CoLAB Workshops
Collaborating with Strangers (CoLAB) Workshop (CoLAB Planning Series®)
CoLAB Workshops have served over 3,500 participants through 80 workshops hosted in libraries, classrooms, conferences, and nonprofit organizations for groups averaging 20. The pandemic has put a damper on networking activities that often take place in organizations and during conferences. This workshop connects participants to each other during three-minute meetings where information about past projects, work passions, skills and resources are shared. Prepared profiles for each participant make the information immediately available for intriguing conversations that quickly reveal participants’ hidden assets, interests, and resources. These workshops are available online through Zoom or in-person. Participants may represent their entire organization or their individual professional work.
Outcomes:
- Learning about past CoLAB Workshops and the results they achieved;
- Completing from 7 to 12 speed meetings with other participants; and,
- Discovering opportunities for partnerships or resource sharing that otherwise would remain hidden.
(2-3 hours)
Collaborative Idea Tables Workshop (CoLAB Planning Series®)
Idea Table Workshops work best when they are offered to participants who have completed a CoLAB Workshop. Using the World Café method, the facilitator will present questions that expose specific cooperative, coordinative, and/or collaborative opportunities that participants may be interested in pursuing with each other. The goal of this workshop is to practice generating partnership ideas by combining resources in new ways (based on known and available assets as shared by participants) in a safe, unfettered environment, and then to establish participants’ priorities for those executing ideas that resonate the most.
Outcomes:
- Collaborative conversations with participants that generate unforeseen ideas, resources, and connections;
- Ideas for actualizing new products, projects, services, resources, research, or curricula; and,
- Creating a collective understanding the work priorities of participants.
(2 to 3 hours)
How to Facilitate
Collaborating with Strangers (CoLAB) Workshops
This workshop introduces facilitation methods developed by the presenter in 2001 which have served over 3,500 participants in libraries, classrooms, conferences, and nonprofit organizations in groups averaging 20. The pandemic has put a damper on networking activities that often take place in organizations and at conferences. Skills for quickly discerning a colleague’s assets and experiences have become increasingly vital to developing partnerships, solving problems, and leveraging existing resources. Learn how these workshops can make this possible.
Outcomes:
- Understanding the basic principles for facilitating CoLAB Workshops;
- Learning the standard checklist needed to prepare your CoLAB agenda; and,
- Reviewing standard processes used by CoLAB facilitators that you can practice in your organization.
(1.5 hours)
CoLAB Workshop Images
