5 reasons why you should be running your workshops on a digital whiteboard

Online whiteboards can make your workshops even better. They can help your teams learn more quickly and effectively and work better together: they are a key collaboration tool. You might be wondering how and why using an online whiteboard can make a tangible difference to the efficacy of your meetings, workshops, or training sessions. Here we’ll investigate the 5 main reasons why you should be running your workshops on a virtual whiteboard. Whether you are focused on team rituals, project kick-offs, or brainstorming sessions, workshops are always a crucial moment for efficient teamwork.

Why choose a visual whiteboard as your main collaboration tool for workshops?

1. All the information relating to your workshop is centralized in a single workspace

It can be difficult to ensure your team members have access to all the information they need to perform their tasks properly. This can lead to frustrations and even resentment. At best, it can mean lower productivity levels. At worst, it can make projects almost impossible.

By keeping all project-related information in one centralized location, team members can easily access all the documents they need. This can help improve efficiency and reduce the risk of errors or miscommunication.

Transparency and accountability within the team will help reduce the risk of misunderstanding or conflict between team members and should in turn lead to better collaboration.

As a digital whiteboard provides this centralized location for everything relating to a certain project, it can also be used to track the project’s progress. This makes it easier to assess whether a project is moving ahead smoothly, who is doing what, and whether deadlines are being met as necessary.

2. All information relating to a project is accessible at all times on a virtual whiteboard

In the past, and especially before the Covid-19 pandemic, it was common for teams working on projects to be in a single location together. Projects between departments or across locations would often have a singular point or minimal points of contact. This could make it difficult for team members to access information when they actually needed it without going through a process.

These days, teams might also be working in the same workspace and attending a workshop in person together. However, they are just as likely to be working remotely or in a hybrid work environment. All team members need the ability to access the information they need wherever they are, whenever they need it.

If your workshop is running on a digital whiteboard, your whiteboard should have the functionality to enable team members to access the files and other information they require when it suits them, even asynchronously. They shouldn’t have to wait for someone else to get around to giving them information they need to be able to do their job. It also gives people the flexibility to access any necessary information regardless of whether they are in a different time zone, travelling, or even just because they choose to manage their work time according to personal commitments rather than with fixed hours.

3. Online whiteboards can help encourage and enhance creativity

Online whiteboards offer many more ways to present information than a traditional whiteboard does. A traditional whiteboard can be used for writing and drawing. With a virtual whiteboard you can add images and videos to them, and there are numerous tools and templates that teams can use in their workshops that aid creativity.

Different colour pens used to be the limit of a visual whiteboard’s creativity, and the brighter, more useful colours were usually lost or about to run out. You never have to worry about losing a pen with an online whiteboard!

The opportunities for visually representing ideas are numerous. Online whiteboards allow workshop participants to express and visualize ideas in creative and interactive ways. Colourful text and diagrams can help people understand things visually that might be harder to explain with words alone.

An online whiteboard might start out as a blank page, but it is unlikely to stay blank for long. It can be used effectively for presenting, brainstorming, drawing, diagramming, and so on. They can help workshop members better express their ideas and unleash their creativity.

Collaboration between team members in real-time, regardless of location, can help foster a sense of community as well as shared ownership of the creative process. This is also likely to lead to more innovative and creative ideas.

As an online whiteboard allows you to easily modify, move, or delete ideas as the creative process evolves, they can encourage experimentation. And because you can save all your versions, you can always go back and check for anything you might have missed. This sort of freedom is key in the design thinking process, which aims to generate more unique and creative ideas. Businesses need innovators and people who can think outside the box – and who are not afraid to express their ideas.

Traditional business models focused on hierarchies and silos and typically lacked team diversity. Online whiteboards can be very useful for tapping into diversity and breaking down barriers. They can give all team members, regardless of their position or seniority, the opportunity to contribute their ideas in real time and have them considered with equal weight.

