Privilege Active Formats for Improved Engagement and Impact (Facilitation Friday #16)
When presenting or facilitating, use your minutes of session “air time” for the contributions you are uniquely qualified or best positioned to make.
Unlike a cellphone plan’s unlimited minutes and texts, workshop presenters and meeting facilitators do not really get unlimited airtime. Attempting to act as if we do can come at a great cost: a likely decline in participant interest, attention, and contributions.
To avoid those negative consequences, we should follow the advice of Robert Talbert, a Grand Valley State University professor of mathematics, as published in a Chronicle of Higher Education newsletter on teaching.
True for academic classes.
True for workshops and webinars.
True for conference keynotes and general sessions.
True for meetings of most any kind.
Effective session design and facilitation privileges processes and formats that actively engage both introverted and extroverted participants in order to maximize their attention, energy, knowledge, and insights.
Active considerations in session design
Here are some of the primary steps of the process I use when designing for active participation or learning in a workshop or meeting:
A. Clarify the session’s outcomes.
B. Identify the relevant content and conversations likely required to achieve the intended outcomes.
C. Determine what content I am best or uniquely positioned to present and what content participants and external sources are best positioned to contribute.
D. Based on responses to C, select one of the following content approaches for appropriate segments of the workshop outline or meeting agenda.
Approach #1: Content is presented to the participant community.
I present content (the What?) and then facilitate a process or format in which participants make sense of it, exploring the So What? and Now What? Even here I may hold some of my contributions in reserve, sprinkling them in during the subsequent discussion with participants or in other meeting or workshop segments when I think participants would most benefit. Remember, effective facilitation provides group process leadership with restraint.
When lecturing or “talking at” participants, incorporating one or more of the following in a manner that corresponds to your content you can somewhat decrease their passivity:
Fill-in-the-blank worksheet
Notetaking worksheet with prompts
BINGO or another game with the answers embedded in your presentation
Polling (online, raise your hand, cellphone, et al)
Provocations or blatantly incorrect information to elicit strong reactions
Memorable metaphors, analogies, stories
Acronyms, acrostics, rhymes, or some other mnemonic device
Approach #2: The participant community generates content.
I design and facilitate a format or process in which participants contribute or create content that is then shared with each other. Subsequent processes and facilitated large group discussion make additional sense of it and help individuals apply it to their own efforts (exploring the So What? and Now What?).
Additional Option
A variation of the first two approaches, instead of presenting content, I curate content (or have participants curate content) from relevant sources and then engage them in making sense of it for their own efforts.
Note that reflection and application are vital in each approach. Effective facilitation helps makes (and helps participants make) meaning and connections from content and conversations. Too often, meetings or workshops offer too much What? and not nearly enough So What? and Now What? Session design and facilitation also must consider what participants might need us to make easier so they can engage in the active manner we envision, as well as what they might find challenging and the possible support we could offer.
What more active choices might look like
Let’s say I am designing and facilitating either (1) a meeting in which participants will redesign their organization’s annual convention or (2) a workshop focused on creating ideal learning experiences for the next 3-5 years. To stimulate participants’ thinking, it would not be unusual to do a presentation on some current event trends and future forecasts.
A short lecture followed by discussion is perfectly fine. But just because I could present that content, doesn’t mean that I should or need to do so, particularly if I want to privilege active learning and reserve my voice and air time for when it matters most. Here are two options to the lecture format.
Option #1: read, listen, or view
Select and distribute an article, podcast, or video on event trends. Have participants review the content on their own (honors introversion), identifying relevant implications to share with others using a worksheet you provide that includes relevant prompts or categories. Note: All three content formats work as an asynchronous option. I usually use an article if the review will occur synchronously.
Participants then form small groups, discuss their reactions with each other, and select the top three trends and relevant implications they think their new convention (or the ideal learning experience) design should reflect. This process honors extroverted participants.
Small groups report out (using a format specified) followed by some sort of facilitated decision-making process in which participants select the trends to use for drafting a convention or learning experience design.
Option #2: virtual field trip
Curate a small number of conference websites that offer compelling examples of how other organizations are designing for relevant trends, as well as websites spotlighting general trends relevant to conference and learning experience design (i.e., food and beverage, meeting spaces, travel, learning technologies, et al).
Assign participants to individually visit one or more of the sites and take note of things they believe have relevance for their own convention or an ideal learning experience. This process honors introversion and can be done asynchronously prior to the meeting or workshop or in real-time if all participants have an accessible option to do so.
Participants then form small groups, discuss their reactions with each other, and select the top three trends and relevant implications they think their new convention (or the ideal learning experience) design should reflect. This process honors extroverted participants.
Small groups report out (using a format specified) followed by some sort of facilitated decision-making process in which participants select the trends to use for subsequently drafting a convention or learning experience design.
Regardless of the approach and formats used, to achieve desired outcomes you may need to (re)calibrate content and processes based on relevant logistics, including: accessibility and inclusiveness; adequate space (in-person meeting space or online breakout rooms); time available and asynchronous or synchronous options; and the likely energy and engagement needs of participants based on when the session occurs.
Over time, try to grow the number of active formats and processes you can competently and confidently facilitate, as well as know which ones tend to work best with certain types of participants or for achieving certain outcomes. I find it helpful to keep a digital or paper file where I record lessons learned each time I use a process or format. When designing a session or workshop, I reference that information repeatedly to inform my choices.
Bottom line?
When presenting or facilitating, use your minutes of session “air time” for the contributions you are uniquely qualified or best positioned to make. Focus on engaging participants in more active processes and formats that helps them make sense of the content presented, explore content curated for them, and generate relevant content, insights, and applications for their efforts.
Getting in Action
Select a meeting or workshop you facilitate (or will facilitate) that is low in its use of active processes and formats. For each major content segment, identify at least one more active option that would engage both introverted and extroverted participants.
Look at the typical agenda for a recurring meeting you facilitate or in which you participate (i.e., staff meeting). What pre-work or real-time format options might more actively engage and leverage participants’ knowledge and perspectives?
What questions in a meeting or workshop might you ask participants to reflect on and answer to help them apply content and conversations to their respective context(s)?
Additional Resource
Active Learning While Physically Distancing, a Louisiana State University PDF compilation of active formats and processes (with synchronous and asynchronous options), many of which are also appropriate for in-person gatherings.
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