By Fabrizio Faraco

We are finally back doing face-to-face workshops. Done with all (or most of) the restrictions. Finally back to real face-to-face, being able to listen to participants and look each other in person. This experience means a lot of things to me.

First of all, the desire of people to get back together. A desire that is a physical need to learn one from each other. A strong need to come back to understand each other holistically, with all the senses. Something we almost forgot while doing remote work and workshops. The desire, so deep in the participants, broke the defenses of the initial fear (how bad were media to irrationally feed people fear) and exploded immediately, following the facts and results that emerged in a natural interaction with tangible objects (post-its, flows, LEGO®bricks, 3D models, etc.).

Yes, what marks the difference was precisely the effectiveness of a live workshop, compared with the remote ones. After more than a year of convenient digital interaction, seeing such concrete results emerging through physical interaction with colleagues was a rediscovery, for us and for them. We shall celebrate the world quantum leap in digital literacy, but what really matters are the results and the impact that each of us can produce in a live workshop.

It’s the power of the live result that makes the real difference, notwithstanding the significant results achieved for my clients in over 100 remote workshops, not trivial results at all.

But let's go in order. The workshops I held in 3 days were 3:

1.     Design Sprint bootcamp, where we teach how to make the most of the Design Sprint methodology to people who sign up for our bootcamp, mostly professionals, freelancers and internal organizations.

2.     A workshop with the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method (LSP) on market differentiation strategies (red ocean) aimed at organizations. In our case, a consulting firm and a small ethnographic museum.

3.     A short LSP workshop aimed at social dialogue, in a meetup format, free and aimed at the cultural dissemination of the methodology.

For both first and third workshop I had done "similar" content remotely. These remote workshops produced great satisfaction in my customers and in me. As facilitator: I was able to create a remote workshop that kept the participants engaged and productive "at their best". They brought home results, tangible results, results beyond their expectations.

Similar, as I said, but not the same. Similar, because Remote workshops must be interactive and must ensure participants engagement, so they must:

1.     Focus on results and not on the process

2.     Leave the solutions to the participants because they have the context information

3.     Guarantee autonomy and give authority to the participants themselves (Purpose driven Engagement) making sure that everyone is focused and involved and that an effective collaboration can be achieved.

For this reason, the remote workshops are carried out in a series (string) of microstructures, or exercises, that guarantee maximum participants co-creation, teamwork and autonomy. These exercises or microstructures are crafted to encourage participation, dialogue and action, introducing small changes in the way participants can meet, make decisions and innovate. They put change and innovation in everyone's hands.

Despite the great results obtained remotely those made face to face were at least an order of magnitude more effective in achieved results and more engaging for participants. And the main reason was in the holistic interaction among participants which produced a deeper level of learning leveraging on higher engagement, psychological safety and perspective taking typical of a face-to-face interaction.

The strategic workshop (LSP) was not possible to carry out remotely because it is intrinsically designed with the 3D methodology and the co-creation interaction among the participants. We have done other strategic workshops remotely with business agility techniques, to our enormous satisfaction and that of our customers. Some of these workshops have become an important part of our offering, with maximum levels of effectiveness against the competition and the remote offering landscape today.

During this second workshop, the full power of LSP emerged overwhelmingly, the one that needs more than 4 hours and at least 4 application techniques, and that can only be delivered live. Both organizations have taken home operational strategies and strategic options that they can implement independently starting tomorrow.

But the real litmus test was the cultural meetup, where the remote version and the live version showed all their differences. For this we decided to use a microstructure (ROSE; THORN; BUD) very useful remotely in assessing and aligning the team knowledge. A microstructure that allows you to move from the dialogue on a topic presented in a generic way to an understanding of the topic in a shared complex way and a series of very detailed insights on which to develop the unfolding of actions or strategies. It is one of the preferred microstructures for focusing teams on solving problems or developing strategies (organizational or product).

Made with LSP in less than 1: 30h participants reached a level of complexity impossible remotely. The dialogue produced the emerging of awareness on topic (at least 2 orders of magnitude higher than remotely) through an in-depth and shared dialogue which engage everybody. Results produced consolidate the need to return to interact live in the participants, at least on crucial issues.

All the experience I acquired in breaking down a live workshop and reassembling it remotely, all the contamination of methodologies and exercises between the different frameworks have enriched my expertise and maximized my effectiveness as a live facilitator. Going back face to face, I started with doubts and fears. But quickly, I guided the participants by feeling them more clearly and deeply, knowing more precisely how to keep them in the flow and more oriented to bring out the most significant results for them than remotely. For this I have to thank Trivium which I became partner of (as well as my business partner Andrea Romoli and Gloria Leon, with whom I shared reflections and thoughts)

In Trivium, we think that the biggest challenge businesses face today is intentional decision-making and actions when faced with the unforeseen, and, obviously, being able to adapt in the next normal. If organizations do not challenge their thinking and explore their new landscape it will be like using an old map to sail in uncharted waters. To become intentional in a new, unforeseen, chaotic world, it is important to lower associative barriers through a structured learning process where there is enough safe space for exploration and discussion to unlock the new knowledge. It involves assessing our own individual resources, under-standing our environment, playing in different scenarios and developing new purposes and aspirations that will fit the people and the possible futures.

This experience reinforced the fact that organizations have a strong need to re-tie the threads to reconnect and to restart thriving in a world that is profoundly changed (we called it in Trivium, Rewiring) compared to before.  And it has strengthened our awareness that we are ready to help organizations do so.

For original post in Italian, click here.