How Not to Facilitate a Training

This week I had the opportunity to participate in a government training. Initially I was in shock, then in utter horror when I realized that the training presenters were quite serious about their presentation styles.  I don't know if it's a government style of presenting or if it was a rare and unusual moment.  After the 30+ hour training of observing people nod off into deep sleeps during each session, I started to ask everyone for their opinion about the teaching style that has helped me to create this month's blog on things not to do when presenting.

I must admit that all of the presenters were intelligent people interested in sharing their knowledge. For us in the audience, it was a missed opportunity to have fun and to learn at the same time. Here is a list of items that should be avoided at any cost when presenting:

• Dryness of materials presented. Very often as a trainer or facilitator you may not be able to select the materials or topics to be discussed, but it's better to try and make the most of it and make the topic real for the audience. It's extremely important to understand your audience and learn as much as you can about them prior to the training. Even conducting a mini survey asking basic questions may help you to prepare your presentation.

• Fake humor. If you don't have a good sense of humor that can be incorporated into your presentation, then it's better to not fake it. The audience always knows the difference between what's fake and what's real.

• Sharing stories. Before attending this government training, I have always encouraged trainers to share their life stories with their audiences as it can develop a bond between the speaker and the listeners.  However if no one in the room can understand or relate to any of your stories you may want to stop ASAP.

• Ignoring your audience. Too often facilitators will power through their presentation without looking at one single person or face in the audience. When facilitating it's extremely important to be able to read the room for interest and alertness.  It's a clear signal when 1/3  of your audience is yawning, falling asleep or texting. Remember to talk with your audience and not at them. It has been proven to be one of the fastest way to lose your audience.

• Presenting with your back. Everyone knows this, but, yet too many people keep their backs to the audience as they read every single line from the slides as if the audience is too stupid to be able to read the slides for themselves. This is one of the #1 reasons to kill a facilitator without guilt no matter how nice the back side may appear.

• Overcrowded Slides. Slides with too much information on them can be annoying and difficult to read.  As the information increases on each slide, the font gets smaller and smaller, especially when charts are used. Each slide should have no more than 5 lines. The purpose of slides are guide to the facilitator. They are not to used to write out the entire discussion that will only be read or repeated, making it a recipe for a slow death.

• No audience participation. Every good training session should include participants in every step of the way. It provides a reinforcement to lessons uncovered and lessons learned. It's also an opportunity for training participants to exchange information with each other.

• Starting / Ending late. It's important to start the meeting each day on time and to finish on time.  Participants respect a trainer to start on time and will absolutely adore you if you finish 15 minutes early, cutting them a bit of slack.

• Reading from a script. Often trainers who are called in as a last minute replacement will often read from a script without looking at their audience.  Older trainers will often wear reading glasses and keep taking them on and off in order to see the print and to see the audience. This can be quite annoying to training participants.  If you have vision problems, try making the font as large as possible on your script so that it's not laughable. Remember, you want to be taken as a serious presenter.

• Fumbling with the equipment. It pays to check out your training room, equipment and all other logistics ahead of time.  Many presenters will waste valuable time trying to figure out how to make the slides move backwards and forwards. Often facilitators want to include a funny video or a video that may be only funny to them, but they can figure out how to have it as part of the powerpoint presentation and will have to leave the presentation to open a browser and search for the video to show. Again, wasting valuable time and appearing to be less than professional.

Just remember that the best part of facilitating a training is to have fun as the presenter and to make it an enjoyable experience for your audience.  Being prepared and aware of the needs of your audience leads to a very successful training.  There are many great training tools, just remember to use them appropriately.

Have you experienced a training that could have used a kick? Share that information with us at Promotions West.

Handling Team Problems with Finesse

Keep your team on target:

Teams can easily get sidetracked for a variety of reasons. Their sense of direction may weaken as a result of your leadership style, the team's internal working or conflicts that may exist within the team.

Find out what the problem may be:

As soon as you realize there is a problem, deal with it immediately.   The most important piece is to identify the problem.  In many cases the problem could exist for the following reasons:

·      Misunderstood or ill-defined goals

·      Lack of focus on team dynamics

·      Lack of communication among team members

·      Lack of commitment to the team’s performance

·      Gaps in critical skills

·      Unresolved internal conflict

·      External misunderstanding, hostility, or indifference from other groups

Resolving the problem:

Don’t avoid or deny the problem by hoping that it will simply just go away. Problems and issues have a way of hanging around and growing larger and more annoying if ignored.

Often there are simple things that you can do to help a team to get back on track. For example:

·      Lead a discussion the reviews the team’s purpose, approach and performance goals.

