Introvert-friendly workshops

Do you “talk to think” or “think to talk”?

If you haven’t read Susan Cain’s The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, you should. If we truly value diversity when designing, delivering and learning from whatever it is we do then we need to understand the power of introverts and ensure that everyone is able to contribute.

It is undoubtedly true that the world, and the world of work in particular, is structured in ways that enable extroverts (and often disable introverts). Workshops, as one of the key tools that organisations (and of course consultants) use to develop strategy and make plans, are a classic example of this. They are almost always structured to enable people who “talk to think” (extroverts) to flourish, while those how “think to talk” (introverts) are often marginalised and excluded.

How can we change that dynamic to get more value from workshop through inclusion of people with diverse personality types?

In our experience there are some key ingredients in the right formula for inclusive workshops:

Identification

Find a way to work out who are the introverts and extroverts in the room. You can even ask “do you talk to think or think to talk?" This can open up space for empathy and reduce judgement through better understanding of participants’ communication styles. It can implicitly give permission for constructive challenge of premature comments (usually from extroverts) and allow silences to be constructive thinking space.

You can even make clear from the outset that "suffering is optional"; if at any point anyone finds things too stimulating/tiring, or just not productive, they take a break (or call for a collective break) with no judgement from anyone else. You don't need everyone to be involved in every activity.

Preparation

Typically introverts like to think about stuff before they share it. Being up front about what the workshop will cover and giving people time to think about the subject matter in advance can really help; as can avoiding surprises (though sometimes surprise can be stimulating). We find that a shorter preparatory meeting (usually a video/telephone conference) a week or so beforehand can be really helpful in surfacing some of the key issues for discussion and allowing people time to think in advance (without fixing ideas too early).

Inclusive methods

Typical workshop methods, such as brainstorming, usually favour the extrovert. It is important, therefore to include methodologies within the workshop that allow introverts space to participate. These could include:

• Silent brainstorming, where participants write down ideas before sharing them. A variant on this is the “walking brainstorm” that uses themed boards/sheets and post-its to elicit ideas from participants as they walk from one station to another.

• Solo working or small groups to develop or appraise ideas and using visual/written tools rather than constant verbal discussion, particularly early on in the development process.

• Gradually increasing the numbers of people who interact with each other, for example moving from silent/walking brainstorming to work in pairs or small groups before moving on to plenary discussion (which also brings the extroverts into play gradually).

Whatever approaches you use, there needs to be a balanced mix, otherwise you may never get ideas from the extroverts (although we bet you will)!

Provisional conclusions

Don’t reach firm, immovable conclusions at the end of the workshop (certainly not the first workshop anyway), unless there is an urgent need to do so. Introverts like to take ideas away and cogitate on them over a period of time. Making it clear that the group remains open to ideas, challenge and affirmation after the workshop has finished gives introverts permission to do just that (in fact it encourages them to do so).

Follow-up

If you have successfully signalled that conclusions from the workshop are provisional or remain under development, you need to create a forum for follow-up. That might be a subsequent meeting/workshop or it could be a designated time and space for anyone who wants to contribute further to meet the facilitator/leader of the group so that their ideas are included in the eventual conclusions.

Fixing thinking too early rarely results in good long-term planning, so this is good practice anyway, and it will help ensure everyone can play their part. You’ll probably need a follow-up plenary of some kind a few days or weeks later at which decisions can be reached (if decisions need to be collective); it will be worth that extra investment of time to get the quality of thought you need for a winning strategy.

Of course there will be constraints that make it difficult to do everything we’ve suggested (and it may not be appropriate to do so) but we’d encourage you to give it a go and enjoy the richer engagement and diversity of ideas that will result.

If you’d like to chat further about any of the ideas in this blog or explore how we could help your charity develop it strategy and plans please contact us at julian@almondtreeconsulting.co.uk to arrange free initial telephone discussion.