A new era
You’re invited to a new era of workshops where work actually happens – during and after the session. It’s time for Workshops 6.0
The current norm is for workshop hosts to outline a set of steps for folks to do later, on their own time. Often, the whole point of that “workshop” is to encourage the attendees to sign up for a deeper offer that’ll reeeeaally help them solve the thing they thought they were getting this time.
You know the vibe: 
a long intro (poking at pain points), 
their inspirational bio (to “build credibility”), and 
a sparse checklist or set of steps (for you to do when you get off the call).
Then – surprise! – a sales pitch for their newest program.
You’ve paid to listen to them talk, and now you have to pay again if you want to implement the solution?
That’s not a workshop. Might as well call it a shop-shop. Where is the *work*? 
Good thing there’s a growing cadre of us big-picture thinkers and dreamers that are sick of the paint-by-numbers, soulless and salesy, scripted-webinar style of workshop.
We’re creating visionary, wildly imaginative, deeply human and thought-provoking workshops where possibility takes center stage. Slightly messy, a little subversive and full of magic.
Does this shift sit better with your spirit, too? You ready for what I’m calling Workshops 6.0?
6.0? 🤔 What about 1.0 - 5.0?
Before we get into the Future of Workshops, let’s take a quick stroll through Workshops Past. Here’s how the concept of workshops have evolved over time…
(click » to expand):
✨ Workshop 1.0: Work + shoppe
Workshops actually began as ‘workshoppes’ for people who made and sold physical things: carpenters, potters, glassblowers, blacksmiths and the like.
There was a storefront where you could shop for goods, and in the back, work spaces where the goods were made. Mullet locations – commerce in the front, means of production in the back.
If you needed a chair, you’d visit a carpenter’s workshoppe. You’d peruse the finished items in the front area, maybe catch a glimpse of them working in the back, and if you found something you liked, you could walk away with a handcrafted piece.
This was the original form of workshops, before it expanded to include a gazillion other things. Work + shop.
Work
Shop
Crafting goods
🛠
Selling goods
🛍
Complete transparency: the “version numbers” below are my best guess at how we got from there to where we are now. Conjecture. If you have additional historical context or insight, I’d love to hear from you! I’ll likely revisit this piece in the future and revise it with input from the community.
Workshop 2.0: A specialized location
The term ‘workshop(pe)’ expanded to include similar places for crafting, even if the physical goods made were sold somewhere else (or not sold at all!). There was some further inclusion for other artisans, like painters, as well.
Individual carpenters and potters’ work spaces, factories, high schools’ woodworking rooms, hobbyists’ studios, and even Grandpa’s giant tool shed. All called workshops.
Work
Shop
Crafting goods
🛠
Sharing, or Selling elsewhere 🚚
Workshop 3.0: Classes, too
Not everyone could afford the specialized equipment needed to make the things they wanted to make. So, people began to sell access to shared space and tools.
In Workshops 3.0, the public could pay to take classes in places that were previously only for more serious specialists. Classes took on the same name as the Specialized Locations (established in 2.0) “I’m off to a workshop!”
One-off pottery classes, or an 8-week woodworking course were also labelled as “workshops” now too.
Work
Shop
Building a skill
🔨
Paying for access
💵
Workshop 4.0: All kinds of skills
Eventually, mental and social skills were included alongside the physical skills being learned.
In the 4.0 version of workshops, people paid to attend and refine a more intangible skill. Instead of crafting a table, you were practicing storytelling, refining coaching techniques, or editing an essay.
Some aspects of 4.0 continue today: where people engage in discussions, hands-on activities, and interactive exercises to develop their abilities. This includes things like writers’ workshops and leadership trainings.
Work
Shop
Practicing a skill
🧠
Paying to participate 💳
Workshop 5.0: ShopShops (a.k.a. webinars)
We’re currently in – and hopefully soon exiting – this era. These workshops are lecture-heavy and often have very little in the way of interaction. In what I’m calling ShopShops, the host talks, and you pay to hear what they have to say.
They’re selling frameworks, strategies, and concepts. Where Workshop 4.0 focuses on doing, Workshop 5.0 talks about doing. You’re consuming ideas, not doing work.
