The immediate output of the workshop will be a list of ideas. In order to be able to create a clear, well-defined list after the session, one needs to ensure there is good and detailed documentation of the ideas and of their associated discussions.
Below are several tips to ensure good documentation:
Documentation tips:
- Don’t rely on memory – document!
- Resist the temptation of writing on the flipchart the moment a participant starts to share his/her thoughts. An idea is more than an initial thought and, therefore, one should wait until they understand what the idea is before writing it down on the flipchart.
- When collecting ideas, allow participants to arrange their thoughts for 1-2 minutes before they start sharing them; specifically, one can ask participants to refer to the following components when sharing an idea on its way to the flipchart: Name of idea; Description/Essence of idea; Benefits; Challenges.
- Assign an official scribe for each part of the session; the scribe will be in charge of capturing everything that is going on (i.e. what is said, what is done, what is presented, etc). If you are working with a co-coach s/he can serve as the scribe when not facilitating.
- Make sure the official scribe, if you have one, understands the idea before moving on to the next one.
- If possible, the official scribe should try to capture the information on a laptop; this will shorten processing time afterward.
- Make sure all the notes taken by the official scribe and the flipchart pages are gathered at the end of the session, for confidentiality concerns.
- All team members should go over their personal notes and extract interesting learnings and ideas from them.