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Workshop Facilitation Template

General 120 min As needed A facilitator, an optional co-facilitator, and 5-20 participants

Facilitation is the craft of helping a group think and decide together. This workshop facilitation guide gives you a reusable diverge-and-converge framework so you can plan, open, run, and close any working session and have the room leave with real decisions instead of a wall of sticky notes.

When to use it

Use this framework whenever a group needs to solve a problem, align on direction, or generate and choose options together. It fits strategy offsites, kickoff sessions, retrospectives, planning workshops, and cross-team problem-solving. If one person already has the answer and just needs to inform people, send a memo. A workshop is for thinking that has to happen together.

Who attends

You need a facilitator who stays neutral on content, an optional co-facilitator for larger groups, and the five to twenty people who own the problem and the follow-through. Invite the people with the information and the people who will do the work. Skip the spectators.

How to run it

Every good workshop follows the same arc: open by naming the one outcome and the agreements, diverge to generate options widely, cluster to make sense of them, then converge to a decision. Always finish with action planning so the decision becomes owned next steps, and close with a short check-out. Hold the structure, stay neutral on content, and watch the clock so the room reaches a decision.

Facilitator tips

  • Define one outcome before you build the agenda; everything serves it.
  • Separate diverge from converge so you do not judge ideas before you have enough of them.
  • Stay neutral on content; your job is the process, not the answer.
  • Balance airtime with silent ideation and round-robins so quiet voices count.
  • Park off-topic items visibly so the room trusts you to return to them.

Common mistakes

  • Running a workshop with no defined outcome, so the room wanders.
  • Letting the loudest or most senior person dominate.
  • Diverging and converging at the same time and killing good ideas early.
  • Ending without owners and dates, so nothing happens afterward.
  • The facilitator arguing for their own answer instead of holding the process.

Plan the agenda, run the room, and track the action items in one place. Run it in OrgTP.

Agenda

120 minutes total · 6 sections

  1. Open and set the frame 15 min
    State the single outcome the workshop must produce, the agenda, and the working agreements. Run a quick check-in so everyone arrives present.
  2. Diverge - generate options 30 min
    Open the problem wide. Use silent individual ideation, small-group work, or round-robin so quantity and range come before judgment.
  3. Cluster and discuss 25 min
    Group similar ideas, surface tensions, and let the group make sense of what is on the wall. Keep airtime balanced across voices.
  4. Converge - decide 25 min
    Narrow to the strongest options with dot voting or a simple decision rule. Name the decision and who owns it.
  5. Action planning 15 min
    Turn the decision into concrete next steps with owners and dates. Vague intentions die in the parking lot.
  6. Close and check-out 10 min
    Recap decisions and owners, confirm next steps, and run a fast check-out to capture energy and loose ends.

Run this meeting live in OrgTP

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