Workshopping Workshops
Exploring Workshops of the Future
This week’s post is by Mark Buccella. Mark is a strategic problem solver, design thinker, and human-centered design expert. He has worked in digital product and service design for over 25 years, leading projects in financial services, healthcare, higher education, energy and utilities, and other industries.
Collaboration. Co-design. Co-creation. Sketching studio. Exploration. Design sprint. Iteration zero. Workshop. We’ve called them many things in the 15+ years I’ve been facilitating. Usually, I try not to waste time finding the right label. Better to gather the team, align on the approach, and dig in. However, recent opportunities I’ve had to train people in collaborative design facilitation have prompted me to answer some common questions. What makes a collaboration workshop session productive? How have they changed? What might they look like in the future?
I’m still not terribly interested in finding the perfect label. They all have their benefits depending on context, where you are in the process, and who’s invited to participate. But lately, I’ve been gravitating to one label more than others:
work·shop /ˈwərkˌSHäp/ noun
a room or building in which goods are manufactured or repaired.
Similar: factory, works, plant, shop, garage, workroom, studio, atelier
