Today I saw a wonderful article on a children's art programme - all about Green Graffiti - where an artist sandblasts a dirty wall (in this case at Brighton's marina) using some templates to create a work of art. The shapes are formed from "clean wall" against the lichen, moss and dirt of the wall.
What a genuinely novel idea - a wonderful example of reversing ideas and coming up with something better..... Burnley has also reversed ideas about art - by creating works of art called Invisible that magically comes alive in the dark, as it is painted in UV paint.
It is the same for presenters and trainers - the very people you wish to engage and inspire have probably seen and been to dozens of presentations and training events. It all becomes rather predictable - been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
So how do you get their attention?
How do you make them curious?
Simple - do something different.
I can remember the excitement and curiosity when I brought a room full of trainers into a room that was pitch dark, using torches to light their way. It was eight o'clock in the evening after a full day's work and they were at an evening class - tired and just dying to go home. But the dark signalled that something different was about to happen and they perked up brilliantly.
Think of the "norms" and turn them upsidedown:
* If they are expecting 127 PowerPoint slides, give them none.
* Instead of sending them an invite - send them a puzzle to solve
* Instead of starting off with an energiser - give them a really difficult task to solve
* Instead of giving out handouts - get them to write they key points on a credit card sized piece of paper and laminate it as a ready reminder
* Instead of using a happy sheet - get them to design a quiz to test their own knowledge at the end of the day and use a "runaround" quiz to explore what they are thinking and feeling
Today - think of just one thing that you "normally do" during your presentation or training, and then think of the opposite. Then work out how that might work to grab your audience's attention and engage their hearts and minds.
Showing posts with label creative learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label creative learning. Show all posts
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
Monday, 9 March 2009
How to Remember What to Say
As a presenter you want to remember what to say during your presentation or workshop. The more nervous you are, the more you may want to use extensive notes, or even a script to make sure you remember it all. But please put the script down if you really want to connect to your audience.
There are only two occasions when reading off a script is acceptable:
1) If you are a political or business leader such as President Obama
2) If every single word or nuance must be spoken exactly as written
The rest of the time, it is far better to be spontaneous and ad-lib. Here's why:
* Your tone and pace will be more natural
* You will have more eye contact and connection with your audience
* Your personality and natural charisma will shine through
The problem with a script is that it is rarely written in words or phrases that you would use naturally when speaking. Sentences are too long. By reading it out you may stutter or sound stilted, never mind lose your place as you talk.
One of the worst solutions is to write a series of PowerPoint slides with bullet points on to remind you what to say. Sure, lots of people do it, that doesn't mean it's a great idea.
These are some great options to help remember what to say:
* Use brief notes on A5 paper, or blank cards - just a few reminders will do
* Create a brief plan of what to say and when (with times to ensure you stick to your timings)
* Practise, practise, practise until you know what you need to say and can say it in the time allowed, without any reference to notes at all. The sooner you start practising each element of the presentation, the more confident you will be when push comes to shove.
A passionate, authentic delivery of any information is better than a stilted script-driven reading without eye contact. So go on, put the script down and back away from the podium.....
There are only two occasions when reading off a script is acceptable:
1) If you are a political or business leader such as President Obama
2) If every single word or nuance must be spoken exactly as written
The rest of the time, it is far better to be spontaneous and ad-lib. Here's why:
* Your tone and pace will be more natural
* You will have more eye contact and connection with your audience
* Your personality and natural charisma will shine through
The problem with a script is that it is rarely written in words or phrases that you would use naturally when speaking. Sentences are too long. By reading it out you may stutter or sound stilted, never mind lose your place as you talk.
One of the worst solutions is to write a series of PowerPoint slides with bullet points on to remind you what to say. Sure, lots of people do it, that doesn't mean it's a great idea.
These are some great options to help remember what to say:
* Use brief notes on A5 paper, or blank cards - just a few reminders will do
* Create a brief plan of what to say and when (with times to ensure you stick to your timings)
* Practise, practise, practise until you know what you need to say and can say it in the time allowed, without any reference to notes at all. The sooner you start practising each element of the presentation, the more confident you will be when push comes to shove.
