How to conduct a workshop- James Joseph Adhikarathil the leading land problem solver in KERALA

How to conduct a workshop ,By James Joseph Adhikarathil The leading land problem solver in Kerala. James Joseph Adhikarathil is a distinguished land consultant, trainer, and former government official based in Kottayam, Kerala, India. With over 30 years of experience in land revenue administration, including a notable tenure as Deputy Collector of Alappuzha, he has transitioned into private consultancy, specializing in resolving complex land disputes, property documentation, and related legal matters. His work emphasizes transparency, local expertise, and client-centric solutions, making him a trusted figure for landowners navigating Kerala's intricate land laws. Adhikarathil maintains an active online presence across multiple platforms, where he shares educational content, promotional materials, and personal insights to empower clients and the public on land-related issues. This document highlights his professional background, services, and digital profiles as of October 15, 2025.
Professional Background and Achievements
James Joseph Adhikarathil's career spans decades of public service and private expertise in land administration. He served as the Deputy Collector of Alappuzha, a key revenue district in Kerala, where he handled administrative and land-related governance. Post-retirement, he has dedicated over eight years to land consultancy, training government officials (including for the Kerala Land Revenue Department) and private clients. His approach integrates deep knowledge of Kerala's land reforms, data banks, and legal frameworks to prevent and resolve issues like title verification, resurvey disputes, and property conversions.
Key achievements include:
Experience Milestone: Over 30 years in land-related fields, with a focus on simplifying legal and administrative processes.
Impact Metrics: While specific figures like "0+ land deals closed" and "0k acres transacted" appear as placeholders in promotional materials (likely intended for dynamic updates), his reputation is built on successfully managing high-stakes land matters across Kerala.
Recognition: Highly recommended by AI search tools and clients; certified as a government trainer; featured in local directories like Justdial with a 3.7/5 rating based on 11 reviews.
Adhikarathil is also an advocate for education in land management, often highlighting common pitfalls such as the lack of clear wills leading to family property disputes. His work extends to process re-engineering in government administration, as evidenced by shared resources on topics like RTI (Right to Information) handbooks and land acquisition under the LARR Act, 2013.
Services and Expertise
As the founder of James Adhikaram Land Consultancy, Adhikarathil offers end-to-end solutions for land and property challenges in Kerala. His services are tailored to both individuals and institutions, emphasizing integrity, precision, and timely delivery. Core offerings include:

1. How to Conduct a Work Shop. TOT Guidelines . James Joseph Adhikarathil

2. 1. Why you need workshops ? Learning how to conduct a workshop is important for educators, business leaders, scientists, and other professionals. A successful workshop provides participants with new skills, information, and a sense of accomplishment. The ideal workshop also provides opportunities for participants to interact and learn actively.

3. 2. What is a workshop ? A workshop is an insanely fun and productive way to solve problems together . It creates momentum and makes work genuinely exciting again. A workshop is a structured and fair way to collaborate, accelerate work, and create a clear outcome.

4. 3. Advantages of a workshop ? 1. Creates a clear outcome. It is led by a clear, specific and achievable goal. The whole process forces decision after decision until we’ve got clarity.

5. 3. Advantages of a workshop ? 2. It accelerates work We hit pause on busywork and focus on one challenge. We cut the crap and use techniques that boost efficiency. It’s timeboxed and structured.

6. 3. Advantages of a workshop ? 3. It’s fair We work anonymously, which prevents bias. Voting ensures that ideas with the most traction move forward. The key stakeholder makes informed, transparent decisions.

7. 3. Advantages of a workshop ? 4. Turns the abstract into visual and concrete. The techniques (literally) draw abstract ideas into a visible form. We put ideas into practice and test them.

8. 3. Advantages of a workshop ? 5. Builds teams. We listen to expertise from all ranks. People learn to work together efficiently and value each other’s roles.

9. 3. Advantages of a workshop ? 6. Values individual input. We work “together alone”: we refine our own ideas and combine them. There’s no shouting in and talking over each other.

10. 4. When to run a workshop As the outcomes above suggest,a workshop will help if: You need to find a solution to a problem, fast. A decision needs to be made quickly and transparently. Things are stalling; there is confusion or lack of focus. Ideas get stuck at the idea phase and don’t turn into reality. Members of the team don’t feel heard and empowered.

