MaestroConference is the first teleconference service that re-creates a real workshop environment through the phone. Create breakout groups, take orders, and conduct orderly polling and Q&A sessions -- all using a simple graphic interface. Perfect for teachers, coaches, and teleseminar marketers. Get your free trial here.
The great thing about talking with great teachers is that they always have so much good stuff to say and David Rosman is no exception. David shared an immense amount of information with us on this podcast about speaking to groups, political speaking and more. You won’t want to miss this one!
Barbara Musser is an inspirational speaker and trainer and has designed and facilitated personal growth and transformational workshops for the past 20 years. She mentors women and teenage girls in living their unique purpose, and works 1:1 and in groups with people who want to break through and transform their lives. For more information about Barbara, visit her website at: www.BarbaraMusser.com
We all have a mind, an imagination and words which are produced from combining language, syntax and grammar. This is mechanics. We put stories down on paper, offer metaphors for hitting a point home and in the process, we hope to get a moment of a totally silent audience. This is finesse. Embracing the art of authentic public speaking is a magical mixture of both.
Before I dive into this most fascinating topic, I wish to offer a disclaimer: my approach is unconventional. It will not work for those who enjoy their successful comfort zones – and more power to them. I am a fan of many things “guerilla”, doing things differently and realize that often, I am speaking to an already rather SAVVY audience. I am always refining the message and offering new twists on conventional wisdom. I keep it fresh not only for the participants, but also to remain engaged myself. Otherwise, I would get bored with my own words. I call this Going Off Script.
How many of these 10 tips for training do you already have in your programs? Too many times we provide training because it helps us attract people to our company. That’s getting only a partial benefit! If you apply the 10 tips for training below, you will see your training pay off in increased productivity, lessened expenses, and much higher customer satisfaction and retention levels.
1. Clarify what you want the student to do—during class, and after class.
2. How well do you expect the student to do that activity? Establish competency levels.
3. Make training a process, not an event. It takes 6-8 times of hearing something to begin to retain it!
4. Space your training for “spaced repetition”. Skills can’t be learned in one marathon session. If your objective is to develop skills, you must create layered, spaced, repetitious workshops.
5. There must be rest and reflection between practices. Scientists have proven that skills are not retained unless there is at least 4 hours between skill-developing sessions.
6. If it’s skills training, three quarters of the time in class should be practice—not teacher lecture.
7. Culturize as you train. The training should be from your point of view, your method of action, and your opportunity to create a strong culture within your training modules.
8. Get feedback from the skills training in your meetings. It reinforces the skills and encourages others to take part. Take your skills to a higher level with additional masterminding.
9. Use a facilitation approach, not a lecture approach. Instead of delivering the information via lecture during class, have the students read articles, interview beforehand, listen to audios, etc.
10. Expect accountability. The student should be highly accountable for practicing the skills and for competency learning.
Carla Cross, CRB, MA, founder of Carla Cross Seminars, Inc., is a popular international speaker, and author of 6 books and 20 audio programs, including two for trainers and presenters. She uses her background in musical performance and teaching to help her clients attain mastery of production and profits. Contact Carla at 425-392-6914 or see her web site at www.carlacross.com.
Today’s audience consists of multiple generations each with their unique expectations from the speaker. For the first time in history there are five generations in your audience. One generation likes lecture style, another likes to share expertise. The next generation likes you to ask their opinion & the youngest two generations prefer role play, videos, & other media.
How can you tell who is in your audience? Your best approach is to do an on the spot survey by show of hands. A quick way is to ask:
How many of you found work in job ads that said help wanted male, help wanted female? (Boomers & Veterans).
How many of you were latch key kids or your school mates were latch key kids? (Gen X)
How many of you prefer IM/ texting? (Gen Y & Gen M).
Now you know who is in the room.
If you are speaking at a conference you can include these questions in your pre-program assessment. Often the meeting planner can inform you who the audience is. In the event that is not a viable option, the above on the spot survey should suffice.
