“We want this session to be interactive”

Yes. We do too! 

There’s only so much listening or just watching of slides we can handle. Meeting after meeting or an all-talk workshop can become a bit much ... after a full day of it, a week of it or six months of it!!

So, plan ahead for interaction. 

🌟Ask a question and for the response to be in the chat box or to share an emoji

🌟Ask a question via a poll and see the results 

🌟Share a story and ask for stories

🌟Use the Spotlight feature (in Zoom) to feature a few people at a time in panel style, group share or a fishbowl conversation 

🌟Hear several people’s stories and weave them together, finding common themes or threads 


If you’d like the session to be interactive, you can be sure the team, guests and participants will probably want it to be interactive too. 

🌟Allow the time. 
🌟Vary the activities. 
🌟Encourage ... and then let the interaction happen. 

Loosen the grip on controlling all of the information. There’s some magic waiting there to be made. 

That workshop will need some design

Many of us are leading more workshops and meetings than ever before.

We’re bringing people together, helping them with learning, planning, collaborating, discussing and decision making.

So how do you ensure the workshops you lead are interesting, engaging ... AND effective?

By design.

Successful workshops and meetings come via better design.

And whether we’re leading online or face-to-face sessions, they all require some design ... before the day.

Careful though, because we can also go overboard and over-engineer! There’s a sweet spot where we have designed the most valuable elements and then we can let the rest roll.

Focus on these 4 things in design :

1. Engagement
2. Activities
3. Participation
4. Outcomes.

'Break into groups and ...' *groan*

Facilitators, trainers and group workers beware!

How often do you have in your sessions, plans and agendas and chunks of time where people are asked to break into groups, work on something and then .... report back?

Yes it can be a powerful group process ... but when I have had the pleasure of being a group participant recently, I have sometimes seen it as a lazy, quick and unfocused option of choice for many group leaders!

Groups can take quite a while to get to the heart of the topic or activity.

It sucks to be in a group and not have enough time to go through some great storming and norming before you perform.

Before you jump up and shout about how you see the value of group work as THE most important thing in your world, just check your diary for how long ago it was that YOU had to do the group thing.

I think it's too often a 'go to' activity without uncovering the real need, outcome and purpose of the important work.

There are other options : singular/solo activities, pair activities, whole group, mentor discussions ...

Be sure you :
Plan and prepare.
Uncover the real need and purpose of the team and session.
Have a range of activity options at your disposal.

And if things get tricky or you don't know how you'll fill in time, step out of your normal routine and don't break people in to groups.

Go on, try it. Just a few times.

Your groups will love you for it!