Psychological safety in workshops is key to collaboration

‘What do you want from us?’

Startled, the workshop facilitator blinked. All of the hundred or so participants in the room, most of them senior public servants, paused politely to hear his response.

‘Your ideas!’ he beamed.

Sitting next to me, the man who asked the question rubbed his eyes under his glasses and sighed.

Workshops are a standard item in the design and innovation toolkit. Many people experience them as pleasant but unimportant diversions from ‘real work’. In a good workshop, however, a great deal can be achieved.