The MetaPattern Framework for Workshops

Workshops can feel like magic -
or a mess. What's the secret?
A clear and adaptable framework.

Workshops can be incredible tools for connection—they let you share what you know, bring people together, and build your business while showcasing your personality, values, and unique perspective.

After deciding to host one, the first questions to come up are often:

What should I include? What order should it go in?

You don't want people to be overwhelmed.

You don’t want them to be underwhelmed.

We’re aiming for properly ✨whelmed✨.

But choosing the right workshop framework can feel intimidating— especially if we’re not just broadcasting at folks.

Back in 2015, when I was an instructor at the school board, I learned about the 4MAT system of learning. As soon as I heard about it, I felt… conflicted. Because it sounded great! And I had just started getting comfortable with the ROPES instructional model. 🫠

Which to choose? How should I plan my classes?
Both methods seemed great, and had data to back ’em up.

Could I have just picked one and called it a day? Of course.

But ‘easy and arbitrary’ isn’t really my thing.
I’m more of a “What if we made it better?” kind of person. 😉

For a time, I built out my lesson plans twice, once with each method. Not at ALL sustainable since I only had 15 minutes of paid prep time a day!

Eventually, I noticed similarities and smushed the models together. I made myself a hybrid that included features of both (the ‘MetaPattern’ which I’ll share shortly). Then examples that followed this structure started popping up everywhere I turned.

How my coach ran our rugby practice.
The outline of my favourite TED Talks.
Seeing a friend teach their kid how to tie shoelaces.

Beneath the surface, they all had the same structure.

6 Facets of the MetaPattern

When planning workshops, in addition to the information you want to share, there are a few other crucial bits to contemplate. I like to list out the skills or steps you’ll walk through together, and also consider where people are at emotionally in relation to the issue.

Someone like me will be resistant to taking in what you have to say if they don’t first understand why it matters, and feel like you understand and acknowledge their perspective. So, I like to do this pretty early on.

And if you just give people a list of things to do when they get home, they might wonder why they had to be there with you, live. (“I could’ve just watched a YouTube video, bruh…”). So, I prioritize actually doing some of it together.

It’s also worthwhile to put some thought into how you’ll greet people and say goodbye. Have you heard of the ‘primacy and recency’ effects?
Startings and endings matter!

With all that said, these are the six key facets to cover at some point:

Concepts

What do they need to know to make informed decisions?

Skills

What will you practice?

perspectives

What emotions are connected to this topic or their experiences?

possibilities

What new identity, skill, or item are they leaving with? How are they changed?

opening

How will you welcome them in and ease the transition from outside?

closing

How will you tie this all together and see them off?

This is the order I recommend presenting the facets in:

1
Opening

2
Perspective

3
Concepts

4
Skills

5
Possibilities

6
Closing

The rugby practice, the TED Talk, the shoelace-tying lesson? All had a similar structure.

They actually covered these facets in the same order. I’ll give you two quick examples:

TYING SHOES

RUGBY PRACTICE

Opening

“Hey buddy, wanna come sit down? I want to talk to you about something.”

A consistent warm up:
running, the same set of stretches, passing, etc.

Perspectives

“You’re going to school soon and I won’t be there to tie your shoes for you. Would you like to learn how? Then you can run around and play with all your new friends during recess.”

Break into two teams and play, so we ease into the session with something familiar.

Gives us a starting point to build from. Share what we notice.

Concepts

“You’ve just gotta make two loops and twist them around, like this.”

Coach suggests a technique to focus on, and what situations to use it in.

Skills

“Okay… do you want to try it?”

“Yes, just like that!”

Practice the skill. Over. And over. Individual and general feedback as needed.

Possibilities

“Yay! You did it. Now you can tie shoes too, just like me and daddy!”

Scrimmage again, with the new skill.
Notice the difference.

Closing

“Do you wanna go show your sister?”

Cool down + motivational speech. Reminders for our next game.
Chicken wings at the pub.

I call this the MetaPattern because it's a pattern of patterns.

This common structure plays out across a wiiiiide variety of domains.

One MetaPattern to rule them all…?

As universal as it *can* be, think of it as a set of guiding principles so you can avoid staring at a blank page. It’s a starting point. Not a strict dogma to adhere to at all costs.

If your spirit leads you in a different direction, then do that! However…

You can end up in some really… interesting places when you don’t have a clear end goal and just start linking random info and activities together.

If you start at the beginning and work your way through to the end, the ideas you have about the earlier sections could take you anywhere by the time you get to the end.

Kinda like if you’re travelling and have a location in mind, but don’t plug it into the GPS (or see where it is on a map, if you’re analog).

You’ll end up somewhere, but probably not where you wanted.