A passionate, authentic delivery of any information is better than a stilted script-driven reading without eye contact. So go on, put the script down and back away from the podium.....
Tuesday, 17 February 2009
Dare you go Handout-free?
I have been pondering the issue of handouts of late. Handouts are something that many people ask about - what do you handout, and when do you hand it out (at the start, or at the end?)
I worry about the folders of training courses that just gather dust on shelves, never to be opened again. It seems almost criminal to be printing full colour pages that use the world's valuable resources if they are not going to be used.
Have we created an expectation that handouts MUST be provided?
Have we taught our learners to want and expect handouts - so they have something to doodle on or flick ahead to see what is coming?
What if we dispensed with handouts all together?
What if we relied up powerful presentation from the person at the front?
What if we spent much more time helping people understand the story or flow to the information - going back to our aural tradition?
I am on a mission to wean us all (trainers and attendees alike) off handouts, wherever possible. Let us save the trees for something more important that looking good on shelves before being finally recycled years later.
Save yourself hours of preparation too.
So who is with me - are you ready to go handout-free?
I worry about the folders of training courses that just gather dust on shelves, never to be opened again. It seems almost criminal to be printing full colour pages that use the world's valuable resources if they are not going to be used.
Have we created an expectation that handouts MUST be provided?
Have we taught our learners to want and expect handouts - so they have something to doodle on or flick ahead to see what is coming?
What if we dispensed with handouts all together?
What if we relied up powerful presentation from the person at the front?
What if we spent much more time helping people understand the story or flow to the information - going back to our aural tradition?
I am on a mission to wean us all (trainers and attendees alike) off handouts, wherever possible. Let us save the trees for something more important that looking good on shelves before being finally recycled years later.
Save yourself hours of preparation too.
So who is with me - are you ready to go handout-free?
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Humour in Creating Groups
One way to lighten the mood, open people's minds and de-stress people during presentations and workshops is by using humour.
There are very gentle, subtle ways of encouraging a playful or light-hearted attitude during your workshop that don't rely on telling jokes or things outside your natural personality.
It is an essential element of learning that everyone gets a chance to apply new knowledge or practise new skills. As they say "you don't learn to ride a bike by reading a manual."
When using interactive exercises, you will need to create pairs, or small groups for these interactive elements, and in doing that you easily add humour. Here are some suggestions for creating groups:
1) Using sweets - especially retro ones that cause a stir and get people talking. Have a bag with different kinds of sweets (say four of each kind if you want groups of four) and hand them around as a lucky dip. Things like refreshers, lover hearts, gob stoppers for example. If you do this at the beginning when people arrive, you can then ask them to remember the sweet they have already eaten!
2) Using badges - by badges of 70s, 80s, or even 90s bands (ebay is the perfect place to find them) and do a lucky dip again, or lay them out for people to choose. Choose the decade depending on your audience - some will remember swooning over David Cassidy or the Bay City Rollers and some would just go "who?"
If you have created pairs and want to determine who goes first, instead of just asking the group to decide, why not use the following statements to determine who goes first:
* the person with the most vowels in their full name
* the person with the longest fingernail (any finger on any hand)
* the person who has the most nieces and nephews (aunts and uncles etc)
* the person with the biggest watch
* the person with the most unusual thing in their pocket or purse
Think of some unusual methods to form groups and pick who goes first and you will add an element of surprise into your workshops, that automatically raise them above the run-of-the-mill expectations.
Good luck and please share your own ideas for forming groups here on the light the spark facebook page....
There are very gentle, subtle ways of encouraging a playful or light-hearted attitude during your workshop that don't rely on telling jokes or things outside your natural personality.
It is an essential element of learning that everyone gets a chance to apply new knowledge or practise new skills. As they say "you don't learn to ride a bike by reading a manual."
