Presentation Skills

What do you do to build your presentation skills?

Storytelling as a Learning Device

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Humankind has been using storytelling to pass knowledge from person to person for a very, very long time.

Rance Greene, who spent time earlier in his career earning experience in live theater, recently wrote a book entitled Instructional Story Design: Develop Stories that Train, in which he translates his experience to help readers write and develop stories for training.

Recently, I had an opportunity to spend some time with Rance to get his thoughts on why stories are such a powerful training device, whether stories are appropriate for every topic and how to rein in the desire to share every detail in a story.

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Virtual Training Design Lessons from a Weekend of Wine Tasting

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Last weekend I had a chance to visit several wineries in Walla Walla, WA. A lot of people wondered why I was going to wineries if I don’t drink. Honestly, if I have an opportunity to sit outside on a gorgeous day, surrounded by beautiful scenery and amazing views while having fun conversations and learning about things I knew nothing about, then count me in.

As we sat in the final winery we were visiting over the weekend, I began to reflect on the experience and realized there might be some lessons to take away that can be applied to virtual training design.

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5 Reasons Why Joining Your Local ATD Chapter is a Good Idea

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These are strange times we’re living in. Who knows when many of us will return to our old offices (if we ever do… some claim that physical office space may become obsolete by the end of this whole quarantine). Who knows when we’ll be able to connect with old co-workers around the water cooler. Who knows when we’ll next stop by someone’s cubicle to bounce an idea around.

Physical distancing means that in-person connections will naturally fade. In the world of learning and development professionals, these connections have often been the lifeblood of new and creative ideas.

So what’s an L&D person to do?

If you’re not yet a member of your local ATD chapter, this could be a really good time to consider it. Here are five reasons why:

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What kind of facilitator are you designing for?

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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:

Into which quadrant do you think that you fall?
Vote

Into which quadrant do the people you design training for generally fall?
Vote

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.

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When technology attacks (Virtual Training Edition)

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What 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?

A few weeks ago, my colleague Lauren Wescott offered a series of virtual sessions focused on the role of a producer. 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).

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Successful Team Retreats

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Last week our team gathered together for a team retreat. During this retreat, all of us left our families and work priorities to spend a few days together to grow as a team, work on Soapbox, and be intentional about the culture we are creating at Endurance Learning. We are all sensitive to the sacrifice it takes to attend these retreats and place the utmost priority on making them useful and successful. Continue reading →

Asked to speak about a topic? You may actually be an imposter… just not for the reason(s) you think.

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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 →