·      Establish goals and a course of action to achieving them

·      Share new information and a different perspective.

·      Share outside information and data via benchmarks and case studies.

·      Remember to tell your tell team how much you appreciate their efforts and their work. Often a simple “Thank You” is all that team members may need from their leader or a pat on the back.

The art of leading a team is to persuade a person who is unmotivated ­­– which can range from a community outreach manager, and executive director to an administrative assistant  – to do his or her job. As the team leader, you must always show appreciation. Remember to thank people for the simplest things like opening a door.  How many of us have worked for and with people who never uttered words “Thank You”, but instead focused on what you weren’t doing according their non-verbal expectations of you?

One of the lessons I learned early in my career was that leading a strong and successful team takes an entire team’s effort in constructing a positive relationship.

Facilitator Behavior and Strategies

How you behave as a facilitator can make or break your effectiveness. The more groundwork you do, the better you will become as a facilitator. Here are some suggested parameters for facilitator behavior.

·      Be Informed. Successful facilitators always gather extensive data about their prospective participants in order to fully understand both their business and their needs. They survey and interview participants, read background reports and use prepared questions to build a complete picture of the group’s situation.

·      Be Optimistic. Facilitators do not allow disinterest, antagonism, shyness, cynicism or other negative reactions to throw them off. They try instead to focus on what can be achieved and to draw the best from each participant.

·      Be Consensual. Facilitation is fundamentally a consensus building process. Facilitators always strive to create outcomes that reflect the ideas of all participants equally.

·      Be Flexible. Successful facilitators always have a process plan for all meetings, yet at the same time must always be ready to toss it aside and change direction if that is what is needed.  Really great facilitators bring alternative strategies and possess a good command of process tools.

·      Be Understanding. There are great pressures on employees in today’s workplace.  Facilitators need to understand this and recognize that antagonistic or cynical behaviors are a result of high stress levels.

·      Be Alert. All great facilitators are expert people watchers.  They pay careful attention to group dynamics and notice what is going on at all times.  All process leaders need to train themselves to be watchful of both how people interact and how well they are achieving the task.

·      Be Firm. Good facilitation is not a passive activity.  It often takes a substantial level of assertiveness to keep people and activities on track. Facilitators must be ready to step in and direct the process if the situation calls for it.

·      Be Unobtrusive. The facilitator should do as little talking as possible. The participants should be doing all of the talking.  The facilitator says only enough to give instructions, stop arguments, keep things on track and sum up.  Trying to be the centre of attention or make yourself look important is a misuse of your position.

·      Let the Participants Excel. Facilitating should be an egoless activity. The purpose is to make the group succeed, not to make you look really important and clever.  An effective facilitator will leave a group convinced that “We did it ourselves!”

Preparation and Practice Makes Perfect

There are two secrets to making a good presentation: preparation and practice. Take the time to prepare properly and your chances of success will increase enormously.

Defining your purpose

What do you want to communicate to your audience?

Before you start to prepare your presentation, decide what you want to achieve. Focus on the purpose of the presentation at every stage to ensure that your presentation is relevant and efficient. Here are a few points to remember when planning for your presentation:

·      Presentation should to relevant, simple and to the point.

·      The audience will be impressed by the depth and breadth of your knowledge and honesty rather than by a show of fake intellect or arrogance.

·      A positive attitude, energy and enthusiasm for the subject will speak volumes to your audience. Your audience will remember you long after the details of your speech have been forgotten.

·      Once you have written your speech, remember to cut it, cut it, and cut it again.

Know your audience

It’s very important to know as much about your audience as possible. It will help you to know the level of knowledge that exist in the room as well as individuals that can be used as experts to help answer questions.

Be yourself

Unless you are a trained actor or actress, it’s difficult trying to be anyone other than yourself. We all bring different assets to the table that complements the overall team. Concentrate on defining and utilizing your best assets. If you have a strong voice, use it to your advantage. If you have a talent for being humorous, use it to make the audience feel comfortable.

Using Good Body Language

At every moment of your waking life, you are sending out nonverbal signals about your feelings and intentions. It’s possible to use this body language in a presentation to help reinforce your message. Keep an open posture at all times, avoiding crossing your arms or creating a barrier between you and the audience. Use hand gestures selectively for emphasis, but don’t gesture so much with your hands become a distraction. When relaxed, your body language will reinforce your message naturally, but using the appropriate gestures can help you disguise your nerves.

