When you shouldn't create a Workshop
A three layered approach & a quick tip
I hate it when people that sell gizmos tell me a gizmo is always the solution to all my problems. So I wrote this.
If you are on the fence, I hope this clears your questions
But first, a quick poll1
Thank you for answering, now, on to the content:
Sometimes you shouldn't have a workshop
Workshops are great, but not a silver bullet.
They are a tool in your advisory/coaching/consulting utility belt, but there are others.
So, when does it make sense to use a workshop?I divide this question into three parts:
When it makes sense for your Client
When it makes sense for your Business
When it makes sense for you, the Expert
Making sense for your Client
A core aspect of Workshops is that they have some level of tangible outcome.2
If a client could get the same outcome without a workshop, I don't recommend you do one.
The last thing you want is to have clients feel that you've created a convoluted way of doing something they could do much faster on their own.
A good rule of thumb is that the impact of your workshop should be significantly greater than what clients can achieve on their own.
"X times better" always beats "% better."3
Making sense for your Business
It is entirely possible that a workshop makes sense to your client, but doesn't make sense to your business.
A simple example:
a client that requires a bit more hand-holding will want a workshop that no one else needs.
You want to avoid doing this.
Customized workshops are rarely the best approach. The largest costs of creating a workshop occur during the planning stages. The client doesn't see this and will balk at a full price that includes the development cost of their customized workshop.4 ***
The key is to spread out these costs among several clients facing similar challenges, addressable by the same workshop format.
The more you do this, the better your margins will be.
Making sense for the Expert
Finally, a workshop must make sense to you.
If you are still reading this, I will assume that you have an interest in running workshops.
But it is worth mentioning that your own enthusiasm really matters for the success of a workshop.
Besides all the more spiritual (and very meaningful!) aspects of how our work shapes us, workshops have emotional requirements.
You see, workshops are a collaboration environment where you guide your client. You are in it together, but you are not peers. When you run your workshop, it is your responsibility to manage the energy in the session.
You are, in a way, a mix between a DJ and a Sherpa.
Your role is to assist them getting there, not to do the work for them.5 ****
If you personally don't feel excited about having a workshop format for that specific issue, consider not proceeding.
The one thing that matters the most
In my own 12+ years journey of creating workshops, I've made all sorts of different mistakes.
If you are creating a workshop for your firm, this is my number one advice:
make sure that it makes sense for clients.
All other things can be adjusted and changed to be made to work.
However, creating a format that does not help clients is commercially depressing and emotionally draining.
Now, if you want something practical to do that will help you get closer to your own Workshop Format
A practical tip:
Put the kettle on or start the coffee machine. By the time you're done you'll have something extremely valuable.
Take a piece of paper and a pen, trace a line down the middle.
On the left side write down your last 10 projects (could be from the same client).
On the right side, write down where, in that project, you could see them getting excited about what you do.
See my example down below (I'm a sucker for index cards).
Behind the scenes
Where I share some less filtered stuff about what I'm learning.
A stunning realization
I was on a call with S, a friend that has been subscribed for a long time and it hit me like a ton of bricks:
My entry level service is not a workshop to design your entry level service.
That would be too complex (and expensive) for an entry level product.
My entry level product is a quick collaborative session that gives you concrete, valuable and contextualized guidance for you to prepare your own Starter Workshop.
Very meta, right?
My evolving website
Recently someone made a good-natured joke at how bare Mesozoic.co is, so I'm changing it to make it sharper. Still ongoing, if you're intrigued, just reply to this email and I'll show you more
Things take much longer than planned
For instance, this newsletter edition took 2h43 minutes, from beginning to end.
There's no way around it. Good stuff takes time.
I've realized that polls at the end rarely get responses, so I'm experimenting with pulling them up. Let's see how this goes.
I divide this in 4 levels of concreteness. From the most abstract to the most concrete: Clarity, Decision, Plan and Artifact.
Clients almost always have a different perception of quality than you. Most of them are ok with doing something on their own and having only 70% of the result in less time.
So if you step in, you must deliver way above that.
In the early stages this makes more sense, because you are effectively prototyping a new product and following signs that could eventually lead to a standardized offer.
Just be aware that perhaps you cannot reuse any of it for other clients.
This is more important than what it seems. You don't want to lead so much that clients feel you've convinced them of something that stops making sense when they leave the special context of a workshop.
You'll come across as pushy and they will backtrack on their decisions.