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How to Inspire Learning Across the Generations

October 22, 2008

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Call Center Trainers: we are sure you have noticed that your trainees span the generations. Here is an article on the subject you may find insightful.
 
It's a known fact: not everyone learns the same way. We all have our preferences for how we like to learn new things. Then why do we insist on teaching or delivering training to everybody using the same approach? Because it's easy and less challenging. Effective? Definitely not.
 
A less daunting approach to facilitate students' learning preferences is to find commonalities. When we look for what is universal among individuals, we can start to think about deliberate approaches to creating a transferable learning environment.
 
Whether you lead a classroom at a corporate office or local community college, your students are probably from two to three, or maybe even four different generations. We propose capitalizing on this opportunity to incorporate the perspective of various age groups in your class experience.
 
Here are six things you can do to inspire learning across the generations.
 
  Know your audience 
Let's say your class consists of learners who range in age from 18 to 81. You mention group work and half your students roll their eyes.
 
It's important to know your audience because there are many different ways to deliver information, and you need to know what method works best with which audience. Ask yourself, "Is this the generation that likes to work collaboratively or would they prefer to fly solo?" Or "Is there more than one way to get the same results?" While one group may think that group work is the way to go, consider offering participants the choice of working independently or in groups, especially if the range of learners spans a many generations.
 
Increase learning opportunities exponentially 
As educators, we often have to deliver a huge amount of information in a limited amount of time. We might spend five minutes on introductions before diving right into the materials. What would happen if we allocated more time for participants to get to know one another?
 
All students come to the classroom with a wealth of knowledge and information from their lifetime of experience. Once they are comfortable sharing their own information, you have multiplied the learning opportunities exponentially.
 
Practice classroom feng shui 
When students walk into your room, do they feel like they are back in grammar school? Are the desks arranged like those in Little House on the Prairie, where all eyes face the instructor? This setup creates an environment that isolates participants and limits interactions. If you want to excite, motivate and inspire confidence, then set up your room in a way that encourages creative thinking.
 
Many room configurations are possible depending on the type of training and learning activities, the level of formality desired, and the number of participants. To encourage interaction, arrange the seats in small clusters of no more than eight or ten people. Five is optimal. Remember, unless your furniture is nailed down, students can help the instructor move the furniture if your lecture or program requires more than one configuration.
 
Give them a break 
Did you ever notice how there is a commercial every eight minutes on television? One reason is because people need a rest. Encourage interaction every eight minutes. For example, instead of reading a list of facts, get the group to relay what they already know about the topic, and then add what they didn't include.
 
Encourage your students to interact with you as well as other participants. Remember, they already come with a lifetime of experience and knowledge.
 
Tap the power of questions 
If you've been teaching the same lecture or workshop for years using the same curriculum, is it time for a facelift? Look at your materials and determine if they include powerful questions that stimulate new ways of thinking and possibilities. A few tweaks can refresh the look of your program.
 
Use different methods of delivery 
Be willing to work with more than one medium. People learn in different ways. With all the various technologies and media available, it's easy to forget that some people still learn by reading books. At the same time, remember that there is a large audience, which regardless of their age, learn by doing and by hearing. Learn from your students.
 
Consider taking your show on the road. Team assignments outside of the classroom encourage interaction. Learning by doing is a powerful methodology for all generations.
 
Those trainers and educators who connect with students from all generations will inspire a lifetime of learning. And in the world of education and training, it doesn't get any better than that!
 
 
About Roberta Matuson
Roberta Matuson is an expert at creating intergenerational harmony at work. She's President of Human Resource Solutions, a firm that provides consulting and training to resolve intergenerational conflicts and help companies capitalize on the unique generational perspectives of their workforce. She has appeared on FOX's "The O'Reilly Factor" and has been quoted in The New York Times, Boston Globe, and many other national business publications.


How to Help Adults Learn Best

October 8, 2008

Here are Three Keys to Help Them Stretch for our Call Center Trainers. Hope you enjoy the article by Guila

“Everything must be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler.” — Albert Einstein

Here’s something for you to try. (C’mon, I’ll wait for you to get out of your chair!)

Stand up and stretch your right arm out behind you, as far as it will go. (You may turn your body as you do so.) Now, come back to center and relax your arm.