A good online whiteboard does not need hours of training or complicated procedures for people to get started. They are intuitive and can be easily used by those who are less at ease with technology. It can sometimes be frustrating to get team members to use some technologies that would improve teamwork. Luckily, you should find they will be up to speed on how to use the numerous functions a visual whiteboard offers in next to no time.

Likewise, if your team members feel they are more creative and artistic than they are technological, an online whiteboard is great for them. They will be using technology that allows them to be more creative almost without realising. And for those with a more limited artistic side, a virtual whiteboard allows them to experiment with their creative side.

4. Workshops are quicker and easier to create with an online whiteboard

When you have to create a workshop from scratch it can be time consuming. Researching, collating, and presenting information and resources can be hard work. A virtual whiteboard gives you the opportunity to use templates and ready-to-use content that saves you time and allows you to produce something quickly and efficiently. They are also designed to do exactly what you want them to do and to be engaging. There are many different templates and various ways in which you can use them.

An online whiteboard will give structure to your workshop. Templates can offer a pre-designed version of what you want to do and will therefore save you the time of trying to put it together by yourself. Such templates are usually designed by professionals who understand exactly what the aim of the tool is. They are therefore more likely to create the outcomes you are looking for and more likely to ensure that all topics are covered if you have a set agenda or specific goals.

Using pre-designed virtual whiteboard templates can help you ensure consistency across different workshops and will make it easier for you to replicate something that has been successful in the past. They will also help your workshops look more professional, polished, and well designed in less time. First impressions are important and you want to set the right tone from the outset. Using a template can help with this.

Although templates might have a set structure, this does not mean that they cannot be customized to suit the needs of workshop participants. Starting with a basis that can then be adapted is much easier than starting with a blank page. Tailoring your workshop to your specific needs is not a complicated process.

5. Online whiteboards come with time-management tools

As well as templates, virtual whiteboards have helpful tools that will aid both the creative process and manage any time constraints you may have. It is easy to get side-tracked and end up allocating far too much time to certain tasks if you are not careful. 

Using a virtual whiteboard to run your workshop makes it incredibly simple to take advantage of the time management that is on offer. If you want to make sure a certain task only takes a specific amount of time you can set the online whiteboard timer. This focuses people’s minds and reminds them that they only have a certain amount of time to do something.

Using a timer for a brainstorming session, for example, is a great way to help people concentrate on the task at hand. Knowing you only have a specific amount of time to complete a task can make the session more productive. Not only is there an element of urgency to produce something within a certain time frame, it’s also clear that it is not going to go on forever: there is a clear end in sight.  

Because the timer function is built into the online whiteboard, it is easy to use it whenever it would be helpful. If you know that certain tasks could be open-ended, or some team members might ‘take over’, why not set a timer and take back control? After all, the team doesn’t want to get to the end of the workshop and have only achieved half of what they planned to. Using an in-built timer when it makes sense to do so makes this much less likely to happen.

Teamwork, collaboration and running your workshops on an online whiteboard

Workshops on a virtual whiteboard provide a secure platform for team members to collaborate and work together. Colleagues can share ideas and perspectives and learn from their own experiences and those of others. Running your workshops on an online whiteboard enhances this sense of teamwork and collaboration, leading to more creative and innovative solutions.

The focused environment that a virtual whiteboard can create allows team members to concentrate on the task at hand and any ultimate goals at the same time. If you can reduce the number of distractions you are likely to increase productivity and efficiency. The more you can do to create this sort of environment for your teams, the more productive and better bonded they are likely to become.

Whether you are using your workshops to solve a specific problem or for training and learning purposes, the structured environment that an online whiteboard can offer can be highly beneficial. The better your team can work together, the more likely they are to share and acquire new skills and knowledge. This also helps to improve team performance and increase efficiency in the long run!

The best digital whiteboard to run your workshops on

Running your workshops on a good online whiteboard with the right tools and templates for your business will help you increase collaboration and teamwork, whether your teams are together in person, working remotely, or collaborating in a hybrid work environment.

You will find the Klaxoon whiteboard possesses all the tools and resources you need to run better workshops. Why not check out our resources page for more ideas?