Armed with these results you can instantly customize your program to ensure you speak the language of your audience. By providing information in the manner your attendees desire, you will engage and wow them.
2. Verifying facts during your presentation
There was a time when speakers were looked up to as the experts who brought knowledge to the marketplace and helped people to be more successful. While this is still true the game has changed significantly.
With the ubiquitous access to the Internet speakers now have a new type of heckler to contend with.
For example, at a recent conference for the medical profession in Las Vegas the speaker referenced an article on the industry and mentioned several items for the audience.
After the lunch break when the audience returned, an attendee raised his hand. Thinking there was a question, the speaker acknowledged him.
The attendee then said, “I thought the speaker’s remarks were incorrect earlier. So while at lunch I surfed the Web, found the article, and verified what was said. Sure enough the speaker is wrong. By the way, here’s the URL to get that article yourself and get the facts right.”
Gone are the days when your audience simply took notes and accepted your expertise without verification. So today it is vital to not only verify your material, but to also confirm you have the most up to date information prior to stepping on the platform.
Today the audience not only expects information, they expect the most up-to-date information possible along with where they can learn more if they desire. So the night before a presentation, be sure to check online to ensure you have the most current information. While you’re at it, check article links as they may have been deleted or the website removed. Google often has a cached version though and that helps.
3. I want role play – not to listen you go on and on
Forget about slide decks with 30 – 50 slides. To really connect with today’s audience you must have fewer slides and more interaction.
Presentations should be lively so that the audience is energized. They want to interact and role playing helps them connect the dots and have a more transformational experience.
Many members of today’s audience are Gen X or younger. They are the highly stimulated generation from gamers to video creators. Sitting in a chair listening to you drone on through a PowerPoint presentation makes their eyes glaze over. They used PowerPoint for their school projects in second grade so they need more.
Here are three ways you can engage them:
After explaining a point, provide them with a case study that they can solve. Then have them role play the techniques they used to solve the case study.
Create a reality game or play “Jeopardy” with the clues including the tips you are teaching them or speaking about.
Give them an exercise to create something or think outside the box. They are very inventive and sometimes create something that knocks your socks off. I once gave a group straws, staples, scotch tape and colored markers. They could build anything they wanted. The winning entry was a “Bridge over Troubled Water.”
Time will fly by and you will find yourself in the role of facilitator. When the attendees want the speaker back they actually request it. This technique gets them really jazzed up and energized.
Your job is to research and find fun examples for your role play.
4. Downloading during your presentation
In a recent presentation I recommended a book that would be helpful to the participants. As I spoke, I noticed a young man who was very focused on his iPhone. This is a normal occurrence during today’s presentations. There’s even a term for it “Absent Presence.”
As I left the room for the break, he called me over to show me his iPhone. During the presentation, had downloaded a free Kindle® app for his iPhone, visited Amazon, purchased, and downloaded the book, and was already reading it.
What’s the point of this pitfall? To inform you that just because they’re on their iPhone during your presentation, doesn’t mean they’re tuning you out. Maybe they’re taking action on the recommendation you just made.
This brings us back to Pitfall #2 ‘verifying during your presentation.’ Today’s audiences are used to instant gratification and have the tools to get it. So it is crucial that your recommendations and suggestions are correct.
5. Tweeting & Texting during your presentation
A new occurrence for speakers today is tweeting during your presentation. I know how you feel when that happens. That’s why I have resorted to asking attendees to get in their one text before we start and during their breaks.
If you are speaking at a conference, be aware that the tweets and texts might be sent to the people currently in your audience or on their way to the workshop.
One conference speaker experienced this pitfall when they had low turnout for a seminar that previously had blowout attendance. Evidently attendees tweeted “don’t come to this workshop, the speaker is not very good.” On reading this many attendees decided to attend a different session and the speaker’s credibility was crushed.
Conversely, if you are a good speaker with an engaging style, the tweets would be “hurry up and get to this session. The speaker is fantastic.” This could turn a low turnout session into a blowout session and it’s all happening in real time.