When using interactive exercises, you will need to create pairs, or small groups for these interactive elements, and in doing that you easily add humour. Here are some suggestions for creating groups:
1) Using sweets - especially retro ones that cause a stir and get people talking. Have a bag with different kinds of sweets (say four of each kind if you want groups of four) and hand them around as a lucky dip. Things like refreshers, lover hearts, gob stoppers for example. If you do this at the beginning when people arrive, you can then ask them to remember the sweet they have already eaten!
2) Using badges - by badges of 70s, 80s, or even 90s bands (ebay is the perfect place to find them) and do a lucky dip again, or lay them out for people to choose. Choose the decade depending on your audience - some will remember swooning over David Cassidy or the Bay City Rollers and some would just go "who?"
If you have created pairs and want to determine who goes first, instead of just asking the group to decide, why not use the following statements to determine who goes first:
* the person with the most vowels in their full name
* the person with the longest fingernail (any finger on any hand)
* the person who has the most nieces and nephews (aunts and uncles etc)
* the person with the biggest watch
* the person with the most unusual thing in their pocket or purse
Think of some unusual methods to form groups and pick who goes first and you will add an element of surprise into your workshops, that automatically raise them above the run-of-the-mill expectations.
Good luck and please share your own ideas for forming groups here on the light the spark facebook page....
Monday, 12 January 2009
Decluttering Your Message
The New Year is a great place to start putting some new habits into practice, so let us have a little clear out - or in some cases a really big clear out....
Let us start by decluttering your message.
Many of you will have heard of the 80/20 or Pareto rule...
Well the same applies in presentations and workshops: 80% of your impact will come from just 20% of your message,
So now is the time to declutter your message so that you get clear about the 80% that really makes a difference. Using the Pareto rule, mandatory training could be cut to 20% of the time it usually takes by cutting to the chase.
Using Post-It notes, write down all the key things you normally say in your presentation (that last a few minutes at least). Count the notes and work on getting down to one-fifth or 20% of that number.
There are two rules now for dealing with each note: Ditch It or Do It.
If you feel it falls into the 80%, ditch it.
If you feel it falls into the 20%, keep it and keep doing it.
This is a great method for getting clear about what you should be saying and what you pretty much can leave out with very little detriment to your listeners....
Now you have something sleek and elegant - and can design some interactive exercises that reiterate your core message, rather than adding in non-core fluff.
Keep an eye out for part 2, where I will talk about decluttering your materials.
Go the 2nd December 2008 to find out more about the NEED TO KNOW basis for content design.
Let us start by decluttering your message.
Many of you will have heard of the 80/20 or Pareto rule...
Well the same applies in presentations and workshops: 80% of your impact will come from just 20% of your message,
So now is the time to declutter your message so that you get clear about the 80% that really makes a difference. Using the Pareto rule, mandatory training could be cut to 20% of the time it usually takes by cutting to the chase.
Using Post-It notes, write down all the key things you normally say in your presentation (that last a few minutes at least). Count the notes and work on getting down to one-fifth or 20% of that number.
There are two rules now for dealing with each note: Ditch It or Do It.
If you feel it falls into the 80%, ditch it.
If you feel it falls into the 20%, keep it and keep doing it.
This is a great method for getting clear about what you should be saying and what you pretty much can leave out with very little detriment to your listeners....
Now you have something sleek and elegant - and can design some interactive exercises that reiterate your core message, rather than adding in non-core fluff.
Keep an eye out for part 2, where I will talk about decluttering your materials.
Go the 2nd December 2008 to find out more about the NEED TO KNOW basis for content design.
Monday, 3 November 2008
The Power of Passion
I watched an incredible speech over the weekend, by a 12 year old girl.
She spoke with simple phrases to an audience at the United Nations.
This would daunt even the most extrovert presenters, yet she spoke calmly without a hint of nerves.
What is most extraordinary about her short 6 minutes is the strength of her passion.
She talks about flighting for her future, and how it is not like losing an election or a few points on the stock market. She pleas for us to stock breaking things we cannot fix (like a desert that was once a forest). She asks us why we are so greedy, why we cannot share. Simple questions that perhaps we forget to ask anymore.
