Facilitating an online workshop

From January to May 2021, I co-facilitated an online workshop introducing learners to the basics of project management.

I learned a lot on this project and got a lot better at online facilitation, so it seems like a useful thing to share.

How did it get started?

In late 2020, I was asked by a client whether our company had a training course for project managers that could be repurposed.

As it happened, we had implemented a new project management framework and toolkit just a year before, and I’d been using them since then to run our internal training for new project managers. So we did! I reformatted a bit, to make it suitable for an external audience with a more restricted time frame, but I was pretty pleased with what we had already.

The client liked my initial plan, and we worked together for a month or so getting it right for the audience and running a small pilot, before it was launched.

My client was trying to find a way to upskill knowledge workers who usually carried out only BAU-type work, helping clients and implementing long-term programmes, but not doing project work. Due to changes in their situation relating to the pandemic, they needed to pivot to lead small projects, with one to five project team members and very limited budgets.

Given that the participants had limited to no project management experience, the training focused on equipping them with essential project management concepts, tools, and processes.

Originally, we only planned to facilitate the pilot, but we got excellent feedback on that, and so this was extended to having me and my colleague Helen Johnston facilitating the whole programme: six groups of learners in all. (This was actually my first time working with Helen — she subcontracted to us for the facilitation, and then Synapsys hired her partway through the project.)

Presentation or facilitation?

Running a really engaging online workshop takes planning. You need to be clear on the distinction between presentation and learning facilitation.

In a presentation, the presenter delivers content in a one-way communication style, typically with minimal interaction. If you are lucky, you get to ask questions at the end.

Interactive learning facilitation is about engaging learners through interactive discussions and activities, enabling them to apply the knowledge in practical ways.

Technology

For this programme, we used Miro whiteboard software to help the learners to engage actively with the content and share their thoughts. (The Crackin’ LnD book club I belong to at the moment is trialling Miro’s new video conferencing function, and it’s really cool. I wish we’d had it then.)

Maintaining learner engagement

Maintaining learner engagement throughout the session was a priority, because we were trying to shift the learners’ concept of what they were doing fundamentally, from reactive to proactive, and from team membership to team leadership — even when the team was only one person. Without multiple chances to try out their new understanding of what projects are, and what project management is, there was too much risk that the learners would see themselves as needing to perform a series of administrative tasks rather than as managing risks and taking responsibility for their projects. Many of them were already, at the start of their projects held up by poor understandings of the roles of project owner and project manager. They were trying to deliver outcomes that relied on resources they had no control over, and they didn’t have the language to articulate this clearly.

So Helen and I used whole-group activities with sticky notes, and small groups where learners coached each other, with direction, to make sure they got lots of opportunities for feedback on their understanding. And we worked together on ways to address resourcing issues.

The structure of the workshop, with two sessions spaced two days apart, also helped create engagement. The time between sessions allowed learners to reflect on the material and apply it to their work, keeping the content fresh and top-of-mind. This spacing also provided an opportunity for participants to raise any questions or challenges they encountered after the first session, which could then be addressed in the second.

This method of spaced learning and reflection ensured that participants remained actively engaged in the learning process, rather than feeling overwhelmed by the volume of content.

Managing group discussions and behaviour

Managing the group discussions effectively was a vital part of our learning facilitation, particularly with the diverse group we were working with.

The aim was to provide an inclusive environment where all voices were heard. To do this, we used a combination of prompts in our facilitation guides, group activities with sticky notes, and small-group discussions. Sticky notes are great for making sure the two confident speakers in a group don’t use up all the airspace, and that less outspoken people get included, with time to consider what they want to say before being called on to speak.

Planning and tech support

Planning and preparing the learning environment and resources was essential for the success of the workshop. We used pre-session emails to learners and their managers to help set expectations and ensure that learners came prepared.

The idea was that this would mean both the environment and resources were aligned with the learners' needs, fostering an effective learning experience.

And then, because we didn’t want to run into trouble, we gave all the learners my phone number, and I promised to be available for troubleshooting tech issues with any learners who had never used videoconferencing software before.

Naively, I started out thinking that this would mean trouble-free sessions. In fact, I think I spent the first 20 minutes of just about every session on my phone with a learner or so who just wanted to be walked slowly through the basic navigation by a friendly voice. I don’t know how we’d have coped if we’d had only one facilitator. Probably a lot slower!

I learned a lot about the importance of having a good ‘ice-breaker’ activity for online learning. People who are not used to sticky notes or shared online whiteboards work much, much more effectively with them when they have all done the main activities once: making a sticky note, typing on it, dragging an object around on the screen. It’s really important to get this out of the way at the start.

Adapting to feedback

Adapting the training in progress was another aspect of our approach.

We ran an evaluation survey after each cohort, looking for information about how well the course did on a range of measures: accessibility, engagement, suitability of examples and scenarios, how well learners were supported in planning how to put their learning into practice, how well they actually did so, and more.

Before each new cohort started, we updated our session plans. This iterative process ensured that the training remained relevant and responsive to learners’ needs. For example, based on feedback, I made adjustments to the pacing of the sessions and clarified certain aspects of the project management tools.

I used the pre-existing 12-question evaluation rubric I had developed for all Synapsys facilitated workshops to evaluate the workshop. From a total of 48 learners, we received feedback surveys from 39. The workshop was extremely well received, with extremely positive responses on its suitability for the audience, delivery, accessibility, engagement, content, and support in planning how to apply the learning on the job. Over 80% of the learners successfully applied their learning on the job, and comments indicated that for almost all those who did not, this was because of external factors not relating to the course.

Videoconferencing and whiteboards

Miro has a really steep learning curve for newbies. It’s got a lot of awesome tools, but it’s kind of hard to get people up and running without being in the room with them.

I think these days I would be inclined to use Whiteboard, by Microsoft, instead, if I were running this course again. It’s a pain to set up in advance (you have to go into the meeting, open a whiteboard from within it, and then copy/paste all the prepared activity templates into it before the meeting). But it’s only a few minutes, and the seamlessness of having the whiteboard actually work within the meeting software saves a huge amount of effort.

Miro now has video-conferencing of course, but you can’t yet send the learners the video-conference link and have them where you want them. I’ve seen people join Miro boards and fail over and over to join the video session.

So Whiteboard it is. Zoom would probably work as well, if that’s your thing.

I really, really wish all these tools had a ‘presenter’s screenshare’, where I could share my screen and show people the menus. It’s so frustrating that this doesn’t exist.

What I learned

I learned a huge amount from this programme. I was not that used to co-facilitating, and getting used to working with Helen was an education in itself. Since running this programme, I’ve tended to feel more comfortable leaving gaps for learners to think towards the end of workshops. I’ve also had a much stromger belief in the value of getting the learners to start by sharing their own situations and knowledge. I knew it was worth while, but running this one workshop over and over really bedded in for me how much of a difference it makes. No one is an empty vessel for knowledge, and everyone is on their own journey.