Remember the following tips:

·      Eye contact establishes positive rapport with your audience

·      Make eye contact with somebody in the audience at every available opportunity

·      Relaxed body language conveys confidence

·      An open jacket presents an image of honesty

·      Open hand gestures emphasize key points

·      Sharing a relevant anecdote will put you at ease when speaking

Presentation Do’s and Don’ts:

·      Do use simple, concise language whenever possible for clarity

·      Do use eye contact to obtain feedback from the audience. Their body language will reveal their reactions to your presentation

·      Do keep pauses specific and emphatic. Use them to show your audience to absorb what you say

·      Don’t ever apologize for your lack of speaking experience

·      Don’t mumble or hesitate. If you lose your place, stay calm until you find it

·      Don’t drop your voice at the end of each sentence. It will sound as if you are not sure of what you are saying

Finally, use the 3 Es in your presentation. Every presentation has three essential objectives. The first aim is to educate: the audience should learn something from your speech. The second is to entertain: the audience should enjoy your presentation. The final element is to explain: all parts of your speech should be clear to your audience.

Give your pitch a Facelift

What do you do? That's usually the first question a new contact will ask you at a meeting, conference or at a social gathering.

It’s a simple enough question, used often for starting a conversation. Yet the answer you provide to that question can determine whether the conversation continues or stops dead in its tracks. Everyone needs a clear, concise and engaging way to answer the question, “What do you do?”

Here are a few ideas about how to refine and refresh your quick pitch:

·      Know your target audience.  Knowing exactly who would benefit from your product or service is critical.  We all must be able to communicate ideas that others will recognize, so they will see how we can help them. You should have the ability to adjust your pitch, depending on your audience.

·      Understand what the other person cares about, his or her concerns and priorities.

·      Talk about your results, not how you achieve them.  For example, if you are a consumer financial literacy educator, just don’t talk about  all the consumer issues that exists, you might say that you help communities all over the country to take charge of their financial lives.

·      Connect with your own passion and enthusiasm.

·      Pay attention to how people respond. The goal of an elevator speech is to get people interested and have them ask more questions. If they don’t ask questions, you may want to adjust what you are talking about so people can recognize the value or benefit that you provide.

·      It’s also important to listen to what the other person is saying to you.  Quite often they will tell you exactly what they are looking for or interested in learning or hearing from you.

·      Less is more. Most people like to receive information in capsules or bite size pieces.

Speaking Effectively to Your Audience

Once you are actually in the room with your audience, you must focus on delivering the most engaging presentation possible.  You will achieve your best performance if you speak effectively, project a positive image, and keep your audience engaged.  Remember, your presentation is not about you, but about what you are offering to support and inspire your audience. Here are some suggestions:

Make your presentation conversational. Know your audience.

Avoid the use of jargon or terms that may be unfamiliar to the audience.

Watch the audience for non-verbal clues about their response.

Breathe. It helps you relax and reduces filter language such as “um” and “er”

To use your voice to it’s best advantage, keep its tone natural and conversational.  Avoid yelling or talking too loud into the microphone, which could turn people off. However, do speak loudly enough for everyone.  In most cases, you can do this by speaking to the most distant person in the room.  Here are a few tips: 

              

·      Avoid raid fire or drawn out speech.  Practice with a colleague or team member to get feedback.

·      Be expressive. Don’t speak in monotone. Raise and lower your voice to make your point.

·      Enunciate and pronounce words clearly.

·      It’s also important to remember to not to interrupt a team member when they are facilitating or presenting to the audience.  Interrupting a team member can cause them to lose track of their thoughts.  In addition, it also confuses the audience in terms of who is in charge.  If you feel that something need to be said to your team member, one should:

·      Make a note of your thoughts and speak to your team members after their presentation so that they can make a note of the information the next time they are presenting; or

·      If you are facilitating and you are not sure of the answer, you can call on a team member for help or let the audience know that you will get the information and report back to them later during the day.

·      It’s also a good idea to place difficult questions or questions that you may not have the answer to at the time on a “Parking Lot” easel or pull information from your audience.

In closing, remember there are ways to present a positive image to your audience.  Your confidence and commitment to your message is reflected by your demeanor and body language.  To optimize your effectiveness, make sure to do the following:

·      Project confidence through your dress and presence.

·      Make sure your facial expressions convey interest in the audience.  If you are too nervous to look at the entire audience, focus on individuals instead.

·      Make and maintain eye contact with audience members at all times.

·      Be humorous when possible.

Tips for Presenting Effectively:

·      Do not talk from a script. Talk from notes.  There is a difference.

·      Face your audience and make eye contact.

·      When you want control or more involvement, or to become a member of the group, walk around your audience. Depending on your personality, you may reach out and touch them.

·      Use gestures in a relaxed and normal way.

·      Use your voice effectively.

Keep your focus on your message and on your audience.