This allows the team to stay on topic and gain confidence in your workshop technique. Results become the stress management tool allowing the team and the facilitator to remain focused on the issues. While the hard stuff can be a difficult thing to achieve, soft issues can often be more difficult and detract from thoughtful solutions. To counteract this, an effective facilitator must continue to focus on the positive aspects of people working together and seeing results. In the evolution of structured meetings, people have expressed the desire to improve and speed up the process.
Experience shows there is a natural pace and learning curve for workshop activities.
Successful management of this phenomenon is predicated on time for analysis and reflection facilitated by the demonstration of results. Automation may support some workshop activities but learning and acceptance can be adversely affected when inappropriate tools drive the pace. At some point, technology may add value to workshop activities as a development tool but never as the primary focus for the workshop. No matter how fascinating, technology should not replace the agenda nor be a distraction to results. While it need not be a hands-on experience for participants, the facilitator wants to ensure that the team does not judge a proposed solution in terms of the technology used in a workshop.