"Please... don't do these"

I facilitated a program last month which consisted of sessions delivered by various speakers. Wearing the hat of a trainer, especially as a presentation trainer, there were a few moments which I almost could not help to intervene. Let me share these with you so that we can avoid them in the future:

Comparing the participants 'down' - One speaker started his session by asking a few questions. Whilst the questions were not 'easily-answerable' questions (I shall discuss more in the future posts on the topic of 'easily-answerable' questions), the participants were not very responsive - there were moments of silence. The speaker then made some unnecessarily-damaging comment along the line 'You guys in Shanghai are quiet. I were in Shenzhen last week. Your colleagues in Shenzhen were much more active." Together with his tone, it was obvious that he was comparing the participants down as compared to their counterparts in the south!! Big No-No!! No one likes to be lectured on 'what I did wrong', especially when there was no precise right or wrong in that case - 'what is wrong if I do not speak up' . In particular, you do not want lecture them especially since you want their cooperation in your presentation!!

Act like their bosses - There was another speaker who just shouted, pointed her finger and ordered the participants to answer questions. Well, this is another to-do if you want to shut people down. Arguably, you can do it if you are really... the boss.... but still... I consider it undesirable. My philosophy is that you should consider all presentation to be a sales presentation. In other words, you have to win people over, no matter what your position are. Well, your (senior) position can win over the participants' bodies (in being there), but not their heart to really absorb and carry out the messages you try to get across!!

Interaction - "Why need so?"

Interacting with the participants is essential to make your communication essential - no matter whether the communication take places in the training, facilitation or presentation setting. In short, interaction is important since:

Confidence gaining - One way to alleviate your nerviousness is to interact with the participants in the beginning. Most presenters become nervous before the event starts because he / she 'thinks' too much about the participants. Questions coming to mind include ' Will they ask difficult questions?', 'Will they be bored?', 'Will they not pay attention to my delivery?', etc. Interacting with them, experiencing them as human being, feeling that they are OK people helps a great deal to gain confidence!!

WIIFM clarifying - 'What Is It for Me?'. Preparation before the event is the major way to answer WIIFM for you. Yet, there is always something unexpected when the event really takes place e.g. participants turning out not to be what was described by the organiser. Therefore, on-site interaction like asking question will gather information e.g. participants' area of interest for you. Equally importantly, it shows to the participants that you care what is important to them!!

Attention retaining - One of the major challenges to you is that adult has only limited attention span - around 20 minutes as indicated by some study. It is not new to you (and me!!) to witness someone playing his / her mobile phone, blackberry, etc under the table!! Keep them involved in action is the best way to keep them 'awake'!!

I shall spend quite a number of more entries to discuss about interaction.

互动 - ‘为什麽需要它？‘

无论你所处的场合是training, facilitation或presentation，与台下
参与者的互动也是有效沟通的重要技巧。 简单来说，互动是重要的原因包括以下：

增加信心 - 在你的环节开始的时候与台下互动是其中一种减低紧张的方法。大部分的演讲者在开始前也会因为考虑太多关于台下参与者的问题而紧张。例如，‘他们会问难以回答的问题吗？’，‘他们会觉得闷吗？’，‘他们会留意我的演讲吗？’。 与台下对话，感觉他们，让自己知道他们是OK的，这会大大增大你的信心！

弄清楚WIIFM - 'What Is It for Me?'或‘关我啥事’（对，是必较口语化，但传神！）。 事前的准备是回答WIIFM最主要的做法。但是，总会有些事情是你不能预计的，例如，真正出席的
参与者跟会前提供给你的资料不相符。 所以，当场的互动如提问能让你吸取有用的信息，例如，参与者关心的题目。 同样重要的是，这种互动会让参与者觉得你是关心对他们重要的事情！

保持注意力 - 作为演讲者，其中一个主要挑战是成人的注意力只能维持很短的时间 - 例：美国海军曾在1970年代研究人类只能连续注意18分钟。参与者在桌下把玩他们的手机，blackberry对我们已不是什麽新鲜的事情。保持他们‘清醒’最好的方法就是让他们参与！

我将花多个环节讨论‘互动’。

One necessary take-away for the participants

As a trainer, you always want the participants to have take-aways by the time they leave the training room. (And as a great trainer, you will want these take-aways can change the participants' behaviour as well!!) What is the common take-away which you want the participants to have no matter what training course it is?

My answer is to let the participants feel good about themselves on the training topic. For example, if it is a presentation training, let the participants feel that they have the potential to be a good presentation. In fact, lack of belief on themselves is a major reason why people fail to present well. If it is a SPIN training, let them feel that they could exert good influence on the others.

How can it be done? Most importantly, it is through the atmosphere you create in the class, as well as the feedback you and the fellow participants give. Firstly, you will create a safe, low-risk environment. That is where FUN comes into place. Atmosphere setting can well be a separate training topic by itself. With such environment, you encourage the participants to attempt some small steps. Then, give them motivational feedback - catch them what they have done right. Not that you only tell the good news and hide the bad ones. But you will focus on the desirable behaviours, and even better let them tell you what they have done right (this helps to reinforce their memory). In short, tell them that it is possible!!

