan.

This is normally quite a big session and can take at least a full team away day to manage. Breaking down the meeting tasks sequentially so each new part builds on the previous helps to build your plan from the bottom up.

Our top tip – raise your snack game – these workshops are often best powered by chocolate and crisps! On a more serious note, try to build some fun in. It can be a lot to step back and look at the big picture so breaking up big thinking with some fun team moments can help refresh energy throughout the day.

How we work together reflection

This is a great workshop approach to use for building a new team or checking in with your team’s strengths and specialties. It can be easy to focus so much on the doing of our daily roles that we forget to create space for reflecting. The best teams are diverse and varied, with a unique make up of skills and specialisms to tap into different mindsets and competences. Taking time as a team to understand these differences, track similarities and capture the ways you best work help build understanding and ensure your team dynamic is in check.

You can use psychometric tools to do an assessment of the types of performance and learning skills in the team or create structured space to explore strengths, weaknesses and working styles. Alternatively offering some tasks or activities to allow teams to reflect on their approaches and preferences can help people reflect and acknowledge their team role through action learning.

Our top tip – having a focused outcome at the end of a team session, such as designing a team charter, can help to take the focus away from internal reflections and behaviours, which some team members may find uncomfortable, and bring the target back to being a high performing team.

Masterclass

Teams that have a commitment to personal development and build learning and growth into their plans will often utilise a cross team learning opportunity, such as a masterclass, to upskill their colleagues in a joint, collaborative session. A masterclass works well when there is something the whole team will benefit from learning, such as a new tool or technique relevant to their work, or where there is a team culture shift that is best delivered in a masterclass setting, such as creating a culture of feedback.

These sessions can be appended to a wider team away day to offer relief from some of the bigger picture areas, as we outlined in the Forward Planning Workshop section, or it can be nice to have a masterclass as standalone time for your team to really focus them on a particular outcome. Bringing in an external facilitator allows everyone to take part equally and to learn alongside their colleagues.

Our top tip – think about training your whole team will benefit from. Often this is softer skill areas such as delivering presentations or how to engage stakeholders. Ensure the masterclass is focused on one key topic to allow the group to immerse themselves in the learning opportunity.

What have previous clients said about undertaking workshops with AskRIGHT

“We were looking for someone external to our organisation with extensive fundraising expertise and a fresh perspective to stress test our thinking before we made a financial commitment to proceed. Fi fit the bill perfectly and facilitated us in getting to agreement about priorities and next steps.”

Mel Barker, Chief Executive Officer
Western Port Biosphere Foundation

Read our full case study with Western Port Biosphere

Find out more

If you’d like to talk to AskRIGHT about facilitating a bespoke workshop for your team then get in touch with our friendly consultants today by emailing as at [email protected]