Take them seriously
These five pitfalls are just the tip of the iceberg when speaking to a cross generational audience. Yes, I know, today all speaking engagements are cross generational. However, speakers who do not take these pitfalls seriously, may find themselves with an empty calendar wondering what happened?
Have you ever walked into one room and had your program go really well and done the exact same presentation fall flat with another room? Well, the challenge may have been your audience. Your presentation may be tailored perfectly for one generation but disastrous for another. In this free teleseminar, we’ll be talking to Yvonne F. Brown who is a specialist in Communications with Different Generations. Yvonne can tell you the secret to connecting with an audience of any age. Learn the tips, tricks and secrets to speaking the right language to each audience.
Get Emailed About Additional Teleseminar Events
Speaker Bio
Known as a highly effective public speaker, and communicator, Yvonne F. Brown has taught seminars on inter-generational and inter-cultural communications in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada.
As a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Roosevelt University, and College of DuPage, Yvonne teaches a variety of communication courses, including interpersonal, intercultural, organizational, conflict management and career growth. She has also conducted seminars for such corporations as Deloitte Consulting, Lockheed Martin, Citrix and Ft. Campbell Credit Union.
Yvonne has an impressive management background in the consulting industry. She managed staff for a 70 store retail chain, recruited, trained, developed training sessions and curricula.
Yvonne is heralded by participants as the best speaker and trainer they ever had. Her enthusiasm is contagious. She understands group dynamics, and is creative in developing programs that are powerful, interactive and entertaining. Visit her at www.yvonnefbrown.com.
Show Notes
Traditionalists – tell them what to do – take notes and think about it later
Baby Boomer – like a challenge – use case studies and sample examples and let them work on it
Gen Xers – interactive – will ask questions and challenge you
Gen Y – like to play games like jeopardy – turn your presentation into a game – use video
Digital Babies – video and digital interactivity is key
The next time you plan a retreat for your top leadership team, your chances for success are greatly enhanced if you remember these seven key elements.
1. Choose a conducive environment. Select an attractive environment that reflects the nature and purpose of your retreat. Everyone likes to get away for a while (except, of course, those of us who are incurably addicted to our cell phones, pagers and Internet connections), so an offsite location is often best. The fewer distractions you have in your retreat environment, the more productive you will be.
Choose a retreat site that is far enough away from the office so it would be difficult, if not impossible, for your participants to run away to an “urgent” last-minute meeting or crisis.
Establish a cell-free zone, and tell everyone to leave their mobile phones outside your meeting rooms. Cell phones have a way of creating false urgencies, and even the anticipation of their ringing can distract your people from the work of the retreat.
If your aim is to improve the quality of your systems and processes so that everyone can succeed (including all of your students, families and other stakeholders), then choose an environment that models what you want your people to learn. For off-site retreats, I often take my clients to a Ritz-Carlton hotel, winner of two Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards. Benchmarking best practices at the Ritz as you conduct the business of your retreat can energize your own Continuous Quality Improvement journey in a very special way.
We know that when people fail, it is often their systems that have failed them first. When people succeed, it is most often because there are systems and processes in place that make success possible for everyone. At the Ritz-Carlton, they have systems in place that result in consistently high performance and customer satisfaction levels, ensuring success for their own employees as well as for their clients and providers.
Many of the Ritz-Carlton practices can be adapted to school use. What could we learn from such a quality-focused organizational environment that we could use to improve our work back home?
2. Focus on policies and processes, not personalities.
This must be the primary, non-negotiable ground rule for your retreat. Make sure everyone avoids the temptation to make issues personal. Most problems are directly related to the way an organization’s systems and processes are set up. The “blame game” is always seductive, but it is always counter-productive in the long run. Everyone wants to be known for competence, and people resent working in environments that unfairly limit their potential.