Why 'feeling good' is important? It is all about behaviour change. It is like those alcohol rehabilitation group, where the lead would like the group to feel good before the group ends. In short, it is easier for people to change their behaviour if they feel good about it. As we learnt in psychology, positive reinforcement works better than negative ones!!

"What can a presentation class do for the participant?"

How would you answer the above question? Probably the answers will include 'How to use powerpoint?', 'How to manage your body language?'..... If I were to answer this question before this week, I would give the above answers. Essentially, a presentation class is to equip the participants with effective presentation skills. It seems to make perfect sense.

My answer is not the same now. I attend a presentation class these 2 days delivered by Bentley Williams. Whilst the above-mentioned presentation skills are definitely parts of the course purposes, there is an interesting purpose which I have not focused on above - the course is to give confidence to the participant. In short, show them that they can!! In other words, you will have discussion, activities, .... etc in order to help them discover their strength.

I feel quite ashamed that I did not focus on this purpose before in my basic presentation class, because it should be obvious. Why obvious? Here is the logic. What will be a successful presentation class? Simple - the participants deliver better presentation after the class. Then, the question is what stop them from delivering better presentation. For the beginner, the lack of confidence is definitely an obstacle.

How could I miss it?

Apart from feeling ashamed, I find such discovery very inspiring. Not just that I can improve my course in the future, but also that I can use the above logic to review my other class. I should ask myself the question - what is the major factor which stop participants from the desirable behaviour? Instead of the traditional wisdom that a soft skills course should equip the participants with skills, it can be equipe them with a belief like confidence!!

"Will it be the same without the presenter?"

I sat in an external training today. One of my motivation was to learn from more trainers on delivery skills. Not exactly impressive. One, she was not familiar with the content - which is most detrimental to the delivery. No matter it is for a general presentation or trainer, the message will get across only if the speaker has reasonably good creditability. It is human nature - people trust the speaker first, before they believe in the content. Well, if you do not know the content, it is the easiest way to lose you creditability. Not knowing the content shows when you always have to refer to note or even worse the slides, and more obviously when you are not able to answer straightforward questions. Knowing the content is not magic like having charisma. If you are serious about the delivery, you will prepare and you will know the content. So, in some sense, it is kind of a dis-respect if you do not know the content. How can people trust you then?

Two, which is also about how serious she is - she arrived at the training room at 0830, the exact time when the class was supposed to start. There was no greeting, and worse no proper equipment set up. More exactly, there was no projector, which unfortunately she had to rely on a lot!! Well, like energy level, your participants will not care more about the class than you.

Three, being an external trainer who earn her living by mainly delivering class, her delivery skills is less than satisfactory. Unclear instruction for small group discussion. Tell instead of ask. Poor control of timing. Un-readable slides.

When her session ended before lunch, a question actually came to my mind - 'Would the learning (if any) be the same if without the trainer there?' Unfortunately, my answer is yes (almost yes). She was reading slides. (In fact, it may save more time if she was not there since we all could read more quickly.) She could not answer questions. Frankly, this is sad.

From a learning perspective, we should always ask ourselves this question 'Will it be the same if without me?'..... Am I making a difference?

Presenter vs Trainer vs Facilitator

What is the difference among a Presenter, a Trainer and a Facilitator? Here is my thought:

A Presenter is simply the one who is getting some messages across to the 'other side'. In most of the case, the 'other side' consists of more than 1 person. For example, a sales head in a kick-off meeting to the sales is a presenter;

A Trainer is one form of a presenter. The key feature is that the 'other side' comes to the occasion with preparation to learn. (Well, there are some presentations which the 'other side' is not prepared to learn - sales presentation is an example.) In addition, a trainer is normally more knowledgeable than the 'other side' re that topic of the occasion. For example, those who (especially basic) teach accounting skills are trainers

A Facilitator is not the same as presenter or trainer. Unlike a presenter, he / she does not necessarily have any pre-arranged message to get across. Unlike a trainer, he / she does not necessarily know more than the ‘other side’ (you cannot call them audience cos there could be nothing to hear from the facilitator). Still, most trainers have to do some facilitation in their training. A pure facilitator is more there to induce discussion among the ‘other side’, ask a lot of questions to make people think and help to adhere some ground rules (preferably set by the floor). For example, if you are conducting a team effectiveness workshop, you are facilitator. They knows more than you about themselves, and you are there most to make them to think and glue relationship. There is an interesting saying:

‘A trainer brings the participants from unknown to known. A facilitator brings the participants from known to unknown.'

But is there any similarity in these 3 roles? Yes, and this is an important one. These 3 are very much about communication. It is obviously true for the presenter and trainer. For facilitator, though he / she should not have specific messages to communicate, he / she has to listen very well and ask lot of good questions... again, communication!!

Among all the skills / learnings I have been discussing in this blog, some are only applicable to being a presenter, some for trainer and some for facilitation. For example, a facilitator should ask a lot of questions and use music to control the energy. You cannot readily do so in a sales presentation. Some are however applicable to all. For example, you should always have to give a lot of examples if you want to tell something.

I hope the above difference will help you understand the learnings which I discuss in this blog better.