Next, visualize doing this again. Think about taking your arm further back. Then do it again, but really “stretch” your eyes back as far as you can as you do it.

Did you notice this time that you could take your arm back much further?
To many, this exercise illustrates the powerful force that our intent exerts over perceived reality. (It can change or “stretch” our limits.) To me, as a teacher of adults, it serves as a metaphor for adults and learning. As learners, we thrive on challenges that are slightly beyond our reach, but reachable. In fact, research is clear that adults learn best when provided with learning tasks that really make them stretch. (Thank you, Dee Dickinson, for this exercise.)

Here are three ways trainers can help adult learners stretch.

Make it challenging, but present it simply. One of the biggest challenges we have as trainers is to present complex subjects simply. Strive to say things in the simplest possible way. This involves real practice for trainers, not just a quickie “run-through.” One way to challenge learners is to periodically “shut up” during the training. Provide opportunities for learners to discover things themselves. Don’t feel compelled to explain everything. Act as a facilitator to their process.

The excuse trainers often give for lecturing is “I have to cover the material!” Interestingly, this phrase can be taken in two ways. One of the meanings of “cover,” after all, is to “cover up”, or obfuscate. By trying to cover everything, we confuse, muddy and even lose the core, “must-know” content elements.

I encourage you to use the Acid Test when developing a workshop: When time limitations and a desire for simplicity mean you can only include the “must know” elements of a topic, first figure out what those are. Then identify the “nice to know” elements. Strip them out. Leave them behind. You can inject meaningful small-group activities into the class time you gain.

Make it fun. A great trainer once said: “I make ‘em laugh, and when their mouths are open, I throw something in for them to chew on!” Humor and creativity come from, and create, the same chemicals in the brain. People are much more open to learning when they’re having a good time.

How to ensure the learning process is fun? Part of the answer is to have a good time yourself. If you consistently don’t enjoy what’s happening in the classroom, something’s wrong. When you provide engaging, relevant learning activities (NOT “fluff”) students have more fun. You will, too.

Organize chunks of material into one larger chunk. Research shows that people’s brains can only hold on to a maximum of nine items at a time. So trainers need to create meaningful chunks of training that condense several pieces of information into one. In their excellent book, “Telling Ain’t Training,” Stolovitch and Keeps provide this example:

  • The four cardinal points of a compass are north (N), east (E), west, (W), and south (S). (four items to store in memory.)
  • Remember this acronym: NEWS (one item to store in memory, so it’s easier to retain.)
Identify which parts of your training your can “clump together” to make easily-managed, larger chunks.

Helping adult learners successfully stretch directly correlates to the amount of preparation we do. How willing are you to truly think things out, develop helpful metaphors, and ensure your own thinking is clear and logical? If you experience any “fog” about any portion of your topic, your learners will, too. One of Malcolm Knowles’s essential principles for adult learning is “Respect.” We trainers respect learners by truly being prepared–not only to “cover the material,” but also to help them stretch their limits.


Read more articles about Training Development. Learn about Guila Muir’s Trainer Development Workshops or Individual Coaching.

Guila Muir is the premiere trainer of trainers, facilitators, and presenters on the West Coast of the United States. Since 1994, she has helped thousands of professionals improve their training, facilitation, and presentation skills. Find out how she can help transform you from a boring expert to a great presenter: www.guilamuir.com

©  Guila Muir. All rights reserved.
 

How to Use PowerPoint to Support Active Training

October 7, 2008

Call Center trainers and managers that present on a regular basis should find this article of interest.
By Guila Muir
Many presenters consider Microsoft’s PowerPoint a lifesaver. Most consider their PowerPoint slides the very essence of their presentations. Others use PowerPoint because it has achieved the status of a basic business norm.

Small but vitriolic pockets of resistance push back. People use the phrase “Death by PowerPoint” so often that the phrase itself became a cliché in record time. (Interestingly, I’ve discovered that many who say these words with disdain regularly use PowerPoint.) Our relationship with PowerPoint seems to have boiled down into an old, grouchy marriage–we live with it only by complaining about it, and we certainly can’t live without it.

Anyone who has participated in one of my workshops knows the passion I have for active, participatory adult education. Since I don’t use PowerPoint in its conventional way, it may seem strange that I’m the one to bring up the question: Can PowerPoint be used to support and enhance participatory training and presentations? Or is it, as some claim, the most toxic challenge to participatory learning the world has ever seen?

