Facilitation is an art that takes practice. Invest in yourself as a facilitator and your trainees will reap the rewards.
A few weeks ago I asked: “What kind of facilitator are you?” and I shared this model:
As part of this post, I also asked the following two poll questions:
If you haven’t had a chance to respond to those questions, I invite you to share your thoughts now by selecting the choices that best fit you and your situation. The answers I’ve received so far offered some interesting data points.
Continue readingDesigning effective training is one thing. Designing training that can be delivered effectively (by you or by someone else) is a bit of a different animal. It doesn’t matter whether the training is being delivered in-person or virtually, the person delivering the session is an enormous X Factor in whether the training will be effective or not.
Continue readingOver the past month, our Endurance Learning team has offered several free webinars on basic ways to put together an engaging virtual session and the importance of the “producer” role. If you missed either session, you can access a recording with the following links:
During each session, we shared some data and several job aids, which I also shared on LinkedIn and received a lot of positive feedback. Instead of having to search through the webinars or my old LinkedIn posts, I thought I’d collect all of those job aids and put them in one place.
Continue readingWhat happens if there’s some sort of technological glitch (or worse, a catastrophic freezing up of your computer) when you’re delivering a virtual session?
This week, my colleague Lauren Wescott offered a series of virtual sessions focused on the role of a producer (there’s one more session tomorrow in case you’re interested in signing up!). A producer exists to ensure your presenter can focus wholeheartedly on presenting information and engaging the participants.
One important way a producer can do this is by helping troubleshoot issues with the technology while the facilitator focuses on delivering a high quality session. Below is a guide that may help you identify some potential issues your participants are having specifically with Zoom (we’re working on a similar job aid for other platforms).
Continue readingOne of the most-searched-for blog posts on Train Like A Champion has been my post offering a Train the Trainer Course Outline. At 6.5 years old, this post is begging for some updates, and so over the next several weeks, I’d like to not only update the actual outline itself but also offer some specific examples of how to actually facilitate sections of this program.
Continue readingAs the decade closes, I would be remiss not to reflect on how my career has evolved over the last 10 years. I have been an instructional designer for the majority of this decade, thanks in no small part to the immense amount of resources available in the learning and development field. Continue reading
Have you ever wished you could reduce the number of hours (or days) it takes to come up with engaging ideas for your training sessions?This morning my company, Endurance Learning, launched an online tool that can help you generate a facilitator guide, a complete set of activities and a PowerPoint deck – all in under five minutes. The tool is called Soapbox. Here is how it works:
Continue readingA couple of friends asked me to officiate their wedding last weekend. There are a lot of special things about being asked to perform this ceremony and this being a first for me, I worked to make it special. I wrote a ceremony unique to the couple and their families, I practiced diligently, and I arrived at the venue to rehearse with the wedding party. As I stood at the altar, preparing to make minor adjustments, someone Continue reading
No, this isn’t some sort of personality quiz (although that’s an interesting idea for an upcoming blog post). It’s a real question.
When you attend a training session, what kind of participant (or non-participant) are you? Continue reading
I’ve seen a lot written about “imposter syndrome” on LinkedIn recently. In short, imposter syndrome is when you doubt your own abilities, especially when you’re asked to publicly show them off.
My colleague, Heather, wrote about this phenomenon among L&D professionals last year in this blog post.
I’ve worked with a number of people – from early career professionals to senior staff – who express doubts about what kind of wisdom they could possibly have to offer others. It’s quite a natural sentiment.
The truth is, however, that I’ve seen more actual imposters among those who have been asked to share their expertise with an audience and who feel confident in their wisdom and their experience. I’ve seen imposters among doctors, lawyers, tech executives and learned academics (among others). They’re smart people, to be sure, but where they come across as true fakes is Continue reading