LEADING A WORKSHOP

ORGANIZING A WORKSHOP - GENERAL INFORMATION

Prerequisites

Organizing a workshop as a facilitator is allowed to everyone, it is simply requested:

  • To have participated in a workshop of The Earth System Fresco

  • To feel capable of doing it, even if it means training with a restricted circle of known and trusted people

  • To be sensitive and empathic with others

  • To handle time in order to keep the workshop within the recommended deadlines


Recommendations

It is also highly recommended:

  • To have participated in a Climate Fresk workshop

  • To be a facilitator of the Climate Fresk workshop

  • To know by heart the essentials of the cards of this workshop

  • To be able to reconstruct the fresco yourself

  • To have faced a few questions during preliminary tests

  • To get one authorization per person if you wish to distribute photos or screenshots of the workshop, for legal reasons

Note: it takes about 1h45-3h for 68 cards, which makes between 1m30s and 3m per card approximately (reading + positioning reflection).


Also: you have the right to make mistakes, no one will blame you on one or two approximations, and you will probably not be an expert in the areas in which the workshop ventures! The best way to feel comfortable is to get even more information and training! This is precisely the purpose of this workshop: to make the complexity of the meta-problem understood and to stimulate the thirst for knowledge and the collective search for solutions!


Running

Regardless of the form, the workshop begins with a quick round-table to find out:

  • who's who (so everyone can call each other by their first name)

  • who does what in life


Then, it is followed by a presentation of the workshop, essentially:

  • a reminder of the duration (and estimates of the different stages), the possibility of taking individual breaks (group breaks are very difficult to reconcile with the workshop)

  • a reminder that the content is based only on recognized, official sources, the exhaustive list of which can be found on the workshop website

  • a reminder of collective benevolence, not everyone being at the same level of knowledge or working in the same sectors


Throughout the workshop, it is important to point out several things to the participant:

  • some cards have a special title color (resource types in blue, planetary boundaries in black on red, negative effects in red on black background, start and end in green)

  • card 61 has arrows and two background colors linking it to its linked cards, and can be positioned at 90°

  • there are clues on almost all the cards to link them to the others

  • encourage once the fresco is made to find a maximum of subtitles to the cards and to group them, in a second part, everyone can do it at the same time

  • finally, in the remaining time, before doing a last round table, encourage people to find a few solutions to germinate the desire to go further


Ditto, the workshop must end with a last round table to allow everyone:

  • to give an opinion

  • to evoke their desires created by the fact of having participated

  • to understand that it is possible to lead the workshop yourself, using the resources on the site!

Note that it is possible to merge all the groups into one to close the workshop and do a global round table, it is more rewarding.


Optionally, notify the workshop team that a workshop has taken place by completing (as a facilitator) the participant count form.

ORGANIZING A FACE-TO-FACE WORKSHOP

Hosting a face-to-face workshop is different from hosting an online workshop, and has its pros and cons.

To organize a face-to-face workshop, you will need to:

  • have printed the material (cards) beforehand, which may require a significant price from a professional printer, often decreasing in batch quantities, one set of cards per group, or with a sufficiently precise printer (the ideal format for cards is about 14-15 centimeters long)

  • be at least 10 minutes in advance to prepare a table of at least 3m x 2m (sometimes by assembling several tables or desks side by side), completely empty

  • lay out an opaque, unpatterned white paper tablecloth on the table and quickly hang or tape it to the table so it doesn't slip or fly away

  • sort the cards by lot (and number) to go faster

  • bring at least one marker or large pencil, pencil, pen, per participant, if possible in several legible colors

  • have something to keep an eye on time

  • a maximum of 9 people per group, and a maximum of 2 to 4 groups per session, depending on your level of expertise and experience

ORGANIZING AN ONLINE WORKSHOP

Organizing an online workshop is quite simple, you will need:

  • A good internet connection

  • A Mural.io account (a tool chosen to be consistent with the other murals)

  • Videoconferencing software like Teams, Discord, Zoom, Slack, etc.

  • To clone the Mural workshop template (in English): https://app.mural.co/template/58949f8c-2503-4143-80da-b846c10962cb/a4fc1710-67c9-4465-ba36-d7b410b317d2

  • Send the invitations for the videoconference and the mural thus created to the 6 to 9 people and tell them that in the event of disconnection, all they have to do is join using the links again.

  • Present the workshop quickly (in 5 minutes)

  • Introduce the Mural tool quickly (in 5 minutes)

  • A maximum of 9 people, a single group (you have to leave conversations to lead several workshops, it's far too complex and destabilizing)


Generally speaking, expect to add around 15-20 minutes to the total time when hosted online, as not everyone is as digitally savvy.

Don't forget to use Ctrl/Shift+Click to mass-select objects to move, to group them in case someone ungroups them, and to ask Ctrl+Z to undo if someone accidentally deletes cards, and don't forget that you can lock objects as an animator in Mural.

Finally, don't forget that a workshop solution/correction is available online, at the end of the workshop sources, on the site!

Many things still remain to be defined, come back to visit this page from time to time!

For now, feel free to use all of this material as you like!

You can contact the author for more information. Something new is coming soon... :)


"Well... I was born yesterday."
(Ultron, Avengers: Age of Ultron)