What are PowerPoint’s “Pros” and “Cons?”
On the positive side, Powerpoint…
  • Adds a great visual element to a plain speech or lecture. It provides clean, crisp graphics and rich, saturated colors.
  • Can truly enthrall. Adding streaming video, photographs, and other visual and auditory thrills can really add “wow!” to a presentation.
  • Can imbue a beginning presenter with confidence. The information looks good. Audience attention is deflected from the presenter (whew!!) onto the slides.
There’s really only one thing to say about the negative side, and it’s huge.
PowerPoint Supports a Boring Lecture Style.

PowerPoint makes it easy to deliver tons of information, much of it unnecessary. Presenters who are dependent upon PowerPoint keep rambling along, oblivious as to whether or not the audience is “getting it.” In worst-case scenarios, presenters read from the slides.

The audience sits passively, enduring. Retention is minimal. Nothing is learned, but the presenter has “done” his or her job. S/he is acquitted. Is that what presentations should be about?

My Final Judgement as an Adult Educator and Presenter?

PowerPoint is GREAT! (Surprise, surprise.) I wouldn’t go back to the days of black and white overhead transparencies for the world. Trainers and presenters can use PowerPoint in conjunction with active training.

That said, here are four tips to use PowerPoint as effectively as possible:
Dramatically reduce the number of slides in a presentation. (For training, use even fewer.)
Here are some rules of thumb:
  • For a 30-minute presentation, use 1-2 slides.
  • For an hour presentation, use a maximum of four slides.
  • For an all-day training session, use a maximum of eight slides.

So, what can you do instead of pushing the remote button? The things that have always made great presentations great: connect with the audience, give them time to reflect individually or in pairs, give them activities to help them process and retain the information.

Do not darken the room.
Nothing says “It’s OK to space out now” more than a dark room.
Don’t use the PowerPoint “Notes” pages as a handout for participants.

Instead, create your own Guided Notetaking pages. When you must lecture, provide a handout with important points left blank. Instruct the participants to fill in the missing words as you bring them up.

(I know, I know, this is only one tiny step “up” from plain lecture, but have you ever seen anyone actually using those lines to take notes anyway?) Field tests confirm that participants listen better when they have a structured task to complete.

Consider using PowerPoint to make overhead transparencies.

Use PowerPoint to create bright, beautiful transparencies you can carry around in your briefcase. This way, you can re-order them in seconds to spontaneously fit your presentation “flow,” allowing for great flexibility. Sound good? Why don’t more people do this?

Partly, it’s because that poor old standard, the overhead projector, is slowly leaving this world. It’s sometimes difficult even to find one any more in an organization. Granted, the projector “arm” can be an impediment to viewing. Also, unless you’re lucky, slide resolution may not be great. However, document cameras are becoming more popular, and can project at least as well as digital projectors.

Use your colorful PowerPoint transparencies with an overhead projector, and never get sabotaged with technical problems again!
In closing…
Whether for a presentation or a training session, use more activity and fewer, (judiciously developed) slides. People will retain more information, guaranteed. Nothing is lost and everything is gained.

Read more articles about Training Development. Learn about Guila Muir’s Trainer Development Workshops or Individual Coaching.

Guila Muir is the premiere trainer of trainers, facilitators, and presenters on the West Coast of the United States. Since 1994, she has helped thousands of professionals improve their training, facilitation, and presentation skills. Find out how she can help transform you from a boring expert to a great presenter: www.guilamuir.com

©  Guila Muir. All rights reserved.


The Smell of Coffee: A Potential Learning Tool?

October 6, 2008

Ok Call Center Trainers! What do you think? Do you agree with Guila?

Even those who don’t drink it have been known to swoon, “I love the smell of coffee!” Recently, scientists at Seoul National University found that the mere smell of coffee wakes up the brain—at least in rats.

A recent study published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry shows that coffee’s aroma changed the brains of sleep-deprived rats. Not only did brain activity increase with a mere whiff, but the levels of some brain proteins changed in ways that could calm stress.

The moral? Trainers, presenters and facilitators, consider piping in the smell of coffee during your sessions. (Or at least always keep a good pot going!)

