What You’ll Learn in This Workshop Book
This workshop book gives you a clear, practical framework to design and run workshops that deliver results. You will learn how to think and act as an effective facilitator, structure workshops in simple, proven phases, and guide teams from ideas to decisions and concrete next steps. From preparation to follow-up, including handling challenging participants and choosing the right workshop format, this book equips you with over 50 practical workshop activities, tools and templates to run high-impact workshops with confidence.
Content Overview
I. The Universal Structure of Workshops
1. Before the Workshop
- Align on the workshop goal (what does success look like?)
- Determine the starting point
- Choose the most suitable format
- Select activities to move from start to goal
- Select, invite, and motivate participants with clear intention
2. During the Workshop
- Create options
- Select options
- Develop and refine
- Define and commit to next steps and actions
3. After the Workshop
- Reflect
- Summarize results
- Follow up on next steps
II. Workshop Activities & Techniques
4. Understanding Problems and Context
- Sailboat
- Team Journey
- Problem Framing
- Pain Points to Opportunity Shift
- Journey Mapping
- Map of the challenge
- Jobs to be Done
- Value Curves
- Pre-Mortem
5. Idea Generation
- Brainwriting
- Brainstorming
- 3-12-3 Brainstorm
- SCAMPER Method
- Perspective Shift
- Analogy Formation
- Reverse Thinking
- Mashups
- Crazy 8s
6. Decision and Prioritization
- Dot Voting
- Team Ranking
- Impact-Effort Matrix
- Heatmap
- Affinity Mapping
- Buffet Method
7. Development and Prototyping
- Storyboarding
- Looks-Like Prototyping
- MVP Concept
- Future Press Release
- Team statement
- Checklist
- Guideline
- Gallery
- “Frankenstein” Prototyping
8. Further Facilitation Toolsn and Methods
- Design Thinking / Design Sprint / Concept Sprint
- LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®
- Walt Disney Method
- Six Thinking Hats
- World Café
- Lightning Talks
- Business Model Canvas®
- Value Proposition Canvas®
- Mood Board
- Task Buffet
- 14-Day Question
- Using AI
III. Team Facilitation Techniques
9. Working with People
- The working together alone principle
- Activation and ice-breaking activities
- Questioning techniques
- Facilitator mindset
- Handling difficult participants
- Establishing ground rules
- Managing unexpected situations
- Closing exercises (e.g. Spaghetti Tower)
IV. Final Exercise
10. Designing Your Workshop
- Create a full workshop schedule
- Use the Workshop Master Template
- Define activities and timing
- Adapt to your professional context
- Receive and apply feedback
About the Author
Joern Steinz is an experienced workshop facilitator, consultant and the founder of INNOMINDS. Since 2014, he has designed and facilitated more than 1,000 workshops for organisations across industries — from strategy and innovation to alignment and transformation.
In this workshop book, he shares the methods, tools and activities he uses in real projects, enriched with practical context and experience. Rather than theory, the focus is on what works in practice.
Having worked with teams in a wide range of environments — from small teams to large organisations, from Hamburg to Singapore — Joern brings a pragmatic, hands-on approach to designing and running workshops that deliver results.
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We aim to release the book as a PDF download by the end of April 2026.
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