Watch this and learn how to write a great speech that could also silence the world.
Watch it by following this link:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TQmz6Rbpnu0
The video is rightly entitled: The Girl Who Silenced The World.
She spoke with simple phrases to an audience at the United Nations.
This would daunt even the most extrovert presenters, yet she spoke calmly without a hint of nerves.
What is most extraordinary about her short 6 minutes is the strength of her passion.
She talks about flighting for her future, and how it is not like losing an election or a few points on the stock market. She pleas for us to stock breaking things we cannot fix (like a desert that was once a forest). She asks us why we are so greedy, why we cannot share. Simple questions that perhaps we forget to ask anymore.
Watch this and learn how to write a great speech that could also silence the world.
Watch it by following this link:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TQmz6Rbpnu0
The video is rightly entitled: The Girl Who Silenced The World.
Thursday, 30 October 2008
Leave Your Comfort Zone behind
The most amazing events that I have ever delivered were the ones when I felt nervous. I was going to do something new, something different, something outside of my comfort zone.
I was excited about the possibility of finding a new, even unique, way of creating a learning zone, whilst still nervous about it all going rather wrong.
For one event, I wanted to teach my students about communication through real experience. Instead of some dry exercises about words, or tone, or pace I wanted them to have a direct experience that impacted on their minds and challenged their perspectives. Before a break, I asked them to clear the room and place their seats in a circle then come back in silence.
Even those instructions changed their mood: they came back curious, attentive, charged up (which is no mean feat at 8pm after a very long day). We started with silence and darkness. And I let that experience be savoured before adding in anything else.
I then added in elements gently, one at a time. They listened to some music. We handed around a torch for them to shine beneath their face as they shared what they had experienced. Gradually we built in new elements - for them to feel first hand the impact of various elements such as light, music, images, video, sounds and language.
I gave them no handout for this session, asking them only to write a reflective piece for their own records. The results were amazing - their reflections showed how inspired they had felt and how it had shown them new and different ways of thinking about their impact on their learners.
I challenged every single element of this event - no plan, no notes, no slides, no light even, nor much discussion at first, as I wanted each of them to feel and be fully involved in their personal experience not that of the others in the group.
If you never feel nervous, never feel that you are taking a risk, never wonder if your new exercise will bomb or boom, then you are probably not being creative enough.
Creativity is a risk - but whatever happens you will gain greatly from taking that risk - in learning, in new skills, in new confidence, in a whole new approach.
So next time you are designing a learning event, don't ignore that amazing idea that you have (that gives you butterflies). Embrace it. Go with it. Leave Your Comfort Zone behind and soar.
I was excited about the possibility of finding a new, even unique, way of creating a learning zone, whilst still nervous about it all going rather wrong.
For one event, I wanted to teach my students about communication through real experience. Instead of some dry exercises about words, or tone, or pace I wanted them to have a direct experience that impacted on their minds and challenged their perspectives. Before a break, I asked them to clear the room and place their seats in a circle then come back in silence.
Even those instructions changed their mood: they came back curious, attentive, charged up (which is no mean feat at 8pm after a very long day). We started with silence and darkness. And I let that experience be savoured before adding in anything else.
I then added in elements gently, one at a time. They listened to some music. We handed around a torch for them to shine beneath their face as they shared what they had experienced. Gradually we built in new elements - for them to feel first hand the impact of various elements such as light, music, images, video, sounds and language.
I gave them no handout for this session, asking them only to write a reflective piece for their own records. The results were amazing - their reflections showed how inspired they had felt and how it had shown them new and different ways of thinking about their impact on their learners.
I challenged every single element of this event - no plan, no notes, no slides, no light even, nor much discussion at first, as I wanted each of them to feel and be fully involved in their personal experience not that of the others in the group.
If you never feel nervous, never feel that you are taking a risk, never wonder if your new exercise will bomb or boom, then you are probably not being creative enough.
Creativity is a risk - but whatever happens you will gain greatly from taking that risk - in learning, in new skills, in new confidence, in a whole new approach.
