Participant Guide

The Event Phase represents the second 50 in our Nutcracker 50 | 50 | 30™ delivery framework. It’s this phase that is most visible to participants, and occurs after the Design Phase in which we’ve spent from 2 – 8 weeks working with the event sponsors designing the agenda, modules, assignments, graphic theme, how to arrange the event room, what specific art supplies are needed, and what equipment we need such as cameras, video cameras, etc.

You are probably wondering what to bring, what you will be doing, who is running the workshop etc. Well, that’s why we wrote this little Guide.

What to bring as a participant.

• Basically just bring yourself, with a smile on your face, all your experience and talents, and the desire to help your team get the best possible result.
• We need your ideas, your openness to listen and learn from others, your creativity, your expertise, your ability to think outside-the-box, and your desire to enjoy a unique opportunity.
• Arrive early, as you do not want to miss the team-building modules that we start with to bond your group and let you meet others that you may not have met before.
• You will not need a computer or your cell phone. Bring them by all means but be prepared to work with paper, markers, and the other materials we put at your disposal.

You will know things are different from the moment you walk in the door of a STAR Event. This is not your typical meeting or workshop, and it is likely you have never seen your company run an event like this. The layout is unique, you will see a lot of colour, very few tables, and no computers opened on them! There is a positive energy in the room that is filled with background music. Things are off to a good start!

This stage is all about sharing ideas and exploring as many of the potential options as possible that could make up our final solution.

Besides meeting your fellow participants, hearing from your company host what the meeting is all about and what you are being asked to achieve, and learning from the Starfish Taylor facilitator — we take you on a focused journey through a set of modules aimed at getting everyone up to speed on the body of knowledge around the topic. We avoid powerpoint unless it’s the best medium to get information shared.

You will be asked to participate, share your thoughts and ideas, draw, write, create and debate. We will ask you to listen respectfully to others points of view. We will ask you to respect the allocated time and do the very best work that you can.

In this stage we do a lot of thinking, listening, writing, drawing, and talking. We are hearing individual perspectives, and listening to small teams present aspects of a solution or model. We dive deeply into the topic and exploring it as fully as possible.

Test makes up the second stage and is commonly the longest part of the event. This stage is all about looking at the options presented in the Share stage and putting them to Test in real business environments. We use a wide variety of modules and exercises during this stage, that depend on the ultimate outcomes and outputs of the event, the duration, the number of participants etc.

You will be asked to think deeply in this stage and contribute your experience and expertise. For it is in this stage that your initial thoughts and ideas start to take shape. The more plausible start to rise up from the less. And the more robust and creative emerge.

You must be rigorous to ensure you have completed the tasks set to you, for brushing over something taken for granted in this stage may lead to a false-step later on. We eliminate options during the Test stage, and narrow down to a subset that will make up your final work.

Align & Roadmap makes up the final stage and everyone can feel it all coming together.

You will be asked to be decisive and practical in this stage. You are drawing on your collective knowledge and understanding of your organization’s ability to put in place final action plans and roadmaps,  strategy brief, new business models, budgets, communications plans, etc. You will be building out the final solution set for the event, and you are often working in teams on different aspects of the solution, such as the swim lanes to an overall 3 year roadmap.

You will draw from all the material developed during the first two stages, reusing those elements that best fit your final material

At the end of this stage, you will feel a great sense of achievement. In the short space of a few hours up to three days, you will have built out what your host had challenged you to build. You will have completed what is often the start of a much longer journey and you may well have developed something that goes on to be one of those “legacy” elements that make up all companies history and heritage.

During all stages, the Starfish Taylor team will be guiding you. We draw, illustrate, write, type, photograph and capture videos of the entire event. We intervene when we see teams struggling. We bring our business and creative backgrounds to help you push through challenges, and maintain a warm focus around the group energy to help keep things lively and fun.