Making Workshops Work For You

The act of getting together in a workshop setting is often an overlooked and underappreciated solution format. Just this past week I was visiting a hospital that has undergone a tremendous Lean transformation and we were reminded just how important workshops are to getting things done. The manager of one of their departments explained to me their idea of workshops. They conduct mini-workshops around a ‘to-do list white board’, where the entire department gets up and out from behind their desks and participates.

As they all explained, the benefits of getting up and away from the over cluttered and isolated communication forms such as email and telephone calls is invaluable. Employees are able to come together, interact, analyze the line item issue written on the board, and focus on the issue as a team to construct a solution. Then they move on. The power of this mini-workshop format is the driving force behind the momentum of Lean and the idea of workshops. Email just does not do that.

A true workshop does not have to be a formal thing, such as a 5 day Lean/Kaizen workshop—it can be as simple as a white board in the work area and a rally meeting twice a week to discuss solutions to the problems written on the board. In fact, at Toyota you will not find the rigid 5 day workshop program we see in North America. Their workshops are more flowing, more informal, and built into the scope of interaction and daily work.

If you are thinking of getting away from your desks, I encourage you to have these elements in your workshop:

  • Don’t use a conference room
  • Get to the work area
  • Engage in dialogue with the people who own the issues
  • Apply the concepts to your own work environment.

As well, a good workshop will:

  • Encourage
  • Engage
  • Build Trust and Teamwork
  • Create ‘Lightbulb’ Moments (‘Ah-ha’ Moments)
  • Make people want to share what they learned

Look for workshops and training materials that are:

  • Dynamic
  • Informative
  • Use more than 1 learning style
  • Are highly visual

Your goal is for your employees to learn new tools, methods, and abilities to propel your organization forward to the next level of success. Why not give them the best tools available to help them learn, become comfortable with, and retain the information presented to them? Remember, it is useless to throw knowledge at them if they cannot put it into practice.

– Collin McLoughlin

President, Enna