Workplace Roundtables
Bring creative writing into your workplace! Write Around Portland’s acclaimed model works incredibly well for teams. For years, we have been proud to offer companies and organizations access to writing in community. From building trust to facilitating belonging and inclusion, our workshop model is flexible enough to accommodate many different outcomes in the workplace.
All roundtables include
Freewriting
Team members will write to a specific time limit with the goal to keep their pen moving the entire time.
Customizable Planning
Select from a previously-built curriculum or opt to have us fully customize a roundtable to meet your needs!
Respect And Newfound Confidence
Our model centers participants by emphasizing folks’ strengths and letting the group discover new insights. Your team will walk away understanding each other better — and finding new confidence in their own creative expression!
Facilitation, Not Education
Roundtables don’t provide instruction in writing. Instead, we will guide participants through a series of prompts designed to inspire new thinking, build trust, and spark creativity.
Sharing And Feedback
Participants will share some of their work and give positive feedback to others. Sharing is always optional.
Discussion
Team roundtables also include a short piece of reading (prose or poetry) followed by a discussion. If you’d like to have us discuss a specific article, we can accommodate that!
Roundtables for Leaders and HR Professionals
Foster Trust In New Teams
The Great Resignation has meant huge personnel transitions in many organizations. How can your new team get started on the right foot? Join us for a roundtable that will help your team learn more about each other, open lines of communication, and discuss workplace issues in a facilitated and structured way.
Morale Motivator
Are you concerned about retaining your best employees? How can you boost morale on your team? Using writing exercises, we’ll practice shifting our lens on things we thought we already knew to gain fresh insights.
Stress Reliever
Let’s face it – people are stressed out! And writing is a great way to make sense of our stress and our stressors. In this roundtable, we’ll use therapeutic writing exercises to address stress, reflect on the past, and let go of past trauma.
Custom Roundtable
When you customize your roundtable experience, you’ll work directly with Write Around Portland’s Executive Director — who is also an experienced facilitator — to produce a fully personalized experience for your team.
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Roundtables For Creative Professionals
Jumpstart Creativity And Innovation
Do you have a new initiative to launch? Are you wondering if everyone on your team is truly sharing their best ideas? Rally them together for a writing workshop that will spark creative energy, share previously unspoken insights, and get your team ready for a big new project.
Replenish Creative Energy
Every team has their ebbs and flows. If you’ve just finished a big project – or you sense your team needs a break – this workshop provides the perfect moment to take a breath. Sit down together for a relaxed and fulfilling creative workshop to build affinity and provide a productive lull in anticipation of future work.
Custom Roundtable
When you customize your roundtable experience, you’ll work directly with Write Around Portland’s Executive Director — who is also an experienced facilitator — to produce a fully personalized experience for your team.
Get Started
Roundtables For Equity And Inclusion Strategists
BIPOC Belonging
This roundtable will provide a safe landing space for staff of color to connect, have fun, and share stories. The workshop will be facilitated by a BIPOC staff member or volunteer facilitator from Write Around Portland.
LGBTQ+ Belonging
This roundtable will provide a safe landing space for queer staff to connect, have fun, and share stories. The workshop will be facilitated by a queer staff member or volunteer facilitator from Write Around Portland.
Understanding Across Difference
This roundtable will help spotlight staff members’ experiences and traditional ways of knowing to unearth assumptions and stories that need to be challenged or revisited. When we truly listen to each other, amazing things can happen!
Custom Roundtable
When you customize your roundtable experience, you’ll work directly with Write Around Portland’s Executive Director — who is also an experienced facilitator — to produce a fully personalized experience for your team.
Get Started
Testimonials
“Creativity and innovation are core to our business. Write Around Portland’s workshop gave our employees a great way to generate new ideas, get inspired, and connect with each other.”
Pamela, Senior Creative Director
“I sat next to someone I’ve worked with pretty much my whole 23 years and I learned something new. Amazing!”
Lauren, Director of Customer Experience
Pricing
Pre-Built Roundtable
$1,000
- 2 Hours
- Up to 18 participants
- Select any prebuilt roundtable
- Available virtually or in-person
- Dedicated Write Around facilitator
- Hourlong preparation call with Write Around staff member
Custom Roundtable
$5,000
- 2 Hours
- Up to 18 participants
- Program is fully customized to your needs
- Available virtually or in-person
- Dedicated Write Around facilitator
- Unlimited preparation time with Write Around staff member
Add-Ons
- Additional Participants: +$1,000
Roundtables are designed for 18 or fewer participants. For each additional group of 18, we will add another facilitator and the associated fee. - In-Person Roundtable: +$500
Discounts
- Nonprofit Discount
Nonprofits receive 25% off any workplace roundtable! If you’re a nonprofit that’s been an agency partner in the last five years, you’ll receive 50% off any workplace roundtable.
Ready to Get Started?
Questions?
Your Primary Facilitator
Chris McDonald, Write Around Portland Executive Director
Chris McDonald (he/him) facilitates team roundtables at workplaces throughout the Portland Metro area. He has worked in the nonprofit sector since 2009, and has facilitated workshops for Write Around Portland since 2013. He has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Oregon State University and a Bachelor’s degree in English and Creative Writing from the University of California Davis. He has taught writing, remedial writing, creative writing, and business writing at Oregon State University and Chemeketa Community College. Chris writes under the name Chris Yamashita and has been published in Weave, Your Impossible Voice, and Compose Journal, and he won the diFilipis-Rosselli award for writers of color.
