Get Out of Your Mid-Year Slump with a Tangram-Style Workshop

July 11 • Written by Kathryn Olson

Check out our three tips for designing a workshop that’s exactly what your team needs to finish the year strong.

We’re halfway through the year. As you look at your goals and metrics for 2022, are you on track? During planning season, it’s hard to account for the inevitable  budget updates, personnel changes, and other unexpected hurdles. 

To add to the challenge, the midway point of the fiscal year may feel like a difficult time to restore commitment, reignite passion, and inspire good, productive work. But I have a suggestion that you might at first dismiss as too simple — in fact, it’s one of the best ways to get back on track and turn 2022 into the best year ever: 

Have a team workshop. But not just any team workshop.

Lean into the imperfections: Let your team bring their vulnerability to the table

I once facilitated a workshop session in a room filled mostly with people I didn’t know. To describe a new-to-them process of mapping out a training project, I used the example of the project my full-time mom brain was ruminating on at that time of my life: the potty training adventure I was currently on with my 3-year-old.

I cannot overemphasize how hesitant I was to talk about potty training at this professional offsite. Up until the minute I stood to present, I re-read my notes and tried to think of a different way to describe the process. Somehow, it felt right, and I launched straight into the session with a confidence I didn’t quite feel.

A few smiles cracked at the beginning of my presentation, and I avoided eye contact with the men who’d arranged for me to lead this session. Faces turned more serious as I went on, and I heard light bulbs buzz to life in the form of puzzled questions turning into breakthroughs. 

Explaining the brainstorming process we were about to take in the context of potty training had an unexpected outcome: as I was vulnerable about my trial-and-error struggles to form a great potty training regimen for my 3-year-old, it gave the participants permission to be vulnerable with me and each other about their questions surrounding their own training projects. Progress happens much faster as questions are voiced and answered.

And here I am again doing something I never thought I’d do: writing a professional blog that mentions the words “potty training” several times. The concept of bringing your experience and life lenses with you to the table as you work with your team remains relevant, especially in this post-pandemic, often challenging, more-virtual-than-not workspace.

TANGRAM TIP

For the first activity in your next team workshop, engage your team members in an activity meant to break down any barriers that might prevent them from bringing their whole brain to the conversation. For example, you could invite them to share a challenge they’re currently working to overcome and  share where their current growth is happening. You could even ask them to bring an artifact of a journey they are on right now — something they’re experiencing in their non-work lives.

Workshops are often hosted off site, which has the advantage of introducing a new perspective for fresh ideas. We suggest that you can have a similar effect with this first activity, which is meant to set the tone for the workshop, get the team’s brains out of work mode, and have a more light-hearted approach to creating a product that is truly enjoyable to experience. This unifying activity also builds empathy between team members, which is an essential element of productive design thinking and open-minded communication.

Reinforce the purpose: How can you keep learners engaged before and during the workshop?

I regularly facilitate classes for adults in my church congregation. As I prepare my materials for these classes, my notes include a rough design of what the classroom’s whiteboard will look like as the adults gather. I’m also always playing quiet music as the adults gather before class begins. I know from my own experience as a class participant that I’m excited to have something to look at, listen to, anticipate, and get curious about from the moment I enter a learning environment. My goal as the facilitator is to create a thoughtful, purposeful space that prompts questions like, Why is there a picture of a tree? I wonder what my answers will be to those questions on the board?

TANGRAM TIP

Here are a few ideas to help you prepare for your team workshop . 

Before the workshop: Pre-fill a collaborative whiteboard to guide a productive workshop rather than starting from scratch. We suggest having small groups work together and send things to be added to the board before the workshop to get you that much farther along. Next to ideation sections on the board, add high-level reminders of workshop and project/product objectives for easy reference and to stay on track.

During the workshop: Have an airtight agenda that is facilitated/moderated all the way through. As you estimate how long each portion of the workshop will take, be generous with time constraints and then respect those constraints as the workshop unfolds. If the workshop will have breakout sessions, have those monitored as well by someone prepared beforehand to be “in the know.” We find it fun to add a taste of gamification and use timers or background music for added pressure and energy-keeping during times of thoughtful brainstorming.

Leverage the brain trust: Focus on one project

In The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker (2018) says, “Every time people gather, they are being brought into the opportunity to help one another, to do what they couldn’t do or think up or heal alone” (p. 207).

It may seem more efficient to let team members own and worry about their own workstreams, but over time it can create silos and also doesn’t allow them to leverage the ideas and experience of the rest of the team. 

We suggest that the most fruitful workshops drill deeply into a specific project and uncover myriad solutions and next steps, adding renewed energy where perceived roadblocks may have been hindering progress. This approach might even send ripples into the projects assigned to other team members and trigger some inspiration. Going specific can also be a great technique to use if there’s a need to familiarize your team with a new tool or process; applying it directly to a real-life project is going to make it feel more approachable.

TANGRAM TIP

Routine opportunities for team members to tap into the creative genius of their colleagues can become a critical part of their creative process. Set up a recurring brainstorming workshop that all who are available have the option to attend. Allow project owners to sign up for the opportunity to have their project be the one workshopped in these sessions. Since every creative professional has a unique process, they might sign up to discuss their project in its beginning stages, when they need an onslaught of inspiration and suggestions. Or maybe they need a boost of energy further along, after there’s a prototype or after there’s a list of change requests or feedback that feels insurmountable.

If your team gets better at incorporating a project-specific workshop in their creative process, it can be a valuable use of time to counter the slumps that inevitably materialize in the shadows of the project’s timeline.

Your turn:

Think about how a workshop can benefit your team at this critical point in the year. They are great team development and bonding experiences and give everyone a chance to flex their creative muscles. I promise you will get to a better strategy faster with more clarity on how to proceed and where to put your energy.

So, what should your next steps be? Here are some ideas:

• Leave the logistics of the workshop behind for a moment to ask some questions: What does your team, with its individuals and varied journeys, really need right now? How can the way your team interacts in this workshop affect their trajectory? Only after answering those kinds of questions can you decide what the workshop needs to look like, where it should be held, who should attend, etc.

• Ask your team members to volunteer their project to be workshopped (rather than making the assignment on your own).

• Take a page out of the Tangram method and seek inspiration from outside the boundaries of the training, learning, and development world.

• Consider if it could be helpful to bring in help from someone like Tangram with the ability to ask questions from an outside perspective, organize the ideas shared and key takeaways, and prompt next steps.

References

Parker, P. (2018). The art of gathering: how we meet and why it matters. Riverhead Books.