A skill might be explained, but rarely practiced. And it often ends in a sales pitch. You pay for access, then get told to buy more access.
Work
Shop
Hearing about skill 👂🏼
Paying to listen 
Paying again to *actually* build skill
The original essence of the workshop – a space to refine a skill – has… evaporated.
Instead of workshops being a place where a blacksmith forges a chef knife you could pass down to future generations, they’re now webinars where someone talks about “building your dream business” – while sharpening their sales pitch for a $2,000 coaching program.
Sure, some people focus on engagement. But most sessions aren’t building any sort of skill, and are still highly-scripted *presentations*, which is 
not the same.
People are burnt out on consumption: bored of passive learning, and sick of being sold to. They want to be involved! And they want to leave with something: a thing they built, a new identity, or increased level of skill.
There is a type of workshop that addresses the problems created by Workshop 5.0…
Enter: Workshop 6.0
Workshop 6.0: Workshops as Worldbuilding
In a worldbuilding workshop, a skill (or part of a process) is practiced live, and then also applied later in the real world. The focus shifts from passive consumption to active transformation. You don’t just absorb ideas, you integrate and apply them in real time.
Instead of just hearing about transformation, you’re actively engaged in creating it, whether that’s through community-driven exercises, collaborative brainstorming, or real-time implementation of world-changing ideas.
There’s an option for deeper work with the host, but it’s just that: an option. Progress is made and can continue without further monetary exchange.
Work
Shop
Doing the work now
Clarity & connections to keep doing the work after
Paying for guidance, curation, and an experience 🌍
More and more people are waking up to the fact that capitalism has created a hellscape. Life is exhausting. The constant grind, shallow promises and endless selling: everyone running on fumes. It’s all very… icky. Workshops 5.0 are a manifestation of that.
People are ready for something different.
That’s where community organizing comes in. At its core, community organizing is about people coming together and addressing issues that matter to them. It’s how movements grow.
But there’s an old-school, traditional version of organizing where a few leaders hold all the power and make the majority of decisions for the whole group. That just recreates a lot of the same problems we’re trying to solve (and is a lot easier for the powers that be to shut down!).
Organizing can also end up being the extra-curricular version of a corporate meeting. All talk, no action.
Real community organizing is community-driven, and action-oriented. It’s about shared power and collaboration. Spaces where people actively shape what they’re building together.
That’s exactly the same as good workshops (the 6.0 kind!). They aren’t just about delivering information, or introducing people to something to buy. They’re spaces for connection, co-creation, and transformation. They’re a form of community organizing. As I like to say,
Facilitation is a kind of activism.
It’s about holding space for people to share knowledge, exchange resources, and experience a sense of belonging. The best workshops feel like community organizing. And the best community organizing feels like a workshop. One where people come together, with structure and support, to make something real happen.
If you’re curious about some of the ‘how’ behind this approach, g’head and check out my article on the CODE Compass, where I break down how to navigate toward this kind of workshop.
If we keep doing the same thing – If we stay stuck in the current ‘webinar/ShopShop’ model, we’ll continue to see burned-out, disengaged people. People who feel like they were sold a dream but given no way to make it real. They’ll walk away with a few scribbled notes, some vague ideas, and a handful of empty promises.
Not cool.
I suggest we step off the hamster wheel and try something radically different. Open the door to a future where workshops aren capitalistic hellscapes, but active dreamscapes. Places of true transformation. Where people listen, they create, they engage. And most importantly, the ideas and practices discussed aren’t left behind in the dust of the workshop. They actually get woven into the fabric of everyday life in a lasting way.
Workshops can be the place where people hear ideas AND live them. Guests leave feeling empowered, equipped with the tools they need to turn their dreams into reality.
Workshops 6.0 are where we build what’s never existed before.
If this all sounds like a breath of fresh air, I’d love to invite you to go even deeper. I have a whole course on Workshops as Worldbuilding where transformational workshops are at the heart of it all. Creating something that speaks to your purpose and sparks action.
Check it out here, or let me know what’s marinating in your mind. What excites you about this new kind of workshop? What feels a little scary?
Let’s talk about it. The future is ours to shape.
