Work Expo
A Work Expo is an exhibition a team builds about its own work to make its purpose and values visible. The practice comes from Jurgen Appelo's Management 3.0: photos, customer messages, awards, products and other artefacts are arranged into a display that shows why the team's work matters. The display stays up and keeps growing, so it works as an ongoing reminder and not as a one-off session.
Facilitation script
- 1
Lay out all collected artefacts on tables. Each person briefly presents one item and why they brought it.
15 min - 2
Sort the material together into themes: customers, milestones, team life, things the team is proud of. Name each theme.
15 min - 3
In small groups, build one display per theme, adding captions, drawings or other material.
25 min - 4
Mount the displays on the wall and walk along it together.
10 min - 5
Discuss what the exhibition says about the team's purpose and values, and note the phrases that come up.
15 min - 6
Agree who looks after the wall and how new items get added.
5 min
Tips
Give people at least a week to collect material, since the best items sit in old inboxes and photo folders and are not found in ten minutes.
Ask for artefacts with a person or a customer in them; a thank-you email says more about purpose than a chart of delivery numbers.
Name someone to look after the wall, because a display with nothing new on it after two months tells the opposite story.
Common pitfalls
Starting the session without collected material, so the wall is filled with whatever is at hand and says little
Showing only output figures and product shots, which documents what the team makes but not why it matters to anyone
Letting one or two people curate everything, so the rest of the team does not recognise itself in the display
Hanging it in a meeting room nobody enters, which removes the daily reminder that is the point of the practice
Never adding to it, so the exhibition ages into a record of a past team
Variations
The source describes an ongoing display and gives no session plan; the sorting, discussion and timing here are a practical way to run the build as a workshop. A distributed team can build the expo on an online whiteboard or shared page with screenshots, short clips and quotes. Several teams can each build a section and open the exhibition to the rest of the organisation, using a Gallery Walk for the visit. At a year end or project close, a temporary version can be built in one session and photographed.
Where it fits
When to use it
A team struggles to say why its work matters and a purpose statement written from scratch feels abstract
A project or year is ending and the achievements deserve to be seen
Other departments have little idea what the team does
New members are joining and should get a quick sense of the team's history and character
The team has a physical space, or a shared online space, that it controls and passes regularly
When not to use it
The team is new and has little to show yet: start with Defining Team Purpose and Culture and build the expo once there is material
Morale is low after a failure or layoffs: a celebratory wall will feel false, so run a retrospective or a listening format first
The work is confidential and cannot be displayed where others pass: keep it to a closed online space or use a Memory Wall within the team
You need an agreed, worded purpose statement by the end of the session: the expo informs one but does not produce it
Related methods
Frequently asked questions
What is Work Expo?▾
A Work Expo is a display a team creates about its own work, using photos, customer messages, awards, products and similar items. It comes from Management 3.0 and is meant to make the team's purpose and values visible. The display stays on the wall and is added to over time.
How long does it take to build a Work Expo?▾
The source does not give a duration. As a guide, collecting material takes a week or two in the background, and building the first version together takes 60 to 120 minutes. After that it needs only occasional additions.
Can a remote team do a Work Expo?▾
Yes. An online whiteboard or a shared page can hold screenshots, quotes, short videos and photos. It should be somewhere the team visits anyway, for example linked from the team's main channel, so it is seen as often as a physical wall would be.
How is a Work Expo different from a Memory Wall?▾
A Memory Wall is a short exercise in which people draw positive memories of working with each other, mainly to build appreciation. A Work Expo uses real artefacts, focuses on the team's work and its effect on others, and remains as a lasting display.
What belongs in a Work Expo?▾
Anything that shows what the team values and has achieved: pictures of the team and its customers, messages of thanks, awards, prototypes and finished products, press clippings. Items that show the effect of the work on other people tend to say most about purpose.
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Try it freeMethod descriptions on Workshop Weaver are original content written by our team, based on established facilitation practices. This method was inspired by work from Jurgen Appelo / Management 3.0.