Use your retreat to create systems and processes that will optimize the greatest potential of all your people–administrators, teachers, students, parents, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, business and community partners, and all of your other stakeholders. Rather than fixing blame, put your group’s energies into fixing your systems instead.
3. Make relevant data the basis of your work. Put your quality improvement processes on solid ground by focusing on the collection, analysis and application of relevant data. As a colleague of mine is fond of saying, “Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.” Accurate and relevant data will either prove your point or open it up for debate.
People at all levels of your organization must feel free to challenge unsupported assumptions. In school districts of quality, an often-heard comment is: “That’s an interesting perspective. Can we back it up with data?” Along with “effect” data such as test scores, be sure to collect and analyze “cause” data–information about the possible reasons why you are getting the results you are getting.
Are all students learning and achieving their potential? Why are some of our students performing below their capabilities? Do we need more data on whether they are getting enough uninterrupted sleep at night, whether they are coming to school with protein-rich breakfasts in their bellies, and whether they are getting enough water and exercise throughout the day?
Do we need to consider whether our teaching styles match our students’ learning styles? Are our students engaged in nonfiction writing across the curriculum–a proven method for raising student achievement and improving test scores? These are just a few of the “cause” data sets that are too often missing in our deliberations.
4. Consider every stakeholder group and focus on results. In your deliberations, give adequate consideration to each and every stakeholder group. Unnecessary exclusion creates unnecessary adversaries. Not everybody needs to have a seat at your retreat, but be sure to weigh the needs of your internal and external clients and providers as you plan your next steps.
For example, do your teachers have the tools and strategies they need to help all of their students succeed? Do they use up-to-date tools and techniques to help students develop effective study skills and personal management skills, as well as the ability to think clearly and creatively as they take ownership of their own learning?
A national project of our Center for Schools of Quality, called Expanding Learning Potential, teaches teachers these essential strategies. Students are our most important stakeholders, and our retreat deliberations must have a laser-like focus on the central question: How can we best help our students to learn and grow to their fullest potential?
5. Celebrate and build on your strengths. For the greatest possible improvement, build upon what you already do so very well. Celebrate existing strengths while you expand those strengths to become even better tomorrow than you are today. You might want to begin by having your participants consider these four basic questions: What is getting better? How do we know? What needs improvement? How do we know?
One of the most useful tools is my Plus/Delta/M Exercise, in which you work in teams to identify your greatest strengths (pluses), your opportunities for possible improvement (deltas–the international symbol for change and improvement), and what is currently missing (M) from the mix, or is not yet on your radar screen.
Note that we never use the word “weakness” in my exercise. It’s good to substitute positive words for negatives whenever possible. Positive ideas have much more power because, rather than pointing to past mistakes and causes for blame, they point the way toward future possibilities and opportunities for growth.
6. Provide objective facilitation. To avoid unnecessary conflict and to keep everyone on track, your facilitator should be someone who is objective. More importantly, your facilitator should be perceived as impartial by all of your retreat participants. For this reason, most successful retreats are not conducted by superintendents or board presidents, or even by internal staff developers, but rather by an experienced, respected outside consultant who is a specialist in guiding participants through the often-tricky terrain of interpersonal relationships and personal agendas. An outside facilitator can afford to say things that insiders may not be able to say, leading to more positive results.
7. Don’t forget food, fun and fellowship. Your retreat should provide good nutrition, especially first thing in the morning. “Feed them, and they will come!” is an oft-heard truth from retreat planners. Resist the temptation to offer your retreat participants the usual fare of donuts, bagels and coffee–extremely high in sugars and caffeine. These traditional breakfast foods all too often result in caffeine crashes and sugar slumps by mid-morning, setting folks up for the “dead zone” after lunch, when many people have to struggle just to stay awake.
Instead, consider providing a protein-rich breakfast (egg and cheese croissant, for example) before the first session of the morning, and have protein snacks (cheese sticks, mixed nuts, shelled sunflower seeds) at their tables to munch on throughout the day. You’ll be amazed at the improved energy levels of even your most unenergetic participants!
