Designing workshops for transfer

A good workshop gets positive feedback forms. A useful workshop changes what people do the following week. These are not the same thing, and the difference is mostly decided before the session begins. The planner that goes with this article puts the steps below on one page.

Before the session

• Write the outcome as an action. What will participants do differently, where, and how often? "Use a one-step feedback routine in every lesson" is clearer than "understand feedback".
• Ask leaders about support. What time and support will participants have to practise afterwards? If the answer is none, the workshop will not change much.
• Collect real examples. Ask participants to bring a lesson plan, a report, a recent case, or a difficult conversation. Practice on their own work transfers far better than practice on generic examples.

During the session

• Spend at least half the time on practice with real tasks, not on slides.
• Show what good looks like with a short example, then let people try, then give feedback.
• End with each person writing a specific plan: what they will try, with whom, and by when.
• Give a tool they will keep using, such as a template, checklist, or protocol.

After the session

• Schedule a short check-in two to three weeks later.
• Ask for one piece of evidence of the new practice, such as a lesson plan, a student sample, or a recorded conversation.
• Share examples that worked, so others can borrow them.
• Ask managers or coordinators to mention the new practice in their regular meetings.

A simple test

Three weeks after the workshop, ask a few participants what they are doing differently. If they can describe it in one sentence, the workshop transferred. If they describe the slides, it did not.

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