So next time you are designing a learning event, don't ignore that amazing idea that you have (that gives you butterflies). Embrace it. Go with it. Leave Your Comfort Zone behind and soar.
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
The Girl Effect
I have just been watching the most amazing clip on the internet and it moved me deeply.
In less than one minute I had a powerful, emotional experience.
It combined two very powerful aspects of learning:
1) the WIIFM factor
2) the story factor
WIIFM is the 'What is In It For Me?' question that we all have when we are learning.
Why should I learn this new skill or information? How will my life benefit? How will I benefit?
Learning is a process that involves creating new thought processes and getting rid of old ones, so it is vital that your learners know how that effort will be rewarded, for them, personally.
This video clip doesn't tell you WIIFM, it helps you experience it, at an emotional level.
Stories are incredibly powerful ways to help embed learning and create powerful WIIFM elements. By sharing your own experiences (or those of others) you can demonstrate how these skills or information have effected your own life or those of others.
Use great story telling principles, so instead of using a phrase such as "by mastering these skills you could save an hour a day", use a character instead. Your story might then become:
"Sally was feeling overwhelmed juggling all the things she had to do. By using the simple steps you will learn today, she was able to save an hour every day and got to spend that in the park with her young son, having fun and relaxing."
The video I am talking about can be found at www.girleffect.org, so please check it out.
It will give you a first hand experience of the power of a simple story to engage and inspire people.
In less than one minute I had a powerful, emotional experience.
It combined two very powerful aspects of learning:
1) the WIIFM factor
2) the story factor
WIIFM is the 'What is In It For Me?' question that we all have when we are learning.
Why should I learn this new skill or information? How will my life benefit? How will I benefit?
Learning is a process that involves creating new thought processes and getting rid of old ones, so it is vital that your learners know how that effort will be rewarded, for them, personally.
This video clip doesn't tell you WIIFM, it helps you experience it, at an emotional level.
Stories are incredibly powerful ways to help embed learning and create powerful WIIFM elements. By sharing your own experiences (or those of others) you can demonstrate how these skills or information have effected your own life or those of others.
Use great story telling principles, so instead of using a phrase such as "by mastering these skills you could save an hour a day", use a character instead. Your story might then become:
"Sally was feeling overwhelmed juggling all the things she had to do. By using the simple steps you will learn today, she was able to save an hour every day and got to spend that in the park with her young son, having fun and relaxing."
The video I am talking about can be found at www.girleffect.org, so please check it out.
It will give you a first hand experience of the power of a simple story to engage and inspire people.
Wednesday, 1 October 2008
Beyond PowerPoint
Today I have been pulling together some tips on Beyond PowerPoint. In mentioning creative training and the need to avoid PowerPoint, one person reacted by saying "I'd be interested to see what she does instead"....
Are we really so wedded to this software that we cannot think of anything else?
Do we really believe that the best way for people to learn is to absorb facts and information through their eyeballs?
So here are my suggestions when it comes to taking your training Beyond PowerPoint:
* firstly aim only to cover NEED TO KNOW information. Think about this in advance and you may find that your event is substantially reduced. The best trainers are ruthless editors.
* next get your learners to tell you what they need to know about the topic. Use a cocktail party style icebreaker where everyone stands up and when they meet someone else, shares one thing they would like to learn from the session. Combining all these at the end on a flipchart gives you a great focus for your session.
* next find out what people already know about your topic. So ask small group of around 3-4 people to brainstorm things that they know (perhaps about specific elements) and to write these on a flipchart. You may be amazed at how much they already know - one person within a group might know quite alot and they will have already taught their colleagues, and by asking each group to summarise their flipchart, they teach the rest of the class. Anything that is inaccurate or wrong, please correct at this point and add key missing items to.
Now you have a clear focus for your event and you haven't even touched your projector.