Also, be sure to build in time for members to enjoy each other’s company away from the business at hand. Make it possible for your people to get away for a golfing outing, a picnic or a concert, so they can get to know each other on a personal level in a relaxed setting. Bonding opportunities such as these offer one of the most valuable, long-lasting benefits of taking your group on a retreat.
Enjoy amazing results
Plan your next leadership retreat with these seven key ideas in mind, and you may be amazed at the results!
Copyright [c] 2003, John Jay Bonstingl. All rights reserved.
Managers, trainers, and even ‘real people’ sometimes have to present in front of three to hundreds of people. Unfortunately, most presenters aren’t trained with the best presentation tools. Instead, they just copy each other. So, we in the audience are frequently bored silly. It doesn’t have to be that way. Take a look at the three speaker tips below to make your next time in front of a few –or many—enjoyable, memorable, and equally enjoyable for your audience.
Three Powerful Speaker’s Tips
1. Don’t lecture for more than 10 minutes. Adults just don’t have that long an attention span (too much on our minds!). Change it up. Use various “alternative delivery methods”–methods to teach other than lecture. In my Instructor Development course, I help students learn these teaching methods by modeling them so they can observe me teaching. Then, we de-brief on what we did. Finally, each student teaches a short module using creative methods, and the rest of the students provide feedback. (We really only learn when we do something). Doing greatly increases confidence–and competence.
2. When you want to change adults’ perceptions, beliefs, or knowledge, don’t just start talking to them. You may just cause them to shrink more into their beliefs, and to defend it (have you observed students who live to argue with the instructor?)
How to tackle the ‘old belief’ challenge:
Prepare students to learn something new. For example: Use a ‘true-false’ or ‘multiple choice’ to start the presentation, or to check learning. I do this in my IDW course in the middle, and ask students how they would have answered at the beginning of the course–and then contrast that with their new perceptions and learning. It creates lots of ‘ahas’ with them, and further cements their learning experience.
3. Don’t just read from the PowerPoint on the screen (and, just as onerous, provide the student with the PowerPoint as the “outline”.) If an instructor does that, I feel I want to just take that outline and leave. I can read, thank you! Too many presenters/trainers rely on PowerPoint to do the teaching.
Use that Right Brain of Yours
Effective teaching is much more than just talking. It should be creative. Use all the “attention strategies” at your disposal (that means to get them into your repertoire).
Suggestions:
Use props, stories, various audio-visual aids, handouts to control the audience “contour”. I learned this as a musician playing for dancing. You direct how you want the audience to dance, and you ‘contour’ the whole experience (slower to faster, then back to slow). As a great instructor/ facilitator, you can direct your audience in an awesome learning experience. It just depends on the skills you bring to the table.
It’s Worth the Effort
Most presenters/trainers aren’t in it for the big bucks (where are those big bucks, again?). They’re in it to assist others. Gaining and practicing presentation skills helps us give back better. The bonus: Deep appreciation from our audience. We’ve even been known to change lives for the better! No amount of money can provide that sense of accomplishment.
Carla Cross, CRB, MA, is a National Realtor Educator of the Year, international speaker, and author of training and coaching programs for most of the international franchises. She was recognized as one of the 50 most influential women Realtors of 2008. She’s the author of the new comprehensive training resource, The Ultimate Real Estate Trainer’s Guide, and the new presentation resource, Knock Their Socks Off. See her coaching and training resources at www.carlacross.com.
Those of us who do spiritual retreats know that you can and should engineer the energy of the space of an event long before you enter it. Setting out intentions, creating a physical environment that reflects those intentions, and then creating and holding space to facilitate those intentions into reality are the ways to create a great environment for your event. Below is a list of elements to consider as you create your ideal workshop space.
Physical Space
The physical space in which you hold an event is critical to its success. Too big, too small, too loud, or too soft can spell the different between success and disaster. It’s particularly important when running a spiritual retreat that you have a space that is energetically solid to hold the work you intend to do there. Picking a site where the owners have done this for you is a great start. But if you don’t have this luxury, then you can do some work up front to make your event experience ideal.
