The Ultimate Training Workshop Handbook, by Bruce Klatt

BUILDING A FOUNDATION FOR LEADING, Chapter 1, pp.28-55.

As we begin thinking about leading or instructing, it is important to consider four important areas: background, experience, attitude and development.  Instructors must be technically competent, bring individual identity to the workshop, understand how to foster good relationships with workshop attendees, and continuously develop skills, theories and methods.

Trust and Rapport

Trust and rapport are essential in creating a successful workshop.

Trust.  As we work with participants we must be open, congruent, supportive and reliable.  Trust is delicate.  You must give participants evidence that you are trustworthy.  Trust has to be continually earned.  By giving trust, you will receive trust.

You can tell if trust is being established if the following conditions exist:

1. There is a high level of energy and focus
2. There is an open flow of information
3. Participants don't talk about the need for more trust
4. Subgroups get to work on their tasks

Rapport is an establishment of a relationship based on TRUST, harmony, understanding and mutual respect.  Trust is ESSENTIAL to rapport.  Building rapport is one of the key responsibilities of a group leader.  Rapport is a shared responsibility with pariticipants, but a workshop leader must see it as their responsibility to build and maintain that rapport.  After trust is established, rapport can be built by using such tools as eye contact, humor, running jokes and inside stories.


INVESTIGATING NEEDS AND PLANNING A WORKSHOP, Chapter 3.

Workshops not only need direction and good design to be successful, but also a destination.

Workshop facilitators must:

1. Understand needs
2. Clarify the purpose
3. Develop outcome statements
4. Determine what capabilities are necessary for a successful training program
5. Decide evaluation process during and after training
6. Know what you want your participants to learn
7. Select design based on desired outcomes
8. Write and agenda
9. Establish Group process (how we intend to work with one another)

Workshop facilitators can plan by asking essential questions about problems, opportunities, likelihood of success, value, needed behavior changes, information needed by employees, who can influence changes and what learning materials are required.  It is important to ask WHY!

We need to factor in willingness, opportunities and abilities of participants and clients.  We can further understand learning needs by understanding levels of competence.

Facilitators must also understand whether an objectivist approach (a right way to perform a task) or an interpretative approach (no objective reality -- only points of view requiring interpretation) is needed in any given workshop. 


CONTRACTING OUTCOMES AND MARKETING PRIOR TO START-UP
Chapter 5, pp 170-171.


It is important to market your workshop beforehand.  Word of mouth is the best method of marketing a training program, yet some people want something to look at to tell them why they should attend.  Marketing materials should be brief--one page or less.  Use a one page outline to tell people how they will benefit by attending the workshop.


PRESENTING, FACILITATING, AND LEADING, Chapter 15, pp. 477-480.

Primary reasons for co-leading a workshop:

1. Pool experience and give attendees more than one perspective
2. Get experienced help
3. Get feedback and break bad habits
4. Continuously upgrade and develop your training program
5. Share the workload
6. Train new workshop leaders

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED:  A plan is essential as we learn to become effective workshop facilitators and trainers.  We must know where we are going and then create a step by step plan of action to get to that destination.  A well designed plan is the first step to a successful workshop.  I have not always enjoyed being mired down in details.  However, through experiences both good and bad, I have come to understand the necessity of understanding the overall picture, deciding purpose and working in advance on questions and concerns to help make a presentation as smooth as possible.  It is also essential to be well versed in the material being presented.  When I am prepared and have a plan, I feel much more confident in my presentation.  And, I have found I am much more self conscious and ill at ease when I know I have not adequately prepared and understood the material being presented. However because I have had many experiences when I was asked to present or teach last minute and have experienced fairly good success, I
have sabatoged myself at other times because I didn't prepare like I should have, thinking I
could get away with it as I could when I was asked to teach last minute.  It never works that way though!

I loved the instruction about trust and rapport and how important it is to establish a good relationship with workshop participants.  In my past teaching experiences, I have tried to build relationships by getting to know participants by name, learning their backgrounds, and joking with them.  By creating these relationships, I have found students more willing to engage and be involved in the discussions.  I am excited to further my skills in this area by incorporating more humor into my presentations.  I tend to get serious when I am nervous, and loosen up as I feel more comfortable in my teaching role.  I want to practice or find ways to infuse humor in every presentation.

I am excited about having the opportunity to work as a co-facilitator this semester.  Most of my teaching/training experience has been solo.  I know it can be challenging to mesh ideas, schedules, and teaching styles, yet I excited for what I can learn from others.  Working together will allow us to rely on each others strengths.  It will also help us synthesis thought and organization.