Read articles about Presentation Skills. Learn about Guila Muir’s Presentation Skills Workshops or Individual Coaching.

Guila Muir is the premiere trainer of trainers, facilitators, and presenters on the West Coast of the United States. Since 1994, she has helped thousands of professionals improve their training, facilitation, and presentation skills. Find out how she can help transform you from a boring expert to a great presenter: www.guilamuir.com

© 2008 Guila Muir. All rights reserved.
You may make copies of this article and distribute in any media so long as you change nothing, credit the author, and include this copyright notice and web address.


How Do You Know They Know? Three Tips for In-Class Assessment

October 4, 2008

As a call center trainer, how serious are you about your students actually learning? Most of us would say, “VERY serious!” Yet many trainers actually have no idea what, and even if, participants have learned by the end of a session.

Guila Muir

Because trainers operate in organizations and businesses, we typically don’t issue grades. Even in preparing participants for a performance test down the line, we often don’t do a good job of checking in along the way. At best, many trainers rely on “Happy Sheets,” the end-of-class evaluations that mainly determine if the training room was too warm, or the coffee not warm enough.

It’s hard to know if this lack of attention to assessment in organizational learning can be traced to trainer lethargy, lack of knowledge about how adults learn, or the culture of corporate training itself. Whatever its root, “Warning! Warning!” as the Lost in Space robot used to say on TV. Assessment is so integral to learning that if we don’t do it, we cannot claim to be serious about our participants actually learning.

The Real Test
Jane Vella, founder of Global Learning Partners, answers the question, “How do they know they know?” with this answer: “Because they did it!”

Certainly, the ability to perform is the real assessment of learning. Can the participants do what you promised them they’d be able to do when you developed the learning objectives?

Although performance is the real test, many corporate trainers don’t have the luxury of following their participants when they return to the workplace. Once they leave our classrooms, it’s impossible for many of us to observe how well participants actually use the new skills.

Assessment AS Learning
Research shows that students learn better when they receive feedback early and often. When trainers use in-class assessments, they are able to provide this feedback. The best assessment exercises are fun and engaging (forget the dreaded pop quiz!)

Try one of these in-class assessment techniques to enrich your training.

Three Tips for In-Class Assessment
Tip #1: One-Minute Paper

When to Use: Midway or later in a training session.

After delivering important content, ask the participants to write their reflections for a solid minute. Reflections can include how they will actually apply the information, their thoughts and feelings, challenges, etc.

Collect the (anonymous) papers, read to self, and respond if appropriate.

Tip #2: Two Insights, One Area of Confusion

When to Use: Midway or later in a training session.

Have participants write two insights and one area of confusion based on the information you have provided. Either collect and address in the next module, or have participants read these to a partner, then discuss issues as a class.

Tip #3: Using Learning Objectives as Assessment Points

When to Use: Throughout the session.

Ask a variety of prepared questions based on the session’s learning objectives either to the whole group, or to subgroups.

Remember: Assessment is part of learning. It’s not an add-on, and it’s not “just for show.” Integrate in-class assessments into your training sessions, and watch the learning soar!

Read more articles to boost your Training Skills. Learn about Guila Muir’s Train the Trainer Workshops or Individual Coaching.

Guila Muir is the premiere trainer of trainers, facilitators, and presenters on the West Coast of the United States. Since 1994, she has helped thousands of professionals improve their training, facilitation, and presentation skills. Find out how she can help transform you from a boring expert to a great presenter: www.guilamuir.com

© 2008 Guila Muir. All rights reserved.
You may make copies of this article and distribute in any media so long as you change nothing, credit the author, and include this copyright notice and web address.


Public Speaking - Lock, Talk & Pause

October 2, 2008

By J. Douglas Jefferys

The process that sets you on your way to speaking like the best speakers in the world, speakers who possess The Skills, goes like this: You find a target in your audience and you lock eyeballs. You deliver a complete thought to that one person, and then you do the hardest part, you pause.

You pause before turning to the next person, and speak to the next person with your next thought. Here's a tip to begin the whole process correctly: Whenever you get up to speak, before you ever get out of your chair to come to the front of the room, know which person with whom you're going to begin speaking. Have that person picked out before you get up there. Otherwise, you're going to start off on the wrong foot: you're going to start scanning around for those "friendly faces".

