Top tip for productive online break-out sessions..
Preparing for a recent Inspirational Facilitator webinar, I found this neat tip for online sessions…
How to Let Go to take your facilitation to the next level
To learn more about the art of letting go – such as letting go of unhelpful judgements and needless perfectionism – sign up to the waiting list of our forthcoming ‘Inspirational Facilitator’ online course!
Engage from the start – or face the big switch off!
Online it’s easy for participants to turn their attention elsewhere. If we are all physically together in a room, the audience is likely to sit and listen to a speaker, at least for a while. How do you engage from the start?
What’s going on now for facilitators?
It’s fascinating to explore trends, and in my Inspirational Facilitator course last week we discussed ‘What’s going on now for facilitators?’
What has to happen in an Applied Improvisation workshop or class?
Delighted to announce the waiting list for our popular Inspirational Facilitator online course is now open!
Is Applied Improvisation fun? Yes and no…
‘What about fun?’, I hear you ask.
Does fun matter in the serious context of work? And is fun really at the heart of Applied Improvisation?
How to assess the improvisational skills of a facilitator by watching them run an activity
Ever wondered if you can assess the extent to which a facilitator has improvisation skills, by observing their interactions during an activity?
What helps learners learn most – what they get right or what they get wrong?
In a previous post I described an improvisation activity for speakers and story-tellers which determines the outcome: The better the player improvises, the better the resulting story.
Making a virtue of virtual
Discussing trends with fellow facilitators, we agree that virtual is here to stay. Allowing people to work more at their own speed and in their own time, with neat ideas such as shared documents, can offer more engaging, enjoyable and productive working…
Why luxury hotel trips may not be over as facilitators imagine
We have learned to hold events online that connect more people with reasonable efficiency. And yet, the virtual falls short when it comes to the quality of interactions..
Is it your turn to go first? How to decide who starts in a pairs activity..
A recent post on the Applied Improvisation Network’s Facebook page asked for fun ways to determine who goes first in an activity.
The consensus was to aim for the sweet spot of innocuous enough not to cause offense, yet interesting enough to prompt a quick get-to-know-you..
When to take the nuclear option
Building enthusiasm and skills are vital components of any role. Our training provided to Sellafield employees was no exception if they were going to be able to better interact with visitors and provide an improved experience overall. Afterall, it seemed there was little else to do to pass the time on a rainy day in Cumbria…
How to bring the best of lockdown into your work
Many of us have fresh experiences of working from home. While #WFH will remain a trendy hashtag for a long time yet, some of us will be making the journey back to shared offices. Wouldn’t it be great if we could merge the best elements from our domestic professional arrangements with the most valuable aspects of being face-to-face?
How multiplying your communication channels will get you the results you need
When we are not face-to-face with each other in real rooms, we can lose people’s attention very easily.
Participants drift away mentally and who knows what happens when the camera is turned off? There are some really simple ways to engage and sustain people’s attention on a topic…
Participants resisting your training activities? It could be the size of the steps
One of my colleagues was preparing to facilitate a corporate event for 200 or so people in a conference room, and she was worried. She wanted to lead them through a physical activity in random pairs, in which the partners would alternate a count to 3. It’s a classic improvisational warm-up activity designed to generate connection…
Three steps to banishing apathy and replacing it with rich and useful feedback
Your team has been working hard in a difficult and novel working environment, and you’d like to reward them for their efforts. In your next online team meeting you want to involve them in deciding on a treat.
You ask them for ideas, but it’s a struggle to get them to put forward suggestions..
How to banish ‘Zoom Fatigue’ and bring energy back to your meetings
We’re told that people are getting ‘Zoom Fatigue’, which results in meetings that lack energy and get too little accomplished. If you’re struggling to get what you need from your virtual meetings, it’s useful to know that a well-structured design can deliver results and leave people wanting to come back.
How to juggle content and processes, without getting overwhelmed
As a facilitator, your attention is dragged in at least three different directions – towards the content, the process and the people.
It’s your responsibility to look after all these dimensions. But, for a whole range of reasons, there are times when your participants are no longer on-board..
How can we transform meetings from deadly dull to valuable and vibrant?
Too many face-to-face meetings, workshops and conferences are bitterly disappointing. Poorly structured, ineptly hosted and devoid of energy or results, they leave you wondering why the event took place at all. Since the arrival of Covid, the same is true of online events..
A good way to finish an online call – Virtual Facilitation #10
What’s a good way to finish an online call and ensure that you end with a continued (or increased) sense of engagement, and bring a feeling of completion? This is my adaptation of an activity I learned at a recent gathering of Oxford University alumni. “We’re all familiar with emojis? Yes!”