As the facilitator, it’s up to you to act as the group’s vehicle and guide them from one place to the next. You do this by providing the context that enables the group to work better together by building trust, communication, and collaboration.

Of course, helping groups work better together online is an entirely different story in many ways. I wanted to learn more about how facilitators can help groups work better together, which is why I reached out to Robert Skrobe and invited him to join me on workshops work.

Robert trains people to use design sprints effectively, and he shares what he has learned from hosting a series of global virtual design sprints. Professionals from across the globe come together to collaborate with the same goal to showcase their work in the best possible light.

I really enjoyed learning more about the Global Virtual Design Sprint, and Robert shared a lot of tips to help participants align and work more effectively together. I hope this episode brings you clarity and inspiration to help your groups communicate and collaborate better online.

Find out about:

• What the Global Virtual Design Sprint is and why it’s so useful
• Why workshops fail when participants leave without learning anything new
• How online and offline moments leads to meaningful collaboration
• How to make sure that participants align on a certain way of working together
• How to bring participants together with help from a sketching exercise

Don’t miss the next show: Subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.

Click here to download the free 1-page summary

Feeling inspired by the conversation about the NeverDoneBefore Facilitation Festival? Click here to find out more.

Questions and Answers

[03:41] When did you start calling yourself a facilitator?

[05:14] What have you learned from this project of organising the community of the disabled children for the work you're doing today?

[06:29] What was the moment you decided to fully engage in that project and scale it the way that you did?

[09:58] What do you think creates the opportunity to connect in a meaningful way online?

[12:18] How do you facilitate connection amongst teams who have never met offline?

[15:29] How do you encourage engagement on slack?

[20:20] What do you think most people get wrong about the concept of a design sprint?

[22:13] What are your biggest learnings in terms of the hybrid process?

[29:37] What makes a design sprint fail?

[38:28] What do you think is the context that really facilitates the team to make the best use of these four days they spend together?

[40:14] To what extent are the personalities of participants in each group relevant?

[44:22] What does your code of conduct consist of at its core?

[53:44] What would you like listeners to take away as the one nugget from our conversation?

Links

Share your thoughts about our conversation!

Support the show

✨✨✨

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive a free 1-page summary of each upcoming episode directly to your inbox, or explore our eBooks featuring 50-episode compilations for even more facilitation insights. Find out more:
https://workshops.work/podcast

✨✨✨

Did you know? You can search all episodes by keyword to find exactly what you need via our Buzzsprout page!