Choose the person you're going to deliver your opening line to ahead of time, and begin your talk by looking at that one person and letting it flow. Let's be clear - one thing you definitely don't want to do is to look for and speak to only a few "friendly faces". That might be advice that works well for the few faces, but what about all the other less than friendly mugs? How do you suppose they feel when they notice that you are engaging other people but not them? Do you suppose it might get them thinking about something other than your message?

Do you want a few people buying into what you're saying, or the whole group? Your job, remember, is to look at everyone in the audience. Everyone in the room needs to leave feeling that you took the time to personally engage them as individuals. If you've been to a speech or a presentation by someone with The Skills, you have no doubt noticed that they did this. In fact, have you ever been to a large event with perhaps hundreds of people and come away feeling that throughout the program the speaker kept coming back to you?

That for some reason the speaker picked you out personally for special notice, and repeatedly? This is perhaps the most powerful advantage you will have with The Skills, but it's also the easiest to acquire, because it happens all by itself! One great thing about The Skills is that they are infinitely scalable. That is, the larger the crowd, the better they work for you, but you don't work any harder. You engage in exactly the same behaviors with twelve people as you do with twelve hundred! Parallax Universe

The reason is this: thanks to the ways our eyes are built, from distances as short as ten feet, a phenomenon known as parallax kicks in, and for the very same reason we see railroad tracks converge in the distance, our eyes see the other person's eyes converging on ours even when they might be pointed a few feet away.

Speakers with The Skills are always only looking directly at one person at a time. But from a short distance, and increasingly with greater distance, people sitting around the person to whom the speaker is actually looking believe the speaker is looking directly at them. So from, say, fifteen feet away, the four people around the one person you're looking at will feel the benefits of your engaging them as individuals.

From thirty feet, twelve people around your target will swear you've singled them out for attention! Your circle of influence keeps getting larger and larger, but you're just doing the exact same thing you'd do in a small conference room. In our classes we enjoy asking the women if they've ever been to a concert where the singer sang directly to them, and we inevitably get at least one response of, "Yes, but how did you know?" Rock stars know how to create and keep fans, and this skill is a big tool in their box.

When you lock on one person, everything else kind of fades away. You focus all of your attention on that one person and nothing else. For the moment, your entire universe is composed of the one person to whom you are directing your one thought. And when you do that, for those three to nine seconds or so, your brain isn't making new threat calculations all the time, trying to get you cranked up, cranked up, cranked up.

Everything kind of fades away. Advantages Just as when you work from a nice, clean desk, or as when you're given just one task to do, and that's all you have to do, by talking to only one person at a time, it creates a nice, strong point of focus. All of your attention can be given just to this one moment, so that nothing else that's going on affects your brain. Focusing on one person creates an environment that helps you focus on one thought - the thought that you're delivering to that one person.

You're also able to pace yourself. When you learn how to pause, when you learn how to say what you have to say and then stop talking for a moment, move on to the next person and only then begin speaking to them, it helps to create a smooth pace that the audience can follow, and also one that doesn't foul you up. One of the problems people have when they get up to speak is that, with adrenaline in your veins, your metabolism is elevated.

Consequently, your perception of time slows down. You thus tend to speak much more quickly when you're up in front of a group, when our juices are all flowing high. And unfortunately, with your somewhat diminished cognitive ability it's not impossible for your mouth to overrun your brain. You know, you can push the words out so fast that your brain is not be able to replenish the queue quickly enough. And so you do end up finding yourself with nothing to say. When you find yourself with nothing to say, that can be quite an anxiety-producing situation. It starts cranking up the whole fear juice thing again. The more you get cranked up, the more time slows down.

That's one of the reasons most people don't pause. In your slow-motion state, you feel your pauses to be much longer than the length of the pauses your audience hears. But when you've been speaking on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on, and then all of a sudden, you just stop, the pause then becomes very, shall we say, pregnant. By working pauses into your speech from the very beginning, you're able to establish a pace that seems natural to the audience, and will actually mask any moment when you might not be able to think of what to say.

J. Douglas Jefferys is a principal at PublicSpeakingSkills.com, an international consulting firm specializing in training businesses of all sizes to communicate for maximum efficiency. The firm spreads its unique knowledge through on-site classes, public seminars, and high-impact videos, and can be reached through the Internet or at 888-663-7711.


