🤔 What methods do you use to make your workshops more memorable? Is making your workshops memorable even important? Share your answers in the comments below 👇 ➡️ Check out our 1-hour FREE TRAINING to learn more about facilitation and to get a preview of our Workshopper Master Program 👉 go.ajsmart.com/start
I just checked it our. I think I can help you, you can certainly help me. Perhaps, you can train me and I can help you. (I worked overseas 30 years in a total of 12 countries, including in Germany for companies, like Siemens.
Have taught or led workshops or classes in 20 different fields and sub fields: Spanish, German, English, Business, commerce, meetings, social science, social studies, interviews, projects, history, reading, education, ESL/ELL, etcc.
Something I've done for in person is take a photo of the group or groups at the start and then at the end. It can be interested for people to see how much more open and smiley they are compared to when they first arrived. Another idea for the end is show the agenda and ask people to add stickies saying what they remember from that agenda item. Then let people read what other people have written. Something else is to put everyone in a circle. The facilitator holds up an object like a funny toy or teddy or something related to the workshop or event. The facilitator asks everyone to share their highlight or greatest learning for the day, but they can only do this when holding the toy. Throw the toy to the first person. When they're done saying their highlight, they throw the toy to someone else and so on. The movement of the toy creates energy, everyone gets to share and the group leaves with the highlights of the workshop. It can work well as a closer.
Wow thanks for sharing your methods William. Everything sounds very interesting and engaging. I'm pretty sure your participants will always leave your workshops with a peak moment and will have a memorable experience! Glad to hear you're applying this technique. Keep it up! Cheers
Hi as an older guy 59 I’m hopefully getting back into technical training and instruction soon and feel I need to learn some new tricks and new tools for facilitating engineering classroom learning and practical workshop techniques. Found this video interesting and inspiring thank you.
I'm a seasoned GED Instructor finding myself being transitioned into more and more workshop facilitation roles, and I just needed to thank you for sharing this information -- it's a reminder of what works well in both settings, and it gave me one of those epiphany moments that took me back to all the experiences that really left everyone energized at the end of the sessions / classes. I never really hammered down why those days went so well, and you just did. Much appreciation, and blessings your way here in 2024.
Love your vids! I am learning Facilitation and your vids help so much of understanding the different aspects that are connected with great facilitation
Awesome, you are really talented in presenting. And the info you are sharing is really condensed but super useful ! Thanks ! Keep up with the useful stuff ! ;)
Wow!! I have been given the intimidating task of facilitating five different 5-wrrk workshops over the course of the year on top of the random ones throughout . This was incredibly helpful! Thank you!! I will definitely be going through the training!
I just moved internally to a new business analyst role and i am the cross platform facilitator on my first project. Its difficult to reprogram myself from working on more tangible things that one might experience working in IT.
What if you aren't working with a lot of time to do this? There's the overview of outlining the objectives, agenda, maybe onboarding if you're using something like Miro, a warmup activity, and then the actual exercise. If working with product managers who are "so busy and have to leave", I find it difficult to even address any of these in a 1-hour session. So, what is your advice on time crunch while incorporating these facilitation tips that you've mentioned? Thanks as well for the amazing work put into this!
Start strog, end stronger, because people remember that the most: - Summarise highlights at the end of the meeting - Show the progress of the day (before/after pictures of the room) to give a feeling of progression - Find rituals for your meetings
I got a question, what do you do when you're tasked with facilitating a product design process, but you actually have near-zero knowledge about the subject. Like for example facilitating the design of an app or a software, but you got no prior programming experience and knowledge and they really have crucial problems to solve. Thanks :)
That’s a great question! We always say: You need to be the guide, not the hero. Or in other words, as a facilitator, you DON’T need to try and solve the team’s challenge, or know anything about the product or industry. You just need to help the team unleash their best work and potential.
I noticed Collaborative or brainstorming meetings are hard to facilitate with a team I’m part of. I believe the team should come to the meeting prepared with possible solutions for us to work Through instead of taking time during the meeting to think. I noticed there’s a lot of time spent thinking. I’m not responsible for facilitating but I want to take that responsibility. Do have any tips or a video I can learn from?