When it comes to covering the information that bridges the gap between you have a number of alternative options:
* Card Exercises. Here small groups (2-3) are given a set of cards with words or phrases on them. They then have to either put them into some sort of order (first to last, most important to least important) or categorise them (true/ false). Even with little prior knowledge of a topic, people will start thinking, discussing and will do most of this without help. You can then coach them on a few cards they are unsure about. This is a powerful way to interact with information and works for a wide range of topics.
* Case Studies. You provide some scenario or case study for small groups to discuss. If need be, you can also give them some summary information, books or reference material, where they can search for further help. This helps people get to grips with what they already know or don't know and you can provide the information or skills they need to improve dramatically.
* Stories. Find someone who has a powerful, emotive story relating to your topic. If you cannot actually invite them to the session, then video their story. Imagine the power of someone who has your widget keeping them alive in their artificial heart to inspire your technicians to tighter manufacturing tolerances. Imagine the impact from a mother who has lost a child to gang violence.
* Quizzes. By setting simple or complex questions, you can test and evaluate what people know. By providing clear answers, you can teach them a whole range of vital information. Quizzes are very flexible and you can ask questions aloud (preferred as you can alter the questions to suit your learners on the day), and then ask teams to hold up cards with their answer, move to somewhere in the room based on a multiple choice answer (a, b or c for instance) or write their answer down.
Here I have shared just a few techniques to help you go Beyond PowerPoint. I hope you are inspired the next time you are designing some training to step back from the keyboard, and write some cards, or a quiz and a case study, to inspire your learners in new ways.
Are we really so wedded to this software that we cannot think of anything else?
Do we really believe that the best way for people to learn is to absorb facts and information through their eyeballs?
So here are my suggestions when it comes to taking your training Beyond PowerPoint:
* firstly aim only to cover NEED TO KNOW information. Think about this in advance and you may find that your event is substantially reduced. The best trainers are ruthless editors.
* next get your learners to tell you what they need to know about the topic. Use a cocktail party style icebreaker where everyone stands up and when they meet someone else, shares one thing they would like to learn from the session. Combining all these at the end on a flipchart gives you a great focus for your session.
* next find out what people already know about your topic. So ask small group of around 3-4 people to brainstorm things that they know (perhaps about specific elements) and to write these on a flipchart. You may be amazed at how much they already know - one person within a group might know quite alot and they will have already taught their colleagues, and by asking each group to summarise their flipchart, they teach the rest of the class. Anything that is inaccurate or wrong, please correct at this point and add key missing items to.
Now you have a clear focus for your event and you haven't even touched your projector.
When it comes to covering the information that bridges the gap between you have a number of alternative options:
* Card Exercises. Here small groups (2-3) are given a set of cards with words or phrases on them. They then have to either put them into some sort of order (first to last, most important to least important) or categorise them (true/ false). Even with little prior knowledge of a topic, people will start thinking, discussing and will do most of this without help. You can then coach them on a few cards they are unsure about. This is a powerful way to interact with information and works for a wide range of topics.
* Case Studies. You provide some scenario or case study for small groups to discuss. If need be, you can also give them some summary information, books or reference material, where they can search for further help. This helps people get to grips with what they already know or don't know and you can provide the information or skills they need to improve dramatically.
* Stories. Find someone who has a powerful, emotive story relating to your topic. If you cannot actually invite them to the session, then video their story. Imagine the power of someone who has your widget keeping them alive in their artificial heart to inspire your technicians to tighter manufacturing tolerances. Imagine the impact from a mother who has lost a child to gang violence.
* Quizzes. By setting simple or complex questions, you can test and evaluate what people know. By providing clear answers, you can teach them a whole range of vital information. Quizzes are very flexible and you can ask questions aloud (preferred as you can alter the questions to suit your learners on the day), and then ask teams to hold up cards with their answer, move to somewhere in the room based on a multiple choice answer (a, b or c for instance) or write their answer down.
Here I have shared just a few techniques to help you go Beyond PowerPoint. I hope you are inspired the next time you are designing some training to step back from the keyboard, and write some cards, or a quiz and a case study, to inspire your learners in new ways.
