The ToP consensus workshop method brought meaning into end of season debrief sessions, allowing The Mountains to Sea Conservation Trust team members to identify themes, make sense of these and notice changes over 2 years.
The Mountains to Sea Conservation Trust team in Northland run many Experiencing Marine Reserves (EMR) events every summer for their local communities and partners. These events include snorkeling experiences, kayaking, and learning about marine conservation.
At the end of every season, the team members are pretty tired out, and have lots of feedback on how things could be done better next season.
At the end of the 2024/25 season, we decided to do the usual end of season debrief a bit differently, and used the TOP "consensus workshop" method. We started with sharing context, and setting a really clear objective - "How to improve our EMR event delivery in 2025/26". Team members then brainstormed individually to identify "What worked well" and "what was a challenge" on sticky notes, which we organised into themes, then discussed insights and reflections for each theme. The final step was to identify actions and assign each one to a team member.
We then repeated the process this year, at the end of the 2025/26 season, and were amazed to see there were a lot fewer "what was a challenge" sticky notes, and more "what worked well" sticky notes. The process had helped us to really focus on what the actual issues were, prioritise them, and set actions to improve our delivery in the following year. It has also meant a reduction in end-of-season fatigue, and a general sense of feeling better organised and effective.
Contributor: Andrea Booth