Pre-Workshop Survey
A short survey designed to prioritize concerns and areas of focus in order to make better use of ideation workshops. Pre-workshop surveys can be administered in conjunction with temperature checks prior to ideation workshops to lead discussions and improve agenda organization.
FAQ
What are the best pre-workshop survey questions to ask?
We often base questions off of previous information received from the organization, whether that be through small group breakout sessions, previous organizational culture work materials, or informal conversations with individuals.
Sections of questions are often targeted to directly and indirectly answer key questions we have formulated about how to tackle organizational culture issues. These include gaining an understanding of how the organization has performed in the past, the current status of the organization, a subjective evaluation of why previous attempts of change have fallen short or what may be the bottlenecks for future success, and a ranked prioritization in tackling identified areas of concern.
How do you ask questions to make room for open-ended deliberation?
Survey questions are often paired with a qualitative and quantitative component. The quantitative component is easier to analyze and compare responses across individuals, which makes identifying larger organizational trends more straightforward. The qualitative component makes room for individuals to elaborate upon their individual, nuanced perspectives. This typically takes the form of open-ended text boxes to explain a scoring or ranking.
How long is the ideal survey to maintain engagement?
Ideally, we plan for our surveys to take no longer than 45 minutes to fill out, and also time ourselves in taking the survey to be able to properly establish the correct expectations for respondents.
All surveys are also never all fill-in-the-blank or open-ended text boxes. The beginning of surveys should always be “easier” to answer questions, such as multiple choice or demographic-related to make the respondent feel more comfortable. The respondent must be able to toggle between survey sections easily, and recognize their completion progress whenever possible.
What should be established before a workshop to maximize the productivity of precious workshop time?
In a survey, individuals must have room to convey all their feelings and experiences. Before a workshop, participants should be aware of all these perspectives and feelings of the general group. Workshop time is not spent well conveying information, but rather discussing arguments.