@@kstich so I shouldn’t expect my team to have thought of possible solutions to an existing problem PRIOR to the brainstorming meeting? If you think I’m misunderstanding, provide a solution for me. Or would you like to table the problem/topic and not consider a solution until we have a brainstorming meeting about it.
@@MoniqueIniguez Nope. That’s the whole point of the workshop. Otherwise it’s just people working in isolation without guidance and then presenting preconceived solutions or concepts during the meeting, without opportunity for divergent thinking. Some people do really great generating ideas without any guidance. Most people don’t. Enter: Workshops activities for brainstorming. Brainstorming aims to give structure to idea generation. Present a problem statement to a group-small or large-and then use discovery activities to generate ideas without committing to a decision. In fact, if the group leaves the meeting with a final solution, the brainstorm probably failed. The hope is that people walk away having been exposed to ideas that were different from their own. They can now remix those other ideas, modify their original idea, stumble upon new ones, etc. When you regroup, all of a sudden you’ll have much more refined concepts and inspired conversation. So yes, allow people to come unprepared. Give them the structure they need to generate ideas. Let them leave and allow time for thoughts to percolate, then reconvene and reap the rewards. Source: Worked for four Fortune 100 companies, including a MAANG company. Just recently finished running a brainstorming workshop of my own! Hope that helps!
Sorry you've had these experiences in the past. In the last 13 years, we've had great success creating memorable moments for participants, which has led to us getting booked again. Of course, not every session needs to have a 'grand' climax. Sometimes, something as simple as reflecting on the best moment of the session at the end of the workshop or showing the progress achieved with 'before' and 'after' pictures can create a peak moment. I hope that you can find something helpful to you in any of our other videos. Cheers
🤔 What methods do you use to make your workshops more memorable? Is making your workshops memorable even important? Share your answers in the comments below 👇
➡️ Check out our 1-hour FREE TRAINING to learn more about facilitation and to get a preview of our Workshopper Master Program 👉 go.ajsmart.com/start
I just checked it our. I think I can help you, you can certainly help me. Perhaps, you can train me and I can help you. (I worked overseas 30 years in a total of 12 countries, including in Germany for companies, like Siemens.
Have taught or led workshops or classes in 20 different fields and sub fields: Spanish, German, English, Business, commerce, meetings, social science, social studies, interviews, projects, history, reading, education, ESL/ELL, etcc.
Something I've done for in person is take a photo of the group or groups at the start and then at the end. It can be interested for people to see how much more open and smiley they are compared to when they first arrived. Another idea for the end is show the agenda and ask people to add stickies saying what they remember from that agenda item. Then let people read what other people have written. Something else is to put everyone in a circle. The facilitator holds up an object like a funny toy or teddy or something related to the workshop or event. The facilitator asks everyone to share their highlight or greatest learning for the day, but they can only do this when holding the toy. Throw the toy to the first person. When they're done saying their highlight, they throw the toy to someone else and so on. The movement of the toy creates energy, everyone gets to share and the group leaves with the highlights of the workshop. It can work well as a closer.
Wow thanks for sharing your methods William. Everything sounds very interesting and engaging. I'm pretty sure your participants will always leave your workshops with a peak moment and will have a memorable experience! Glad to hear you're applying this technique. Keep it up! Cheers
@@AJSmart Appreciate it, Jonathan. Share the knowledge.
Love the idea... totally not HIPAA conscious.. lol Great for corporate environments
@@T8ersalad There's no medical information being shared by an institution, so no HIPAA worries!
Hi as an older guy 59 I’m hopefully getting back into technical training and instruction soon and feel I need to learn some new tricks and new tools for facilitating engineering classroom learning and practical workshop techniques. Found this video interesting and inspiring thank you.
This was great! Would love to see more dedicated videos on remote workshops/facilitation
I'm a seasoned GED Instructor finding myself being transitioned into more and more workshop facilitation roles, and I just needed to thank you for sharing this information -- it's a reminder of what works well in both settings, and it gave me one of those epiphany moments that took me back to all the experiences that really left everyone energized at the end of the sessions / classes. I never really hammered down why those days went so well, and you just did. Much appreciation, and blessings your way here in 2024.
