Better Meetings and Workshops

A bugbear of organisational life is the meeting or workshop that doesn’t live up to its promise. The most successful events of this kind in which we have been involved have followed some key principles:

• Clarity of purpose
• Strong attention to the needs and expectations of participants
• Creative methods and approaches
• Skilled facilitation
• Adequate planning, but not at the expense of being able to respond to ideas that emerge during the event.

At Community Works, we believe in the results that can be achieved from milestone organisational events such as meetings and workshops. We are pleased to have facilitated events on diverse subjects, involving complexity and sometimes conflict and with people from a range of backgrounds and expectations. In recent months, we have facilitated two events with 80 participants from twenty countries each as well as a series of smaller workshops for organisations with between 8 and 15 staff involved.

The key is always to use a few principles that are proven and to make sure time is invested in preparation and in considering the event from the perspective of the organisers, the people paying for it and the participants themselves.