Whether workshops are your whole world or just a small part, this book will equip you with the tools to design and run a brilliant session, every time, with no stress or drama.
Buy on AmazonWe were both partners at the education agency Founder Centric. There we built workshops for every price point, from free up-skilling through to $4000-per-seat executive education. We have taught at casual group settings through to formal, posh affairs.
But, most importantly, we can teach you how to do this. And you don't need to turn into some kind of charismatic superstar in order for it to work. In fact, you don't even need to be particularly confident. You just need to know how to design a good workshop. We've trained teachers up from scratch who are now billing north of $2500 per day, and who are getting invited back to teach again and again. This stuff isn't complicated. You can learn it, and you can do it.
What people are saying about The Workshop Survival Guide
A wonderfully written book that's mixes ready-to-apply advice with an easygoing charm. The concepts Devin and Rob outline are super easy to apply, whether you currently teach workshops or are looking to run one in the future. They helpfully point to further reading without getting bogged down in education theory. My copy is already well dog-eared with parts to re-visit the next time I have a workshop to plan!
Creating and facilitating workshops come up often in my role. It's clearly written and contains easy to understand actionable advice that anyone can apply. A short book with a lot of information - would recommend!
Powerful little book full of ‘oh riiiiight’ moments. I’ve been running workshops for 10 years or so, and wish I’d read it sooner. Rightly leans on workshop design: not the slides, but the structure, the learning outcomes, and the various formats you can rely upon to achieve these outcomes. Recommended.
All-in-all, a real gem of a book from which I picked up lots of useful thinking and process tips. If you read this book as a new facilitator, it will set you on the right path to workshop success; read as a pro and you will still find great advice and thinking that I have not found anywhere else. Highly recommended!
This book breaks down workshops step-by-step and provides extremely practical tips that took my workshops from good to great. However, what made this book particularly transformational for me was that it lays out some fundamental principles of effective communication that go beyond workshops: for example, the idea of learning outcomes, teaching formats, and facilitation techniques... all utterly useful in business and life.
It breaks the entirety of creating and facilitating a workshop into manageable, bite-sized pieced and makes the whole process feel less daunting. Anyone who is considering or interested in workshop development NEEDS to read this book.
Worth reading through then keeping as a reference for every workshop, talk or session you deliver!
Just straight to valuable information on how to facilitate highly successful workshops. It’s an easy read. A lot of what you will learn in this book can be used to improve your workshops right away.
I don't consider myself a beginner, but I definitely lacked some frameworks and structure, and this is a topic with few options available. The book is great, to the point, and a handy reference guide.
You probably couldn't ask for any better guide to help you prepare and deliver a successful workshop. With science and education-based learning and teaching methods, Rob and Devin provide several chapters on how to present and present a valuable workshop that helps students to achieve the learning objectives you set for them.