Thanks for sharing! I'm happy to have helped you connect the dots 😉. Best of luck in your future sessions. Cheers
Sorry people bothered to put negative comments. I thought it was great. I'm a professional speaker and still found it helpful. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for your comment ❤!!! Glad you find it helpful.
very useful - loved the rituals suggestion - gonna use it on my working group in Feb as its about working together
Very useful to me
Love your vids! I am learning Facilitation and your vids help so much of understanding the different aspects that are connected with great facilitation
Great tips - I'm excited to try these out!
Let us know how it goes! Thanks
This is great content, looking forward to learning more!
More to come! Thanks
Very useful! Thank you
Thanks for watching, glad it was useful!
Good points man, I'm 21 and holding my first Workshop tomorrow. These are definitely some valuable tips.
Awesome, you are really talented in presenting. And the info you are sharing is really condensed but super useful ! Thanks ! Keep up with the useful stuff ! ;)
Aww thank you Cosmin Popescu! That's great to hear. Glad it was useful! Have a great day.
Hey, great video! Thank you! I am having my first floral workshop coming up, so I am just getting ready. I really want people to have fun!
Useful video! I'll be leading a discussion for the first time in years so this video had a lot of helpful tips to make it more engaging
Love, love, love your videos! So much useful information! Thank you!!😊
Love, love, love your enthusiasm! You're making my day with your lovely comment! Thanks
Wow!! I have been given the intimidating task of facilitating five different 5-wrrk workshops over the course of the year on top of the random ones throughout . This was incredibly helpful! Thank you!! I will definitely be going through the training!
Yay! Great! Be sure to join our community in case you have any questions or need some help from other Workshoppers facilitatorclub.com/
Sounds like a big challenge. Possibly an unfair one!! I suggest you read Schwarz's book The Skilled Facilitator.
it is very useful , thank you
Great things I was a big one on rituals in teaching
That's great! Yeah, rituals are so important for creating memorable experiences. Cheers
Very helpful!! Look forward to diving in deeper.
Thanks for the support! Can't wait to see you around for more content.
It was great information!
Thanks for the tips!
Love it! Thanks!
Great Tips!
Glad you like them! Cheers
This was great! 🤲🏾
Thanks very practical ideas. I can use this right away.
Thank you, great tips
This was really helpful, and has given me a few ideas for my sessions.
I've gotten lots of useful tips
Thanks!
Glad to hear it!
Thank you for sharing this I am a new Lerner
Hey there, new Lerner! Glad you enjoyed the content. Never stop learning. Cheers
very good video and tips fully agree!
Thank you so much! I find it very useful!
Very useful and practical advice. Much appreciated
I love it. Tha ks a lot
Great quality advice.
Very very helpful video. Thank you.
Thanks, I WILL check it out.
Very useful, will love to learn more of being a master facilitator.
🎉. Useful and educative.
Suuuuuuuper amazing
Really useful
Great insights , thank you!!
Thank you - Love the rituals idea around the coffe
Great tips, thanks for sharing!
I just moved internally to a new business analyst role and i am the cross platform facilitator on my first project. Its difficult to reprogram myself from working on more tangible things that one might experience working in IT.
Fantastic! Staff meeting savior and board room blessing!
Awesome. Thanks
Impressive presentation
Thank you!
I have really enjoyed
Thanks
Cool, Thanks for sharing
Amazing video!
Great video❤
Thanks, I really like the ending suggestions you gave, but I am still stuck on how to start strong.
Thanks
Thank you
You're welcome!!
Very helpful
I noticed the braces. Lol. I'm soooo glad I came across your channel. I'm preparing to be a facilitator in 2 months.
GOLD!!!!