What Makes a Super Trainer?

October 1, 2008

Call Center Trainers: this article by Guila Muir is just for you!

What attributes do all super trainers share, no matter how different their styles? Rate yourself on the guidelines below. Then read the strategies. These will help transform YOU into a Super Trainer!

The Three Top, Absolutely Essential Attributes

1.  Content Knowledge
Of course, this is first, but it can’t “go without saying.” If you don’t know your subject, you shouldn’t be training it. However, you DON’T have to know every last detail before you’re ready to train.

2.  Willingness To Have Fun
This one’s a potential danger zone. Some trainers have so much fun themselves that they remain oblivious of the participants’ needs, insights, and potential contributions.

Having fun doesn’t mean you are able to toss out jokes. Willingness to have fun means relaxing WHILE you energize yourself, connecting with the participants WHILE you focus on content and time management, and enjoying the participants WHILE retaining your unique role as trainer. It’s easy to say and sometimes very hard to do!

3.  Use of a Well-Structured Training Design
Have you ever wondered about the source of the following issues?

•    Bad marks on your training evaluations (excluding comments about cold coffee or overly warm training rooms)
•    Participant hostility, side conversations or passive-aggressiveness
•    Lack of participation
•    People sleeping

The invisible culprit is often how the session is designed, not the presentation skills of the trainer. Design affects everything related to the training.

Training design is architecture. A badly–designed course will sag, fracture, and maybe not even last through the next hurricane (or training session.)

How Did you Rate Yourself?

Strategies to Boost Your…

1.  Content Knowledge
Ensure that you have included only the absolute “MUST-KNOW” material into your training session. This means you must have done your homework by interviewing subject matter experts, supervisors, and representatives of your participant pool to ensure you are teaching the right content to the right audience.

It’s OK to say “I don’t know. Let me find out and get back to you on that,” but only if you really will follow up with that person or group.

Meanwhile, acknowledge that a participant in your group may well have the information you lack. Don’t be afraid to ask!

2. Willingness To Have Fun
The more prepared you feel with your content and training structure, (attributes #1 and #3,) the more fun you’ll have.

But you must also examine your beliefs about people. Do you feel they are mainly a drag, or do you find them interesting and quirky? Do you like yourself? Are you accepting or judgmental? Your underlying beliefs about yourself and others either boost or impede your level of relaxation and ability to have fun in the training role.

It’s worth your time to examine your philosophy of teaching. Do you buy into a “boot camp” mentality? Do you feel oversensitive to students’ needs? Heighten your awareness of your philosophy and actions, and then make changes if needed. Fun will follow!

3. Use of a Well-Structured Training Design
Three guidelines:

•    Never organize your training session using PowerPoint.
•    Develop learning objectives. Organize all your content to achieve them.
•    Take a basic class in course design for adult learners.

It’s always good to re-visit the essentials–all Super Trainers do. Integrate these Top Three into your training, and you’ll find yourself among the greats.

Read more articles to boost your Training Skills. Learn about Guila Muir’s Train the Trainer Workshops or Individual Coaching.

Guila Muir is the premiere trainer of trainers, facilitators, and presenters on the West Coast of the United States. Since 1994, she has helped thousands of professionals improve their training, facilitation, and presentation skills. Find out how she can help transform you from a boring expert to a great presenter: www.guilamuir.com

© 2008 Guila Muir. All rights reserved.


Rattle That Tree! Tips to Deal with Facilitation 'Lullaby Times'

September 30, 2008

Calling all Call Center trainers! Here is an article by Guila Muir  discussing training lull times. We hope you enjoy it.

According to Michael Wilkinson, author of The Secrets of Facilitation, standard “Lullaby Times” occur without fail three times during the course of any training or facilitation. These times are:

  • Midmorning (10:30-11:00 a.m.)
  • Just after Lunch (1:30-2:00 p.m.)
  • Midafternoon (3:00-3:30 p.m.)

How does one combat these dreaded low-energy times? Here are three guidelines:

1. Re-set the Energy Level. Following each break, start with a burst of energy–the same level you would use to kick off the day. Your group’s energy will rise to reflect your own.