Friday, 19 September 2008
Make Your Information Come Alive
When it comes to learning new information or skills, one of the things that any learner benefits from is knowing that people like them have already been there and done that.
Your learners need to connect with your expertise during any learning event. One of the easiest ways of doing this is to use names and personalities to create mini stories that help illustrate how other people (like your learners) have used your expertise in your own life.
In order to protect the innocent, I would recommend having a composite character who you name and talk about.
If your audience tends to be mainly female, then use a girl or woman's name, such as Agnes, or Amelia or Annie.
If your audience tends to be mainly male, then use a boy or man's name, such as Arthur, or Adam or
Alex.
After you have decided on a suitable name, then flesh that character out - with an age, a business, a lifestyle that relates to your ideal learners.
If you tend to talk to retired people about financial planning, then use a 65-75 year old character called Agnes or Ethel who is worried about how she will manage if her arthritis gets any worse.
If you talk to young people about career choices, then use a hip-hop boy called Dizzle who would like to emulate his hero (say 50 cent) and go into the music bizness.
Then use this character throughout your seminar or workshop. You can use them to introduce each new section - at the start the character has a similar problem to the group you are teaching. As you tackle and resolve each issue, then your character moves on and is curious about what comes next. At the end, you can finish the story with what happens next. To make that ending really powerful, if you can then show a photograph of the real Dizzle or real Ethel and give a little more information on how successful their lives have been, that would be fantastic.
There are two main reasons to use a named character:
1) It is far more personable - your learners will feel like they can relate to someone with a name, a background, with the same problems or issues as their own. By showing how that character has benefited, they can see how your topic will transform their own lives.
2) A character can be used to introduce subtle humour into your event. For instance, if your event is around business finances and you wish to illustrate a calculation of your hourly rate, you may introduce a character named Ms P Hilton, who wants to earn one million pounds/ dollars a year, but only wants to work 20 hours a month, 10 months of the year. How much does she need to charge to do so?
So think about your area of expertise.
What sort of character will be most similiar to your ideal learners, those who attend your training events?
What name would they have? How old would they be? Where would they live? What problems might they be facing? What story might they follow from where they are now to where they want to be?
If you have some real case studies, then feel free to borrow from these, whilst protecting the personal information of your clients or customers.
So bring your topic or expertise come to life using real characters, real people, real stories to really connect with the people listening to your information. Capture the journey in a simple story and you have a powerful tool to help people remember and help inspire them to use your information to transform their own lives.
Your learners need to connect with your expertise during any learning event. One of the easiest ways of doing this is to use names and personalities to create mini stories that help illustrate how other people (like your learners) have used your expertise in your own life.
In order to protect the innocent, I would recommend having a composite character who you name and talk about.
If your audience tends to be mainly female, then use a girl or woman's name, such as Agnes, or Amelia or Annie.
If your audience tends to be mainly male, then use a boy or man's name, such as Arthur, or Adam or
Alex.
After you have decided on a suitable name, then flesh that character out - with an age, a business, a lifestyle that relates to your ideal learners.
If you tend to talk to retired people about financial planning, then use a 65-75 year old character called Agnes or Ethel who is worried about how she will manage if her arthritis gets any worse.
If you talk to young people about career choices, then use a hip-hop boy called Dizzle who would like to emulate his hero (say 50 cent) and go into the music bizness.
Then use this character throughout your seminar or workshop. You can use them to introduce each new section - at the start the character has a similar problem to the group you are teaching. As you tackle and resolve each issue, then your character moves on and is curious about what comes next. At the end, you can finish the story with what happens next. To make that ending really powerful, if you can then show a photograph of the real Dizzle or real Ethel and give a little more information on how successful their lives have been, that would be fantastic.
There are two main reasons to use a named character:
1) It is far more personable - your learners will feel like they can relate to someone with a name, a background, with the same problems or issues as their own. By showing how that character has benefited, they can see how your topic will transform their own lives.