Really nice
Nice ideas... however, i did not understand the bit about Rituals.. pls explain how to use these in workshop settings. TY
What if you aren't working with a lot of time to do this? There's the overview of outlining the objectives, agenda, maybe onboarding if you're using something like Miro, a warmup activity, and then the actual exercise. If working with product managers who are "so busy and have to leave", I find it difficult to even address any of these in a 1-hour session. So, what is your advice on time crunch while incorporating these facilitation tips that you've mentioned? Thanks as well for the amazing work put into this!
It will be useful if you could post hands on activity for college level students 🎉
thx sir ilike this ttutoria
Hahah, I did noticed hhhah. Yes the video is very helpful and will take the fist step class you are offering. Thank you
hahaha those braces are off again! Back to smooth teeth. Thank you!!
Start strog, end stronger, because people remember that the most:
- Summarise highlights at the end of the meeting
- Show the progress of the day (before/after pictures of the room) to give a feeling of progression
- Find rituals for your meetings
Nice summary. Thanks
🔥🔥
Yes. Yes I did notice that you had braces on at the end, but not during your presentation.
I got a question, what do you do when you're tasked with facilitating a product design process, but you actually have near-zero knowledge about the subject. Like for example facilitating the design of an app or a software, but you got no prior programming experience and knowledge and they really have crucial problems to solve. Thanks :)
That’s a great question! We always say: You need to be the guide, not the hero. Or in other words, as a facilitator, you DON’T need to try and solve the team’s challenge, or know anything about the product or industry. You just need to help the team unleash their best work and potential.
I noticed Collaborative or brainstorming meetings are hard to facilitate with a team I’m part of. I believe the team should come to the meeting prepared with possible solutions for us to work Through instead of taking time during the meeting to think. I noticed there’s a lot of time spent thinking. I’m not responsible for facilitating but I want to take that responsibility. Do have any tips or a video I can learn from?
You might be misunderstanding the point of brainstorming meetings.
@@kstich so I shouldn’t expect my team to have thought of possible solutions to an existing problem PRIOR to the brainstorming meeting?
If you think I’m misunderstanding, provide a solution for me. Or would you like to table the problem/topic and not consider a solution until we have a brainstorming meeting about it.
@@MoniqueIniguez Nope. That’s the whole point of the workshop. Otherwise it’s just people working in isolation without guidance and then presenting preconceived solutions or concepts during the meeting, without opportunity for divergent thinking.
Some people do really great generating ideas without any guidance. Most people don’t.
Enter: Workshops activities for brainstorming.
Brainstorming aims to give structure to idea generation. Present a problem statement to a group-small or large-and then use discovery activities to generate ideas without committing to a decision.
In fact, if the group leaves the meeting with a final solution, the brainstorm probably failed.
The hope is that people walk away having been exposed to ideas that were different from their own. They can now remix those other ideas, modify their original idea, stumble upon new ones, etc.
When you regroup, all of a sudden you’ll have much more refined concepts and inspired conversation.
So yes, allow people to come unprepared. Give them the structure they need to generate ideas. Let them leave and allow time for thoughts to percolate, then reconvene and reap the rewards.
Source: Worked for four Fortune 100 companies, including a MAANG company. Just recently finished running a brainstorming workshop of my own!
Hope that helps!
Thank you for the video. Motivating
Thanks! Glad you liked it.
Yes I noticed that you are in braces ;)
Said nothing we have not herd decades ago
Jonathan thinks he's better than us because he's wearing an Omega Speedmaster.
after watching this video i now know why so many workshops are trash. its because they focus on filler nonsense like this.
Sorry you've had these experiences in the past. In the last 13 years, we've had great success creating memorable moments for participants, which has led to us getting booked again. Of course, not every session needs to have a 'grand' climax. Sometimes, something as simple as reflecting on the best moment of the session at the end of the workshop or showing the progress achieved with 'before' and 'after' pictures can create a peak moment. I hope that you can find something helpful to you in any of our other videos. Cheers
Why in god name do you skip to Law 3..... and then start numbering tips.. pull yourself together. 😂😂
Hey Tait! Oh, sorry about the confusion! The first two laws are published in our Workshopper Master program. This video is just a little preview 💛
Super useful
Thank you!