The Room
The room, furniture, and site are all factors that contribute to the overall impression of an event. A hotel ballroom is generally cold and cavernous, a stone mansion with a roaring fire will have a warmer feel. There are emotions evoked from the setting in which you place your event. A blank canvas (such as the hotel ballroom) can be painted to a certain extent, but there are limits. You will want to carefully assess what you need your environment to be in order to best create the space you are looking to set.
The Furniture
Once you know your sit, then the furniture will likely come with the space, but consider carefully if you want it. Some chairs can’t hold over a certain weight. Others are just plain uncomfortable. If you know you’re going to be sitting a lot, you’d better make certain the chairs are comfortable. Then there’s a matter of arranging the furniture. You’ll want to be certain that your format fits the function of the event. Remember that round tables are great for discussion, but half of the people will have their backs to you. Chairs set in rows need to be far enough apart for people to get in and out when others are seated. There should ALWAYS be a center aisle when you are set up lecture style so that the rows don’t go on forever and for ease of entrance and exit. If you want people to buy things from you while you are there, then you will want to seat them close together to create a sense of urgency later.
Other Issues
What are you handing out at the beginning of your events? What are people being asked to carry around with them? Do they have a sense of their own space within the environment or are they one of the herd? What temperature are you keeping the environment at – or are you changing it around? What clothing are you telling people to wear? Are you asking people not to wear scents?
Clearing The Energy Grid
If you’re going to have a spiritual or transformational event in a space that is used for anything other than these purposes, then I highly recommend clearing the energy grid before you get started. The last thing you want is to have a bunch of leftover angst from someone’s wedding reception wreaking havok on your sacred event space. If you don’t know how to clear the grids of a space, then I’d suggest calling in a professional. I recommend David Franklin Farkas, a.k.a. The House Healer (www.HouseHealing.com). He does great work for a reasonable price and it’s all remote, so you don’t have to pay for travel.
Workshop Format
The next thing you need to take into account is what you’ll be doing in the workshop. what exercises are you running and what will you need for those exercises? For instance, journaling could require either a table or a binder to form a hard surface. Are you creating a space in which participants will be in physical contact or not? If so, you’ll want to give them some room so they feel like they can leave if they need to. Are you having them move around or stay still? What special effects (ritual tech) will you be doing (if any)? If you’re doing any sort of challenging or transformational work, you’ll need to know where you’re planning on taking the people who melt down.
Staff Preparation
How many people are you going to need to run your event? If you’re running a retreat, some of the staff will be yours and others will belong to the site. Know how much you can depend on site staff and what you need to cover yourself. If you’re running a smaller event, then you will want to have at least one person to act as your problem solver and greeter so you can stay focused on creating the space you need to create.
Greeting = Creating
How your attendees are greeted will determine the energetic space in which they’ll arrive at the event. Your staff will need to know how to greet your attendees for maximum efficacy. A grumpy staff person can mean the difference between a well-set environment and one where some of the people come in rattled and upset. Not a good start to a day. Having a set patter will help your staff to know what is expected of them.
Problem Solver
You’ll also need a problem-solver on staff – someone whose job it is to fix whatever is broken. This person will be the go-to person for the rest of the staff. They will get handed any problem item or person so that the rest of the staff can stay on task.
Energetic Space
The last item is the one that most people miss. This is the energetic space. You create this with your tone of voice, your attitude, your energy level and the cadence of your speech as well as through your choice of words. All of these factor in. But long before your attendees arrive, you need to be setting the physical space. The night before, you should have control of the room and walk through it setting intentions for the day and visualizing a positive outcome for your event. Look at all aspects of the experience, both for yourself and your attendees and create a positive intention for each aspect.
