Maybe you’re familiar with one or more of Floricane’s workshops. Whether it’s Introduction to Insights Discovery or our Manager Development Program (to name just two), we are passionate about helping people develop the skills they need to achieve their organization’s purpose.
But how do we go about choosing what workshops to offer? And what’s next on our workshop calendar?
Over the past few weeks, I had the opportunity to confront the “problem” of how to revise and revitalize Floricane’s workshop offerings. For me, soaking up as much data as possible and then talking the details to death is how I best process through a problem. I often tell people that my brain is not working unless my mouth is moving.
It’s equally true that my brain thrives on input as well as verbal output. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to receive lots of input. A number of Floricane clients spent a few hours helping us rethink our new slate of workshop offerings.
We want to design programs that are practical, and will help our clients day to day on the job. Of course, we can’t know what our clients specifically need unless we ask. So, we did just that.
We started with a survey that went out to past workshop participants. (Thanks for completing it, part workshop participants!) The survey helped us understand what past offerings participants liked best and what topics they might like to see offered in the future.
Data gathering was just the first step.
We also conducted a very informal focus group (those clients I mentioned, above) to do my favorite thing – talk it out. There’s obviously no one right answer to the question of what workshops to offer (much less when and how), but we walked away from that discussion with a few key takeaways:
1. We can always do more to strengthen the experience in the workshop room. Our group noted that workshops should not be a one-and-done experience. There should be pre-work and post-work to keep the conversation, and the learning, going.
2. We can step up our game when we communicate about what’s on tap for the upcoming season of workshops with increased in-person conversations, and that we should continue to make sure that discussion hones in on what’s best for that specific client.
3. Less is more when it comes to the calendar of workshops open to the public, but that we should increase and make clearer our slate of “in-house” workshops that we take into our client organizations.
What does that all mean for the future of Floricane’s workshops? For now, I’m busy designing a new calendar that reflects what we’ve learned. Soon – and I won’t make you wait too long - you’ll see Floricane (online and in person!) unveil our offerings for the next year and a half. In the meantime, know that we’re never done listening to your feedback. Please get in touch if you have any suggestions about workshops. I hope you’re as excited as I am to get back to class!