Tips to Improve Focus and Engagement in Training

Here are 12 free tips to get more participation in your next training session You're asked to deliver a training but are anxious about a face full of stares and nooooooooooooobody talking. You can likely almost feel the sweat forming already. Here's a laundry list of ideas that will get your participants engaged and participating in your session. Pick and choose the ones that make sense for your material. ✅ Push as much housekeeping as possible to pre-class communications so you get to audience participation as quickly as possible ✅ Have participants interview each other for intros - prompt them to ask one specific question related to topic ✅ Plot-twist: have interview partners from above introduce the other person - just don't tell them this until after they've chatted ✅ Ask what specific skills or ideas they are hoping to learn/take away from the class - have everybody share ✅ Ask what is the biggest frustration the audience has with the topic - let them share without responding ✅ After you explain the agenda ask them to write down 3 to 5 specific ways this material will help, make their roles more effective, etc - debrief & discuss ✅ Launch a game/activity/hands-on skills demonstration as close to start of session as possible ✅ Ask audience "when is the last time you did (thing related to topic)? How did it go" ✅ Lean heavily into Socratic delivery ✅ If participants don't answer right away, take a reaaaaaalllly long sip of your coffee/beverage - let the silence prompt someone to speak ✅ If someone asks a question reply with "if you had to guess....." and prompt them to attempt answering ✅ If someone asks a question turn to the group and ask, "what do you all think about this"? Bonus 13th tip: Tell them their experiences and thoughts have value and they're expected to participate Which one of these interested you most? What would you add?

Elevating your training isn't about huge overhauls. It's in the powerful little things. Okay, flashback: 20 years ago, I was in your shoes, struggling with effectiveness and efficiency in my trainings. My head constantly ached with, "Something is wrong" and "Why can't I get it right?" Sound familiar? It wasn't until I took a step back and realized that I didn't need to reinvent the wheel. Instead, I just had to take a different perspective. Here's the deal: I found that a series of small changes made all the difference. Over time, they stacked up, turning my trainings from “meh” to “powerful”. Engage your audience (clients & employees) by making the training about them. 🗣 Ask them ‘How are you?’ and give them time to share, decompress, and get ready 🗣 Understand their needs ‘What are you hoping to learn today?’ 🗣 Acknowledge their experience ‘What is your experience with this topic? Recognize their frustrations ‘What frustrates you most about this topic?’ Build your training content to help the audience learn and remember information 🏗 Integrate their shared experiences into the training 🏗 Start with simple, familiar, basic concepts first; then slowly progress to complex concepts 🏗 Resist the urge of giving the audience too much information at one time 🏗 Allow silent time for audience to process what you’ve shared Integrate ways to ensure the audience knows when, why, and how to apply training content 👉 Give them time to let things make sense for them 👉 Review the connection from basic to complex concepts 👉 Demonstrate how to apply the information 👉 Provide realistic opportunities for them to practice Now, if you're going to zoom in? I’d say Ideas 🗣 and 👉 are potential goldmines. I've seen them work wonders in my own journey and for countless others. You can easily apply them in #groupcoaching, #onboarding, #webinars, really all #trainings. Share the one you think will have a great impact in your work? #trainingdevelopment

Many of us have experienced this: We give a presentation and when we are done, we open it up for questions. Moments of awkward silence follow. Eventually, a few questions trickle in. Embarrassment avoided. But we know: active audience engagement looks different. Much of my work with clients revolves around designing engaging, highly interactive workshops, trainings, panel discussions, and presentations. I just stumbled upon a short article by Joe Murphy, CCEP (see link), sharing an effective technique he uses to get participants involved during presentations or trainings. The beauty of it: It is very easy to apply, doesn’t require props of any kind, and suitable both for in-person and virtual settings. The technique in brief: 1) After a short introduction of yourself and your topic, ask participants to turn to a neighbor or two. Ask them to introduce themselves and share what they hope to get out of this session. 2) As you finish your presentation and move into the discussion part, ask participants again to turn to a neighbor and discuss: What was presented that you have questions about? What is your perspective on the topic? 3) After a few minutes, harvest discussion topics from the group. Why is this simple technique effective? 1) The presentation becomes more user-centered. It allows the presenter to be responsive to the interests of the audience and conveys to the audience that they and their perspectives are valued. 2) The exercise loosens participants’ tongue. As they speak to each other, they rehearse what they have to say, boosting their confidence to speak up in the larger audience. 3) People are much more satisfied with a session where they were able to contribute and felt heard. The best techniques are sometimes very simple. I hope you will find Joe’s technique as useful as I did. I am curious to hear: What techniques can you recommend for designing more engaging sessions? Please share in the comments. #facilitation #uxdesign #ethicsandcompliance https://lnkd.in/eivNaqZB

Facilitate your next presentation instead of simply presenting. In every presentation you do consider how to involve others. Without participation you will simply have spectators quietly judging you and your content. With facilitation you will have fellow participants engaged. Nora Dunn from Saturday Night Live in the 80s told my class of actors, “Your job is not to please the audience, your job is to engage the audience.” (And it is in the engagement that they will be pleased.) You cannot engage if you only talk, no matter how good you are. The audience, especially today’s audience, has far more wisdom than we do. Let them talk to one another and learn with them. Pro tip: Never say,” Turn to the person next to you”. Instead get them moving with “When I give you the signal I want you to get up find two other people who are not at your table and go and sit with them to form a group of three AWAY from the tables (you will have to enforce this). Then tell them what to discuss for 5-8 minutes (not too long or they will start talking about sports and their kids) then ask, “What did you just LEARN from your group?” (rather than “What did you just talk about?”) and then wait in silence. When they start talking you have engagement. #Facilitator #Facilitating #Facilitation #FacilitationSkills