Foreword by Alex Osterwalder

Introduction

PART 1: IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEM

Chapter 1: The impact of the problem

Impact 1: bad meetings

Impact 2: low engagement

Impact 3: lack of purpose

Why are you implementing a workshop culture?

Chapter 2: Why workshops are the solution

Why great workshops lead to great team cultures

What you are designing for in a workshop culture

PART 2: INTRODUCING WORKSHOP CULTURE

Chapter 3: Understanding workshop culture

The four foundations of a workshop culture

Foundation 1: workshops are more than a one-off event

Foundation 2: maintain a constant balance between creativity and productivity

Foundation 3: make tiny tweaks, not sweeping changes

Foundation 4: a workshop culture is designed

Chapter 4: Leading a workshop culture

Collaboration: a collaboration mindset

Facilitation: there’s something about facilitation

Strategic thinking: important, but not urgent

Design mindset: designing for culture change

Turning ideas to action

Behaviour change

If you can run great workshops, you can implement a workshop culture

PART 3: THE FRAMEWORK

The five-pillar framework for high-performing teams

Chapter 5: Alignment – seeing the bigger picture

Dynamic and fluid teams

The bigger picture – setting your team’s direction: alignment, clarity and purpose

Strategy development – ideas into action

Crystallizing team values

Chapter 6: Cohesion – self-awareness and connection

Balancing the team and individual

Building self-awareness for team performance

Individual productivity, team productivity

Building empathy for team cohesion

Chapter 7: Communication – meetings and workshops

Impactful meetings use design and facilitation

The responsibility of a meeting facilitator

Make your meetings more workshop-like

Facilitation techniques to improve your meetings

A holistic look at our meetings

Chapter 8: Design – designing ways of working

Team culture as a product in development

Designing routines and rituals over ‘team building’

Optimizing team productivity – what design can address

Designing connection

Chapter 9: Change – continuous improvement

A new approach to change

Understanding behaviour change

Tools and techniques to initiate and sustain change

Building a workshop culture – a blended approach to change

Conclusion

Toolkit

Workshop Culture: A Guide to Building Teams That Thrive (summary)

Notes

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Index

What if every day at work felt like your team’s most productive ‘away day’?

The most successful and innovative teams and organisations are highly collaborative, creative and productive - you will find the principles of great workshops infused throughout their culture.

This is a book about how running great workshops, and taking inspiration from them, can lead to a great team environment. Workshop Culture will show you how to create a happy and engaged team through small actions which lead to big results. It features a practical and accessible toolkit to help improve your team’s performance and productivity.

‘Well-researched and beautifully written’ - Amy C. Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership, Harvard Business School.

‘A smart guide to smart teamwork!’ - Jake Knapp, New York Times bestselling author of Sprint.

Alison Coward is a team culture coach, consultant and founder of Bracket, a consultancy that partners with ambitious, forward-thinking companies to build highperforming, collaborative team cultures.

Workshop Culture offers a compelling rationale for why the culture created in a well-designed and led workshop is indeed a match for the kind of culture organizations engaged in knowledge work need to succeed. In author Alison Coward’s telling, a workshop is no longer a time out, away from the real work; it is a time in – a time to focus deeply and collaboratively on what to do and how to do it well. Well-researched and beautifully written, this practical guidebook can be put to immediate use to help leaders build a thriving, engaged workforce. - Amy C. Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership, Harvard Business School, author of Right Kind of Wrong: The science of failing well

Great workshops temporarily transform how we work. Alison Coward shows us how to make the transformation permanent. A smart guide to smart teamwork! - Jake Knapp, New York Times bestselling author of Sprint

Alison Coward’s advocacy of work culture is compelling – who among us wouldn’t prefer a work environment that’s responsive, welcoming, safe and bursting with creative potential? She makes this possibility feel approachable and real. As a facilitator and collaboration designer, this book makes me want to applaud. - Sunni Brown, social entrepreneur and bestselling author

An engaging, practical, step-by-step guide for building a healthy, creative, inclusive and innovative workplace. - Dave Gray, co-author of Gamestorming: A playbook for innovators, rulebreakers, and changemakers

At a time in which work is increasingly uncertain, employees are seeking more meaning and businesses are striving to maintain competitive advantage. This poignant and practical book is the go-to manual for leaders and teams looking to build a better culture. One of the sharpest and most experienced leaders in the field, Alison Coward’s approach offers a robust, unique and above all actionable roadmap to help teams (and the organisations they work for) flourish and thrive. Drawing upon her deep expertise as a skilled and trusted facilitator, Alison guides the reader through the practices, principles and tools they’ll need to transform their teams, attract and retain more talent and cultivate greater resilience, whatever their industry. - Nathalie Nahai, best-selling author of Business Unusual

As an invaluable tool for teams to learn, strategize, align and share, workshops have never been more important. Alison has a huge amount of experience in team dynamics and on advising how to get exceptional value from workshops. This book distills her essential insights into a very engaging and practical read to help teams transform how they work. - Neil Perkin, author of Building the Agile Business and Agile Transformation

I’ve always been obsessed about culture, collaboration and the creation of high performing teams after founding The Social Element, a remote-first agency, back in 2002. We have worked with Alison; her approach outlined in this book enabled us to have an ongoing Workshop Culture at The Social Element, which has helped the team release their creativity, build trust and inspire each other and our clients every day. - Tamara Littleton, founder and CEO of The Social Element

Alison is rare in that she is a natural-born facilitator and has cultivated the skill of building highly effective teams for decades now. This is her playbook for all of us to indulge in. Deconstructing the principles that make for great workshops, Alison guides us to integrate these practices into our everyday working lives. If you want to gain the energy, motivation and positivity that comes from collaborative workshops – this is the book you need. - Jonas Altman, author of Shapers: Reinvent the way you work and change the future

Alison is one of the best communicators we have on the challenge of teams and making teams better. This book is for everyone who wants their team to be more innovative, more creative, more change-ready – and more productive. As Alison says, ‘workshops provide a snapshot into what a highperforming, engaged and collaborative team looks like’ – and this readable, knowledgeable and above all actionable book brilliantly shows how to take the intense learning and agile thinking of a workshop into your team full-time, with frameworks, advice and a whole world of insight. - Richard Goff, Chair of The People Director Partnership

I founded Groove to bring people together and so I’m well aware that as the world of work evolves, we have more need for staying connected and finding ways of relating to each other. In Workshop Culture, Alison provides a persuasive argument for better collaboration and a practical framework for how we can find connection, self-awareness and balance in the workplace. - Josh Greene, co-founder and CEO of Groove