Organizing a successful workshop takes a great deal of very careful planning and a considerable amount of time. Whilst all personnel are busy and it might seem that the workshop is detracting from productivity, nothing could be further from the truth.

Correct Planning

A successful workshop should lead to improved morale and production and the raising of skill and performance levels. Failure to plan for success will mean the loss of potential.

Having established the importance of there being a workshop and establishing its goal the workshop organizer has to give careful attention to the formulation of an agenda and a follow up plan.

Knowing the goal of the workshop the organizer needs to develop a list of discussion topics for the workshop. They should be sequenced in a logical way and ranked in importance. Points to come from the discussion topics can then be formulated.

The next consideration is working out the time allocation for each point. This is critical so that any supporting visual aid material can be sought and researched to ensure that it can fit into the allocated time slot.

Thought will have to be given to allowing time at the beginning for ice breakers and time given at the end to receive feedback from the attendees.

Bearing all those points in mind an agenda covering all areas for development should then be drawn up ensuring that the workshop can fit into its allocated time slot.

It is not possible to assess how successful or otherwise any workshop has been unless there has been feedback from the workshop
attendees. Bearing that point in mind the workshop organizer has to formulate a follow up plan.

This normally consists of a questionnaire to determine the value of the workshop to the attendees. Time needs to be allowed so that attendees can voice their opinions about the workshop and how effective or otherwise it might have been.

Assessments of staff performance later will also indicate how valuable the workshop had been.