2) A character can be used to introduce subtle humour into your event. For instance, if your event is around business finances and you wish to illustrate a calculation of your hourly rate, you may introduce a character named Ms P Hilton, who wants to earn one million pounds/ dollars a year, but only wants to work 20 hours a month, 10 months of the year. How much does she need to charge to do so?
So think about your area of expertise.
What sort of character will be most similiar to your ideal learners, those who attend your training events?
What name would they have? How old would they be? Where would they live? What problems might they be facing? What story might they follow from where they are now to where they want to be?
If you have some real case studies, then feel free to borrow from these, whilst protecting the personal information of your clients or customers.
So bring your topic or expertise come to life using real characters, real people, real stories to really connect with the people listening to your information. Capture the journey in a simple story and you have a powerful tool to help people remember and help inspire them to use your information to transform their own lives.
Tuesday, 16 September 2008
Let's Start at the Very Beginning...
If we are on a mission to design and deliver fantastic and awesome training, then we need to design every step to inspire and engage our learners.
So think about it - what is their very first experience with your learning event, be it a workshop, presentation or seminar?
In many instances, you first chance to inspire your learners is with the invitation you send, or any advertising you do.
So you could just send out a blanket email, giving the time and place of your event.
But is that really creative? Does that really say to them: "This event is going to be different"?
Here are some ideas of ways in which you could make that first impression really stand out:
1) Send out personalised invitations, with handwritten names, by snail mail, that look like an invitation to a wedding or a party. Give your event a sense of occasion or fun.
2) If you have an event for people who work together, why not put up some posters that hint at what is to come, before anyone is even invited. For example for a session on Work/ Life Balance, you could print out posters of different aspects of Work and Life and ask people to choose which are most important to them.
3) Send out a small item that is related to your event - a photograph, a map, or a quotation perhaps. Before an event on creativity, you could send out a large brightly coloured paperclip, with the words "can you think of a thousands uses for this?" on a piece of paper. That will get people thinking and curious about it.
4) Use a quotation or cartoon to associate your event with fun or laughter - why not use Dilbert cartoon strips to get people talking about great leadership or bureaucracy for example?
5) Use a powerful, emotive poster. The "Your Country Needs You" poster would work well in a number of different circumstances. If you are running an event on Health and Safety, you could use a photograph of a spanner falling over the head of someone and point to the person below with the words "She/He needs you".
Think about your next event or workshop.
How could you do something different in the way you both advertise and invite people to your event?
What prop or item could you send them by post that is related to your topic?
What could you ask them to bring to the event, which would get them thinking or curious about what will happen?
So think about it - what is their very first experience with your learning event, be it a workshop, presentation or seminar?
In many instances, you first chance to inspire your learners is with the invitation you send, or any advertising you do.
So you could just send out a blanket email, giving the time and place of your event.
But is that really creative? Does that really say to them: "This event is going to be different"?
Here are some ideas of ways in which you could make that first impression really stand out:
1) Send out personalised invitations, with handwritten names, by snail mail, that look like an invitation to a wedding or a party. Give your event a sense of occasion or fun.
2) If you have an event for people who work together, why not put up some posters that hint at what is to come, before anyone is even invited. For example for a session on Work/ Life Balance, you could print out posters of different aspects of Work and Life and ask people to choose which are most important to them.
3) Send out a small item that is related to your event - a photograph, a map, or a quotation perhaps. Before an event on creativity, you could send out a large brightly coloured paperclip, with the words "can you think of a thousands uses for this?" on a piece of paper. That will get people thinking and curious about it.
4) Use a quotation or cartoon to associate your event with fun or laughter - why not use Dilbert cartoon strips to get people talking about great leadership or bureaucracy for example?
5) Use a powerful, emotive poster. The "Your Country Needs You" poster would work well in a number of different circumstances. If you are running an event on Health and Safety, you could use a photograph of a spanner falling over the head of someone and point to the person below with the words "She/He needs you".
Think about your next event or workshop.
How could you do something different in the way you both advertise and invite people to your event?
What prop or item could you send them by post that is related to your topic?
What could you ask them to bring to the event, which would get them thinking or curious about what will happen?
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