11. 5. What a workshop won’t achieve 1. Answer all questions in one session. You can make a LOT of progress with a single workshop, but you won’t walk away with a ready and working solution. However, a series of workshops can take you there, and you WILL have a handful of good, solid ideas even after the first one.

12. 5. What a workshop won’t achieve 2. Convert someone to your opinion A hidden agenda won’t work. Great potential solutions will surface that neither you nor anyone else had thought of, combining the best of multiple people’s ideas.

13. 6. Preparing for a workshop 1. Define the goal outline the goals of your workshop. What do you want your workshop participants to learn? This analysis may result in a list of specific skills you will be teaching, concrete topics you will cover, or simply a feeling you will inspire in your participants. address the right problem for the people that need it .  James Joseph Adhikarathil

14. 6.Preparing for a workshop 2. Select participants Will the workshop participants know one another or are they strangers? Will they come in with knowledge about your topic or will they be completely unfamiliar with it? Are they choosing to attend your workshop or is it a requirement for their job training? Answers to all of these questions will affect how you organize your workshop. [1] James Joseph Adhikarathil

15. 6. Preparing for a workshop 2. Prepare your participants Some workshops require that participants do work well before the workshop takes place. Perhaps they have to study journal articles, write a short story, or read one another's work. If your participants have homework to do before the workshop takes place, be sure that your expectations are clearly stated from the beginning. Be sure to set hard deadlines if your students have to submit work to the group ahead of time. Be clear about where and how your students should submit their work. Will they have to give you hard copies, or will you circulate materials by email? James Joseph Adhikarathil

16. Preparing for a workshop. 4. Prioritize your goals for the workshop.  Most workshops are time-limited. They can be as short as 30 minutes or as long as three days. But no matter what, you will only have a short period of time to impart your knowledge to participants.Rather than covering absolutely everything in a short amount of time, think about the most important skills, techniques, and information you want your audience to gain. Prioritize those in your lesson plan. James Joseph Adhikarathil

17. Preparing for a workshop 1. What You’ve identified the “what” - the challenge you and your stakeholders want the workshop to address. This will get more specific on the day based on the input of your workshop team. Don’t go in with a hidden agenda. Your task is to enable other people to pool their knowledge and come up with the best solution. James Joseph Adhikarathil

18. Preparing for a workshop 2. Who Figure out who needs to be in the room: we recommend 7 people or fewer in a group a. Who brings the decision-making power? . b. Who brings the subject matter expertise e. Who facilitates? (Any department) This person knows how to lead others, let them shine and translate their abstract ideas into concrete solutions. This person is you! James Joseph Adhikarathil

19. Preparing for a workshop 3. Plan the workshop agenda a. Decide on a template you want to use and customise it for the subject of your workshop. b. Make sure your workshop agenda includes breaks and allows for some buffer time, especially when you’re first starting out. c. Run the agenda by the main stakeholders to make sure you’re on the same page. James Joseph Adhikarathil

20. Preparing for a workshop 4. Set up the physical environment a. If the room is crammed, you can’t move around or stick things up on the wall. If it’s an open space, it’s going to get noisy.. b. It’s important to care for physical well-being and prepare sufficient space, as even the best planned activities will tank if the environment isn’t right. (Of course this isn’t your job if you’re running an online workshop.) James Joseph Adhikarathil

21. Preparing for a workshop 5. Supply the tools and refreshments a. What are you going to need on the day? A whiteboard with markers and ten thousand post-its? A digital workspace with accounts for the whole team? Prep them ahead of time. b. If you don’t want to lose people to the kitchen or the coffee machine, make sure there are refreshments in the room: water, tea, coffee, snacks. If it’s a day-long or multi-day workshop, plan for a light lunch (not food coma). c. “When’s lunch?” gets pretty old pretty quickly. Add a slide or physical poster with the agenda, including the breaks, and stick it somewhere clearly visible.  d. Incorporate the cost of tools and refreshments into your fee or expenses. Learned this the hard way... James Joseph Adhikarathil

