Workshop: Facilitating Virtual Collaboration

Overview

In this online interactive workshop, you will learn tools and best practices to facilitate successful collaborative work at a distance. Your teams and workgroups are now being asked to work virtually, many for the first time. As a facilitator or HR partner, you may be struggling to support creative and collaborative remote work, while orienting team members to new technology that can often be overwhelming. Smooth and effective virtual facilitation requires an understanding of the unique challenges the online environment poses for group work, along with a toolbox of approaches that really work. This workshop provides you with what you need to transfer your face-to-face facilitation skills to remote settings.

We will explore why collaborative work that is not co-located is so challenging, and how you can tackle the unique problems that come with virtual facilitation. We will teach you how to use Slack, a team collaboration app, to get the most out of group communication. We will show you how to leverage Zoom’s latest features, and how to experience the power of visual templates using whiteboarding apps, All of this you will experience while engaging in small- and large-group discussions, hands-on learning, and individual practice, with practical take-aways that you can put to use immediately.

This training is limited to 20 participants.

Of Special Note

• This workshop is an intensive experience that requires a significant time investment over the course of one week. In addition to attending each two-hour course session, you will be asked to complete short readings and homework assignments outside of class and bring your questions and ideas to discuss with the group. You will also be asked to complete a project with a partner or partners from the course and to co-present your work on the final course day.
• Please plan to attend each session in its entirety. This is not a self-paced course and the sessions are not recorded.
• Although our work will have a visual component, this is not a virtual graphic recording course. No special equipment is required other than the ability to connect to a web meeting. Familiarity with Zoom and Mural is a plus.

Highlights

• Focus on supporting collaboration: we will move beyond brainstorming activities and learn how to help people work meaningfully with the ideas they generate.
• Up your tools game: experiment with different collaborative tools and learn what to look for when evaluating a new tool.
• Be your best facilitator self in online settings: build on your strengths as a facilitator and grow your capacities in your challenge areas.
• Work on real-world challenges: bring questions that arise from your own virtual work for us to tackle together.