The morning of the event, gather your staff together to create a group vision of a positive event. Get everyone’s energy involved. Then get them moving – chanting, singing, dancing, clapping, stomping, whatever it takes to amp up the energy in the room to prepare it for your attendees’ arrival. It will also get your staff’s energy in the right place to model the energy you want from people as they walk in the door.
Summary
Everything you do affects the energy of your event. From the moment you conceive of the idea until you put it in motion, you are adding to the energetic of it. If you put the time into planning and the thought into the design and then the energy into the event, you’ll have a successful program in no time!
Holding Space
When you run any event, your job is to create the environment for that event – from the physical space that you hold it in, to the experience that the attendees have of your event staff, to the interactions you create for them to the energetics of the room – the way it feels – it’s all your responsibility.
Creating the Energetics
Everything I’ve listed above gets done in advance in the layout of the space, the training of your staff and the design of your event. But one thing is done on-site in-the-moment and that’s the creation of the energetics.* All of the elements I’ve listed play into a person’s experience of the space and the event, but you are the final harbinger of that experience. How you speak, the tonality you use, the cadence with which you deliver your words, the words you choose, all of these things, combined with the energy with this you deliver them creates an experience. This is the space that you hold for the people attending your event. Holding this space takes planning, good design and good facilitation. It also takes a lot of energy.
The Flow of Energy
Have you noticed that there is a flow of energy that takes place in a room when you are training? Some groups offer a lot of energy back to you, others suck you dry if you’re not careful. It’s all about how engaged and how energized they are. If they are excited and interested, then the room just flies – and you fly with it. If they aren’t then it’s like dragging wild horses up a hill backwards, in the mud. Ugh. And the more people there are in the room, the more significant this effect is. It’s easy to get worn out quickly if you don’t take action to change things.
Follow The Leader
You are the leader and therefore they will follow you. If you show up without any energy then they will come down to meet you. You have to be the one with the almost stupid-looking amount of energy to get things moving along. You have to give them permission to be excited with you.
Getting People Involved
Once they have permission to be excited, then it’s time to get them involved. Ask questions and show them that you expect them to participate. I often even say to them “Oh, ho, you thought you were going to skate through this and make me do all the work? I don’t think so! Sit up and tune in guys, we’re going to be working hard together today. I’ll make it fun if you’ll do the work – deal?” This sets their expectations that I’m not just another talking head that’s going to lecture at them for the next few hours.
Designing Interaction
I don’t have time to go into all the elements of good workshop design in this post, but suffice it to say that you need to make sure that once you’ve told them that they have to do the work, that you then give them work to do. Don’t talk for more than 10 minutes without asking some questions that they have to answer. Give them exercises to do as a group. Facilitate some brainstorming. Have them put skills you’ve just taught them into action with role playing. Get them involved. People learn more when they do, but they won’t do it unless you make them.
Your Energy Levels
No matter how much you get the audience to interact with you, there’s a limit to what they can give you. It will take some of your energy to move things along and keep you rolling. You’ll have to really pay attention to your personal energy level because if you have to start pushing, they’re going to feel it. If I’m teaching a small class for a couple of hours, I don’t have to worry about a thing – I’ve got plenty of energy to spare at the end of class. But the larger the group or the longer the program, the more I have to manage my own energy.
Develop a Routine
Before I go into any program of size or length, I have a routine that I go through. It involved calming myself and getting focused – visualizing a positive response at the end of the event and energetically connecting with the crowd before I even say hello. All of this is important, but the single most important thing I do before I head out is that I open myself up to universal energy. I tap into the energy field around me so that I am channeling that energy rather than using my own to create the space. This way, I don’t find myself falling down from exhaustion at the end of the day. In fact, I find myself often more energized than when I started.
Make a Plan – Work Your Plan
In short, it’s important to know what you are creating and then to make a plan to make sure you reach your destination. Happy presenting!
*Energetics don’t have to be done on the spot, but most people don’t plan for them and thus it is how it happens. For more information about consciously designing the energetic into the process, please see my article “How Do You Want It To Feel?”
