Join us in Denver on May 14-15th for our first-ever Studio Session workshop!
Last week in my coworking space, I observed a familiar scene: a team huddled for a virtual check-in with their remote colleagues. I smiled knowingly as each of them multi-tasked on the call — one person wrote an email, another edited in Photoshop, and one, as far as I could tell, ordered lunch. The extent of the team’s input during the meeting was minimal, which made me wonder:
How might we design our gatherings so that people can do their best and most important work?
We’ve all been there — whether it’s checking messages during an org-wide retreat or catching up on work during a session at a professional conference. Research shows that 73% of employees report doing other work in their meetings1 and the common complaint that “this could have been shared in an email!” is valid. But at Franklin Street, we’re not advocating for less time with our colleagues. We believe that what folks actually crave are gatherings planned with purpose.
That’s why on May 14th-15th in Denver, we’re launching our very first Studio Session: Design and lead experiences that inspire, a 2-day workshop about the nuts and bolts of hyper-intentional experience design and facilitation.
This experience will be highly practical and challenging (in a good way)! As a participant, you’ll:
- Design something real and relevant to your work.
- Practice useful design and facilitation methods and get real-time feedback.
- Cultivate your authentic facilitation style.
- Learn alongside a cohort of people across sectors who face similar design and facilitation challenges in their day-to-day work.
Too often, we assume that great facilitators are born, not made. But the truth is, there's an art and craft to learning design and facilitation. As we began planning for the studio session, we spoke to both partners and expert facilitators in our community. We heard reflections like:
“I feel tied to the end result of the meeting and I want to learn ways to be more flexible to real-time needs of the participants.”
“I want to learn how to design a process that gets to the root of what my audience is grappling with. What are the right questions to ask? How do I approach planning with intentionality while staying nimble as a facilitator in the moment?”
“Most of what I learned came from watching amazing facilitators. But sometimes I struggle to do what they do in a way that feels authentic to me."
We know this is just the tip of the iceberg. 75% of people report having received no formal training on how to conduct a meeting2, never mind a mission-critical strategy sprint or community town hall. May's studio session will offer a rare chance to collaborate with others who care about intentional gathering, make real progress on something you care about, and get the real-time feedback you're craving. You'll be sure to transform your gatherings into opportunities for connection, growth, and collaboration.
Interested to join us? Register by April 12th!
Know of someone who might be great for this experience? Share this post with them!
Unsure if this experience is right for you or want to learn more? Reach out to us at [email protected] to schedule a call.
- Rogelberg, Steven G. (2019). Why your Meetings Stink — and What to Do About It. Harvard Business Review: Meeting Management. ↩︎
- Pidgeon, Emily. (2014). The economic impact of bad meetings. Ideas.TED.com: Business. ↩︎
