The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.
Mark van Doren (1894—1972)
US poet
When it comes to organising your workshop, the question at the top of your mind should be ‘How do I structure the learning process?’ Again, this depends on your objective and your audience. Generally, we classify workshops into three categories:
- Skill.
- Knowledge.
- Attitude.
As you remember, good planning starts by defining the intended end result. What should your target audience do afterwards? Are you seeking only to widen their knowledge? Or do you want them to buy a certain product, or behave in a different way? Based on your target audience, and its respective channel of communication, as well as the content you wish to deliver, you might come to the conclusion that for example a presentation is perhaps not the best way to achieve your result. Potentially, a speech, a film, or an interactive game might be the solution instead.
Setting a training objective
So, let’s formulate objective of your training workshop first — of course in a SMART way. For example a knowledge training: at the end of the workshop (Time) for our partners dedicated in their spare time to environmental questions (Attractive) know that climate change is caused by greenhouse gases (Specific). They are able to name three sources of the green house gas in a test (Measurable). For a one day training this is feasible (Realistic).
The audience is clearly defined by those participating in the workshop. Analyse them according to the target audience analysis. You should find out anything, which might move them, as well as their strengths and weaknesses. Only after the analysis, should you think about how to approach them.