So to avoid that with our workshops….

May I suggest: Reverse Engineering?

A great workshop begins with having the end in mind.

I call this “reverse engineering”.
Teacher friends call this “backward planning”.
Creating from the goal.

So even though we’re sharing the facets in the order I listed above…

This is the order I recommend planning the facets in:

5
Possibilities

4
Skills

3
Concepts

2
Perspective

1
Opening

6
Closing

Possibilities is the end goal. That’s where we begin.

Start with the transformation you want to be possible for folks, then plan backwards from there. The other facets are in support of . Outline exactly what you’d need to do in the workshop to make that happen.

I do a quick first pass through all six facets in this reverse order. Then, based on what surfaces from going through it all once, I often have an insight I want to focus on. I might jot something down in one facet that I want to recentre my workshop around.

Then I go through it a second time, more in-depth. Sometimes I shuffle the facets around a bit, or break a facet up into two parts.

The two key questions I’m bridging are:

1. What will they possess, believe, or do differently at the end of the session?
2. What’s their starting point?

NOTE:

If you’re not clear on the answers to these questions, that’s something you can clarify through conversations, intake forms, and reflecting on your past experiences helping folks.

As you iterate through this workshop, you’ll get clearer.

When you can outline these things explicitly in your marketing, it helps call the perfect-fit people to you.
Part of “filtering” to make sure guests are a good fit.

But I digress….

For years, I had the MetaPattern in a Google Doc where I told people to plan backward. But the doc’s format listed the facets top-to-bottom. Guess how people worked through it? 😬 Yeah… *sigh*

I know better than to blame individuals for systemic problems 👀

So, I recognized my error and…
I changed the system.

Now, in the current version:
The facets are organized in reverse order on the first sheet
(the order you should plan your workshop in).

Planning order:

5
Possibilities

4
Skills

3
Concepts

2
Perspective

1
Opening

6
Closing

I’ve made a detailed version of this tool with questions, notes, and examples. It’s inside my Workshops as Worldbuilding course. I also use this with intensive clients!

Here’s a peek at what it looks like:
(Facets written sideways, in brown)

I think my favourite feature is that you can hide/expand sections to only focus on what you want to! So helpful for my brain.

On the next sheet – where you’re creating an agenda of sorts – everything you wrote automagically reshuffles into chronological order for you (the order you’ll host your workshop in).

Presenting order:

1
Opening

2
Perspective

3
Concepts

4
Skills

5
Possibilities

6
Closing

This is how sheet two of the spreadsheet looks:
(Facets listed on the left, going down)

Here’s how two clients (who have also taught people how to teach!) have been inspired by the MetaPattern:

“I feel clearer about the map of the workshop – how to think about amount of content, how to present it in a way that’s approachable and workable rather than preachy”

“I can’t believe the range that you have considered. There’s so much here that is theoretical, but also so much practicality, which I feel like is a hard thing to balance.”

I’ve had clients use it to plan workshops, of course. But the MetaPattern has also been used to run meetings, design social media posts, and write film scripts.

You can use it whenever you need to share holistically about a topic you think is important.

In the sneak peek, you might’ve noticed there’s space for each of the 8 Worldbuilding Elements (and notes about how to incorporate them!). She’s robust.

But – without needing to know the Worldbuilding Elements at all – you can incorporate the basics of the MetaPattern into whatever method you use to plan your workshop, and still get its benefits.

As a tiny first step, get crystal clear on the Possibilities facet.

Decide what transformation you want to happen inside the workshop.

What new identity, skill, or item will they leave with?

This is the foundation for the rest of the MetaPattern, and a perfect place to start. Even if you do nothing else I’ve mentioned, your workshops will be stronger for this clarity.

One aspect I'm currently tinkering with?

Breaks. *sigh*

I’m still working out how to help folks account for breaks with this tool. They’re tricky since I think it’s important to not be too rigid or formulaic. Breaks aren’t just about time – they’re about managing energy.

Most people undervalue them, so they’re the first thing to get skipped or shortened.

For my own workshops, I generally have an idea in my mind of how much time I want to allocate to each facet, and roughly when a break would be good.

I read the energy in the room and follow my intuition, but… that’s not super replicable advice for everyone.

The guideline I give clients is to allocate time for breaks in advance – every 90 minutes or so. Leave flexibility for what emerges.

And if you must: skip content. Don’t skip breaks.

I know we all have a different relationship to time though, and maybe your thoughts will be helpful for someone else. I’d love to hear how you approach this.

And if you try out the MetaPattern and its facets, let me know how it goes!
Does it change anything for you? What tweaks did you make?

Your feedback helps me improve this tool (and keeps me humble ). You can message me personally using the floating heart chat widget at that bottom of any page.