Menu
Tomek's blog
  • Contact & About
Tomek's blog
upgrade

Making it Better Step by Step

Posted on October 28, 2022November 1, 2022 by Tomek Kaczanowski

Third time a charm? Maybe. But sometimes you need more than three attempts to do something right. At least, this is how it works for me while I’m working on improving my workshops.

Today I ran a short workshop based on Christopher Avery’s concept of The Responsibility Process. It was the fifth or sixth time I did it. I’ve been improving it since months and today was the first time that I felt I did it right! 🙂

It Started Small

The previous ones that I ran weren’t bad. On the contrary. The participants seemed to (moderately) enjoy it, and based on the feedback I got, I delivered some value each single time. But every time I felt, I could do much better.

Today the feelings are different. There is still some room for improvement (I hope to get some valuable feedback hints in addition to my own observations), but everything “clicked”. 

Compound Interest

I keep all the old slides & materials, so I can compare them to the current version. And this is where things get really interesting. I never redesigned this workshop, I never introduced a big change in the overall approach, but now, when I look at the first version, the difference is striking. All these small improvements accumulated over time and together made it so much better. It feels like compound interest, so to say. 🙂

But How Do You Work on Improving Workshop?

First, I try to get feedback from the participants. Not always simple, as giving you feedback is usually not their priority. To increase my chances of getting some valuable feedback I always ask for feedback explicitly at the very end of the training. I also send the survey right after the workshop ends, hoping that people won’t get drawn into the everyday whirlwind yet. 🙂

And BTW. There is another neat trick regarding feedback received after a meeting.

The second thing I do, is I run a kind of retrospective after each workshop I run. I have a simple template with a set of questions that I answer. I focus on things that went well (very important to think about it!), things that I could improve, and some “lessons learned” (e.g. about the time needed for specific activities). And one more thing. I try to introduce the changes immediately afterwards.

Pro tip: run this retrospective soon after the workshop. This way all the feelings and impressions are fresh.

Improving Workshops Never Stops

And what next? Well, I hope to introduce a few changes so that the next workshop should be yet another few percent better. Which is all that really counts!

Share this:

  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window) Pocket
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related Posts

  • christopher avery
  • continuous improvement
  • feedback
  • improvement
  • kaizen
  • ladder of responsibility
  • responsibility
  • the responsibility process
  • tips & tricks
  • workshop
  • Leave a ReplyCancel reply

    Follow me on Twitter

    My Tweets

    Subscribe to Blog

    My Books

    Practical Unit Testing - JUnit Practical Unit Testing - TestNG Bad Tests, Good Tests kanban for your team 1,2,3 kanban Złe testy, dobre testy

    Tags

    4dx agile book review capacity planning conference constraints continuous improvement daily scrum decision taking discussion effectiveness review estimation experiment facilitation feedback funny getting things done goals interview kanban leadership management management 3.0 meetings notes organisational culture procrastination productivity psychological safety rant remote work retrospective scrum scrum sprint sociocracy sociocracy 3.0 team testing tips & tricks tools transparency visualization wip work in process work in progress

    There is no Planet B. Act Now!

    There is no Planet B. Act Now!
    There is no Planet B. Act Now!

    Follow me on LinkedIn

    Tomasz Kaczanowski

    Top Posts & Pages

    • ACE! Conference 2015
      ACE! Conference 2015
    • Sociocracy 3.0 Effectiveness Review
      Sociocracy 3.0 Effectiveness Review
    • Interview Tool: Moving Motivators
      Interview Tool: Moving Motivators
    • 4DX: LAG vs. LEAD
      4DX: LAG vs. LEAD

    Categories

    • agile (32)
    • book (7)
    • event (2)
    • facilitation (2)
    • organization (11)
    • productivity (32)
    • sociocracy (10)
    • team (5)
    • testing (2)
    • tools (16)
    • Uncategorized (9)
    • varia (30)
      • remote work (2)
      • ux (2)

    No Business On A Dead Planet

    No Business On Dead Planet
    No Business On Dead Planet
    ©2025 Tomek's blog | WordPress Theme by Superb Themes
    %d