AJ&Smart

The new (accidental) AJ&Smart uniform looks pretty cool, right?

We just dropped a new video sharing 6 of our favourite icebreakers—perfect for helping teams connect, solve problems, and collaborate better (while having fun!). We've run these icebreakers in facilitation trainings, Design Sprints, Design Thinking workshops, Product Strategy workshops, team offsites, and even in primary school (back when Rebecca Courtney was a teacher). Check out the video here: https://lnkd.in/dmZ6MBbK Here's what we've included: 1. Zombie Apocalypse 2. Rock, Paper, Scissors 3. The Fourth Little Pig 4. Model Your Ideas with Lego 5. Hopes and Fears 6. Speed Networking Honestly, they're as fun to run as they sound! Do you have a favourite icebreaker we should add to our toolkit? Let us know!

Our new Icebreaker video drops soon—don’t miss it! 👀

Do you agree with Rebecca Courtney here?

How to Build Client Relationships like a Top 1% Facilitator Whether you’re a facilitator, a freelance designer, a small business owner, or an employee, knowing how to build great relationships with your clients or other stakeholders (like your colleagues or your manager) is a crucial skill to create an amazing business or grow in your career. You can be the best in your field, a technical genius—but if you don’t know how to build relationships with your clients, if you’re difficult to communicate with, if instead of taking pressure off your clients, you create more work for them, if you don’t know how to manage expectations, if you’re not 100% transparent, or if you can’t handle conflict and take feedback personally—then your clients will prefer to work with someone who might be a bit less talented but is easier to work with. Strong client relationships can make or break your career, regardless of your expertise. That’s why learning how to build these relationships is so important. In our most recent video, our own Tim Höfer (Head of product design and expert Facilitator at AJ&Smart) has compiled over 12 years of experience working with hundreds of clients and stakeholders in under 30 minutes. This video is truly a must-see for everyone here. Enjoy! https://lnkd.in/evwrwRxq

How to ONBOARD Workshop Participants like a PRO! Most beginner facilitators mess up their workshops or sessions before they even start—simply because they don’t have a streamlined way to onboard participants correctly. We’ve made every mistake imaginable when it comes to onboarding participants and prepping for a workshop. But over the years, we’ve learned from those mistakes and developed a simple, effective process for onboarding participants to any session. We put together a video where you’ll learn 4 easy steps to onboard participants like a pro (from a pro Amr Khalifeh). Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/dR5pzdEX You can use these steps for internal workshops or with your clients. P.S. we also included a pdf (under the video) of the exact templates we use when onboarding our participants which you can start using right away! Did we miss anything? What do you always include when onboarding participants? Let us know in the comments!

The new Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky book just dropped! Well, actually it hasn't come out yet. But if you preorder it until this Friday 31st of January you'll get a bunch of exclusive bonuses that'll help you run a Foundation Sprint immediately. A Foundation Sprint is a new 2-day workshop created by Jake and John that comes before a Design Sprint. It will help you get even more amazing results out of your Sprints. Oh yeah, the book is called Click. Preorder it here 📕 https://lnkd.in/eMx4wy3y PS. This was Jake's idea. And yes, it hurt.

This Might Be Costing You Clients... Telling them their company is broken. Sure, it might get you some sympathy points with the team, but let’s face it—most companies already know their collaboration is chaotic. They don’t need you reminding them! In fact, doing so can make you seem inexperienced. If you’ve been around long enough, you know that every company has its chaos. Pointing it out doesn’t add value—it just makes you look like you’re not ready to handle it. So what should you do instead? That’s exactly what we’re talking about in our new video: https://lnkd.in/dRetvywv Spoiler: Jonathan Courtney has a unique way of explaining it that's worth checking out! Remember: how you talk to your clients could be the difference between a one-off project and becoming your client’s go-to facilitator. Check it out and let us know what you think!

Facilitation is NOT About Memorizing Workshops! If you’ve facilitated workshops before, you know that every session can throw you a curveball— unexpected tech issues, late participants, or even a key decision-maker canceling at the last minute! No matter how perfectly you’ve planned, something unpredictable WILL happen. That’s just the nature of Facilitation! And you have to be prepared to be unshaken by it and to be flexible to adapt to the new situation. Yes, of course you should know your exercises and workshops. But to be honest, that's the lowest requirement you should meet as a facilitator. Your true value lies in reducing the burden of collaboration, making teamwork smoother and more enjoyable, while still achieving results efficiently. Check out our latest YouTube video, where Jonathan Courtney goes deeper into this topic. Here's the link: https://lnkd.in/dAqJ5GNt Let us know what you think of this in the comments—Let's talk about it!

Take a look at our Full-Stack Facilitator Training in Berlin last month! Last month, we hosted our 5-day, in-person Facilitation training in our brand new office here in Berlin, and it was SO MUCH FUN!! Here's some pictures from the training. 🎓A huge shout out to our Graduates: Chris Davis, David Finnegan, Dee Scarano, Molly Tanner, Jakub Michalski, David Hefendehl, Elizabeth DiCandilo, Katharina Brandenberger, Suzy Crook, Rohan Mehta, Gilmar Wendt FRSA, Steffen Goertz, Mathias Fallmann, Eric Dirschedl, Lukáš Svěcený, Jiri Rusnak, Trine Birkelund Dupont, Anja Sengenberger, Chase Conrad, Conny Lochelfeld, Jakub Kepczynski, Gregory Kocsis, Petra Roman, Carolina Marci, Brady Donaldson, Nadia Anggraini! We're so looking forward to the next Full-Stack Facilitator in Palo Alto next July! If you're interested in joining the next cohort in July 2025, I'll drop the link of the training in the comments :)