Workshops are useful when a group needs a shared draft. They are expensive theatre when the actual conflict is which spreadsheet is current. Twelve people in a hotel cannot vote a version into existence if two controllers refuse to delete a file.
Our intake on the consulting desk is a file dump. If two price lists disagree, the first paid hour is a comparison, not a sticky-note exercise. If the founder’s laptop holds the only complete vendor list, a room full of managers will only perform concern.
We still run rooms. Board Brief Studio is a room. The difference is that participants arrive with a pack that already exists. The workshop edits; it does not invent a company from slogans.
If a prospective client insists that “energy in the room” is the deliverable, we decline. Energy does not survive the taxi ride back to Tu Cheng.