by Michelle Ruiz
There aren’t many agencies that can say they endured a devastating tornado and global pandemic in the space of one month. It’s almost like being an EGOT, but a lot less fun. With the local tornado, we immediately took our work remote, and started planning for virtual workshops and working sessions but still had client spaces kindly available to hold these sessions. The pandemic a week later had everyone including our clients working in their own homes, thus creating an interesting global experiment in how to craft and iterate this new way of working together.
The noun definition of a workshop is “a place where things are made or repaired” and while that may be referencing a physical space, I like to think that applies to workshops at large during this time. It may be challenging to see in the grand scheme of a global crisis, and yet I find them not only an opportunity to solve a common business problem but also a way for the participants to be with one other. Connect, question, create, contemplate, and all the other aspects that make group work so enriching to be a part of. In addition, people being at home is a great opportunity to know our clients in a context otherwise unavailable in a formal setting. Recently in a session, we had a stakeholder’s dog jump into the frame which offered up laughs, connection, and levity.
Taking care of a group and managing the needs and energy of others is hard enough when you are trying to take care of yourself in a climate of uncertainty. Planning a workshop experience that benefits the group and that doesn’t over-exert the team is a delicate balance in non-crisis times, so add the current layer of complexity and you’ve got yourself quite the mix. If you’re curious, here are a few virtual workshop learnings our team has discovered these past few weeks:
There will always be unknowns that pop up in any physical or remote setting, so remembering that overall, there is no playbook for how to manage unprecedented work and emotional conditions such as these. The most important thing is to empathize with the people and conditions in which you are facilitating, flow with the process, trust the group and especially yourself.