Getting the right attendees for your workshop

Who do we even need in this workshop?

Those moments in a workshop or meeting still bring up a cold sweat.  The scraping sound of more seats being dragged in. The panic sets in when there aren’t enough snacks (someone quickly grabs the knife to fractionalize a donut for the hungry hordes). The horror of seeing all these people crammed into a room that was only built for a few, mirroring a peak hour crosswalk in Shibuya.  Too many people turned up.

Too many attendees? Well that sucks.

This was only the start of the meeting.  No need to go through what happened next in detail but needless to say it was a mess.

We all want to be able to run a workshop or meeting that absolutely everyone wants to attend.  It’s a great feeling to be loved right?  But not all that glitters is gold, having the right people in the session is a critical part of your success. You don’t want it to be a selection process like the brutal schoolyard team selection, that’s just a whole lot of trauma that doesn’t need to be repeated.  

In this article we’ll cover what you need to think about when hosting a meeting or a workshop when it comes to attendees.

Structure your attendee list deliberately using these principles:

1. Keep the list small and manageable

2. Get unique roles and perspective

3. Balance out the personalities (if you can)

4. Have skin in the game

5. Never relax your attendance policy!

Seems simple enough, but let's click into it.

• A small and manageable attendee list

I like to keep this one at the top because it directly impacts the quality of your facilitation and the output the attendees will get. Put too many people in a room and it becomes unwieldy with so many voices to manage.  

You want to have 4-7 people if possible. This number gives everyone a chance to use their voice, it’s not too large that people can hide, they have to engage. 

Having a smaller list of people means you can make quick decisions, and be nimble to change direction.  

For you as well knowing that comfortable number is a good guide to recognise if you absolutely have to get help

HINT: Too many people and it's unavoidable? Get a co-facilitator (or use team captains if you have wayyyyy too many people).  There are ways around it, but it’s not ideal.

• Unique roles and perspective

Look around the room, is everyone saying the same thing and it seems a little bit echoey?  Highly probably you’ve got attendees who do the same job, talk the sale option and for lack of a better term they are twins.  This may get consensus or quorum super quickly, but it might not give a meeting a chance to uncover trapped problems or find new solutions.

Your ideal group has people who represent different parts of the problem you’re trying to solve. They provide such a rich and diverse point of view, and act as catalysts to inspire better thought. 

HINT: Have lots of people who represent a part of the problem and want their voice heard? Get a single voice to represent but also use a survey to get their perspectives that can be used in the meeting.

• Balance out your Personalities

A fight breaks out between two known personalities who constantly battle. The loud voice squashes another quiet one! Now we can celebrate another vanquished foe. But no, this isn’t what we’re here to do and others in the session have now switched off.  

These personalities are good to have but it does make your job facilitating a difficult one. If you can, a

Getting your attendee list however might be able to help you balance out any big personalities who are keen to fight or bigfoot others. 

HINT:  Ahead of time, know who is going to be attending and their history, maybe get a call with each of them to get to know their needs and wants. Know their triggers, know what their previous problems have been.  

• Have skin in the game

Think about the output of your meeting or workshop, who will ultimately have some accountability for this? Knowing who the true audience of the problem goes a long way in knowing who the right people are to invite. If people want to be involved but don’t really have much accountability to the solution then they should be riding the pine.  Simple as that.

I’ve seen many times when people wanted to attend for political gains or it was a hot button topic (and who doesn’t like a good stoush).  In the end, they are tourists and their participation is clearly as an outsider.  Now it can be good to sometimes have an outsider view, however their agenda might differ from the key problem being addressed.

Here’s a big one; at least 1 person in that workshop has to be a decision maker.  You’ll need them to win at tie-breaks, and help the session move forward. They are your champions.

HINT: Draw up a stakeholder map of who would be affected by this problem, and identify those with the most to lose or gain.  Use that as a good frame of reference.

• Never relax your attendance policy!

As with above, you want to invite the right people to the session, and you’ll have plenty of tourists who want to be involved (even though it’s not their problem to solve). You’ll set the boundaries for how people can get involved and your attendance policy must be known.  

Let’s say you don’t keep your policy in check; people might just ignore your needs and just turn up anyway. This happens more and more, the less likely the folks who really need to be in that session will participate or even turn up. 

There’s nothing wrong with being strict for this, leave your flexibility for the session itself!

HINT: You can be strict and collaborative at the same time for this, get time with the people who want to attend (but shouldn’t). Hear them out and decide if they need a session that covers their needs explicitly.  

---

At the end of the day the power of your workshop is provided by the attendees, they have the knowledge to solve the problem but need guidance to get there. You may not have the power to pick the right people, but having a good set of principles to have the right people in the room.

Kenoath Consulting has over 20 years of experience in IT Professional Services, and can help you run the session that your problems deserve. Set up a 30 min call to find out more.