Joining an innovation workshop is a big ask.
Your colleagues are busy, and you need to make sure everything goes smoothly to make their time worthwhile.
But how do you do that?
In this guide, you’ll discover key activities to help you design and run a successful innovation workshop.
4 activities to start your innovation workshop
The start of an innovation workshop is crucial for setting the tone of the day. Here’s how to make the most of this opportunity:
How?
At the beginning, remind participants of:
- Why they’re here – Connect the workshop to the broader goals of your project.
- What they’ll be doing – Provide a clear overview of the day’s activities.
- What the experience will feel like – Set expectations for the atmosphere and energy.
- How you want them to behave – Establish ground rules for engagement and collaboration.
Let’s dig into activities that will help you do that.
1. Define the objectives
Purpose:
Clarifying the objectives helps participants understand why the workshop matters and how it ties into their work. It also ensures everyone is engaged and aligned from the start.
How it works:
There are two types of objectives:
- High-level objectives – These explain the broader context and vision of the project, helping participants understand why their involvement is important.
- Direct objectives – These focus on the specific results and outputs you expect to achieve by the end of the workshop.
2. Share the agenda
Purpose:
It’s important for participants to have access to the agenda of the workshop. It allows them to relax as they can anticipate what’s coming next.
How it works:
When you invite the participants to the workshop, share an outline of the agenda.
Then, at the start of the session, introduce a more detailed version. Print it out or draw it on a large sheet of paper so everyone can see it throughout the workshop.
Bonus: Include exact timings, especially for breaks, to help people mentally plan the day. As Roger Schwartz wrote in HBR:
“The estimated time enables team members to either adapt their comments to fit within the allotted timeframe or to suggest that more time may be needed.”
It helps the participants plan the workshop in their head, and see the relative importance of each activity/topic.
3. Set group agreements
Purpose:
Establishing agreements at the start of the workshop sets the tone for how participants should behave and interact. Such ground rules help them know what’s expected of them.
This might seem like a minor step, but it can drastically improve the efficiency and collaboration within the group.
How it works:
Share a few key agreements relevant to your session. Here are some examples:
- Say yes – Be open to ideas, even if they don’t seem perfect at first.
- Be present – Avoid distractions like phones or laptops.
- No need to appear clever – Focus on contributing meaningfully rather than asking “smart” questions that don’t add value.
- Be punctual – Time is limited, and staying on track is crucial for success.
- Own it – Be accountable for the work that is being done during the workshop and after.
By setting the tone early, participants will understand what’s expected of them, leading to smoother interactions and fewer disruptions.
Top tip: In my experience, I find it easier for the facilitator to decide on the agreements you want to share for the session. But some facilitators suggest to get the group to create their own set agreements, though I find that it takes a lot of time for very little impact.
4. Use a parking lot
Purpose:
A parking lot is a simple but effective tool for managing off-topic ideas or questions that pop up during the workshop, preventing them from derailing the session.
How it works:
Designate a space on a wall to “park” ideas or questions that aren’t relevant at the moment. Every time something that risks to disrupt the flow comes up, you can explain to the participants that you will park it. The group will be then able to come back to these points later, during the session or after. Such technique ensures that the workshop stays focused.
Go deeper: Read these reflections about how to run a great workshop.
Ideas of exercises for your innovation workshop
Different exercises can be used depending on your workshop’s goals. Whether you’re defining challenges, exploring customer insights, or generating new ideas, here are some examples:
- Defining your current challenges
- Understanding your customers better
- Reviewing a new innovation process
- Generating new ideas
- Deciding on the next phase of a project
Now, let’s dive into a few exercises in more detail.
Co-create a customer journey
Purpose:
Understanding your customer journey is fundamental to innovation. It reveals pain points, unmet needs, and moments of opportunity that you can seize. By having your team co-create the journey, you gain a richer, more accurate perspective.
This not only helps to align everyone on the customer’s real experience but also paves the way for more targeted, impactful solutions that can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.
How it works:
This exercise leverages the collective expertise in the room to map out different customer segments and their experiences.
- Choose which customer segments to focus on.
- Use a large wall and have small groups (3-5 participants) map the journey of a specific segment using Post-it notes. Include steps, touchpoints with the company, and (if available) customer emotions at each stage.
- After mapping, have each group present their journey, and invite the rest of the participants to build on it.
This process uncovers valuable insights and ensures your team is aligned on what the customer really experiences, leading to more focused innovation efforts.
Dive deeper: For more information about creating a customer journey, read these reflections.
Spot challenges with a reverse brainstorming
Purpose:
Reverse brainstorming helps participants think differently by first focusing on what could go wrong, then turning those negative insights into opportunities for innovation or problem-solving.
How it works:
- Start by asking participants to think of ways to make a specific challenge worse or ensure that the project fails.
- Write these ideas on a board or Post-its. This often leads to humorous or outrageous suggestions.
- Next, ask the group to reverse these ideas. For example, if someone suggests “ignore customer feedback” to ensure failure, the reversed idea could be “integrate real-time customer feedback into every stage of development.”
- The result is a set of creative, proactive solutions to avoid the biggest challenges your innovation project may face.
Prioritise ideas with dot voting
Purpose:
Dot voting is a simple way to prioritise ideas in a workshop.
It’s by no mean scientific or thorough, it’s always helpful to quickly see the ideas that have the most potential from the perspective of the participants.
How it works:
- Write or display all the ideas generated during the workshop on a wall, whiteboard, or digital board.
- Give each participant a set number of sticky dots (or digital votes, if virtual) to place on the ideas they think are the most valuable or promising.
- Once everyone has voted, tally the dots to identify the most popular ideas.
- Use the top-voted ideas to guide the next steps in the workshop, such as further exploration or action planning.
How to end your innovation workshop on a high note
Ending on a positive note leaves a lasting impression. There’s a psychological reason to it:
The peak-end rule.
“It’s a psychological heuristic in which people judge an experience largely based on how they felt at its peak (i.e., its most intense point) and at its end, rather than based on the total sum or average of every moment of the experience.”
Here are two exercises to capitalise on this concept.
1. Get the participants to share their reflections
Purpose:
Reflections allow participants to review the day and emphasise key takeaways, leaving them with a sense of accomplishment.
How it works:
- Have the participants work in pairs.
- Ask them to write on Post-it notes any important takeaways or anything that stood out.
- Then, get each pair to share back with the rest of the group.
As a facilitator, you should group similar reflections to reinforce important themes.
2. Clarify the next steps
Purpose:
Clarifying the next steps ensures everyone knows what will happen after the workshop and who is responsible for each action.
How it works:
To make sure everyone is aligned on who needs to do what, you should answer three key questions:
- What’s next? – Remind participants of the next milestones in the project.
- What needs to be done? – List the tasks and their deadlines.
- Who owns it? – Assign an owner to each task to ensure accountability.
Depending on the workshop, ownership may be shared among participants or fall primarily to the facilitator.
Ready to level up your workshops?
Workshops are more than just a time slot—they’re an opportunity to create something special.
In The Icebreaker Playbook, you’ll find the tools to not just break the ice, but to build lasting connections.
Inside, you’ll get over 100 tested icebreakers, plus pro tips on when and how to use them for max impact.
You’ll walk into every workshop with confidence, knowing you’ve got the right tools to break the ice and get people to participate.