Hi all, I thought i'd share an interesting workshop I ran recently - hopefully it's helpful for someone else who has a similar challenge or brief! The client is a large charity and this was their brief: Produce a short vision statement for our future digital fundraising and engagement and the required transformation over our strategy period (they obviously shared context of their org strategy etc). I split this up into two stages: 1) Vision & 2) Required Transformation. Here are the exercises I ran: 1️⃣ Vision ➡️ Lightning Demos (this helped us focus on the market and the team created some really great How Might Wes). We clustered these to use as stimulus for the next exercise. ➡️ Vision Statement Drawing. People drew their vision statement and presented back to the group. I was mindful that if we asked people to write them they would get caught up in the language rather than the overall concepts. We asked them to share their vision and gathered the main themes. 2️⃣ Required Transformation ➡️ We then essentially did a Lightning Decision Jam which I don't need to explain! This was a fun one to run but I was very worried about timings, we did get everything done on time though which was a relief! I was constantly talking about pace and how it's going to feel like everything is going WAY too fast before and during the workshop and I think that helped a lot! They just could not get people together for longer but all worked out ok! I've had some really positive feedback from the client and recently ran a training session for them too so hoping to run more sessions with them next year 😁 Shout if you have any questions! 😀

In case you missed the community call today, Jon dropped some GREAT books that can inspire us as we navigate our facilitation journey! Check them out here 👇 - Traffic Secrets by Russell Brunson - Cashvertising by Drew Eric Whitman - Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath If you've read any of them, feel free to share your knowledge and insights with us!! Happy Reading 📚🥳

Hopefully, this will inspire others to keep working to gain clients. I sent a contract to a client for 3 sessions, starting next Tuesday, November 21! This is, now, my third contract with churches and I am looking to expand into other businesses and organizations. I am grateful for this community where I continue to learn about the art and practice of meeting facilitation, growing my business, and expanding my network. I am happy to share my meeting plan and schedule with anyone who may find it helpful. The three sessions will help the church to: 1. Clarify Mission, Vision, and Values 2. Understand Staff Roles and Responsibilities 3. Implement a "Sending" Culture

Hey Workshoppers, I usually don't cross-post anything from our Workshopper Inner Circle community but this video I made for the group today kinda exploded and created a lot of really interesting conversations. So I said fuck it, let's pop it in here too :) P.S. Applications are still closed right now for joining our Inner Circle community, if they open again any time soon we'll post about it here 👍🏻 **************************************************here's the post*********************************** Hey all! I spend a lot of time coaching or being coached. I spend a lot of time around hyper-successful entrepreneurs and consultants, but also people who are stuck (and stay like that forever). I have some thoughts about what keeps people stuck and what makes people successful. I decided to make a little video about something I think is going to hold a LOT of you back from achieving success. It's a bit of an experiment so lemme know if it's interesting! https://www.loom.com/share/b03e24ebdf8449d3bb700abd7fa35cdc?sid=cc23381e-4203-4a6c-8057-631e886c3670 Cheers, Jonathan

Hi all. I would love your advice.. I hate kicking off workshops, because I typically get the most nervous right at the beginning. It’s when all eyes are on me, I tend to get a little breathless, and my voice gets shaky. Once I have some interaction from the team, all that goes away. I’m looking for a fool proof way to kick off a workshop that immediately engages an audience without me having to say more than a few words. I’ve tried so many things to reduce those jitters the first few minutes, but I have not been successful. I welcome any creative suggestions or helpful tips. Thank you! Jennie

Currently, I’m trying to build experience with workshops in my organization. I first ran the LDJ with my team, then my supervisor volunteered me to run one for our entire HR department and one of the senior HR partners just recommended me to the director of our fund development team (for a large non profit). I’m going to lead a workshop in January for them over two days, 1.5 hours each day. They were really excited as we talked about how it would play out. I’m loving the ability to provide great solutions for teams! Also some fun impact from doing this - my boss loved it so much he ran a 30 minute LDJ with his son’s robotic team 😂. Love the intangibles as much as the measurable results! Facilitating is so powerful👊🏼👊🏼👊🏼

Last week I facilitated a 2 hour workshop for an insurance company that wants to introduce a new offer to grow and change direction due to new California law that is killing its cash cow offer. To put things in context, in the past I charged $2k for a day. But, it never hurts to ask even thought the thought feels frightening. Best of the experience is that this was the first time I run this type of workshop - “The Story Framework Sprint” and in a new Indutry. Quote from the CEO - “we have too much knowledge in our head that it’s confusing to make sense of it in a simple way”. This helps to simplify our focus.

Hi everybody, great to be here and to start my facilitating journey! I'm currently preparing a LDJ and was wondering how to best approach the ideation part (step 5) if you have multiple HMW's. Do you ideate solutions and vote per HMW individually or all at once? Or alternatively ideate solutions per HMW and vote on the total of solutions? In this workshop I expect more then one challenge. Anyone that can share their experience with this and what works best? Many thanks in advance for your help!

Are you planning on designing a workshop for your team or a client but you don't know where to start? Don't worry, we got you! In our latest video, AJ&Smart CEO and Expert Facilitator, @Jonathan Courtney shows you EXACTLY how to design an amazing team collaboration workshop. Jonathan uses the 4C's framework (which we use to design every single workshop) and shows you how to capture the information provided by the client correctly. This video is a recording of a live training we ran for members of our facilitation community and has been slightly edited for a smoother viewing on YouTube. Big shout out to @Jakub Michalski who also brought this video to life! It's a long one (35 mins or so), so grab a cup of tea, sit back, relax and enjoyyyyyyy ☕️