Foundation
In the charity sector, where resources are often stretched thin, tapping into the unique skills and strengths of your team members can make all the difference. It’s not just about “making do” with what you have, but about adopting a strategic and empowering approach to achieve more with less.
By embracing a collaborative mindset, your charity can navigate internal resource challenges more effectively, building a culture of learning, continuous development, and shared success. When you truly understand and appreciate the individual talents within your team, you can unlock their full potential, helping your charity accomplish more with fewer resources.
To support you in this, we’ve created a hands-on workshop designed to help your team discover and leverage each other’s skills and strengths. This small, interactive session is tailored specifically for your organisation, and all you need is a space large enough for everyone to participate
How to structure your skills workshop
- Materials needed: Each participant will need a pen and a large sheet of paper
- Duration: The workshop lasts for 1 hour
- 5 minute introduction
- 25 minutes for creating ‘skills stalls’
- 30 minutes for team review
How to run your skills workshop
1. Set the scene: Explain to the group that they are now in a “skills market,” where they’ll be setting up stalls to both offer and seek out skills. This market is about sharing, learning, and growing together as a team.
2. Create ‘Skills stalls’: On large sheets of paper, invite each team member to draw out their “market stall,” with three sections:
- Current skills (the skills that allow me to do my job well)
- Hidden skills (skills that others may not know I have)
- Desired skills (skills I want to develop or learn)
3. Encourage creativity: Encourage participants to get creative with their market stall design. They can use drawings, symbols, or colors to personalise their stall. This will make the exercise more fun and engaging. Allow them to reflect carefully on each section.
4. Share and discuss: Once everyone has completed their stalls, ask them to stick their sheets up on the wall where the entire group can see them. Each team member will then take a few minutes to present their stall to the group, explaining their current, hidden, and desired skills.
5. Collaborative exchange: As the group moves from stall to stall, encourage active participation. Each participant should be invited to place their initials next to skills they can help others develop or skills they themselves would like to learn. This creates a culture of collaboration and shared learning.
6. Reflection and next steps: After the group has visited all the stalls, take a few minutes to discuss insights. Highlight patterns such as overlapping desired skills or hidden talents that could be useful in upcoming projects. This is a chance to talk about how you can better align tasks with individual strengths and support each other’s development.
By the end of this workshop, your team will have a much clearer understanding of the skills and strengths within the group, as well as areas where development or training may be beneficial. You’ll also establish a culture of mutual support, where team members actively help each other grow.
You can expand this further:
Team collaboration: After the stalls are reviewed, consider breaking the team into small groups to discuss how hidden skills or desired skills can be used in upcoming projects or initiatives.
Follow-up plan: At the end of the workshop, establish a plan to follow up. Perhaps assign “skills partners” where team members can support each other’s development over the next month.
Good luck!