2. Be sure to Applaud. Especially in the afternoon, applause helps keep people energized. Set the expectation of applause early in the day, and applaud:

  • Before a presentation
  • At the end of a presentation
  • After each team’s report-back.

3. Change Engagement Methods. Vary between brainstorming, working in pairs, and small-group breakout sessions.

Remember, a few short breaks will always rattle the “lullaby tree,” too!

Read more articles about Facilitation Skills. Learn about Guila Muir’s Facilitation Skills Workshops.

Guila Muir is the premiere trainer of trainers, facilitators, and presenters on the West Coast of the United States. Since 1994, she has helped thousands of professionals improve their training, facilitation, and presentation skills. Find out how she can help transform you from a boring expert to a great presenter: www.guilamuir.com

© Guila Muir. All rights reserved.
 


The Fastest Way to Connect - The Emotional Tap

September 14, 2008

Here is our last article for our "trainers" day. This one is from Darren LaCroix and he writes of using emotion to get your audiences attention.I hope all call center trainers have enjoyed the articles that were devoted to them.

and When you get advice from someone who's a true "master" at their craft, does it make sense to follow it, even if the advice is inconvenient?

One of the most profound bits of advice I received early in my career was from one of my comedy mentors, Vinnie Favorito. He said, "Darren, you must always show up early and watch the whole show. You need to know what everyone in front of you is doing on stage."

There are several reasons for this. If the presenter (or comedian) before us speaks about the same subject, it's our responsibility to "know" what happened before we go on stage.

It's also a huge opportunity to set ourselves apart and connect. If we can "tap into" what others said before us, audience members will know that our presentation isn't 'canned.' It separates us from other speakers (especially if you are a competitive speaker). One word of caution… don't stretch to include something if it's not a direct tie-in. It must be a sincere connection to what you're talking about.

If a presenter before me has a profound thought, or a funny line that audience loves, it becomes an "emotionally charged" line or phrase. I always look to see if there is a way for me to "tap into" the emotion… something that's only good that day, with that audience. Being in that moment with them is what makes it so special. When we can tap into an emotionally charged phrase, it allows us to create a quick and powerful connection with the audience.

I believe in this so much that I've changed my travel plans to arrive at a Washington DC convention a day early. Ed Tate is doing the opening keynote, and I'm scheduled to speak the next day. Although I have to leave our EDGE Summit early (and still not get to DC 'til 1 am), I'm going to do it. Ed's keynote is the only general session that will be seen by the entire audience. Hence, it is the only "speaker" they will all have in common before I take the stage. It is definitely worth it!

Here's an example from this past Saturday: People are always asking me if I still do stand-up comedy. The answer over the past year has been "nope." Well, that changed this past weekend. I was offered a guest spot at the LA Comedy Club in Las Vegas on the Strip. I couldn't turn down the "stage time."

I was nervous, because that is a very different world from what I'm now used to. I took Vinnie's advice and watched intently the first comic to take the stage. He did a series of "bald" jokes that worked very well. (If the jokes had bombed, I would've taken a different approach.)

I had laughs within seconds of taking the stage by tying into that concept. You should look at everything that happens on the stage before you as a "set up" for what you're going to do. If you would like to see the video clip of that night, click here.

Want to connect fast? Will you show up early, watch the other speakers and see if you can "emotionally" tap into their good moments? Take Vinnie's advice!

Out of 25,000 contestants from 14 countries, Darren LaCroix was crowned the World Champion of Public Speaking. Not bad for a guy who dreamed of being a comedian but wasn't funny and had severe stage fright. He now teaches others how he went from CHUMP TO CHAMP. Darren is the co-creator of the Humor Boot Camp. He is a professional speaker, presentation coach and also the author of "Laugh and Get Rich". To learn more visit http://www.humor411.com/starter_pack.html


Basic Presentation Skills

September 14, 2008

Today's articles are all about presentantion and training skills. Thought it was time to recognize the hard working call center trainers out there. This article from Laurus Nobilis covers the basic presentation skills. Especially good advice for a new trainer.

Presentation is a communication process of transmitting the message from the presenter to the audience. This message can vary in length and complexity. Different presentation aids can be used e.g. flip chart, PowerPoint presentation with the video beamer, whiteboard with erasable pens, laser pointers, etc. Presentation can be done in different circumstances in a more or less formal way.