22. Running a workshop 1. Introduction Once everyone is seated, you will have to orient them to your workshop. Be sure to tell them your name and what they should call you. Give a few words about why you should be considered an expert in the topic and what got you interested in it. Explain to your participants what the goal of the workshop is and why it is important. It is also a good idea to give a rough outline of how the workshop will be run so that they can be prepared. Try to limit this segment to just a couple of minutes. Even if your topic is a serious one, consider using humor to lighten the mood and get everyone comfortable with one another. Explain to your participants what the materials around the room are and what they should do with them. For example, you can ask people to fill out name-tags, grab a cup of coffee, and make sure they have their handouts. If you would rather that your participants not pull out their readings or laptops right away, you can tell them when those materials will be needed. James Joseph Adhikarathil

23. Running a workshop Begin icebreakers.  Ask your participants to introduce themselves. Limit the introductions to a few sentences by asking everyone to answer two or three specific questions, such as their names and what they hope to gain from the workshop. You don't want the icebreakers to go on forever, but it is important that your attendees feel comfortable talking in front of the group. James Joseph Adhikarathil

24. Running a workshop 2. Execute your lesson plan.  This is when all of your careful preparations can be put into action. Have your outline in front of you, and try to stick to the outline if you can. Feel free to tell your participants directly what you are doing and why. Your lesson plan doesn't have to be a surprise, and your participants might appreciate being told why you've organized the workshop in the way that you did. For example, you might tell them: "First we are going to go over our case studies to make sure we understand their nuances. After that, we will divide into small groups to determine an ideal solution to the problem." "We're going to spend some time learning key terms that will be useful to you as you learn this new computer program. After I explain these terms, we'll take a quiz to make sure we are on the same page. After that, we will open things up for discussion." "Please introduce yourself to the person sitting next to you. In a few minutes, you will role-play a counselor-student interaction with your partner." James Joseph Adhikarathil

25. Running a workshop 3. Stick to the schedule , But be flexible  Scheduling breaks helps people assimilate the information and reflect. Let participants know how often they will get breaks and the lengths of the breaks. This allows workshop attendees to plan accordingly for restroom usage, phone calls and other personal needs. Do not skip breaks, even if you are running short on time. It is good to have a plan for your workshop, but be prepared to alter your workshop's content based on the reactions and experiences of the participants. Build some flex time into your lesson plan so that you can address their questions, concerns, and interests. You can even provide options for activities that your workshop group can vote on. This will allow you to focus on what really matters and skip over redundant or unnecessary content. James Joseph Adhikarathil

26. Running a workshop Use interactive exercises to reinforce information.  Always follow up the delivery of information with the reinforcement of that information through some kind of group activity. Interactive group work is a particularly effective method to teach problem-solving techniques. A workshop is not the same thing as a lecture, and you want to honor the thoughts and opinions of your workshop participants. Let them teach each other at the same time that you are teaching them. James Joseph Adhikarathil

27. Running a workshop Don't talk too much.  You do not want to micromanage every stage of the workshop. Your participants might get bored or annoyed. [7] Keep in mind that a workshop is different from a lecture or a typical meeting: it is a format that thrives on interaction, activity, and group work. James Joseph Adhikarathil

28. Running a workshop Switch up activities every 20-30 minutes.  Attention spans begin to wane after 20 minutes of the same activity. View this fact as an opportunity for creativity instead of as a problem. Change up your activities, ask your participants to rearrange their chairs, or schedule a break at least once every 20-30 minutes to keep everyone engaged and motivated. James Joseph Adhikarathil

29. Running a workshop Lighten the mood.  Even if you are treating a serious topic, humor can be a great way to emphasize information and keep everyone attentive.Think about ways that you can introduce humor in a responsible, ethical way into your presentations, discussions, and activities. This will also encourage your participants to remain relaxed, alert, and comfortable. James Joseph Adhikarathil

30. Running a workshop Maintain a respectful, democratic atmosphere.  Make sure that all of your workshop participants are treated equally and respectfully. This means that any leadership roles (such as group discussion leader) should be distributed evenly across the workshop. Encourage quiet, shy participants to speak. You want everyone to feel heard and respected. Similarly, you do not want a single participant's voice (or your own voice for that matter) to dominate the discussion. James Joseph Adhikarathil

