Here’s how to make a workshop fail: invite the same old team, put them in the same old meeting room, give them the same information, and ask them to brainstorm.  Likelihood of any ground-breaking ideas emerging? Almost zero…

Scientific research has proven time and again that diversity maximises collective intelligence.  When you harness the different knowledge, skills, opinions and perspectives that each person brings, the group will create more successful outcomes.

Here are 5 ways to increased the diversity (and so the collective intelligence) of your team:

  1. Purposefully choose a diverse team. Invite people with a range of experience, genders, nationalities, cultures, career backgrounds, ways of thinking and opinions. It is not a bad thing to invite team members who are known to have opposing views on a topic, as long as this is carefully managed by the facilitator.
  2. Actively design for inclusivity. Inclusivity is about making every single person in a workshop feel welcomed and valued. Consider physical accessibility to a venue, avoid language or cultural references that exclude people, and think about a range of communication options to help people feel comfortable and confident.
  3. Curate unique prep work. Prep work is essential to enhance the variety of ideas and inspiration people bring. Rather than sending everyone the same 100 page PowerPoint document to read – which actively discourages diverse thinking –  take the time to carefully source and curate a variety of prep work options, bespoke for each workshop, and different per attendee. 
  4. Invite external collaborators. External perspectives help to overcome group think and herd behaviour, and give the team fresh thinking to spark their own new ideas and angles. Invite experts, consumers, customers, influencers or provocateurs to present to the team, create a video diary, react to initial ideas or join the workshop to co-create.
  5. Structure exercises for diversity: Plan tasks to be done in small groups, so the topic is approached from different angles by different teams. For example, divide the team into three groups, and give each group a different case study to use as a springboard to generate new ideas.

For more on diversity in workshops, as well as example session plans and trusted tools and templates, read Chapter Four of the second edition of The Workshop Book by Pamela Hamilton

If you’d like help structuring or facilitating your next workshop, our team at Paraffin would be very happy to set up an introductory call to discuss your project.