In fact, everybody is in the position to be a presenter at some point. At school, at the university, during the business presentation or even you can be a professional presenter. Now we come to common problem for most of the people. This problem is "Stage Fright" combined with lack of technical skills of presenting.

Stage fright can be really terrifying to some people. Many people have the fear of the audience, lights of the stage, they are afraid what will be if someone ask them difficult question. This is causing nervousness, sweating, accelerated heartbeat, dizziness or even panic attacks.

On the other hand, presenting skills are technical aspect. Presentation skills are a broad area. It takes some time to develop this skill, for some people more, for the other less time, depends of a talent. Since all of us can be in situation to be presenters, to be in the center of the audience, it is useful to learn basic skills of presenting.

Anybody can prepare at least a decent presentation. Presentation takes some time and effort for preparation. During preparation try to follow basic rules:

· You need to have a minimum of expertise in the area of presentation. This means that you cannot just learn your lines that you will say during the every slide, but you also need to be prepared to answer to potential questions from the audience. Simply, you need to have at least the basic knowledge on the subject presented.

· Make concept for your presentation ( intro, main part, conclusion ). Your presentation needs to have meaningful flow. It should have a theme, the message and learning for your audience. Set up learning goals for your audience and check the results at the end. Longer presentation should have detailed agenda developed.

· Use aids ( power point or flip chart ), but remember that you are still one who is presenting, not the slides. Do not exaggerate with the presentation aids. They should assist you, instead you assist to them.

· Use not more 3-4 lines of text on presentation slides, with maybe 1 photo. If you put too many details, nobody will read it. Average audience is not reading the content of the slide, in case that there are too many details on it. Slides should be clear in content, visible for everybody in your audience, with graphic and color that will not distract audience, or make them difficult to read. If you are not skillful with graphic and colors, use predefined templates.

· Exercise your presentation, so that you get a feeling about it. Check all slides before presentation. Check the video beamer, cables, remote control, room lights and other technicalities before beginning of presentation. Check the colors and readability, since video beamer can present colors in different way than your computer screen. Distorted colors can make reading difficult or impossible.

· Assess the time needed for you presentation and check the timing during your rehearsals. If your presentation is longer, divide it in sections ( e.g. 45 min ) with breaks ( e.g. 10 min ). Time management is critical during the presentation, since audience might start to feel bored if presentation is too long. You can even not finish your presentation, if it takes too long time.

· Try to move around during your presentation. Use your body language. If you just stand still in one place, you will become invisible soon to you audience and their eyes and mind might start to wander around. By moving your self and using your body language, in accordance the dynamic of the subject presented, you are keeping the audience alerted.

· Use examples for your statements. That can be your experience or something you read. If you are using somebody's examples, quote source of information. You can even say a short story or saying, if you find it suitable for supporting your presentation.

· Use humor in your presentation. This can be planned or spontaneous, but within limits that will not change normal flow of presentation.

· Ask questions to the audience. Ask for volunteers, or pick someone to answer. This will help you to keep the audience alert. They will pay more attention to your presentation, since they know that you might ask them later on. Asking questions will make your presentation more interactive, more interesting to the audience and easier for you, since you will animate people to participate.

· Do not say something like "Sorry about my presentation" or "I am nervous". I remember some of my friends that used to say something like that during the presentation. I found that to be wrong, since their presentations were actually good and I wouldn't ever guess that they are nervous or unprepared, if they didn't say something like that. If you state that you apologize because you are not a good presenter, you are ruining your credibility before you even started. Even if you are a bit nervous there is no reason to say that.

Actually, everybody, even the most experienced presenters, have some "stage fright". It is normal. But as soon as the presentation starts, you will be released, since you will involve your energy into the presentation.

I am not "born presenter", since I am an introvert person, but I learned some basic presenting skills and I am using them during occasional business presentation.

Finally, you are born without knowledge of speaking any language, without knowledge of mathematics, without knowledge of driving the bike or a car. But you learned that and adopted these knowledge and skills as your portfolio. Why wouldn't you make Presentation Skills to be part of your personal competences?

Laurus Nobilis has 11 years of experience in FMCG business. In 2007 he has started the http://www.biz-development.com web site dedicated to development of managerial skills. He also runs http://www.my-introspective.com a Personal Exploration and Development Guide


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