GINA LONDON HELPS YOU TO GET AHEAD AT WORK,
I’VE just checked into my new hotel room in Budapest, where I am to emcee a two-day conference. It’s my first time in the Hungarian capital, but before I take a walk to explore, I’m sitting down to write to you, dear readers. I’ve got potpourri today –a blend of experiences and tips. Let’s start off with workshops.
“Workshops? Oh, they’re boring”, you may be thinking. Well, they shouldn’t be and they don’t have to be. Just days ago, a financial exec came to me with nearly 70 slides and zero structure for what was to be a two-hour workshop.
No matter how scintillating the topic may be, you just cannot expect a large group of people to maintain interest for two hours if you only plan on standing and lecturing them. I remember those university lectures I endured where there just wasn’t enough coffee on the planet to keep me awake.
So, before you conduct or attend another workshop: here’s how to infuse some life into them.
1 KICK-OFF WITH A MAJOR EFFECT
Okay. You have loads of information you want to impart to your workshop attendees. Think of your teaching points as a star or some other shape.
Line them across a blank piece of paper like a path. This is your workshop story board. Now, in the very first position, insert a shape of a big smiley face or an exclamation point or something. This is your welcome and first big, all-hands-on-deck moment or what magicians call a ‘major effect’.
If you bring one person up front and we all watch the card-trick, that’s a minor effect.
When we’re all on our feet and doing something together, that’s major. That’s what you want.
You will grab people’s attention by having them all do something together that sets the scene.
2 GET PERSONAL
Now, you can launch into some information while remembering my previous teachings that personal stories make corporate points stick. Back to your storyboard path, insert a heart shape in front of a star.
That indicates you’re going to tell a funny or touching or surprising personal story to connect to your teaching point which will make it more relatable and memorable.
3 MIX IT UP
My piano teacher told me that composer Joseph Haydn would suddenly drop an up-beat, punchy section into one of classical concerts, “So the king sitting in the front row would wake up.” You should do that too. Research shows our attention spans wane after about 10-15 minutes. So, do something. Pop quiz. Mix up their seating. Break them up into teams. Hold a quick competition. Award a prize. Launch a mini-discussion. Sprinkle in stop-sign shapes along your workshop path to designate where a mix-it-up moment should be held.
4 GIVE THEM HOMEWORK
Before you wrap-up, get participants thinking about how they will apply their knowledge. Hand them ‘future steps’ worksheets or some other material to fill out. One copy they can take and perhaps another copy they can share with you.
You want to keep the party – and your influence with them – going. › In other news, I want to give a big tip of The Communicator cap to three wonderful people this week. Adrienna is a 24-year-old who reached out to me via LinkedIn because: “I’m a big follower of your work.”
She’s preparing for an interview that would take her to Singapore. We talked on the phone this past week about taking chances, identifying dreams and not worrying that many peers in her age-group seem more interested in competing than collaborating.
When we compete, we get faster, but when we collaborate, we get better.
Next, I was touched to receive an email from a reader named David who described himself as, “46 with a wonderful wife and two lovely children”.
He wrote he’s been reading my column for some time, and my “messages of positivity and honesty struck a chord”.
Among other things, David asked me to refer him a book to help keep him growing. I wrote back to him and I share with you now that books I go back to over and over are: Triggers by Marshall Goldsmith, which examines the small thoughts that make a big difference in our actions and Getting More by Stuart Diamond which provides positive negotiating strategies.
From job interviews to ordering dinner, our lives are full of negotiations.
And, finally, I am thrilled to report — for those of you who might be keeping score whether I prioritised my time as I advocated in last week’s column and got my car to the NCT — that I did.
But, since I haven’t found a garage here in Dublin yet, I drove down to my former hometown of Cork to visit my friend and mechanic John who runs AutoMotif. He made a few repairs and changed two tyres and, yippee, my trusty Megane passed her national car test first go.
So, don’t forget folks, communications are relationships.
Befriend the helpful service people in your community, answer your emails, mentor someone if you can and when it comes to corporate workshops, be confident that the golden threads of your information will shine through if you string your workshop together with pearls of interaction — and fun.