A good workshop is the right mix between joy and commitment, between discipline and brain chaos…
Workshop, who should join the party ?
One of the challenges in the BtoB world, like in BtoC, is to get cross functional teams working together to create better value for the customer and a competitive advantage for the business.
Whether considering new product development, new customer interface or a greater alignment between market-facing strategy and organization, you need different function representatives to attend.
The value that field engineers, legal department, customer services, front office IT or R&D can bring to the party sitting with marketing and sales is a proven best practice.
In term of size, it is up to you and your needs. You can go from 3 to 24 participants but the optimum fit is around 6 to 8 attendees getting together for an day and a half, sometimes two full days.
When the group is too large, sub group sessions is a must have in the agenda.
Speaking attendees? It is like a recipe. You need a good mix of people. You need millennials and more mature people who have been long in the business. Get together the management and field forces, bring on board some of smartest guy regardless of their function or position, the curious ones, those with the will to invent and question the status quo.
And if there are lots of politics, as it may happen, try to bring your favorite opponents into the room. It is the best arena to control if not turning them into advocates at the end…
Before, during and after the workshop
It is always the same good old story: good Inputs and good preparation bring great outcomes.
The best preparation for a successful workshop comes from the discovery up-front. The better and deeper the discovery, the more inspired the workshop participants will be, and excited to go further.
You need to consider all possible sources of information and knowledge to gather valuable insights for the workshop. The scope is wide open from involvement interviews, competitors audits, field work, data analytics, social network exploration and compiling existing research outcomes…
A good workshop is the right mix between joy and commitment, between discipline and brain chaos…
That is why you need to manage the rhythm, balancing free talks with activities conducted in a clear frame of instructions. Facilitation is key here to unleash the group at some critical moments and get it back on track when necessary.
Should you go with a third party to help you with? The answer is yes. Not only it should bring an outside view, but it creates also the conditions for the group to behave differently than in a usual internal meeting.
An external person will prevent you from using luggage words, such as quality, innovation, bespoke experience etc or corporate blabla… It is not meaningful enough in a proper workshop
Even worth, some companies have the strange habit to use different words to name the same thing… Don’t let it go in the workshop. It's the best way for the group to loose time, get confused and miss the objective to create valuable outcomes.
One more special thing: each BtoB industry has its own jargon and it could make the life of a third party difficult. Setting a vocabulary convention at the start of the workshop is always good to prevent confusion.
A workshop is a thought process.
Get curious, and curious, and curious again.
The group should be challenged, gently “tortured” to go deeper, to get into the core of things. Then you get specific.
The ultimate right in the workshop is radical candor. It is one of the best driver to inspire the team.
Be ready to embrace the discomfort - You think that you have to make people comfortable, but sometimes it’s just the opposite. The facilitator’s job is to make it more uncomfortable for them to remain silent than to tell you what they really think.
Activities aside the workshop sessions, during dinners, or drinks at the pub will help the thinking, and the commitment to progress as lateral discussions can take place.
Then, let them sleep on it, maturing the conclusions. And you get ready for a new step forward.