Prepare, organize, motivates, and communicate better.
Hi everyone, Kevin here.
I had a great conversation with Daniele Catalanotto about the very simple and practical tips when you organize remote workshops. Here’s a summary 👇
🎙 See listening options here!
This conversation is part of a series of Podcasts for Design & Critical Thinking with Daniele (hold in French). Daniele Catalanotto is a Service Designer in Switzerland and is the founder of the Swiss Innovation Academy and the Service Design Magazine.
For those of you who don’t speak French –or just don’t want to listen to us thinking out loud– here’s the summary of this conversation in English. Also, find below a video version, available on YouTube with automatic-translation subtitles.
🌟 Subscribe on YouTube to be notified when new episodes are out!
Preparation is even more important
Preparation is key for any workshop, but it’s maybe even more important for remote workshops. Dry runs where you bring together all workshop participants to try out the tools and verify that everything works are a must-have. Every time you’ll find new bugs or issues that you have to fix. Someone who can’t connect his mic, another person who has to switch browsers, etc.
Hand signs help
Often in remote workshops, everyone is muted to avoid hearing kids screaming, people sneezing, etc. But that makes quick reactions harder. Also as you don’t see the full-body, it’s harder to read how someone feels when you just see a face.
That’s why it can be smart to use hand signs. A simple thumb up to show that you agree. The double thumb up to show excitement. A waving hand to say that you have something to add, etc.
You can transfer what you learned
When you’ll do your first remote workshops you’ll learn new ways of facilitating. These new ways of facilitating or organizing a workshop can then be transferred back to your on-site workshops. You learned to use more hand signs, great, maybe that could make on-site workshops even stronger!
Explore and be critical
If you are interested in going further, Daniele has prepared for you a few resources about remote workshops that can help you get started. And for those interested in the usage of hand signs in workshops check out Finger Rules on Sessionlab.
Finger Rules
Preparation Prepare a flipchart with drawings of all the hand signs that you want to use during the meeting and a short…www.sessionlab.com
Remote workshops (public)
Make a test call during 30 minutes and get the phone numbers or email of participants in order to fix problems if…www.notion.so
