I’m always challenging professionals NOT to run workshops. Let’s jump outside the workshop box by asking, for example: “If workshops were banned, what could we do instead?” 

But let’s say you’re absolutely determined – you’re going to run a workshop anyway.

In that case, there are two challenges:

First, getting bums of seats. To tackle this, see The Pyramid of Engagement.

Second, once people arrive you’ll want to maximise the impact on their actions and choices.

How to do that? Here’s a checklist that emerged from recent research I did with farm extension officers.

Will your event to do these six things?

1) Demonstrate practical skills people can immediately put to use to improve their lives or businesses (that is, increasing their powers to get results they care about).

2) Let people hear change stories told by early adopters similar to themselves (activating social learning, lowering fears).

3) Give people things to touch and play with (creating familiarity and lowering fears).

4) Have a diverse range of content – so there’s something for everyone.

5) Facilitate easy interaction between participants (so people can talk themselves into change).

6) Tasty food.

P.S. Notice that none of these things resembles a lecture or ‘reasons why’.

Here’s some detail on these ideas:

1) Demonstrate practical skills people can use immediately in their lives or businesses.

“I learnt from the first event that the speaker had to offer take-home advice with actions they could put into place right away, not just entertain them.” 
– Lori McKern, Hunter Local Land Services

Nothing builds self-efficacy and lowers fears like people seeing exactly HOW to perform specific activities. Demonstrating skills and familiarising with practices and technologies are the vital ‘I can do that’ moments that enable practice change.

Don’t talk about soil testing when you could show soil testing. And don’t show soil testing when you could let farmers do it themselves.

2) Let people hear from similar early adopters

People honestly sharing their own stories is the most impactful form of persuasion. True stories, told by real people – sharing their struggles, lessons and successes – is the best way to generate hope and self-efficacy.

Vitally, keep in mind that learning is a social process. Peers in the same social network are the ones most likely to influence other landholders’ decisions.

For example, there are plenty of online examples of farmers telling their own farming stories. Farmers may not be polished speakers, but they have the audience’s full attention because of who they are and what they’re doing on their land. 

3) Give people things to touch and play with (creates familiarity)

Your participants should have a chance to touch and feel, experiment, and play with skills, products and technologies.

Here are some examples of hands-on ideas that suit farmers:

• Let farmers see soil bugs in a microscope, with a microbiologist comparing dead (glyphosate) soil with live soil. (Thanks Helen McCosker, Carbon 8)

• Invite farmers a bring a cup of soil to test for Ph and soil structure.

• Juice wheatgrass from good and bad soils so farmers can taste the difference in sweetness. (Thanks James Diack, Soil for Life).

• Dig up and eat tillage radishes from good and bad soils. (Thanks James Diack, Soil for Life).

An excellent example of a tactile event, was the Back to Basics workshops from HCSPL, Ingham. A team of young extension officers innovated a series of soil health workshops without Powerpoint. Instead they used common everyday objects like buckets, sponges, and coloured water to illustrate the nitrogen cycle and other soil processes.

“For us, the question was ‘What is the minimum they really need to know to understand a soil test? – It took us a lot of time to realise how simple we had to make it, peeling back the complexity.’ It took a lot of work. Three iterations, presented to the team, each staff member went away and refined”. – Adam Royle, HCPSL

4) Have diverse content

Rich, diverse content is good, so there’s something for evenyone. It’s usually better to offer a taster of 5 subjects, rather than go into great depth in one subject. For example, you might organise multiple stations so people could choose their own subject and get in-depth answers about the area that interests them.

5) Participants easily interacting with each other

People learn best from similar people so your event should always involve opportunities for peer-peer discussion.

Most people love informal discussions in pairs or threes, over lunch for example.

Or they can take the form of facilitated, peer-peer sessions, where people share their stories in a structured way. 

A nice example is a walking tour or a bus tour:

“So much happens when they’re on the bus talking. Farmers share their huge knowledge and skills. They love to hear what others are doing! They chatted all day, with the facilitator occasionally prompting questions.” 
– Renee Madsen, Fitzroy Basin Association.

6) And remember the food!

“The BBQ is a big pull.”

“In winter we just make a massive pumpkin soup.”

Food is the glue that builds relationships, helping easy interactions to occur. It always adds magnetism to an event.

Here’s an example of a project team brainstorm, aiming to design a workshop that ticks all these boxes.