A lot of people think of facilitation as a soft skill. Something you either have or you don't, a bit like telling jokes at a party.
We see it differently. Facilitation is design. The material is just people, time and attention. A workshop is a product with a two-hour lifespan and extremely demanding users, so we design it that way.
The participants are the users
Before we plan anything, we ask:
- Who is in the room, and what do they need to leave with?
- What do they already know? What do they think they know?
- Who has power, and who doesn't?
- Are they excited, sceptical or tired of workshops?
That last one matters more than you'd think. A group that has sat through three alignment meetings this month needs a very different session from a group meeting for the first time.
Start with the outcome
Decide what should exist when the session is over. Not "we discuss X", but something concrete: a shortlist of three priorities, a problem statement everyone can live with, or a decision with an owner.
If you can't say what the outcome is, you don't need a workshop. A meeting or an email will do.
The agenda is a flow
An agenda isn't a list of topics. It's a user flow where each step gives the group something the next step needs.
We often use the pattern from Sam Kaner's Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making. First the group opens up and creates options. Then it lands in what Kaner calls the groan zone, where things get messy and people disagree. Finally it narrows down and decides.
The messy part isn't a failure. It's where understanding happens. Our job is to make it safe to stay there long enough.
Write before you talk
Groups aren't neutral machines for merging opinions. Three well-known traps:
- Anchoring. The first idea on the table pulls everything towards it. Tversky and Kahneman described the effect in 1974.
- Groupthink. Close-knit groups keep their doubts to themselves to keep the peace. Irving Janis made the term famous in the 1970s.
- The boss's opinion. Once the most senior person has spoken, the discussion is mostly over.
The cheapest trick we know: let everyone write in silence for a few minutes before anyone speaks. Everyone's thinking is on the table before the anchors drop. Ask the leader to share last, and explain why in advance. Good leaders appreciate it.
Test the session
We'd never launch a product without testing it, so we don't run workshops we've never tried. We test the exercises on a colleague, time everything and put the instructions on a slide. Spoken instructions vanish the moment people start working.
When the group gets big, the structure has to do more of the work. In 2026 we led a gathering for around 70 people at Nav. Small tables with clear tasks, fewer and sharper questions, and lots of time for transitions. And markers that actually work. Logistics is half the design.
Follow-up is part of the product
The workshop isn't done when people leave the room. If nothing happens afterwards, you've taught everyone that workshops don't matter. Send a summary within a couple of days, make decisions and owners visible, and tell people what happened to their input.