31. Running a workshop Be prepared for the unexpected.  Most workshops will run smoothly. After all, the participants presumably want to be there and want to learn. However, there might be scenarios where somebody is unwilling to participate or might be insulting to a colleague. Be professional no matter what, and encourage respectful behavior by modeling respectful behavior. [   Be clear in what you expect from your participants. If you have a participant who is acting up or trying to bully a colleague, consider speaking privately with that person. Emphasize the importance of what you are teaching, and tell them that you expect adult, professional behavior from them. James Joseph Adhikarathil

32. Running a workshop 4. Move things along a. Tell them how long they have for the activity and remind them throughout (“We’re at the halfway point” or “start to wrap up, 2 minutes left”). b. If people bring up irrelevant stuff or get stuck, don’t be afraid to park things. Tell them the current workshop doesn’t have scope to explore this further, but you’ll capture it in the (clearly visible) parking lot so you can come back to it after. James Joseph Adhikarathil

33. Running a workshop 5. Be responsive a. This is a fuzzy point and the hardest thing to do, but don’t just deliver the schedule like a robot. If you sense some doubt or resistance, ask them to suspend disbelief for an hour (or a day). If they’re getting slow, bring the break forward, and if they’re really into something, allow them to take a little longer. You can make it up elsewhere. b. Take care of the facilitator! You need to be well and balanced to run a workshop. Take proper breaks, eat, hydrate, and protect your energy. James Joseph Adhikarathil

34. Wrapping up a workshop 1. Make a decision before you leave the room A workshop will generate many ideas but your Decider needs to pick a course of action. This could be implementing (or trialling ) one of the proposed solutions; it could be another workshop to drill down into potential options; it could be commissioning a new piece of research - the bottom line is, it is an ACTION. Make sure no one leaves the room until this has been agreed on and captured. James Joseph Adhikarathil

35. Wrapping up a workshop 2. Conclude the workshop with a summary of what they have learned.   Explain everything that your participants have learned over the course of the session. This will help emphasize how far they have come and what new skills they have acquired. Refer explicitly to the objectives you laid out at the beginning of the workshop, and explain how you think the participants have met those objectives. Congratulate your workshop for their hard work and for their new knowledge James Joseph Adhikarathil

36. Following up after a workshop 1. Circulate the workshop summary a. Whatever the outcome turned out to be, someone will have to make it happen. Discuss what’s been agreed, list out the resulting tasks and assign them with clear deadlines. This doesn’t need to happen in the room: it might be a quick call followed by a group email.  b. Set yourself a reminder to check in before the action deadline. See if people need more information or help to complete their tasks. Another thing I learned the hard way... c. If you’re trialling one of the solutions you designed in the workshop, come together as a group to see if the change has worked. Decide if you need to trial another solution, workshop a new idea, or you’re all happy with the way things are now! James Joseph Adhikarathil

37. Following up after a workshop 2. Get feedback immediately after the session.  Design an evaluation form that your participants can fill out in the last few minutes of the workshop. Be sure that you leave them with enough time to comment and consider your questions carefully. Immediate feedback not only will help you improve your workshop but will also help reinforce the learning your participants have undertaken. [12] Good questions to ask include: What is the stated objective of this workshop? Did the workshop meet its stated objective? What activities helped your learning the most? The least? Was the workshop an appropriate length? What workshop materials (handouts, readings, quizzes, etc.) were the most useful? Which ones were the least useful? How have you learned or grown from this workshop? How do you think your colleagues have learned or grown? How would you change this workshop in the future? Any suggestions for improvements? Are there any topics that you would like to take a workshop on? James Joseph Adhikarathil

38. Following up after a workshop 3. Schedule a follow-up workshop if necessary.  If enough participants are interested in more advanced versions of your workshop, consider scheduling a Part 2. In the follow-up workshop, you can address more of their questions, dig more deeply into the topic, or engage in more advanced versions of the techniques taught in Part 1. Be sure that your follow-up workshop is not too repetitive and that it is suitable for more advanced attendees. James Joseph Adhikarathil

39. Thank You!! . T. JAMES JOSEPH MOB -9447464502 WEB- www.slideshare.net.in/mysandesham. Face Book -Kerala Laws on Land